Jessie Fleming scored a second-half penalty as Canada upset four-time Olympic women’s football champions the United States 1-0 in Kashima on Monday to reach the final for the first time.Fleming’s 74th-minute spot-kick earned Canada a first win over their neighbors since 2001 and set up a clash with Sweden or Australia for the gold medal.Defeat ended the Americans’ 36-match unbeaten run against Canada. The world champions will face the losers of Monday’s second semi-final for the consolation of a bronze medal.The US and Canada combined for seven goals the last time they met at the Olympics; a memorable 4-3 semi-final win for the US after extra time at Old Trafford in 2012.US goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, the hero of their quarter-final win over the Dutch on penalties, required lengthy treatment here to her right knee after landing awkwardly while trying to collect a cross.Naeher, who saved a spot-kick in normal time and two more in the shootout against the 2019 World Cup runners-up, briefly battled on but was eventually replaced by Adrianna Franch in the first half.It wasn’t until the introduction of Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and Christen Press on the hour that the US recorded a first shot on target, a curling strike from Lloyd tipped over by Stephanie Labbe.Labbe stopped two as Canada edged Brazil on penalties in the previous round, and she produced another sharp save to keep out Julie Ertz’s header at a corner.The US had advanced to every Olympic final aside from at Rio 2016, where they lost to Sweden on penalties in the last eight.Yet they had won just once in four matches over 90 minutes in Japan and fell behind when Canada was awarded a penalty following a VAR review.Deanne Rose put Tierna Davidson under pressure and the Canadian went sprawling after a tangle of legs, with the referee pointing the spot after consulting the pitchside monitor.Fleming tucked the resulting penalty beyond Franch, and there would be no comeback from the Americans — Lloyd’s header clipping the bar in the final minutes as their Olympics came to a tame end.
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Month: August 2021
Australian Military Joins COVID-19 Lockdown Enforcement in Sydney
The Australian military began helping to enforce Australia’s strictest COVID-19 lockdown Monday, as a surge in delta variant cases in Sydney continued to cause problems. About 300 troops have been sent to Australia’s largest city to help overstretched police monitor home quarantine for coronavirus patients, and potentially set up roadblocks. The troops will help the police on a door-to-door search to check if people who have contracted COVID are isolating, police commissioner Mick Fuller told reporters during a press conference. Senior officials have said the soldiers will not be armed, and do not have special enforcement authority, but will be assisting the police. However, counsellors have said that the sight of the military in multicultural areas of Sydney could be distressing for some refugees and migrants. Carmen Lazar is a manager at the Assyrian Resource Centre in the Fairfield district of the city.Police look to stop an anti-lockdown protest as a COVID-19 outbreak affects Sydney, July 31, 2021.“It is not acceptable because (there) are people who have come from torture and trauma countries (where), you know, the government officials have always been intimidating and especially the police. You know, having the military patrolling a large multicultural community in south-western Sydney I do not think is ideal for these people because they have not committed any crime,” Lazar said.Sydney’s lockdown is scheduled to end on August 28, but delta variant infections continue to increase. The stay-at-home orders are the strictest imposed in Australia since the pandemic began. The orders also apply to regions to the north, south and west of Australia’s most populous city. Monday, authorities announced 207 new infections in the past 24-hours. A record number of 117,000 COVID-19 tests were also carried out in the same period. A lockdown in southeast Queensland, including the state capital Brisbane, has been extended until Sunday as authorities try to contain a delta outbreak. Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young is pleading for residents to stay at home. “This outbreak, unfortunately, is escalating, but I am very confident that with the strategies we have in place in Queensland, and with the cooperation of every single Queenslander, we will get through it. Do not leave home. We know that the delta variant of the virus is totally unforgiving. It really and truly spreads so rapidly,” Young said.Australia has recorded about 34,000 coronavirus infections and 924 deaths since the pandemic began. Just 19% of the population have been fully vaccinated.
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South Korea Seeks to Improve Ties Despite North’s Threat
South Korea said Monday it will keep pushing to improve ties and resume talks with rival North Korea, despite the North’s threat to rekindle animosities if Seoul holds its summertime military drills with the United States. On Sunday night, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned the drills would seriously undermine efforts to restore mutual trust between the Koreas and becloud prospects for better ties if the training is launched as scheduled this month. Her statement raised a question about the sincerity of North Korea’s recent decision to reopen long-stalled communication channels with South Korea. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Monday the exact timing, size and other details of the drills haven’t been fixed and that they were the issues that must be determined by South Korean and U.S. authorities. Spokesman Boo Seung-Chan repeated his previous statement that Seoul and Washington are examining factors like the pandemic’s current status, diplomat efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and South Korea-U.S. military readiness. Lee Jong-joo, a spokeswoman at the Unification Ministry, said Seoul views the communication channels’ restoration as a starting point for restoring long-suspended ties between the Koreas. She said Seoul will steadily seek to resume talks with North Korea, but without haste. North Korea sees regular military drills between South Korea and the United States as an invasion rehearsal and often responds them with its own weapons tests. In the past few years, however, South Korea and the U.S. have canceled or downsized some of their training to support the now-dormant diplomacy on ending the North Korean nuclear crisis or because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Inter-Korean ties flourished after North Korea reached out to South Korea and the United States in 2018 for talks on its nuclear program. North Korea later cut off ties with South Korea after its larger nuclear diplomacy with the United States stalled in 2019. Last Tuesday, the two Koreas restored their phone and fax lines after a 13-month hiatus, raising hopes of improved ties between the divided Koreas. But some experts say North Korea merely aims to use South Korea to let it convince the United States to make concessions before and when the stalled North Korea-U.S. nuclear diplomacy resumes eventually.
