U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the Taliban had been reminded in recent hours that the international community is holding the group to its commitment to let anyone with valid travel papers leave Afghanistan if they choose. Speaking during a visit to Qatar, Blinken said the number of U.S. citizens, including dual nationals, believed to still be in Afghanistan is about 100. He said the State Department is in direct contact with them, with case managers assigned to each one to make sure those who want to leave can do so. He said in the past 24 hours the Taliban had upheld its commitment in the case of a family of four Americans who had safely left Afghanistan using an overland route. A senior State Department official said Monday the Taliban was aware of the crossing, without specifying which country the Americans entered. Blinken also expressed “deep gratitude to the Qatari people” for the country’s role in the massive evacuation of U.S. citizens, at-risk Afghans and foreign nationals following the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. He said that for many of the 58,000 people who transited through Doha, the stop in Qatar was the first “on a journey to a more peaceful and hopeful future.” “What Qatar has done here for Americans, for Afghans, for citizens of many other countries, will be remembered for a long, long time,” Blinken said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, fourth left and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, fifth left, takes part in a meeting with Qatari counterparts in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 7, 2021.He spoke to reporters alongside U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah after a meeting to discuss the situation in Afghanistan along with other issues such as trade, counterterrorism and humanitarian aid. Al Thani said teams from Qatar have been providing technical assistance in Kabul in order to try to get the airport there functioning for both humanitarian aid deliveries and commercial flights. He said several challenges remain, including necessary equipment upgrades and meeting security standards before passengers can board international flights from Kabul. “If we can get the security measures in place and agree on them with the Taliban, then things will be easier,” Al Thani said. The Kabul airport was the scene of several chaotic days as the Taliban moved into the city and the U.S. military worked to secure the airport in order to facilitate evacuation flights. It was also the sight of an attack by Islamic State Khorasan militants that killed 13 U.S. service members and 169 Afghans. Austin defended the effort and said what happened in the final days of the two-decade U.S. military presence in Afghanistan “will be studied in the days and months ahead.” “I’m absolutely proud of the tremendous work that our brave servicemen and women did as we evacuated 125,000 people from the Kabul airport in a short amount of time,” Austin said. “No operation is ever perfect, there are lessons to be learned.” With U.S. troops no longer in Afghanistan, Lloyd said there is “no questions that it will be more difficult to identify and engage threats that emanate from the region.” But he said the United States still has what he called “robust capabilities” and is committed to ensuring threats to the country do not develop. “There isn’t a scrap of earth that we can’t reach out and touch when we need to. We’ve demonstrated that time and time again,” he said. While in Doha on Tuesday, Austin and Blinken are also touring an in-processing center in Doha and visiting with U.S. military and diplomatic personnel. Blinken is set to travel on to Germany to meet with U.S. troops and Afghan refugees at Ramstein U.S. Air Force Base. He is also scheduled to lead a virtual 20-nation ministerial meeting on Afghanistan on Wednesday alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. Blinken said the 20 countries “all have a stake in helping to relocate and resettle Afghans and in holding the Taliban to their commitments.” Austin’s tour of U.S. allies in the Middle East also includes stops in Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
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Month: September 2021
North Korea Promotes General to Ruling Party’s Presidium, State Media Says
North Korea has elevated a general long seen as a rising star in the country’s powerful military and a major player in its missile program to a position in the presidium of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) politburo, state media reported Tuesday. Pak Jong Chon will also serve as secretary of the WPK Central Committee, KCNA news agency said. His election to the presidium, one of the most powerful decision-making bodies in North Korea, came after he appeared to face reprimand or demotion in July after leader Kim Jong Un accused officials of causing a “great crisis” with unspecified coronavirus lapses. North Korea has not reported any confirmed cases of the virus and never elaborated on what the crises or the lapses were. FILE – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at the office of the Party Central Committee in Pyongyang in this picture taken September 2, 2021 and released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. (Photo by STR/KCNA via KNS/AFP)In recent years Pak was promoted to a full four-star Army general, led the military as chief of the general staff of the army, and made prominent appearances alongside Kim, including on a famous horse ride up North Korea’s sacred Mount Paektu. Analysts attributed his rise in part to his role in North Korea’s short-range missile development, which surged ahead after Kim suspended long-range ballistic missile tests in 2018 amid talks with the United States. Pak appears to have replaced Ri Pyong-chol, another powerful general who played a major role in North Korea’s ballistic missile program, on the presidium, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. Analysts said the reshuffling in July was the most significant personnel change among the core elite in years, and was seen as a likely warning to them that Kim would hold them accountable and maintain checks on their power. Rim Kwang-il, who served as head of North Korea’s military intelligence agency, was named as chief of the general staff of the army, while army general Jang Jong-nam was elected as the Minister of Social Security, KCNA said Tuesday.
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Virginia to Remove Richmond’s Lee Statue on Wednesday
A towering statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, is set to come down Wednesday, more than 130 years after it was built as a tribute to a Civil War figure who is now widely seen as a symbol of racial injustice, state officials said Monday. “Virginia’s largest monument to the Confederate insurrection will come down this week,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in news release on Monday. “This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a commonwealth.” The imposing, 6.4-meter (21-foot) tall bronze likeness of Lee on a horse sits atop a granite pedestal nearly twice that high in the grassy center of a traffic circle on Richmond’s famed Monument Avenue. Northam announced plans to take down the statue in June 2020, 10 days after George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, sparking nationwide protests against police brutality and racism. The plans were stalled for more than a year by two lawsuits filed by residents opposed to its removal, but rulings last week by the Supreme Court of Virginia cleared the way for the statue to be taken down. FILE – Protesters with shields and gas masks wait for police action as they surround the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., on June 23, 2020.In Monday’s news release, state officials said that preparations for the statue’s removal will began at 6 p.m. Tuesday when crews will install protective fencing. Once the statue is hoisted off the pedestal, it’s expected to be cut into two pieces for transport, although the final plan is subject to change, said Dena Potter, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of General Services. After the statue is taken down Wednesday, crews on Thursday will remove plaques from the base of the monument and will replace a time capsule that is believed to be there. In Richmond, a city that was the capital of the Confederacy for much of the Civil War, the Lee statue became the epicenter of last summer’s protest movement. The city has removed more than a dozen other pieces of Confederate statuary on city land since Floyd’s death. FILE – Crews attach straps to the statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart on Monument in Richmond, Va., July 7, 2020.As one of the largest and most recognizable Confederate statues in the country, the removal of the Lee statute is expected to draw large crowds. Limited viewing opportunities will be available on a first‐come, first‐serve basis, state officials said in Monday’s news release. The removal will also be livestreamed through the governor’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, both of which have the handle of @governorVA. The Lee statue was created by the internationally renowned French sculptor Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercie and is considered a masterpiece, according to its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, where it has been listed since 2007. When the statue arrived in 1890 from France, an estimated 10,000 Virginians used wagons to haul its pieces more than a mile to where it now stands. White residents celebrated the statue, but many Black residents have long seen it as a monument glorifying slavery. The Northam administration has said it would seek public input on the statue’s future. The 40-foot granite pedestal will be left behind for now amid efforts to rethink the design of Monument Avenue. Some racial justice advocates don’t want it removed, seeing the graffiti-covered pedestal as a symbol of the protest movement that erupted after Floyd’s killing. Lawrence West, 38, a member of BLM RVA, an activist group that’s been occupying the transformed space at the Lee monument, said he believes the decision to remove the statue was fueled by the work of protesters. “I mean, it hadn’t come down before. They (Democrats in charge of state government) had all the opportunities in the world.” West said he would like to see the statue site turned into a community space “to cultivate all types of connections between different people.”
