China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Cambodia, where’s he expected to meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials to discuss COVID-19 and other regional issues.Cambodia’s foreign ministry said Wang’s meetings on Sunday and Monday would include discussions of trade and security as well.Wrapping up a visit to neighboring Vietnam on Saturday, Wang said China planned to donate 3 million vaccine doses to that country, which is under a lockdown to contain a COVID-19 surge.China is Cambodia’s biggest investor and closest political partner. Beijing’s support allows Cambodia to disregard Western concerns about its poor record in human and political rights, and in turn Cambodia generally supports Beijing’s geopolitical positions on issues such as its territorial claims in the South China Sea.In recent months, the United States has expressed concern about their ties and urged Cambodia’s leaders to maintain an independent and balanced foreign policy that would be in its people’s best interests.The concerns partly have focused on China’s construction of new facilities at Ream Naval Base in Cambodia and the potential for its military to have future basing rights there.Ream faces the Gulf of Thailand that lies adjacent to the South China Sea, and holding basing rights in Cambodia would extend Beijing’s strategic military profile considerably.
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Month: September 2021
Pope in Orban’s Hungary at Start of 4-Day Europe Trip
Pope Francis arrived in Hungary early Sunday at the start of his first big international outing since undergoing intestinal surgery in July. He will celebrate a Mass and meet with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose right-wing, anti-immigrant policies clash with Francis’ call for countries to welcome refugees.Francis’ arrival at Budapest airport opened his four-day trip primarily to Slovakia with a seven-hour stop Sunday in the Hungarian capital. He is passing through Budapest to celebrate the closing Mass of an international conference on the Eucharist, though he will also meet with Hungarian religious figures and Hungary’s president and prime minister.Organizers expect as many as 75,000 people at the Mass in Heroes’ Square, which is going ahead with few coronavirus restrictions even as Hungary, like the rest of Europe, is battling infections fueled by the highly contagious delta variant.Despite pleas from the Hungarian Chamber of Doctors, congress organizers decided not to require COVID-19 vaccinations, tests, masks or social distancing for attendance. Organizers, however, said they had ordered 30,000 masks to distribute as well as hand sanitizer, and urged all attending to be prudent.During the flight from Rome, Francis seemed in good form and stayed so long greeting journalists at the back of the plane that an aide had to tell him to get back to his seat because it was time to land.Francis said he was happy to be resuming foreign trips again after the coronavirus lull and then his own recovery this summer from surgery to remove a 33-centimeter section of his colon. “Bad weeds never die,” he quipped about his recovery, quoting an Argentine dictum.The Vatican and trip organizers have stressed that Francis has only been invited to Hungary to celebrate the Mass – not make a proper state and pastoral visit as he is doing in Slovakia. But Francis and Orban disagree on a host of issues, top among them migration, and Francis’ limited stay in Budapest could indicate that he didn’t want to give Orban’s government the political boost of hosting a pope for a longer pilgrimage before the general election next spring.“At the beginning there were a lot who were angry (that Francis wasn’t staying longer), but now I think they understand,” said the Rev. Kornel Fabry, secretary general of the Eucharist conference.He noted that a majority of Hungarians back Orban’s migration policies, “that we shouldn’t bring the trouble into Europe but should help out where the trouble is.”Pope Francis, left, leaves by car upon arrival at Budapest International Airport in Budapest on Sept. 12, 2021, for a visit to Hungary.Orban has frequently depicted his government as a defender of Christian civilization in Europe and a bulwark against migration from Muslim-majority countries. Francis has expressed solidarity with migrants and refugees and criticized what he called “national populism advanced by governments like Hungary’s. He has urged governments to welcome and integrate as many migrants as they can.About 39% of Hungarians declared themselves to be Roman Catholic in a 2011 census, while 13% declared themselves to be Protestant, either Lutheran or Calvinist, a Protestant branch with which Orban is affiliated.Still, religious commitment in Hungary lags behind many of its neighbors. According to a 2018 survey by the Pew Research Center, only 14% of Hungarians said religion was an important part of their lives, and 17% said they attend religious services at least monthly.Despite that, registered churches have been major beneficiaries of state support under Orban since he returned to power in 2010. According to estimates by business website G7, contributions to churches from Hungary’s central budget rose from around $117 million in 2009 to more than $588 million in 2016.Additionally, around 3,000 places of worship have been built or restored using public funds since 2010, part of an effort by Orban’s government to advance what he calls “Christian democracy,” an alternative to liberal governance of which he is a frequent critic.Orban has been under fire for recent policies seen as targeting the rights of LGBT people, including a law passed in June forbidding the depiction of homosexuality or sex reassignment in media consumed by minors. The European Union’s executive branch launched two separate legal proceedings against Hungary’s government in July over what it called infringements on LGBT rights. The government says the measures, which were attached to a law that allows tougher penalties for pedophilia, seek only to protect children.Critics, though, have compared the legislation to Russia’s gay propaganda law of 2013, saying it wrongly conflates homosexuality with pedophilia as part of a campaign ploy to mobilize conservative voters before elections.The Roman Catholic Church, which has a dreadful record on protecting children from priestly predators, holds that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered,” and Francis recently authorized a statement saying priests can’t bless same-sex unions.But he has also called for the church to accompany the LGBT community and backed civil unions when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires as an alternative to gay marriage. He is seen as being much more welcoming of gays than his predecessors.As a result, some gay Catholics were welcoming Francis’ visit to Hungary, however brief, in hopes he might issue a message of encouragement.“Pope Francis has been extremely accepting of them, and I trust that for those who may still have some prejudices or reservations about LGBTQ people and other minorities, it will open their hearts a little bit and make them more accepting,” said Csaba Hegedus, a member of Hungary’s LGBT community and a practicing Catholic who planned to attend the pope’s Mass.
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Wildfire Forces Closure of Part of California Freeway
A wildfire near Castaic on Saturday has led to the closure of a part of a major freeway in Southern California, officials told local media.The fire, known as the Route Fire, reached 1.6 square kilometers, as of Saturday evening and forced the shutdown of a section of Interstate 5, the Angeles National Forest told KTLA-TV.KTLA reported that the Route Fire is threatening structures, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Santa Clarita Valley station.The fire was uncontained as of late Saturday, authorities said.Elsewhere in California, thunderstorms that dropped light rain gave some breathing room to crews struggling to quench the state’s massive wildfires but lightning sparked several new blazes in the drought-stricken north, fire officials said.The storms that rolled through Thursday night into Friday were followed by weekend forecasts of clear weather and a warming trend in fire areas into next week.The National Weather Service said there were more than 1,100 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in California between Thursday evening and Friday morning. Fire officials said lightning strikes ignited at least 17 fires.Firefighters were diverted from the huge Caldor Fire south of Lake Tahoe to fight multiple overnight lightning fires throughout El Dorado County, fire officials said. However, most of the blazes were kept to under 4 hectares.Three new fires were reported in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks in steep, dense forest areas of the Sierra Nevada.Slightly more than 1 centimeter of rain fell on portions of the Dixie Fire, which began in mid-July and has burned through huge swaths of the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades. The second-largest fire in California history has burned 3,859 square kilometers of land and more than 1,300 homes and other buildings. It was 59% contained.The rain wet tinder-dry vegetation and will cool down the fire for one or two days, which firefighters hoped to use to strengthen and expand fire lines in an effort to finally surround the blaze, fire officials said.
