The World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa said Thursday the number of new COVID-19 cases on the continent fell by 23 percent last week, the steepest drop in eight weeks since a peak in July.
During her weekly COVID-19 briefing, though, WHO Africa chief Matshidiso Moeti said that while those figures are good news and an indication the third wave of infections is on a “downward slide,” variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, particularly the Delta variant, have sparked flare-ups, prolonging the “acute phase” of the third wave for longer than expected.
At the same time, she said, Africa has passed the sad milestone of 200,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
Moeti said scientists also are tracking a new variant, C.1.2, a variant found in 130 cases in 10 countries globally, including five African countries with over 90 percent of the cases. But she said so far there is no evidence that C.1.2 is more transmissible or that that it affects the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.
On the subject of vaccines, Moeti said shipments to the continent continue to grow, with about 5.5 million doses received through the WHO-managed vaccine cooperative COVAX in the first week of September.
However, Africa’s Center for Disease Control says just over 3 percent of the continent’s population is fully vaccinated. And Moeti said COVAX Wednesday revised downward its vaccine shipment forecast for the rest of the year, for a number of reasons, which means the continent can expect 25 percent fewer vaccine doses.
She blamed the reduced shipments, at least partly on “the prioritization of bilateral deals” between wealthy nations and pharmaceutical companies “over international solidarity.”
Moeti said that high-income nations have pledged to share 1 billion doses globally, but so far, only 120 million have been released. She said, “Every dose is precious. If companies and countries prioritize vaccine equity, this pandemic would be over quickly.”
She said to ultimately tip the scales against the pandemic, efforts to reduce transmission through public health measures like mask-wearing must be accompanied by a significant increase in vaccine supplies and vaccinations.
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Month: September 2021
Cameroon Tries to Get Child Miners Back to School
Authorities in Cameroon say they are attempting to remove thousands of children working in gold mines along the country’s eastern border. Some of the children were displaced from the Central African Republic because of violence there and dropped out of school to mine gold for survival.The 2021-2022 school year in Cameroon started Monday, and Cameroon’s Ministry of Basic Education says thousands of children have not returned to class in areas along the border with the Central African Republic.The government says many of the children prefer working in gold mines.Auberlin d’Abou Mbelessa is mayor of Batouri, a town on the border.Mbelessa said his district wants all children to immediately leave gold mining sites and go to schools. He said village chiefs and religious leaders in Batouri have been asked to visit all houses, markets, farms, churches, mosques and mining sites to tell everyone that without education the future of children looks barren.Mbelessa said at least 300 of the children and teenagers are Central African Republic citizens displaced by violence and insecurity following the C.A.R.’s December 2020 general election.Among the kids who have refused to leave mining sites is 15-year-old Joseph Goumba. Goumba said he fled from the C.A.R. in January when rebels attacked the town of Bossangoa to protest the reelection of President Faustin-Archange Touadéra.He said he relies solely on gold mining for a living.Goumba says education is the best thing a child can be given but his preoccupation is to raise money and send it to his poor mother whose old age could not permit her to escape from the C.A.R. He said his father, who escaped with him, died in a gold mine in July and he has no one to count on for food and school needs.Goumba said he earns $4 after 24 hours of work. Cameroon says there are over 400 mining sites on its eastern border, a majority of them illegal.Corine Mvondo is a government labor official in Batouri. She said Cameroon will punish people who stop children from going to school.She said Cameroon is a signatory to the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention which was adopted by the International Labor Organization on June 17, 1999. She said a 2011 Cameroonian law states that people involved in child labor are liable to prison time of 15 to 20 years and fines of up to $20,000.Life in the gold mines is dangerous. The government says 27 miners died in May due to landslides.Cameroon has promised to offer free primary education to children who leave the mines. But some of the children say they lack food and books. The government has not said if it will provide those things if the children return to school.
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2015 Paris Terror Attack Trial Expected to Last Nine Months
The next nine months will determine the fate of 20 people on trial for the 2015 terror attacks in Paris. Of the ten-man team believed to have carried out the coordinated assault, just one is still alive. Salah Abdeslam was among the 14 suspects in court on Wednesday, the first day of the trial that could see him imprisoned for life. Six are still wanted.There was tight security as the accused arrived at the Paris courthouse for the start of the nine-month trial.Twenty people are charged in connection with the series of attacks on November 13th, 2015, that left 130 people dead and more than 350 injured.Six are still on the run, or possibly dead, and will be tried in absentia.Fourteen of them are in court – including the man believed to be the sole survivor of the 10-man cell that carried out the attacks.Salah Abdeslam fled to Belgium, abandoning his suicide vest. He was finally arrested there four months later.In court at the start of proceedings Wednesday, when asked to state his name, Abdeslam replied that there was only one god, Allah, and that he had forsaken all to become a fighter for the Islamic State group.ISIS claimed responsibility for planning and carrying out the attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, the Stade de France football stadium, and several cafes and restaurants in eastern Paris.Lawyer Victor Edou, representing eight survivors from the Bataclan, says it was very hard for his clients to hear Abdeslam’s words.“It was very violent, very difficult for them to take,” he said, adding that they know the next nine months will not be easy.But the survivors and families of the victims hope the lengthy proceedings will provide them with some answers.FILE – Medics stand by victims in a Paris restaurant, Nov. 13, 2015.It has taken six years for this case to come to trial.In part because, as ISIS carried out more attacks – in Nice, Brussels, Barcelona and elsewhere – it became clear to investigators that there were links between the different cells. Several of those on trial in Paris also face trial in relation to the deadly bombings in Brussels in March 2016.The sheer scale of this case also meant it took more time to prepare.Some 18,00 people are civil participants in the case – they include the survivors and families of the victims.More than 330 lawyers are involved, and there 542 tomes of legal documents.The high-security courtroom was specially constructed for this trial; and there are severe restrictions on who has access.The proceedings are being filmed for posterity and are transmitted live to several rooms in the courthouse for the overflow of journalists and participants.The accused face a range of charges including murder, attempted murder, providing guns and money, and terrorist conspiracy.They face up to life in prison.
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Russia Heading for ‘Least Free Elections’ in 20 Years, Say Opposition Leaders
Russia’s parliamentary elections in less than two weeks’ time are shaping up to be the least free since Vladimir Putin came to power 21 years ago, warn opposition leaders and independent election observers. Polling data suggests that just 26% of Russians are ready to vote for the ruling United Russia Party in parliamentary elections on September 19 — its lowest rating since 2008. Nonetheless few Putin opponents doubt United Russia will win the elections handsomely, thanks to ballot-rigging, the silencing of Putin critics, the barring of independent candidates, voter intimidation and cash handouts to voters. “The thinly veiled bribery of voters, all sorts of manipulations, mobilizing administrative [resources] and persecution of the critics of the regime — these are the election tactics of Putin and his party in 2021,” according to Fyodor Krashennikov, an opposition political commentator. Krashennikov recently left Russia for Europe, joining an exodus of opposition figures who say they’re being chased out by a crackdown on dissent, which has seen dozens of independent media outlets and civic groups forced to shut after being designated “foreign agents” or extremist organizations in a ramping up of repression up ahead of the elections. FILE – Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny gestures during a hearing on his charges for defamation in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow, Russia, in this photo taken from a footage provided by the Babuskinsky District Court, Feb. 16, 2021.Alexei Navalny, the most well-known Putin critic, has been in jail since January on old fraud charges, which he and some Western governments see as politically motivated. His nationwide political organization, accused by the Kremlin of being extremist, has been dismantled. Other Putin critics have been blocked from standing as candidates for the Russian Duma, including former lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov, who fled Russia in June fearing he would face criminal charges if he didn’t. ‘A hardcore autocracy’
“Since I left Russia in 2014, it is absolutely shocking how many businesspeople, academics, journalists, politicians, lawyers, NGOs leaders I used to know there who are now dead, in prison, or in exile. Simply shocking,” Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, tweeted Tuesday. “You never know who they are coming for next,” says Maria Snegovaya, a visiting scholar at America’s George Washington University. She argued in a recent podcast discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council, a New York-based think tank, that 2021 will mark the year when Russia shifted into becoming “a hardcore autocracy.” She believes the mounting crackdown on dissent — which has escalated since the near-fatal poisoning last year of Alexei Navalny and protests against his jailing — is a Kremlin reaction to rising unhappiness with Putin’s government. FILE – Riot police detain a man during a rally in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 31, 2021.