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Dispute Over Spy Chief Could Portend New Power Struggle in Somalia
A fresh political rift between Somalia’s president and prime minister appears to be opening a power struggle between the two top leaders of the country, which is struggling to hold elections and prevent frequent terrorist attacks. On Monday, Somalia Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble suspended Fahad Yasin, chief of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), over failing to provide reliable evidence of investigations into the alleged killing of 24-year-old Ikran Tahlil Farah, who worked in NISA’s cybersecurity department. NISA last week blamed the Islamist militant group al-Shabab for Ikran’s death, prompting angry and frustrated posts on social media from Ikran’s parents and opposition leaders, who say the agency itself had been involved. FILE – Somalia’s Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble speaks at the parliament in Mogadishu, Somalia, September 23, 2020.In a statement published Friday on pro-al-Shabab websites, a spokesman for the group said al-Shabab knows nothing about Ikran’s alleged killing. Roble’s move against the NISA chief has prompted a public rebuke from President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as Farmajo, who in a counter move hours after the prime minister’s decision, issued a directive reinstating the intelligence chief. Both men were citing constitutional articles to support their cases. Roble said he suspended Fahad “for failing to deliver a report on the murder of one of the agency’s agents.” In April, after anger and armed violence in the capital, Mogadishu, that followed Parliament’s move to extend the president’s four-year term by another two years, the confrontation was resolved when the president put the prime minister in charge of security and organizing long-delayed indirect elections. Mohamed issued his own statement calling the prime minister’s move unconstitutional. “(Yasin) should continue being the director of NISA,” the president said. Analysts say this latest rift is highlighting a growing division at the heart of the country’s political elite and threatens to put the country into a new political crisis. “The political exercises of the president and the minister is clear evidence that there has been a growing mistrust and a power struggle between the two leaders,” Shoki Ahmed Hayir, a Somalia political analyst and professor at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, told VOA Somali. “We know the prime minister took this decision to address a sensitive issue over the disappearance of a female intelligence officer that could plunge the country into political and security risks,” said Hussein Moalim Mohamud, Somalia’s former national security adviser. Opposition leaders have welcomed Roble’s move to suspend Fahad, a former Al-Jazeera journalist, whom they believe to be a close friend of the president. The new dispute followed months of political wrangling that have threatened to further destabilize a country already riven by militant attacks and clan rivalries. Hayir believes the new power struggle between the president and the prime minister is threatening the country’s long-delayed upcoming elections. “This is not only a political threat, but also a threat to the country’s future, including the possibility of holding elections. It is also a threat to a justice for the family of Ikran,” Hayir said. “The problem is that there are contradicting and unclear chapters in the country’s draft federal provisional constitution over the powers of the president and the prime minister,” said Abdirahman Dhubad, a political and legal analyst in Mogadishu.
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Residents Return to Lake Tahoe Area as Wildfire Stalls
Thousands of people who fled South Lake Tahoe under threat of a wildfire were allowed to return as crews stalled the flames’ advance, but many shops remained dark Monday, and the resort town’s normally bustling streets remained quiet.A week ago, the scenic tourist town on the California-Nevada state line emptied out when authorities issued an evacuation order as the fire approached from south. Traffic is now trickling back, but it is nothing like the crowds that typically pour in over the summer to enjoy Lake Tahoe’s crystalline waters, which are covered by a smoky haze.Lake Tahoe Community College student Dakota Jones returned Monday to South Lake Tahoe after being evacuated to Carson City, Nevada. Worried that he’d find buildings damaged or covered in ash, he said he was pleasantly surprised to find the city of 22,000 people largely untouched when he and his roommates, who were in the process of moving when the fire approached, drove a U-Haul full of their belongings back to their old apartment.”I was honestly convinced this place was going to go down,” Jones said. “It was nice to see that I was wrong.”Evacuation orders for South Lake Tahoe and other lakeside areas were downgraded to warnings Sunday afternoon, and California Highway Patrol officers began removing roadblocks along U.S. 50 from Nevada to the city limits. Authorities warned that residents of the scenic forest area weren’t out of the woods yet, with risks ranging from smoky, foul air to belligerent bears.The threat from the Caldor Fire hasn’t entirely vanished, but downgrading to a warning meant those who wished to could return to their homes in what had been a smoke-choked ghost town instead of a thriving Labor Day getaway location. South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Clive Savacool said that officials hoped to have the hospital emergency room open within 24 hours but that people with health problems might want to consider staying away because of the air quality.Bears move inAuthorities also warned that in the absence of humans, bears had gone to town, spreading trash everywhere that must be picked up.”The delicate balance between humans and bears has been upset,” and anyone who thinks a bear may have entered their home should call law enforcement, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Sergeant Simon Brown said.Mandatory evacuation orders remained in place for parts of unincorporated El Dorado County south of South Lake Tahoe, including Meyers and Christmas Valley.The lifting of mandatory evacuation orders for the Tahoe area marked a milestone in the fight against the fire, which erupted on August 14 and spread across nearly 340 square miles (880 square kilometers) of dense national parks and forests, tree-dotted granite cliffs and scattered cabins and hamlets in the northern Sierra Nevada.At its peak, the fire burned as much as 1,000 acres an hour and last month virtually razed the small community of Grizzly Flats.But in recent days the winds eased and thousands of firefighters took advantage of the better weather to hack, burn and bulldoze fire lines, managing to contain 44% of the perimeter by Monday.Most of the western and southern sides of the fire were corralled, although some areas still were off-limits.No homes were lost on the northeastern side of the fire nearest to the lake, and crews managed to carve more fire line along one edge of a fiery finger.Dry conditionsAuthorities noted the progress but said single-digit humidity on Monday and slightly more wind could spur spot fires up to half a mile (0.8 kilometers) away. They urged firefighters to stay alert.”We are drier than I have seen on my 20 days on this fire,” said Jim Dudley, incident meteorologist. “There’s a lot of potential weatherwise for little things to become maybe not so little.”California and much of the U.S. West have seen dozens of wildfires in the past two months as the drought-stricken region sweltered under hot, dry weather and winds drove flames through bone-dry vegetation.In California, more than 14,500 firefighters were battling 14 active fires. Since the year began, more than 7,000 wildfires have devoured 3,000 square miles (nearly 8,000 square kilometers), Cal Fire said.On Sunday, a new fire broke out in Placer County, burning half a square mile (1.2 square kilometers) and prompting evacuation orders and warnings and road closures.The fires have been concentrated in Northern California, where the weather is expected to cool slightly and the humidity to rise starting Tuesday.No deaths have been reported specifically from the fires.Fire concerns have shut down all national forests in the state.California has experienced increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires in recent years as climate change has made the West much warmer and drier over the past 30 years. Scientists have said weather will continue to be more extreme and wildfires more frequent, destructive and unpredictable.