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Japan Says Suspected Chinese Submarine Seen Near Territorial Waters
Japan’s defense ministry said on Sunday that a submarine believed to be from China was spotted in waters near its southern islands, as maritime tensions persist in the Pacific.Japan’s navy on Friday morning identified a submerged vessel sailing northwest just outside territorial waters near Amami Oshima island, part of Kagoshima prefecture, the ministry said in a statement. A Chinese destroyer was also spotted in the vicinity.Tokyo has complained of numerous intrusions by Chinese vessels of its territorial waters and near disputed islands in recent years. China has often reacted angrily to U.S. ships sailing through disputed areas of the South China Sea in what Washington calls displays of freedom of navigation.Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, visiting Vietnam during a Southeast Asia trip, said those two countries should refrain from unilateral actions regarding the South China Sea that could complicate and magnify disputes.Saturday’s announcement said Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force identified the vessels in a contiguous zone, which is outside territorial waters where vessels are required to identify themselves. Still, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi instructed his staff “gather information and maintain vigilant surveillance with a sense of urgency,” the statement said.Officials at the Chinese Embassy could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday.The submarine continued underwater westward in the ocean near Yokoate Island, the ministry said.
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FBI Releases Newly Declassified Record on Sept. 11 Attacks
The FBI late Saturday released a newly declassified document related to logistical support given to two of the Saudi hijackers in the run-up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The document details contacts the hijackers had with Saudi associates in the U.S. but does not provide proof that senior Saudi government officials were complicit in the plot.Released on the 20th anniversary of the attacks, the document is the first investigative record to be disclosed since President Joe Biden ordered a declassification review of materials that for years have remained out of public view. The 16-page document is a summary of an FBI interview done in 2015 with a man who had frequent contact with Saudi nationals in the U.S. who supported the first hijackers to arrive in the country before the attacks.Biden last week ordered the Justice Department and other agencies to conduct a declassification review and release what documents they can over the next six months. He had encountered pressure from victims’ families, who have long sought the records as they pursue a lawsuit in New York alleging that Saudi government officials supported the hijackers.The heavily redacted document was disclosed on Saturday night, hours after Biden attended Sept. 11 memorial events in New York, Pennsylvania and northern Virginia. Victims’ relatives had earlier objected to Biden’s presence at ceremonial events as long as the documents remained classified.The Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks. The Saudi Embassy in Washington has said it supported the full declassification of all records as a way to “end the baseless allegations against the Kingdom once and for all.” The embassy said that any allegation that Saudi Arabia was complicit was “categorically false.”The trove of documents is being released at a politically delicate time for the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, two nations that have forged a strategic — if difficult — alliance, particularly on counterterrorism matters. The Biden administration in February released an intelligence assessment implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the 2018 killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but drew criticism from Democrats for avoiding a direct punishment of the crown prince himself.Victims’ relatives cheered the document’s release as a significant step in their effort to connect the attacks to Saudi Arabia.“The findings and conclusions in this FBI investigation validate the arguments we have made in the litigation regarding the Saudi government’s responsibility for the 9/11 attacks,” Jim Kreindler, a lawyer for the victims’ relatives, said in a statement. “This document, together with the public evidence gathered to date, provides a blueprint for how (al-Qaida) operated inside the US with the active, knowing support of the Saudi government.”That includes, he added, Saudi officials exchanging phone calls among themselves and al-Qaida operatives and then having “accidental meetings” with the hijackers while providing them with assistance to get settled and find flight schools.Regarding Sept. 11, there has been speculation of official involvement since shortly after the attacks, when it was revealed that 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis. Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida at the time, was from a prominent family in the kingdom.The U.S. investigated some Saudi diplomats and others with Saudi government ties who knew hijackers after they arrived in the U.S., according to documents that have already been declassified.Still, the 9/11 Commission report found in 2004 “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” the attacks that al-Qaida masterminded, though it noted Saudi-linked charities could have diverted money to the group.’Chance encounter’Particular scrutiny has centered on the first two hijackers to arrive in the U.S., Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar and support they received.In February 2000, shortly after their arrival in southern California, they encountered at a halal restaurant a Saudi national named Omar al-Bayoumi who helped them find and lease an apartment in San Diego, had ties to the Saudi government and had earlier attracted FBI scrutiny.Bayoumi has described his restaurant meeting with Hazmi and Mihdhar as a “chance encounter,” and the FBI during its interview made multiple attempts to ascertain if that characterization was accurate or if it had actually been arranged in advance.The 2015 interview that forms the basis of the document was of a man who was applying for U.S. citizenship and who years earlier had repeated contacts with Saudi nationals who investigators said provided “significant logistical support” to several of the hijackers. The man’s identity is redacted throughout the document, but he is described as having worked at the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles.That includes Bayoumi, according to the document.Also referenced in the document is Fahad al-Thumairy, at the time an accredited diplomat at the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles who investigators say led an extremist faction at his mosque. The document says communications analysis identified a seven-minute phone call in 1999 to the Saudi Arabian family home phone of two brothers who became future detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison.Both Bayoumi and Thumairy left the U.S. weeks before the attacks.
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Pope Francis Meets Viktor Orban in Worldview Clash
Pope Francis arrives in Budapest on Sunday morning to celebrate a Mass, with eyes focused on his meeting with the anti-migration Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.The head of 1.3 billion Catholics will have a half-hour meeting with Orban — accompanied by Hungarian President Janos Ader — in Budapest’s grand Fine Arts Museum, in what could be an awkward brief encounter.On the one side, Orban, a self-styled defender of “Christian Europe” from migration. On the other, Pope Francis, who urges help for the marginalized and those of all religions fleeing war and poverty.But the approach, eminently Christian according to the pope, has often been met with incomprehension among the faithful, particularly within the ranks of traditionalist Catholics.Over the last few years, there has been no love lost between Orban supporters in Hungary and the leader of the Catholic world.Pro-Orban media and political figures have launched barbs at the pontiff calling him “anti-Christian” for his pro-refugee sentiments, and the “Soros Pope”, a reference to the Hungarian-born liberal US billionaire George Soros, a right-wing bete-noire.Eyebrows have also been raised by the pontiff’s whirlwind visit to close the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress.His seven-hour-long stay in 9.8 million-population Hungary will be followed immediately by an official visit to smaller neighbor Slovakia of more than two days.”Pope Francis wants to humiliate Hungary by only staying a few hours,” said a pro-Orban television pundit.Born Jorge Bergoglio to a family of Italian emigrants to Argentina, the pope regularly reminds “old Europe” of its past, built on waves of new arrivals.And without ever naming political leaders he castigates “sovereigntists” who turn their backs on refugees with what he has called “speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934.”In April 2016, the pope said, “We are all migrants!” on the Greek island of Lesbos, gateway to Europe, bringing on board his plane three Syrian Muslim families whose homes had been bombed.Hungary HelpsIn contrast, Orban’s signature crusade against migration has included border fences and detention camps for asylum-seekers and provoked growing ire in Brussels.Orban’s supporters point instead to state-funded aid agency Hungary Helps which works to rebuild churches and schools in war-torn Syria and sends doctors to Africa.”The majority of Hungarians say the same thing: we should not bring the problem to Europe, but should help out where the problem is instead,” said Father Kornel Fabry, secretary general of the congress.Orban’s critics, however, accuse him of using Christianity as a shield to deflect criticism and a sword to attack opponents while targeting vulnerable minorities like migrants.Days before the pope’s arrival posters appeared on the streets of the Hungarian capital — where the city council is controlled by the anti-Orban opposition — reading “Budapest welcomes the Holy Father” and showing his quotes including pleas for solidarity and tolerance towards minorities.During the pope’s time in Budapest he will also meet the country’s bishops and representatives of various Christian congregations.He will also meet leaders of the 100,000-strong Hungarian Jewish community, the largest in Central Europe.Rounding off his stay he will celebrate the open-air mass on the capital’s vast Heroes’ Square. Orban — who is of Calvinist Protestant background — and his wife, who is a Catholic — are to attend.Around 75,000 people have registered to attend the mass, with screens and loudspeakers placed the length of a main boulevard near the square to allow others to follow the ceremony.The trip to Budapest was at the invitation of the congress and follows the path of John Paul II who also attended the event in 1985 in Nairobi, Kenya.It is the first papal trip to Hungary since Pope John Paul II in 1996.”To welcome the Holy Father is an honor for us, but the organizers have asked us to take care of the pope, who is not young anymore,” said Father Fabry.The 84-year-old pontiff’s 34th foreign trip comes two months after a colon operation that required a general anesthetic and a 10-day convalescence in hospital.