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More Than 700 Saved From Mediterranean This Weekend, Aid Group Says
Rescue ships picked up more than 700 people trying to cross the Mediterranean in makeshift vessels this weekend, mainly off the coasts of Libya and Malta, a migrant aid group said Sunday.The latest figures came as United Nations migration officials repeated their calls for a fairer mechanism to share the responsibility of caring for them, rather than leaving it to the Mediterranean countries.SOS Mediterranee said that its vessel, the Ocean Viking, had carried out six operations in international waters since Saturday. In the last intervention, it rescued 106 people off the Maltese coast after being alerted by German aid group Sea Watch, said the Marseille-based organization.”The youngest survivor rescued in this operation is just 3 months old,” SOS Mediterranee tweeted.Overnight Saturday to Sunday, the Ocean Viking joined vessels from Sea Watch and ResQship, another German group, to help 400 people in difficulty in the central Mediterranean, said the group.They were rescued from a vessel that was taking on water, in what a spokesman for the organization told AFP was a particularly perilous operation.Those who were rescued were shared out between the Ocean Viking and Sea-Watch3.Ocean Viking alone has 555 passengers on board from this weekend’s operations, including at least 28 women, two of whom are pregnant. The organization has yet to determine at which safe port they will be able to leave them.Libya remains one of the main departure points for tens of thousands of migrants hoping to attempt the dangerous Mediterranean crossing, despite the continuing insecurity in the country. Most of them try to reach the Italian coast, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) away.Celine Schmitt, the spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ French operation, said last month there was an urgent need for an automatic system to share the new arrivals between countries, to ensure them a better reception, and not leave it to Mediterranean countries to assume sole responsibility.”If we look at the central Mediterranean, last year, there were fewer than 50,000 people who arrived,” she said.”It is totally manageable for the European population,” when you consider there are 82 million people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes, Schmitt said.International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Paul Dillon took a similar position last week.”By advocating for better migration management practices, better migration governance and greater solidarity from EU member states, we can come up with a clear, safe and humane approach to this issue that begins with saving lives at sea,” he said.The central Mediterranean crossing, between Libya and Italy or Malta, is by far the deadliest in the world, according to figures from the IOM.Of the 1,113 deaths recorded in the Mediterranean in the first half of this year, 930 of them were recorded there.Nevertheless, according to the latest IOM figures, increasing numbers of migrants have attempted the crossing this year.
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Britain to Offer COVID-19 Booster Shots This Fall
Britain will begin offering a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to 32 million Britons starting in early September, The Telegraph reported Sunday. The shots will be available in as many as 2,000 pharmacies with the goal of getting them into arms by early December.
The government has been preparing since at least June, when the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) called for a plan to offer the third shot to people 70 years old or older, care home residents and those who are vulnerable for health reasons.
At least 90% of British adults have received at least one shot, but that rate falls to 60% for those 18-30 years old, government figures show.
To encourage younger adults to get vaccinated before colder weather prompts people to spend more time indoors, the Department of Health and Social Care said that restaurants, food delivery services and ride-hailing apps are offering discounts to persuade people to be vaccinated.
“The lifesaving vaccines not only protect you, your loved ones and your community, but they are helping to bring us back together by allowing you to get back to doing the things you’ve missed,” Health Secretary Sajid Javid said, according to the Associated Press.
British Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton, who tested positive for COVID-19 in December, said he may be suffering its effects after appearing unwell Sunday after finishing second at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
“I’ve been fighting all year really with staying healthy after what happened at the end of last year and it’s still, it’s a battle,” the 36-year-old said after seeing a doctor after the race. “I haven’t spoken to anyone about it but I think (the effects of COVID are) lingering. I remember the effects of when I had it and training has been different since then.”
In Berlin, thousands marched Sunday to protest pandemic restrictions and about 600 protesters were detained after clashes with police, the AP reported.Police officers scuffle with demonstrators during a protest against government measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, in Berlin, Germany Aug. 1, 2021.While Germany eased many of its restrictions in May, large gatherings remain banned. The number of new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, remain low but are rising. Germany, with a population of 83 million, reported 2,100 new cases Sunday, more than 500 above last Sunday’s number.
Since the pandemic began, it has reported 3.8 million cases and 92,000 deaths.
More than 200 employees at two major hospitals in San Francisco, in the western U.S. state of California, have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a report Saturday in The New York Times.
Most of the staff members at Zuckerberg San Francisco General and the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center Hospital were fully vaccinated and most of them tested positive for the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus, according to the newspaper.
Only two cases required hospitalization. The hospitalization rate would have been higher without vaccinations, said Dr. Lukejohn Day, Zuckerberg’s chief medical officer.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said Sunday evening there are 198 million cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 4.2 million deaths globally. The U.S. leads the world in the number of COVID-19 cases, with 35 million, and 613,174 deaths, according to the university.
Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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US Officials Debate Mask, Vaccine Mandates as Delta Variant Surges
With the delta variant of the coronavirus spreading in the United States, officials are instituting new mask guidance and some employers and even restaurants are requiring proof of vaccination. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Mary Cieslak
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US Military Targets Al-Shabab in Somalia With More Airstrikes
The United States military has confirmed that it carried out another airstrike against al-Shabab militants, its third in less than two weeks.
Sunday’s strike was in support of Somali government forces in the vicinity of Qeycad, in the central Galmudug state, according to the U.S. military.
The Somali government earlier reported the strike was in an area where federal and U.S.-trained forces were fighting the militants. There was no word on whether militants were injured or killed.
“This is another major blow to al-Shabab’s means to wage war against the Somali people,” a statement by the Information Ministry of Somalia said.
“The airstrikes destroyed a large al-Shabab firing position engaging Danab and SNA (Somali National Army) forces as they approached,” the statement added.
Danab or “lightning” are Somali commandos trained by the U.S.
Both the U.S. and Somali government said there were no civilian casualties.
Al-Shabab, however, said in a statement published online that government forces, supported by the United States, did not succeed in Sunday’s fighting.
Previous airstrikes took place July 20 and 23 in the same vicinity.
These are the first airstrikes against al-Shabab in Somalia since U.S. President Joe Biden took office in January.
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Kosovo Honors Beau Biden, Late Son of US President
Kosovo’s president on Sunday awarded a medal to the late son of U.S. President Joe Biden for his service in building the country’s justice system after war ended more than two decades ago.Beau Biden worked in Kosovo after the 1998-1999 war, helping to train local prosecutors and judges for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The former Delaware attorney general died in 2015 of cancer aged 46.“Beau’s work in Kosovo was heartfelt; he fell in love with the country,” President Biden said in a pre-recorded video message played during the ceremony in Pristina on Sunday.“Beau could see what you could do, Beau could see even then the future that was possible for your proud country. The future that Kosovo had so long been denied,” Biden said.In 2016 Biden, then vice president, unveiled a memorial to his son in Kosovo. A road leading to Camp Bondsteel, home to the 700 American soldiers who still help maintain the fragile peace in Kosovo, was also named after Beau Biden.Naming streets after U.S. officials has become something of a tradition in Kosovo, whose population is mainly ethnic Albanian, and which considers the United States its savior for its support of a 1999 bombing campaign that deprived Serbia of control of Kosovo.Kosovo declared independence in 2008 with Western backing, but Serbia still refuses to recognize it and considers it part of its territory.“What the United States and the American people have done for our country, for our freedom, for our right to exist, goes beyond any partnership currently witnessed in the world. Mr. President, Kosovo is your home too,” said Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani while presenting the award.
