Tanzanian riot police detained a number of protesting supporters of arrested opposition leader Freedom Mbowe on Thursday, as a terrorism case against him was postponed.Mbowe and other officials from the main opposition party Chadema were arrested last month ahead of a planned conference to demand constitutional reform.The 59-year-old has been charged with terrorism financing and conspiracy in a case that has triggered concern among rights groups and some Western nations about the state of democracy under Tanzania’s new leader.Mbowe had been due to appear in court in the financial capital Dar es Salaam on Thursday via a video link from prison but the case was postponed to Friday because of connection problems, his defence lawyer Peter Kibatala said. Chadema supporters waving placards saying “Mbowe is not a terrorist” and “Free Freeman Mbowe” gathered outside the court.Police responded by arresting protesters, the party said on Twitter. Images from the scene showed helmeted police bundling people into a pickup truck and taking them away.It was not immediately clear how many were detained.Chadema also said police had raided its regional office in the capital Dodoma on Wednesday night and assaulted a guard before making off with documents.The party’s secretary general John Mnyika urged supporters to turn up at the court again on Friday when Mbowe is due to appear in person. “Going to court is not a criminal offence,” he said on Twitter.’Politically-motivated’Mbowe’s lawyer Kibatala told AFP he was “saddened by the massive use of force” against the protesters.”All of them were very orderly. They were expressing solidarity and support,” he said.He added the charges against Mbowe “have no basis in law”.”They are opportunistic and probably politically motivated.”Mbowe’s arrest came four months after Tanzania’s first female president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, took office following the sudden death of her predecessor, John Magufuli.There had been hopes that Hassan would usher in change from the autocratic rule of her predecessor, nicknamed the “Bulldozer” for his uncompromising style.Prosecutors say the terrorism charges against Mbowe do not relate to the constitional reform forum Chadema had planned to hold in the northwestern city of Mwanza last month, but to alleged offences last year in another part of Tanzania. Amnesty International has joined the calls for his release, saying the government must substantiate the charges against him.”Since President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s inauguration, the Tanzanian government has taken some encouraging steps towards allowing greater freedom of expression and association in the country,” Amnesty said in a statement on Wednesday.”This case is a concerning development that casts doubt on whether that progress will continue or whether repression will once again be the order of the day.”
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Month: August 2021
US Unemployment Benefit Claims Edged Lower Last Week
The number of claims for unemployment benefits edged lower in the U.S. last week but remained in the same relatively narrow range it has now for two months, the Labor Department reported Thursday.The government said 385,000 jobless workers filed for compensation, down 14,000 from the revised figure of the week before.The weekly number of new claims, a proxy for employee layoffs, has ranged from 368,000 to 424,000 since late May, still substantially higher than the 218,000 figure in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic swept through the United States last year and severely disrupted the world’s biggest economy.A more complete look at the U.S. employment picture comes Friday with the release of job growth numbers for July. The U.S. added 850,000 jobs in June, with the unemployment rate at 5.9%.The U.S. said a week ago that its economy advanced 6.5% in the April-to-June period, a slightly faster annualized pace than in the first three months of the year as the country steadily regains its footing from the economic devastation of the coronavirus.The size of the U.S. economy – nearly $23 trillion – now exceeds its pre-pandemic level as it recovers faster than many economists had predicted during the worst of the business closings more than a year ago.US: Economy Advanced 6.5% from April to JuneBut surging delta variant of coronavirus is now threatening to impair business activity in some regions of US and, as a result, analysts say economy could cool somewhat in coming monthsBut the surging delta variant of the coronavirus is now threatening to impair business activity in some regions of the U.S. and, as a result, analysts say the economy could cool somewhat in coming months.The second quarter growth was fueled by widespread business reopenings, vaccinations for millions of people and trillions of dollars of government pandemic aid that was sent to all but the wealthiest American families.The weekly unemployment benefit claims total has tracked unevenly in recent weeks, but overall has fallen by more than 40% since early April, while remaining well above the pre-pandemic levels.About 9.5 million people remain unemployed in the U.S. and looking for work. There also are 9.2 million job openings, the government says, although the skill sets of the jobless do not necessarily match the needs of employers. Some employers are offering new hires cash bonuses to take jobs as the economy rebounds and consumers are willing to spend.State governors and municipal officials across the U.S. have been ending coronavirus restrictions, in many cases allowing businesses for the first time in a year to completely reopen to customers. That could lead to more hiring of workers. But the surging delta variant of the coronavirus is posing new problems that could inhibit economic growth. The number of new infections recorded each day has increased by tens of thousands in recent weeks and is still growing, especially in parts of the U.S. where millions of people had, for one reason or another, resisted getting vaccination shots.The number of new vaccinations had been falling in the U.S. but now is increasing again as more people see others in their communities hospitalized from the virus and their lives endangered.More than 60% of U.S. adults have now been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, boosting the economic recovery.
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Police Arrest 11 Over Racist Abuse of England Players After Euro Final
British police have arrested 11 people as part of an investigation into the online racist abuse directed at some of the Black players in the England soccer team following their defeat in last month’s Euro 2020 final.Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were the targets of the abuse after they missed spot-kicks in a penalty shootout with Italy which settled the July 11 final after the game finished as a 1-1 draw.The incident prompted a police investigation and drew wide condemnation from the England captain, manager, royalty, religious leaders and politicians.The UK Football Policing Unit said 207 posts on social media were identified as criminal, of which 123 accounts belong to individuals overseas and 34 from the United Kingdom.”There are people out there who believe they can hide behind a social media profile and get away with posting such abhorrent comments. They need to think again,” Chief Constable Mark Roberts, National Police Chiefs’ Council Football Policing Lead, said in a statement.”We have investigators proactively seeking out abusive comments in connection to the match and, if they meet a criminal threshold, those posting them will be arrested.”Our investigation is continuing at pace and we are grateful for those who have taken time to report racist posts to us.”A Twitter Inc spokesperson said last month they had removed more than 1,000 tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts, while Facebook Inc said it too had quickly removed abusive comments.