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A Tale of 2 COVID Vaccine Clinics: Lines in Kenya, Few Takers in Atlanta
Several hundred people line up every morning, starting before dawn, on a grassy area outside Nairobi’s largest hospital hoping to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Sometimes the line moves smoothly, while on other days, the staff tells them there’s nothing available and they should come back tomorrow.Halfway around the world, at a church in Atlanta in the U.S. state of Georgia, two workers with plenty of vaccine doses waited hours Wednesday for anyone to show up, whiling away the time by listening to music from a laptop. In six hours, one person came through the door.The dramatic contrast highlights the vast disparity around the world. In richer countries, people can often pick and choose from multiple available vaccines, walk into a site near their homes and get a shot in minutes. Pop-up clinics, such as the one in Atlanta, bring vaccines into rural areas and urban neighborhoods, but it is common for them to get very few takers.In the developing world, supply is limited and uncertain. Just more than 3% of people across Africa have been fully vaccinated, and health officials and citizens often have little idea what will be available from one day to the next. More vaccines have been flowing in recent weeks, but the World Health Organization’s director in Africa said Thursday that the continent will get 25% fewer doses than anticipated by the end of the year, in part because of the rollout of booster shots in wealthier counties such as the United States.Bidian Okoth said he spent more than three hours in line at a Nairobi hospital, only to be told to go home because there weren’t enough doses. But a friend who traveled to the U.S. got a shot almost immediately after his arrival there with a vaccine of his choice, “like candy,” he said.”We’re struggling with what time in the morning we need to wake up to get the first shot. Then you hear people choosing their vaccines. That’s super, super excessive,” he said.Okoth said his uncle died from COVID-19 in June and had given up twice on getting vaccinated because of the length of the lines, even though he was eligible because of his age. The death jolted Okoth, a health advocate, into seeking a dose for himself.He stopped at one hospital so often on his way to work that a doctor “got tired of seeing me” and told Okoth he would call him when doses were available. Late last month, after a new donation of vaccines arrived from Britain, he got his shot.The disparity comes as the U.S. is moving closer to offering booster shots to large segments of the population even as it struggles to persuade Americans to get vaccinated in the first place. President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans, including private-sector employees, as the country faces the surging COVID-19 delta variant.Riley Erickson poses for a photo at Springfield Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta on Sept. 8, 2021, where the disaster relief group CORE was offering COVID-19 vaccinations. The one person who showed up was a college student.About 53% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, and the country is averaging about 145,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day, along with about 1,600 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Africa has had more than 7.9 million confirmed cases, including more than 200,000 deaths, and the highly infectious delta variant recently drove a surge in new cases as well.John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters Thursday that “we have not seen enough science” to drive decisions on when to administer booster shots.”Without that, we are gambling,” he said, and urged countries to send doses to countries facing “vaccine famine” instead.In the U.S., vaccines are easy to find, but some people are hesitant to get them.At the church in northwest Atlanta, a nonprofit group offered the Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer vaccines for free without an appointment from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. But site manager Riley Erickson spent much of the day waiting in an air-conditioned room full of empty chairs, though the group had reached out to neighbors and the church had advertised the location to its large congregation.Erickson, with the disaster relief organization CORE, said the vaccination rate in the area was low and he wasn’t surprised by the small turnout. The one person who showed up was a college student.FILE – In this Aug. 20, 2021, photo, medical workers prepare to remove the body of a coronavirus victim in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Machakos, Kenya.”When you put the effort into going into areas where there’s less interest, that’s kind of the result,” he said. His takeaway, however, was that CORE needed to spend more time in the community.Margaret Herro, CORE’s Georgia director, said the group has seen an uptick in vaccinations at its pop-up sites in recent weeks amid a COVID-19 surge fueled by the delta variant and the FDA’s full approval of the Pfizer vaccine. It also has gone to meatpacking plants and other work locations, where turnout is better, and it plans to focus more on those places, Herro said.In Nairobi, Okoth believes there should be a global commitment to equity in the administration of vaccines so everyone has a basic level of immunity as quickly as possible.”If everyone at least gets a first shot, I don’t think anyone will care if others get even six booster shots,” he said.
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Second Tunisian Man Dies After Setting Himself Ablaze
A Tunisian man died in a hospital Saturday after setting himself on fire, witnesses and medics said, days after another burned himself alive to protest living conditions.Both acts recall the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, the street seller whose suicide by fire on Dec. 17, 2010, launched Tunisia’s revolution that in turn sparked the Arab Spring that toppled several autocratic leaders in the region.On Saturday, a 35-year-old man “set himself on fire on Habib Bourguiba Avenue” in the center of Tunis, the civil defense told AFP.The man, whose motives are still unknown, “suffered third-degree burns and was rushed to hospital,” a civil defense spokesperson added.Local media including state television later reported that he had died of his injuries.A witness, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the man had arrived at the iconic avenue in central Tunis accompanied by a younger man and tried to attract the attention of some journalists who were present there.The man then doused himself with flammable material that he set on fire with a lighter, the witness said.Police set up barricades in the area, and an AFP reporter saw a pair of burned shoes behind them shortly after the incident.Last week a young man wounded in the 2011 revolution burned himself alive after the government failed to provide compensation, his family said.Neji Hefiane, 26, died in a hospital on the southern outskirts of Tunis on Sept. 4 after having set himself alight in front of his family, his father said.Hefiane suffered gunshot wounds to the head during anti-regime protests in the early days of the revolution, according to his family, and although he was on an official list of people entitled to government aid, he received no compensation.”It was the injustice and marginalization he suffered that pushed my son to kill himself,” his father, Bechir Hefiane, said on Monday.He said he wrote to President Kais Saied explaining his son’s case and asking him to intervene on behalf of the struggling family that lives in a working-class Tunis district.”We’ve got no reply, even after my son’s death,” he added.
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Britain’s Raducanu, 18, Beats Canadian Fernandez, 19, to Win US Open
Unseeded British teenager Emma Raducanu went from qualifier to champion at the U.S. Open in just her second appearance at a Grand Slam tournament.Raducanu beat Canadian teenager Leylah Fernandez, 6-4, 6-3, in the final at Flushing Meadows on Saturday to become the first player to go from the preliminary qualifying rounds all the way to a major title in the professional era.The 18-year-old Raducanu, who is ranked 150th, won all 20 sets she played in New York — six in qualifying, 14 in the main draw — and is the first woman to win the singles championship without dropping a set since Serena Williams in 2014.This was the first major final between two teens since Williams, 17, beat Martina Hingis, 18, at the 1999 U.S. Open and the first between two unseeded women.Raducanu is the first British woman to win a Grand Slam trophy since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977.She is also the youngest player to claim a women’s major title since Maria Sharapova was 17 at Wimbledon in 2004.Fernandez was asked during a brief prematch interview in the hallway that leads from the locker room to the court entrance what she expected Saturday’s greatest challenge to be.”Honestly,” she responded, “I don’t know.”Fair point. Neither she nor Raducanu could have known what to expect in one of the unlikeliest final matchups in Grand Slam history.They both have played like veterans over these weeks in Flushing Meadows, with the poise and shot-making of veterans. The final was entertaining and, for the most part, even, filled with lengthy points and lengthy games. The talent and affinity for the big stage both possess is unmistakable.It took 28 minutes for merely four games, with a break and a hold apiece making it 2-all. Both blew chances at times. At others, both came up with the goods, producing on-the-run baseline excellence.The second set’s initial four games unfolded in the same manner — 2-all after a break and a hold apiece.One of the significant differences came at the start of points, because that is where Fernandez faltered more. She put only 58% of her first serves in, finished with five double-faults, helping Raducanu accumulate 18 break points.Raducanu converted four of those.The crowd was so quiet right before and during points that one could hear the right-handed Raducanu’s slap of a leg while waiting to receive serves or her exhale while swinging her racket.And the crowd — thrilled to be back after last year’s pandemic ban of all spectators — got so loud after them, especially celebrating along with the left-handed Fernandez’s physical trainer, who would leap out of his front-row corner seat and shake his fists when things went his player’s way.Fernandez’s group — including her mother, but not her father, who stayed home in Florida — was in the guest box assigned to the higher-ranked player. That’s a status Fernandez was unaccustomed to in the tournament as she beat four straight seeded women, each in three sets: defending champion Naomi Osaka and 2016 champ Angelique Kerber, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 5 Elina Svitolina.So Fernandez came in having spent more than 12½ hours on court through her six matches; Raducanu’s total was a tad more than 7½ hours in the main draw. That seemed to be a factor.