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Protests Swell in France Over COVID Measures as Cases Rise
After a slow start, the European Union has now overtaken the United States in vaccinating its citizens against COVID-19. Anti-vaccine resistance remains, including in France, where officials estimate more than 200,000 people joined demonstrations this weekend to protest a mandatory health pass.Brandishing banners proclaiming “freedom” and “pass of shame,” tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Paris and other French cities Saturday against government measures to fight the coronavirus pandemic, and the disease it causes, COVID-19.While many of the protests were peaceful, several police officers were wounded trying to keep order in Paris. In the southern city of Marseille, demonstrators destroyed a coronavirus testing tent, shouting “assassins” and “collaborators.”The demonstrations marked the third straight weekend of protests and were the biggest so far. Some protesters have worn yellow Stars of David similar to those Jews were forced to wear in the former Nazi Germany — a move slammed by Holocaust survivors. The protesters included members of the far left and far right, and those representing the yellow vest economic justice movement born a few years ago.“We’re protesting the government system that’s been in place for decades,” one protester told French radio, calling new coronavirus measures another example of bad government.Police detain a protester during a demonstration in Paris, France, July 31, 2021. Demonstrators gathered in several cities to protest against the COVID-19 pass, which grants vaccinated individuals greater ease of access to venues.The new policies aim to fight the sharply rising tide of infections, driven by the highly contagious delta variant. Among them: making COVID vaccines mandatory for health workers and requiring health passes showing people have been vaccinated or tested negative for the infection, to gain access to restaurants, movie theaters, trains and tourist venues.President Emmanuel Macron has said he respects the right to protest, but that vaccinations are an essential arm to fight the coronavirus — and that French also have responsibilities along with rights, and civic duties.Unvaccinated people now comprise about 85% of hospitalizations in France, and 78% of COVID-19 linked deaths. But some here are still skeptical or worried about the shot.While supporting the new health pass, conservative lawmaker Philippe Bas told French radio Sunday the government must strengthen public confidence.Like France, Italy has seen protests against vaccines and other measures to curb the pandemic. The public response, however, has been more positive elsewhere in Europe, including in Denmark and Spain.And despite demonstrations here, polls show the majority of French back the health pass. More than half are now fully vaccinated. Macron, who faces reelection next year, has also seen his approval rating rise in recent months over his handling of the pandemic.Some information for this report came from AFP, Reuters, Radio France, Europe 1, France 24, France Television & Le Monde.
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Fauci Predicts Worsening Virus Conditions
The top U.S. infectious disease expert said Sunday that the country is facing “some pain and suffering” with the surging delta variant of the coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser, told ABC’s “This Week” show, “Things are going to get worse,” and laid the blame on millions of people who have not been vaccinated against the virus. As the number of new cases has risen sharply in recent weeks, some people who have not been vaccinated say they now are considering getting shots. But millions more are saying that for one reason or another they have no intention of getting inoculated no matter how many health officials urge them to do so. FILE – Dr. Anthony Fauci responds to accusations by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., as he testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 20, 2021.Fauci, who almost daily prods Americans to get vaccinated, said, “You are protecting yourself from getting seriously ill and perhaps dying. The unvaccinated are allowing the propagation of the virus.” The U.S. is already recording 70,000 new coronavirus cases a day, up nearly 60,000 over the last six weeks, to a level not seen since February. The caseload is being fueled by the delta variant first discovered in India. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 disease. Some disease trackers are predicting even bigger caseloads, to 140,000 to 300,000 new infections later in August as the highly transmissible delta variant spreads throughout the United States. Scientists now say that even those already vaccinated can spread the variant, prompting the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, to issue a new directive last week. The CDC said that those already vaccinated should again wear face masks in indoor public settings in parts of the country where the number of new cases is spreading the fastest. FILE – A woman wears a mask against COVID-19, following the CDC’s recommendation that even fully vaccinated Americans wear masks to limit the spread of the highly transmissible coronavirus delta variant, in New York City, July 27, 2021.The directive has drawn rebukes from some Republican governors who have relaxed coronavirus restrictions in their states in recent months and voiced opposition to new face masking orders or any directive for mandatory vaccinations. Biden last week ordered more than 2 million federal workers to get vaccinated before returning to offices in the coming months or face frequent tests to prove they do not have the coronavirus. Doug Ducey, the Republican governor in the southwestern state of Arizona, dismissed the CDC directive, saying, “Arizona does not allow mask mandates, vaccine mandates, vaccine passports or discrimination in schools based on who is or isn’t vaccinated. We’ve passed all of this into law, and it will not change.” Ducey said the CDC directive “is just another example” of the Biden administration’s “inability to effectively confront the COVID-19 pandemic.” Fauci said he disagreed with the Republican officials’ complaints that the new masking recommendations were overkill. He rejected complaints by those who refuse to get vaccinations and have said their individual liberties are being eroded. “We are in a very serious health challenge,” Fauci said. “The fact is that if you get infected [and pass on the virus to others] you are encroaching on their individual rights.”
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Burkina Faso Sees More Child Soldiers as Jihadi Attacks Rise
Awoken by gunshots in the middle of the night, Fatima Amadou was shocked by what she saw among the attackers: children.Guns slung over their small frames, the children chanted “Allahu akbar,” as they surrounded her home in Solhan town in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region. Some were so young they couldn’t even pronounce the words, Arabic for “God is great,” said the 43-year-old mother.“When I saw the kids, what came to my mind was that (the adults) trained these kids to be assassins, and they came to kill my children,” Amadou told The Associated Press by phone from Sebba town, where she now lives.She and her family are among the lucky ones who survived the June attack, in which about 160 people were killed — the deadliest such assault since the once-peaceful West African nation was overrun by fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State about five years ago. As that violence increases, so too does the recruitment of child soldiers.The number of children recruited by armed groups in Burkina Faso rose at least five-fold so far this year, up from four documented cases in all of last year, according to information seen by the AP in an unpublished report by international aid and conflict experts.At least 14 boys are being held in the capital, Ouagadougou, for alleged association with militant armed groups, some there since 2018, said Idrissa Sako, assistant to Burkina Faso’s public prosecutor at the high court in the city.Amadou said she saw about seven children with the fighters who surrounded her home during the Solhan attack. She did not see them kill anyone, but they helped burn down houses.“We are alarmed by the presence of children with armed groups,” said Sandra Lattouf, the representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, in the country.The effects of the conflict on children — including their recruitment as soldiers but also attacks on schools and kids themselves — have become so concerning that this year Burkina Faso was added for the first time to the U.N.’s annual report on Children and Armed Conflict.Aid groups say they are seeing more children with jihadi fighters at roadside checkpoints in the Sahel — an arid region that passes through Burkina Faso but stretches straight across the African continent just south of the Sahara. In recent years, the western Sahel has become an epicenter of jihadi violence.During a recent trip to Dori, a town in the region where nearly 1,200 people fled after the attack on Solhan, the AP spoke with eight survivors, five of whom said they either heard or saw children partake in the violence.