Three years ago, nearly every country in Africa agreed to be part of a continental free trade area intended to lower tariffs and boost economies. But the agreement has yet to be fully implemented because of restrictions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.The World Bank says the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement set up the largest free trade bloc in the world, and has the potential to pull 30 million people out of poverty.The agreement reduces tariffs between African countries and, the World Bank says, could boost Africa’s combined GDP by $450 billion by 2035.But those prospects may not materialize because many countries in Africa have yet to fully open their economies due to health restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus.Kennedy Adede, founder of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), which works in poor neighborhoods in Nairobi, says the lack of employment opportunities has to be addressed.”People are going through a lot of hardship, people are more scared of dying from hunger than dying from this virus and that has become a challenge. How do we solve that? That’s why this is not just about the vaccine alone,” Adede said. “It needs a multi-angle [approach] to fight this economically to ensure that we drive more jobs. If you think in Africa right now, the population of young people is scary and if they don’t trust what we are saying, then we are gone.”Speaking at a recent webinar, John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that if Africa was better prepared to combat the pandemic, the free trade area would be flourishing. “It’s really for us in public health to continue to make sure that we place the public health agenda at the center of political dialogues, at the center of the economic dialogue. Look at the damage the pandemic has caused to our continental aspiration for the continental free trade area. I will argue that without this pandemic, that whole aspiration, the developmental agenda would have been at a very different level today in the continent,” Nkengasong said.Nearly 18 months into the pandemic, just 2.5% of Africa’s 1.3 billion people are vaccinated. The African CDC wants to vaccinate 60% of the population by the end of 2022.The agency says Africa had received 123.5 million vaccine doses by mid-August. The continent secured the vaccine through bilateral agreements and COVAX, a global initiative that seeks to provide vaccine to developing countries.African countries will also share some 400 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses, which are being manufactured in South Africa.But Nkengasong says Africa is still not receiving enough vaccine.“When COVID just started, it was very difficult for anyone in Africa to know somebody who has died of COVID but now is a common thing we know, and that is pushing that you see lines of people out there. So the first doses of vaccines that we supplied in the continent, some of those ended up in wastage because we were dealing with misinformation. The challenge we have now is that people are saying here we are with open arms, ready to get the jab, but the jabs are not there,” Nkengasong said.Africa’s economy is still expected to grow 3.4% this year, but that’s of little consequence to the tens of millions who are struggling to find a steady income as the virus takes away jobs and lives.
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Month: August 2021
First Group of Afghan Evacuees Arrives in Albania
A first group of 121 evacuees from Afghanistan arrived early Friday in Albania, after the country agreed to temporarily house at-risk Afghan nationals at the request of the United States.More are expected to go to the Western Balkan country, but the timing is uncertain because of the chaos and evolving situation at the Kabul airport, as the United States and other countries race to get Americans and others out of the country ahead of an Tuesday deadline for complete withdrawal, amid the threat of more terror attacks.Officials in Albania said the first group of 121 was made up of civil society activists and others, including children and 11 babies. The flight made one stop in Tbilisi, Georgia, then departed for Albania, arriving at the country’s main airport in Tirana at 3 a.m. local time.Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama offers a gift to a boy during his visit to a resort accommodating Afghan refugees in Golem, west of Tirana, Aug. 27, 2021.They were being sheltered temporarily in three hotels near the coastal town of Durrës, about 38 kilometers (23.5 miles) from Tirana.“We have prepared for everything, including processing documentation and registration, health checks, sanitary packages, food, transportation and of course safety,” said Foreign Minister Olta Xhaçka, who welcomed the group at the airport.U.S. Ambassador to Albania Yuri Kim was also present, thanking Albania for the hospitality.Albania was one of the first countries to agree to take in at-risk Afghans, initially saying that it would house hundreds of them, later putting that figure at up to 4,000. All this past week, the flights from Kabul kept being scheduled and canceled because of the chaos at the airport.“I feel relieved that finally the first flight was able to make it, bringing the first Afghan contingent, including, men, women and children. It is truly an emotional moment, because each man, woman, child that you see here is a life saved from the horror of war,” Xhaçka said.A moral imperativeIn addition to Albania, fellow NATO member North Macedonia and Kosovo have agreed to take in at-risk Afghans.Albania and Kosovo, noting their own people’s plights, see helping with the Afghan evacuees as a moral imperative. Thirty years ago, thousands of Albanians fled to Western Europe after the fall of communism to build a better life.“It’s about who we are. It’s about also being a member of NATO and feeling the responsibility to act as part of NATO,” Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama said in an interview with CNN, urging other wealthier fellow NATO members to do more.During the Balkan conflict of the 1990s, 700,000 people from Kosovo were displaced and became refugees. President Vjosa Osmani, confirming the U.S. request, recalled that experience in a tweet early last week.Since mid-July, 🇽🇰 expressed its readiness to do its part to host 🇦🇫citizens, upon request by An Afghan family gathers at a resort that is accommodating Afghan refugees in Golem, Albania, Aug. 27, 2021.While the length of the Afghan evacuees’ stay in these countries remains to be seen, Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a global affairs think tank, told VOA the priority is to move them out of Afghanistan.”Right now, I think the key is to get them to a place where they are safe to begin the paperwork, the background checks, other necessary steps to process to them for refugee status and for ultimate resettlement,” he said, adding that the Biden administration “is very appreciative for any country that is willing to help out.” Ilirian Agolli contributed to this report.