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US Pulls Missile Defenses in Saudi Arabia Amid Yemen Attacks
The U.S. has removed its most advanced missile defense system and Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, even as the kingdom faced continued air attacks from Yemen’s Houthi rebels, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show. The redeployment of the defenses from Prince Sultan Air Base outside Riyadh came as America’s Gulf Arab allies nervously watched the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, including their last-minute evacuations from Kabul’s besieged international airport. While tens of thousands of American forces remain across the Arabian Peninsula as a counterweight to Iran, Gulf Arab nations worry about the U.S.’s plans. Tensions remain high as negotiations appear stalled in Vienna over Iran’s collapsed nuclear deal with world powers, raising the danger of future confrontations in the region. “Perceptions matter whether or not they’re rooted in a cold, cold reality. And the perception is very clear that the U.S. is not as committed to the Gulf as it used to be in the views of many people in decision-making authority in the region,” said Kristian Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. “From the Saudi point of view, they now see Obama, Trump and Biden — three successive presidents — taking decisions that signify to some extent an abandonment.” 2019 attackPrince Sultan Air Base, 115 kilometers (70 miles) southeast of Riyadh, has hosted several thousand U.S. troops since a 2019 missile-and-drone attack on the heart of the kingdom’s oil production. That attack, though claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, appears instead to have been carried out by Iran, according to experts and physical debris left behind. Tehran has denied launching the attack, though a drill in January saw Iranian paramilitary forces use similar drones. Just southwest of the air base’s runway, in an area set off by an earthen berm, sat American Patriot missile batteries, as well as one advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense unit, according to satellite images from Planet Labs Inc. A THAAD can destroy ballistic missiles at a higher altitude than Patriots. A satellite image seen by the AP in late August showed some of the batteries removed from the area, though activity and vehicles still could be seen there. A high-resolution Planet Lab satellite picture taken Friday showed the batteries’ pads at the site empty, with no visible activity. FILE – Saudi airport personnel are pictured behind shrapnel-riddled glass at Abha airport in the southwest of Saudi Arabia, Aug. 31, 2021. A drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport wounded eight people.A redeployment of the missiles had been rumored for months, in part because of a desire to face what American officials see as the looming “great powers conflict” with China and Russia. However, the withdrawal came just as a Houthi drone attack on Saudi Arabia wounded eight people and damaged a commercial jetliner at the kingdom’s airport in Abha. The kingdom has been locked in a stalemate war with the Houthis since March 2015.Deep commitment to alliesPentagon spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged “the redeployment of certain air defense assets” after receiving questions from the AP. He said the U.S. maintained a “broad and deep” commitment to its Mideast allies. “The Defense Department continues to maintain tens of thousands of forces and a robust force posture in the Middle East representing some of our most advanced air power and maritime capabilities, in support of U.S. national interests and our regional partnerships,” Kirby said. In a statement to the AP, the Saudi Defense Ministry described the kingdom’s relationship with the U.S. as “strong, long-standing and historic,” even while acknowledging the withdrawal of the American missile defense systems. It said the Saudi military “is capable of defending its lands, seas and airspace, and protecting its people.” “The redeployment of some defense capabilities of the friendly United States of America from the region is carried out through common understanding and realignment of defense strategies as an attribute of operational deployment and disposition,” the statement said. Despite those assurances, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, the kingdom’s former intelligence chief whose public remarks often track with the thoughts of its Al Saud ruling family, has linked the Patriot missile deployments directly to America’s relationship to Riyadh. Needing reassurement”I think we need to be reassured about American commitment,” the prince told CNBC in an interview aired this week. “That looks like, for example, not withdrawing Patriot missiles from Saudi Arabia at a time when Saudi Arabia is the victim of missile attacks and drone attacks — not just from Yemen, but from Iran.” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, on a tour of the Mideast in recent days, had been slated to go to Saudi Arabia but the trip was canceled because of what American officials referred to as scheduling problems. Saudi Arabia declined to discuss why Austin’s trip didn’t happen after the withdrawal of the missile defenses. Saudi Arabia maintains its own Patriot missile batteries and typically fires two missiles at an incoming target. That’s become an expensive proposition amid the Houthi campaign, as each Patriot missile costs more than $3 million. “I think we saw in Biden’s statements on Afghanistan, the way he said things, that he’s clearly going to put U.S. interests first, and obviously that came as quite a disappointment to partners and allies around the world who maybe hoped for something different after Trump,” said Ulrichsen, the research fellow. “He sounds quite similar to an ‘America First’ approach, just sort of a different tone.”
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American Leaders Urge Unity in 9/11 Remarks
American leaders spoke soberly on Saturday about how the events of September 11, 2001 forever changed them, their country and the world, in a series of somber commemorations of the 20th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in modern history.
In a series of speeches, they urged Americans to embrace the unity that defined the days after that attack.
“On the days that followed September 11th, 2001, we were all reminded that unity is possible in America,” said Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking in Shanksville, Pa., the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93, which killed all 44 people on board after passengers revolted against the hijackers. “We were reminded, too, that unity is imperative in America. It is essential to our shared prosperity, our national security, and to our standing in the world.”
Former president George W. Bush, joining her in Shanksville, spoke movingly of the event that defined his presidency.
“For those too young to recall that clear September day, it is hard to describe the mix of feelings we experienced,” he said. “There was horror at the scale of destruction, and awe at the bravery and kindness that rose to meet it. There was shock at the audacity of evil, and gratitude for the heroism and decency that opposed it.”
The attacks led him to launch the Global War on Terror, which stretched over nearly 20 years, making it the nation’s longest war and claiming the lives of thousands of American service members and countless civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. President Joe Biden drew the conflict in Afghanistan to a decisive end last month, withdrawing all military and diplomatic personnel.
In his remarks, Bush noted that the American people are capable of coming together in the worst of circumstances.
“In the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks, I was proud to lead an amazing, resilient, united people,” he said. “When it comes to the unity of America, those days seem distant from our own. Malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures. So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment. That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together.”Former President George W. Bush speaks during a memorial for the passengers and crew of United Flight 93, Sept. 11, 2021, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, as Vice President Kamala Harris looks on.His calls for unity echoed those issued by President Biden on the eve of the anniversary. In pre-recorded comments, Biden used the grave occasion to call again for unity in an increasingly divided America, where intelligence officials have identified domestic terrorism as a serious threat.
“Unity is what makes us who we are,” he said. ”America at its best. To me, that’s the central lesson of September 11th: is that, at our most vulnerable, in the push and pull of all that makes us human, in the battle for the soul of America, unity is our greatest strength. Unity doesn’t mean we have to believe the same thing. We must have a fundamental respect and faith in each other and in this nation.”
In Shanksville, Harris walked through that crash site on the sunny Saturday morning dawned over this dark anniversary. She stopped to read some of the names on the memorial, before proceeding to a private wreath-laying ceremony with families of the victims.
In her remarks, she stressed that unity doesn’t mean conformity.
“In America, our diversity is our strength,” said Harris, who is the first woman to serve in that role, and also the first Black American and Asian American in the job. “At the same time, we saw after 9/11 how fear can be used to sow division.”
Biden, traveling separately, walked slowly through the same field a few hours later, first lady Jill Biden by his side. Both wore black.