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Guinea Junta Leader Promises ‘Government of National Union’
The military leaders who seized power and dissolved Guinea’s National Assembly said Monday they would set up a transitional government. The details of the promised transition were not immediately clear, but they followed widespread condemnation of the coup from the international community. In a speech the day after his men declared on national television that they had arrested the president and dissolved the country’s constitution, Army Colonel Mamady Doumbouya promised a “government of national union.” People celebrate as the Guinean Special Forces arrive at the Palace of the People in Conakry, September 6, 2021.He also stated that there would be no “witch hunt” of the government officials he dismissed during the takeover and replaced with regional military commanders. Doumbouya hoped to calm concerns about economic upheaval, promising that Guinea would “uphold all its undertakings (and) mining agreements,” stressing “its commitment to give favorable treatment to foreign investment in the country.” A screengrab taken from footage sent to AFP by a military source shows the President of Guinea Conakry Alpha Conde after he was captured by army putschists during a coup d’etat in Conakry on September 5, 2021.Mining accounts for roughly 35% of GDP in Guinea, whose citizens rarely reap the benefits of the country’s mineral wealth because of corruption and lack of infrastructure. A video emerged hours into the apparent takeover that showed Guinean President Alpha Conde in a room surrounded by special forces soldiers. Members of the military who referred to themselves as the National Rally and Development Committee (CNRD) later issued a statement saying the 83-year-old Conde was not harmed and was in contact with his doctors. In October, Conde won a third term in office after amending the constitution to allow him to run again. The controversial election sparked violent protests throughout the country.Guinea President Appears to Have Won Controversial 3rd Term in Office Final results in Guinea’s presidential election expected Saturday Fighting was reported earlier Sunday in the capital, Conakry, but following the announcement of the takeover, many people celebrated in the streets for what they believed to be a successful coup. A statement issued Sunday by the U.S. State Department condemned the coup, warning that the “extra-constitutional measures will only erode Guinea’s prospects for peace, stability, and prosperity” and limit the ability of the United States and Guinea’s other international partners “to support the country as it navigates a path toward national unity.” The State Department urged all sides to forge “a process of national dialogue to address concerns sustainably and transparently to enable a peaceful and democratic way forward for Guinea to realize its full potential.” The United Nations, France and the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, were quick to condemn the unrest in Guinea. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, former special representative of the U.N. secretary general and former head of the U.N. Office for West Africa and the Sahel, told VOA that ECOWAS bears no responsibility for the unrest in Guinea because its leadership repeatedly warned Conde against amending the constitution and running for a third term. Chambas says he expects ECOWAS to reiterate its “policy of zero tolerance for military coups d’état,” adding that there “is no way that the current situation can be accepted by the authority of heads of state and government.” VOA’s James Butty contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
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UN to Discuss Myanmar Representation at General Assembly
Myanmar is awaiting a U.N. General Assembly decision that could play a role in who leads the country in the future. Myanmar is still grappling with the aftermath of a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government February 1. At the 76th General Assembly session next week, 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. The military claims it ousted the ruling National League for Democracy because the party had ignored allegations that the general elections in November 2020 were riddled with fraud. The NLD had won the poll in a landslide, drubbing the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party in a contest deemed mostly free and fair by local and international election observers. FILE – Soldiers stand next to military vehicles in Yangon, Myanmar, February 15, 2021.NLD’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint have been detained since the coup and face several charges. Meanwhile, a group called the National Unity Government (NUG), founded in the wake of the coup, claims to be Myanmar’s legitimate government. It is made up of ousted politicians, leaders and pro-democracy activists, and the military deems it illegal. In a crackdown on anti-coup protesters led by the civil disobedience movement (CDM), more than 1,000 people have been killed and thousands more detained, FILE – A man sits in front of shutters decorated with graffiti in support of the civil disobedience movement (CDM) and the three-finger salute made by protesters demonstrating against the military coup in Yangon, April 7, 2021.While signs of a possible civil war continue to increase, some prominent women activists are calling for international pressure on the junta. Daw Ma Khin Lay, a former political activist and aid to Suu Kyi in the 1990s, left Myanmar following the coup. Khin Lay is the director of FILE – Protesters hold a banner in support of the National Unity Government (NUG) as they take part in a demonstration against the military coup, in Yangon, July 7, 2021.Khin Lay added that although there are hopes for the NUG to be recognized, it is essential that the U.N. recognize Moe Tun. “Credentials are very new for us. We have to learn,” Khin Lay said. “According to ASEAN, there will be three possible options. (We believe) the most possible … is to recognize Moe Tun,” she added. ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Thinzar Shunlei Yi is another prominent activist fighting for change in Myanmar. She is wanted by the military but managed to speak to VOA by phone in August. The activist maintains that the coup is still regarded as a failure, as the CDM continues to stifle the junta’s operations. “Even after the killings, people still go on the streets and keep protesting, so the grounds are different,” she said. “We still have many protests in different places, in different forms. On the street, digital platforms — so I feel the resistance is still going strong even after all these intimidations. … People still risk their life. That’s the mindset of CDM people.” And the activist stressed there should be no confusion about whom the U.N. should recognize. “For the recognition of NUG, I don’t think it is a dilemma. These are not two political parties. This is clearly a military junta abusing power to grab power and take control of the civilian government. The U.N. community doesn’t need to have that dilemma,” she said.