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Soccer Legend Cristiano Ronaldo to Return to Manchester United
Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is heading back to England to play for the team where he became a legend.Manchester United said Friday that it had reached an agreement to bring the 36-year-old Portuguese forward back to Old Trafford, where the storied club plays.”Manchester United is delighted to confirm that the club has reached agreement with Juventus for the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo, subject to agreement of personal terms, visa and medical,” a statement from the team read.”Cristiano, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, has so far won over 30 major trophies during his career, including five Champions League titles, four FIFA Club World Cups, seven league titles in England, Spain and Italy, and the European Championship for his native Portugal.”In his first spell for Manchester United, he scored 118 goals in 292 games. Everyone at the club looks forward to welcoming Cristiano back to Manchester,” the statement concluded.Ronaldo said on Thursday that he no longer wanted to play for Juventus of the Italian league.While details of the move were not officially made public, The Associated Press said the transfer fee would be $29.5 million. Ronaldo had a year left on his contract with Juventus. His contract with United is for two years.Ronaldo played previously for Manchester United from 2003 to 2009 when he left to play for Spanish team Real Madrid before moving on to Juventus.Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who played alongside Ronaldo at the club, said, “He is the greatest player of all time, if you ask me.”“Such a tremendous human being as well. … Everyone who’s played with him, I think, has a soft spot for him,” Solskjaer said.United no doubt hopes Ronaldo can help the team win the Premier League championship, something it hasn’t done since 2013.Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Fed Chair: Economic Recovery Might Allow Cutting Stimulus Programs
The chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve said Friday that the nation’s economy continues to recover from the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it might be time to consider scaling back some emergency programs the central bank implemented to stimulate that recovery, though he indicated that might not happen soon. In a speech delivered virtually to an annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Jerome Powell said the Federal Reserve remained committed to supporting the economy “as long as is needed to achieve full recovery.”The Fed has been buying $120 billion a month in mortgage and Treasury bonds to try to hold down longer-term loan interest rates to spur borrowing and spending. Powell’s comments indicated the Fed would most likely announce a reduction or “tapering” of those purchases sometime in the final three months of this year.Still some uncertaintyBut he was careful to add that uncertainty remained in the economy. As an example, he noted that July showed encouraging employment numbers, but also the spread of the more virulent delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which threatens to prolong the pandemic. Powell said the Fed would be “carefully assessing incoming data and the evolving risks.” But he said while the delta variant presented a short-term risk, prospects look good for continued progress toward maximum employment. He noted that vaccination rates are increasing, schools are reopening and enhanced unemployment benefits are ending, all things that will motivate people to seek jobs.Powell also continued to defend his position that a recent spike in inflation is only temporary, saying price increases should ease as the economy continues to normalize and supply chains reopen, ending shortages of consumer goods. Some economists and members of Congress have pressured the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to counter inflation, but Powell said he was reluctant to overreact to something that he believes is a short-term problem. He said a poorly timed move could drive inflation below desired rates. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Biden Hosts Israeli Leader After One-Day Delay
After a delay of a day due to the crisis in Afghanistan, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett, on Friday, discussing issues ranging from the plight of the Palestinians to Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.To ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon, Biden said at the White House, “we’re putting diplomacy first and seeing where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails, we’re ready to turn to other options.”The president did not elaborate on those other options and declined to take questions following his and Bennett’s Oval Office comments.”I was happy to hear your clear words that Iran will never be able to acquire a nuclear weapon and that you emphasize that we’ll try the diplomatic route, but there’s other options if that doesn’t work out,” the Israeli leader responded. “The first goal is to stop Iran on its regional aggression and start rolling it back into the box. And the second is to permanently keep Iran away from ever being able to break out the nuclear weapon.”Iran nuclear dealThe United States and Iran have held several rounds of indirect talks about rejoining the 2015 international agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. That agreement came about amid concerns Iran was working to develop nuclear weapons, which it has denied.FILE – President Donald Trump signs a Presidential Memorandum on the Iran nuclear deal from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, May 8, 2018.Former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018. Iran subsequently took steps away from its commitments, including boosting its stockpiles of enriched uranium and enriching the material to higher levels of purity.The two leaders, in their first face-to-face meeting, also renewed a pledge to maintain the close relationship between their countries.”The U.S. will always be there for Israel. It’s an unshakeable partnership between our two nations,” Biden said.”You’ve always stood up for us, especially during tough times, like a few months ago, when thousands of rockets were being shot on Israeli towns and cities,” replied the Israeli prime minister, who took office in June.Losses in AfghanistanBennett also extended “condolences and deep sadness for the loss of American lives in Kabul. American service members lost their lives while on a mission to save other people’s lives.”The chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, punctured by the suicide bombing Thursday outside Kabul’s airport, which killed and wounded American military personnel and Afghan civilians, is also seen as having ramifications for the Middle East and the fight against terrorism.”I just think everybody, and certainly the Israelis, have to be very concerned about what this does to evolving and empowering other terrorist regimes and certainly the Iranian question first and foremost,” Matthew Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, told VOA.Both Bennett’s and Biden’s predecessors enjoyed a close relationship and were seen as being in sync on hardline policies toward the Palestinians, Iranians and regional security.”You could tell that there was a great personal chemistry and a mutual respect and friendship” between Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, Brooks said. “It was at a different level than the normal perfunctory kind of cordial relationships.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the Willard Hotel in Washington, Aug. 25, 2021.Bennett, the son of American immigrants to Israel, on Wednesday held separate meetings with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.Brooks said that while he considers Biden a friend of Israel, “on a number of critical policy issues he is absolutely misguided and wrong.”Bennett opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, as well as peace talks with the Palestinians. He supports the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the disputed West Bank and has also expressed opposition to the Biden administration’s plan to reopen a U.S. consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem.”It’s clear that there is a very welcome interest from both the U.S. administration and the Israeli government in working well together and finding numerous areas of common ground and close collaboration,” J Street, a group advocating American leadership to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said in a statement. “At the same time, we believe it’s also critical for the Biden administration to be transparent and firm in stating its disagreement with key aspects of Prime Minister Bennett’s policies and worldview.”Bennett’s careerBennett, who made his fortune in Israel’s high-tech industry, started his political career as Netanyahu’s chief of staff in 2006. He later served in different ministerial positions from 2013 to 2020 under Netanyahu before ousting his former mentor after Israel’s fourth parliamentary election in two years.His fragile ruling coalition is composed of eight parties ranging across the political spectrum and includes a small Islamist faction representing Israel’s Arab minority.Bennett will be in office for two years, having agreed to a rotating government with Yair Lapid, who is set to take over as prime minister next year.Noting the common challenges they face, from battling the coronavirus pandemic to combating terrorism, Bennett, after citing a biblical verse from the Book of Isaiah, told Biden they are both “a lighthouse in a very, very stormy world.”This is Bennett’s first official foreign trip, although he did travel to Jordan for a then-secret meeting with King Abdullah.The one-day delay in his meeting with Biden means Bennett, an observant Jew who does not travel on the Sabbath, will remain in Washington until after sundown Saturday.
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New Zealand Eases National COVID-19 Lockdown, Auckland to Stay Closed
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Friday the government will ease the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, while the nation’s largest city – the epicenter of the latest outbreak – will remain closed for two more weeks. At a news briefing, Ardern said that beginning August 31 most of the country will move to a level-three shut down, which allows businesses to fill online orders and do takeout services. Bars and restaurants remain closed, except for takeaways.Ardern said Auckland will remain under alert level 4, which requires all schools, offices and all businesses to be closed, with only essential services operational. Before this latest lockdown, the nation’s last stay-at-home orders were lifted in March.The government took the measures to stop the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. New Zealand’s health service reported 70 new cases on Friday, bringing the total number of infections during this outbreak, which began this month, to 347. New Zealand has been one of the best nations in the world at controlling COVID-19.Meanwhile, a new report published the medical journal The Lancet says the symptoms that linger after a person has survived the novel coronavirus are little understood by the medical community. The report says the syndrome, known as “long haul COVID-19,” must be studied and understood in order to launch an appropriate response for what the journal calls “a modern medical challenge of the first order.” The Lancet article said recovery can take more than a year. The lingering symptoms include “persistent fatigue, breathlessness, brain fog, and depression.”The report says finding answers to the mystery of long haul COVID-19 “while providing compassionate and multidisciplinary care, will require the full breadth of scientific and medical ingenuity.”Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people in the United States who have not been able to pay rent during the pandemic are facing eviction after the Supreme Court decided not the extend the nationwide ban on evictions that had been imposed during the pandemic. Three of the justices dissented. Jen Psaki, U.S. President Joe Biden’s press secretary, said in a statement, “As a result of this ruling, families will face the painful impact of evictions, and communities across the country will face greater risk of exposure to COVID-19.”