And at Ground Zero in New York, family members took turns reading aloud the names of the victims in alphabetical order. They started shortly after the 8:46 ringing of a bell to mark the time American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center — and where, 17 minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower.
Family members also offered personal memories about lost spouses, siblings, parents and grandparents — some of whom they never got to meet before their deaths. Some wept, embraced and visibly struggled to get through all 2,977 names, which does not include the 19 hijackers who died by murder-suicide in the attacks.
As the afternoon began Saturday, they were still reading the names.
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Pope Travels to Hungary, Slovakia in First Post-surgery Trip
Pope Francis travels to Hungary and Slovakia Sunday on his first foreign trip since undergoing surgery in July. He will meet Hungarian officials during a very short visit to Budapest, and preside over the closing mass of a eucharistic congress. Francis then travels to Slovakia, where he is expected to visit three cities before returning to the Vatican on Wednesday. Francis will spend just seven hours in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, where he will be closing the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress. The visit to Hungary and Slovakia, the 34th abroad of this papacy, is his first foreign trip since the 84-year-old pontiff underwent intestinal surgery just two months ago.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the visit is intended to be a “spiritual journey.” It starts with the Christian rite of Holy Communion and ends with prayers and celebration of Our Lady of Sorrows, Slovakia’s patron saint, who is believed to watch over Slavic lands wounded by totalitarianism.
Francis asked for prayers for his pilgrimage to the heart of Europe, where he is expected to address issues that affect the entire continent.
These will be days marked by adoration and prayer in the heart of Europe, the pope said, thanking those who helped prepare this visit. The pope sent greetings to those waiting to meet with him and said he was looking forward to this visit.
The Hungarian ambassador to the Holy See, Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen, told Vatican Radio that the people of Hungary view the pope’s presence in Budapest as “a real gift.”
Francis will meet with the country’s top authorities, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Observers and Catholic media have noted that the brevity of his stay in Hungary compared to Slovakia is likely due to the differences that exist between the pope and the nationalist and anti-immigrant policies of the prime minister.
The pope’s meeting with Orban will take place before the closing mass of the Eucharistic Congress, a gathering of clergy, monks, nuns and lay people, in Budapest’s Heroes Square.
After the Sunday afternoon mass, Francis will travel to Bratislava, where he will stay until Wednesday, while visiting three other cities in Slovakia. He will meet with the country’s authorities, the Jewish community and the Roma population in the town of Kosice.
The pope will celebrate two open air masses in Slovakia. The leadership in this country is also against uncontrolled immigration but their opposition has not been quite as strong and vocal as in Hungary.
This four-day pilgrimage will test the pope’s strength following his recent surgery. Bruni said no special measures have been adopted, except the usual caution for a papal trip. He said there is always a doctor and nurses in the papal entourage.
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Biden Oversees Somber, Silent 9/11 Commemoration
President Joe Biden is commemorating the 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001, on Saturday with three somber, silent events as he visits the three sites of the worst terrorist attack in modern history.
Biden, along with first lady Jill Biden, is attending ceremonies at the places where four planes and 19 hijackers started America’s 20-year involvement in Afghanistan. His first stop, in New York City, comes amid beefed-up security, city and state officials said, though Mayor Bill de Blasio stressed that there are “no specific and credible threats” against New York.
In prerecorded comments, Biden used the grave occasion to again call for unity in an increasingly divided America.
“Unity is what makes us who we are,” he said. “America at its best — to me, that’s the central lesson of September 11th — is that, at our most vulnerable, in the push and pull of all that makes us human, in the battle for the soul of America, unity is our greatest strength. Unity doesn’t mean we have to believe the same thing. We must have a fundamental respect and faith in each other and in this nation.”
He began his day in New York City, at the site of the World Trade Center, where two planes crashed into the north and south towers on that sunny September morning two decades ago.President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, and others attend a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, Sept. 11, 2021.He was joined Saturday morning by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and former first lady Michelle Obama, along with senior officials.
Biden will then pay his respects at a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where passengers revolted against the plane’s hijackers as they attempted to divert the flight to its intended target, the U.S. Capitol.
Vice President Kamala Harris started her commemorations Saturday morning in Shanksville , alongside former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush.
In the afternoon, Biden will lay a wreath at the Pentagon, the other government target hit by hijackers.
In New York, where the greatest number of people were killed, Mayor de Blasio said this anniversary hits close for many New Yorkers.
“We lost so many people, it’s personal for us,” he said Friday in an event with Governor Kathy Hochul. “And 20 years later, we feel it just as sharply, which is why we are resolved, we say never again. We’re resolved to ensure that terrorists never can perpetrate such an act in this city again, which is why in the months and years after 9/11, this city took it upon ourselves to protect ourselves and build up an extraordinary counterterrorism capacity.”U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris touches the Flight 93 National Memorial during an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, in Stoystown, Pennsylvania, Sept. 11, 2021.Biden, known for his empathy, highlighted that resolve in his remarks Friday.
“On this day, Jill and I hold you close in our hearts and send you our love,” he said. “For people around the world that you’ll never know, who are suffering through their own losses, who see you, your courage — your courage gives them courage that they too can get up and keep going. We hope that 20 years later, the memory of your beloved brings a smile to your lips even while still bringing a tear to your eye.”
But underlying Biden’s messages of love and unity also was a somber reminder of his administration’s uncompromising stance on those who seek to strike the United States. The unity that arose after the event, he said, also showed a steely resolve.
“Unity and resilience, the capacity to recover and repair in the face of trauma, unity in service, the 9/11 generation stepping up to serve and protect in the face of terror to get those terrorists who are responsible, to show everyone seeking to do harm to America that we will hunt you down and we will make you pay,” he said. “That will never stop: today or tomorrow, ever from protecting America.” People visit the 9/11 Memorial during ceremonies to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Sept. 11, 2021 in New York City.The president also drew a subtle numerical line, delivering his sympathies to “the families of the 2,977 people from more than 90 nations killed on September 11th, 2001, in New York City, Arlington, Virginia, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.”
That was echoed in the New York event, which started at 8:46 a.m. local time with the ringing of a bell to mark the time the first plane hit the North Tower. Family members read names of the victims.
Of the 2,996 people who died on September 11, 2001, 19 were hijackers. By omitting any reference to the 19 hijackers in his comments, Biden communicated — silently — that these killers will have no memorial, no moment, and no forgiveness.
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UNHCR: Cameroon Refugee Needs Increasing, Means Limited
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says Cameroon continues to be one of the world’s most neglected displacement crises, with refugee needs increasing far more quickly than are available resources. The central African country is home to about 500,000 refugees, most of them having fled the troubled Central African Republic and Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria.
Raouf Mazou, the UNHCR’s assistant high commissioner for operations, says that this week he met with humanitarian agencies and Cameroonian government officials, including Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, to look for ways to reinforce humanitarian actions to help displaced persons and refugees.
In August, countries surrounding Lake Chad reported an increase in the number of people displaced in Chad, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Nigeria, and Niger.
Cameroon said at least 1,500 former Boko Haram militants have arrived on its northern border with Nigeria since May, when the Islamist group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, was declared killed.
Cameroon also reported that more than 40 villages were razed and 10,000 citizens fled northern Cameroon to Chad after a violent conflict between herders and fishers in August.
Mazou visited Cameroon’s Far North region on the border with Nigeria and Chad, where he met with representatives of some 4,000 displaced people in the northern border village of Zamai. Mazou said they desperately need civil registration documents so they can integrate into their new communities.
“If there is one thing that is essential, it is the issue of civil registration. They kept on repeating the same thing, they kept on saying our children are here, they cannot go to school. When we asked, ‘Why can’t they go to school?’ one of the key reasons why [is that] we [displaced persons] don’t have documents for them [displaced children]. Of course, there is also the issue of the cost. Even if primary education is free, people do have to pay an amount of money, but the issue of documentation for them is absolutely crucial,” Mazou said.