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Expect an Above-Average Atlantic Hurricane Season, Says Forecaster
National forecasters have increased their expectations of an above-average hurricane season over the Atlantic basin, according to a Wednesday briefing from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.The updated seasonal outlook predicts that 15 to 21 named storms of 39 mph (63 kph) or greater will form, of which seven to 10 may become hurricanes with wind speeds of 74 mph (119 kph) or greater. Both predictions mark slight increases from the May forecast released by NOAA. NOAA also expects this season three to five major hurricanes — hurricanes whose top winds reach 111 mph (179 kph) or greater. “A mix of competing oceanic and atmospheric conditions generally favor above-average activity for the remainder of the Atlantic hurricane season, including the potential return of La Niña in the months ahead,” said Matthew Rosencrans, a hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.Rosencrans put the likelihood of La Niña forming at roughly 50% for the remaining months of the season, which officially ends November 30. La Niña is a weather pattern that brings colder waters to the Pacific Coast and can also increase Atlantic hurricane activity. An average hurricane season has 12 named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes. If NOAA’s predictions prove true, 2021 will be the sixth consecutive year with above-average storm activity.The 2020 hurricane season was the busiest on record, producing 30 named storms, including 14 hurricanes and seven major hurricanes. A record-breaking 12 storms, six of which were hurricanes, hit the U.S. coastline last year. Rosencrans cited climate change as a factor for the increasing intensity of storms, noting that recent seasons have brought about 3% more rainfall with any given storm and wind speeds that are 10% higher than average. “When you take a storm, and you have the climate change-induced sea-level rise, that does increase your threat for coastal flooding,” Rosencrans said. Though the past few weeks have seen a lull in Atlantic storm activity, the beginning of the 2021 season started off aggressively, with Tropical Storm Elsa becoming the earliest fifth-named storm on record when it formed on July 1. FILE – A jogger makes his way along Bayshore Blvd., in Tampa, Fla. as a wave breaks over a seawall, during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Elsa, July 7, 2021.Elsa killed one Florida resident, injured several people in Georgia, and damaged vehicles and buildings in several states.Drawing from 50 years of data, NOAA has found that early-season storm activity is not an indicator of the overall season, since most Atlantic storms form during the peak months of August, September and October. NOAA did not predict how many storms in the 2021 season would make landfall, but it encouraged residents in hurricane-prone areas to get prepared ahead of peak hurricane season, which begins in August. “Forecasters do anticipate that a busy hurricane season remains ahead. Now is the time to be vigilant about preparedness plans and potential actions,” Rosencrans said. “Regardless of your predicted activity, it does only take one storm to have catastrophic impacts on large communities.”
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USAID Head Says Ethiopia’s Humanitarian Situation Growing Worse
The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development highlighted what she called “desperate humanitarian needs that are growing even more acute with every passing day” during talks Wednesday with officials in Ethiopia.The United States, United Nations and others are calling for an end to the conflict in the Tigray region, which has caused tens of thousands of people to leave their homes and put millions in need of humanitarian aid.USAID leader Samantha Power cited “an alarming humanitarian catastrophe,” saying all parties involved should agree to an immediate cease-fire. She also said blockades have hindered distribution of aid, leading to supplies sitting in warehouses unable to reach those in need.“Humanitarian aid workers should be free to do their jobs and never be targeted, attacked, or harassed, and they should have unhindered access to the desperate Ethiopian people whose lives they are trying to save,” Power told reporters.When asked about comments made by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who described Tigrayan forces with words such as “weeds” and “cancer,” Power said she was concerned about such “dehumanizing rhetoric.”“Dehumanizing rhetoric of the kind that you referred to only hardens tensions and can, and historically, certainly, often accompanies ethnically-motivated atrocities,” Power said.She said she hopes a common shared goal is peace, and that there is no military solution to the conflict.“It’s extremely important that all parties involved in the conflict come to the table and move away from what is an increasingly ratcheted up set of accusations and counter accusations and focus instead on the dialogue that is going to be needed for an inclusive peace and an end to the suffering of civilians,” Power said.
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As COVID Surges in Japan, Some See Indirect Olympics Link
Just days after the Tokyo Olympics began, Japan started to see a sharp increase in coronavirus cases. On Thursday, the country topped 15,000 confirmed daily infections for the first time. Medical experts are now debating whether and to what extent the Games are to blame for the outbreak, which officials warn is “extremely severe.”Protesters demonstrate in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo, Aug. 2, 2021. They were protesting against the Olympics and Paralympics held during the pandemic.Olympics organizers insist there is no link between the Games and the spike in cases. So far, only 353 Olympic-related individuals have tested positive. All visiting Olympics personnel, most of whom are vaccinated, are subject to a protective bubble meant to limit their interactions with the public.Many Japanese medical experts are not so confident about that assessment though. The main problem is not so much the Olympic bubble, they say, as it is the very presence of the Olympics themselves, which have sent mixed messages and weakened public vigilance.“I don’t think that the infections [of Olympics-related personnel] are directly related to the rapid spread of infections at all. But I think the fact the Olympics are being held has impacted people’s awareness,” Shigeru Omi, the government’s top medical advisor, told lawmakers this week.Japanese officials for weeks have warned residents to stay home and watch the Games on television, especially since fans are banned from nearly all events. That message has fallen flat for many Japanese, however, who can still be seen gathering in public places in Tokyo and elsewhere. “Many Japanese people find it ridiculous to follow orders to stay home. Japanese people don’t understand why they should stay home even though the Olympics are being held,” Norio Sugaya, infectious disease expert and doctor at Keiyu Hospital in Yokohama, told VOA. Sugaya is one of many medical professionals who opposed holding the Olympic Games in Japan. In the leadup to the event, polls suggested most Japanese also did not want the Games to go ahead, although opposition softened as they approached.Journos with European media who are visiting Tokyo for #Olympics coverage were seen carousing on outside stairs of a hotel where they were staying, in a possible violation of media protocols https://t.co/dQlMkFZesa— Tomohiro Osaki (@jt_osaki) July 29, 2021Many Japanese media reports have focused on journalists and Olympics athletes who did not adhere to protective bubble guidelines. There have also been concerns the guidelines are inadequate. For instance, some Japanese volunteers and other staff work all day inside the bubble before returning home.That, plus local reporters are working alongside journos who just flew in yesterday. Plexiglass doesn’t stop covid from infecting the guy sitting right next to you if you’re together for 8 hours a day.— Grace Lee (@graceleenews) July 29, 2021Omi, though, says he sees “absolutely” no connection between the Olympics infections and Japan’s recent surge. The main cause of Japan’s COVID-19 surge is the appearance of the Delta variant, according to Sugaya, which is much more contagious and causes more serious illnesses.Even as Japan’s infection numbers surge, its number of deaths is still relatively low. The country has reported only around 10 deaths per day during the spike. However, the number of seriously ill patients has doubled over the past two weeks, officials say, potentially leading to overcrowded hospitals. Japanese officials recently announced they would focus on hospitalizing only those COVID-19 patients who are seriously ill or at risk of becoming so. Others, they say, should isolate themselves at home.The government also expanded a quasi state of emergency to eight new prefectures Thursday. Under Japan’s pandemic prevention measures, many types of dining establishments are requested — not forced — to close early and not serve alcohol. An increasing number of experts question whether more restrictions are needed until Japan’s vaccine effort can progress.Japan started slowly on vaccines but has recently sped up. According to official numbers Thursday, 32% of Japanese have been fully vaccinated, while 45% have received a single shot.