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Actor Michael K. Williams, Omar on ‘The Wire,’ Dead at 54
Actor Michael K. Williams, who as the rogue robber of drug dealers Omar Little on The Wire created one of the most popular characters in television in recent decades, has died.Williams was found dead Monday afternoon in his Brooklyn penthouse apartment, New York City police said. He was 54.His death is being investigated as a possible drug overdose, the NYPD said.Little, a “stick-up boy” based on real figures from Baltimore, was probably the most beloved character among the devoted fans of The Wire, the HBO show that ran from 2002 to 2008 and is rewatched constantly in streaming.The Brooklyn-born Williams was also a ubiquitous character actor in other shows and films for more than two decades, including roles on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire and Lovecraft Country, and in the films 12 Years a Slave and Assassin’s Creed.As Little, he played a criminal with a strict moral code, known for taking advantage of a reputation for brutality that wasn’t always real.A cigarette in his mouth, he would whistle The Farmer in the Dell to ominously announce his arrival.And he spoke many of the show’s most memorable lines, including, “a man gotta have a code” and “all in the game yo, all in the game.”The character also broke TV ground as an openly gay man whose sexuality wasn’t central to his role.Williams appeared in all five seasons of The Wire from 2002 to 2008, his character growing in prominence with each season.
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Sweden Arrests Two Women Linked to IS
Swedish police said Monday they had arrested two women linked to Islamic State after they flew back from Syria, as media reported that one was being investigated for war crimes. Stockholm police spokesman Ola Osterling said the prosecutor leading the investigation into the two women had ordered their arrest. “We executed that decision when the plane arrived in Stockholm in the afternoon,” Osterling told AFP. A third woman had been taken in for questioning, he added. A statement Monday from the Prosecution Authority said multiple investigations were underway against men and women returning from areas that had been controlled by Islamic State. “The international crimes that are relevant for people returning from IS-controlled areas are war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity,” public prosecutor Reena Devgun said in the statement. “Sweden has an international commitment to investigate and prosecute these crimes,” she added. The Prosecution Authority added that it could not comment on individual cases or the number of investigations underway. But public broadcaster SVT reported that at least one of the women arrested was being investigated for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. SVT also reported that the women who had returned Monday had been staying in camps in northern Syria but were deported after Kurdish authorities decided they did not have enough evidence to prosecute them.
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UK Delays Post-Brexit Border Checks, Seeks New Talks with EU
Britain said Monday it is postponing the start of post-Brexit border checks on goods going to Northern Ireland, as it seeks breathing space in its tense standoff with the European Union over trade rules. Brexit Minister David Frost said the government would continue to trade “on the current basis,” maintaining grace periods that the U.K. gave itself after splitting from the EU’s economic embrace at the end of 2020. He did not set a new end date for the grace periods, some of which had been set to finish on September 30. Frost said the standstill would “provide space for potential further discussions” with the EU over the two sides’ deep differences on the Brexit divorce agreement. U.K.-EU relations have soured over trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that has a land border with the 27-nation bloc. The divorce deal the two sides struck before Britain’s departure means customs and border checks must be conducted on some goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. FILE – Lorries and cars disembark from a ferry arriving from Scotland at the P&O ferry terminal in the port at Larne on the north coast of Northern Ireland, Jan. 1, 2021.The regulations are intended to prevent goods from Britain entering the EU’s tariff-free single market while keeping an open border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland — a key pillar of Northern Ireland’s peace process. But the checks have angered Northern Ireland’s British unionists, who say they amount to a border in the Irish Sea and weaken Northern Ireland’s ties with the rest of the U.K. One of the deferred measures, which had been set to take effect October 1, would ban chilled meats such as sausages from England, Scotland and Wales from going to Northern Ireland. The “sausage war” has been the highest-profile element of the U.K.-EU dispute, raising fears that Northern Ireland supermarkets may not be able to sell British sausages, a breakfast staple. The trade tensions have destabilized Northern Ireland’s delicate political balance and raised tensions with the EU, which is calling for Britain to implement the deal it agreed to, and with the U.K. government, which says the rules need fundamental reform. Britain’s Conservative government is seeking to remove most checks, replacing them with a “light touch” system in which only goods at risk of entering the EU would be inspected. Frost warned last week that the U.K. and the EU risked entering a long period of “cold mistrust” unless issues around the agreement were resolved. The U.K.’s previous unilateral extension of the grace period angered the EU, which responded by launching legal action. The bloc has since put that action on hold, and the two sides have taken tentative steps to cool the situation. Monday’s announcement by Britain was made with the advance knowledge of the bloc. Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he expected the EU would agree to an extension of the grace periods in order to allow for “deep and meaningful” talks with Britain.
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Russia Blocks Navalny Voting Site Ahead of Polls
Russian authorities on Monday blocked a website of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny that instructed supporters how to vote out candidates from the ruling party in polls later this month. In a statement to AFP, state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said that access to the website votesmart.appspot.com had been blocked in Russia “because it is being used to continue the work… of an extremist organization.” FILE – A woman crosses the road behind election campaign billboards in Moscow, Aug. 27, 2021.Parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place on September 17-19, with nearly all vocal Kremlin critics including Navalny’s allies barred from running. Navalny, 45, has this year seen his organizations declared “extremist” and banned, while his top aides have fled the country. After barely surviving a poisoning with nerve agent Novichok last summer, Navalny was jailed in February in what supporters say is punishment for seeking to challenge President Vladimir Putin’s two-decade hold on power. FILE – A still image from CCTV footage published by Life.Ru shows what is said to be jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny speaking with a prison guard at the IK-2 corrective penal colony in Pokrov, Russia, in this image released Apr. 2, 2021.Roskomnadzor earlier barred access to dozens of websites linked to Navalny, including his main site navalny.com. Last week the media regulator also urged Google and Apple to remove an app dedicated to Navalny’s “Smart Voting” campaign from their app stores, but they have yet to respond. The “Smart Voting” tactic has led the increasingly unpopular United Russia party, currently polling at less than 30%, to lose a number of seats in recent local elections.
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Algeria Arrests Suspected Members of MAK Separatist Group After Attacks
Algeria has arrested 27 suspected members of a separatist group that the government has declared a terrorist organization, after an attack in two northern towns, police said Monday. They said the 27 were suspected of belonging to MAK, a group that seeks independence for the Berber-speaking Kabylie region. Morocco’s support for MAK was one of the reasons cited by Algeria in cutting diplomatic relations with the kingdom late last month. Police said the 27 were arrested “for their attempt to sow terror and strife among citizens by order of parties abroad,” police said in a statement. “They resorted to assault and robbery of citizens’ shops.” The statement said the attacks and the arrests took place in the northern towns of Kherrata and Beni Ourtilane in the past 48 hours but gave no further details. It said several members of the security forces were injured when they intervened to protect citizens and their properties during the incident. Police found accessories of military uniforms, bladed weapons, forged seals and mobile phones after searching the homes of those arrested, it added. The government has blamed MAK, which Algiers declared terrorist organization last year, for devastating wildfires that killed at least 65 people in the Kabylie region, east of Algiers, last month. MAK, whose leadership is based in France, has denied any involvement.
