On a military aircraft high above the Pacific Ocean en route to Singapore, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin swore in one of the Biden administration’s leading experts on China as the newest assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security.
For the past six months, Ely Ratner led the department’s China task force, which reviewed where the Pentagon stood in its efforts on Beijing. Austin called it “magnificent piece of work” that fueled future policy plans.
“I’m excited about having Ely firmly in the seat in this position,” Austin said during the ceremony Sunday held at about 9,100 meters (30,000 feet) in a plane traveling at 988 kph (614 mph).
Ratner is a longtime aide to President Joe Biden, according to Politico, serving as a staff member when Biden was in the Senate. From 2015 to 2017, he was deputy national security adviser to then-Vice President Biden after working in the office of Chinese and Mongolian affairs at the State Department.
Ratner was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday, along with five other national security team appointees.
On Austin’s trip, the first to Southeast Asia by a top member of the Biden administration, the secretary will visit Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. It is Austin’s second trip to the Asia-Pacific region.
He is scheduled to deliver a keynote address on Tuesday at the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. He likely will touch on his stated pursuit of a “new vision of integrated deterrence” of Chinese aggression across the region.
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Month: July 2021
Only Tokyo Could Pull Off These Games? Not Everyone Agrees
Staging an Olympics during the worst pandemic in a century? There’s a widespread perception that it couldn’t happen in a better place than Japan.
A vibrant, open democracy with deep pockets, the host nation is known for its diligent execution of detail-laden, large-scale projects, its technological advances, its consensus-building and world-class infrastructure. All this, on paper, at least, gives the strong impression that Japan is one of the few places in the world that could even consider pulling off the high-stakes tightrope walk that the Tokyo Games represent.
Some in Japan aren’t buying it.
“No country should hold an Olympics during a pandemic to start with. And if you absolutely must, then a more authoritarian and high-tech China or Singapore would probably be able to control COVID better,” said Koichi Nakano, a politics professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.
The bureaucratic, technological, logistical and political contortions required to execute this unprecedented feat — a massively complicated, deeply scrutinized spectacle during a time of global turmoil, death and suffering — have put an unwelcome spotlight on the country.
Most of all, it has highlighted some embarrassing things: that much of Japan doesn’t want the Games, that the nation’s vaccine rollout was late and is only now expanding, and that many suspect the Games are being forced on the country because the International Olympic Committee needs the billions in media revenue.
The worry here isn’t that Tokyo’s organizers can’t get to the finish line without a major disaster. That seems possible, and would allow organizers to claim victory, of a kind.
The fear is that once the athletes and officials leave town, the nation that unwillingly sacrificed much for the cause of global sporting unity might be left the poorer for it, and not just in the tens of billions of dollars it has spent on the Games.
The Japanese public may see an already bad coronavirus situation become even worse; Olympics visitors here have carried fast-spreading variants of the virus into a nation that is only approaching 25% fully vaccinated.
The Tokyo Olympics are, in one sense, a way for visitors to test for themselves some of the common perceptions about Japan that have contributed to this image of the country as the right place to play host. The results, early on in these Games, are somewhat of a mixed bag.
On the plus side, consider the airport arrivals for the thousands of Olympics participants. They showcased Japan’s ability to harness intensely organized workflow skills and bring them to bear on a specific task — in this case, protection against COVID-19 that might be brought in by a swarm of outsiders.
From the moment visitors stepped from their aircraft at Narita International Airport, they were corralled — gently, cheerfully, but in no uncertain terms firmly — into lines, then guided across the deserted airport like second-graders heading to recess. Barriers, some with friendly signs attached, ensured they got documents checked, forehead temperatures measured, hands sanitized and saliva extracted.
Symmetrical layouts of chairs, each meticulously numbered, greeted travelers awaiting their COVID-19 test results and Olympic credentials were validated while they waited. The next steps — immigration, customs — were equally efficient, managing to be both crisp and restrictive, but also completely amiable. You emerged from the airport a bit dizzy from all the guidance and herding, but with ego largely unbruised.
But there have also been conspicuous failures.
After the opening ceremony ended, for example, hundreds of people in the stadium were crammed into a corrallike pen, forced to wait for hours with only a flimsy barricade separating them from curious Japanese onlookers, while dozens of empty buses idled in a line stretching for blocks, barely moving.
Japan does have some obvious advantages over other democracies when it comes to hosting these Games, such as its economic might. As the world’s third-largest economy, after the United States and China, it was able to spend the billions needed to orchestrate these protean Games, with their mounting costs and changing demands.
Another advantage could be Japan’s well-deserved reputation for impeccable customer service. Few places in the world take as much pride in catering to visitors’ needs. It’s an open question, however, whether that real inclination toward hospitality will be tested by the extreme pressure.
A geopolitical imperative may be another big motivator. Japanese archrival China hosts next year’s Winter Games, and many nationalists here maintain that an Olympic failure is not an option amid the struggle with Beijing for influence in Asia. Yoshihide Suga, the prime minister, may also be hoping that a face-saving Games, which he can then declare successful, will help him retain power in fall elections.
And the potential holes in the argument that Japan is the perfect host nation for a pandemic Games?
Start, maybe, with leadership. It has never been clear who is in charge. Is it the city of Tokyo? The national government? The IOC? The Japanese Olympic Committee?
“This Olympics has been an all-Japan national project, but, as is often pointed out, nobody has a clear idea about who is the main organizer,” said Akio Yamaguchi, a crisis communications consultant at Tokyo-based AccessEast. “Uncertainty is the biggest risk.”
Japan has also faced a problem particular to democracies: a fierce, sometimes messy public debate about whether it was a good idea to hold the Games.
“After the postponement, we have never had a clear answer on how to host the Olympics. The focus was whether we can do it or not, instead of discussing why and how to do it,” said Yuji Ishizaka, a sports sociologist at Nara Women’s University.