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Delta Variant Challenges China’s Costly Lockdown Strategy
The delta variant is challenging China’s costly strategy of isolating cities, prompting warnings that Chinese leaders who were confident they could keep the coronavirus out of the country need a less disruptive approach.As the highly contagious variant pushes leaders in the United States, Australia and elsewhere to renew restrictions, President Xi Jinping’s government is fighting the most serious outbreak since last year’s peak in Wuhan. The ruling Communist Party is reviving tactics that shut down China: Access to a city of 1.5 million people has been cut off, flights canceled, and mass testing ordered in some areas.That “zero tolerance” strategy of quarantining every case and trying to block new infections from abroad helped to contain last year’s outbreak and has kept China largely virus-free. But its impact on work and life for millions of people is prompting warnings that China needs to learn to control the virus without repeatedly shutting down the economy and society.Zhang Wenhong, a Shanghai doctor who became prominent during the Wuhan outbreak, suggested in a social media post that China’s strategy could change. “We will definitely learn more” from the ongoing outbreak, he said, calling it a stress test for the nation.“The world needs to learn how to coexist with this virus,” wrote Zhang, who has 3 million followers on the widely used Sina Weibo platform.China’s controls will be tested when thousands of athletes, reporters and others arrive for the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February. And the ruling party faces a politically sensitive change of leadership in late 2022, for which leaders want upbeat economic conditions.Last year, China shut down much of the world’s second-biggest economy and cut off almost all access to cities with a total of 60 million people — tactics imitated on a smaller scale by governments from Asia to the Americas. That caused China’s most painful economic contraction in five decades, but Beijing was able to allow business and domestic travel to resume in March 2020.The new infections, many in people who have already been vaccinated, have jolted global financial markets, which worry Beijing’s response might disrupt manufacturing and supply chains. The main stock indexes in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong sank Tuesday but were rising again Thursday.China needs to shift to creating barriers to infection within communities by stepping up vaccinations and quickly treating infected people while allowing business and travel to go ahead, said Xi Chen, a health economist at the Yale School of Public Health. He said country needs access to the full range of vaccines, including allowing in the shot developed by Germany’s BioNTech.“I don’t think ‘zero tolerance’ can be sustained,” said Chen. “Even if you can lock down all the regions in China, people might still die, and more might die due to hunger or loss of jobs.”But Beijing has shown no sign of abandoning its tactics.Disease controls must “be even faster, more firm, stricter, more expansive and ready,” He Qinghua, an official of the National Health Commission’s Disease Control Bureau, said at a news conference Saturday.The year’s biggest outbreak has tentatively been traced to airport employees who cleaned a Russian airliner on July 10 in Nanjing, northwest of Shanghai in Jiangsu province, according to health officials.Some travelers flew through Nanjing to Zhangjiajie, a popular tourist spot southwest of Shanghai in Hunan province, turning that city into a center for the virus’s spread. The disease was carried to Beijing and other cities in more than 10 provinces.On Tuesday, the government of Zhangjiajie announced no one was allowed to leave the city, imitating controls imposed on Wuhan, where the first virus cases were identified, and other cities last year.Flights to Nanjing and Yangzhou, a nearby city with 94 cases, were suspended. Trains from those cities and 21 others to Beijing were canceled. Jiangsu province set up highway checkpoints to test drivers. The government called on people in Beijing and the southern province of Guangzhou not to leave those areas if possible.In Yangzhou, children at two tutoring centers were quarantined after a classmate tested positive, according to Zhou Xiaoxiao, a university student there. She said some parts of the city were sealed.Eggs and some other food was scarce after shoppers cleared out supermarkets in anticipation of a lockdown, Zhou said. She said the government was delivering rice to households.“The price of vegetables has risen. That’s nothing to me. But to the kind of family whose life isn’t very good and who have no income, it’s very troublesome,” said Zhou, 20.The 1,142 infections reported since mid-July, many linked to Nanjing, are modest compared with tens of thousands of new daily infections in India or the United States. But they jolted leaders in China, which hasn’t recorded a fatality since early February.The outbreak poses “serious challenges to the country’s hard-won victory in the epidemic battle,” said the newspaper The Global Times, which is published by the ruling party’s People’s Daily.China has reported 4,636 deaths out of about 93,000 confirmed cases.So far, most of the people infected in Nanjing had been vaccinated, and few cases are severe, the head of the critical care unit at the hospital of the city’s Southeastern University, Yang Yi, told the Shanghai news outlet The Paper.She said that means “vaccines are protective” — though concerns remain that Chinese-made vaccines offer less protection than some others.Authorities have blamed Nanjing airport managers and local officials for failing to enforce safety rules and to detect infections for 10 days until July 20, after the virus spread.A 64-year-old woman who is believed to have carried the virus from Nanjing to Yangzhou was arrested Tuesday on charges of hindering disease prevention, police announced.Cleaning staff at Nanjing’s new international terminal mingled with co-workers in the domestic wing, when they should have been separated, according to news reports. The Russian flight was diverted due to bad weather from Shanghai, where airports are better equipped to handle foreign travelers.Still, the city of 9.3 million people is the second-biggest in eastern China after Shanghai and has more resources than many smaller cities.China needs to learn how to “allow the virus to exist” in areas with high vaccination rates and stronger health care, said Chen, the economist. He noted some areas have vaccinated at least 80% of adults.“I don’t think they are blind to this,” said Chen. “They should already be thinking about it.”
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App Helps Kenyans with Emergencies
As crime rates in Kenya shot up during the coronavirus pandemic, a Kenyan developer who was a crime victim himself created a mobile application to help people alert police about emergencies. The application has been so successful that Kenya’s police force has adopted it.At Kenya’s national police command and control center, officers are monitoring the movement of the public. While the technology helps in catching suspected criminals, the increase of crime during the pandemic is overwhelming this technology.But a mobile application created by a Kenyan developer Vincent Awino is helping to meet this challenge. Called “Upesy,” meaning “quick” in Swahili, Awino’s mobile app enables crime victims to raise alerts to police or security firms.“It’s on your phone, meaning it’s mobile,” Awino said. “The response comes to you anywhere you are. It’s not fixed because we have a large network of providers. All the user needs to do is go on the phone and trigger an alert or click the phone’s power button at least four times in order to get an emergency.”Kenyan authorities say some members of the public don’t report suspected criminals, fearing retaliation. But technology such as this can help apprehend criminals.“We endeavor to use technology to fight crime and any application that can assists in reporting track criminals will be implemented,” said Charles Koskei, deputy police spokesperson of Kenya’s police service. “Technology is key in fighting crime that’s why we are able to track some of the criminals.”Anthony Murithi, who lives with disabilities, is among the millions of Kenyans who could be targeted by criminals as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt livelihoods.“As a person with a disability, my security is to a large extent compromised,” he said. “I cannot put up a fight, so I need something that is going to give me … like to be there for me in case of any danger.”In a 2021 report, the United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice found that the pandemic is putting a strain on authorities’ capacity to detect, prevent and combat crime.Kenya’s security officials hope that technology will make a difference in crime prevention.