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US Justice Department Promises Protection for Texas Abortion Seekers, Clinics
The U.S. Justice Department said Monday it would protect those seeking abortions in Texas after a restrictive and controversial state law had passed. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department is still urgently looking to challenge a new Texas law that bans most abortions in the state. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the law after abortion rights supporters had urged the court to hear the case. Garland said in a statement that Washington would “protect those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services” under a federal law known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The law, commonly known as the FACE Act, protects those seeking abortions against threats or interference. “The department will provide support from federal law enforcement when an abortion clinic or reproductive health center is under attack,” Garland said. “We will not tolerate violence against those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services, physical obstruction or property damage in violation of the FACE Act.” Texas is among a dozen mostly Republican-led states that have enacted “heartbeat” abortion bans, which outlaw the procedure once the rhythmic contracting of fetal cardiac tissue can be detected, often at six weeks, and sometimes before a woman realizes she is pregnant. The Texas law is unusual in that it gives private citizens the power to enforce it by allowing them to sue abortion providers and anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion after six weeks. Those winning such lawsuits would be entitled to at least $10,000. The Texas law went into effect at the start of the day Wednesday, and even before the Supreme Court issued its order, supporters of the law praised the court for not blocking it. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Somali President and PM Clash Over Spy Chief Suspension
Somalia’s president and prime minister were in a standoff Monday over the prime minister’s suspension of the country’s top spy chief.Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble announced Monday morning that he is suspending Fahad Yassin, the director of NISA, Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency. Roble said he was acting because Yassin had failed to deliver a report on the killing of one of the agency’s spies, Ikran Tahlil Farah, who disappeared in June and was declared dead by NISA this month. FILE – Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo attends the London Somalia Conference at Lancaster House, May 11, 2017.A few hours later Monday, President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo rejected the prime minister’s action, saying he has no constitutional mandate to suspend the spy chief, and urged Yassin to continue in his role. Security analyst Samira Ahmed of the Mogadishu-based Hiraal Institute said it would be helpful for an outside party to intervene to end the escalating political difference between the two highest offices. If that does not happen, she said, there is a threat of division as the security forces will be obliged to choose between the conflicting orders. She said that would result in security threats to the country and the ongoing elections. The mother of the slain officer, Qali Mohamud, welcomed the prime minister’s move to fire the spy chief and appealed to the president to support it. She urged the president not to obstruct justice for her daughter by blocking the prime minister’s decision, and asked the head of state to put himself in her shoes, as a parent seeking justice for her child. It’s nothing new for a Somali president and prime minister to be at odds over the powers of their respective offices. Muse Ahmed, a law expert at Somali National University, believes there is a need for a clear separation of powers in the Somali draft constitution. He said the absence of the constitutional court has complicated the recurrent political difference between the Somali president and his prime minister. He added that the appointing powers of the two leaders in the constitution is not clear. Therefore, he said, there is a need for a new chapter in the draft constitution to make clear the powers of the two, especially during government transitional periods. The leaders of the opposition have welcomed the move by the prime minister to suspend the director of intelligence, saying it was long overdue. The director himself has not responded to the prime minister.
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Irish Gang on Trial in France, Accused of Rhino Horn Smuggling
Four alleged members of an Irish crime gang and five other defendants went on trial Monday in France accused of trafficking rhino horn and ivory to markets in east Asia. French prosecutors started a probe in 2015 after police discovered several elephant tusks and 32,800 euros ($38,900) in cash in a BMW during a random roadway traffic inspection. Prosecutors say the occupants of the car, who claimed they were antique dealers, were members of the Rathkeale Rovers, an Irish crime gang with roots in the Irish Traveller community. The nine defendants on trial in the town of Rennes, which include alleged traders of Chinese and Vietnamese origin, face up to 10 years in jail and heavy fines, although two of those charged are on the run. “We’re hoping for heavy sentences including fines to dissuade people from taking part in smuggling activities which encourage the cruelty of poaching,” Charlotte Nithart, head of French anti-poaching charity Robin des Bois, told AFP. Nithart, who was in court as an observer, said that the case files and the first day of hearings underlined how Europe, and European auction houses, played a role in supplying east Asia with horns and tusks. “What you can see in the intercepted telephone records is that the supply comes from lots of different towns in France and around Europe. The networks are well structured,” she added. Many of the objects are old ornaments and antiques, but the seizures by police of several tusks that are less than 20 years old suggest that recently poached animal parts are also being traded. As part of their investigation, French police also found that tusks and rhino horns were being turned into powder, flakes, and other objects on French soil before being exported to Vietnam and China. Vietnamese defendant David Ta, a 51-year-old owner of an export company in the Paris region, denied illegally trafficking protected animals, despite the discovery of 14 tusks on a pallet at his home. “I’m a collector. It’s a passion,” he told the court. Four suspected members of the Rathkeale Rovers — Tom Greene, Richard O’Riley, Edward Gammel, and Daniel MacCarthy — are accused of supplying horns and tusks to exporters in France with links to China and Vietnam. An exceptionally large horn weighing nearly 15 kilos seized from the gang during the investigation would have earned around $15 million once processed at Asian market prices at the time, according to the Robin des Bois group. The organized crime group from the Limerick region of western Ireland “have many activities, but what is of interest to us is their speciality in trading rhino horns,” Nithart said. They have been linked to thefts from museums and private collections. There were suspicions they had been involved in the shocking 2017 killing of a white rhino in Thoiry zoo outside Paris. The animal’s horn was hacked off in a grisly overnight raid. The Rathkeale Rovers were the target of a joint investigation by European police in 2010 that led to 31 people being arrested, including for the theft of rhino horns, according to the Europol police agency’s website. Two members were arrested in the United States in 2010 after paying undercover investigators in Colorado about $17,000 for four black rhino horns.
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Vietnamese Man Jailed for 5 Years for Spreading Coronavirus
Vietnam jailed a man on Monday for five years for breaking strict COVID-19 quarantine rules and spreading the virus to others, state media reported.Le Van Tri, 28, was convicted of “spreading dangerous infectious diseases” at a one-day trial at the People’s Court of the southern province of Ca Mau, the state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.Vietnam has been one of the world’s coronavirus success stories, thanks to targeted mass testing, aggressive contact tracing, tight border restrictions and strict quarantine. But new clusters of infections since late April have tarnished that record.”Tung traveled back to Ca Mau from Ho Chi Minh City … and breached the 21-day quarantine regulations,” the news agency said.”Tung infected eight people, one of whom died due to the virus after one month of treatment,” it added.Reuters did not immediately reach the Ca Mau court for comment.Ca Mau, Vietnam’s southernmost province, has reported only 191 cases and two deaths since the pandemic began, much lower than the nearly 260,000 cases and 10,685 deaths in the country’s coronavirus epicenter, Ho Chi Minh City.Vietnam is battling a worsening COVID-19 outbreak that has infected more than 536,000 people and killed 13,385, the vast majority in the past few months.The country has sentenced two other people to 18-month and two-year suspended jail terms on the same charges.