“We heard them say, ‘we good children have come to change Solhan in a better way,’” said Hama Amadou, a resident, who hid in his shop during the fighting. He said he also heard women directing the children, saying “kill him, kill him.”Burkina Faso’s ill-equipped and undertrained army is struggling to stem the violence, which has killed thousands and displaced 1.3 million people since the jihadi attacks began.Experts on child recruitment say that poverty pushes some kids toward armed groups. Sako, who works with the public prosecutor, said some children who wanted money to enroll in school joined because they were promised approximately $18 if they killed someone. Others were promised gifts like motorbikes.But civil society organizations also accuse army troops of contributing to the problem by committing abuses against civilians suspected of being jihadis.“There are more security operations … (so) there are more military abuses,” said Maimouna Ba, head of operations for Women for the Dignity of the Sahel, a Dori-based advocacy group. “It is hard for a child to get up in the morning and see that their father was killed.” As they get older, children may become angry and start asking why the state isn’t helping them, she said.The army denied these allegations, along with accusations that it was slow in responding to the attack in Solhan, but would not provide a detailed comment. The deteriorating security is sparking unrest, with protests across the country demanding the government take stronger action. In response, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore fired his security and defense ministers, appointing himself minister of defense.Amid this raft of problems, Burkina Faso must now also figure out what to do with the children accused of being affiliated with armed groups.None of the boys being held in Ouagadougou has been put on trial, according to Sako. The government has not yet signed an agreement with the United Nations that would help it to treat such children as victims, not perpetrators, for instance, by moving them from prison to centers where they could receive psychological care.“It is a real concern for us to find a permanent solution for children,” said Sako.Preventing further recruitment, meanwhile, means tackling economic hardship and all that comes with it, including helping kids who have left school to catch up on their lessons.“Neglecting to act now will only lead to a more intractable crisis and greater instability in the months and years ahead, giving these armed groups the heartbreaking advantage they are so violently seeking,” said Dr. Samantha Nutt, founder and president of War Child Canada and War Child USA.For now, many parents, already struggling to feed, clothe and educate their kids, feel powerless to protect them. “I’m really afraid for my child to be recruited by jihadis,” said Isma Heella, a Dori resident and father to a 4-year-old boy. “We fear for our children and for ourselves as parents because we are not stronger than them.”
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US Senate Considering Massive Infrastructure Measure
The U.S. Senate is meeting in a rare Sunday session in an attempt to advance legislation calling for about $1 trillion in infrastructure spending to fix the country’s deteriorating roads and bridges and construct broadband service nationwide.Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, hopes to have the text of the more than 2,500-page measure completed to present to lawmakers so they can begin to offer amendments and vote on a final bill in the coming days.The package, which also calls for more passenger rail and public transit funding in addition to replacement of lead-piped drinking water systems in the United States, was negotiated between the administration of President Joe Biden and a group of centrist Republican and Democratic senators.The collection of infrastructure spending, including $550 billion in new allocations, is something of a rarity in Washington — a potential bipartisan deal in a fractious political environment where Republicans and Democrats remain divided on a host of other issues.One of the negotiators of the pact, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show, “We really are just about finished.”The measure has already cleared preliminary procedural votes with unified Democratic support and more than 15 Republicans in favor in the politically divided 100-member Senate.Collins said the legislation might win Senate approval by the end of the week and that ultimately 10 or more Republicans would join Democrats in support, enough to clear the 60-vote super-majority needed to thwart any attempt to block it with a legislative filibuster.Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, takes an escalator from the Senate subway on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 30, 2021.The measure would then go the House of Representatives, where some progressive lawmakers have complained that the infrastructure package is not big enough. Potential final congressional approval could be weeks away.“This bill is good for America,” Collins said.The package is one of Biden’s biggest legislative priorities, an attempt six months into his presidency to prove to voters that the White House and Congress can reach bipartisan agreement on some issues.Brian Deese, the director of Biden’s National Economic Council, told the “Fox News Sunday” show, that the new infrastructure spending amounted to “badly needed investments in our country.”The White House is predicting that the spending could annually add two million new jobs, mostly in the construction trades, for the next decade.Included in the package is $110 billion for roads and bridges, $39 billion for public transit and $66 billion for rail. Fifty-five billion dollars is allocated for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure as well as billions for airports, ports, broadband internet and electric vehicle charging stations.
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Bhutan Scripts Rare COVID-19 Success Story
In the south Asian region that has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the tiny mountain kingdom of Bhutan stands out as a rare success story. It has reported two deaths and about 2,500 cases and vaccinated 90% of its adult population. As Anjana Pasricha reports, even though Bhutan has a small population, health experts say the country has emerged ahead of many nations despite its limited resources.
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Turkey Battles Raging Fires as People Count the Cost
Thousands of Turkish firefighters are battling for a fifth day against raging fires that are threatening some of Turkey’s main tourist resorts. Six people have already died in the fires.A child cries fire, fire, as a family drives through the night trying to escape the surrounding inferno in Turkey’s Marmaris region. The video has gone viral in Turkey.
Firefighters backed by helicopters are battling raging fires across Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean regions, home to some of Europe’s most prominent tourist resorts. Record high temperatures and powerful dry winds are hampering their efforts. Authorities have issued evacuation orders for tourists in some resorts. One of the worst-affected areas is Turkey’s Bodrum resort. Bodrum resident Melis Birder spoke to VOA Sunday. “I feel terrible; we are under stress because it’s very hot here,” said Birder. “The one that started in Muscular on the airport road in Bodrum is still spreading; the others have been put down. As the wind is picking up, it’s getting more dangerous again. Some people are very stressed, very sad. On the other hand, I was hearing party music from the shore last night.” An aerial photo shows the destruction caused by wildfires near the Mediterranean coastal town of Manavgat, Antalya, Turkey, July 30, 2021.The fires are dealing a hammer blow to Turkey’s vital tourism industry, still trying to recover from losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many farmers, too, have been devastated by the fires. This farmer, who didn’t want to be identified, in Turkey’s Manavgat region, is traumatized by the experience. He says, “I don’t care if it’s a car or house burned but look at these animals. They lost their lives; they are my life, these were my beauties, these were my hope,” he adds, “but a calf was born in all this chaos. I took it from the fire. My children wrapped them in their arms. But its mother died.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saturday in a 30-vehicle convoy, visited some of the worst-hit resorts. He declared the region a disaster zone, promising compensation for those who have suffered losses. Authorities are investigating whether some of the more than 100 fires could be arson, and Erdogan gave a chilling warning to any perpetrator. He says, “If you rip our heart out, I swear, we will rip your heart out; if we find such a connection — there are already some indications — we will do whatever it takes.” The government is facing growing criticism that the country’s fleet of firefighting planes are out of action, relying instead on three rented Russian planes. Erdogan said that more planes had arrived, and more were on the way, from neighboring Ukraine, Russia, and Azerbaijan. Authorities say that most of the more than 100 fires are under control. But some resorts remain under threat, and with temperatures forecast to soar to new record levels in coming days, the fight appears far from over.