Speaking to local media, including Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV, Mazou said there are more than a million displaced Cameroonians in the country.
The UNHCR says Cameroon, with a population of 26 million, is also home to about 500,000 refugees and asylum-seekers.
Among the refugees, 120,000 are Nigerian citizens fleeing Boko Haram terrorism, and 321,000 are fleeing violence caused by the political tensions in the Central African Republic. Cameroon says other refugees are from Chad, Senegal, Mali and Niger.
Xavier Bourgois, the UNHCR’s spokesperson in Cameroon, says the agency has limited means to help people seeking refuge.
He said the UNHCR has only 44% of the $100 million it needs to provide emergency humanitarian services for refugees and displaced Cameroonians and to assist host communities that share their already stretched resources with displaced people.
In February, Cameroon said 5,000 of the 120,000 Nigerians, mostly women and children, who fled across the border fleeing from Boko Haram terrorists have agreed to voluntarily return to Nigeria. The UNHCR says about 4,500 Nigerians have returned. Those remaining are still worried about their security should they return to Nigeria.
Several thousand Central African Republic refugees have also returned to their home country. Cameroon says a majority are still scared of insecurity and violence after the December general elections there.
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Myanmar Faces COVID Vaccination Woes as Health System Under Threat
Myanmar’s COVID-19 battle is facing further complications amid the fallout from February’s military coup.
This week, the opposition National Unity Government declared a “defensive war” against the ruling junta government. Next week, the United Nations will hold its 76th General Assembly, and will decide whether the junta or the civilian government will be recognized for a U.N seat.
The country is still fighting a third COVID-19 wave at a time of increasing political tensions. According to World Health Organization data, more than 400,000 people have been infected with COVID-19 in Myanmar, with more than 16,000 dead
There are concerns, though, that those figures are much higher.
Sasa, a medical doctor from Chin State and the NUG’s minister of international cooperation who only goes by one name, told VOA thousands more may have died than officially recorded.
“We are calculating the number from 40,000 to 400,000 could have died. … It’s impossible for us to understand the level of death. Half the population, 35 to 37 million in Myanmar could be infected by COVID-19 … [it is] a real scale of things,” he told VOA via video call.
“So many people died, we cannot even, and there is no way for us to, count the deaths. The line on the oxygen, and the line to the cemetery, those are the … lines for queue in the last few months,” he added.FILE – This screengrab taken from a broadcast by Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) in Myanmar, April 1, 2021 show footage from March of Buddhist monks waiting to be inoculated with a COVID vaccine in Naypyidaw.Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, said in July that that half of Myanmar’s 54 million population could quickly be infected with the virus.
Dr. Sasa, who is on the run and wanted by the military, blames the junta for turning plans to vaccinate the population “upside-down.”
“If there was no military coup in Myanmar, at least 30% of our population would have been vaccinated already. I was a part of the leadership in February, I was there in Naypyitaw [Myanmar’s capital] … our plan was to get vaccinations, at least 30 million dosages of Indian [vaccines]. We have paid the money for that, we have ordered for that, and starting to vaccinate,” he added.
Background, medical workers targeted
The country has been in crisis since the coup. A mass uprising opposed the takeover, with thousands protesting in the streets. The Civil Disobedience Movement, a nationwide campaign that has seen Myanmar’s essential workers go on strike, aiming to stifle the military-controlled economy, has spearheaded the demonstrations.
Medical workers led the anti-military campaign, but that has not prevented the military from targeting the leaders. According to the monitoring group Insecurity Insight, 252 incidents have been reported against medical personnel and facilities in Myanmar, with at least 25 killed.
Vaccinations
Myanmar’s only has 3% of the population fully vaccinated, even though the junta has received millions of donated vaccine doses from India, China and Russia. Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing aims to vaccinate 50 million of the total population by the end of the year.Junta Faces Difficulties on Myanmar Vaccination ProgramMyanmar’s coup leader is aiming for 50% of country’s population to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of this yearSasa said many people distrust the military to administer the vaccines.
“The people of Myanmar will not go to them to get a vaccination,” he said.
He added that the NUG cabinet is working with international organizations about opening vaccination clinics in Myanmar. The Irrawaddy, a Myanmar news site, reported 6 million vaccine doses are on the way from the COVAX global vaccine-sharing initiative.
Sasa said getting people safely vaccinated is easier said than done.
“The question is how do we do the vaccination rollout program. We have all the programs, strategies in place, tasked with all these global partners, but the most concern is about security. We are asking simply military junta to stop attacking hospitals, medical facilities and medical personnel. … Doctors and nurses are the key to deliver the vaccinations for the people,” he said.
Myanmar emergency
An assistant surgeon in a medical center in Kayin state who did not want her name used, said Myanmar is going through a health emergency, with a shortage of hospital beds as a common issue.FILE – Volunteers in protective suits prepare to cremate the body of a monk suspected of having died from COVID-19, at a crematorium in the Taungoo district in Myanmar’s Bago region, some 220 km from Yangon, Aug. 6, 2021.“There are so many people treating COVID-19 infection at home or some [medical] centers. Some patients were lost due to an oxygen shortage. It’s too sorry to say. According to one of my patients, the hospital didn’t let them in and ordered them to go back home although the patient is severely ill and dyspneic,” he told VOA, using a medical term for difficulty breathing.
The surgeon added that medical workers who had joined the CDM movement are too afraid to return to hospitals to assist with patients.
“Myanmar is in emergency, and we need urgent help from the world,” the doctor added.
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Spanish TV Apologizes for Racist Comment About Black Madrid Player
Spain’s state television on Friday condemned a racist comment made by a guest sports commentator during the presentation of Real Madrid player Eduardo Camavinga.
During Wednesday’s presentation of Camavinga, analyst Lorena González was heard off camera saying “this guy is blacker than his suit.”
The 18-year-old Camavinga, a French player born in Angola, is Black.
Spanish broadcaster RTVE said González’s comments “showed a lack of respect and are inappropriate for a public television channel” while it apologized “to the player and laments and firmly condemns the denigrating comments.”
González, a regular guest on RTVE’s sports talk show “Estudio Estadio,” issued a statement on social media “to offer my sincerest apologies to anyone who felt offended.”
“My comment, which was made without malice or disrespect toward the player, was however unfortunate,” she wrote. “It was a comparison that I could have made about any person of any color. But I understand and feel that in this sensitive time we are going through, even though I also believe that things are becoming too radicalized and politicized, the media has an even bigger responsibility to help the fight against racism and any form of unjust inequality.”
The network said it was investigating the incident “and would take the appropriate action.”
Camavinga joined Madrid on a six-year contract from Rennes. He made his debut for France’s senior team last September.