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US Warship Transits Taiwan Strait After Chinese Assault Drills
A U.S. warship and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Friday, the latest in what Washington calls routine operations through the sensitive waterway that separates Taiwan from China, which claims the self-ruled island.The passage comes amid a spike in military tensions in the past two years between Taiwan and China, and follows Chinese assault drills last week, with warships and fighter jets exercising off the island’s southwest and southeast.The Kidd, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, accompanied by the Coast Guard cutter Munro, transited “through international waters in accordance with international law,” the U.S. Navy said in a statement.”The ships’ lawful transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows,” it said.The U.S. Navy has been conducting such operations about every month or so, angering China, which sees Taiwan as its territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the democratic island under its control.The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but is its most important international backer and a major seller of arms to the island.China’s state-controlled media have seized on the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in recent weeks to portray U.S. support for Taiwan and regional allies as fickle.But U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has been quick to dismiss any connection between Afghanistan and the United States’ commitment to the Indo-Pacific.Vice President Kamala Harris accused China of “bullying and excessive maritime claims” during trips to Vietnam and Singapore this week, the latest in a string of visits by top U.S. officials to the Indo-Pacific aimed at cementing U.S. commitment to the region.
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Airport Security Goes High-tech as US Nears 20 Years Since 9/11
As the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, VOA’s Julie Taboh looks at some of the technology that works to keep U.S. airports and air travel safe.
Lesia Bakalets contributed to this story.
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Nigerian Gunmen Free Some Kidnapped Students, Scores Still Held
Gunmen in Nigeria have freed some of students they kidnapped in May from an Islamic school in Niger state.The head teacher of Salihu Tanko Islamiyya school in Niger state, Alhassan Abubakar, says the gunmen Thursday night released a number of students who had been held since May.Alhassan told local media the kidnappers dropped them off in neighboring Kaduna state.This Day media reported the students are meeting Friday with Nigerian officials before being reunited with their families. Nigerian media report the families of the students twice paid ransoms to the bandits before their release. Armed men raided the school on May 30 and kidnapped 136 students. Nigerian media report six of the students died in captivity and 15 escaped in June. Gunmen on Sunday released 15 hostages from a July raid on a Baptist high school in northwest Kaduna state. A representative of the family told AFP they were released after a ransom was paid but 56 of 121 students were still being held. Kidnap-for-ransom criminal groups, known locally as bandits, have been targeting Nigerian schools in a series of brazen attacks. They have kidnapped more than 1,000 students since December from schools and colleges across northern Nigeria. Most have been freed through ransoms and negotiations, but scores are still being held in dense forests.Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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Cameroon, Nigeria Announce Effort to Jointly Fight Separatists
Cameroonian and Nigerian authorities have agreed to jointly fight armed separatists in both countries. The nations’ top security and government officials announced the deal during an emergency security meeting that ended Thursday in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. The meeting was convened after Anglophone separatists in Cameroon and the Indigenous People of Biafra in Nigeria said they would join forces to fight for independence.Babagana Monguno, national security adviser to Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari, said Thursday secessionist groups are uniting to destabilize Cameroon and Nigeria. The retired major general spoke at the end of the eighth session of the Cameroon-Nigeria transborder meeting in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
Monguno said the neighboring countries will jointly combat the rebels operating within their borders.”President Muhammadu Buhari reassures you [Cameroon] that Nigeria’s territory will never be used by any group of secessionists to destabilize another friendly sovereign country. In addition, we would work closely together to ensure that any real or perceived attempt to form any alliances between secessionist groups in Nigeria and Cameroon are decisively dealt with,” Monguno said.Speaking on Cameroonian state radio, CRTV, Monguno said Nigeria will continue to support the efforts of Cameroonian authorities to stop the separatist crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking western regions. The United Nations says at least 3,000 people have been killed and 550,000 civilians displaced in Cameroon and in Nigeria by the separatist crisis that escalated into an armed conflict in 2017.Governors from the Nigerian states that border Cameroon and Cameroonian regions bordering Nigeria also took part in the Abuja meeting.Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji led Cameroon’s delegation. Nji said militaries of the two countries are already at work to map out ways of stopping separatists operating in Cameroon and in Nigeria. He said the two countries have decided to provide jobs and improve the livelihoods of people in border areas. He said poverty is driving many civilians to join separatist groups in pursuit of food and better living conditions. “To eradicate transborder insecurity in all its forms or, I believe, to reduce it to minimum, our security forces must intensify intelligence gathering and information sharing. It must include measures to check religious radicalism, foster education and promote economic and social development projects along our common border,” he said. Nji said Cameroon is sincerely grateful for Buhari’s permanent commitment never to allow any part of Nigerian territory to serve as a safe haven for terrorists and separatist groups against its neighbor, Cameroon.This week’s Cameroonian-Nigerian security meeting is the first since Cameroon’s English-speaking separatists said they were partnering with the Indigenous People of Biafra, a group that wants a breakaway state in southeast Nigeria. Capo Daniel, deputy defense chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, a rebel group in Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West and South-West regions, said the Ambazonia Defense Forces and Indigenous People of Biafra are determined to foster an alliance the Nigerian and Cameroonian separatist groups created in April.”The alliance generates solidarity between the military wing of the IPOB, that is the Eastern Security Network and the Ambazonia Defense Forces. We will continue to intensify the collaboration in areas such as operating training camps, exchanges in military trainers, open exchange of weapons and military personnel, as well as sharing intelligence across the border,” Daniel said.The Indigenous People of Biafra has not issued a statement on the terms of their collaboration with the Ambazonia Defense Forces. Videos shared on social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, though, appear to show people claiming to be officials of the rebel groups meeting. Cameroon and Nigeria say rebel and secessionist groups from the two countries have been meeting and trafficking in weapons.Nigeria shares a 1,975-kilometer border with Cameroon. Militaries of the two countries have been jointly fighting violent crises since 2010. Nigeria’s northeastern states of Borno and Adamawa and Cameroon’s Far North region on Nigeria’s border report regular Boko Haram terrorist attacks. Cameroon says separatists use porous borders to import weapons through Nigeria and collaboration between the Ambazonia Defense Forces and Indigenous People of Biafra is making the security situation very uncertain. Other security challenges include conflicts over illegal exploitation of natural resources, highway robbery, drug and human trafficking, illicit trafficking of firearms, and agricultural conflicts. The Cameroon-Nigeria Transborder Security Committee was created in 2012 in Nigeria to strengthen security in both countries.