“Discontent runs across the political spectrum and there are way fewer supporters of the regime,” she says. Although she cautions that the anti-Putin opposition is fragmented in terms of political affiliation and shouldn’t be seen automatically as translating into support for liberal democratic ideas.Russians will vote in elections held between September 17-19 for the State Duma — the lower house of the Russian Parliament — as well as for several regional heads and municipal governments. A view of a poster announcing the upcoming Russian parliamentary and local elections in front of the building of the State Duma, the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament, in Moscow on Sept. 8, 2021.State-owned or state-controlled Russian media outlets have been dismissing claims about a rigged poll, saying it is a Western-inspired campaign to discredit Russia’s elections and that fake news will soar as voting day approaches. A group of Kremlin-friendly experts, the Independent Public Monitoring, predicted in a report Wednesday that over the next few days there will be a rise in fake news stories about public-sector workers being compelled or bribed into voting for United Russia. “There will be extensive speculation about allegedly unequal rules of electioneering, as well as the persecution of opposition candidates,” the authors of the report told TASS, the Russian state-owned news agency. “In their opinion, provocations and information attacks will enjoy concerted support from Western journalists, politicians and government officials. When the election campaign is over, the West will refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the new State Duma and make vigorous attempts to trigger protests inside Russia,” TASS reported.But an opinion poll published Wednesday by the state funded VTsIOM pollster suggested 14% of all employees working at industrial plants in Russia have been pressured by their bosses to register to vote and more than half of respondents to the survey said their managers had raised the elections with them.
European Union officials say that the sudden wave of Russia state-owned media reports about a Western conspiracy is a preemptive exercise to try to tarnish any criticism of the Kremlin. “By inventing sinister ‘Western’ plots and provocations, the pro-Kremlin media and pundits willfully ignore and obscure the dark reality on the ground: reprisals against critics and elimination of political opposition with methods that range from cold-blooded to bizarre, censorship and restriction of media freedoms,” according to the EU’s External Action Service. FILE – A participant takes a selfie in front of a banner during a congress of the political party Yabloko in Moscow, Russia, April 3, 2021. A banner reads: ‘Yabloko is changing.’Bizarre tactics have included running spoiler candidates against the few remaining independent candidates in a bid to sow confusion. In St. Petersburg, Boris Vishnevsky, a member of the liberal opposition Yabloko party and a longtime Kremlin critic, complained Sunday that two of his opponents for a seat in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly have adopted his name and altered their appearance to look like him in order to reduce his votes.“At each election for many years now we say that these were the dirtiest and most dishonest elections ever, and then at the next ones we repeat the same phrase,” Vishnevsky said. Election observers The absence of election monitors is also alarming opposition politicians. Last month, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, announced it will not send observers to Russia’s elections for the first time in nearly three decades because of “major limitations” imposed by Russian authorities on the mission. “We very much regret that our observation of the forthcoming elections in Russia will not be possible,” said Matteo Mecacci of the OSCE in an August statement. “But the ability to independently determine the number of observers necessary for us to observe effectively and credibly is essential to all international observation. The insistence of the Russian authorities on limiting the number of observers we could send without any clear pandemic-related restrictions has unfortunately made today’s step unavoidable,” he added.Russia’s main nationwide vote monitoring group, Golos, was also labeled a month ahead of the parliamentary elections as a ‘foreign agent’ by the Kremlin and although it has vowed to continue its work there are fears it could be prohibited from conducting election monitoring.Vote monitors fear that there will be even more opportunities to rig election results without their presence. They also note that the authorities in six major regions and in Moscow have been encouraging Russians to vote online. Electronic voting in Russia has increased in recent years but in 2020 in a plebiscite on constitutional amendment, serious anomalies emerged in the online voting in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast with more people voting than were registered, in one precinct by 217%.Residents of Donetsk and Luhansk, the Moscow-backed breakaway oblasts in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, are also being allowed — and urged — by Russian authorities to vote in these elections.People hold Russia’s national flag and flags of it’s ruling United Russia party, during a rally at war memorial complex Savur-Mohyla, marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Donbas region from the Nazi occupation, outside the rebel-held city of Donetsk, Ukraine, Sept. 8, 2021. More than 600,000 residents of the oblasts hold Russian passports, and they are seen by the Kremlin as “additional reserves of loyal voters,” according to Russian commentator Konstantin Skorkin.It is the first time they will be allowed to vote in Duma elections. Last year, Russian passport-holders in Donetsk and Luhansk were permitted to vote in the plebiscite amending the Russian constitution to allow Putin to run again for two more presidential terms. They were bused over the border and voted in the Russian region of Rostov, but only 14,000 did so. This time they will be able to vote online.
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North Korea Suspended by International Olympic Committee for 2022, Will Miss Beijing Winter Olympics
North Korea has been banned from the 2022 Beijing Winter Games after the International Olympic Committee suspended the isolated regime for not participating in this year’s Tokyo Olympics. IOC President Thomas Bach announced the decision Wednesday in Lausanne, telling reporters North Korea was the only nation that failed to send a team to Tokyo, which violated their obligations under the Olympic charter. Pyongyang refused to send a team to Tokyo due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tokyo Olympics were held under a state of emergency imposed due to the growing rate of infections in the Japanese capital and throughout Japan. Bach said the North Korean Olympic Committee will not receive any financial support during the suspension, but added that the IOC reserves the right to consider any North Korean individuals who qualify for the Beijing Olympics, and to even reconsider the duration of the North’s suspension. North Korea participated in the 2018 Winter Olympics that were staged in Pyeongchang in rival South Korea. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence-France Presse.
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Meth ‘Super Labs’ Said to Thrive in Myanmar Coup Chaos, Spilling Drugs Across Mekong
Methamphetamine from the super labs of lawless eastern Myanmar is surging as organized crime thrives in the instability caused by the February coup there, experts have told VOA, flooding neighboring countries with narcotics and carving out new channels to reach old markets.The rugged ungovernable Myanmar borderlands in Shan state are home to what is by many estimates the world’s largest meth trade, orchestrated by the drug lords of the Golden Triangle, an area at the juncture of China, Thailand and Laos.Countless metric tons of precursor chemicals are moved into the Golden Triangle and then the drugs, mainly meth pills (yaba), the highly addictive crystal meth (ice), and heroin, are sent back across the same borders.Myanmar’s coup removed the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar has been pitched into chaos since, with more than 1,000 pro-democracy protesters killed by police and the army, which is now fighting multiple ethnic groups and now facing the declaration of war by anti-coup rebels.Inside the turmoil, drug production has flourished in Shan state, as a blur of allegiances in the pursuit of profit ensure the meth pours out.“All the indications are that the military coup has been a win-win for these cartels,” Richard Horsey, senior Myanmar adviser to the International Crisis Group told VOA, adding that “super labs” producing ice have gone into overdrive whether they are run by “pro-military militias or anti-military armed groups.”“Law enforcement activity has greatly decreased and the general chaos creates new opportunities for illicit activities and incentives for all those involved in the trade to take advantage and earn money,” he said.Shan state is also the world’s second-biggest production area for opium poppies, the base ingredient of heroin. It is not yet clear how the Taliban’s need for income as they return to govern Afghanistan — the biggest poppy producer — could skew the market for heroin in Southeast Asia.Doubled volumes, halved pricesThailand, since Myanmar’s coup, has seized nearly 330 million yaba pills, according to the Thai Office of Narcotics Control Board, more than double the amount from February through August last year. Ice seizures have stayed on par at around 15 metric tons so far, the ONCB said.The oversupply is pushing drug prices down, with authorities saying yaba pills now cost as little as $1.70 in Thai border areas, while the cost of a gram of the more addictive and potent ice has been slashed by half to $45.“If organized crime and their militia partners continue to push the limits of the drug trade in Shan there will be implications for Mekong neighbors like Thailand and Laos — somewhat into Vietnam and Cambodia,” Jeremy Douglas, regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said.“It can’t simply go on as it has been without more significant regional spillover and consequences,” he said.For Thailand, whose roads, ports and airports have made it the regional hub for drug trafficking, Myanmar’s coup is bad news.Authorities have tightened security along the mountainous northern border zone adjacent to Myanmar, but that has shifted trafficking eastward so that the drugs are now moved into Laos.Huge loads are then shuttled across the virtually unpoliceable Mekong River and into Thailand’s northeastern Isaan region, where the coronavirus has decimated incomes, leaving smuggling rings with a deep pool of couriers for their illicit wares.The Sept. 4 seizure of 4.3 million yaba tablets in a vehicle driven by a 31-year-old mother of two in Nakon Phanom province opposite Laos is a prime example of drug money seeping into poor communities, a local official told VOA.“Many people who have lost jobs during the pandemic have taken up trafficking, while kids forced out of school have also been swept up into drugs as dealers and users,” said Wassana Srikrason, a village head in nearby Ban Pang district.“There are more checkpoints along the northern border, so drugs from Myanmar have been pushed through Laos instead and into Thailand,” Wassana said.The trafficking volumes are so high, he added, that meth packages are now even marked with the Isaan city names where they are due to be “warehoused” before being shipped on to Bangkok, destined for the more lucrative markets of Australia, New Zealand and Japan.Experts say organized crime syndicates are digging deeper foundations across Southeast Asia eroding threadbare rule of law with corruption.“The drug situation in the Golden Triangle is becoming more complex and the drug economy in the region is becoming more powerful and influential,” the UNODC’s Douglas said.