“Japan is crucially bad at developing a ‘plan B.’ Japanese organizations are nearly incapable of drafting scenarios where something unexpected happens,” Ishizaka said. “There was very little planning that simulated the circumstances in 2021.”
Another possibly shaky foundation of outside confidence in Japan is its reputation as a technologically adept wonder of efficiency.
Arriving athletes and reporters “will probably realize that Japan is not as high-tech or as efficient as it has been often believed,” Nakano said. “More may then realize that it is the utter lack of accountability of the colluded political, business and media elites that ‘enabled’ Japan to hold the Olympics in spite of very negative public opinion — and quite possibly with considerable human sacrifice.”
The Tokyo Games are a Rorschach test of sorts, laying out for examination the many different ideas about Japan as Olympic host. For now, they raise more questions than they answer.
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July 25, 2021
A look at the best news photos from around the world
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Man Accused of Attempted Assassination of Mali President Dies in Custody
A man accused of attempting to stab Mali’s interim President Assimi Goita last week has died in hospital while in the custody of security services, the government said in a statement on Sunday.
Goita, a special forces colonel who orchestrated two coups in the last year, escaped unharmed after the assailant tried to stab him during prayers at a mosque in the capital Bamako on Tuesday.
Security agents threw a man into the back of a military pickup truck, video obtained by Reuters showed, as Goita was ringed by bodyguards.
“During the investigations … his state of health deteriorated,” the statement said. He was taken to hospital, where he died, it said.
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of death.
Mali, the theatre of French-supported operations against al Qaeda and Islamic State-linked insurgents for a decade, was thrown into political turmoil after a military junta led by Goita toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020.
Goita served as vice-president to transitional leader Bah Ndaw until the latter’s ouster in May.
your ad hereCameroon: Civilians Flee After Deadly Boko Haram Attack
Cameroon says hundreds of civilians have fled Sagme, a northern village on the border with Nigeria, after a Boko Haram attack Saturday that left eight government troops dead and 13 wounded, according to a press release. The Cameroonian military deployed to the area and said fighters were also killed.
Cameroon’s military says about 90 heavily armed terrorists on six military tactical vehicles and several motorcycles entered the country from Nigeria Saturday, launching attacks on Sagme village.
Sagme is located in Cameroon’s Far North region that shares a border with Nigeria’s Borno state, said to be an epicenter of jihadist group Boko Haram.
The press release by Army Captain Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo says the troops fought back but did not say how many combatants were killed. Guemo said the fighters escaped to Nigeria carrying bodies of their dead peers.
Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, said six of the Cameroonian troops were killed on the spot while the other two died while being transported to a hospital in the northern town of Maroua. He said many troops suffered severe wounds during the intense shootout with Boko Haram terrorists but managed to escape. Bakari said he is extending the condolences of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya to the families of the soldiers killed.Cameroon’s military said Biya immediately ordered the deployment of more troops to secure the country’s territory and civilians.
Bakari said several hundred civilians escaped from Sagme and neighboring villages to the bush for safety. He said the fleeing civilians should return to their villages as the military has been redeployed to protect lives and property.
He said people who think that Boko Haram has been eradicated from northern Cameroon are wrong. He said he is calling on civilians to help the military fight the terrorists through information sharing.
Bakari said he has asked traditional rulers, the clergy and community leaders to remobilize self-defense groups, especially along the border with Nigeria.
The Nigerian government has not issued a statement regarding the attack. But the Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, comprising troops from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Benin, has acknowledged the incident and said the fighters crossed over from Nigeria.
Security analyst and former military spokesman Didier Badjeck says the Cameroonian military alone cannot defeat Boko Haram terrorists.He said Boko Haram has been infiltrating many localities on the northern border with Nigeria and that it is very difficult for the military to detect the terrorists if civilians do not collaborate by reporting strangers in all border towns and villages. Badjeck said churches and mosques should ask civilians to stop lodging visitors and giving strangers food, thinking that they are obeying religious teachings.Badjeck said fighters may be disguising themselves as ranchers moving around in search of food for their cattle or as farmers visiting markets to sell crops.
In December 2020, Bakari said Boko Haram was establishing ties with top officials of his region. The revelation came after Cameroon’s military arrested Blama Malla, a former lawmaker, for allegedly supplying cattle to the Nigerian terrorist group. Malla was detained in the northern town of Mora.
Boko Haram terrorists have been fighting for 11 years to create an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria. The fighting has spread to Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin, with regular killings, burnings of mosques, churches, markets and schools, and attacks on military installations.
The United Nations reports that Boko Haram violence has killed 30,000 people and displaced about two million in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
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Tunisian President Fires Premier After Violent Protests
Tunisia’s president fired the country’s prime minister Sunday and froze parliament’s activities after violent demonstrations over the country’s pandemic and economic situation.President Kais Saied also lifted the immunity of all parliament members and said he would name a new prime minister in the coming hours to bring calm to the country. It was not immediately clear what the decision to freeze parliament would entail.The announcement came after an emergency security meeting following nationwide protests.Thousands of people defied virus restrictions and scorching heat to demonstrate Sunday in the capital of Tunis and other cities. The largely young crowds shouted “Get out!” and slogans calling for the dissolution of parliament and early elections.
The protests were called on the 64th anniversary of Tunisia’s independence by a new group called the July 25 Movement.Security forces deployed in force, especially in Tunis where police blockades shut down all streets leading to the main artery of the capital, Avenue Bourguiba. The avenue was a key site for the Tunisian revolution a decade ago that brought down a dictatorial regime and unleashed the Arab Spring uprisings.Police also deployed around the parliament, preventing demonstrators from accessing it.Police used tear gas to disperse some demonstrators who were throwing projectiles at officers and made several arrests. Clashes also took place in several other towns, notably in Nabeul, Sousse, Kairouan, Sfax and Tozeur.Protesters also stormed the offices of the Islamist movement Ennahdha, the dominant force in parliament. Videos circulating online showed smoke pouring from the Ennahdha building. The attackers damaged computers and other equipment inside and threw documents onto the streets.The party denounced the attack, saying that “criminal gangs” from inside and outside Tunisia are trying to “seed chaos and destruction in the service of an agenda aimed at harming the Tunisian democratic process.”Tunisia is facing one of Africa’s worst coronavirus outbreaks and has reimposed lockdowns and other virus restrictions to try to curb its spread.