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More Than 40 Die in 2-Vehicle Collision in Mali
A deadly vehicle collision this week in the West African nation of Mali has been blamed on bad weather and the chronically poor state of the roads.Forty-one people were killed and 33 injured Tuesday when a passenger bus and a truck carrying agricultural goods collided in central Zambougou near the town of Segou.Diadji Sacko, the head of the National Agency for Road Safety, told VOA’s Bambara Service the accident occurred when one of the truck’s front tires blew out, causing it to crash into the passenger bus.The tragedy has also been blamed on heavy rains that left already dangerous roads wet and slippery, plus excessive speed.“Authorities need to find a solution to road accidents in Mali. Accidents kill more than coronavirus, malaria and every other disease,” said Rokya Coulibaly of Association of Families of Victims of Traffic Accidents. “There are too many funerals due to road accidents in Bamako. And there are too many people in Bamako who have a broken leg, who are handicapped and cannot take care of their families because of accidents.”Traveling by road is still the principal means of transport for people and goods in the landlocked Sahel nation of 20 million.The VOA Bambara Service contributed to this report, which includes some information from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Myanmar’s UN Representative Alleges Massacres by Military
Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations has sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres alleging a series of massacres by the military last month in the northwestern part of the country.Myanmar’s mission to the United Nations posted the letter, dated Tuesday, on its Facebook page.In the letter, Kyaw Moe Tun wrote that soldiers tortured and killed 16 men in a village in Kani township in early July, and that 10,000 people subsequently fled the area.Near the end of the month, Kyaw Moe Tun wrote, 13 bodies were found near Zee Pin Twin village after clashes between security forces and local fighters.Kyaw Moe Tun said 11 other people were killed and set on fire in Kyetchaung Taw Taik village.The ambassador represents Myanmar’s elected civilian government, which the military ousted in February. The military said it fired Kyaw Moe Tun, but the United Nations has not acknowledged the military takeover and he remains the country’s representative at the world body.Kyaw Moe Tun called on the U.N. Security Council and international community to impose an arms embargo on the military, writing in the letter to Guterres that it is “time to take decisive actions on this crisis with the urgency it deserves.”“There is no sign of easing atrocities, killing, arrest committed by the military,” Kyaw Moe Tun said. “We demand for urgent humanitarian intervention from the international community before it is too late.”Kyaw Moe Tun also said separately Wednesday that there was a reported threat against him, and that U.S. authorities had increased his security.Some information for this report came from AFP and Reuters.
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Why the Philippines Picked America Over China
The Philippine government’s decision to restore its Visiting Forces Agreement with the U.S. military after 18 months of threats to scrap it shows that Beijing had not delivered enough to the Southeast Asian country to sustain a friendship or excite common Filipinos, analysts say. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced July 29 during U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to Manila that he would continue the 22-year-old pact, commonly known as the VFA. Duterte had said since February 2020 that he planned to quit the deal.Philippines Says US Visiting Forces Agreement to Remain in EffectDuterte retracts termination letter sent last yearDuterte, who took office in 2016, had come to realize that China would not deliver on pledges made that year of $33 billion in aid and investment in the fast-growing, infrastructure-thirsty Southeast Asian archipelago, experts say. A flap in March and April over 220 Chinese boats moored off a reef that’s disputed by the two countries further upset officials in Manila, reminding them of a broader maritime sovereignty dispute with Beijing, analysts say. “Had China delivered more on its promises of infrastructure and investment, it could have given Duterte a more solid ground and a solid push to stay adamant on the VFA,” said Yun Sun, senior fellow and co-director of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington. “It is widely observed that the Chinese promises never really transpired for Duterte.” Just $4.7 billion of China’s pledges had reached Manila by early 2019, local media said that year.In Bid for Friendship Renewal, China Offers Philippines More Development MoneyFilipinos distrust China over a maritime sovereignty dispute and experts say Beijing just aiming for goodwill by offering to fund infrastructure projectsThe Visiting Forces Agreement provides for arms sales, intelligence exchanges and discussions on military cooperation. It allows U.S. troops access to Philippine soil for military exercises aimed at regional security and local humanitarian work. Those measures bolster a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the two countries. The United States had governed the Philippines for more than five decades before granting its independence after World War II. For Washington today, the Philippines represents one in a chain of Western Pacific allies that can work together to check Chinese maritime expansion. Duterte probably agreed to keep the military pact in view of the early 2022 presidential election, Sun said. He’s allowed just one six-year term in office, but domestic media reports say his daughter Sara Duterte wants to run for the office. Most Filipinos, including the armed forces, prefer the United States over China, Quezon City-based research organization Social Weather Stations has said, based on opinion polls since 2016. “I suspect his chief motivation in making peace with Washington, on his way out of office, is to cover himself politically at home should he ever want to run for anything again,” said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy in New York. Duterte, a long-time anti-U.S. firebrand, ordered an end to the military deal after the U.S. government canceled a visa for a Filipino senator and former police chief who was instrumental in a deadly anti-drug campaign that generated outrage abroad. Last year, Duterte indicated he favored relations with China and Russia. Sino-Philippine relations today hinge largely on competing claims in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea, which is rich in fisheries and undersea energy reserves. China has alarmed the Philippines among other Southeast Asian maritime claimant states over the past decade by landfilling islets for military installations. The Sino-Philippine dispute eased in 2016 after Manila won a world arbitral court ruling against Beijing’s maritime claims and Duterte pursued a new friendship with China. Earlier this year, the Philippine government approached Washington about renegotiating terms of the VFA. Officials in Manila wanted the pact to guarantee U.S. help in defending Philippine maritime claims, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. U.S. officials since the presidency of Barack Obama have made verbal commitments only, Araral said. “They always make assurances, but those assurances are not credible because they are not written in the VFA,” he said. “There’s got to be some clarity in the wording of the VFA itself.” The two sides did not indicate last week whether the agreement would be renegotiated. Chinese media, which had covered the U.S.-Philippine pact’s pending termination, have gone mostly quiet since July 29, Sun said. The official Xinhua news agency reported the VFA reapproval last month and noted that Manila’s plan to cancel it had been suspended three times. Beijing is disappointed now, Sun said, as it was trying to “drive a wedge” between the United States and its allies. Duterte’s salvaging of the agreement will help Washington coordinate allies in Asia, King said. “Keeping the Visiting Forces Agreement in place, along with re-upping U.S. defense burden-sharing deals with South Korea and Japan earlier this year, gives the sense that U.S. President (Joe) Biden is getting America’s friends and allies onside as we (U.S.) square off with Beijing for influence and position in the region,” King said.
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South Africa’s Cape Town Copes With Tens of Thousands of Active COVID Cases
South Africa’s Cape Town is struggling to cope with more than 38,000 active cases of COVID-19, making it the epicenter of the pandemic in Africa’s worst-hit country.The provincial chairman of the Democratic Nursing Organization of South AfrIca, Elenor Roberts, said medical staff members were under immense pressure.”As of now, the situation in our rural areas, it is dire,” because there are so many COVID patients who need attention and “so few staff to look after these patients,” Roberts said.She said there were about 13,000 nurses in Western Cape province, far too few to handle the workload.“Our members complained that they cannot take it,” Roberts said. “It is too much for them. There is not enough staff and there’s also not enough beds.” The result, she said, is that “they have to struggle to put the COVID patients away from the other patients.”She said she thought the vaccination drive underway in the country was helping to some extent.”I think the vaccinations in this case did help,” she said, but progress remained slow in Western Cape. As of last Thursday, she said, it was her understanding that less than 70 percent of nurses had been vaccinated, so “we are still are at a great risk.”The province’s premier, Alan Winde, is due to give an update on the situation at a digital news briefing Thursday.
