Some American solar energy companies are calling on the U.S. Commerce Department to expand tariffs on Chinese solar components to include Chinese-linked products from Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports on a debate that has divided the solar industry.
Camera: Roy Kim for port shots
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At least six people were killed and 21 injured in an Ethiopian army airstrike Thursday on the Tigray regional capital, Mekelle, hospital sources told VOA.
The attack brings the total number of casualties reported by medical personnel from a series of government bomb strikes since last week to at least 12 dead and 55 wounded.
The Ethiopian National Defense Forces issued a statement saying the latest attack was aimed at Mesfin Industrial Engineering, which it said was a military equipment maintenance facility operated by the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
But witnesses in Mekelle told VOA that the late-morning airstrike hit a residential area.
The victims were rushed to the city’s Ayder Referral Hospital where Tsega, a wounded resident, told VOA that a bomb had hit her house with her entire family inside.
“There were many people at home. Children slept. Half of our house has been damaged,” she said in Tigrinya. “We’ve survived. However, the house next to ours was demolished. I don’t think anybody could survive there.”
Gebremeskel Abraha, who was being treated for a knee wound, said he was walking on the street when the attack occurred.
The bomb “fell in between the houses while I was passing by,” he said. “The people you see here were hit by that bomb. Houses were ruined. Those who have been hit are peaceful people.”
Azeb Aregay, a neighborhood resident, said it was not clear how many people were killed or injured.
“They are still searching,” she said. “Peaceful people are being hit. There are no fighters or armed people here. It is a residential area.”
Dr. Kibrom Gebreselassie, the medical director at Ayder Referral Hospital, said six dead and 21 injured had been brought to the facility so far.
“Ambulances are coming in as we speak now. The number might go up,” he told VOA. He said three of the dead were children.
“We are treating people in makeshift tents as the hospital is full to capacity,” he told VOA’s Tigrigna Service.
He blamed a blockade of the region for shortages of food, drugs and medical equipment at the hospital.
“We survived until now on the drugs we had in the stock. As you see, the hospital is full and we are treating people in the tents we set up on the streets outside,” he said.
Ethiopian Communications Minister Legesse Tulu insisted that the attack hit a legitimate military target, telling VOA’s Habtamu Seyoum of VOA’s Amharic Service in a telephone interview that the strike “successfully targeted” a site that the government believed the TPLF used as an “arms maintenance facility.”
“The target was Slot 2,” he said. “Manufacturing Slot 2 is a place where they manufacture and repair military equipment. They repair there their heavy weaponry, and they use the heavy weaponry mainly to destroy towns, properties of farmers and infrastructure, et cetera. It was targeted to deter this, and it has been successfully targeted.”
Legesse said the federal government had not received any reports of civilian casualties from the strike and accused the TPLF of trying to deceive the international community and the media with false information.
“What we know is a successful raid was conducted that hit the military manufacturing that they use for military equipment maintenance facility. Nothing was done to attack civilians intentionally or deliberately.”
VOA Horn of Africa’s Tigrigna Service reporter Mulugeta Atsbeha contributed from Mekelle, and Amharic Service reporter Habtamu Seyoum contributed from Washington.
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The Vatican on Thursday canceled the planned live broadcast of U.S. President Joe Biden meeting Pope Francis, the latest restriction to media coverage of the Holy See that sparked complaints from White House- and Vatican-accredited journalists.
The live broadcast of Biden’s Friday visit was trimmed to cover just the arrival of the president’s motorcade in the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the revised plan reflected the “normal procedure” established during the coronavirus pandemic for all visiting heads of state or government.
That protocol also has meant an 18-month ban on any independent media being in the room for the beginning and end of the audience, as would normally be the case for a visiting head of state.
Canceled was the live coverage of Biden actually greeting Francis in the palace Throne Room, as well as the live footage of the two men sitting down to begin their private talks in Francis’ library, at which time the cameras would have stopped running.
Edited footage to come
The Vatican said it would provide edited footage of the encounter after the fact to accredited media. Bruni didn’t say why the Vatican had originally announced fuller live coverage only to dial it back on the eve of the visit.
Biden, the second Catholic U.S. president, has met Francis three previous times, but this will be his first as president.
The audience was being closely monitored since U.S. bishops are scheduled to meet in a few weeks for their annual fall convention, with one of the agenda items inspired by conservatives who contend that Biden’s support for abortion rights should disqualify him from receiving Communion. Though any document that emerges from the bishops’ conference is not expected to mention Biden by name, it’s possible there could be a clear message of rebuke.
Francis has strongly upheld the church’s opposition to abortion, calling it murder. But he has said bishops should be pastors, not politicians. As a result, the Biden-Francis body language could have given a clue about their mindsets going into the meeting.
The Vatican has provided live television coverage for the visits of major heads of state for years, including President Donald Trump, and had scheduled such coverage Friday for Biden and for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is also in Rome for a Group of 20 meeting.
Asked to comment on Vatican access during a gaggle with reporters on Air Force One, the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the administration was “actively engaged” in the issue and would see what Friday brings.
“The United States will always advocate for access for the free press, and especially for our good friends in the American press who travel with us on these long flights over, to be able to capture and chronicle the president’s engagements,” he said.
Sense of the visit
It is during those moments in the pope’s library that reporters can view the gifts that are exchanged, watch as the formal photograph is taken and overhear remarks as the leaders arrive and depart to get a sense of how the visit is going. Only the pope’s official photographer and Vatican video journalists are now allowed in.
The Vatican correspondents association has protested the cancellation of such pool access and several media outlets, including The Associated Press, formally complained about Thursday’s dropping of the live Biden-pope broadcast and asked for an explanation.
The head of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Steven Portnoy of CBS News Radio, expressed disappointment at the lack of live coverage as well as the absence of independent media access. Biden is traveling with his own pool of reporters who would normally be allowed into the pope’s library for the beginning and end of the audience alongside reporters accredited to the Vatican.
In a series of tweets, Portnoy noted that the White House traveling pool was fully vaccinated and that such a substantial meeting between a Catholic president and the head of the 1.3 billion-member Catholic Church “demands independent coverage.”