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Ethiopia’s Amhara State Rallies Youth to Fight Tigrayans as War Expands
Ethiopia’s Amhara state on Sunday called on “all young people” to take up arms against Tigrayan fighters who are battling the federal government military and forces from all of Ethiopia’s other nine regions.The call for mass mobilization against Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters – whom Amhara’s military said were now attacking the state – expands the eight-month-old war and instability in the Horn of Africa country.”I call on all young people, militia, non-militia in the region, armed with any government weapon, armed with personal weapons, to join the anti-TPLF war mission from tomorrow,” Agegnehu Teshager, president of Amhara regional government was quoted as saying by the region’s state media.Calls to TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda, for a comment were not answered.War erupted between the Ethiopian military and the TPLF, which rules Ethiopia’s northernmost region, in November.Three weeks later, the government declared victory when it captured Tigray’s capital Mekelle, but the TPLF kept fighting. At the end of June, the TPLF seized control of Mekelle and most of Tigray after government soldiers withdrew.This week, the Tigrayans pushed their offensive to Afar, their neighboring state to the east, where they said they planned to target troops from the Amhara region fighting alongside the federal military in the area.Afar is a strategic region for landlocked Ethiopia because the main road and railway linking the capital, Addis Ababa, with the seaport of Djibouti runs through it.On Saturday, Amhara’s special forces commander, Brigadier General Tefera Mamo, was quoted by the region’s state media as saying the war had expanded to the state.”The terrorist group has started a war in the Amhara and Afar regions and is also harassing Ethiopians,” Tefera said, referring to TPLF. “Amhara Special Forces are fighting in coordination with other security forces.”Thousands of people have died in the fighting, around 2 million have been displaced and more than 5 million rely on emergency food aid.
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Zimbabwe Receives COVID-19 Vaccines from China Amid Fears of Third Wave
Zimbabwe on Sunday received one million SINOVAC vaccines it bought from China as the African country battles to meet the demand for the COVID-19 jabs. Zimbabweans want to get vaccinated to beat a third wave facing the country. After the arrival of the doses from China on Sunday, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told reporters that Zimbabwe had paid $92 million for 12 million jabs from China and from the COVAX – the United Nations’ vaccine-sharing initiative.“So, our vaccination program and vaccine acquisition program is going very well. For the first dose, we are already reaching about 50,000 vaccinations per day, which is good going indeed. So, all is going well. And we feel that we are well on our way of achieving that target of herd immunity which we need in order to open our economy safely so that the recovery is sustained and we can move from strength to strength with our objectives,” said Ncube. In a virtual press conference this week Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, said the continent was going through a third wave of COVID-19 infections and should urgently ramp up COVID-19 vaccination program.“Africa continues to lag behind, sadly. Yet Africa’s supply crunch is starting to ease. The first delivery of doses donated by the USA through the COVAX Facility are arriving in Africa and altogether nearly 60 million doses are expected in the coming weeks through COVAX from Team Europe, UK, purchased doses and other partners. African countries must go all out and speed up their vaccine rollouts by five to six times if they are to get all these doses into arms and fully vaccinate the most vulnerable 10% of their people by the end of September,” said Moeti.COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.Slightly more than 1,400,000 Zimbabweans out of a population of 14 million have received their first shot, and nearly 680,000 have received their second inoculation since the program started in February.Norman Murwizi is one of the Zimbabweans who has yet to get a vaccine due to shortages.“The chances of me getting vaccinated would have increased due to increase supply of vaccines. My guess or wish will be – the service rate will actually have improved so that the number (of people to vaccinated) will plummet and the chances of people getting vaccinated does increase. So, the expectation increases of me getting a vaccine with no hassle at all. Or with minimum farce,” said Murwizi.Zimbabwe had turned down Johnson & Johnson vaccines which the African Union sourced for its members with financing from the African Development Bank but changed its mind.Zimbabwe has 97,277 confirmed coronavirus infections and 3,050 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the global outbreak. On Sunday, Dr. John Mangwiro, Zimbabwe’s junior health minister, said with the arrival of a million jabs, the vaccination program would intensify.
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US Loses to France 83-76, 25-Game Olympic Win Streak Ends
For the first time since 2004, the U.S. men’s basketball team has lost in the Olympics. And the Americans’ quest for a fourth consecutive gold medal is already in serious trouble.
France — the team that knocked the Americans out of contention in the Basketball World Cup two years ago — dealt the U.S. a major blow once again. Evan Fournier’s 3-pointer with just under a minute left put France ahead to stay in what became a 83-76 win over the Americans on Sunday in the opening game for both teams at the Tokyo Olympics.
The U.S. had won 25 consecutive Olympic games, last losing at the Athens Games 17 years ago and settling for a bronze medal there.
Fournier had 28 points for France, while Rudy Gobert scored 14 and Nando de Colo had 13. Jrue Holiday had 18 points for the U.S., Bam Adebayo had 12, Damian Lillard 11 and Kevin Durant had 10 for the Americans — who are just 2-3 in their games this summer, the first four of them exhibitions in Las Vegas that weren’t supposed to mean much.
The Olympics, they were supposed to be different.
They weren’t. Going back to the World Cup in China two years ago, the Americans are 3-5 in their last eight games with NBA players in the lineup.
A 10-point U.S. lead in the third quarter was wasted, and so was a 12-point barrage from Holiday in the opening 4 ½ minutes of the fourth quarter as the Americans went from six points down to start the period to six points up with 5:23 remaining.
The loss doesn’t knock the U.S. out of medal contention, but it essentially eliminates the margin for error. The Americans play Iran on Wednesday and then the Czech Republic on Saturday in its final two Group A games; win both of those, and the U.S. will be in the quarterfinals. Lose another one, and the Americans might not even finish in the top eight of this 12-team tournament.