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Alone in the Sky, Pilot and Fiancee Save 17 in Tennessee Flood
Nashville-based helicopter pilot Joel Boyers had just finished helping his fiancee earn her pilot’s license on Saturday morning, and they were heading home to celebrate, when he received a frantic call from a woman in Pennsylvania. Her brother’s home in Waverly, Tennessee, was underwater and he was trapped on a roof with his daughters. Could Boyers help?”I thought, ‘How would I feel if I told her I’m not even going to try?'” he said in a Thursday interview. “She just so happened to call the right person, because I’m the only person crazy enough to even try to do that.”The weather was terrible and Boyers had to contend with hills and high-voltage power lines on the way to Waverly, a small city about 96 kilometers (60 miles) west of Nashville. Just before reaching the town, he set down in a field to get his bearings and realized the internet was down, making it impossible to pinpoint the house he was looking for. He flew on anyway.”As soon as I popped over the ridge, it was nothing but tan raging water below me,” he said. “There were two houses that were on fire. There were cars in trees. There was tons of debris. Any way debris could get caught, it was. I knew no one was going to be able to swim in that.”A few people were out in boats, rescuing the stranded, and one person was helping with a jet ski, but Boyers was alone in the sky. He started flying up and down the flooded creek, grabbing anyone he could.Boyers, who co-owns Helistar Aviation, said he ended up rescuing 17 people that day. He’s proud of that, but said he’s the one who should be thanking them. “I literally prayed just days before this that God would give me some meaning in my life, and then I end up getting this call,” he said.He has flown over disasters, including floods, before, but “the cops are usually there, and my hands are tied. This time there weren’t any.”This undated photo provided by John Pilkington shows helicopter pilot Joel Boyer and his fiancee, Melody Among, at John C. Tune airport in Nashville, Tennessee.Saturday’s flooding killed 20 people, taking out houses, roads, cellphone towers and telephone lines, with rainfall that more than tripled forecasts and shattered the state record for one-day rainfall. More than 270 homes were destroyed and 160 took major damage, according to the Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency.To perform the rescues, Boyers had to maneuver around power lines, balance his skids on sloped rooftops, and hover over floodwaters. It took all the skills learned over 16 years flying, including for a television news station, for documentaries and for country music stars.”I don’t want to lie,” he said. “It was almost a little fun for me.”It was also a powerful experience to go through with his fiancee, Melody Among, who acted as his co-pilot, spotting power lines, giving him sips of water and even taking the controls at times. “Her and I will be bonded to those people for life,” he said.At one point, he spotted four people on the ledge of a roof of a farm supply store where he was able to set down one skid, making three different trips to pick them all up. One was a woman who said she had watched her husband get swept away and had become separated from her daughter, who was on the roof of a nearby gas station. Boyers touched down and rescued the daughter too.The rescues of four of those people were caught on video by Jeani Rice-Cranford, who lives on a nearby hilltop and helped shelter the victims in her home afterward. “I’ve never seen anything like that,” Rice-Cranford said. “Not in real life.”Rice-Cranford and others had been lined up along the roadside — helplessly watching and listening to the screams — for more than two hours when Boyers showed up. During the rescue “there was a gust of wind, and the helicopter kind of shifted,” Rice-Cranford said. “We all just held our breath. We were just watching with our mouths open, hoping and praying that he would be able to get them.”That rescue stands out in Among’s mind. They got the mother first, “then we got the daughter and they reunited on the ground,” she said. “They were both hugging each other. It was very emotional.”At another point, they saw a house on a rise, surrounded by floodwaters but not yet engulfed. Boyers touched down, picking up two men, and saw a girl in the window who refused to come out. He flew out, dropped off one of the men and Among, and brought the other man back with him to hoist the girl into the helicopter. When he landed again, he was able to rescue the girl and a woman who was with her.”I’m in a little hole with power lines all around. It takes enormous energy to take off vertically like that,” he said. So he left the man briefly and then came back for him. “I just kept doing that over and over again until I was low on fuel.”All the time, he knew he really was not supposed to be doing any of this.”Every landing was pretty dangerous,” he said. He’s already had a conversation with the Federal Aviation Administration about it.”I know the FAA can take my license away if they see me flying like that,” he said. He assured them that he did not charge anyone for the rescue, no one was hurt, the helicopter was not damaged, and there were no law enforcement helicopters in the area. After he left Waverly, he stopped at an airport in the nearby town of Dickson to refuel and heard that the state police and National Guard still had not flown in because of the bad weather.Boyers said he heard from the woman who originally called him in her desperate search for a helicopter anywhere near Waverly. She said her family was safe, but he doesn’t even know if he rescued them or someone else did.Pulling people from the floodwaters isn’t the scariest thing he’s ever done, Boyers said. That would have to be flying through clouds on instruments only, with some of those instruments out of order.”Literally, it just felt like I was working,” he said. “Obviously I tabled the feeling wrenching in everyone’s stomach because of the devastation.”
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Increase in South China Sea Naval Activity Expected to Provoke Beijing
An increase in world naval activity in the disputed South China Sea will prompt the strategic waterway’s largest claimant, Beijing, to send more of its own ships as a way of showing others it won’t retreat, experts say. Two Indian navy warships and a Vietnamese navy frigate held exercises last week that started at a port in Vietnam and extended into firing drills and helicopter moves further at sea, the Indian Defense Ministry said on its website. It said the exercises were “in continuation with ongoing deployment of Indian Navy ships in the South China Sea” and “would be another step towards strengthening India-Vietnam defense relations.”Among other exercises in or near the sea, a Royal Canadian Navy warship joined Australian, Japanese and U.S. naval vessels for a coordinated workout in January. Ships from Australia, India, Japan and the United States scheduled their annual Malabar exercises near Guam – the U.S. territory closest to Asia – for August 26-29.Since about the start of the year, warships from eight countries with no actual maritime claims have passed through or near the South China Sea.Western Countries Send Ships to South China Sea in Pushback Against Beijing Western governments see an urgency to help the US government reduce Beijing’s reach in the waterway that supports marine shipping and fossil fuel, scholars say China claims about 90% of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea, overlapping waters five other governments also claim. Chinese officials point to maritime documents dating back to dynastic times as support for their claim. The others cite a United Nations convention on sea usage.People’s Liberation Army Navy ships are expected to travel the sea more often and step up the frequency of exercises, scholars believe. China already held naval exercises near its southern coast this month, following a round in January and another in March.Officials in Beijing have indicated they hold exercises largely in response to U.S. movements. The People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command “will always remain on high alert” and “resolutely safeguard” China’s sovereignty, a senior colonel said in August last year after it had “warned off” a U.S. guided-missile destroyer.China fears the dispute is becoming more “internationalized” because of the spike in foreign navy operations and that it has lost its clout to discuss sovereignty disputes one-on-one with other Asian states, said Yun Sun, senior fellow and co-director of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington.Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam – all militarily weaker than China – lay claims in the sea. They value the sea for its fisheries, undersea fossil fuel reserves and marine shipping lanes. Vietnam and the Philippines have spoken out against China’s ship movement and land reclamation at disputed islets.“The more foreign vessels, the more need that China will identify for military exercises to show it’s not scared [and] it’s vigorously using military capability to define and defend national interests,” Sun said.China will probably react to each foreign exercise with something comparable, though actual clashes are unlikely, said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City.“What happens after these [foreign] ships come into the South China Sea really depends on China’s reaction, because always China tends to overreact to every vessel passage in the South China Sea,” he said.Countries from outside the region often pair their exercises with statements opposing a single country’s control of the whole sea, another irritant to Beijing. The Southeast Asian maritime claimants now “have some leverage” and are “not taking on China alone,” Sun said. A country such as Vietnam might now feel “emboldened” to step up its drilling for undersea oil and gas, she said. “It is gradually offsetting China’s dominance in the region and also offsetting or attacking China’s hegemonic desire in that part of the world,” Sun said.China would bolster its own exercises along with diplomatic protests against the non-Asian naval exercises, said Shariman Lockman, senior foreign policy and security studies analyst with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia. The country is likely to “act professionally” to avoid any wider conflict, though, he said.“They will make a lot of noise,” Lockman said. “They will react. But I think they are also wary about prompting anything bigger.”