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Arms Flown to Sudan from Ethiopia were Legal, Says Ministry
Sudan’s interior ministry said on Monday that more than 70 boxes of weapons seized by authorities had turned out to be part of a legal cargo imported by a licensed arms trader.Sudanese 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 reported.The boxes included night-vision goggles and arrived on an Ethiopian Airlines commercial flight on Saturday night, SUNA reported.Sudan Seizes ‘Weapons Shipment’ From Ethiopian PlaneThe shipment, which was confiscated late Saturday, arrived on an Ethiopian Airlines passenger flight, prompting an immediate launch of investigations, the SUNA news agency reportedOn Monday, Sudan’s interior ministry said the shipment, which included 290 rifles and belonged to a licensed trader, Wael Shams Eldin, had been checked and found to be legitimate.Ethiopian Airlines said the weapons were hunting guns that were part of a verified shipment.Tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia have been running high due to a spillover of the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and Ethiopia’s construction of a giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile.The Tigray conflict has sent tens of thousands of refugees into eastern Sudan and triggered military skirmishes in an area of contested farmland along the border between the two countries.
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Belarus Court Gives Opposition Activists Lengthy Sentences
A court in Belarus on Monday sentenced two leading opposition activists to lengthy prison terms, the latest move in the relentless crackdown Belarusian authorities have unleashed on dissent in the wake of last year’s anti-government protests. Maria Kolesnikova, a top member of the opposition Coordination Council, has been in custody since her arrest last September. A court in Minsk found her guilty of conspiring to seize power, creating an extremist organization and calling for actions damaging state security and sentenced her to 11 years in prison. FILE – Maxim Znak, Belarus’ opposition activist and lawyer of Maria Kolesnikova, attends a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 4, 2021.Lawyer Maxim Znak, another leading member of the Coordination Council who faced the same charges, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Kolesnikova, who helped coordinate monthslong opposition protests that erupted after an August 2020 presidential vote, resisted authorities’ attempts to force her to leave the country. Kolesnikova and Znak stood trial behind closed doors, with their families only allowed to be present at the sentencing hearing on Monday. “For many, Maria has become an example of resilience and the fight between good and evil. I’m proud of her,” Kolesnikova’s father, Alexander, told The Associated Press on Monday. “It’s not a verdict, but rather the revenge of the authorities.” Belarus was shaken by months of protests fueled by President Alexander Lukashenko’s being awarded a sixth term after the August 2020 presidential vote that the opposition and the West denounced as a sham. He responded to the demonstrations with a massive crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police. Kolesnikova, 39, has emerged as a key opposition activist, appearing at political rallies and fearlessly walking up to lines of riot police and making her signature gesture – a heart formed by her hands. Kolesnikova spent years playing flute in the nation’s philharmonic orchestra after graduating from a conservatory in Minsk and studying Baroque music in Germany. In 2020, she headed the campaign of Viktor Babariko, the head of a Russian-owned bank who made a bid to challenge Lukashenko but was barred from the race after being jailed on money laundering and tax evasion charges that he dismissed as political. Babariko was sentenced to 14 years in prison two months ago. FILE – Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks during her news conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)Kolesnikova then joined forces with former English teacher Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was running in place of her jailed husband Sergei, an opposition blogger, as the main candidate standing against Lukashenko, and Veronika Tsepkalo, wife of another potential top contender who had fled the country fearing arrest. The three appeared together at colorful campaign events that were in stark contrast to Lukashenko’s Soviet-style gatherings. In September 2020, as Belarus was shaken by mass protests, the largest of which drew up to 200,000 people, KGB agents drove Kolesnikova to the border between Belarus and Ukraine in an attempt to expel her from the country. In the neutral zone between the two countries, Kolesnikova managed to rip up her passport, broke out of the car and walked back into Belarus, where she was immediately arrested. Just before the start of her trial last month, Kolesnikova said in a note from prison that authorities offered to release her from custody if she asks for a pardon and gives a repentant interview to state media. She insisted that she was innocent and rejected the offer.
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Militants Armed With Machetes Kill 30 Villagers In East Congo
Militants armed with machetes, sticks and clubs killed at least 30 villagers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, officials and a witness said.The fighters – suspected members of the Islamist-inspired Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – raided Makutano, north of the city of Oicha in North Kivu province, early on Saturday, the officials told Reuters.Villager Malielo Omeonga said his son woke him when the militants struck.”I took some time to leave my bed, and in his haste my son ran and fell into the ambush of the ADF. So my son is dead and I am here by the grace of God,” Omeonga said by telephone.”It’s total devastation. People are fleeing everywhere,” Christophe Munyanderu from the Congolese campaign group Convention for the Respect of Human Rights, said.No group immediately claimed responsibility for the raid. The ADF, which was formed in neighboring Uganda and says it is allied to Islamic State, seldom makes public statements.An army spokesman said forces were clearing the area “while we wait for other measures to be taken.”Congolese authorities and rights groups have accused the ADF of killing hundreds of civilians in apparent retaliation for army offensives against them since late 2019.The United Nations has said the militant attacks may constitute war crimes.In May, the government imposed martial law in two eastern provinces in an attempt to end the insecurity that has plagued the mineral-rich area since the end of the second civil war in 2003. But the bloodshed has continued.Last month the United States sent a dozen special forces troops to the area to assess the “anti-terrorism” capabilities of the army.