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115 Killed in Military Crackdown in Nigeria: Amnesty
Amnesty International on Thursday accused Nigerian security forces of using excessive force and killing at least 115 people in a crackdown on separatist agitators in the country’s restive southeast.Violence has flared in Nigeria’s southeastern states this year, claiming the lives of at least 127 police or members of the security services, according to the police.Some 20 police stations and election commission offices have been attacked, according to local media.The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), an outlawed movement seeking independence for ethnic Igbo of the region, and its militant wing Eastern Security Network (ESN) have been blamed for the violence, but IPOB has denied the charges.Amnesty said that in response, security forces, including the military, police and the Department of State Services (DSS) intelligence agency have killed dozens of gunmen, as well as civilians, where attacks have taken place.”The evidence gathered by Amnesty International paints a damning picture of ruthless excessive force by Nigerian security forces in Imo, Anambra and Abia states,” said Osai Ojigho, the group’s Nigeria director.The global rights watchdog said it “documented at least 115 persons killed by security forces between March and June 2021.”The Nigerian police could not immediately respond to the allegations.”I have not seen the statement. So I cannot respond,” national police spokesperson Frank Mba told AFP.Arbitrary arrest, tortureAmnesty said relative of the victims told the rights group that they were not part of the militant groups who were attacking security agents.”Many of the victims were deposited at government hospitals in Imo and Abia state,” it said.Amnesty said it also documented cases of arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and torture in the restive region.It said that in May 2021, Imo state government announced the arrest of at least 400 people allegedly linked to the violence.”Amnesty International’s investigation indicates that most of them were randomly picked up in their homes and off the street and had nothing to do with ESN.”Local and international rights groups have repeatedly accused Nigerian security forces of rights abuses, but they always deny the charges.Nigeria has recently intensified a crackdown on separatist agitators, including the arrest and trial of their leaders.Last month, IPOB leader and founder Nnamdi Kanu was detained in Kenya, according to his lawyers, and brought back to Nigeria to face treason charges.Kanu’s IPOB is attempting to revive the now defunct Biafra Republic, a declaration of independence which led to a 30-month civil war between 1967 and 1970.More than 1 million people, mostly Igbo, were killed in the fighting or by starvation and disease.Another separatist leader, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, was arrested in neighboring Benin as he attempted to board a flight to Germany. He is currently detained in Benin awaiting extradition.Igboho is accused of calling for a separate homeland for Yoruba people of southwest Nigeria following alleged killings of locals by Fulani herders.President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani, is accused by some critics of favoring his northern kinsmen in appointments and other economic opportunities in Nigeria, fueling ethnic tensions in other regions.With a population of more than 210 million, Nigeria has more than 250 ethnic groups and is regularly rocked by ethnic tensions in different regions.The three largest groups are the Hausa-Fulani in the north, the Igbo in the southeast and the Yoruba in the southwest.
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Mexico Sues US Gun Manufacturers Over Arms Trafficking Toll
The Mexican government sued U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors Wednesday in U.S. federal court, arguing that their negligent and illegal commercial practices have unleashed tremendous bloodshed in Mexico.The unusual lawsuit was filed in Boston. Among those being sued are some of the biggest names in guns, including Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc.; Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc.; Beretta U.S.A. Corp.; Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC, and Glock Inc. Another defendant is Interstate Arms, a Boston-area wholesaler that sells guns from all but one of the named manufacturers to dealers around the U.S.The manufacturers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The Mexican government argues that the companies know that their practices contribute to the trafficking of guns to Mexico and facilitate it. Mexico wants compensation for the havoc the guns have wrought in its country.The Mexican government “brings this action to put an end to the massive damage that the defendants cause by actively facilitating the unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico,” the lawsuit said.Mexico’s figuresThe government estimates that 70% of the weapons trafficked to Mexico come from the U.S., according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and that in 2019 alone, at least 17,000 homicides were linked to trafficked weapons.The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the U.S. firearm industry’s trade association, said in a statement it rejected Mexico’s allegations of negligence.”These allegations are baseless. The Mexican government is responsible for the rampant crime and corruption within their own borders,” said Lawrence G. Keane, the group’s senior vice president and general counsel. The Mexican government is responsible for enforcing its laws, he said.FILE – A security guard stands outside the Glock Inc. headquarters in Smyrna, Ga., Oct. 8, 2014. Glock is one of the gunmakers Mexico sued on Aug. 4, 2021, in U.S. federal court.The group also took issue with Mexico’s figures for the number of guns recovered at crime scenes and traced back to the U.S. It said traces were attempted on only a small fraction of the recovered guns and only on the ones carrying a serial number, making them more likely to have originated in the U.S.Alejandro Celorio, legal adviser for the ministry, told reporters Wednesday that the damage caused by the trafficked guns would be equal to 1.7% to 2% of Mexico’s gross domestic product. The government will seek at least $10 billion in compensation, he said. Mexico’s GDP last year was more than $1.2 trillion.”We don’t do it to pressure the United States,” Celorio said. “We do it so there aren’t deaths in Mexico.”Goal: Reduce homicidesForeign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said the lawsuit was another piece of the government’s efforts against guns. “The priority is that we reduce homicides,” he said. “We aren’t looking to change American laws.”Mexico did not seek the advice of the U.S. government on the matter but advised the U.S. Embassy before filing the lawsuit.Steve Shadowen, the lead attorney representing Mexico, said that in the early 2000s, about 30 U.S. cities brought similar litigation against gun manufacturers, arguing that they should be responsible for increased police, hospitalization and other costs associated with gun violence.As some cities started winning, gun manufacturers went to Congress and got an immunity statute for the manufacturers. Shadowen said he believes that immunity doesn’t apply when the injury occurs outside the United States.”The merits of the case are strongly in our favor, and then we have to get around this immunity statute, which we think we’re going to win,” he said. “That statute just simply doesn’t apply. It only applies when you’re in the United States.”He said he believes it is the first time a foreign government has sued the gun manufacturers.Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California-Los Angeles and an expert on gun policy, called Mexico’s effort a “long shot.””It is a bold and innovative lawsuit,” he said. “We haven’t seen anything like this before. The gun manufacturers have enjoyed broad immunity from lawsuits for now two decades.”FILE – The Beretta U.S.A. facility is shown in Accokeek, Md., Aug. 4, 2014. Beretta is one of the U.S. gunmakers sued by Mexico on Aug. 4, 2021.He said he had not seen arguments that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act applies only to damages in the United States.The sale of firearms is severely restricted in Mexico and controlled by the Defense Department. But thousands of guns are smuggled into Mexico by the country’s powerful drug cartels.There were more than 36,000 murders in Mexico last year, and the toll has remained stubbornly high, despite President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pledge to pacify the country. Mexico’s nationwide murder rate in 2020 remained unchanged at 29 per 100,000 inhabitants. By comparison, the U.S. homicide rate in 2019 was 5.8 per 100,000.El Paso shootingIn August 2019, a gunman killed 23 people in an El Paso Walmart, including some Mexican citizens. At that time, Ebrard said the government would explore its legal options. The government said Wednesday that recent rulings in U.S. courts contributed to its decision to file the lawsuit.It cited a decision in California allowing a lawsuit against Smith & Wesson to move forward, a lawsuit filed last week against Century Arms related to a 2019 shooting in Gilroy, California, and the $33 million settlement reached by Remington with some of the families whose children were killed in the Newtown, Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in 2012.Winkler of UCLA mentioned the Sandy Hook lawsuit as one that initially few people thought would go anywhere.”The plaintiffs in that case made an innovative and bold argument, too,” he said. “They argued that the immunity statute does not prevent these gunmakers from being held liable where they act negligently.””Over the past year or so, we’ve seen some cracks in the immunity armor provided by federal law,” Winkler said. “Even if this lawsuit moves forward, it will be extremely difficult for Mexico to win because it will be hard to show that this distribution process or their distribution practices are a manifestation of negligence on the part of the gunmakers.”