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Analysts: Taiwan and Afghanistan Don’t Compare, Despite Chinese Media Reports
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan fails any comparison to Washington’s role in Taiwan because no American troops are stationed on the island and Taiwan’s most likely enemy, China, lacks any physical stronghold there, analysts told VOA this week after Chinese media linked the two situations.Conversely, they add, the United States is better placed to help Taiwan now with part of its military budget no longer tied up in Afghanistan, and China is probably using its media to discredit Washington.A US Marine escorts US Department of State personnel to be processed for evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 15, 2021. (US Marine Corps photo)With the rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the American troop withdrawal, China’s government-backed, English-language Global Times newspaper suggested on August 16 that Taiwan could suffer the same sudden pullout of U.S. forces as has Afghanistan.“Now the rapidly changing situation in Afghanistan has even worried some in the island of Taiwan and sounded a warning bell to secessionists there, as it’s not the first time the U.S. has abandoned its allies and the so-called alliances, which are made use of only as chess pieces in Washington’s global strategy,” the Global Times editorial said.The Afghanistan-Taiwan comparison doesn’t work, however, political science scholars say.“There is no U.S. pullout that could be envisioned there, and so there’s no prospect that Taiwan is going to collapse anytime soon,” said Scott Harold, a Washington-based senior political scientist with the Rand Corp. research organization.“Taiwan is not connected to China by a land border, and there is not an active insurgency going on inside Taiwan,” he said.In Afghanistan, the Taliban already controlled parts of the country before the United States withdrew. U.S. troops reached Afghanistan in late 2001 to look for al-Qaida operatives after that year’s September 11 terrorist attacks.In another contrast with Afghanistan, Taiwan’s democratic government is stable and its own military well established, Harold said. Taiwan and Japan Ruling Parties to Hold First Security Talks The announcement of the talks was condemned by Beijing, which claims self-ruled, democratic Taiwan and opposes countries having official contacts with TaipeiWithdrawal of troops from Afghanistan stops a “drain” of U.S. taxpayer money, he added. The United States had spent $2.26 trillion on the war in Afghanistan as of April, including operations in Pakistan, the Watson Institute of International & Public Affairs at Brown University estimated.The intents of U.S. engagement in Afghanistan and Taiwan differ markedly too, said Michael Shoebridge, director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Defense, Strategy and National Security program.“In one way the U.S. and its coalition partners, which include Australia and NATO members, were doing things to Afghanistan, whereas in the Indo-Pacific and in cases like Taiwan, the Americans are working with their security partners and allies for joint interests and ends,” he said.U.S. officials are bound by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to consider defending Taiwan if needed. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, backed by a political party with an especially guarded view toward China, and former U.S. President Donald Trump deepened relations with a flurry of senior-level visits, U.S. Navy ship passages in the Taiwan Strait and additional arms sales.U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reinforced the U.S. commitment to Taiwan at the department’s press briefing August 19.“We do have an abiding interest in peace and security across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.“We consider this central to the security and stability of the broader region, of the broader Indo-Pacific. Events elsewhere in the world, whether that’s in Afghanistan or any other region, are not going to change that.” he told reporters. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, though the two sides have been separately ruled since Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong’s Communists and retreated to the island.Taiwan regards China as a military foe, as Beijing has not renounced use of force to bring Taiwan under its flag. Beijing usually protests any U.S. military aid to Taiwan as well as major strides in political relations.China, as a longstanding government, should hesitate in casting itself as a Taliban-like aggressor, analysts caution. The Taliban was a rebel insurgency until this month.“The Chinese Communist Party and Taliban both use military might to obtain their political power, but in terms of political systems the two can’t be so simply compared,” said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei.“If you want to make that kind of comparison, couldn’t someone say the modern Vietnamese Communist Party is the Taliban?” Huang said. “So, we need to be extremely careful.”Chinese media, most of which are government-run, probably meant for their Taiwan-Afghanistan comments to discredit the United States as an ally, said Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington.“They are trying to use the case of Afghanistan to sow the seed of doubt among the Taiwanese and also to demonstrate to the international community that U.S. commitment is unreliable,” Sun said.The United States “abandoned” allies in South Vietnam and eventually evacuated most U.S. citizens in Saigon, the Global Times report says. Two years ago, it adds, U.S. troops withdrew from northern Syria “abruptly and abandoned their allies.” Taiwan, the commentary adds, “is the region that relies on the protection of the U.S. the most in Asia”.Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Party spokesperson Hsieh Pei-fen said in an August 19 social media statement that the issues in Taiwan and Afghanistan are “different by nature.”VOA’s Elizabeth Lee contributed to this report.