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Lilian Vihenda prepares afternoon porridge for her young children. The flour she uses has just been delivered by the staff at Food Banking Kenya, a nonprofit organization that helps feed the needy in her Nairobi neighborhood.
In the current hard economic times in Kenya, Vihenda says, these care packages help keep her children in school. She says the money that she would have used to buy food will pay for her children’s school fees, which is a great help.
But in addition to helping the poor by salvaging excess food from farms and markets, Food Banking Kenya is taking steps to blunt the harmful impact of climate change.
John Gathungu, who heads the nonprofit, says the recent acquisition of a cold storage facility allows the food bank to store more food while reducing greenhouse emissions from the farms.
“When food in the farms ends up in the landfills, you find that there is a lot of toxicity within the air, because what happens is that when they rot in the landfill, they produce methane, which is a worse product than carbon dioxide,” Gathungu said. “And if we curb food wastage, we can be able to at least to reduce the amount of gas that is produced from at least 6 to 8 percent.”
Implementing climate-sensitive advances will be key to helping Africa adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change, says adaptation strategies analyst Winnie Khaemba.
“Agricultural technologies that also ensure that you have reduced emissions, CO2 emissions, methane emissions, which are all greenhouse emissions, we really are in need of these technologies and also the capacity to be able to apply these technologies,” Khaemba said.
But technology requires funding, and that remains a challenge.
Experts say the continent will need more than $300 billion over the next decade as it develops strategies that will help cushion it from the effects of climate change.
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U.S. President Joe Biden is used to scrutiny over how he reconciles his strong Roman Catholic faith — particularly around issues of gender, sexuality and reproduction — with his duty to lead an explicitly secular government.
On Friday, he will face those questions anew in a meeting at the Vatican with Pope Francis, the Catholic leader who once guided the Biden family through personal grief and who perches permanently behind the president’s shoulder in a framed photo that overlooks the Oval Office.
The two have met three times and exchanged letters, administration officials said, and Biden met with both of Francis’ predecessors. During a visit to the United States in 2015, Biden has said, the pope took time to talk with the future president and his family not long after the death of Biden’s son Beau.
This papal audience will not be filmed live. On Thursday, the Vatican canceled a planned live broadcast of the meeting, which Biden will attend before heading to the meeting of G-20 nations in Rome and, after that, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
This is more than just a visit between two powerful men with millions of fans and at least as many critics. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said this meeting, while primarily personal, will also cover important policy issues. The White House said the two, accompanied by first lady Jill Biden, will “discuss working together on efforts grounded in respect for fundamental human dignity, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis and caring for the poor.”
“First, there’ll be the obvious personal dimension,” Sullivan said. “… And they will have a chance just to reflect, each of them, on their view of what’s happening in the world. On policy issues, of course, in the international realm, they’ll be talking about climate and migration and income inequality and other issues that are very top of mind for both of them.”
The abortion question
Sullivan did not say whether the two men would discuss abortion, but on this issue, they are clearly divided. The Catholic Church unambiguously opposes abortion. Biden, who says he doesn’t personally agree with the procedure, has as president resisted efforts by states and courts to limit access to abortion.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the two are likely to have “a warm and constructive dialogue” that will focus instead on their points of agreement.
On abortion, she said, Biden’s views are clear.
“You are familiar with where the president stands,” she said. “He’s somebody who stands up for and believes that a woman’s right to choose is important.”
This issue is a wedge between Biden and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which plans to meet in coming weeks to debate whether politicians who support abortion should be barred from taking Holy Communion.
Massimo Faggioli, a Villanova University theology professor and author of Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States, said this meeting could also affect the conflict between Biden and those conservative American clerics. Biden is only the second Catholic president, Faggioli noted, but circumstances are different now.
“John Kennedy was not an embattled Catholic at war with his bishops, as is the case for Joe Biden,” he told VOA. “And there are high stakes in this meeting and in the (climate) summit in Glasgow a few days later, because both the pope and Joe Biden have very high, on their list of priorities, climate change.”
Separating church and state
And, Faggioli said, it’s not just the president who wants to draw a line between the Church and politics.
“The Vatican and Pope Francis are actively trying to protect Joe Biden’s access to the sacraments — not protecting Joe Biden’s policies, especially on abortion, but they’re protecting Joe Biden’s access to the sacrament because they are afraid that if the sacraments are used to make a political statement, the U.S. Catholic Church will lose its catholicity, which means essentially, not being a sectarian church,” he said.
“It will be the elephant in the room, probably,” he said. “But they agree on this idea that Catholicism is a big tent that should not be defined by political affiliations, and even less, partisan loyalties.”
The White House stresses that this meeting is primarily personal.
“I think the president’s faith is, as you all know, is quite personal to him,” Psaki said. “His faith has been a source of strength through various tragedies that he has lived through in his life. Many of you who have served on pool duty know that he attends church every weekend, and certainly I expect he will continue to do that. So, the fact that this is his — will be his fourth meeting — he has a very personal relationship with Pope Francis.”
And, as the White House has also stressed, the president is willing to meet with other spiritual titans. Earlier this week, Biden hosted Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of 200 million Eastern Orthodox Christians.
“Our president here is a man of faith and man of vision, and we know that he will offer to this wonderful country and to the world the best leadership and direction within his considerable power,” Bartholomew said, after a 45-minute meeting with Biden in the Oval Office.
More importantly, the patriarch noted, the two men used their massive platforms to push for something that other major faith leaders are also embracing: widespread vaccination.
This story contains information from The Associated Press.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company is rebranding itself as Meta in an effort to encompass its virtual-reality vision for the future — what Zuckerberg calls the ” metaverse.”
Skeptics point out that it also appears to be an attempt to change the subject from the Facebook Papers, a leaked document trove so dubbed by a consortium of news organizations that include The Associated Press. Many of these documents, first described by former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen, have revealed how Facebook ignored or downplayed internal warnings of the negative and often harmful consequences its social network algorithms created or magnified across the world.