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Sturgis Bike Rally Revs Back Bigger, Despite Virus Variant
Crowds of bikers are rumbling their way toward South Dakota’s Black Hills this week, raising fears that COVID-19 infections will be unleashed among the 700,000 people expected to show up at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The rally, which starts Friday, has become a haven for those eager to escape coronavirus precautions. Last year, the rally hardly slowed down, with roughly 460,000 people attending. Masks were mostly ditched as bikers crowded into bars, tattoo parlors and rock shows, offering a lesson in how massive gatherings could spread waves of the virus across the country. This year — the 81st iteration of the rally — is expected to be even bigger, drawing people from around the U.S. and beyond, despite concerns about the virus’ highly contagious delta variant. “It’s great to see a party of hundreds of thousands of people,” said Zoltán Vári, a rallygoer who was settling into his campsite Tuesday after making the trek from Hungary. He was eager to return to riding a Harley-Davidson through the Black Hills after missing last year. Vári evaded U.S. tourism travel restrictions on Europe by spending two weeks in Costa Rica before making his way to South Dakota. He hopes 1 million people will show up. Typical attendance is around a half a million. FILE – People congregate at One-Eyed Jack’s Saloon during the 80th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, S.D., Aug. 7, 2020.The city of Sturgis, usually a sleepy community of under 7,000, tried to tamp things down last year, canceling most city-sponsored events and promotion, but hordes of bikers showed up anyway. “The rally is a behemoth, and you cannot stop it,” said Carol Fellner, a local who worried that this year’s event would cause a fresh outbreak of cases. “I feel absolutely powerless.” This year, the city is embracing the crowds. Republican Governor Kristi Noem has given the rally her blessing and will appear in a charity ride. The event is a boon for tourism, powering over $800 million in sales, according to the state Department of Tourism. The rally is happening as other giant summer events — from state fairs to music festivals like Lollapalooza — are returning around the U.S. In Wisconsin, health officials say nearly 500 coronavirus cases may be linked to the crowds that attended Milwaukee Bucks games or gathered outside the team’s arena — estimated as high as 100,000 one night — during their push to the NBA championship. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally’s defenders argue open air is plentiful on the meandering highways and in the campgrounds where many bikers stay, but contact tracers last year reported 649 virus cases from every corner of the country linked to the rally, including one death. A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded in a published study that the 2020 rally “had many characteristics of a superspreading event.” Rallygoers reasoned that after years of riding Harleys, the coronavirus was just another risk. Five motorcycle riders were killed in crashes during the 2020 rally, and one fatal crash has already been reported this year. The attitude was summed up on a T-shirt sold last year: “Screw COVID. I went to Sturgis.” FILE – Fans attend a performance by Saul at the Iron Horse Saloon during the 80th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, in Sturgis, S.D., Aug. 14, 2020.But public health experts warned the massive gathering revved the virus far beyond those who chose to attend. One team of economists argued that the rally set off a chain reaction that resulted in 250,000 cases nationwide. However, that paper was not peer-reviewed and was criticized by some top epidemiologists — as well as some bikers — for overestimating the rally’s impact. While it’s not clear how many cases can be blamed on last year’s rally, it coincided with the start of a sharp increase across the Great Plains that ultimately crescendoed in a deadly winter. The gathering could potentially power a fresh wave of infections like the one that is currently shattering hospitalization records in parts of the South, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. “I understand how people want to move on from this pandemic — God knows I want to — but the reality is you can’t ignore it,” he said. “You can’t just tell the virus you’re done with it.” The current rate of cases in South Dakota is roughly half of what it was in the days leading up to last year’s rally. Deaths have also dropped significantly. COVID-19 vaccines provide hope the rally won’t set off virus spread, but it’s not clear how many in the Sturgis crowd have received a shot. Unlike events like Lollapalooza that required attendees to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test, precautions at Sturgis are minimal and optional. The biggest step the city has taken was to allow rallygoers to drink on public property, reasoning it will spread the bacchanalia into the open air. Only about 46% of adults in the county that hosts Sturgis are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, compared with 60.6% nationwide. Vaccination rates were similarly low in the five counties where most 2020 rallygoers hailed from, according to an analysis of cellphone data from the Center for New Data. Only one — Maricopa County, Arizona — has cracked 50%. Campbell County in Wyoming, has the lowest rate, at just 27%. Vári, the biker from Hungary, said he’s been fully vaccinated — but only because he falsely thought he needed proof of vaccination to get into the U.S. “Sturgis or bust,” he wrote on Facebook.
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Samoa Election Seen as Setback to China’s Pacific Ambitions
China’s diplomatic and strategic expansion into the South Pacific appears to have run aground – at least temporarily – in Samoa, where a Beijing-allied leader has been defeated in a history-making election.A three-month constitutional crisis was resolved in late July, when Samoa’s Supreme Court declared the office of prime minister had been rightfully won by the nation’s first female chief executive, 64-year-old Fiame Naomi Mata’afa.Among the top issues in the election, which narrowly unseated long-serving Prime Minister Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, was a pledge by Fiame to reconsider a Beijing-financed deal for a major expansion of the island’s seaport at Vaiusu Bay.FILE – This picture released by the Samoa Observer on July 27, 2021, shows Samoa’s new Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa holding her cabinet’s first meeting at the Government Building in Apia.Making good on her promise, Fiame promptly announced that she was shelving the $100 million project, saying the proposed expansion exceeded Samoa’s needs and would leave it with too much debt.The decision will send ripples far beyond the island republic of just over 200,000 people, according to James Fanell, former director of intelligence for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, who sees it disrupting Beijing’s efforts to woo island nations that recognize Taiwan at the United Nations and expand the reach of Beijing’s fast-growing navy.Reversal of trend“It reverses the trend of nations in the South Pacific aligning with the [People’s Republic of China], which Beijing had built up before COVID-19 in nations like Kiribati and the Solomon Islands that both switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the PRC [in 2019],” Fanell said in an interview.“The reversal of fortunes in Samoa could be a harbinger of more nations reversing course and rejecting the debt-trap model” offered by Beijing, he said.Fanell said the decision also portends “a delay or disruption” of Beijing’s SamoaCharles Edel, who served on the U.S. secretary of state’s policy planning staff from 2015 to 2017, said Fiame’s election also marked a political setback for Beijing, which had used its financial muscle to try to bolster the incumbent.”The idea that in the weeks before the election Beijing attempted to boost the incumbent’s political fortunes by rolling out a package of economic inducements, including refurbishment of a port at one-third of the cost and dangling a number of other strategic partnerships, seems to have had the opposite effect,” Edel told VOA.China’s aggressive economic expansion and “wolf warrior” diplomacy are increasingly rattling its Asian neighbors. At the same time, Edel said, “countries’ relations with China are becoming an election issue,” with voters scrutinizing leaders who are too close to Beijing.Plans snaggedThat in turn complicates China’s efforts to marginalize Taiwan at the U.N. by getting more small countries to abandon diplomatic relations with Taipei.“Beijing’s growing focus on the Pacific islands in recent years is directly related to its effort to erode and complicate the U.S. military presence and political influence in the region,” said J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based analyst.