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Biden to Issue New US COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy Thursday
U.S. President Joe Biden will unveil a new strategy to combat the dramatic surge of COVID-19 cases across the nation during a major White House speech Thursday afternoon.White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday that Biden will spell out six methods designed to encourage more Americans to get inoculated against the virus, including involvement of the private sector.Biden’s speech comes as the U.S. is experiencing a growing number of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths sparked by the highly contagious delta variant, which has completely upended the administration’s aggressive vaccination efforts during its first months in office.The majority of new infections have been among Americans who have not been vaccinated, including a spike in the number of young children who are not yet eligible to receive a vaccine.The American Academy of Pediatrics said cases among children soared to 750,000 between Aug. 5 and Sept. 2.The latest surge has pushed hospitals and health care workers across the U.S. to a breaking point, with intensive care units filled to capacity with COVID-19 patients, and stalled the nation’s economic recovery from the pandemic, a key goal of Biden’s first year in office.
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N. Korea Holds Parade, But Doesn’t Appear to Show Off New Missiles
North Korea held a nighttime military parade early Thursday, state media announced, but does not appear to have shown off any ballistic missiles or other advanced weaponry. The North held the parade after midnight to mark the 73rd anniversary of the country’s national founding, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended the parade, sporting a tan, Western-style suit and a slimmed-down physique. The 37-year-old leader, whose health has been the subject of constant speculation in Western media, has lost a significant amount of weight in recent months. State media did not say whether Kim delivered any remarks at the event. It also did not mention whether any ballistic missiles were unveiled at the parade. Instead, the parade featured small artillery, fire trucks, and rows of individuals wearing what were described as domestically produced orange hazmat suits, complete with hoods and gas masks, according to still images shown by state media. It is the third North Korean military parade in about a year and the first since U.S. President Joe Biden took office. Some analysts see the move as a possible way to pressure the U.S. amid stalled nuclear talks, though it is thought to be less provocative than a major weapons test. Paramilitary parade held to mark the founding anniversary of the republic at Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang, Sep. 9, 2021.North Korea has rejected the Biden administration’s repeated offers to resume talks and has recently threatened a return to tensions, after Washington and Seoul held annual joint military drills. North Korean state television has not broadcast footage of the parade. Analysts rely on such footage to assess such parades, since no international media or foreigners are typically allowed to attend. In the past, North Korean state television has delayed such reports for up to a day, before airing carefully produced parade footage. The North’s last military parade was in January, when it unveiled a new submarine-launched ballistic missile. At an October parade, it rolled out its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, which appears designed to overwhelm U.S. missile defenses. All three parades were held at night, providing more dramatic shots of missiles, other weapons, and rows of goose-stepping soldiers. North Korea often holds parades on major political anniversaries, both to demonstrate its latest military developments and to bolster domestic solidarity. “We shouldn’t overinterpret foreign policy or negotiating signals from a parade that’s primarily aimed at domestic political audiences,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “North Korean society is under tremendous stress because of decisions made by the Kim regime. So, the parade is intended to show strength and serve as a quarantine morale booster,” he said. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, North Korea has enacted one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, nearly completely closing its borders, cutting off trade, and restricting domestic travel. It says it has detected no coronavirus cases, though few analysts believe that. The lockdown has come with a major economic cost. Kim has repeatedly warned of food shortages, at one point even seeming to compare the situation to North Korea’s devastating 1990s famine.
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Ida Deaths Rise By 11 in New Orleans; Louisiana Toll Now 26
The death toll in Louisiana from Hurricane Ida rose to 26 Wednesday, after health officials reported 11 additional deaths in New Orleans, mostly older people who perished from the heat. The announcement was grim news amid signs the city was returning to normal with almost fully restored power and a lifted nighttime curfew.While New Orleans was generally rebounding from the storm, hundreds of thousands of people outside the city remained without electricity and some of the hardest-hit areas still had no water. Across southeastern Louisiana, 250,000 students were unable to return to classrooms 10 days after Ida roared ashore with 240-kph winds.The latest deaths attributed to Ida happened between Aug. 30 and Monday but were just confirmed as storm-related by the Orleans Parish coroner, the Louisiana Department of Health said in a statement. Nine of the New Orleans deaths — of people ages 64-79 — came from “excessive heat during an extended power outage,” while the two others were from carbon monoxide poisoning, the department said.More than a million people were left without power, including the entire city of New Orleans, when Ida struck on Aug. 29. The state’s largest power company, Entergy, said it expected to have electricity in the city restored to 90% by Wednesday evening.Meanwhile, the New Orleans Police Department and Mayor LaToya Cantrell lifted an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew imposed two days after the hurricane hit.Across New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana, families are still waiting to hear when their children can return to school, as districts assessed hurricane damage. Prior to Ida, schools around Louisiana had been open despite widespread cases of COVID-19, although under a statewide mask mandate for all indoor locations.”We need to get those kids back with us as soon as we possibly can,” said Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley.In New Orleans, School Superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr. said damage to schools appeared to be mostly minimal, but power needs to be restored to all buildings, and teachers, staff and families need to return to the city to get schools up and running.”Now more than ever, our children stand to benefit from the comfort that structured and routine daily schooling can bring,” Lewis said in a statement Wednesday. “So, let’s all come together to reopen our schools quickly and safely.”Lewis said he expects classes for some will resume as early as next week and that all students will be back a week after that.No school reopening estimates have been provided for the five parishes that were hardest hit by Hurricane Ida and which are home to about 320,000 people: Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. James, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist. In those parishes, 96% of utility customers were still without power Wednesday.Debris piles up at curbside as residents gut their flooded homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in LaPlace, La., Sept. 7, 2021.Bucket trucks and heavy power equipment were ubiquitous, but the task facing linemen remained daunting. Downed power poles and slack or snapped lines were still evident on long stretches of U.S. Highway 90 in St. Charles Parish. Heavy equipment trucks could be seen ferrying new poles to the area.Farther south, in the Terrebonne Parish city of Houma, trucks with linemen were on every street, and as the day progressed there were signs of progress: Traffic lights started flickering on, although sporadically, on busy Grand Caillou road by early afternoon.Linemen also were working south of Houma, in rural Terrebonne along Bayou Grand Caillou. But many of the homes were in no shape to connect. Coy Verdin was staying at his son’s house in Houma. The home the 52-year-old fisherman shares with his wife, Pamela, near the bayou was a soggy, smelly mess, all but destroyed in the storm.”All the ceilings fell. You can see daylight through the roof,” Verdin said. “All we have is basically a shell.”Ida scattered most of his 200 crab traps to parts unknown. “The only thing I have left is my boat and some of my commercial fishing rigging,” he said.The St. John the Baptist Parish School System website said all schools and offices will be closed “until further notification.” Lafourche Parish Schools Superintendent Jarod Martin indicated a “long and extensive road to recovery” on that school system’s website, with no timeline for a return in sight.”Until power is restored to our facilities and we’re able to obtain further information regarding damage to the infrastructure of our schools, we’re unable to provide an estimated date for a return to in-person learning,” the St. James Parish public school system said in an update posted Wednesday.In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, a family walks down Bourbon Street, Sept. 4, 2021, in the French Quarter of New Orleans.Statewide, about 342,000 homes and businesses remained without power Wednesday, according to the Louisiana Public Service Commission.Access to fuel also remained difficult, with the website GasBuddy.com reporting about 48% of gas stations in Baton Rouge had no gasoline. About 56% of stations in New Orleans were also dry.About 44,000 people were still without running water in Louisiana, the state health department reported. That’s significantly lower than the hundreds of thousands of people who had no water immediately after Ida’s landfall. Still, more than 570,000 people were being told to boil their water for safety.In many neighborhoods, homes remain uninhabitable. About 3,200 people are in mass shelters around Louisiana while another 25,000 people whose houses have been damaged are staying in hotel rooms through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s transitional sheltering program.Louisiana’s secretary of state announced that fall elections will be pushed back by more than a month because of the storm.In addition to the death and destruction Ida caused in Louisiana, the storm’s remnants brought historic flooding, record rains and tornados from Virginia to Massachusetts, killing at least 50 more people.