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With More Doses, Uganda Takes Vaccination Drive to Markets
At a taxi stand by a bustling market in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, traders simply cross a road or two, get a shot in the arm and rush back to their work.Until this week, vaccination centers were based mostly in hospitals in this East African country that faced a brutal COVID-19 surge earlier this year.Now, more than a dozen tented sites have been set up in busy areas to make it easier to get inoculated in Kampala as health authorities team up with the Red Cross to administer more than 120,000 doses that will expire at the end of September.“All of this we could have done earlier, but we were not assured of availability of vaccines,” said Dr. Misaki Wayengera, who leads a team of scientists advising authorities on the pandemic response, speaking of vaccination spots in downtown areas. “Right now, we are receiving more vaccines and we have to deploy them as much as possible.”In addition to the 128,000 AstraZeneca doses donated by Norway at the end of August, the United Kingdom last month donated nearly 300,000 doses. China recently donated 300,000 doses of its Sinovac vaccine, and on Monday a batch of 647,000 Moderna doses donated by the United States arrived in Uganda.Suddenly Uganda must accelerate its vaccination drive. The country has sometimes struggled with hesitancy as some question the safety of the two-shot AstraZeneca vaccine, which is no longer in use in Norway because of concerns over unusual blood clots in a small number of people who received it.Africa has fully vaccinated just 3.1% of its 1.3 billion people, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health officials across Africa have complained loudly of vaccine inequality and what they see as hoarding in some rich countries. Soon hundreds of millions of vaccine doses will be delivered to Africa through donations of excess doses by wealthy nations or purchases by the African Union.Africa is aiming to vaccinate 60% of the continent’s population by the end of 2022, a steep target given the global demand for doses. The African Union, representing the continent’s 54 countries, has ordered 400 million Johnson & Johnson doses, but the distribution of those doses will be spread out over 12 months because there simply isn’t enough supply.A nurse administers a coronavirus vaccination at Kisenyi Health Center in downtown Kampala, Uganda, Sept. 8, 2021.COVAX, the U.N.-backed program which aims to get vaccines to the neediest people in the world, said this week that its efforts continue “to be hampered by export bans, the prioritization of bilateral deals by manufacturers and countries, ongoing challenges in scaling up production by some key producers, and delays in filing for regulatory approval.”Uganda, a country of more than 44 million people, has recorded more than 120,000 cases of COVID-19, including just over 3,000 deaths, according to official figures. The country has given 1.65 million shots, but only about 400,000 people have received two doses, according to Wayengera. Uganda’s target is to fully vaccinate up to 5 million of the most vulnerable, including nurses and teachers, as soon as possible.At the Red Cross tent in downtown Kampala, demand for the jabs was high. By late afternoon only 30 of 150 doses remained, and some who arrived later were told to come back the next day.“I came here on a sure deal, but it hasn’t happened,” said trader Sulaiman Mivule after a nurse told him he was too late for a shot that day. “I will come back tomorrow. It’s easy for me here because I work in this area.”Asked why he was so eager to get his first shot, he said, “They are telling us that there could be a third wave. If it comes when we are very vaccinated, maybe it will not hurt us so much. Prevention is better than cure.”Mivule and others who spoke to the AP said they didn’t want to go to vaccination sites at hospitals because of they expected to find crowds there.Bernard Ssembatya said he had been driving by when he spotted the Red Cross’s white tent and went in for a jab on the spur of the moment. Afterward, he texted his friends about the opportunity.“I was getting demoralized by going to health centers,” he said. “You see a lot of people there and you don’t even want to try to enter.”Yet, despite enthusiasm among many, some still walked away without getting a shot when they were told their preferred vaccine was not yet available.The one-shot J&J vaccine, still unavailable in Uganda, is frequently asked for, said Jacinta Twinomujuni, a nurse with the Kampala Capital City Authority who monitored the scene.“I tell them, of course, that we don’t have it,” she said. “And they say, ‘OK, let’s wait for it.’”
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US Gives First Public Look Inside Base Housing Afghans
The Biden administration on Friday provided the first public look inside a U.S. military base where Afghans airlifted out of Afghanistan are being screened, amid questions about how the government is caring for the refugees and vetting them.“Every Afghan who is here with us has endured a harrowing journey and they are now faced with the very real challenges of acclimating with life in the United States,” Liz Gracon, a senior State Department official, told reporters.The three-hour tour at Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, was the first time the media has been granted broad access to one of the eight U.S. military installations housing Afghans.But even so, reporters, including those with The Associated Press, were not allowed to talk with any evacuees or spend more than a few minutes in areas where they were gathered, with military officials citing “privacy concerns.”Nearly 10,000 Afghan evacuees are staying at the base while they undergo medical and security checks before being resettled in the United States. The operation was described by officials at the Department of Homeland Security and Department of State as a “historic” and “unprecedented” effort to facilitate the relocation of a huge number of refugees in less than a month’s time.On Friday, Afghan children with soccer balls and basketballs played outside large white tents. Families walked down a dirt driveway with stacks of plastic food containers piled under their chins and Coca-Cola cans under their arms. One young girl, still wearing dirty clothing, cried in the middle of the road after her food spilled and soldiers attempted to help her. Inside the containers, which refugees had spent around 15 minutes in line for in the blistering sun, were traditional Afghan meals of basmati rice and hearty stew.The U.S. government spent two weeks building what it calls a village to house the Afghans on the base. It is a sprawling area with scores of air-conditioned tents used as dormitories and dining halls on scrubby dirt lots, a landscape that in some ways resembled parts of the homeland they fled.A child holds up a piece of artwork while drawing in a tent at Fort Bliss’ Doña Ana Village, in New Mexico, where Afghan refugees are being housed, Sept. 10, 2021.Under the program called “Operation Allies Welcome,” some 50,000 Afghans are expected to be admitted to the United States, including translators, drivers and others who helped the U.S. military during the 20-year war and who feared reprisals by the Taliban after they quickly seized power last month.Nearly 130,000 were airlifted out of Afghanistan in one of the largest mass evacuations in U.S. history. Many of those people are still in transit, undergoing security vetting and screening in other countries, including Germany, Spain, Kuwait and Qatar.Members of Congress have questioned whether the screening is thorough enough.Many of the Afghans who worked for the U.S. government have undergone years of vetting already before they were hired, and then again to apply for a special immigrant visa for U.S. allies.After they are released from the base, they will be aided by resettlement agencies in charge of placing the refugees. The agencies give priority to places where the refugees either have family already in the United States or there are Afghan immigrant communities with the resources to help them start a new life in a foreign land. Those with American citizenship or green cards are able to leave once arriving at the base, according to a State Department representative.A soldier sifts through donations at Fort Bliss’ Doña Ana Village, in New Mexico, where Afghan refugees are being housed, Sept. 10, 2021.If other evacuees — whose release is dependent on completing health protocols mandated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — choose to leave prior to the full resettlement period, that may be used against them.So far, no one at Fort Bliss has been released for resettlement.The Pentagon has said all evacuees are tested for COVID-19 upon arriving at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.The Biden administration is also using the base to house thousands of immigrant children, mostly from Central America, who have been crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in record numbers on their own, without adults. The children are housed there until they can be reunited with relatives already in the United States or with a sponsor, usually a family friend, or sent to a licensed facility.
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Federal Judge Acquits Tennessee Professor with Ties to China
A federal judge on Thursday threw out all charges against a University of Tennessee professor accused of hiding his relationship with a Chinese university while receiving research grants from NASA. Anming Hu was arrested in February 2020 and charged with three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements. The arrest was part of a broader Justice Department crackdown under then-President Donald Trump’s administration against university researchers who conceal their ties to Chinese institutions. A jury in June deadlocked after three days of deliberation and U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan declared a mistrial. Last month, prosecutors filed a notice that they intended to retry the case. Varlan ruled to acquit on all charges on Thursday, responding to a motion Hu’s attorney made at trial that Varlan had declined to immediately rule on. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Rachelle Barnes, said on Friday the office had no comment on the case. Defense attorney Philip Lomonaco said prosecutors cannot appeal an acquittal, so the judgment marks the end of the case. “It was the right decision,” Lomonaco said. “He was innocent.” Hu began working for UT Knoxville in 2013 and later was invited by another professor to help apply for a research grant from NASA. That grant application was not successful, but two later applications were. A 2012 law forbids NASA from collaborating with China or Chinese companies. The government has interpreted that prohibition to include Chinese universities, and Hu was a faculty member at the Beijing University of Technology in addition to his position at UT. Prosecutors tried to show that Hu deliberately hid his position at the Chinese university when applying for the NASA-funded research grants. Lomonaco argued at trial that Hu didn’t think he needed to list his part-time summer job on a disclosure form and said no one at UT ever told him otherwise. On Thursday, Varlan ruled that, even assuming Hu intended to deceive about his affiliation with that second university, there is no evidence that Hu intended to harm NASA. “Without intent to harm, there is no ‘scheme to defraud,'” Varlan wrote, quoting a necessary element of the wire fraud charges. Varlan added that NASA got the research from Hu that it paid for, and there was no evidence that Hu took any money from China or had anyone in China work on the projects. Varlan also cited evidence that NASA’s funding restrictions were unclear. For instance, the University of Tennessee’s “China Assurance letter” sent in conjunction with the grant applications stated that the funding restriction did not apply to UTK faculty like Hu, Varlan wrote. Lomonaco argued at trial that the Department of Justice had ignored the law and destroyed the career of a professor with three Ph.D.s in nanotechnology because the agency “wanted a feather in its cap with an economic espionage case.”