The lead was 10 for the U.S. early in the third quarter after Durant scored the opening basket of the second half. But the offense went into a complete sputter for much of that period — and that, combined with Durant’s foul trouble, led to big problems.
The Americans scored three points in a seven-minute span of the third, Durant picked up his fourth foul — the FIBA limit is five, remember — with 16:45 left in the game, and that once-comfortable lead was soon gone. De Colo’s 3-pointer with 2:42 remaining in the third put France up 55-54, its first lead since the game’s first four minutes.
De Colo connected again for a 59-56 lead, then Thomas Huertel made another 3 late in the third to put France up 62-56 going to the final quarter.
It was the first time the U.S. and France played since the quarterfinals of the Basketball World Cup two years ago, a game that the Americans lost. France has seven players on its Olympic roster from that team; the U.S. has only two, but the importance wasn’t lost on the other 10 — who’d heard plenty about it.
The U.S. was outrebounded in that game 44-28, gave up 22 points off turnovers and got outscored 22-5 in the final 7 ½ minutes. The final was France 89, U.S. 79, a loss that eliminated the Americans from medal contention and sent them freefalling to a seventh-place finish that was the worst ever by USA Basketball in any tournament with NBA players.
And in a largely empty arena near Tokyo on Sunday night, France did it again — dealing the U.S. an even bigger blow.
Tip-ins
France: Frank Ntilikina missed the game, with the French federation saying he continues to deal with “slight muscle discomfort.” France took the game’s first nine free throws. The U.S. didn’t shoot one until JaVale McGee went to the line with 8:27 left in the second quarter. Guerschon Yabusele left the game briefly with 1:30 left in the half after going knee-to-knee with Holiday.
USA: Durant had three fouls in the first half, something that’s happened only 10 times in his last 544 NBA appearances.
The U.S. used 11 of its players in the first half, with Jerami Grant the only one who didn’t get into the game.
Moving up
Durant moved into outright possession of the No. 4 spot on the U.S. men’s all-time Olympic appearances list. He’s now played in 17 games, behind only Carmelo Anthony (31), LeBron James (24) and David Robinson (24). There are 15 players with 16 Olympic appearances.
Up next
France: Face the Czech Republic on Wednesday.
USA: Face Iran on Wednesday.
your ad hereMarsupial Resurgence in Outback Australia
Experts have said that rare footage of an endangered marsupial in outback Australia is a sign that native animals are beginning to recover from years of feral cat predation.
Feral cats threaten the survival of over 100 native species in Australia, according to federal environment officials.
The opportunistic predators have caused the extinction of some ground-dwelling birds and small to medium-sized mammals.
Experts have said they have been a “major cause of decline” for many endangered marsupials, including the bilby, bandicoot, bettong and numbat.
In the northern state of Queensland, though, there are signs that some native animals are beginning to recover.
At the Astrebla Downs National Park, 1,500 kilometers northwest of Brisbane, 3,000 feral cats have been removed since 2013.
Licensed hunters have said that thermal imaging technology, rather than powerful spotlights, have helped them control the wild cat population by making it easier to find them hiding in vegetation.
A recent survey in the region revealed a record number of 471 bilbies, one of Australia’s best-known marsupials.
Also, for the first time in a decade, researchers managed to film a threatened desert marsupial in outback Queensland in June.
“It is called a kowari,” said ecologist John Augusteyn, who shot the footage. “They are a little, tiny carnivorous marsupial that lives in outback, or arid, western Queensland and also down in South Australia. They are a very charismatic little guy. Very fast, very inquisitive.”
Ecologists say that decent rainfall has also helped to boost marsupial numbers.
Nearly 3 billion animals in Australia were killed or displaced by the devastating “Black Summer” bushfires in 2019 and 2020, according to scientists.
They have said that the biggest cause of species decline in Australia is habitat loss.
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Haiti Update
On the eve of the funeral for slain Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, host Carol Castiel and assistant producer at the Current Affairs Desk, Sydney Sherry, speak with Haiti expert Georges Fauriol, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and fellow at the Caribbean Policy Consortium, about the chaos following Moïse’s assassination, the breakdown of democratic institutions in Haiti, and the power struggle that ensued over who would become Haiti’s next leader. What does this crisis reveal about the state of affairs in Haiti, and is the international community, Washington in particular, playing a constructive role in Haiti’s political rehabilitation?
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Secretary Austin: US Strikes in Somalia Result of Mogadishu’s ‘Increased Op Tempo’ Against al-Shabab
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Saturday that U.S. airstrikes targeting al-Shabab in Somalia over the past few days were undertaken because Somali forces are intensifying their offensive against the al-Qaida-affiliated terror group.“Most recently what’s happened is our partner forces have increased their op[erational] tempo, and they have been pushing back on al-Shabab in a more significant way,” Austin told reporters traveling with him to Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.“The result of that is some engagements that were fairly intense, and we conducted those strikes to support our partner forces,” he added.U.S. Africa Command targeted al-Shabab with two airstrikes on July 20 and July 23, following a nearly six-month hiatus that began when President Joe Biden took office.The Somali military has been embroiled in a fierce struggle on the ground with al-Shabab in Galmudug state, the region targeted in both U.S. strikes.Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told VOA and other reporters traveling aboard a U.S. military aircraft Friday that U.S. troops were not on the ground with Somali forces during the strikes but were conducting a remote advise-and-assist mission.Further information was not provided because of “operational security.”The U.S. military carried out 63 airstrikes against al-Shabab in 2019 and 53 airstrikes last year.Another seven airstrikes were launched in the first 2½ weeks of 2021, before former U.S. President Donald Trump left office.U.S. officials explained the slowdown by citing a Biden administration review of the military’s airstrike policy. Senior Somali officials concerned with the lack of strikes had warned it would allow al-Shabab “to come out of hiding.”Late last month, Africa Command’s commander, General Stephen Townsend, told a virtual defense forum that the spread of terrorism across Africa “has continued relatively unabated,” singling out al-Shabab as a major concern.”We see threats in Somalia to regional stability,” he said. “We even see threats there to the U.S. homeland.”