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For North Korean Defectors, Pandemic Severs Few Remaining Links to Home
When Hong Gang-chul, a North Korean border guard, decided to escape his homeland in 2013, he knew his relationship with his family would never be the same.Hong, who had helped other North Koreans escape, left the country in a hurry, believing he was wanted by North Korean authorities.In doing so, he left two young daughters with their mother in North Korea. When he later began to arrange for them to defect, they refused.A stocky, soft-spoken 48-year-old, Hong now lives in a simple apartment on the outskirts of Seoul, where he looks after his elderly mother, who also fled the North.Like many defectors, Hong at times struggles to adjust to his new life in South Korea.In North Korea, he manned a guard post along the demilitarized zone; now, he hosts a YouTube channel and works as a writer and commentator on North Korea issues.When punditry doesn’t provide enough income, he takes work as a low-skilled laborer at construction sites — anything to scrape together enough to send his daughters money at least once a year.“It’s impossible now for me to do the things a typical father would do for his children,” he told VOA in a matter-of-fact tone that only partly hides his distress. “The only thing I can do to look after them at this point is to send money.”North Korean escapees have long sent funds to relatives back home using a network of brokers who smuggle cash and goods across what used to be a relatively porous border with China. The remittances can be a major source of income in North Korea, where the economy is tightly regulated.Such money transfers have become trickier and much more expensive during the coronavirus pandemic. Many North Korean officials who used to look the other way, or who even accepted bribes to assist with smuggling, now report brokers to authorities, amid a wider crackdown on cross-border activity.The increased risk has driven prices way up. Before the pandemic, remittance brokers would typically charge a commission of around 30%, but that figure is now closer to 50%, according to several Seoul-based defectors and activists.“The money I send to North Korea has basically been cut in half,” said Hong, who also cited unstable foreign currency exchange rates in the North.Some brokers charge as much as 70% commission, he added.Links severedThe remittance crackdown is one of many ways the coronavirus pandemic is severing the already fragile links between North Korean defectors and their families back home.Since the pandemic began, North Korea has imposed one of the world’s toughest lockdowns, not only sealing its external borders but also expanding domestic travel restrictions.As a result, many defectors, including Hong, haven’t heard from their families in months.That is partly because brokers often help pass messages between separated family members, according to Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea, a group that helps North Korean defectors settle in the South.Even for North Koreans who talk with the outside world via smuggled Chinese cellphones, communication has become much harder.“Most of the time people are not making calls from inside their house. They are moving around to other places close to the border,” either to get a better signal or avoid state surveillance, Park said.However, any movement is now difficult, especially near the border, he added.‘Worse than ever’The crackdown on money brokers seems to have become especially intense in the last several months.The Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that relies on a network of anonymous sources inside North Korea, reported a “massive campaign” of broker arrests beginning in May.Whereas brokers who were caught used to receive three to five years of reeducation as punishment, North Korean authorities have now tripled those sentences to 10 to 15 years, the Daily NK reported.“The punishment is worse than ever,” said Ju Chan-yang, another Seoul-based defector, who told VOA she has stopped trying to send money to North Korea altogether.Even when offered a 70% commission, a broker refused to send money from one of her friends to a family member in Pyongyang who has cancer and needed money for treatment, Ju said.No escapeNorth Korea’s lockdown is also preventing defections, which have plummeted to historic lows.In 2019, 1,047 defectors arrived in South Korea, according to data from Seoul’s Unification Ministry. In 2020, only 229 defectors arrived in South Korea.During the second quarter of 2021, only two North Koreans reached the South. That is the smallest quarterly figure since Seoul began counting in 2003.Lee Se-jun, a South Korea-based defection broker, told VOA he has not helped facilitate an escape from North Korea in over a year, due to the intense security buildup on the North Korean side of the border.Another factor is the skyrocketing cost of defections.Hong, the former North Korean border guard, said it now costs up to $21,000 for North Koreans to defect, compared to a previous rate of about $13,000.No end in sightThe North Korean pandemic restrictions may not be relaxed anytime soon.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly warned of “prolonged” anti-epidemic measures, even as his government continues to insist it has detected no coronavirus cases.Many of those who have escaped North Korea now acknowledge it may be a long time before they will hear from family.“It’s a real double whammy,” said Park. “Along with everything else, so much of the contact is being shut off at the time when North Korean people face their biggest challenges in 20 years.”
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US Supreme Court Allows Evictions to Resume During Pandemic
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is allowing evictions to resume across the United States, blocking the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.The court’s action late Thursday ends protections for roughly 3.5 million people in the United States who said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August.The court said in an unsigned opinion that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reimposed the moratorium Aug. 3, lacked the authority to do so under federal law without explicit congressional authorization. The justices rejected the administration’s arguments in support of the CDC’s authority.”If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,” the court wrote.The three liberal justices dissented. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the three, pointed to the increase in COVID-19 caused by the delta variant as one of the reasons the court should have left the moratorium in place. “The public interest strongly favors respecting the CDC’s judgment at this moment, when over 90% of counties are experiencing high transmission rates,” Breyer wrote. It was the second loss for the administration this week at the hands of the high court’s conservative majority. On Tuesday, the court effectively allowed the reinstatement of a Trump-era policy forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings. The new administration had tried to end the Remain in Mexico program, as it is informally known.On evictions, President Joe Biden acknowledged the legal headwinds the new moratorium would likely encounter. But Biden said that even with doubts about what courts would do, it was worth a try because it would buy at least a few weeks of time for the distribution of more of the $46.5 billion in rental assistance Congress had approved.The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the pace of distribution has increased and nearly a million households have been helped. But only about 11% of the money, just over $5 billion, has been distributed by state and local governments, the department said.The administration has called on state and local officials to “move more aggressively” in distributing rental assistance funds and urged state and local courts to issue their own moratoriums to “discourage eviction filings” until landlords and tenants have sought the funds.FILE – A March on Billionaire Landlords is seen in New York City in August 2020.A handful of states, including California, Maryland and New Jersey, have put in place their own temporary bans on evictions. In a separate order earlier this month, the high court ended some protections for New York residents who had fallen behind on their rents during the pandemic.The high court hinted strongly in late June that it would take this path if asked again to intervene. At that time, the court allowed an earlier pause on evictions to continue through the end of July.But four conservative justices would have set the moratorium aside then and a fifth, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said Congress would have to expressly authorize a new pause on evictions. Neither house of Congress has passed a new evictions moratorium.The administration at first allowed the earlier moratorium to lapse July 31, saying it had no legal authority to allow it to continue. But the CDC issued a new moratorium days later as pressure mounted from lawmakers and others to help vulnerable renters stay in their homes as the coronavirus’ delta variant surged. The moratorium had been scheduled to expire Oct. 3.Landlords in Alabama and Georgia who challenged the earlier evictions ban quickly returned to court, where they received a sympathetic hearing. U.S. Judge Dabney Friedrich, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said the new moratorium was beyond the CDC’s authority.But Friedrich said she was powerless to stop it because of an earlier ruling from the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., that sits above her. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit likewise refused to put the CDC order on hold, prompting the landlords’ emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.The earlier versions of the moratorium, first ordered during Trump’s presidency, applied nationwide and were put in place out of fear that people who couldn’t pay their rent would end up in crowded living conditions like homeless shelters and help spread the virus.The new moratorium temporarily halted evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmissions and would cover areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives.The Biden administration argued that the rise in the delta variant underscored the dangers of resuming evictions in areas of high transmission of COVID-19. But that argument did not win broad support at the high court.
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Biden Vows to Hunt Down Those Responsible for 2 Suicide Bombings in Kabul
At least 13 U.S. troops and dozens of Afghans were killed Thursday by two Islamic State suicide bombings at and near the Kabul international airport, which has been so critical to the ongoing evacuation and has so far brought out more than 100,000 people. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the latest.