“Facebook is the world’s social media platform and they are being accused of creating something that is harmful to people and society,” said marketing consultant Laura Ries. She compared the name Meta to when BP rebranded to “Beyond Petroleum” to escape criticism that it harmed the environment. “They can’t walk away from the social network with a new corporate name and talk of a future metaverse.”
What is the metaverse? Think of it as the internet brought to life, or at least rendered in 3D. Zuckerberg has described it as a “virtual environment” you can go inside of — instead of just looking at on a screen. Essentially, it’s a world of endless, interconnected virtual communities where people can meet, work and play, using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps or other devices.
It also will incorporate other aspects of online life such as shopping and social media, according to Victoria Petrock, an analyst who follows emerging technologies.
Zuckerberg says he expects the metaverse to reach a billion people within the next decade. It will be a place people will be able to interact, work and create products and content in what he hopes will be a new ecosystem that creates millions of jobs for creators.
The announcement comes amid an existential crisis for Facebook. It faces heightened legislative and regulatory scrutiny in many parts of the world following revelations in the Facebook Papers.
In explaining the rebrand, Zuckerberg said the name “Facebook” just doesn’t encompass everything the company does anymore. In addition to its primary social network, that now includes Instagram, Messenger, its Quest VR headset, its Horizon VR platform and more.
“Today we are seen as a social media company,” Zuckerberg said. “But in our DNA, we are a company that builds technology to connect people.”
Facebook the app, along with Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, are here to stay; the company’s corporate structure also won’t change. But on December 1, its shares will start trading under a new ticker symbol, “MVRS.”
Metaverse, he said, is the new way. Zuckerberg, who is a fan of classics, explained that the word “meta” comes from the Greek word “beyond.”
A corporate rebranding won’t solve the myriad problems at Facebook revealed by thousands of internal documents in recent weeks. It probably won’t even get people to stop calling the social media giant Facebook — or a “social media giant,” for that matter.
But that isn’t stopping Zuckerberg, seemingly eager to move on to his next big thing as crisis after crisis emerges at the company he created.
Just as smartphones replaced desktop computers, Zuckerberg is betting that the metaverse will be the next way people will interact with computers — and each other. If Instagram and messaging were Facebook’s forays into the mobile evolution, Meta is its bet on the metaverse.
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A new British research ship, named for British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, has arrived in London to call attention to climate change ahead of next week’s Glasgow climate summit.
The 129-meter RSS Sir David Attenborough has completed sea trials and is ready for service. It sailed up the Thames River on Wednesday to be part of a three-day public celebration hosted by the British Antarctic Survey to raise awareness of the importance and relevance of polar science and why it matters to everyday life.
In a launch event on the ship Thursday, Attenborough, known for his documentaries on nature and the planet, reminded people of the dangers caused by climate change and called for action from delegates attending the summit next week in Glasgow.
Commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and operated by the British Antarctic Survey, the new research platform will transform how U.K. teams conduct ship-borne science in polar regions.
The vessel enjoys a bit of infamy as well. As it was being built in 2016, NERC decided to open the naming of the ship to the public through an internet vote. The winning name was Boaty McBoatface.
The vote was overruled in favor of naming it for Attenborough, but an unmanned research submarine carried on the ship bears the name Boaty McBoatface, out of respect for the popular vote.
The ship will embark on its first Antarctic mission later this year. It has a crew of about 30 and can accommodate up to 60 scientists.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Fears the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan could reinvigorate terror groups like al-Qaida and Islamic State, and lead to a surge of attempted infiltrations along the southern U.S. border have not been realized, a top counterterrorism official said, dismissing claims to the contrary as “factually inaccurate.”
For months, mostly Republican lawmakers have warned of an unprecedented number of encounters by law enforcement and border patrol agents with known or suspected terrorists trying to enter the United States from Mexico.
One fact sheet distributed earlier this week by Republican Representative John Katko, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, warned terrorists “are crossing the border ‘at a level we have never seen before.'”
But the Department of Homeland Security’s top counterterrorism official rejected such allegations Thursday, telling an online forum there is no evidence to back them up.
“That just simply is not the case,” DHS Counterterrorism Coordinator John Cohen said in response to a question from VOA. “It is just factually inaccurate to frame the southern border as a place where we are seeing a significant number of al-Qaida or ISIS-related terrorists or foreign terrorists.”
Cohen did not share any specific data on the number of encounters with known or suspected terrorists along the U.S. border with Mexico, characterizing it only as “very low.”
He said such encounters are also “low in comparison to people who are seeking to travel to the United States through the aviation infrastructure, through the northern border.”
The refusal to publicly disclose the actual number of encounters with terrorists along the U.S. southern border with Mexico has been a point of contention with Republican lawmakers, who have repeatedly pressed DHS to share the information.
During a hearing in September, Louisiana Republican Representative Clay Higgins chastised Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for ignoring an “obvious threat.”
“I’m 60 years old, I’ve never seen anything like this in America,” Higgins told Mayorkas. “We’ve been invaded.”
Higgins further alleged a source told him that about 200 known or suspected terrorists have been detected crossing the southern border, calling it a “conservative estimate.”
VOA reached out to Higgins’ office asking for clarification on his allegations. His office has yet to respond.
Other lawmakers have pointed to a September 11, 2021, letter from former U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, which warned, “control of our borders has disintegrated overnight.”
Gaps in border security are “exploited to easily smuggle contraband, criminals, or even potential terrorists into the U.S. at will,” Scott wrote, urging lawmakers to request detailed data.
“You will find this data troubling,” he wrote. “This is not hyperbole.”
Mayorkas and other officials admit data does exist, but say it is classified, and that claims like those by Scott mischaracterize the situation.
“Our border security efforts are layered and include multiple levels of rigorous screening that allow us to detect and prevent people who pose national security or public safety risks from entering the United States,” an official with CBP told VOA last month.
“Encounters of known and suspected terrorists at our borders are very uncommon,” the official added.
However, such encounters do happen.
In April, CBP admitted it had stopped two men from Yemen, both on the U.S. terror watch list and the FBI’s No-Fly List, from trying to cross into the state of California.
The separate incidents, one from January and one from March, were only disclosed after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy went on Fox News and charged border patrol agents were now finding known or suspected terrorists from Yemen, Iran and Turkey.