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Police Plan to Reinstall US Capitol Fence Ahead of Rally
Law enforcement concerned by the prospect of violence at a rally in the nation’s capital next week are planning to reinstall protective fencing that surrounded the U.S. Capitol for months after the January 6 insurrection there, according to a person familiar with the discussions.Though no specific measures have been announced, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hinted during her weekly press conference Wednesday at extra safety precautions for the September 18 rally by saying: “We intend to have the integrity of the Capitol be intact.”Some lawmakers and top union officials were expected to be briefed on the plan later this week, and another more expansive briefing for the leaders of the House and Senate was planned for Monday.A security plan that is being finalized calls for fencing to be put up outside the inner perimeter of the Capitol building and the Supreme Court, though not around the congressional office buildings nearby, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.’Justice’ for those chargedPolice continue to track intelligence indicating far-right extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are planning to attend the rally this month at the U.S. Capitol that is designed to demand “justice” for the hundreds of people who have been charged in connection with January’s insurrection. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, however, has said he doesn’t expect his membership to attend.The planned presence of the extremist groups is concerning, because while members and associates of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys make up just a small fraction of the nearly 600 people who have been charged so far in the riot, they are facing some of the most serious charges brought.The fence had been a stark symbol of the fear many in the Capitol felt after the mob pushed its way past overwhelmed police officers, broke through windows and doors, and ransacked the Capitol as Congress was voting to certify Joe Biden’s electoral win.FILE – Members of the Oath Keepers militia group stand among supporters of then-President Donald Trump protesting the certification of the 2020 presidential election results on the east front steps of the Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021.Those charges include allegations that they conspired to block the certification of Biden’s victory. Several Oath Keepers have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and are cooperating with investigators in the case against their fellow extremists, who authorities say came to Washington ready for violence and willing to do whatever it took to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote.The planned September 18 rally at the Capitol comes as a jittery Washington has seen a series of troubling one-off incidents — including, most recently, a man who parked a pickup truck near the Library of Congress and said he had a bomb and detonator.And the most concerning: Unexploded pipe bombs placed near the Capitol ahead of the January 6 insurrection remain unexplained, and no suspect has been charged.The FBI released a new video of that suspect on Wednesday and a digital map showing the person circling the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees, where the bombs were placed. The FBI also said for the first time that agents believe the suspect is not from the Washington, D.C., area but may have been “operating” out of a location near the Capitol.”Based upon the suspect’s route of travel to the DNC and from the DNC to the RNC, and the manner in which the suspect carries the backpack after placing the pipe bomb at the DNC, the FBI believes the suspect had a location in the vicinity of Folger Park from which the person was operating,” the FBI said in a news release. “Reviews of the suspect’s behavior in video footage and interviews with residents in the Capitol Hill neighborhood have led the FBI to believe the suspect is not from the area.”What deserves to be fenced?On Capitol Hill, the politics around fencing in the iconic building and its grounds were extremely difficult for lawmakers after the January 6 insurrection. Many said they disliked closing off access, even as they acknowledged the increased level of security it provided. The fencing finally came down with a promise to re-erect it if necessary. But the question of what deserves fencing is tricky.In an interview Wednesday, the District of Columbia’s Democratic representative, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, said that she had not yet been briefed on the security plans, but that she understood if the fence needed to be reinstalled out of an abundance of caution ahead of the upcoming rally.”I would hope that we wouldn’t have to fence in the Capitol every time there’s a demonstration,” Norton said. But she added, “If they go with the fence, I’m not going to criticize them.”Norton suggested that in the aftermath of January 6, there would be more robust security preparations ahead of this rally out of an abundance of caution, even though it is scheduled for a Saturday before the House returns to session, a typically sleepy summertime afternoon when few lawmakers or staff would be at work.”I wouldn’t be surprised to see the fence go up,” she said. “The preparations are certainly going to be more than they were on January 6.”
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Use of Canine Units Expands in US Airports to Thwart Possible Terror Attacks
As the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, VOA’s Julie Taboh looks at the special canine teams deployed over the past 20 years that have helped keep U.S. airports safe. Produced by: Julie Taboh and Adam Greenbaum
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W. African Court Upholds Colombian Man’s Extradition to US for Trial
Lawyers for a Colombian businessman say they’re exploring their options after a court in the West African country of Cape Verde rejected their appeal to halt his extradition to the United States.The Cape Verde high court’s written judgment, dated August 30 but published Tuesday on the court’s website, said Alex Saab must stand trial in the United States.Saab is wanted on charges of laundering money through U.S. banks in connection with a Venezuelan bribery scheme. He has been held in Cape Verde since June 12, 2020, when he was arrested while his private plane stopped for fuel en route to Iran.Venezuela’s socialist government had protested his arrest, saying Saab was acting as a special envoy to seek food, medical supplies and fuel for the South American country.The U.S. government has imposed strict sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and others in his administration.’Political battle’Geraldo Almeida, one of Saab’s attorneys, told VOA’s Portuguese Service that the case had turned into a “political battle taking into account” the U.S. government’s power.Almeida said he and others on Saab’s defense team were not “throwing in the towel.”But João Resende-Santos, a law professor at the Higher Institute of Legal and Social Sciences in Cape Verde, told VOA that no further appeals are available. “The next step is the foreign affairs ministry to communicate to the U.S. Embassy in Cape Verde about the court’s decision. This administrative process is brief and the U.S. Embassy has 45 days to bring Alex Saab to the U.S.,” he said. In early January, Cape Verde’s Court of Appeal in Barlavento ruled that Saab should be extradited to the United States. The defense appealed to the country’s Supreme Court, which in March upheld the lower court’s verdict.Saab and another Colombian businessman, Alvaro Pulido Vargas, were indicted in July 2019 in U.S. federal court in Miami for allegedly joining in a bribery scheme from late 2011 through at least September 2015, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release.The men allegedly laundered approximately $350 million from bank accounts in Venezuela “to and through bank accounts located in the United States,” the Justice Department said.This report originated in VOA’s Portuguese Service.