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Myanmar Junta Forms Caretaker Government; Min Aung Hlaing is Prime Minister
Myanmar’s ruling State Administrative Council said Sunday it has become a caretaker government and its leader, Min Aung Hlaing, is to be prime minister.The announcement came after Min Aung Hlaing on Sunday repeated his pledge to hold multiparty elections at an unspecified future date.In a televised address, exactly six months after toppling Myanmar’s elected civilian government, the senior general also said he was ready to cooperate with any special envoy appointed by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.Min Aung Hlaing has said before that any elections would take place at least a year after the Feb. 1 putsch.The military claims it ousted the ruling National League for Democracy because the party had ignored allegations that general elections in November 2020 were riddled with fraud. The NLD had won the poll in a landslide, drubbing the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, in a contest deemed mostly free and fair by local and international election observers.Since the coup, security forces have shot and killed more than 900 people and arrested thousands in a bid to quash protests and a stubborn civil disobedience movement opposed to the coup, according to the Assistance Associate for Political Prisoners, a rights group tracking the junta’s crackdown from neighboring Thailand.The military has also arrested dozens of NLD leaders, including de facto leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and put some on trial for sedition and other alleged crimes. Many more NLD members are in hiding in and outside the country.The regime has labelled the clandestine government the ousted lawmakers have helped set up in hopes of wresting control from the generals a terrorist group.Skepticism inside MyanmarInitial reaction to the announcement in Myanmar was mixed.Chan Lian, executive director of the Hornbill Organization, an election monitoring group, told VOA it seemed unlikely elections would be held in the next two years.“Historically, elections have been held for almost three decades after the previous military coup d’état,” he said.“It is hard for us to believe that it will be held in next two years,” he said, adding, “We can only believe it when the election date is announced.”He said he thinks “there would be very few political parties running in the upcoming election” if it were held by the military.Sai Nyunt Lwin, deputy chair of the Shan National League for Democracy, an ethnic opposition party, also was skeptical.“We do not have much trust what he [Min Aung Hlain] has said,” Sai Nyunt Lwin told VOA.“The Hluttaw [Myanmar’s parliament] was not convened after the 1990 election. When the 2010 election was held again, the top party leaders including NLD and SNLD were imprisoned. The election was not free and fair and not a credible election.“Now, the 2020 election result was annulled again. Our party does not accept cancelation of the election result. We still recognize the winning MPs of our party. The SNLD won 42 seats in the 2020 general election,” he said.Khin Zaw Win, the director of Tampadipa Institute, an advocacy group in Yangon, was also skeptical, saying, “It is unbelievable that the military will hold election in the next two years, adding that he does not believe ASEAN has the capacity to deal with Myanmar even if they appoint a mediator.Phe Than, a member of the Central Policy Affairs Committee of the Arakan National Party, an ethnic party in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, struck a similar chord.”It remains to be seen whether the situation to hold the election will be ready during these years,” he told VOA.Ethnic parties now find it hard to believe in the election, he said, since the military announced the cancelation of the 2020 election results. He said if Suu Kyi’s NLD does not run, allied parties will not run, adding, “In the absence of participation, the military will pretend to be trying to hold a general election. at that time, I think it is possible there will be a new type of coup by the military to retain power.”Nandar Hla Myint, however, spokesperson and general secretary of the military-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party, was more positive.“We are confident that the chairman of the State Administrative Council will hold election as he pledges,” he said.“As a political party, we will contest the best in the election. The previous election results were annulled because it was not free and fair. It would not have been annulled if it had been handled with responsibility to the complaints of military and political party over election frauds.”NLD seen as the keyHervé Lemahieu, a Myanmar analyst with the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, said the credibility of any elections the regime stages will rest on whether the hugely popular NLD, which has easily won every general election it has contested, is given a fair chance.He and other Myanmar watchers believe the junta is prosecuting the NLD’s leaders as a pretext, once they’re convicted, to ban the party outright.“Given that Min Aung Hlaing has already publicly said that he hopes to learn from the Thai experience, and that the amount of back-and-forth and consultations between [Thai Prime Minister] Prayut Chan-ocha and Min Aung Hlaing, there’s every reason to consider these next elections will be highly stacked in favor of the military and have conditions which will basically prevent the NLD or any … rebranded NLD from running, so it will not be free and fair,” he said.Prayut also seized power at the helm of a military coup in 2014 and became prime minister after 2019 elections that the opposition claims were rigged in his favor, an allegation Prayut denies.Lemahieu said any poll without the NLD’s full participation would be little more than “window dressing,” though some smaller parties might be convinced to run to at least give the semblance of a genuine contest.“The generals will hope that it will give them some added degree of credibility at least in the region, if not in the eyes of the West, that will be passable for ASEAN,” he said.“I would imagine that most self-respecting, well established pro-democracy opposition figures, if they’re not already in jail, would refrain from running,” he added. “But you would be left with a small list of fringe parties who probably would see that [election] as beneficial potentially to run in.”Lemahieu said an ASEAN envoy could help nudge the generals toward a fair contest if the bloc selects someone with well-established democratic credentials and lets them operate mostly independent of the group’s chair, which rotates among the 10 members every year. If the envoy changes with each new chair, he said, “it’s not a recipe for success.”Zsombor Peter in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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New Zealand Apologizes for Dawn Raids on Migrants in 1970s
New Zealand has formally apologized to the Pacific community which felt “terrorized” during police raids searching for visa overstayers in the 1970s. The so-called Dawn Raids, carried out between 1974 and 1976, targeted only people from the Pacific Islands even though statistics showed the vast majority of overstayers were from Europe and the United States.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the immigration raids were “dehumanizing.” Speaking at Auckland Town Hall, she expressed her government’s “sorrow and remorse.” She acknowledged the “distress and hurt the raids” had caused. Many Pacific Islanders moved to New Zealand after World War II to boost a work force ravaged by conflict overseas. By 1976, they made up just over 2% of the population, or about 65,000 people, according to the national census. As the economy faltered, though, Samoans, Tongans and other Pacific Islanders who had arrived as desperately needed migrant workers were suddenly accused of taking jobs away from New Zealanders. That prompted a crackdown by the police on those suspected of overstaying their visas. Churches, schools and workplaces were routinely raided, as were homes — often in the middle of the night. New Zealand’s Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio recalled when his family was targeted. “To have somebody knocking at the door in the early hours of the morning with a flashlight in your face, disrespecting the owner of the home, with an Alsatian dog frothing at the mouth at your door, and wanting to come in without any respect for the people living in there is quite traumatizing. I have had sisters say, oh, my goodness, I never, ever want to think about that. That is just my family – that is replicated across the Pacific community,” he said.Thousands of people were arrested and deported, and many have recalled their “humiliation and pain.” Both major political parties in New Zealand have accepted that the raids were racist. British and American visitors, who made up about 40% of overstayers at the time, were rarely targeted by the authorities. New Zealand governments rarely make formal apologies for past injustices. Ardern also announced that education scholarships would be provided to Pacific communities in New Zealand, including those from Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, and Kiribati.