Concern that terrorists were trying to sneak across the southern U.S. border rose to prominence in 2018 and 2019, as they became a talking point for the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Even then, though, U.S. counterterrorism officials sought to temper such claims, telling VOA in 2018 that while vulnerabilities did exist, “We do not see any evidence that ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups are trying to infiltrate the southern U.S. border.”
Instead, officials have told VOA that the bigger concern then, and now, stems from terrorists associated with Iran and Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy with long-standing connections in Central and South America, including ties to the narcotics trade.
But Cohen said Thursday that even drug traffickers have largely sought to distance themselves from terrorists.
“Cartels have made the accurate calculation that if they were to leverage their resources to smuggle a terrorist into the United States and that terrorist committed an attack, that the attention focused on those cartels would dramatically increase,” he said. “They would be decimated.”
Cohen said the bigger concern, for now, is that events in Afghanistan will serve as inspiration for would-be terrorists.
“We’re seeing an increase in online activity by media operations associated with different al-Qaida elements and the Islamic State, where they are calling for lone wolf attacks here, specifically focusing on providing content intended to inspire disaffected individuals in our country and in Western Europe,” he said.
In Malawi, health authorities say an outbreak of scabies around the commercial capital of Blantyre has affected more than 300 people. Scabies is a contagious, intensely itchy skin condition caused by tiny mites that burrow into the skin.
“We started seeing cases from June and we have seen that the cases have been increasing such that by the end of September we had seen 255 cases. But as I am talking now, as of October, the number has risen to 309 cases,” says Chrissy Banda, the spokesperson for Blantyre District Health Office.
Residents of Blantyre like Matilda Lamba say the outbreak is concerning, especially with records indicating that it is more prevalent in rural areas.
“Those people from villages they come in town. You know we buy things from then like agriculture commodities, we interact with them daily and right at the moment we are very afraid that we might catch the scabies,” she notes.
But Banda says people should not panic, saying efforts are under way to stop the outbreak. “In our facilities the treatment is there. We have a lot of scabicides; the treatment for scabies. So first thing, we identify the cases, and then we are treating the cases to make sure that we block the transmission.”
The scabies outbreak comes at a time when Malawi is starting to recover from COVID-19, currently registering low infection and death rates.
George Jobe, executive director of the Malawi Health Equity Network says although the scabies outbreak is scary, the good news is that its preventive measures are similar to those that prevent COVID-19, like hand washing and observing social distancing.
In the meantime, the ministry of health is advising institutions that deal with large groups to watch for cases of the skin condition and report suspected cases to health authorities.
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Civil war has displaced many in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, and there is no end in sight to their misery. VOA’s Heather Murdock travels to the largely cut-off conflict zone, as well as refugee camps in neighboring Sudan, to bring the story of a complex political situation and the growing humanitarian disaster. Voice of America was among the first on the scene when this conflict broke out in late 2020. Now, VOA gives new light to this crisis in “Terror in Tigray: The Ethiopian Refugee Crisis,” an innovative, comprehensive overview of the crisis.
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Thousands of Nigerians are expressing concern about the country’s new digital currency after its user app was temporarily removed from the Google Play store this week. The app has recorded tens of thousands of downloads since its launch on Monday.
Central Bank authorities said a system glitch unable to handle the huge amount of traffic on the download site led to the temporary removal of the eNaira Speed Wallet.
They say the problem has been resolved.
The eNaira app has recorded over 100,000 downloads on the Google Play store alone since launching on Monday. But thousands of early users say they encountered many difficulties.
Among them was Ogunbiyi Olubiyi, who runs a Lagos-based digital company.
“It’s a great initiative by the Central Bank, they’re positioning for the future which means they’re heading somewhere with this. But the execution could have been better,” Olubiyi said.
Nigerian authorities restricted cryptocurrency transactions in the country earlier this year and promised to create a safer option for citizens – the eNaira.
The government expects to leverage the blockchain technology to improve financial inclusion, ease cross-border trades, increase remittances and boost the economy.
But users like Abuja stock trader Leonard Nwankwo worry about hacking. Nwankwo says the Central Bank’s terms offer no insurance in the event of losses of revenues or profits.
“Whether it’s an error that is caused by them or an error that is not caused by them, so that is to tell you that only the consumers of this product or investors in this currency are bearing 100% risk, so an agent can decide to do something dubious and he’s free to go because by limitations of liability he’s not to be held accountable,” Nwankwo.
Olubiyi says more awareness is needed to boost user confidence on the eNaira platform.
“I don’t think that people downloaded and tried the app before they began to report it. You see that is due to mistrust. I think the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) needs to go on a campaign, introducing and educating people about the eNaira and how it’s going to be solving problems in their lives,” Olubiyi.
Central banks around the world are adopting digital versions of their legal tenders. The Nigerian government hopes that the eNaira will boost Nigeria’s gross domestic product by $29 billion in the next 10 years.
But experts say that goal can only be achieved if end users have confidence in authorities and the currency itself.
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The World Health Organization warns a shortage of syringes is threatening to upend efforts to vaccinate millions of Africans against COVID-19, a disease that has infected more than 8.4 million people on the continent, killing 217,000.
Lifesaving vaccines are in short supply in Africa. The World Health Organization says only six percent of Africa’s 1.2 billion people are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. That compares with more than 40 percent of the people in most high-income countries.
Vaccine shipments to the continent are ramping up and expected to increase into next year. While that is encouraging, WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti says a scarcity of syringes could paralyze progress.
“I mean just to say, syringes sound like a very small item in the big picture of rolling out vaccines, but we know very well if you do not have syringes, you cannot put shots into people’s arms so it is a very important topic…There is a looming threat that syringe supplies will dry up,” said Moeti.
The U.N. children’s fund ships syringes for the global rollout of vaccines under the COVAX facility.
Moeti says UNICEF predicts a global shortage of around two billion syringes needed for COVID-19 vaccine and routine immunizations.
“Already, some African countries, like Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa, have experienced delays in receiving vaccines, and unless drastic measures are taken to boost syringe production, Africa faces a crisis,” said Moeti.