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South Lake Tahoe Residents Can Return as Fire Threat Eases
Tens of thousands of people forced to flee South Lake Tahoe could begin returning to their homes after evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings Sunday afternoon as crews made progress against a massive wildfire.The orders that sent 22,000 people in and around the resort fleeing last week were reduced to warnings as the fire virtually stalled a few scant few miles from the forest areas straddling the California-Nevada border.California Highway Patrol officers began taking down roadblocks on State Route 50 at Stateline, Nevada, KCRA-TV reported. Members of the National Guard who had helped on the fire had left the area.The threat from the Caldor Fire hasn’t entirely vanished but downgrading to a warning meant those who wish could return to their homes in what had been a smoke-choked ghost town instead of a thriving Labor Day getaway location.”So far it hasn’t been a mad rush of cars,” South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Clive Savacool said at an evening briefing. “We’re happy to see that people are slowly trickling in, just because the city does need time to get ready.”Savacool said officials hoped to have the local hospital emergency room open within 24 hours and said paramedics were staffing fire engines for emergency medical care.However, he said people with health problems might want to consider staying away because of the smoky air.People who do return should have enough medication and groceries and a full gas tank in order to be self-sufficient, Savacool said.Law enforcement was still patrolling so “your home will still be safe,” Savacool said.However, authorities also warned that in the absence of humans, bears had gone to town, spreading trash everywhere that must be picked up.”The delicate balance between humans and bears has been upset,” and anyone who thinks a bear may have entered their home should call law enforcement, El Dorado County sheriff’s Sgt. Simon Brown said.Mandatory evacuation orders on the Nevada side of the state line were lifted Saturday, although Douglas County authorities urged residents to stay alert, saying the fire still has the potential to threaten homes.The wind-driven fire, which at its peak had burned as much as 1,000 acres an hour in the northern Sierra Nevada, was mainly held within current containment lines overnight and was now 43% contained, according to Cal Fire.Most of the western and southern sides of the fire had been corralled, although some areas still were off-limits.No homes had been lost on the eastern side of the fire nearest to the lake and crews managed to carve more fire line along one edge of a fiery finger, which hadn’t moved east, Tim Ernst, a fire operations chief, said at a morning briefing.”Everything has held real well” despite some flareups among timber and some hot spots in the west and southeastern sections of the nearly 340-square-mile (880-square-kilometer) blaze, Ernst said.Winds that drove the flames through tinder-dry trees, grass and granite outcroppings eased in recent days, and fire crews were able to double down on bulldozing, burning or hacking out fire lines.The fire that began on Aug. 14 has destroyed more than 700 homes, razed much of small hamlet of Grizzly Flats and injured nine firefighters and civilians, Cal Fire reported.California and much of the U.S. West have seen dozens of wildfires in the past two months as the drought-stricken region sweltered under hot, dry weather and winds drove flames through bone-dry vegetation.In California, nearly 14,500 firefighters were battling 13 large, active fires. Since the year began, more than 7,000 wildfires have devoured 3,000 square miles (nearly 8,000 square kilometers), Cal Fire said.No deaths had been reported specifically from the fires. However, authorities said two people assigned to fire-related duties died from illness this week, officials said.Marcus Pacheco, an assistant fire engine operator for Lassen National Forest with 30 years of experience, died on Thursday. He was assigned to the Dixie Fire burning north of the Caldor Fire, authorities said.Other details weren’t immediately released.The Dixie Fire began in mid-July in the northern Sierra Nevada and is the second-largest wildfire in recorded state history. It has burned nearly 1,400 square miles (3,625 square kilometers) in five counties and three national parks and forests, according to Cal Fire.A retired firefighter who was hired to help with the French Fire died from complications of COVID-19, authorities said.He was identified as Allen Johnson.”Our team, the firefighting community and the world lost a great friend, mentor, teacher and comrade last night,” said a Facebook posting last Wednesday from California Interagency Incident Management Team 14.The French Fire in Kern County was 52% contained after burning about 41 square miles (106 square kilometers).Fire concerns have shut down all national forests in the state.California has experienced increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires in recent years as climate change has made the West much warmer and drier over the past 30 years. Scientists have said weather will continue to be more extreme and wildfires more frequent, destructive and unpredictable.
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Fortress Europe Takes Shape as EU Countries Fear Bigger Migration Flows
Four years ago, European leaders chided then U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on America’s southern border with Mexico. “We have a history and a tradition that we celebrate when walls are brought down and bridges are built,” admonished Federica Mogherini, then the EU’s foreign policy chief.
But Europe now is accelerating its own wall-building for fear of future migration crises. Afghan migrants hide from security forces in a tunnel under train tracks after crossing illegally into Turkey from Iran, near Tatvan in Bitlis province, Turkey, Aug. 23, 2021.
In the near-term European Union governments are worried about an influx of Afghans and are hoping to persuade Afghanistan’s near neighbors to corral those fleeing the Taliban.
The U.N.’s refugee agency, UNHCR, has warned that up to 500,000 Afghans could flee their homeland by the end of the year. EU officials say they are considering spending a billion euros to induce Afghanistan’s neighbors to act as gatekeepers. But Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan appear reluctant and have warned they are only prepared to serve as transit countries for Afghan asylum-seekers. Saturday Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said a potential refugee wave toward Europe must not take place. Recently French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe should “anticipate and protect itself from a wave of migrants” from Afghanistan.
That counsel is being heeded by other European national leaders eager to stop Afghan refugees from entering Europe en masse, thereby hoping to avoid a repeat of the 2015-16 migration crisis, when more than a million asylum-seekers from the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia entered Europe, roiling European politics and fueling the rise of populist nationalist parties. FILE – Migrants stand in front of a barrier at the border with Hungary near the village of Horgos, Serbia, Sept.15, 2015.Last week at an emergency meeting in Brussels the interior ministers of the 27 EU member-states agreed “to act jointly to prevent the recurrence of uncontrolled, large-scale, illegal migration movements faced in the past.” The prospects of more Afghan refugees appearing on their borders has acted as a spur for Central European, Baltic and Balkan states to complete planned walls and to erect more razor-wire fences. Greece last month completed a 40-kilometer wall along its land border with Turkey and installed an automated surveillance system to try to prevent asylum seekers from reaching Europe. FILE – A policeman patrols alongside a steel wall at Evros River, near the village of Poros, at the Greek -Turkish border, Greece, May 21, 2021.“We cannot wait, passively, for the possible impact,” Greece’s citizen protection minister, Michalis Chrisochoidis, said announcing the completion of the project. “Our borders will remain safe and inviolable,” he added. Asylum-seekers from Afghanistan have made up 45% of recent arrivals to the Greek Islands this year, according to figures from the U.N. refugee agency.
In an interview Monday with Politico.eu, a news site, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson played down the determination of member states to keep the doors firmly bolted, saying she is convening a high-level resettlement forum later this month where member states, Britain, the U.S. and Canada will discuss commitments to resettle specific numbers of Afghan refugees.
“Of course, it’s voluntary but I expect them to step up,” she said. But several states, including Greece, Austria and Hungary, have already said they won’t. FILE – Migrants and refugees cross the border between Hungary and Austria, near Nickelsdorf, Austria, Sept. 10, 2015.
On Saturday, the EU’s migration commissioner, Margaritis Schinas noted the bloc’s external borders are much stronger now than they were when the continent was rocked by the 2015-16 migration influx, prompting a wave of wall building. EU member states have collectively constructed more than 1,000 kilometers of border walls or barbed-wire fences in recent years.Each day sees more wall building. In the 1990s there were just two walls built, by 2017 that jumped to 15. Spain, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Norway, Lithuania and Poland have all in recent years completed new external walls. FILE – Bulgarian border police personnel stand next to a barbed wire wall fence erected on the Bulgaria-Turkey border near the town of Lesovo, on Sept. 14, 2016.France, Slovenia and Austria have even built border walls since 2015 along parts of their shared borders with other EU countries.