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Turkish Demonstrators Protest Brutal Slaying of Kurdish Family
A protest about an armed attack that killed seven members of a Kurdish family was held Saturday in the Turkish city of Van in the country’s central Konya province. Relatives of the slain family say the attack Friday was racially motivated.”This was an entirely racist attack,” Abdurrahman Karabulut, the family’s lawyer, told Arti TV.Karabulut and the pro-Kurdish opposition party said the family had been previously targeted for being Kurdish. Gunmen attacked the family in May and the family was worried about being attacked again.Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said calling the attack a racist crime was “a provocation.”The Associated Press reports several people were arrested after the May attack and two suspects remain in custody.Turkish officials say the attack was the result of a lengthy feud between two families.The other family involved in the skirmishes is not Kurdish.VOA Kurdish Service’s Van, Turkey-based stringer Arif Aslan said after Saturday’s protest, police began attacking demonstrators.Aslan told VOA that police attacked him and prevented him from taking any footage of the clashes. The police, Aslan said, told him that his VOA credentials were not acceptable, and Van’s public prosecutor wanted Aslan arrested.By that time, however, Aslan’s lawyer was on the scene and told the police that they did not have the right to obstruct journalists from doing their jobs. Aslan said he was held on the street for an hour but was not arrested.Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
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Schumer: US Senators Will ‘Get the Job Done’ on Infrastructure
The Senate convened for a rare weekend session on Saturday, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer encouraging the authors of a bipartisan infrastructure plan to finish writing their nearly $1 trillion bill so that senators can begin offering amendments.Several senators had predicted that the text of the bill would be ready for review late Friday or early Saturday, but it was not done when the Senate opened for business late in the morning. Nor was it ready when Schumer came to the floor in the early evening.“I’ve been informed the group is working hard to bring this negotiation to a conclusion, but they need a little more time,” Schumer said. “I’m prepared to give it to them.”Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said earlier in the day he understood that completing the writing of such a large bill is a difficult project, but he warned that he was prepared to keep lawmakers in Washington for as long as it took to complete votes on both the bipartisan infrastructure plan and a budget blueprint that would allow the Senate to begin work later this year on a massive, $3.5 trillion social, health and environmental bill.“The longer it takes to finish, the longer we will be here, but we’re going to get the job done,” he said.The bipartisan plan calls for $550 billion in new spending over five years above projected federal levels. A draft bill circulating Capitol Hill indicated it could have more than 2,500 pages when introduced. It’s being financed from funding sources that might not pass muster with deficit hawks, including repurposing untapped COVID-19 relief aid and relying on projected future economic growth.Among the major investments are $110 billion for roads and bridges, $39 billion for public transit and $66 billion for rail. There’s also $55 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure as well as billions for airports, ports, broadband internet and electric vehicle charging stations.A bipartisan group of senators helped it clear one more hurdle Friday and braced to see if support could hold during the next few days of debate and efforts to amend it.Schumer wants the voting to be wrapped up before senators break for their August recess. He said that once the legislative text is finalized, he’ll review it and offer it up as a substitute to the shell bill currently before the chamber. Then, senators can begin voting on amendments.“We may need the weekend, we may vote on several amendments, but with the cooperation of our Republican colleagues, I believe we can finish the bipartisan infrastructure bill in a matter of days,” Schumer said Friday night.But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, predicted, “It’s going to be a grind.”Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks past the chamber as the Senate advances to formally begin debate on a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan at the Capitol in Washington, July 30, 2021.Earlier this week, 17 GOP senators joined all Democrats in voting to start the debate, launching what will be a dayslong process to consider the bill. That support largely held Friday during another procedural vote, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., again voting yes to nudge the process along.Whether the number of Republican senators willing to pass a key part of President Joe Biden’s agenda grows or shrinks in the days ahead will determine if the president’s signature issue can make it across the finish line.Cornyn said he expects Schumer to allow all senators to have a chance to shape the bill and allow for amendments from members of both parties.“I’ve been disappointed that Sen. Schumer has seen fit to try to force us to vote on a bill that does not exist in its entirety, but I hope we can now pump the brakes a little bit and take the time and care to evaluate the benefits and the cost of this legislation,” Cornyn said.Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., released a statement on Friday saying they were close to finalizing the legislative text and hoped to make it public later in the day. But Friday came and went without final paperwork.“When legislative text is finalized that reflects the product of our group, we will make it public together consistent with the bipartisan way we’ve worked for the last four months,” the senators said.Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Saturday that negotiators were finalizing the last few pieces, but he had no predictions when it would be ready for senators to have amendments and debate. He said some lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle have panned the bill in some ways, but in the end, it would provide the kind of investment that lawmakers have talked about for years but have been unable to follow through on.“There’s been some of the sense of, well, infrastructure, that shouldn’t be hard to do. If it wasn’t hard to do, why has it taken 30 years to get to this moment?” Warner said.The outcome with the bipartisan effort will set the stage for the next debate over Biden’s much more ambitious $3.5 trillion spending package, a strictly partisan pursuit of far-reaching programs and services including childcare, tax breaks and health care that touch almost every corner of American life. Republicans strongly oppose that bill, which would require a simple majority, and may try to stop both.
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Myanmar Military Ruler Promises Elections, Says Ready to Work With ASEAN
Myanmar’s military ruler Min Aung Hlaing on Sunday promised new mult-party elections and said his government is ready to work with any special envoy named by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.He spoke in a televised address six months after the army seized power from a civilian government after disputed elections won by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling party, which he described as “terrorists.”
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Simone Biles Opts Out of Floor Exercise Final at Olympics
Simone Biles will not defend her Olympic gold medal on floor exercise.USA Gymnastics announced Sunday that the six-time Olympic medalist has opted not to compete on floor, where she won gold in Rio de Janeiro and placed second in qualifying last week.Jennifer Gadirova of Britain will replace Biles in the finals, which are scheduled for Monday.USA Gymnastics said Biles has not decided whether to participate in the balance beam final, which is scheduled for Tuesday. She earned bronze on the event in Brazil five years ago.Biles has already chosen not to compete in the uneven bars and vault finals, set for Sunday evening at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. She was not expected to medal on bars but is the Olympic champion on vault.Biles is dealing with a mental block that in gymnastics is referred to as “the twisties.” In other words, Biles is having trouble figuring out where her body is in relation to the ground when in the air.Biles has been dominant on floor exercise during her elite career, winning five world championships along with her triumph in Rio. Her innovative tumbling has redefined what is possible on the podium. She has two tumbling pass dismounts named after her in the sport’s Code of Points.