On a brighter note, Moeti says she is very excited by an announcement from pharmaceutical giant Merck that it will allow other drug makers to produce its new oral antiviral COVID-19 medicine.
“Could this be a game-changer? We sincerely hope so. We sincerely hope in the context of the global crisis of this nature and looking at the gaps in access and the needs,” said Moeti. “And just the principle of local production, learning from the extremely difficult experience of this pandemic that more and more pharmaceutical companies would exceptionally be willing to follow Merck’s example. “
Moeti notes local production of the drug and other COVID-19 therapeutics would help speed up and address inequity and access to key products in poorer nations. She says it would be extremely desirable to have similar patent sharing agreements extended to vaccine production as well.
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A new study says it is crucial that pregnant and breastfeeding women receive both doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in order to be fully vaccinated.
Researchers at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania gave the vaccines to 84 pregnant women, 31 breastfeeding mothers and 16 non-pregnant women of roughly the same ages. They discovered that pregnant and breastfeeding women had developed fewer antibodies three to four weeks after the first shot compared to non-pregnant women.
The two groups of women eventually developed as many antibodies as the non-pregnant women after receiving the second shot, according to the study, published this month in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Pregnant women are particularly susceptible to serious illnesses like COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, because their immune systems are modified to tolerate the fetus.
In other developments, the World Health Organization says Europe is the only major region in the world to post an increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths over the past week
The U.N. health agency recorded 1.6 million new cases and 21,000 deaths within the region during the seven-day period. This marks an increase of 18 percent and 14 percent, respectively. Officials say a variety of factors are to blame for the rise in new infections, including low rates of vaccination in some eastern European countries.
The United States recorded nearly 513,000 new COVID-19 cases during the same period, the largest of any individual nation, although it was a 12 percent decrease from the previous week, and more than 11,600 deaths. The United Kingdom had the second highest number of new cases with 330,465, an increase of 16 percent, with Russia posting 248,956, a rise of 15 percent.
The WHO said the biggest declines in recorded new COVID-19 cases occurred in the African region, which was down 21 percent, followed by a 17 percent drop in the western Pacific region.
In a related development, the Pan American Health Organization says overall COVID-19 cases and deaths have fallen to their lowest levels in more than a year across much of North, Central and South America.
According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, more than 245 million people around the globe have tested positive, including more than 4.9 million deaths. The United States leads both categories with 45.7 million confirmed infections and 741,242 deaths.
India is second in the number of infections with 34.2 million confirmed cases, followed by Brazil with 21.7 million. Brazil is second in COVID-19 deaths with 606,679, followed by India with 456,386.
Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse).
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Russia is warning Turkey over arms sales to Ukraine after a Turkish-made drone attacked Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine.
A Kremlin spokesman has warned that Turkey’s ongoing arms sales to Ukraine threaten to destabilize the region.
The warning follows Kyiv’s release of the video Tuesday showing a Turkish-made drone used for the first time against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Independent defense analyst Arda Mevlutoglu said Kyiv sees the Turkish drones as a potential game changer in its fight against separatists, which it has been battling since 2014.
“A single armed drone equipped with a couple of bombs may destroy a whole defense battery, or a very expensive electronic warfare system, or take out some armed vehicles. So, that asymmetry provides capabilities to armies facing significant threats such as Ukraine,” said Mevlutoglu.
Kyiv has purchased several Turkish drones and this month announced an agreement to build more in Ukraine itself – a prospect that analyst Ozgur Unluhisarcikli of the George Marshall Fund said will alarm Moscow. Turkish-made drones played a key role in Azerbaijan’s victory last year against the Armenian army over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
“The drones Turkey provided to Azerbaijan were a decisive factor in the battle, and Russia knows this,” said Unluhisarcikli.
Turkey has also, according to analysts, successfully used its drones in Syria and Libya.
Ankara is also seeking to cash in on the success of its drones with reported sales to Ethiopia and Morocco now pending. But analyst Mevlutoglu warns the Ukrainian drone sales pose a significant risk to Turkey.
“Turkey has good relations with Russia, especially in the energy sector. Russia is building a nuclear power plant in Turkey, and we have cooperation in Syria. So, Turkey has good relations with Moscow. On the other hand, we have very good relations with Ukraine, as [is] evident in the defense sector. In the event of a conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Turkey would find itself in an extremely difficult situation,” said Mevlutoglu.
But some observers suggest Ankara could see its drone sales to Ukraine as powerful leverage over Moscow in a number of regional disputes that are going on between the two.
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US President Joe Biden will leave later today to attend the G-20 leaders’ summit in Rome and then continue to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report on the key issues leaders will discuss
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U.S. climate envoy John Kerry spoke in London Thursday ahead of next week’s climate summit in Glasgow, saying that addressing the climate crisis is the only choice, and the cost of not doing so is far greater than the cost of taking action.
Kerry said the effects of climate change are being felt now. He said, “The planet is already at its hottest and least stable point in 125,000 years and people are dying because of that.” He said some of the impact is already irreversible.
“Is all the world fully aligned with what science says we must do to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis?” he asked. “In two words: not yet. But more countries than ever before are stepping up.”
The 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow opens Sunday. Many environmental activists, policymakers and scientists say the meeting is crucial for securing concrete commitments to the targets set in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
The accord aims to reduce carbon emissions to hold down the rise in global temperatures, while helping countries adapt to the changing climate.
Kerry, speaking at the London School of Economics, stressed that all the science and mathematics shows the cost of sitting idle far outstrips the cost of taking action. He cited numerous studies showing the marketplace opportunities of a “green’ economy.
But he said there is still a gap, and most of the responsibility for closing that gap lies with the top 20 economies of the world, “all of whom are responsible for 80 percent of all the emissions.”
Kerry said to prevent a climate catastrophe, scientists say the world must cut its global greenhouse gas emissions by at least 45 percent by 2030, in order to get to net zero by 2050. He said, “We head to Glasgow in that context, and I head to Glasgow, an optimist.”
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
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The leader of Sudan’s military junta has fired at least six ambassadors from their posts after they spoke out against this week’s overthrow of the joint civilian-military transitional government.