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Tigray Forces Deny Reports of Mass Killings in Amhara
Rebel forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray region denied reports Wednesday that they had killed dozens of civilians over a two-day period in the Amhara area. The Reuters news agency reported Wednesday that regional authorities said 120 civilians were killed between September 1 and 2. Local officials told Reuters that they had recovered bodies which appeared to be those of farmers in a village roughly 10 kilometers from the town of Dabat. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front released a statement later Wednesday rejecting what they termed “a fabricated allegation.” “We reiterate our call for an independent investigation into all atrocities, and our willingness to facilitate media access to areas under our control for independent verification of any allegations,” said Getachew Reda, spokesperson for the TPLF. Here is our official response to Reuters’ misleading report pic.twitter.com/NoOZThY4ri— Getachew K Reda (@reda_getachew) September 8, 2021Reuters noted that if confirmed, the incident would mark the first mass killings by Tigray forces since they claimed control over territory in the Amhara region. On 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 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. The TPLF, which ruled Ethiopia for three decades, now controls Tigray. The TPLF-led authority administering the region says it is the Tigray Regional Government; Ethiopian federal authorities say that government was dissolved and that a provisional administration has the mandate in Tigray. Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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US Treasury Report: Richest Americans Evade Billions in Taxes
The richest Americans are failing to pay hundreds of billions in taxes they owe the government, a new U.S. Treasury report contended Wednesday. The report said the top 1% of taxpayers last year failed to pay about $163 billion in taxes, accounting for about 28% of the total of $600 billion in unpaid taxes, while the top 5% failed to pay a total of $307 billion, 53% of the overall sum. The Treasury called the $600 billion in underpayments a “striking” total equal to about 3% of the country’s annual economic output of nearly $23 trillion. The sum is equal to all the taxes paid by the country’s lowest-earning 90% of taxpayers. The wealthiest taxpayers account for the biggest part of the tax evasion, the report said, because they have the financial resources to hire accountants and tax advisers “who help shield them from bearing their true income tax liability.” FILE – President Joe Biden speaks during an event in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington, July 15, 2021.It also said that wealthy taxpayers often have “opaque” income sources from business partnerships, proprietorships and rental income. By contrast, most working Americans have federal income taxes deducted from regular paychecks and forwarded to the government by their employers. “The United States collects less tax revenue as a percentage of [gross domestic product] than at most points in recent history, in part because owed but uncollected taxes are so significant,” the Treasury Department’s Natasha Sarin wrote in the report. “These unpaid taxes mean policymakers must choose between rising deficits, lower spending on important priorities, or further tax increase to compensate for lost revenue — which will only be borne by compliant taxpayers,” she wrote. Authorities have long been aware of tax evasion by the wealthiest U.S. taxpayers, but legislative efforts to correct the problem have almost always failed. President Joe Biden, as part of his plans to boost the economy with new spending to expand the country’s social safety net, is calling for higher taxation on corporations and individuals earning more than $400,000 a year. Perhaps more importantly, he wants beefed-up tax enforcement staffing at the Internal Revenue Service, the country’s tax collection agency. But some lawmakers, especially Republicans, so far have balked at increasing the size of the tax agency’s staff. Congress is in the midst of debating Biden’s $3.5 trillion social safety net proposal, in addition to separate legislation for $1 trillion in infrastructure spending. The fate of the proposals is uncertain.
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Unique Texas Abortion Law Creates Legal Confusion
The Texas anti-abortion law, which was allowed to go into effect last week despite being in clear conflict with decades-old precedents set by the United States Supreme Court in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, is a complex piece of legal engineering. It was intentionally built to avoid initial judicial review and structured to compel people to comply with it, even if they believe it violates their constitutional rights, through fear of being bombarded with excessive legal fees that could bankrupt them. Attorney General Merrick Garland this week ordered the Justice Department to explore “all options” to challenge Texas’s highly restrictive abortion law and to protect abortion clinics that are under attack. Many Democrats and abortion rights proponents caution, however, that while they believe the law is unconstitutional, it was crafted in a way that makes legal challenges difficult. FILE – U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland attends a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, June 25, 2021.Senate Bill 8, as the legislation is called, makes it illegal in Texas for a doctor to perform an abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy — before most women are even aware that they are pregnant. Crucially, however, the law explicitly bans state officials from acting to enforce the law, delegating that responsibility instead to private citizens, who are eligible to recover a $10,000 judgment, plus attorney’s fees, from anyone who they can prove aided or abetted a woman seeking an abortion. The law casts a broad net, meaning that not only doctors, but clinicians and clinic workers, and even relatives who help pay for an abortion are liable. However, the plain language of the law states that only people who “knowingly” assist someone seeking an abortion are liable, meaning that the commonly cited example of an Uber driver being exposed to a lawsuit under the bill is incorrect, experts say. The Supreme Court last week, in a 5-4 decision, declined to block the law from coming into effect on procedural grounds, arguing that because there is no specific individual charged with enforcing the law, there is nobody who can be sued over it, and therefore, nobody the court can enjoin from enforcing it. President Joe Biden sharply criticized the Supreme Court ruling and instructed Garland to explore ways to challenge the Texas law.Thus far, abortion clinics in Texas have been careful to observe the new law — which makes no exceptions for rape or incest — and avoid drawing fire from self-appointed citizens or groups claiming violations of the new abortion restrictions. However, it is likely that eventually someone will defy the six-week limit on pregnancies before a procedure, leading to a constitutional test case. Opponents furious FILE – Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks in Lubbock, Texas, March 2, 2021.Opponents of the legislation have been scathing in their criticism of the Texas legislature and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott who signed the legislation. “Texas politicians have succeeded for the moment in making a mockery of the rule of law, upending abortion care in Texas, and forcing patients to leave the state — if they have the means — to get constitutionally protected health care,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “This should send chills down the spine of everyone in this country who cares about the Constitution. We will keep fighting this ban until abortion access is restored in Texas.” Others aimed their anger at the Supreme Court for choosing not to block enforcement of the statute. “The Supreme Court has ignored 50 years of precedent and set back the hands of time, essentially allowing Texas to be a pre-Roe [v. Wade] state,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. “This is a travesty for the nearly seven million women of reproductive age, and everyone who supports access to safe, legal abortion.” FILE – Texas state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, center, speaks against a bill that would ban abortions as early as six weeks and allow private citizens to enforce it through civil lawsuits, in the House Chamber in Austin, Texas, May 5, 2021.Supporters claim victory Supporters of the law, however, see it as a victory over a court system that they believe is rigged against them. The anti-abortion movement had two main goals in advancing the legislation, said John Seago, legislative director for Texas Right to Life, a group closely involved in drafting the legislation. “The first one was, how do we have a pro-life policy actually be enforced, when we have lawless district attorneys who are not enforcing pro-life laws,” Seago said. “The second one is these activist federal judges — how do you get around them? [They are] looking for excuses to hold up laws, even though we can win ultimately.” Genesis of the law The roots of S.B. 8 can be traced back to an article by a former solicitor general of the state of Texas, Jonathan F. Mitchell, which was published in the Virginia Law Review in 2018. Called The Writ-of-Erasure Fallacy, the article argued that when federal courts block enforcement of state laws, those laws are not, as popularly believed, “struck down.” Rather, they remain on the books and are simply not enforced. That leaves room for future, and even retroactive, enforcement, if a later Supreme Court overrules a previous opinion enjoining enforcement. And, critically for this case, Mitchell theorized that a bill that provided a private cause of action in state court could continue to be enforced by private citizens, even if a federal court has enjoined state officials from enforcing it. That would remain the case unless a person sued under the law pursued an appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, and won. “Unless and until the Supreme Court of the United States declares a statute unconstitutional, the States remain free to authorize and entertain private enforcement actions in their own courts — even after a federal district or circuit court has disapproved the statute and enjoined the State’s executive from enforcing it,” Mitchell wrote. Mitchell was closely involved in the drafting of S.B. 8. Private cause of action It may not be clear to a layperson how a private individual with no connection to a person who gets an abortion — and no way to show that they have suffered personal harm because of it — can have the standing to sue in the first place. If this were a federal law, that objection would have force. But under state law in Texas, the legislature is allowed to specifically confer standing on private individuals in certain kinds of cases if it chooses to do so. In S.B. 8, that is precisely what state legislators did. Most states have similar rules allowing the legislature to confer standing on private citizens, which is one reason why governors and legislators in at least seven states across the country have said that they are preparing legislation similar to S.B. 8 in their states. FILE – A security guard opens the door to the Whole Women’s Health Clinic in Fort Worth, Texas, Sept. 1, 2021.Fear of legal fees The law is structured to compel compliance — even if a defendant in a potential case