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Skaters Debut at Inaugural Olympics; Fans Hope for Acceptance
Skateboarding made its historic debut on the Olympic stage early Sunday, with men’s street heats kicking off the sport’s four-day competition under Tokyo’s blazing sun.
The inaugural event marks a turning point for skateboarding, which has its roots in youth street culture and has influenced everything from art to fashion.
The men’s street competition on Sunday will be a star-studded affair, with who’s who of international skating competing.
But all eyes will be on Nyjah Huston of the United States and hometown favorite Yuto Horigome, who will skate on a concrete course designed with rails and benches emblazoned with the five Olympic rings.
By adding skateboarding to its roster, the International Olympic Committee hopes it can tap into its legions of young fans worldwide, who have built skateboarding into a multibillion-dollar industry.
For skating giant Tony Hawk, the sport’s inclusion into the Olympics is long overdue.
Tony Hawk, who is in town to act as a TV commentator, tried out the new waterfront bowl in Ariake this week and said he was surprised it took so long for the Olympics to embrace skateboarding.
“As a kid that was mostly lambasted for my interest in skateboarding, I never imagined it would be part of the Olympic Games,” Hawk wrote below an Instagram video he posted earlier this week.
Skateboarding, though extremely popular in Japan, is still discouraged in most parks and it’s uncommon to see skaters cruising down a street.
Just outside the skate park where the Olympic finals is taking place on Sunday, a poster taped to the exterior white fence banned skateboarding for locals.
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Jackie Mason, Comic Who Perfected Amused Outrage, Dies at 93
Jackie Mason, a rabbi-turned-comedian whose feisty brand of standup comedy led him to Catskills nightclubs, West Coast talk shows and Broadway stages, has died. He was 93.
Mason died Saturday at 6 p.m. ET at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan after being hospitalized for more than two weeks, celebrity lawyer Raul Felder told The Associated Press.
The irascible Mason was known for his sharp wit and piercing social commentary, often about the differences between Jews and gentiles, men and women and his own inadequacies. His typical style was amused outrage.
“Eighty percent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe,” he once joked. Another Mason line was: “Politics doesn’t make strange bedfellows, marriage does.” About himself, he once said: “I was so self-conscious, every time football players went into a huddle; I thought they were talking about me.”
Religious roots
Mason was born Jacob Maza, the son of a rabbi. His three brothers became rabbis. So did Mason, who at one time had congregations in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Comedy eventually proved to be a more persistent calling than God.
“A person has to feel emotionally barren or empty or frustrated in order to become a comedian,” he told The Associated Press in 1987. “I don’t think people who feel comfortable or happy are motivated to become comedians. You’re searching for something and you’re willing to pay a high price to get that attention.”
Mason started in show business as a social director at a resort in the Catskills. He was the guy who got everybody up to play Simon Says, quiz games or shuffleboard. He told jokes, too. After one season, he was playing clubs throughout the Catskills for better money.
“Nobody else knew me, but in the mountains, I was a hit,” Mason recalled.
In 1961, the pint-sized comic got a big break, an appearance on Steve Allen’s weekly television variety show. His success brought him to The Ed Sullivan Show and other programs.
He was banned for two years from the Sullivan show when he allegedly gave the host the finger when Sullivan signaled to him to wrap up his act during an appearance on Oct. 18, 1964.
Mason’s act even carried him to Broadway, where he put on several one-man shows, including Freshly Squeezed in 2005, Love Thy Neighbor in 1996 and The World According to Me in 1988, for which he received a special Tony Award.
“I feel like Ronald Reagan tonight,” Mason joked on Tony night. “He was an actor all his life, knew nothing about politics and became president of the United States. I’m an ex-rabbi who knew nothing about acting and I’m getting a Tony Award.”
Mason called himself an observer who watched people and learned. From those observations he said he got his jokes and then tried them out on friends. “I’d rather make a fool of myself in front of two people for nothing than a thousand people who paid for a ticket,” he told the AP.
A reliable presence
His humor could leap from computers and designer coffee to then-Sen. John Kerry, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Donald Trump. He was able to articulate the average Joe’s anger, making the indignities of life seem funny and maybe just a little bit more bearable.
“I very rarely write anything down. I just think about life a lot and try to put it into phrases that will get a joke,” he said. “I never do a joke that has a point that I don’t believe in. To me, the message and the joke is the same.”
On TV, Mason was a reliable presence, usually with a cameo on such shows as 30 Rock or The Simpsons or as a reliable guest on late night chat shows. He performed in front of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, and his show Fearless played London’s West End in 2012.
He portrayed a Jewish ex-pajama salesman in love with an Irish-Catholic widow portrayed by Lynn Redgrave in a series called Chicken Soup in 1989, but it didn’t last. During the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Scottish service hired Mason as a weekly commentator.
Mason’s humor sometimes went too far, as when he touched off a controversy in New York while campaigning for GOP mayoral candidate Rudolph Giuliani against Democrat David Dinkins, who was Black. Mason had to apologize after saying, among other things, that Jews would vote for Dinkins out of guilt.
Felder, his longtime friend, told the AP that Mason had a Talmudic outlook on life: “That whatever you would say to him, he would start an argument with you.”
He is survived by his wife, producer Jyll Rosenfeld, and a daughter, Sheba.
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Smoke From Nearby Wildfires Helps Crews Gain on Biggest US Blaze
Scores of wildfires raging across forest and scrubland in the Western United States have belched so much smoke that it is helping an army of firefighters gain ground on the nation’s biggest blaze, Oregon’s Bootleg Fire, by blocking sunlight, officials said Saturday.