“This focus is also related to ongoing tensions with Taiwan, which counts among Pacific island nations [nearly] one-third of the number of countries that have official diplomatic ties with it,” he told VOA.FILE – Samoa’s then-prime minister, Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Sept. 18, 2018.Chinese leader Xi Jinping has visited Pacific island nations twice since he became top leader in 2013, highlighting the level of attention his government gives to the region.Despite the setback in Samoa, Edel cautioned that the Pacific is vast, and given what he described as China’s “fluid and opportunistic” approach, Beijing will attempt to exploit other targets and opportunities.China’s strategyHe said China tends to carve out strategic advantages overseas through “incremental advances calculated not to trigger a significant response and actions intended to remain ambiguous until they are presented as a fait accompli.”“Beijing’s playbook in each case involves investment in a country’s critical infrastructure, acquisition of a significant piece of waterfront territory by a Chinese company, and assertions by Chinese officials that the activity is purely commercial or humanitarian,” he told VOA.“In actuality, the denials typically precede future actions toward Beijing’s true aims,” which are “military, political and economic,” he said.FILE – A worker holds a new officially approved map of China that includes the islands and maritime area that Beijing claims in the South China Sea, in May 2019 at a printing factory in Changsha in south China’s Hunan province.Edel said it helps to understand Beijing’s strategy in the South Pacific by examining what it has done closer to home in the South China Sea.“If you look through the lens of how Beijing operated in the South China Sea, their forceful seizure of land, buildup of facilities and militarization of those features with the deployment of military assets were intended to cast a threatening shadow over Southeast Asia’s politics and increase risks to the United States’ ability to access the region,” he said.”Similarly, if you begin having Chinese military facilities in some Pacific islands, that complicates the military planning, logistical staging needed for the United States to access the region. And it would be hard to imagine a Chinese military positioned across the Pacific that doesn’t shape the region’s politics.”Samoa, meanwhile, can be expected to present a new, highly independent face to its South Pacific neighbors, according to Cleo Paskal, an associate fellow at London-based Chatham House and a nonresident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies headquartered in Washington.Paskal told VOA that Fiame is “strong, independent, and she cares about her country and her people. She will stand up to Beijing. And for the same reasons she will also stand up to [New Zealand] and [Australia] when their plans for Samoa don’t align with hers.”The best thing for everyone in the region, Paskal said, is “strong, independent leaders who care about their people and countries and who align [with democratic nations] out of choice to make the region more secure and prosperous for all.”
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WHO: Health Care Under Siege in Areas of Conflict
The World Health Organization says more than 700 health care workers and patients were killed, more than 2,000 injured, and hundreds of health facilities destroyed in countries of conflict between 2018 and 2020.A three-year analysis was carried out in 17 conflict-ridden countries and territories, including Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria, Mozambique, the occupied Palestinian territories, and Myanmar.New data show that health care continues to be under attack. So far this year, the World Health Organization has recorded 588 incidents in 14 countries with emergencies, causing 114 deaths and 278 injuries of health care workers and patients. The WHO’s director of health emergencies interventions, Altaf Musani, says the impact of those health care attacks goes well beyond claiming lives. He says the ramifications are significant and alarming, especially considering the ongoing COVID-19 response. “Their impact reverberates on health care workers’ mental health and willingness to report to work, equally, on communities’ willingness to seek health care, and also drastically reduces resources for responding to a health crisis, amongst others,” Musani said. Musani says the ripple effect of a single incident is huge and has a long-lasting impact on the system at large. When health facilities are destroyed, he says, they need to be rebuilt. When health care workers are killed or wounded, he says a vital work force must be reinforced. Building back those vital systems, he says, requires years of costly investment, years in which people in need are underserved.“During the pandemic, more than ever, health care workers must be protected, must be respected,” Musani said. “Hospitals and health care facilities, including the transportation of ambulances should not be used for military purposes. Essential conditions for the continued delivery of vital health care must be given the necessary space.” Musani notes any reduction in capacity will interrupt services and deprive vulnerable communities of urgent care. The WHO is calling on all parties in conflicts to ensure safe working spaces for the delivery of health care services. It says people caught in emergency situations must be able to safely access care, free from violence, threat, or fear.
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Explainer: Fast-track Deportation at US-Mexico Border
Amid continuing chaos along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Biden administration has opted to retain a controversial policy that allows rapid expulsion of migrants from the U.S. The policy, first implemented by the former Trump administration, stems from a public health mandate imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.Migrants are fast-tracked for removal if U.S. immigration officers conclude they do not have a valid asylum claim, a determination made without migrants appearing before an immigration judge. Unaccompanied children who cross the border into the United States are exempted from the policy.FILE – A Texas Department of Public Safety officer directs a group of migrants who crossed the border and turned themselves in, in Del Rio, Texas, June 16, 2021.Is this a new process? No. Congress passed a law on expedited removals in 1996, and by 2004, the federal government had significantly increased its use. For the past 17 years, FILE – Asylum-seeking migrant families from Guatemala and Honduras arrive at the U.S. side of the bank on an inflatable raft after crossing the Rio Grande River into the United States from Mexico in Roma, Texas, July 28, 2021.Has there been reaction to the Biden administration’s retention of the policy? Yes. While U.S. authorities defend the policy as a practical necessity, immigration rights advocates accuse the administration of abandoning its human rights obligations.”Expedited removal should not be used under any circumstances. The risk of getting it wrong is simply too high. If the administration insists on use of this archaic black box of a process, there must be adequate protections in place, which have not been accounted for under the recent announcement,” said Gracie Willis, attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, in a press call.At a recent press briefing, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, “It’s [Title 42] rooted in preventing the introduction of contagious diseases into the interior of the United States.”She added that U.S. health authorities had not lifted the measure, “because they feel there is an ongoing threat.”
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China Lodges Protest With BBC Over Flood Reporting
China has lodged a stern representation with Britain’s BBC about its reporting of the floods in Henan and its statement on how foreign journalists were being treated, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.The head of communications for the BBC World Service declined to comment.The broadcaster had said in a statement last month that the Chinese government should take immediate action to stop attacks that endanger foreign journalists.The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China had said journalists from several media outlets covering the floods were harassed online and by local residents. Some journalists received death threats, it said.”The BBC statement is inverting black and white,” China’s foreign ministry said on its official website.It said the BBC reports on the Henan floods were an attack on the Chinese government, and were “prejudiced,” without giving further details.The death toll from last month’s floods in Henan rose to 302 as of Monday, officials said, triple the figure of 99 that was reported last week, with most of the fatalities reported in the provincial capital, Zhengzhou.