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have been frantically wall-building and militarizing their borders with Belarus to stop record numbers of migrants, mainly from Iraq, crossing their borders.Poland Could Declare State of Emergency at Belarus Border Poland refuses entry to migrants, claiming Belarus is using them as political weapons They accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating migrant crossings as a form of “hybrid warfare” against the EU for imposing sanctions in the wake of last year’s disputed elections, which were widely seen as rigged.
At a press conference last month, Lukashenko denied Belarus was seeking to blackmail Europe by trying to create a migrant crisis, but said he was reacting to foreign pressure.“We are not blackmailing anyone with illegal immigration,” he told journalists in Minsk’s Independence Palace. “We’re not threatening anyone. But you have put us in such circumstances that we are forced to react. And we’re reacting,” he said.
But it isn’t only the weaponization of migrants by EU foes or the more immediate turmoil in Afghanistan that’s caught the attention of worried EU policymakers and national leaders. A series of recent studies suggest that Europe will see much larger migration challenges in the coming decades. Migrants wait to disembark from a Spanish coast guard vessel in the port of Arguineguin, in the island of Gran Canaria, Spain, Sept. 1, 2021.
In a paper published earlier this year, researchers at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies warned that between now and 2030, climate change and conflict and political dysfunction in the EU’s neighboring regions, alongside massive population growth in Africa, will inevitably lead to a substantial increase in the numbers of people trying to migrate to the EU.
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Families of MH17 Airline Crash Victims to Speak in Court
Dozens of relatives of the 298 victims of Malaysian Airlines flight 17, shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine in 2014, will begin giving testimony on Monday at the murder trial of four fugitive suspects accused of carrying out the attack.The aircraft was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was hit by what international investigators and prosecutors say was a Russian surface-to-air missile.Three Russians and a Ukrainian citizen, all suspected of having key roles in the separatist forces, are on trial for murder. Moscow has refused to extradite those in Russia and denies all responsibility. The Dutch government holds Moscow responsible.The plane crashed in a field in territory held by pro-Russian separatists fighting against Ukrainian forces.The court has scheduled three weeks to hear the relatives speak and will also review around a hundred written statements provided by other family members.Ria van der Steen will be the first of 90 relatives from eight countries who will be allowed to address judges and defense lawyers about the impact of the crash on their lives.After years of collecting evidence, a team of international investigators concluded in May 2018 that the launcher used to fire the missile belonged to Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade.The fugitive suspects have been on trial for a year and a half. Only one sent lawyers to represent him so the case is not considered to be entirely tried in absentia under Dutch law.Proceedings moved to a critical stage in June when prosecutors began presenting evidence and will start calling witnesses.
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Overcrowded Aboriginal Housing Highlighted as Australia Races to Help COVID-19-Hit Outback Town
A fleet of camper vans is now providing emergency quarantine facilities in a remote outback town in Australia where over 10% of the mostly indigenous population is infected with the coronavirus. A lack of accommodation for COVID-19 patients and their close contacts in Wilcannia, 1,000 kilometers northwest of Sydney, has highlighted a chronic housing problem in many First Nation communities. Wilcannia has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 transmission in the Australian state of New South Wales. More than 13% of the town of 800 people have contracted the contagious disease. About 60% of the population is indigenous. Thirty camper vans will provide temporary accommodation for the close contacts of infected patients. Officials had raised concerns about aboriginal residents’ ability to safely isolate themselves in overcrowded homes from family members who had tested positive for COVID-19. Providing adequate and affordable housing is part of the government’s long-term strategy to improve indigenous health and wellbeing. But Dr Jason Agostino, a senior medical adviser to the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that much more needs to be done. “What is happening in Wilcannia and in western New South Wales is because of a lack of investment in appropriate housing for aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people over decades. You know, we saw the swine ‘flu pandemic particularly impact aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people back in 2009, and it is poor housing that is at the heart of rheumatic heart disease across Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people have some of the highest rates of rheumatic heart disease in the world, and it is completely unacceptable when at the heart of that is this poor housing,” Agostino said.Charities have said the delta variant of COVID-19 has caused a ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Wilcannia’s aboriginal community. Members already suffer from many chronic illnesses, including diabetes and heart disease. Australian indigenous leaders have insisted the government’s regional response to the pandemic has been “ill-prepared and slow.” The military has been sent to the region to help, along with fire service volunteers and Australia’s Royal Flying Doctor Service. Also, the first shipments of 4 million Pfizer vaccine doses arrived in Sydney Sunday from Britain under a drug exchange deal to boost Australia’s inoculation drive. About 38% of eligible Australians are fully vaccinated. More than half of the population remains in lockdown, including residents in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, as delta variant cases continue to increase. Authorities say restrictions will begin to be relaxed gradually when more than 70% of Australians were fully inoculated. Authorities have recorded about 62,000 coronavirus cases and more than 1,000 fatalities in Australia since the pandemic began.
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Australia Urged to Protect Women and Children from Lockdown Domestic Violence
Campaigners have said a national women’s safety summit starting in Australia Monday should urgently look at ways to reduce family violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial security, policing, sexual violence and challenges facing diverse members of the Australian community are key topics at Australia’s National Summit on Women’s Safety 2021. It’s run by the federal government, which said the conference would help form “the next National Plan to end violence against women and their children.” The Minister for Women, Marise Payne, said previously that “everyone has a basic right to safety, equality and respect in our society.” But campaigners have urged the government to do more to curb domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. A report published in June by Queensland University of Technology’s Centre for Justice found that domestic abuse surged during lockdowns. One of its authors is Professor Kerry Carrington. “We discovered that there was not only an increase in the severity of domestic violence as well as its prevalence, but we also discovered, much to our surprise and shock, that perpetrators have been using COVID lockdowns to actually extend their coercive control over their partners. So, clearly the context of COVID; the financial, the psychological, the mental pressures of COVID, being locked down in the home with children has really exacerbated the prevalence of domestic violence,” Carrington said.The university report made several key recommendations, including that governments should be better prepared for increases in family violence during and after significant events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof. Carrington hopes the women’s safety summit can deliver concrete results. “Everybody is wanting a better national plan. Everybody is wanting one that takes violence against women seriously that sees it as a number one government priority, that invests in prevention, invests in new services,” Carrington said.In June, figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the number of domestic violence-related sexual assaults recorded by the police increased by 13% in 2020. The charity, Mission Australia, said family violence is “disturbingly common.” It said that in 2019 about one in four women, or more than two million Australians, “experienced violence by an intimate partner.”
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