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Niger Says 26,000 Displaced People in Southeast Are Now Home
More than 26,000 people who fled in 2015 jihadist attacks in southeastern Niger were returned to their hometown, in the Diffa region, local authorities said on Friday.”These are 26,573 people from 8,190 households who have already been transported to 19 villages at the end of the first phase of the IDP return operations,” an official from the governorate of the Diffa region told AFP.This region bordering Nigeria is home to 300,000 Nigerian refugees and internally displaced persons, driven out by the atrocities of the jihadists of the Nigerian group Boko Haram and its dissident branch of the Islamic State group in West Africa (Iswap), according to the U.N.Nigerien public television showed images on Thursday evening of the last wave ending this first phase, of 11,733 people en route to their locality of origin in trucks chartered by the authorities.These displaced people had found refuge in sites around more secure villages, U.N. camps or with relatives across the region.Launched on June 20, this first phase of voluntary return concerns villages bordering the national road No. 1 “where the security situation is already favorable” for the return of the inhabitants, President Mohamed Bazoum indicated at the beginning of July during a stay in Diffa.Other operations will be scheduled in order to return all the displaced to their villages “by December 2021,” explained Mohamed Bazoum.In particular, the government provided food assistance, shelters and mosquito nets — to fight malaria — to populations returning to their villages.He also promised to rehabilitate health centers, drinking water distribution systems and dilapidated schools after the residents left.Niger and the governor of Nigeria’s Borno region, particularly hit by the attacks, have reached an agreement for the repatriation of 130,000 Nigerian refugees in Niger from November or December, President Bazoum said July 9.Bazoum announced new military operations to “cleanse” villages where jihadists are located, who have “widened” their field of action in the southeast of the country.
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COVID-19 Infections Reach Record High in Tokyo
Tokyo’s metropolitan government said new coronavirus infections surged to a record high Saturday as the city hosts the Olympic Games.The government reported 4,058 new cases, topping 4,000 for the first time.The new record was set one day after Japan, with a population of more than 126 million, extended a state of emergency for Tokyo through the end of August to contain the spread. The extension also applies to three prefectures near Tokyo and the western prefecture of Osaka.A new record for infections also was set nationwide Saturday. Public broadcaster NHK reported 12,341 new cases, 15% higher than the day before.Since the start of the pandemic, Japan has reported 914,718 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 15,197 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.Protests related to the coronavirus pandemic occurred Saturday in countries including France, Italy and Israel.In France, more than 200,000 people protested around the country to voice opposition to President Emmanuel Macron’s recent COVID-19 measures, media reported.While most protests were peaceful, in Paris, where more than 14,000 people gathered, three police officers were injured in clashes with demonstrators, according to Reuters.The French government has instituted a mandatory coronavirus health pass in an effort to control the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. It has pushed the number of COVID-19 cases in the country from a few thousand each day in early July to 24,000 new cases on Friday, health officials said.The health pass will be needed for people to be able to enter most public spaces, such as restaurants, museums and movie theaters. The pass, which takes effect Aug. 9, requires a vaccination or a quick negative test or proof of a recent recovery from COVID-19 and mandates vaccine shots for all health care workers by mid-September, the AP reported.France, a country of 67 million, was hit hard in the early stages of the pandemic and has recorded 6.1 million confirmed cases of the disease and 112,011 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.For a second week, thousands of protesters in Italy, also opposed to the use of a vaccine pass, demonstrated in cities including Rome, Milan and Naples.Protestors hold up a banner which reads ‘freedom’ in French during a demonstration in Paris, France, July 31, 2021. Demonstrators gathered in several cities in France on Saturday to protest the COVID-19 pass.In Tel Aviv, several hundred Israelis protested against new coronavirus restrictions and vaccines as the country sees a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases because of the delta variant.On Saturday, the health ministry recorded 2,435 new COVID-19 cases, the highest number since March.To battle the outbreak, Israel rolled out a booster shot for older citizens, reimposed mask requirements indoors and restored “green pass” restrictions requiring vaccine certificates for entering enclosed spaces such as gyms, restaurants and hotels, according to Agence France-Presse.Nearly 60% of Israel’s 9.3 million people have gotten two shots, mostly with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to AFP, but about 1 million Israelis still refuse to be vaccinated.Israel has had 871,343 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 6,469 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.Vietnam said Saturday it would extend travel restrictions in Ho Chi Minh City and 18 other southern cities and provinces for another two weeks to contain its worst outbreak to date, according to Reuters.A group waits to get a COVID-19 test, July 31, 2021, in North Miami, Fla.The extension begins Monday in a country that contained the virus for much of the pandemic but reports a total of 141,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins, 85% of which were reported in the last month.The White House announced on Friday that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris would travel in August to Singapore and Vietnam.Symone Sanders, a White House senior adviser and chief spokesperson, said in a statement released Friday that Harris would engage with the leaders of both countries on issues of mutual interest, including the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.The White House did not give specific dates for the trip.A weekend lockdown has been imposed in India’s southern state of Kerala as it grapples with about 20,000 new cases daily, Reuters reported. Federal authorities sent experts to the area to monitor developments in the state that accounts for more than 37% of the nearly 32 million cases reported by India’s health ministry.Australia’s third-largest city of Brisbane said it would begin a COVID-19 lockdown on Saturday, amid rising case numbers. Neighboring areas will also be subject to the stay-at-home orders.In London, a four-day “vaccine music festival” was under way Saturday. The event was to encourage people to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Already, more than 72% of people older than 18 in the United Kingdom have received two doses of vaccine, according to government figures reported by the AP.Great Britain, which recently lifted most of its COVID-19 restrictions, said starting Monday, fully vaccinated visitors from the European Union or the United States would no longer need to quarantine upon arrival.As of Saturday, there were 197.7 million cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 4.2 million deaths globally, according to Johns Hopkins. The U.S. leads the world in number of COVID-19 cases, nearly 35 million cases, and 613,113 deaths, according to the university.Some information for this report comes from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Tunisian President, US Officials Discuss Swift Return to ‘Democratic Path’