Both the National Weather Service and officials with the Oregon Department of Forestry said smoke in the lower atmosphere coming from California wildfires has floated over the Bootleg Fire, which has scorched more than 401,000 acres in Oregon about 402 kilometers (250 miles) south of Portland.
“It’s called ‘smoke shading’ and it’s basically put a lid on the lower atmosphere for now, blocking sunlight and creating cooler, more stable surface conditions,” said Eric Schoening, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.
The phenomenon is unpredictable, and the area is still under red-flag warnings this weekend from the weather service, which said the Pacific Northwest may experience high temperatures and wind gusts that can fan the flames and spread hot sparks and embers.
More difficulty for aircraft
Schoening said the weather is a mixed bag in terms of helping firefighters.
Marcus Kauffman, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said the drawback of the smoke shade is that it makes it harder to fly planes and helicopters that drop water and chemical fire suppressants, even “while it helps the teams on the ground.”
More than 2,000 firefighters and support crews had contained about 42% of the fire by Saturday, although the fire jumped containment lines the night before, he said.
“We lost 1,600 acres last night,” Kauffman said.
The Bootleg Fire is one of more than 80 large active wildfires in 13 states that have charred about 526,090 hectares (1.3 million acres) in recent weeks, an area larger than Delaware, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
The smoke, even as it provides some help to Oregon firefighters, has recently been carried by the jet stream and other air currents as far as the Northeastern cities of New York and Boston, where some residents have felt the air contamination in their eyes, noses and lungs.
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US, Spain Set Scoring Records in Water Polo
The world champion U.S. women’s water polo squad began its quest for a third straight Olympic gold medal Saturday by storming into the record books with a 25-4 humbling of hosts Japan at the Tatsumi Water Polo Center.
But the U.S. record for most goals scored in a single match at the Olympics stood just a few hours before being overhauled by reigning European champion Spain, which crushed South Africa 29-4 to lay down a marker of its own.
Teenager Elena Ruiz, making her Olympic debut at age 16, led Spain in scoring with five goals, while nine of her teammates also were on target.
Japan, which like South Africa is playing in its first Olympics, started brightly against the U.S. and even drew level at 3-3, but was outpowered and outclassed once its opponents settled into the match.
“We got off to a rocky start, especially defensively,” said U.S. captain Maggie Steffens, who scored five goals. “The Olympics gives you extra bit of energy and excitement and it was nice to see our team recover and take a deep breath.”
Stephania Haralabidis also scored five, while Madeline Musselman and Aria Fischer chipped in with four apiece for the Americans, who have dominated women’s water polo in the past few years.
Five other U.S. players got on the scoresheet as the match quickly descended into a drubbing.
“We’re human, and we get nervous just like everyone else,” U.S. coach Adam Krikorian said in response to a question on his team’s slow start.
“It’s the first game of the Olympics and those jitters aren’t going to go away for us or for any other team. Sometimes it just gets us, but once we settled down, we were much better.”
US tough in goal
Miku Koide scored twice for Japan, including her country’s first women’s water polo goal at the Olympics, with Yumi Arima and Eruna Ura also on target for the hosts.
But U.S. goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson was in scintillating form, saving 15 of the 19 shots she faced and shutting out the Japanese offense completely in the second and fourth quarters as her team made a dream start in Group B.
Australia also started with a win, beating Canada 8-5 in Group A, with driver Bronte Halligan the pick of the Aussie players with three goals in her Olympic debut.
The Russian Olympic Committee team, who won bronze in Rio five years ago, was locked in a fiercely physical battle with China in the day’s final match, but held on to win 18-17, with captain Ekaterina Prokofyeva helping her team snatch victory with two late goals.
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Criminal Probe Sought After Malawi Police Compensate Rape Victims
Malawi’s government has paid thousands of dollars in compensation to women who allegedly were sexually assaulted by police officers during post-election protests. Lawyers for victims and human rights campaigners, however, say the money alone is not enough. They want suspects to be arrested and tried in court. Police have promised a fresh investigation. The Malawi Human Rights Commission accuses police officers of raping victims in the capital city of Lilongwe in apparent retaliation for the fatal stoning of a police officer by residents during post-election violence on Oct. 8, 2019. In his ruling on August 13, 2020, High Court Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda ordered the Malawi Police Service to compensate 18 women and arrest 17 police officers implicated for the crimes. Nyirenda said the victims needed to be compensated for trauma they suffered at the hands of police.Now that compensation has been paid, though, lawyers for the victims and human rights campaigners say money alone is not enough.Atupele Masanjala is the spokesperson for the Women’s Lawyers Association, which represented the rape victims.She says the compensation marks the end of the civil case but there is a need to look at the criminal aspect.”Because even if those women are compensated, the people who have done the wrong have not been held accountable,” Masanjala said. “The police officers are not the people who paid that money. That was the government paying on behalf of the police. But those police officers haven’t been identified, they haven’t been held accountable, they haven’t been arrested. So, as it is now, they are criminals just walking free and that’s unacceptable.” Habiba Osman is executive secretary for the Malawi Human Rights Commission. She says a criminal proceeding is needed.”It means that now there is going to be individual liability or responsibility whenever people commit such crimes that would be seen to be violating the rights of other people,” Osman said. “So, what this is to also tell us is that even if they are state’s agents [tasked] to be enforcing the law, if they commit the crime the same organization can bite them.”The government has paid $160,000 to the 18 victims, with compensation ranging from $5,000 to $12,000 per victim.One victim from the Msundwe area, who did not want to be named in this report, said the compensation is too low.She says, “I left my village [scene of the incident] to settle somewhere because people were laughing at me for what happened. So, I though the compensation would be enough to buy land and build a house. But this is not the case.”She says she is looking forward to the arrest of the culprits, although she could not identify her attacker because she says he covered his face when he raped her. James Kadadzera is a spokesperson for the Malawi Police service.He told VOA police are ready to start a new investigation after their previous investigation failed to identify suspects.”In fact, there were many police officers that were on duty on that particular day,” Kadadzera said. “Probably 100 plus, so it was difficult to identify the suspects.”Kadadzera hopes this time, however, they will identify the suspects because he says the investigation team will include members of the Malawi Human Rights Commission, Women Lawyers Association and other human rights organizations.