believes that their rights are being violated and that they would be vindicated in court — through fear of legal bills.The law itself does not allow someone sued under it to recover legal fees from their accuser, even if they are able to demonstrate their innocence. However, it does allow the accuser to recover legal fees from the defendant in the case of a guilty verdict. But the burden of legal fees is potentially even heavier than it seems. If Mitchell’s theory is correct, and enforcement of the law could only ever be truly blocked by a Supreme Court ruling that it is unconstitutional, that means someone who wants to challenge it is going to face years of lawsuits involving huge legal fees. But in the United States, a defendant in a federal lawsuit who is asserting his or her constitutional rights are being violated is generally not eligible to recover legal fees. In the law review article, Mitchell lays out the implications plainly.”Of course, the defendants in these private enforcement actions can reassert the constitutional objections to the statute — and perhaps they will persuade the court to follow the reasoning of the courts that have disapproved the statute,” he wrote. “But a defendant has no entitlement to attorneys’ fees when he asserts his constitutional rights defensively in a private enforcement action, and the need to foot one’s own legal bills may induce statutory compliance even for those who expect to prevail on their constitutional objections.” Boomerang effect There has been much speculation that the unique legal structure of the Texas law might just as easily be applied to other areas in which lawmakers want to curtail specific rights that have been guaranteed by court rulings. For example, some have suggested that states where a majority of residents disagree with the Supreme Court’s rulings on handgun bans might create a private right of action against gun dealers who sell them. The point would not be to win an argument over the constitutionality of the statute, but to compel compliance with it anyway. Seago, of Texas Right to Life, said that the “narrow focus” of his organization is such that the broader implications of the use of this novel legal structure are not a great concern, but that the group welcomes the opportunity to resolve any issues in court. “The question kind of assumes you are headed towards a collision in our federalist principles. But that’s an important legal question that should be answered, not avoided just because it’s a new question,” he said.
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Pandemic Forces Kenya’s Jobless Youths Onto Streets
Kenyan authorities say the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced thousands of youths onto the streets, and many are turning to crime. To meet the challenge, aid groups are trying to reintegrate homeless youth through sports with the goal of keeping them out of trouble. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi.Camera: Amos Wangwa
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Guinea Opposition Leader Voices Support for Coup
The leader of Guinea’s main opposition party, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), says the country’s September 5 coup was justified because President Alpha Conde was illegitimate after he changed the constitution to run for a third term.Speaking to VOA’s James Butty in an exclusive interview through an interpreter, Cellou Dalein Diallo said all the ills of Guinean society cited by the military junta had been identified and denounced by his party.Asked if he would personally participate in a unity government if the military were to ask him to do so, Diallo said he would personally not join a transitional government but would designate members of his party to take part. Diallo claimed to have won the October 2020 presidential election, but the electoral commission declared Conde the winner, and the Guinean Supreme Court validated the results in favor of President Conde.Diallo said he would run again for president in a new election.The election followed a March 2020 constitutional referendum that paved the way for Conde, 83, to extend his stay in office. The opposition said at least 21 people were killed during protests against the referendum in Nzerekore, Guinea’s second largest city. The Guinean government refuted the allegations.FILE – Supporters of Guinean opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo clash with police in Conakry, Oct. 21, 2020. Diallo declared himself winner against incumbent President Alpha Conde in Sunday’s presidential elections.Conde won the 2010 and 2015 elections, but critics said he became increasingly authoritarian.Diallo told VOA he would highly recommend that the fight against corruption and human rights abuses should be a top priority for the military government. He said the military junta should make it possible for victims of human rights abuses during the Conde administration to get justice.Regional bloc ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) has condemned the September 5 coup. As the group meets this Thursday in an emergency summit to discuss the military takeover in Guinea, Diallo said he hopes ECOWAS will help Guinea put together a transition process that leads to a free and fair election.
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Myanmar’s Shadow Government Announces ‘Defensive War’
Myanmar’s shadow government declared a “defensive war” on Tuesday that is being viewed by analysts as a call to arms against the junta controlling the country.The National Unity Government (NUG) was founded as a shadow government in the wake of February’s military coup by Myanmar’s national armed forces. The NUG is the main opposition group, consisting of ousted elected politicians and legislators that claim to be the country’s legitimate government.After NUG Acting President Duwa Lashi La called in a video for a nationwide uprising, there have reports that government has increased its military security presence in the capital, Yangon.Myanmar has been in crisis since the military takeover that prompted widespread opposition. The junta ousted the National League for Democracy party, the democratically elected government, and detained its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.Nationwide protests ensued, with hundreds of thousands resisting military rule and going on strike, spearheaded by the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Clashes followed, with the military harshly cracking down on demonstrators and over 1,000 killed according to the monitoring group the Association Assistance for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The military says the number is much lower.But as clashes have continued, rural areas of Myanmar, including ethnic minority regions, have been most affected. Government troops and ethnic armed organizations have engaged in sustained fighting, with reports of regular airstrikes and tens of thousands of displaced villagers.A People’s Defense Force (PDF), made up of militia groups and anti-coup demonstrators, has also been created in the wake of the crackdown and is in alignment with the NUG.Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst, said previous claims of “D-Day” from other members of the NUG were deemed as hints of imminent attacks on junta forces, but yesterday’s announcement of a “defensive war” was more like a calling of arms.“After the declaration of war, as some PDF members are already trained in ethnic areas, there is pressure for the NUG from the people to do something distinctive,” he told VOA.The analyst added he expects more attacks and fighting in coming months.A leader of a guerrilla force that says it has about 100 soldiers within Myanmar’s ethnic controlled areas told VOA through a translator that he believes it’s the beginning of a large-scale civil war.Loi Samsit, which isn’t his real name, used to work as a humanitarian worker. Now he’s a rebel soldier who claims he is in alliance with the PDF.“That means war is about to come… We, the soldiers from the people, are former professionals, working with pens, now holding guns,” he said.Tun-Aung Shwe, the NUG’s representative to the Commonwealth of Australia, reiterated the necessity for those opposing the coup to resist the junta.“The announcement means that the NUG takes its national responsibility to protect its own people who are suffering a lot under the brutal repression of the military junta when the international community is watching and sharing their grave concerns on the situation,” he told VOA by email.But the NUG representative played down the possibility of a full-blown civil war.“I am expecting to see a well-coordinated, well-organized people revolution to the military junta and targeted attacks to the military and its pillars, including military communication and supply lines and security posts and also to see defections among the military personnel,” Shwe said.“I don’t think there will be a full-blown civil war because of the significant difference in terms of resources between the military junta and civilian government,” he added.Hudson Logan, a youth leader in the Area 21 Revolution group, a network tasked with assisting local PDF armies with new recruits and training, stressed that the “defensive war” has many components.“It will look like nationwide resistant movement in all possible forms. Armed resistance is part of the nationwide uprising, which may also include mass protests, mass disobedience and [without] collaboration to [the] military administration,” he told VOA in a message.Southeast Asian and western countries have called for peace and to refrain from violence.The U.S. State Department has updated its travel alerts for citizens within Myanmar amid the NUG’s declaration. Challenge expected at U.N. assemblyZaw Min Tun, the Myanmar military spokesman, refuted reports about revolt attempts, saying the announcement was for attention amid the upcoming credentials challenge at the United Nations next week, Reuters reported.At the 76th General Assembly session on September 14, Myanmar will be a hot topic, as the credentials committee, made up of nine countries, must recommend an entity to take the country’s U.N. seat. The choice comes down to either the military junta or representatives of the former government.UN to Discuss Myanmar Representation at General Assembly The Credentials Committee must decide whether the ousted government or the junta that seized power will take the UN seat After ASEAN, a 10-member union consisting of countries in the region, called an emergency meeting in April, a five-point consensus was developed in a bid to solve the Myanmar crisis. But a special envoy has yet to visit.Analyst Aung Thu Nyein thinks the diplomatic front is key for the NUG because of insecurities between ethnic and anti-coup opposition groups, and that the war announcement is being used partly as a show of force.“In my opinion, the NUG’s strength is at the diplomatic front and not with the military. They have been talking to the ethnic armed groups, but it seems not ready to form a unified alliance. It is untimely, as the ASEAN special envoy called a few days ago to cease hostilities from both sides. Definitely, it is the response to the special envoy before his visit to Myanmar,” he added.Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, gained independence in 1948 from Britain, but most of its modern history has been governed under military rule.In Myanmar’s November general elections, the military claimed unsubstantiated electoral fraud. On February 1, the Myanmar military, also known as Tatmadaw, removed the democratically elected government. National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were detained and have since been charged.