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Nigeria, Russia Sign Military Agreement
Abuja and Moscow have signed an agreement for the former to buy nearly $1 billion in military equipment and services, Nigeria’s ambassador to Russia, Abdullahi Shehu, told VOA.The Nigerian Embassy released a statement that said the agreement “provides a legal framework for the supply of military equipment, provision of after sales services, training of personnel in respective educational establishments and technology transfer, among others.”Reuters reported in July that U.S. lawmakers had put a hold on a proposal to sell almost $1 billion worth of weapons to Nigeria over concerns about possible human rights abuses by the government.When asked if the agreement reached with Russia was influenced by the failure to secure such a deal with the U.S. government, Shehu said no.”As I stated after opening, after the signing ceremony, I said clearly that Nigeria is not looking for alternatives but complementarity and mutual benefits,” Shehu, who is in Russia, said in a telephone interview with VOA.”So the fact that Nigeria has signed agreement with Russia does not affect Nigeria’s relationship and cooperation with its strategic partners around the world.”The Nigerian ambassador added, “So to us, the signing of this agreement is in furtherance of our bilateral cooperation with the Russian Federation in this area.”The embassy statement described the pact as “a landmark development” in the countries’ bilateral relations.Shehu said training was one aspect of the military cooperation agreement between the two countries.”So I believe that as soon as the agreement comes into force, both countries will discuss what would be Nigeria’s needs and how the Russian Federation can assist Nigeria in such direction,” he said.Nigeria already uses some Russian fighter jets and helicopters, alongside military equipment purchased from Western powers such as the United States, according to Reuters.A U.S. State Department spokesperson, speaking on background, told VOA in a statement, “Nigeria is a critical partner in the fight against terrorism in Africa. … Our security cooperation with Nigeria aims to enable the Nigerian government to better protect its citizens and defeat terrorist groups that threaten U.S. interests, while respecting human rights and the law of armed conflict.”The spokesperson said U.S. military assistance included military education and training, as well as training and equipping “law enforcement and judiciary professionals” in an array of priorities, from “stopping banditry to protecting intellectual property rights to more effectively addressing trafficking in persons and gender-based violence.”Grace Alheri Abdu of VOA Hausa service and VOA’s Nike Ching at the State Department contributed to this article. Some information also came from Reuters.
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Tropical Storm Ida Likely to Become Major Hurricane
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Thursday that Tropical Storm Ida in the Caribbean Sea was likely to become a major hurricane and reach the United States on Sunday.In its latest advisory, the center said an Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter plane determined that Ida had formed and was about 160 kilometers (100 miles) west-southwest of Jamaica, moving northwest about 22 kph (14 mph).The storm had maximum sustained winds of about 65 kph (40 mph). Forecasters said they expected it to strengthen into a hurricane as it moves to the west of Cuba and into the southern Gulf of Mexico.”There is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge, damaging hurricane-force winds, and heavy rainfall Sunday and Monday, especially along the coast of Louisiana,” the hurricane center said.Forecasters fear dramatic strengthening as the storm moves over the Gulf of Mexico. On her Twitter account, Mississippi State University atmospheric scientist Kim Wood said the storm track would take it over the warmest waters in the gulf.She said the water in the area was about 30 degrees Celsius to a depth of 40 meters. “I don’t have words for that,” she said in the tweet.Such extremely warm waters favor rapid strengthening after Ida enters the gulf Friday.Forecasters said that while there was still a great deal of uncertainty, the forecast track would take the storm into Louisiana, which was hit hard by three major hurricanes last year. The hurricane center was already warning of a “life-threatening” storm surge when the storm makes landfall and the potential for damaging winds and flooding rain.Forecasters said the storm track was still coming into focus and could shift in the next several days. They urged concerned citizens in the potential path to continue to watch the storm’s movement.
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Gunmen Release Students in Northern Nigeria 3 Months Later
Gunmen have released some of the children kidnapped from a school in northern Nigeria back in May, some of whom were as young as 5 years old, the school’s head teacher said late Thursday.Abubakar Garba Alhassan told The Associated Press that the freed students were on their way to the state capital, Minna, but added he could not confirm the exact number freed.Authorities have said that 136 children were abducted along with several teachers when gunmen on motorcycles attacked the Salihu Tanko Islamic School in Niger state. Other preschoolers were left behind as they could not keep pace when the gunmen hurriedly moved those abducted into the forest.Alhassan did not provide details of their release, but parents of the students have over the past weeks struggled to raise ransoms demanded by their abductors. There was no immediate comment from police or the Niger governor’s office.The release, though, came a day after local media quoted one parent as saying six of the children had died in captivity.More than 1,000 students have been forcibly taken from their schools during those attacks, according to an AP tally of figures previously confirmed by the police. Although most of those kidnapped have been released, at least 200 are still held by their abductors.The government has been unable to halt the spate of abductions for ransom. As a result, many schools have been forced to close because of concerns about the kidnapping risk.After one abduction at a university in Kaduna state earlier this year, gunmen demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom. They killed five other students to compel the students’ parents to raise the money, and later released 14 others.
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UN Chief: No Military Solution to Ethiopia Crisis
The U.N. secretary-general said Thursday that there is “no military solution” to Ethiopia’s 10-month-old conflict, and he urged the parties to stop fighting and open a dialogue.”In every sense, the future of Ethiopia is at stake,” Antonio Guterres told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.Last week, in a bid to end the conflict, the U.N. chief appealed for a cease-fire, unrestricted aid access and an Ethiopian-led political dialogue. He told the council these steps are essential to preserve Ethiopia’s unity and the stability of the region and to ease the humanitarian crisis.FILE – In this file photo taken June 24, 2021, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses media representatives in Brussels.”I believe there is an opportunity to address the conflict peacefully, which the parties must seize in the interest of Ethiopia,” he told the council. “Conditions must be created for the start of an inclusive national political dialogue to address the underlying causes of the conflict and ensure Ethiopian voices direct the pathway to peace.”He said that he has been in close contact with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and has received a letter from the leader of the Tigray region in response to his appeal.”The U.N. is ready to work together with the African Union and other key partners to support such a dialogue,” he said.Fighting after cease-fireOn June 28, the Ethiopian government announced an immediate and unilateral humanitarian cease-fire after nearly eight months of fighting with Tigrayan forces. But hostilities have continued, and the prime minister recently urged all Ethiopians to join the fight.Tigray forces reclaimed control of the regional capital, Mekelle, after Ethiopian government forces withdrew. In the weeks since the cease-fire was announced, they have expanded their presence into the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara, where fighting has escalated, displacing tens of thousands of civilians.Guterres also urged the Security Council to stay united and continue to pay attention to the situation.Council members welcomed Thursday’s announcement by the chairperson of the African Union Commission, appointing former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as high representative for the Horn of Africa region.Thursday was only the second time during the conflict that the council held a public meeting to discuss the situation. Britain, Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway and the United States requested the session.”Time is of the essence,” Irish envoy Geraldine Byrne Nason said. “The very lives of the Ethiopian people are at stake. Now is the time for action.”FILE – Displaced Tigrayans queue to receive food donated by local residents at a reception center for the internally displaced in Mekelle in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 9, 2021.Of the 6 million people who live in Tigray, 5.2 million need some level of food assistance, the U.N. says. Over 400,000 people are already living in faminelike conditions, and another 1.8 million people are on the brink of famine.”Let’s be clear: This shortage is not because food is unavailable; it is because the Ethiopian government is still limiting humanitarian aid and personnel, including land convoys and air access,” said Richard Mills, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N.”We are troubled by disturbing reports that the Ethiopian government is intentionally withholding humanitarian assistance to starving Ethiopians, and these impediments to the movement of humanitarian supplies must be removed immediately, and trucks must be allowed to enter and deliver lifesaving assistance to Tigray,” he said.Ethiopian envoy Taye Atske Selassie Amde dismissed accusations that the government is impeding aid deliveries, saying it is well aware of its obligations and is facilitating deliveries.