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Cameroon Sends Defense minister to French-Speaking Towns and Villages Under Rebel Attack
Cameroon’s government has sent Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo, to the border between the English- and French-speaking regions amid increasing English-speaking separatist incursions into French-speaking towns and villages.Officials say many businesses have been abandoned and construction work on government buildings halted due to the increased separatist attacks.Scores of people watch as members of the Cameroon military display military weapons in Foumban, a French-speaking town on the border with Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West region. Warrant Officer Bouba Dawanga Syraye, the ranking officer at the military post in Foumban., says the weapons were seized from suspected rebels. He says government troops arrested 10 suspects and recovered guns, ammunition and several locally made explosives. He says all the suspects and their accomplices have denied accusations of arms trafficking.Cameroon Muslims Plead for an End to Separatist CrisisMuslim leaders also call on vaccine skeptics to be inoculated against COVID-19, which has infected more than 80,000 people and killed at least 1,300The military says arms proliferation in the French-speaking West region, where Foumban is located, has been on the rise since 2017. The military says English-speaking rebels fighting to create an independent state they call Ambazonia in French-majority Cameroon infiltrate French-speaking towns and villages with weapons.The government says at least 40 deadly separatist incursions have been reported in the West region since 2017. Bamboutos, Noun and Menou administrative units, also known as divisions, bordering the North-West region are the hardest hit by the separatist fighters.Awah Fonka, the governor of Cameroon’s West region, says the fighters attack and kill government troops, loot shops and destroy schools. He says the rebel incursions and killing have halted work on some government projects. “We have recorded attacks at the level of several projects which would have helped in the development of the region,” said Fonka. “The case of Babadjou, Bamenda, Bambotos [road projects], as well as the road leading from Kuikong to Bandjoun and especially the divisions bordering the [English speaking North-] West region and the South-West region.”Fonka said the military has been deployed to protect engineers on roads whose construction has been abandoned. He pleaded with civilians to help stop separatist incursions by reporting strangers in their towns and villages.Fonka did not say how many government troops, rebels and civilians have been killed, but said the military was deployed this week to stop the incursions.On July 15, Cameroonian officials said anglophone rebels were disguising themselves as military troops and launching attacks on villages and towns in the West region.Cameroon Says Students and Teachers Defy Separatists School Lockdown Cameroonian authorities say at least 70,000 school children and their teachers have returned to classrooms this year in the troubled western regionsThis week, Cameroonian President Paul Biya sent Assomo to lead a high-profile military delegation to French-speaking areas bordering the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions.During a meeting with local military officers and governors of the North-West and West regions on Friday, Assomo said he was asked to encourage troops fighting the separatists. He said the government adopted a new strategy to fight the rebels but did not say what the new strategy entails.Rodrique Sufor, who sells chicken in Mbouda, where Assomo and his delegation visited, says he is one of the many people who have relocated their businesses from the town of Galim because of regular separatist incursions and killing there.”When we hear Ambazonians [separatist fighters] beheading soldiers, the situation cannot leave [allow] us that we can stay in peace, so we want the government to take the situation seriously by reinforcing the security around the area,” said Sufor. Sufor says many people have also fled from the town of Babadjou to safer French-speaking towns.The government is asking the fleeing civilians to return and assuring them that the military will assure their security and safety.Cameroon’s separatist conflict has cost more than 3,000 lives and forced 550,000 people to flee to French-speaking regions of Cameroon or into neighboring Nigeria, according to the United Nations.
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More Than 100 Die, Thousands Evacuated During India’s Monsoons
More than 100 people have died and tens of thousands have been evacuated, Indian officials say, after India’s Maharashtra state was bombarded by monsoon rains, causing flooding and landslides.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he is “anguished by the loss of lives.”
Authorities say India’s military has been dispatched to help rescue crews look for survivors.
Weather forecasters say the rains are expected to continue for a few more days.
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US Infrastructure Proposal May Move Forward Despite Senate Stall
Issues in the News moderator Kim Lewis talks with VOA senior diplomatic correspondent, Cindy Saine, and senior reporter for Marketplace, Nancy Marshall-Genzer, about growing congressional challenges on infrastructure, police reform, COVID-19 and the economy facing the Biden administration, the ramifications of a widespread cyber-attack on Microsoft allegedly conducted by China, controversial Israeli phone surveillance software allegedly misused amid a global hacking scandal, the Tokyo Olympics and global concern over the spreading of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
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UN Experts: Africa Became Hardest Hit by Terrorism This Year
Africa became the region hardest hit by terrorism in the first half of 2021 as the Islamic State and al-Qaida extremist groups and their affiliates spread their influence, boasting gains in supporters and territory and inflicting the greatest casualties, U.N. experts said in a new report.
The panel of experts said in a report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Friday that this is “especially true” in parts of West and East Africa where affiliates of both groups can also boast growing capabilities in fundraising and weapons, including the use of drones.
Several of the most successful affiliates of the Islamic State are in its central and west Africa province, and several of al-Qaida’s are in Somalia and the Sahel region, they said.
The experts said it’s “concerning” that these terrorist affiliates are spreading their influence and activities including across borders from Mali into Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Niger and Senegal as well as incursions from Nigeria into Cameroon, Chad and Niger in West Africa. In the east, the affiliates’ activities have spread from Somalia into Kenya and from Mozambique into Tanzania, they said.
One of “the most troubling events” of early 2021 was the local Islamic State affiliate’s storming and brief holding of Mozambique’s strategic port of Mocimboa da Praia in Cabo Delgado province near the border with Tanzania “before withdrawing with spoils, positioning it for future raids in the area,” the panel said.
Overall, the experts said, COVID-19 continued to affect terrorist activity and both the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, and al-Qaida “continued to gloat over the harm done by the coronavirus disease pandemic to their enemies, but were unable to develop a more persuasive narrative.”