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Slain Pentagon Police Officer Identified as Army Veteran
U.S. authorities on Wednesday identified the Pentagon police officer stabbed to death at a transit station outside the building the day before and were digging into the background of the troubled attacker, who also died at the scene.The Pentagon Force Protection Agency said the officer was George Gonzalez, a New York native and Army veteran who served in Iraq before joining the police force three years ago.Law enforcement authorities identified his attacker as Austin William Lanz, 27, of the southern state of Georgia. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington Field Office tweeted that Lanz “exited a bus at the Pentagon Transit Center in Arlington, VA, and immediately, without provocation, attacked @PFPAOfficial Officer George Gonzalez with a knife, severely wounding him.” At approximately 10:40 a.m. on Tuesday, August 3, an individual exited a bus at the Pentagon Transit Center in Arlington, VA, and immediately, without provocation, attacked @PFPAOfficial (PFPA) Officer George Gonzalez with a knife, severely wounding him.— FBI Washington Field (@FBIWFO) August 4, 2021The FBI tweeted that “a struggle ensued, in which the subject mortally wounded Officer Gonzalez and then shot himself with the officer’s service weapon. Other PFPA officers engaged the subject, who ultimately died at the scene.” A civilian bystander was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released. The FBI said the investigation was continuing.A civilian bystander, who was also injured during the incident, was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and later released. The FBI Washington Field Office responded to the incident, along with the PFPA, @MetroTransitPD , and the @ArlingtonVaPD.— FBI Washington Field (@FBIWFO) August 4, 2021Lanz enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in October 2012 but was “administratively separated” less than a month later and never earned the title Marine, the corps said in a statement.In April, Lanz was arrested in Cobb County, Georgia, on criminal trespassing and burglary charges, according to online court records. Records show he was facing other charges in a separate case, including two counts of aggravated battery on police.Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed his condolences about the police officer’s death and said flags at the Pentagon would be flown at half-staff.”This fallen officer died in the line of duty, helping protect the tens of thousands of people who work in — and who visit — the Pentagon on a daily basis,” Austin said in a statement.”This tragic death is a stark reminder of the dangers they face and the sacrifices they make. We are forever grateful for that service and the courage with which it is rendered.”
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Microsoft Is Latest Large US Employer to Require COVID-19 Vaccinations
Computer giant Microsoft became the latest large employer to require workers to provide proof of a coronavirus vaccination before entering its offices in the United States.The Seattle Times reported the Redmond, Washington, company sent an email to its employees Tuesday, saying it would have a process to accommodate those employees who have medical conditions or other reasons that might prevent them from getting vaccinated.The company also said it was pushing back the return of employees to the office by nearly a month, to October. 4. It said caregivers of people who are immunosuppressed or parents of children who are too young to receive vaccines could work from home until January. Microsoft has about 100,000 U.S. employees.Microsoft is following the lead of other major U.S. employers requiring vaccinations for their employees. Tuesday, Tyson Foods, the biggest U.S. food company, said it was requiring all its employees to be fully vaccinated.The federal government said in May it was legal for employers to require their workers to get vaccinated.Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Future Is Uncertain for Afghan Women, Children
US troops are nearing completion of a withdrawal from Afghanistan. Experts say Afghan women and children face a perilous future. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.Producer: Arash Arabasadi. Camera: VOA Afghan Service.
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Britain’s Top General Calls for Retaliation on Iran for Drone Strike
Britain’s top military commander, General Nick Carter, said Wednesday that Western powers need to retaliate for a suspected Iranian drone strike on an oil tanker, which killed a British security guard and the ship’s Romanian captain — otherwise Tehran will feel emboldened.Speaking to the BBC, Carter, chief of the British Defense Staff, said if a regime of deterrence is not restored in the Gulf, there will be more attacks and a higher risk of “miscalculation” by Iran. “What we need to be doing, fundamentally, is calling out Iran for its very reckless behavior,” he said.FILE – Britain’s Chief of Defense Staff General Nick Carter speaks during a remote press conference, inside 10 Downing Street in central London, April 22, 2020, in this handout image released by 10 Downing Street.Iran has vehemently denied playing any role in the July 29 drone strike on the MV Mercer Street off the coast of Oman. The vessel is Japanese-owned but managed by London-based firm Zodiac Maritime, which in turn is owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. The British government and the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden have accused Iran of being behind the deadly drone strike with Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, labeling it “unlawful and callous.”FILE – Britain’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Dominic Raab walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain, Feb. 3, 2021.Earlier this week, he added, “We believe this attack was deliberate, targeted and a clear violation of international law by Iran. Iran must end such attacks, and vessels must be allowed to navigate freely in accordance with international law.” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday there was “no justification for this attack, which follows a pattern of attacks and other belligerent behavior,” adding, the U.S. is “confident” Iran carried out the attack, using multiple drones. The Israeli government Wednesday publicly accused an Iranian military officer, Saeed Ara Jani, of overseeing the strike, alleging Ara Jani heads the Revolutionary Guards’ drone unit. “For the first time ever, I will also expose the man who is directly responsible for the launch of suicide UAVs [unmanned vehicles] — his name is Saeed Ara Jani,” Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said.”The UAV command conducted the attack on the Mercer Street. Saeed Ara Jani plans and provides the training and equipment to conduct terror attacks in the region,” Gantz added in a briefing to ambassadors from member states of the U.N. Security Council.Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, described “as totally suspicious the reports of successive security incidents involving vessels in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman” and warned “against any effort to create a vicious atmosphere to pursue certain political goals.”In a tweet, he reaffirmed Iran’s “strong commitment to regional stability & maritime security,” and said, “Iran stands ready to offer assistance in case of any maritime accidents.”The drone strike blasted a hole in the oil tanker’s bridge when the vessel was 159 kilometers from Al Duqm port in Oman, according to British and U.S. officials, who say they are coordinating a possible response to the assault. What form the retaliation will take or when is not clear.FILE – The Liberian-flagged oil tanker Mercer Street is seen off Cape Town, South Africa, Jan. 2, 2016.In his interview with the BBC, Carter said, “We have got to restore deterrence because it is behavior like that which leads to escalation, and that could very easily lead to miscalculation and that would be very disastrous for all the peoples of the Gulf and the international community.”Carter’s remarks came as Iranian hijackers were accused of boarding another oil tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday before leaving the vessel 24 hours later, Britain’s Royal Navy reported.Britain is due to raise the issue of the Mercer Street incident formally at a U.N. Security Council meeting scheduled for Friday. Raab tweeted that the U.K. has written to U.N. Security Council President T.S. Tirimurti, alongside Romania and Liberia, “to raise Iran’s attack on MV Mercer Street.” He added, “The Council must respond to Iran’s destabilizing actions and lack of respect for international law.”Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday said during a Cabinet meeting, “We know, at any rate, how to convey the message to Iran in our own way.”The U.S. State Department initially said the attack involved “one-way explosive UAVs,” otherwise known as suicide drones. Previously, shipping attacks in the Gulf have more often than not involved limpet mines, which can be placed on the hull of a target vessel. The switch in tactics is being seen by Western diplomats and Israeli defense experts as a major escalation in a shadow war between Iran and Israel.Israeli Defense Minister Gantz on Monday accused Iran of intensifying aggression in the Gulf. He told the Knesset, or parliament, that there are ”hundreds of Iranian UAVs in Iran, Yemen, Iraq and other countries.” He added, “We will act to remove any such threat.”
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Maryland Promises Full Scholarship to Teenagers Who Get Vaccinated
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan recently announced that 20 teenagers who get vaccinated against the coronavirus will be eligible to receive a full ride to an in-state public university. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.Camera: Anatolie Casenco
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