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California Governor Hopes to Beat Back Recall Effort
California voters will decide on Tuesday (Sept. 14) whether to remove Governor Gavin Newsom in a recall election. Mike O’Sullivan reports that both Democrats and Republicans are aggressively mobilizing voters either for or against the Democratic governor.Camera: Genia Dulot, Elizabeth Lee for homeless video
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Violence Against Civilians in Eastern DRC Reaching New Heights, UN Says
The U.N. refugee agency is calling for more effective measures to protect millions of civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo subjected to killings, kidnappings and savage abuse by armed groups. Dozens of armed groups have been committing violence against civilians in eastern DRC for more than two decades, but the U.N. refugee agency says the viciousness and magnitude of the attacks have reached a level not seen before. The UNHCR and its partners have recorded more than 1,200 civilian deaths and 1,100 rapes in 2021 in the two most affected provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. The agency says ferocious attacks have driven more than one million Congolese in the eastern part of the country from their homes this year alone. FILE – Victims of ethnic violence are seen at a makeshift camp for the internally displaced people in Bunia, Ituri province, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, June 25, 2019.UNHCR spokesman Boris Cheshirkov says most assaults have been perpetrated by the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group with Ugandan roots operating in eastern DRC. He says the group’s attacks have been increasing in brutality and frequency since late 2020. “These reports are coming in again and again. Twenty-five-thousand human rights violations for this year, including extortion, including looting, certainly sexual violence. Horrific reports that our staff and our partners are receiving and the extreme violence against civilians. So, our call is very clear. This is a call that we are constantly making. We need more measures to protect civilians,” Cheshirkov said. Violence and abuse have displaced more than five million people inside the DRC, the second highest number of internally displaced after Syria. Cheshirkov says repeated displacement is putting enormous financial pressure on impoverished host communities, and risking wearing out those communities’ welcome mat. “Harsh living conditions and a lack of food often trigger premature return by displaced people to their place of origin, further exposing them to abuse and violence,” Cheshirkov said. “In fact, returnees account for 65 percent of the serious human rights abuses that we and our partners have recorded.” Cheshirkov notes that the lifesaving needs of this ever-growing displaced population are increasing. But his agency, he says, can only respond to a fraction of them because it is out of money. With less than four months left in 2021, he says the UNHCR has received only 51 percent of the $205 million required to carry out humanitarian operations in the DRC this year.
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Prince Andrew Receives Lawsuit Accusing Him of Sexual Abuse
Britain’s Prince Andrew has been served with a lawsuit by a woman accusing him of sexually assaulting and battering her two decades ago, when she says she was also being abused by the financier Jeffrey Epstein, according to a Friday court filing. In an affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Cesar Sepulveda, identifying himself as a “corporate investigator/process server,” said he left a copy of Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit on August 27 with a police officer guarding the Royal Lodge in Windsor, England, a property Andrew occupies. The London-based Sepulveda said police had told him a day earlier they were instructed not to accept court documents on Andrew’s behalf, but upon his return he was told documents would be forwarded to the prince’s legal team. Spokespeople for Andrew said on Friday that his lawyers had no comment. A source close to Andrew’s legal team said the prince had not been personally served. Andrew, 61, is one of the most prominent people linked to Epstein, charged by Manhattan federal prosecutors in July 2019 with sexually exploiting dozens of girls and women. Epstein, a registered sex offender, killed himself on August 10, 2019, at age 66 in a Manhattan jail. In her lawsuit dated August 9 this year, Giuffre said Andrew forced her to have unwanted sexual intercourse at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and Epstein’s longtime associate. Giuffre also said Andrew abused her at Epstein’s mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and on a private island that Epstein owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In a November 2019 BBC interview, Andrew, who had been a friend of Epstein’s, denied Giuffre’s claims of sexual abuse and said he did not recall meeting her. “I can absolutely, categorically tell you it never happened,” Andrew said. An initial conference is scheduled for Monday afternoon before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan. Maxwell faces a scheduled November 29 trial before a different Manhattan judge on charges she aided Epstein’s sexual abuses. She has pleaded not guilty. In 2017, Maxwell settled a $50 million civil defamation lawsuit against her by Giuffre for an unspecified amount. Maxwell is not a defendant in Giuffre’s lawsuit against Andrew.
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CAR Court Accuses Ex-warlord of Crimes Against Humanity
A special court on Friday accused the former leader of a key militia in the Central African Republic of crimes against humanity at the height of the civil war.
Former captain Eugene Barret Ngaikosset, arrested nearly a week ago, was once a commander of the guard of President Francois Bozize, who was toppled in 2013 by the Seleka, a coalition of largely Muslim armed groups.
He then became an important leader of the largely Christian and animist anti-Balaka militias, which Bozize founded to fight the Seleka.
The two groups plunged the country into a bloody civil war, with the United Nations accusing them in 2015 of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2014 and 2015.
Ngaikosset, arrested September 4 just outside the capital, Bangui, “was accused of crimes against humanity” by two judges of the Special Criminal Court (CPS), the tribunal said in a statement.
Made up of Central African and international magistrates, the court has been tasked with judging serious human rights violations since 2003 in this country that has been locked in civil war since 2013.
CPS prosecutors must decide if Ngaikosset will be placed in custody while awaiting a possible trial, the statement said.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague also could be tasked with handling the former captain’s case.
‘Butcher’Central African media have dubbed Ngaikosset “the butcher of Paoua,” referring to massacres committed by the army in the northwest city of the same name from 2005 to 2007, when he was a commander of Bozize’s dreaded presidential guard.
In a 2009 report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said diplomats had at the time asked Bozize to take legal action Ngaikosset, who it said was implicated in various atrocities in the northwest.
The ex-captain had set up a faction of the anti-Balaka, which means anti-machete, after Bozize’s fall in 2013.
And a report from the U.N., which froze his assets abroad and issued a travel ban, accused him in 2015 of carrying out or supporting actions contrary to international human rights law.
The civil war has dropped in intensity since 2018 but armed groups, some with past links to the Seleka or anti-Balaka, occupied late last year more than two-thirds of the country.
Some elements launched a rebellion at the end of 2020 against the administration of President Faustin-Archange Touadera, who was re-elected on December 27.
His army, with the support of hundreds of Russian paramilitaries and Rwandan soldiers, have today largely reconquered lost territory.
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Hurricane Larry Expected to Hit Newfoundland Late Friday
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Larry is expected to hit Newfoundland, on Canada’s northeast coast, late Friday as a Category 1 hurricane. In its latest report, forecasters with the hurricane center say Larry is 745 kilometers southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland, and has maximum sustained winds of about 130 kph. It was moving quickly to the north-northeast about 46 kph and is expected to move faster as the day goes on and reach southeastern Newfoundland Friday night. Southeastern Newfoundland is expected to see hurricane conditions late Friday, with periods of heavy rain, high winds and heavy surf that could cause coastal flooding. Meteorologists with The Washington Post report European weather models show the remnants of Larry will be swallowed by the jet stream over the next two to three days and bring heavy snow to eastern Greenland on Sunday and Monday. Meanwhile, hurricane center forecasters are watching a tropical disturbance over the western Caribbean Sea and portions of Central America and the Yucatan Peninsula. They forecast that system will move north-northwest into the Bay of Campeche and merge with a pre-existing system by Sunday, and a named tropical depression or storm is likely to form before the system moves onshore along the western Gulf of Mexico coast Sunday or Monday. The Washington Post meteorologists, again looking at European weather models, say that storm could bring as much as 12 centimeters of rain to the Houston, Texas, area between Sunday and Wednesday of next week.
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