“While ISIL contemplated weaponizing the virus, member states detected no concrete plans to implement the idea,” the panel said.
In Europe and other non-conflict zones, lockdowns and border closures brought on by COVID-19 slowed the movement and gathering of people “while increasing the risk of online radicalization,” it said.
The experts warned that attacks “may have been planned in various locations” during the pandemic “that will be executed when restrictions ease.”
The panel said that in Iraq and Syria, “the core conflict zone for ISIL,” the extremist group’s activities have evolved into “an entrenched insurgency, exploiting weaknesses in local security to find safe havens, and targeting forces engaged in counter-ISIL operations.”
Despite heavy counter-terrorism pressures from Iraqi forces, the experts said Islamic State attacks in Baghdad in January and April “underscored the group’s resilience.”
In Syria’s rebel-held northwest Idlib province, the experts said groups aligned with al-Qaida continue to dominate the area, with “terrorist fighters” numbering more than 10,000.
“Although there has been only limited relocation of foreign fighters from the region to other conflict zones, member states are concerned about the possibility of such movement, in particular to Afghanistan, should the environment there become more hospitable to ISIL or groups aligned with al-Qaida,” the panel said.
In central, south and southeast Asia, the experts said Islamic State and al-Qaida affiliates continue to operate “notwithstanding key leadership losses in some cases and sustained pressure from security forces.”
The experts said the status of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri “is unknown,” and if he is alive several unnamed member states “assess that he is ailing, leading to an acute leadership challenge for al-Qaida.”
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Algerian Judoka Refuses Potential Olympic Bout with Israeli
An Algerian judo athlete will be sent home from the Tokyo Olympics after he withdrew from the competition to avoid potentially facing an Israeli opponent.
Fethi Nourine and his coach, Amar Benikhlef, told Algerian media they were withdrawing to avoid a possible second-round matchup with Israel’s Tohar Butbul in the men’s 73 kg division on Monday. Nourine was drawn to face Sudan’s Mohamed Abdalrasool in the opening round, with the winner facing Butbul, the fifth seed.
The International Judo Federation’s executive committee has temporarily suspended Nourine and Benikhlef, who are likely to face sanctions beyond the Olympics, which began Saturday. The Algerian Olympic committee then withdrew both men’s accreditation and made plans to send them home.
The IJF said Nourine’s position was “in total opposition to the philosophy of the International Judo Federation. The IJF has a strict non-discrimination policy, promoting solidarity as a key principle, reinforced by the values of judo.”
Nourine and Benikhlef attribute their stance to their political support for Palestinians.
Nourine also quit the World Judo Championships in 2019 right before he was scheduled to face Butbul, who is a much more accomplished judo athlete than Nourine. Those world championships were held in Tokyo at the Budokan, the site of the Olympic judo tournament.
Judo’s world governing body has been firm in its antidiscrimination policies and strong support of Israel’s right to compete in recent years.
In April, the IJF suspended Iran for four years because the nation refused to allow its fighters to face Israelis. The IJF said Iran’s policies were revealed when former Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei claimed he was ordered to lose in the semifinals of the 2019 world championships in Tokyo to avoid potentially facing Israeli world champion Sagi Muki in the finals.
The IJF called Iran’s policy “a serious breach and gross violation of the statutes of the IJF, its legitimate interests, its principles and objectives.” Iran’s ban runs through September 2023.
The IJF aided Mollaei’s departure for Germany after the controversy, and he now represents Mongolia. He will compete Tuesday at the Olympics.
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South Africa Turmoil
On this edition of Encounter, Ambassador Michelle Gavin, senior fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Ambassador to Botswana, and Frans Cronje, CEO of the Johannesburg-based Institute of Race Relations, analyze with host Carol Castiel the political, economic and social situation in South Africa following the arrest and detention of former South African president Jacob Zuma given the protests, looting and violence which this incident triggered. How did the celebrated multiracial democracy led by Nelson Mandela reach this critical juncture point, and what does the future hold for South Africa?
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Funeral for Haiti’s Assassinated President Disrupted by Protests, Gunfire
The funeral of Haiti’s assassinated president, Jovenel Moise, was disrupted Friday by tear gas used on nearby protesters as well as sounds of gunfire, prompting U.S. officials to leave before the end of the ceremony.
Hundreds of protesters gathered Friday outside the site of the state funeral in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, burning barricades and shouting loudly, causing police to fire tear gas. Protesters were calling for justice for the July 7 assassination of Moise.
Media reports said smoke billowed into the private compound where the funeral was taking place.
There were no reports that anyone attending the funeral was injured.
The funeral was held amid heavy security. Reuters news agency reported that police formed protective cordons around Haitian officials who attended the ceremony.
The U.S. delegation, led by the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left before Moise’s widow spoke.
“The Presidential Delegation to the funeral of President Moise is safe and accounted for, and those traveling from Washington, D.C., have arrived safely back in the United States,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
Thomas-Greenfield said Friday on Twitter, “We urge everyone to express themselves peacefully and refrain from violence.”
She said, “The Haitian people deserve democracy, stability, security and prosperity, and we stand with them in this time of crisis.”
Once the funeral ended, protesters threw rocks at a caravan of Haitian authorities and journalists as they were leaving, according to The Associated Press.
Moise was shot and killed in a pre-dawn attack at his private residence in a wealthy suburb of Port-au-Prince. His wife, Martine Moise, was injured during the attack and received treatment at a Miami, Florida, hospital. She returned to Haiti last week to help plan and attend the funeral of her husband.
The funeral came days after Prime Minister Ariel Henry took power in Haiti after receiving support from key international diplomats.
Henry had been designated prime minister by Moise but had not been sworn in because of Moise’s assassination. He has vowed to form a consensus government until elections can be held.
Thomas-Greenfield called on Henry to create conditions for legislative and presidential elections “as soon as feasible,” in remarks when the U.S. delegation arrived in Cap-Haitien.
Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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