Tunisia’s President Kais Saied spoke Saturday with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who conveyed U.S. President Joe Biden’s strong support for the people of Tunisia and for Tunisian democracy, National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said in a White House press release.The two spoke for an hour and “focused on the critical need for Tunisian leaders to outline a swift return to Tunisia’s democratic path,” the press release said. Sullivan underscored that this will require “rapidly forming a new government, led by a capable prime minister to stabilize Tunisia’s economy and confront the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as ensuring the timely return of the elected parliament.“As Tunisia’s leaders answer the widely expressed demands of Tunisians for improved standards of living and honest governance, the United States and other friends of the Tunisian people stand ready to redouble our efforts to help Tunisia move toward a secure, prosperous, and democratic future,” the statement concluded.On Friday, Tunisian authorities jailed an opposition lawmaker and briefly detained four members of the powerful Islamist movement Ennahdha in the wake of the president’s decision to seize exceptional powers, according to Tunisian media reports.The Ennahdha members were brought before investigating magistrates and accused of trying to incite violence outside the parliament building after Saied’s announcement Sunday, according to party official Riadh Chaidi.The four were questioned but later released for lack of proof of violence, Chaidi told The Associated Press.The president suspended parliament, lifted the immunity of parliament members, fired the prime minister and took control of the executive branch. He said the move was necessary to save the country amid public anger at the government over joblessness, rising prices and one of Africa’s worst coronavirus outbreaks.But Saied’s decision raised concerns about Tunisia’s young democracy. Critics — most notably Ennahdha — accused him of a coup. Ennahdha has been a major player in Tunisian legislative elections since the country’s 2011 revolution, which unleashed the Arab Spring uprisings across the region.Tunisia mapThe next day, Ennahdha supporters skirmished with backers of the president outside parliament, but the crowd was eventually dispersed by police.Among those detained Friday were the bodyguard of Ennahdha leader and parliament speaker Rachid Ghannouchi, his protocol officer and a member of the party’s advisory council.The four were accused of inciting people from a working-class neighborhood close to parliament to bring sticks to carry out acts of violence during the rally, according to the official TAP news agency.”There was no link with violence,” said Chaidi, a member of the party’s executive bureau. “Violence is not a choice of Ennahdha.”He sought to minimize the detentions and played down concerns that they were a sign of a government crackdown singling out his party.Also Friday, outspoken legislator Yassine Ayari was arrested outside his home, according to a Facebook post by his party, the Hope and Action Movement.His lawyer Mokhtar Jemai said Ayari was apparently arrested in connection with a June 30 court conviction but was not informed of the reason for conviction. Ayari has spoken out against the military and the government and faced legal problems in the past, but no longer enjoys parliamentary immunity because of the president’s decisions.On Thursday, the president named a new interior minister, his first major appointment since the shakeup. Ridha Gharsallaoui, a former national security adviser to the presidency, will now head the Interior Ministry, which oversees domestic security, including policing.
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5 Years After South China Sea Ruling, Rivals Quietly Accepting China’s Refusal to Comply
Five years after a landmark world court ruling against China’s claims to a disputed sea, smaller Asian countries that contest Chinese maritime sovereignty have learned to live with Beijing’s adamant rejection of the verdict, experts in the region say.China uses a “nine-dash line,” citing maritime records from dynastic times, to claim about 90% of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea that other governments value for fisheries and undersea fossil fuel reserves. The nine dashes cut into some nations’ exclusive economic zones.The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration issued a decision July 12, 2016, rejecting China’s claims as lacking a basis in international law. China dismissed the ruling then, and it did the same again in July this year.Five other Asian governments that dispute China’s wide-ranging nine-dash line lack the military force or economic clout to require that China’s compliance with the arbitral ruling, while the court itself lacks police powers. At the same time, the rival states accept development aid, investment and trade from China, which has Asia’s biggest economy, along with the strongest armed forces.China offered money to some maritime rivals after the arbitral verdict to keep the sovereignty issue at bay, analysts said at the time.Close Relations Around Asia Help China Repel Maritime Criticism
China’s increasingly close relations with rivals in Southeast Asia put it in a position to disregard a harsh statement from a powerful group of foreign ministers this month, as well as other rebukes over its expansions in the South China Sea.Beijing, which has expanded quickly into the vast, contested sea over the past decade, despite competing claims from smaller states, met fresh criticism from the Group of 7 foreign ministers in mid-April.A G7 joint communique urged countries around the sea to use…
Neither the arbitral ruling nor anyone’s reaction to it will change China’s stance on its nine-dash line, so countries are raising the issue cautiously to stay on Beijing’s good side, said Shahriman Lockman, senior foreign policy and security studies analyst with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia.“I think it’s a very calculated thing that they have to do,” Lockman said. “You say some things that are not pleasant to Chinese ears, but at the same time don’t push it too hard.”To not raise the ruling at all would imply support for Beijing’s claims, scholars have told VOA in the past.China continues to upset rival maritime claimants by landfilling islets in the contested sea, between Hong Kong and Borneo, for military use. It periodically sends vessels into the exclusive economic zones of the other countries. The Philippines filed the arbitration case in 2013 after China pressured Filipino vessels a year earlier to leave a shoal in the contested sea after a long standoff.Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam call all or parts of the same waterway their own. Claimant governments look to the sea for its fisheries, undersea fossil fuel reserves and marine shipping lanes. Malaysia, for one, quietly supports the 2016 verdict but has been “careful not to annoy China,” Lockman said.China’s official Xinhua News Agency called the world court ruling illegal, null and void, citing a spokesperson in the Chinese Embassy in London on July 27 to rebut comments from the British defense secretary. The arbitration five years ago violated the “principle of state consent” and the court issued an award “in disregard of law,” the news agency said.Foreign affairs officials in Vietnam, the Philippines and the United States, among other countries, made statements this month in support of the arbitral ruling and international law. A Philippine activist group said on its website that “militant” fishing operators had stormed the Chinese consulate in Metro Manila to mark the ruling’s anniversary.The Philippine government statement is a repetition of the arbitration court’s ruling five years ago without moving the needle forward, according to Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte spent his first two years in office, from 2016, befriending China in return for infrastructure development aid, the scholar noted.Duterte’s Cabinet has openly criticized China since March of this year over 220 Chinese fishing vessels that had moored at a disputed feature in the Spratly Islands.Chinese ‘Flotilla’ in Contested Waters Further Sours Once-Upbeat RelationsManila concerned over presence of 220 finishing boats near a reef in the Spratly Islands, demands their removal“This year it’s a very different tone, as well, but they’re still trying to balance a friendly tone because of the pandemic and their need to get vaccines from China,” Batongbacal said. The Philippines agreed in December to take China’s Sinovac Biotech vaccines for COVID-19.Undersea oil drillers such as Malaysia and Vietnam may still cite the arbitral ruling to defend any challenges to exploration in their 370-kilometer-wide maritime exclusive economic zones overlapped by the nine-dash line, Lockman said.China’s rejection of the court ruling, followed by acquiescence by its neighbors, ultimately widens a schism between Beijing’s own legal boundaries and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. The court used the convention as a basis for its 2016 ruling.“The ruling and China’s rejection of the ruling signifies a struggle for international order,” Vuving said. “The struggle for international order is actually hiding in plain sight. We have the clash between UNCLOS and the Chinese nine-dash line.”
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