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Turkey’s Erdogan Voices Caution Over New Afghan Government
Turkey is voicing caution over Afghanistan’s interim government as it continues talks with the Taliban on restarting air traffic at the Kabul airport.Turkey was among the first countries calling for talks and engagement with the Taliban after it swept to power last month. But the Taliban’s announcement of an interim government this week saw Turkish President Recep Tayyip calling for a cautious approach.”As you know, right now, it’s hard to call it permanent, but an interim cabinet has been announced,” Erdogan said Tuesday. He said, “We don’t know how long this interim cabinet will last. All we have to do is to follow this process carefully.”Those Fleeing Afghanistan Struggle to Survive in TurkeyVOA reporters meet people who say the Taliban are killing government workers and other ‘enemies’ as they take over areas of Afghanistan But Erdogan said talks between the Taliban and Qatar on restarting full operations at the Kabul airport were making progress although he warned key issues remained unresolved. On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Taliban’s insistence on being the one to provide the airport’s security remains a key obstacle.Cavusoglu said, “the Taliban or Afghan forces could ensure security outside the airport. But inside,” he said, “there should be a security company trusted by the international community”. He added that “Otherwise, even if airlines, including Turkish Airlines, are keen to fly there, insurance companies would not allow it.”Despite Turkey’s participation in NATO’s twenty-year-long military presence in Afghanistan, the Taliban reached out to Ankara with calls to put the airport back into operation. Turkey is NATO’s only Muslim member, and it shares historical ties with Afghanistan. Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow of the European Council, says Ankara says believes hese factors could help Turkey play a key role in Afghanistan.Taliban Tells Turkey Continued Troop Presence in Afghanistan Is ‘Unacceptable’Taliban spokesman tells VOA it will view Turkish troops as invaders and a violation of the deal with US”They will want to see as if they can position Turkey as a diplomatic conduit, as a diplomatic sort of go-between, between western countries and the Taliban,” said Aydintasbas.The reopening of the Kabul airport is key for European countries and the United States in efforts to evacuate their citizens who are still in Afghanistan as well as Afghan nationals who once worked for NATO and western embassies.After meeting his Turkish counterpart, German foreign minister Heiko Maas underlined Turkey’s importance in efforts to reopen the airport, offering to help finance the operation. But retired Turkish ambassador Selim Kuneralp says Ankara must deal delicately with the Taliban.”It seems to me they would be a risk in appearing to be too close to the Taliban to be their protectors, so to speak, in the eyes of the West, not just the United States but the European Union too,” said Kuneralp. “If you appear to be close to them, then you would be painted with the same brush.”Ankara’s cautious approach to the new Afghan government and Turkish calls calling for scrutiny of the Taliban’s treatment of women and ethnic minorities could be signs of a growing awareness of Turkey’s need to remain aligned with its Western allies over Afghanistan.
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Statue of Robert E. Lee Comes Down After 131 Years
A tall statue of Robert E. Lee, the general who led Confederate troops during the U.S. Civil War of the 1860s, was removed from its prominent spot in the southeastern city of Richmond, Virginia, Wednesday morning.The removal of the 12-ton, 6.4-meter-tall bronze statue of Lee riding a horse comes just over a year after Virginia Governor Ralph Norman announced plans to take it down amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died in police custody in Minnesota. Floyd’s death sparked protests calling for social and racial justice worldwide.The governor’s plans were delayed by a handful of lawsuits by local residents opposed to the statue’s removal. The lawsuits were dismissed by the state Supreme Court last week.The statue was erected in 1890 in Virginia’s capital city, which also served as the capital of the Confederate States of America, a coalition of 11 southern states that broke away from the United States shortly after the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. The Confederates seceded from the U.S. in order preserve the practice of enslaving Black people.Critics regard Lee’s statue and those of other figures of the Confederacy as symbols of racism and white supremacy. The 12-meter tall pedestal on which Lee’s statue sits has been defaced by graffiti since last year’s protests.
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Paris Begins Trial of 2015 Terror Attackers
Twenty people linked to the November 2015 terrorist attacks in France went on trial in Paris Wednesday in proceedings expected to last nine months.Six defendants are being charged in absentia. Reports say five of the six are presumed dead in Iraq or Syria. Nine Islamic State terrorists, mostly from France and Belgium, left a trail of horror in a multi-pronged attack at the national stadium, various bars and restaurants and at a concert at the Bataclan Theater. A total of 130 people were killed, 90 of them at the concert hall. At least 490 people were injured.A 10th member of the terror cell and the only one still alive, Salah Abdeslam, was arrested in Brussels four months after the November 13, 2015, strikes. He is accused of helping the others. In his court appearance, Abdeslam, 31, called himself an “Islamic State soldier.” When asked what his profession was, he said, “I gave up my job to become an Islamic State soldier.”This courtroom sketch shows Salah Abdeslam (R), the prime suspect in the November 2015 Paris attacks, and co-defendants Mohamed Amri (L) and Mohamed Abrini (C) on Sept. 8, 2021, the first day of the trial of the November 2015 Paris attacks.Even though most of the alleged perpetrators are dead, some hope the trial will bring closure to the families of the victims.”This trial is really an important step for the victims, those who have been wounded or injured, and those who lost members of their families,” Michael Dantinne, professor of criminology at the University of Liege, told France 24. He added that “it is only a step in the recovery process of the victims” and that “it won’t have any magical effect.” The trial is being held in a specially constructed court in Paris and described as the biggest in France’s modern day legal history. Some information in this report comes from the Associated Press, AFP and the Reuters news agency.
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South Korea Fights ‘Fake News,’ But Critics Claim It’s Gagging the Press
South Korean legislation intended to combat what authorities view as “fake news” could undermine press freedom in one of Asia’s strongest democracies, analysts say. The proposed revision to the Press Arbitration Act, backed by South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party, would significantly expand the ability of courts to punish accredited reporters and media outlets deemed to have intentionally published false information. If passed, the legislation would amount to a rare example of a liberal democracy responding to the growing challenge of disinformation by targeting traditional media, such as newspapers and television broadcasters. “At a time when authoritarian governments are increasingly adopting so-called ‘fake news’ laws to stifle criticism, it is disappointing to see a democratic country like South Korea follow this negative trend,” said Scott Griffen, deputy director of the International Press Institute, a Vienna-based free speech monitoring group. UN concerned
Under the proposal, claimants would be able to sue for up to five times the estimated damage caused by a deliberate dissemination of false news. That appears to be “utterly disproportionate,” according to Irene Khan, the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression. In a letter to South Korea’s government, Khan offered a detailed and forceful critique of the proposed legislation, saying it would provide “excessive discretion to the authorities that may lead to arbitrary implementation.” The bill’s “very vague language,” she added, “may limit a wide range of expression that is essential to a democratic society, including news reporting, criticism of the government, political leaders and other public figures, and the expression of unpopular and minority opinions.” Restoring public trust? Supporters say the new rules will help improve the South Korean public’s low confidence in domestic media.According to the latest annual study by the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford, just 32% of South Koreans trust the media. That is among the lowest of the 46 countries surveyed. Even so, several opinion polls show only a narrow majority of South Koreans appearing to support the legislation. “The revision of the [Press] Arbitration Act is the first step toward the media restoring its public credibility,” said Representative Kim Seung-won, a member of South Korea’s Democratic Party. In an interview with VOA, Kim also said the bill will provide more redress for those hurt by inaccurate reports.