State-run Sudan TV announced Thursday that General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dismissed the envoys to the United States, European Union, China, Qatar and France, as well as the head of Sudan’s United Nations mission in Geneva.
A group of Sudanese diplomats issued a joint statement this week condemning the arrest of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and his wife on Monday, and General Burhan’s decision to dissolve the Sovereign Council and declare a national emergency. The joint civilian-military council had run the country since August 2019, shortly after the ouster of longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising.
In an interview Wednesday with VOA’s English to Africa service, Sudan’s now former ambassador to the U.S, Nureldin Satti, said he would try to undermine the junta.
“I shall be working with my colleagues in the diplomatic service and with the diaspora around the United States and around the world to see to it that this coup is not accepted, and that the coup intentions and results be reversed as soon as possible,” Satti said.
Burhan has pledged the military will turn power over to a civilian government in July 2023 after general elections are held. He said the army’s overthrow of the transitional government was necessary to avoid a civil war.
The U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, met with Burhan Wednesday to discuss the takeover and subsequent developments, according to U.N. spokesman Stephan Dujarric. Perthes reiterated that the U.N. wants to “see a return to the transition process” and demanded an immediate release of all arbitrarily detained.
Sudanese security forces arrested demonstrators in Khartoum Wednesday, including three leading pro-democracy activists. Deposed Prime Minister Hamdok was released Tuesday, a day after his arrest, but remains under tight security at his home in Khartoum.
The international community has ramped up pressure on Sudan since the military takeover. Wednesday, the African Union said Sudan was suspended from all AU activities until power is returned to a civilian government.
The World Bank said in a statement that it has “paused” financial aid to the country and “stopped processing any new operations as we closely monitor and assess the situation.”
The U.S. State Department said it was suspending $700 million in financial assistance to Sudan.
In Sudan, opponents of the coup have called for a “march of millions” on Saturday.
Many businesses in Sudan remain closed in response to calls for strikes, which some doctors and state oil workers said they would join in support of the ousted government. Central bank employees have also gone on strike.
The U.N. Security Council met privately Tuesday to discuss the situation but have so far not issued any statement condemning the coup. Some members, including Russia and China, have publicly questioned whether this week’s events qualified as a coup, and have said council members should not interfere in Sudan’s domestic affairs.
But Kenya’s U.N. ambassador told reporters Wednesday he hoped the council would pronounce itself now that the African Union had taken action.
Hamdok, an economist and diplomat who has worked for the U.N., was named transitional prime minister in August 2019. The transition received strong support from Western countries, including the United States, which removed Sudan from its state sponsors of terrorism list.
But Hamdok faced stiff resistance from elements of Sudan’s military. On September 21, forces still loyal to Bashir used tanks to block a key bridge and attempted to seize power. The coup attempt was put down, and dozens of soldiers were arrested.
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British sailors will begin training aboard Canadian icebreakers in a new agreement that reflects the United Kingdom’s heightened interest in developing a more robust Arctic military capability.
Britain is just the latest nation to focus fresh attention on the far north as climate change opens the region to new opportunities for navigation and resource exploitation. Countries as diverse and distant as China, Turkey and India are also eyeing the region.
The U.K.-Canada agreement, signed earlier this month, calls for British sailors to train aboard Canada’s fleet of 20 Coast Guard icebreakers as they crunch their way through the Arctic ice sheets, clearing the way for other vessels to access the once-fabled Northwest Passage.
“The sharing of the Canadian Coast Guard’s wide experience and expertise will mean British sailors are better-equipped when sailing to the frozen region,” the Royal Navy said in a formal statement.
The Canadians, for their part, hope to benefit from the Royal Navy’s “operational experience and expertise,” according to a statement from Canada’s Coast Guard commissioner.
Nuclear submarines
While lacking Canada’s long experience in the ice, Britain has other assets to bring to an enhanced relationship in the region, most notably a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines that can remain under the ice far longer than anything Canada possesses.
“While Canada naturally retains the primary responsibility for the defense of the Canadian Arctic, it has never had all the hardware necessary” including nuclear submarines says Adam Lajeunesse, a top Canadian expert in Arctic security. In military circles, nuclear submarines are often referred to as SSNs.
“As has long been the case, Canada needs American or British support since it lacks the SSNs needed to test sensor networks or respond to trespassers,” Lajeunesse told VOA. “For their parts, the U.S. and British will need Canadian participation.”
Canadian defense expert Jeffrey Collins, an assistant political science professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, agreed that Britain “has plenty of submarine experience in the Arctic.” But, he said, “gaining surface naval Arctic experience is a must if they are intent on being a player in the region in terms of strengthening its post-Brexit U.S. alliance.”
According to Samuel Jardine, a fellow at the Washington-based Arctic Institute, Canada balked at the U.K.’s offer of Royal Navy assets such as the submarines to help it patrol the Arctic.
“The latest agreement between the Canadian Coast Guard and British Royal Navy on Arctic cooperation and training is progress, but a far cry from where security cooperation should be from the U.K.’s perspective,” he said in an interview.
Jardine said the main obstacle to U.K.-Canada cooperation is the British and American view that the Northwest Passage is international waters, while Canada claims it as Canadian territory. Jardine said that as climate change pushes back the Arctic ice cap, disagreements between Britain and Canada could further threaten Arctic cooperation.
So far, however, both nations have participated constructively in international research in the region, including on projects such as the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate, or MOSAiC.
“Scientifically both the U.K. and Canada enjoy an extensive cooperative relationship in the Arctic,” Jardine said. “Particularly on research surrounding climate change, an issue that both states have placed as a key pillar of their domestic and foreign policy agendas.”
Britain’s post-Brexit strategy
While the reasons for Canada’s interest in the Arctic are obvious, Britain’s interest has been heightened by its pursuit of a geostrategic realignment following its departure from the European Union.
“A prerequisite recognized in U.K. government circles for Britain’s post-Brexit ‘Pacific tilt’ to succeed is a peaceful and stable ‘high north,’ — which, after all, sits on Britain’s doorstep,” Jardine said.