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Despite Increase in Vaccinations, COVID-19 Continues to Surge in US
More Americans are getting vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, but the virus is continuing to surge.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the United States had administered 365,767,674 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 202,961,676 people having received at least one dose and 172,171,009 people fully vaccinated.The data, released Thursday morning, showed 61.1% of the population had received at least one dose of the vaccine, with 51.9% fully vaccinated; 71.5% of U.S. residents 12 and older had received at least one shot, while 60.7% were fully vaccinated. Among adults 18 and older, 73.5% had received one shot, while 62.8% were fully vaccinated.U.S. residents over 65 represented the most highly vaccinated demographic, with 91.7% having one shot and 81.4% fully vaccinated. The CDC said 434,582,185 total doses of vaccine had been distributed throughout the country.Despite the vaccines, several U.S. states are reporting more COVID-19 patients in hospitals than at any other time during the pandemic, with Texas and Kentucky joining the growing list.Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii, Mississippi and Oregon have all reported record hospitalizations.Worse than a year ago”The numbers now … are actually in many ways worse than last August,” Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee, told CNN on Wednesday. “Last August, we had a fully susceptible population, [and] we didn’t have a vaccine. Now, we have half the country vaccinated … but nonetheless, the numbers are worse.”The delta variant is one big game-changer,” he said.One hospital system in Texas is reporting a record number of children being hospitalized, as well as a record number of cases.”We have reached new records in the delta surge,” Dr. Jim Versalovic, interim pediatrician-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital, told CNN.”We had reached a high over 900 cases in one week, in early January of 2021. That was our winter surge peak. We have now exceeded 1,300 cases in one week.”Deaths from the virus are running at more than 1,100 per day nationwide, which is the highest since mid-March.In response to the surging virus, Illinois became the latest state to force health care workers and educators to get vaccinated. It joined a growing number of states with similar mandates.Illinois is also bringing back indoor mask mandates.“Our current vaccination levels are not enough to blunt the ferocity of the delta variant hospitalization surges,” Governor J. B. Pritzker said at a Chicago news conference. “In some regions, hospital administrators are asking for more help to manage the sheer number of incoming patients who — I’ll emphasize again — are almost exclusively individuals who have chosen not to have gotten the lifesaving vaccine.”Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Tropical Depression in Caribbean Likely to Become Major Hurricane
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says a tropical depression in the Caribbean Sea is likely to strengthen into a major hurricane that could threaten southern parts the United States on Sunday.
In its latest advisory, the center says the tropical depression about 180 kilometers south-southwest of Jamaica is moving to the northwest and is expected to continue in that direction over the next few days.
The storm system has maximum sustained winds of about 55 km/h but forecasters expect it to strengthen into what will be known as Tropical Storm Ida (and then a hurricane) as it moves to the west of Cuba and into the southern Gulf of Mexico.
Forecasters fear dramatic strengthening as the storm moves over the Gulf of Mexico. On her Twitter account, Mississippi State University atmospheric scientist Kim Wood said the storm track will take it over the warmest waters in the gulf.
She said the water in the area is about 30 degrees Celsius to a depth of 40 meters. “I don’t have words for that,” she said in the tweet.
Such extremely warm waters favor rapid strengthening after Ida enters the gulf Friday.
Forecasters say that while there is still a great deal of uncertainty, the forecast track would take the storm into Louisiana, which was hit hard by three major hurricanes last year. The hurricane center is already warning of a “life-threatening” storm surge when the storm makes landfall and the potential for damaging winds and flooding rain.
Forecasters say the storm track is still coming into focus and could shift in the next several days. They urged concerned citizens in the potential path to continue to watch the storm’s movement.
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WHO Says COVID-19 Wave ‘Stabilizing’ in Africa
A World Health Organization official said Thursday that the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent appeared to be stabilizing, but numbers of infections are still very high, with almost 248,000 new cases reported in the past week alone. During a virtual briefing on the status of the pandemic in Africa, WHO Africa Regional Director Matshidiso Moeti said that 24 countries were seeing a resurgence of infections and that deaths were rising in eight countries. She said, “This is a preventable tragedy if African countries can get fair access to the vaccines.” Moeti said the good news was that 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the past week, triple that of the previous week. She said many of the doses came from donations and sharing arrangements through the WHO-administered COVAX vaccine cooperative. She said 117 million doses were due to arrive in Africa in the coming month. But to meet the goal of having at least 10 percent of the continent vaccinated by the end of September, she said, another 34 million doses will be needed. The WHO Africa director urged nations with ample supplies to keep sharing doses. She said, “With international solidarity we can protect those at highest risk of COVID-19 in all countries in the world.” She also encouraged African governments to ensure that staffing and financial resources were available when shots arrived “to get vaccines into the arms of our populations. No precious doses should be wasted.”Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
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African Governments Commit to Eradicating Poliovirus Type 2
African countries have committed to ending all forms of polio after cases of vaccine-derived polio increased last year, partly because of disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Africa had been declared free of the wild poliovirus, after four years without a single case. But a variant has since returned in communities where not enough children have received the vaccine against it.Addressing a session of the World Health Organization’s regional committee for Africa, the director of Uganda’s Health Ministry, Henry Mwebesa, said his country would carry out a national campaign to vaccinate children against polio before the end of the year.“The challenges we anticipate is vaccine hesitancy, which has been common even with the COVID vaccines, and we expect to continue during this period. But we will try our best to mobilize the whole country, cultural leaders, the political leadership and professional associations to assist us to mobilize the communities to address the challenge, the hesitance, to make sure that all our children below five years have received this novel OPV,” Mwebesa said.The novel Oral Polio Vaccine is key to stopping polio outbreaks. Last year, Africa was declared free of wild poliovirus.In the last three years, however, 23 African states have experienced outbreaks of vaccine-derived poliovirus 2. That’s a strain of weakened poliovirus that was included in the oral virus but mutated over time and now behaves like the wild or naturally occurring virus. WHO regional director Matshidiso Moeti said the continent needs to do more to eradicate that form of the poliovirus.“Our shared objective is to stop all polioviruses by 2023 and to integrate a polio infrastructure to strengthen border disease surveillance and outbreak response systems, as well as immunization policies,” Moeti said.Ethiopia has recorded seven cases of poliovirus type 2 in 2021. The country’s health minister, Lia Tadesse, says her government is trying to address the current outbreaks. “We all agree that the quality of any campaign is as good as our preparedness. We follow our preparedness to the national foundation mechanisms using electronic data tools and self-assessment at the different levels up to the district and then validate those assessments,” Tadesse said.More than 100 million African children have been vaccinated against the poliovirus since July 2020. But many others missed the vaccinations due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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