“There are more than 4,000 instances each year in which fake news is judged to have caused damage,” he said. “So, it is necessary to relieve those damages, correct misinformation, compel follow-up reports, and strengthen the media’s editorial process.” Messy media environment South Korea boasts a free but often divisive and boisterous press. Many of the country’s biggest newspapers have links to chaebols — powerful, family-run conglomerates — and traditionally take a conservative stance on political and economic issues. Other smaller papers are explicitly liberal. FILE – This photo illustration taken in Seoul on Nov. 9, 2020 shows the frontpages of South Korea’s newspapers carrying stories and pictures of US President-elect Joe Biden.As in other countries, social media has fractured the South Korean media landscape and deepened political divisions. Polarization intensified after the 2017 impeachment of conservative President Park Geun-hye – the daughter of South Korea’s former military strongman, Park Chung-hee. She was subsequently sentenced to prison on corruption charges. After the Park scandal, many older conservatives, who respected the country’s former military rulers, became disillusioned with traditional media. They instead migrated to YouTube, which offered alternative information sources.FILE – South Korean ousted leader Park Geun-hye arrives at a court in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 25, 2017.Some of those far-right YouTube channels peddle far-fetched and unproven assertions, including claims that last year’s legislative election was rigged by shadowy communist forces.During the pandemic, many conservative leaders have used YouTube to call for mass anti-government protests that violate South Korea’s strict COVID-19 social distancing guidelines. Other social media have problems, too, including cyberbullying and vicious personal attacks that came to the fore in 2019 after two female Korean pop stars took their own lives. However, the law under discussion wouldn’t apply to private individuals on social media, only to officially accredited outlets and reporters. Elevating clickbait
Many journalists complain the bill does not address another major issue: South Korea’s massively influential online portals, such as Naver and Daum, which curate and host news stories from various outlets on their own websites. FILE – The Naver homepage is seen on a screen in Singapore, Oct. 28, 2015.FILE – A commuter checks his phone as he sits in a train station of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway in Seoul, on August 24, 2021.South Korean journalists oppose A wide range of South Korean newspapers, reporters, and journalism associations have criticized the proposal. Many say the new rules would discourage reporting that exposes powerful people and organizations. “If this act passes, the natural outcome will be more self-censorship by journalists,” said Lee Jin-dong, who heads his own investigative news outlet, Newsverse. “And their companies may pressure them to avoid lawsuits.” A young broadcast reporter at one of South Korea’s top television news stations said he understands more media regulation is needed, but believes it should be done in a way that doesn’t threaten the idea of journalism itself. “If this bill passes, I feel I will be unable to raise questions about presidential candidates or possible government ministers or conglomerates,” said the reporter, who also requested anonymity. Backlash forces delay Even some ruling party politicians have spoken against the bill. “There are some problematic provisions within this law,” Lee Sang-min, a Democratic Party lawmaker, told VOA. “The intention is good, but we have to find a better balance between freedom of speech and legal regulation.” FILE – South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in (center L) delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the 21st National Assembly term in Seoul on July 16, 2020.The backlash by South Korean civic groups may be having an effect. Though the legislation was expected to pass late last month, the Democratic Party agreed to delay it while an eight-member “discussion body” discusses possible changes. In the end, the party can do whatever it wants, due to its parliamentary supermajority. Many journalists are watching closely. “The press has a lot of problems, it’s true,” said a reporter who covers legal issues. The reporter, like others contacted by VOA, spoke only on condition of anonymity, added, “But the solution is not the current media arbitration law. This will only worsen social conflict.”
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New Zealand to Overhaul Terror Laws After Auckland Supermarket Stabbings
New Zealand is reviewing its terror laws after a knife-wielding Sri Lankan man attacked shoppers at an Auckland supermarket before being shot dead by the police. Authorities said he was inspired by the Islamic State group. The proposed New Zealand’s Counter Terror Legislation Bill would criminalize the planning of a terror attack.It would close what critics have said is a loophole that has allowed suspected extremists to continue posing a threat. The attacker was under police surveillance but was recently released with a year-long probation. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Saturday that there is a plan to pass the new law by the end of this month.Andrew Little, the minister responsible for the intelligence agencies, said in a statement to Parliament Tuesday that New Zealand must learn from the September 3rd Auckland supermarket attack and remain vigilant to keep the community safe.“New Zealand was not immune to the threat of terrorist violence in March 2019,” he said, “and we are not immune now, and we will not be in the future.”Andrew Geddis, a law professor at Otago University, says defining what constitutes the planning of a terrorist attack could be problematic.“There may be other individuals out there like this guy that the legislation, this new provision, can be used to try to stop,” Geddis said. “The problem, of course, is that planning or preparing to do something can be quite a slippery concept, and so the worry is how far will this new offence stretch into people thinking about, talking about, writing about things that they may never actually do in practice.”The Auckland supermarket attacker was identified as 32-year-old Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, according to court documents.For more than four years, New Zealand had tried to deport and strip him of his refugee status, granted in 2013 following his arrival to the country 10 years ago. Prime Minister Ardern said the process had been “frustrating.” The attacker was a Tamil Muslim from Sri Lanka who arrived in New Zealand on a student visa and sought asylum.In 2016, he was warned about posting violent pro-Islamic State group content online. He was later charged with various offences and spent three years in prison awaiting trial and was convicted but released on a supervision order in July.Samsudeen’s family in Sri Lanka said he had “mental health problems,” suffers from “political torture at home” and that they were “heartbroken by this terrible event.”The knife attack occurred despite the fact he was under constant surveillance since his release. Authorities said the rampage lasted less than a minute before he was shot dead by the police. Seven people were wounded and hospitalized, some in critical condition.In March 2019, a self-confessed white supremacist murdered 51 worshippers at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch.
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Sudan Summoned Ethiopia’s Ambassador Over 29 Bodies Found in River
Sudan summoned Ethiopia’s ambassador to Khartoum to inform him that 29 corpses found on the banks of a river abutting Ethiopia were those of Ethiopian citizens from the Tigray ethnic group, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said. It said in a statement late on Tuesday that the ambassador had been summoned on August 30 and was told that the bodies had been found between July 26 and August 8 on the Sudanese side of the Setit River, known in Ethiopia as the Tekeze. The corpses were identified by Ethiopians residing in the Wad al Hulaywah area of eastern Sudan, it said. The statement did not say how the people died. Dina Mufti, spokesperson for the Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Ministry, did not immediately respond to request for comment. The river is the current de facto borderline between territory controlled by Tigrayan forces and those controlled by Amhara forces allied with Ethiopia’s federal government. At a different point the river also separates Sudan from Ethiopia. Tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia have been running high because of a spillover of the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and Ethiopia’s construction of a giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile. Tens of thousands of refugees have fled into eastern Sudan and there have been military skirmishes in an area of contested farmland along the border between Sudan and Ethiopia. Sudanese authorities said on Sunday they had confiscated a weapons shipment that arrived by air from Ethiopia on suspicion the arms were destined for use in “crimes against the state.” Arms Flown to Sudan from Ethiopia were Legal, Says MinistrySudanese authorities had confiscated the weapons after they arrived by air from neighboring Ethiopia on suspicion that were destined for use in “crimes against the state,” state news agency SUNA reportedSudan’s Interior Ministry said later on Monday that the shipment had turned out to be part of a legal cargo imported by a licensed arms trader.
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