“An Arctic that is increasingly militarized and a venue for ‘great power’ competition imperils London’s ability to marshal and direct the hard and soft power assets needed to make its Indo-Pacific project an economic and strategic success.”
The Arctic partnership with Canada also meshes with Britain’s post-Brexit goal of building closer ties with other Commonwealth members, as does its participation with the United States in the recent AUKUS agreement that will provide nuclear submarines to Australia.
Other countries have made calculations similar to Britain’s and are pursuing observer status with the Arctic Council, a group of eight nations ringing the Arctic Circle who convene to resolve disputes and address common concerns. The members are Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Observer status is enjoyed by another 13 countries including Poland and Singapore.
China’s Arctic goals
China, with its globe-spanning quest to secure long-term access to natural resources, acquired observer status in the Arctic Council in 2013 and, five years later, declared itself a “near-Arctic state,” raising eyebrows, given that it is almost 1,500 kilometers from the Arctic Circle.
Also in 2018, Beijing’s State Council Information Office issued a policy white paper declaring that China “hopes to work with all parties to build a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through developing the Arctic shipping routes,” Reuters reported.
Lajeunesse said the Arctic powers are unlikely to see Chinese naval vessels in the region any time soon. “More likely, the West will see a hybrid threat emerge in the form of Chinese fishing fleets and quasi-state vessel operations.”
“Canada and the U.S. will need to expand joint monitoring of the Arctic Ocean to keep track of these ships (and others that may be there),” Lajeunesse said, “ensuring that there are not violations of our waters, illegal fishing, or other activity that may need to be monitored or controlled.”
The prospect of accelerating climate change has other countries looking northward as well.
India, which is closer to the equator than to the Arctic Circle, has had observer status on the Arctic Council since 2013. Earlier this year, it released a draft Arctic policy calling for scientific research, “sustainable tourism” and resource exploration in the region, according to The Hindu newspaper.
Turkey also has sponsored scientific expeditions to both the north and the south polar regions and is seeking observer status on the Arctic Council as well.
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The United States is sending more than 4.8 million coronavirus vaccine doses to four African nations, the White House told VOA on Wednesday.
White House officials said the 55-member African Union determined the allocations. Landlocked Chad, one of the world’s poorest nations, will get 115,830 doses; populous U.S. ally Egypt will receive 3,634,020 doses; West Coast oil producer Gabon is to get 101,790 doses and East Coast bulwark Kenya will receive 990,990 doses.
The donated Pfizer vaccine doses should all arrive in the countries by Friday or Saturday, White House officials said. That vaccine requires two shots for full immunity, and American authorities have recommended that certain high-risk groups should receive booster shots of that vaccine after their initial course.
The move follows an announcement earlier in the week that the United States would allow the African Union to purchase an allotment of 33 million doses of the two-shot Moderna vaccine that were originally intended for the United States.
“As the president has said, the virus knows no borders, and it is going to require every company and every country to step up and take bold, urgent action to stop the spread of COVID-19 and save lives,” said Natalie Quillian, White House deputy COVID-19 response coordinator. “We are grateful to have helped negotiate this encouraging step forward between Moderna and the African Union that will significantly expand access to vaccines on the continent in the near term. This is an important action, as we continue to expand manufacturing capacity now and expand access to mRNA vaccines with some of the hardest-hit parts of the world.”
U.S. officials have been criticized for urging booster shots for vulnerable Americans while vaccination rates are low in the developing world. The White House casts the controversy over booster shots as a false choice, claiming that the United States can help vaccinate the world while also protecting Americans.
Critics say wealthy countries are not moving fast enough.
“At our current pace, it could take over a decade until low-income countries reach the 70% vaccination target,” said Tom Hart, acting CEO at the anti-poverty ONE Campaign. “We can’t end this pandemic anywhere if the vaccine isn’t everywhere. The world needs an escape plan, not just life preservers thrown out in the dark.”
According to projections by an Oxford University COVID-19 database, Our World in Data, only one nation in sub-Saharan Africa — the tiny enclave nation of Lesotho — is on track to meet the target of inoculating 40% of their population with at least one dose of the vaccine by the end of this year.
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As the coronavirus pandemic continues to cleave the world into the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, leaders of the world’s 20 wealthiest nations will meet later this week to discuss how to address this deep divide.
Concerns over the pandemic are likely to overshadow the first in-person gathering of G-20 leaders since 2019, and vaccine equity is a top issue. The summit starts Saturday, in Rome.
U.S. President Joe Biden claims the United States, the world’s richest nation, is also the “world’s arsenal of vaccines.” The sheer number of promised U.S. vaccine-dose donations — 1.1 billion of them — dwarfs that of other nations.
However, that is not nearly enough, health advocates say. A fraction of those promised vaccines have been actually delivered, and a new study by science analytics company Airfinity found that G-20 countries have received 15 times more COVID-19 vaccine doses per capita than countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
World leaders have indicated they are willing to do more, together. In September, G-20 ministers unanimously signed the Rome Pact, which reaffirmed the World Health Organization’s objective of vaccinating 40% of the global population by 2021.
Critics are quick to point out though that that document made no specific commitments. Activists and aid groups are urging the G-20 nations to make tangible promises, to accelerate delivery schedules and to be more generous — and not just with the actual vials of vaccine, but with the technology behind them, and the tools needed to get them into arms.
Advocates argue this is not just a problem for the have-nots, that it hurts everyone.
“Vaccine inequity is not just holding the poorest countries back – it is holding the world back,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “As leaders meet to set priorities for the next phase of the COVID-19 response, it is vital they remember that, in the COVID vaccine race, we either win together, or we lose together.”
‘The Arsenal of Vaccines’
The White House says it is already donating more vaccines than any other country, and U.S. officials have deflected criticism over authorities’ decision to green-light booster shots for Americans when so many across the world have yet to get a first shot.
“Our view continues to be that we can do both and it’s a false choice,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last month. “Our view also continues to be that, frankly, the rest of the world needs to step up and do more.”
Nathalie Ernoult, head of advocacy for Doctors Without Borders’ Access campaign, said the United States can do much more than just pledging donations.
“The U.S. is doing, already, a lot,” she told VOA via Skype. “But they could do even more because their power is quite important and massive — in particular, not only for sharing doses, but also in dealing with pharmaceutical companies to share the technology with a number of manufacturing companies that are in different locations in different regions, and who could produce these vaccines to make sure that they would be also in a position to deliver them to the countries that are part of these regional bodies. And I think, you know, in that respect, actually very little has happened.”
A new report by anti-poverty group the ONE Campaign calculated that, of the more than 6.5 billion vaccine doses pledged by G-20 countries, about 44% have been delivered. Tom Hart, the organization’s acting CEO, said that is not fast enough. At this pace, he said, it would take more than a decade for low-income countries to reach their vaccination target of 70% of the population.
“The U.S. is far and above the world leader in global vaccination efforts, and most recently, taking steps to ensure that the African Union is at the front of the line to purchase doses directly from manufacturers,” he said. “These are significant steps that will save lives and help end the pandemic sooner. But, the reality is wealthy countries as a whole aren’t meeting the challenge at hand.”
HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER
So what can the most powerful people in the world do?
For one, said Hart, they can speed up delivery, by nudging moribund supply chains into action.
“We need to turn 18 months of slow progress into bold measures and fulfilled commitments,” he said. ”That means urgently getting doses in arms in low-income countries and freeing up all available financial resources for a sustainable economic recovery.”
They can also clear their stockpiles, Ernoult said.
“High-income countries have a number of doses in excess, about 800 million,” she said. “And what we would like to see them to clearly set up a schedule to provide these doses to COVAX for the countries in a transparent way, with a very clear timetable of when these doses will be shared with the country so that also, the recipient countries will be in a position to organize themselves to receive these doses. “
And finally, both said, the United States should use its power to pressure the corporations to loosen their grip over the recipe for these vaccines. That is something the White House has used its clout to attempt with American drugmaker Moderna, Psaki said last week.
“We absolutely want that to happen, but my understanding is also that the U.S. government does not have the ability to compel Moderna to take certain actions,” she said.
The heads of state launch their meeting Saturday.
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Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said 12 million children are scared to go to school in the country, where jihadis and heavily armed criminals have kidnapped hundreds of students for ransom.
The first mass school abduction in Africa’s most populous nation was in the northeast in 2014, when Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from Chibok, triggering a global campaign called #BringBackOurGirls.
Since then, attacks on schools “have grown in number and spread across the northern part of the country,” said Buhari on Tuesday, addressing a conference on safety in education in the capital, Abuja.
Gunmen in northwest and central Nigeria have increasingly targeted schools, kidnapping more than 1,000 students since December.
As a result, Buhari said, “there are more than 12 million children currently traumatized and afraid of going to school.” Girls were particularly affected, he added.
Young girls who leave school early are at risk of being married off, experts warn.
Save the Children said earlier this month that an “estimated 44% of girls in Nigeria are married before their 18th birthday, one of the highest rates of child marriage globally.”
Most kidnapped students are released after negotiations with their captors.
But “even when the abducted students are released,” Buhari said, “the trauma of the incidences remain long in their minds.”
The retired general, first elected in 2015, said the government was “highly committed to prioritizing safety in schools.”
“We have identified and put mechanisms in place … to ensure the safety and security of schools in Nigeria,” he said.
But it “has been tough dealing with these security challenges and their effect,” the 78-year-old added.
Military operations are underway across the country, but security forces are often described as overstretched and overwhelmed.
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Once commonplace, abuses by state security forces against civilians in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have dropped sharply in the previous year, according to rights groups. Henry Wilkins reports from Burkina Faso, where the decline of 77% has been the biggest.
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Here’s a look at what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top diplomats have been doing this week:
Sudan
The United States called on Sudanese military forces to release all civilian leaders in detention, amid growing international condemnation of the military takeover. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored the U.S. support for a civilian-led transition to democracy while speaking to Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok after his release from military custody.
Sudanese Security Forces Arrest 3 Leading Pro-Democracy Activists
Iran
The United States said it is prepared to return to Vienna for talks aimed at restoring a 2015 Iran nuclear deal that has been stalled for months, adding it is possible to “quickly reach and implement an understanding on return to mutual full compliance with the JCPOA.” Iran said Wednesday it would resume talks with world powers about its nuclear development program by the end of November.
Iran Agrees to Resume Nuclear Talks
First ‘X-gender’ passport
The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday it has issued the first U.S. passport with an X-gender marker for nonbinary, intersex and gender-nonconforming people. The move follows a commitment to ensure “the fair treatment of LGBTQI+ U.S. citizens, regardless of their gender or sex.”
US State Department Issues First ‘X-Gender’ Passport
Digital security
The State Department is creating a new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy to focus on tackling cybersecurity challenges at a time of growing threats from opponents. There will also be a new special envoy for critical and emerging technology, who will lead the technology diplomacy agenda with U.S. allies.
US State Department Creates Bureau to Tackle Digital Threats
Taiwan
The United States encouraged all United Nations member states to join the U.S. in supporting Taiwan’s “robust, meaningful participation throughout the U.N. system” and in the international community, consistent with Washington’s “One China” policy. Calling Taiwan “a democratic success story,” Blinken said Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the U.N. system is “not a political issue, but a pragmatic one.” China said Taiwan has no right to join the United Nations.
US Calls for Renewed Taiwan Participation at UN
On the 50th anniversary of the adoption of U.N. Resolution 2758, a senior U.S. official said the international community benefits from “Taiwan’s expertise to address some of today’s most difficult global challenges,” while explaining how China is misusing U.N. Resolution 2758 to block Taiwan from participating in the U.N. system.
Turkey
U.S. officials said the Biden administration seeks cooperation with Turkey, a NATO ally, on common priorities but will not shy away from addressing disagreements while promoting the rule of law and respect of human rights globally. The remarks came after Turkey declared 10 ambassadors from Western countries “persona non grata” for calling for the release of Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala.
Turkey to Banish 10 Western Ambassadors, Erdogan Says
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After the military takeover of the Sudanese government, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with deposed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was released from custody Tuesday. The U.S. is calling for a return to the civilian-led transition to democracy, as VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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