Month: November 2021

Sudan Says Several Troops Killed by Ethiopian Forces Along Border

Posted on by SeeAF

Sudan’s army said Saturday several soldiers had been killed in an attack by armed groups and militias linked to the Ethiopian military in a disputed fertile border region. 

Relations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa have soured over Al-Fashaqa, a border zone long cultivated by Ethiopian farmers but claimed by Sudan. 

“Our forces tasked with securing the harvest in Al-Fashaqa … were attacked by groups of Ethiopian army forces and militias, who sought to intimidate farmers and spoil the harvest season,” Sudan’s armed forces said in a statement. 

Sudanese troops “repelled the attack” and “inflicted heavy losses in lives and equipment” on the Ethiopian side, it said. 

But the attack left “several killed” among Sudanese forces, the army added. 

Ethiopian officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Al-Fashaqa, which also borders Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region, has seen sporadic deadly clashes between the two sides over the years, but escalated last year. 

Tensions rose after fighting erupted in Tigray in November 2020, which sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing into Sudan.

Khartoum and Addis Ababa have since been locked in a tense war of words over the region, trading accusations of violence and territorial violations. 

The border dispute feeds into wider tensions in the region, including over Ethiopia’s controversial Blue Nile dam. 

Sudan, along with Egypt, has been locked in a bitter dispute over Ethiopia’s mega-dam for a decade. 

Both downstream countries, dependent on the river for most of their water, see the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as an existential threat. 

 
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Smugglers Net Millions per Kilometer from Migrants Crossing Channel

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The price to cross the English Channel varies according to the network of smugglers, between 3,000 and 7,000 euros ($3,380 and $8,000) though there are rumors of discounts. 

Often, the fee also includes a very short-term tent rental in the windy dunes of northern France and food cooked over fires that sputter in the rain that falls for more than half the month of November in the Calais region. Sometimes, but not always, it includes a life vest and fuel for the outboard motor. 

And the people who collect the money — up to 300,000 euros ($432,000) per boat that makes it across the narrows of the channel — are not the ones arrested in the periodic raids along the coastline. They are just what French police call “the little hands.” 

Now, French authorities are hoping to move up the chain of command. The French judicial investigation into Wednesday’s sinking that killed 27 people has been turned over to Paris-based prosecutors who specialize in organized crime. 

To cross the 33-kilometer (20-mile) Dover Strait, the narrowest point of the channel, the rubber dinghies must navigate frigid waters and passing cargo ships. As of November 17, 23,000 people crossed successfully, according to Britain’s Home Office. France intercepted about 19,000 people.

At a minimum, smuggling organizations this year have netted 69 million euros ($77.7 million) for the crossing, or 2 million euros per kilometer. 

“This has become so profitable for criminals that it’s going to take a phenomenal amount of effort to shift it,” the U.K. Home Office’s Dan O’Mahoney told Parliament on November 17.

Golden age for smugglers 

Between coronavirus and Brexit, “this is a golden age for the smugglers and organized crime because the countries are in disarray,” said Mimi Vu, an expert on Vietnamese migration who regularly spends time in the camps of northern France.

“Think of it like a shipping and logistics company,” Vu said.

The leg through central Europe can cost around 4,000 euros ($4,500), according to Austrian authorities who on Saturday announced the arrest of 15 people suspected of smuggling Syrian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants into the country in vanloads of 12 to 15 people. The suspects transported more than 700 people at a total cost of more than 2.5 million euros ($2.8 million), police said. In this network, the migrants were bound for Germany. 

The alleged smugglers — from Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan — were recruited in their home countries via ads on social media offering work as drivers for 2,000-3,000 euros ($2,250-3,380) a month. 

The men handling the last leg are essentially just making the final delivery. If arrested, they are replaceable, Vu said.

Frontex, the European border agency, echoed that in a 2021 risk report that describes the operational leaders as managers who “are able to orchestrate the criminal business from a distance, while mostly exposing low-level criminals involved in transport and logistics to law enforcement detection.”

The chain starts in the home country, usually with an agreed-upon price, arranged over social media. That fee tends to shift over the journey, but most willingly pay extra as their destination grows closer, she said. That’s precisely when the logistics grow more complicated. 

More channel crossings 

Channel crossings by sea were relatively rare until a few years ago, when French and British authorities locked down the area around the Eurotunnel entrance. The deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in the back of a container truck may also have contributed to a new reluctance to use that route.

But the first attempts were disorganized, using small inflatables and even kayaks bought at the local Decathlon sports store. 

“At the beginning, it’s always the pioneers,” said Nando Sigona, professor of international migration and forced displacement at the University of Birmingham. “But once it started to seem that it was working for a number of people, you could see the bigger players came to be involved.” 

One migrant from Sudan, who would only give his name as Yasir, had been trying for three years to get to the U.K. 

While shaking his head about the tragedy, he pointed out that other methods of smuggling, such as hiding on a truck, were also dangerous.

“You could break a leg,” he said. “You can die.” 

And as dangerous as the sea voyage might prove, it seemed to many migrants to be safer than other options. The only thing preventing it is the cost, which he had heard was 1,200 euros ($1,350).

“We don’t have any money,” Yasir said. “If I had money, I’d go to the boat.” 

Police cracked down on local boat purchases, and the larger inflatables started to show up, hauled by the dozens inside cars and vans with German and Belgian license plates, police said. France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said a car with German license plates was seized in connection with the investigation. 

Police raids on the camps to pull down tents and disrupt operations have given smugglers yet another chance to make money, said Nikolai Posner, of the aid group Utopia 56. Now, the fee includes a short-term tent rental and access to basic food, usually cooked over an open fire. 

“There is one solution to stop all this, the deaths, the smugglers, the camps. Make a humanitarian corridor,” said Posner. He said asylum requests should be easier on both sides of the channel. 

Work in Britain 

In part because of Brexit and coronavirus, expulsions from the U.K. this year dropped to just five people, according to the Home Office. Vu said people who are intercepted at sea or land by British border forces end up in migrant centers, but usually get back in touch with the smuggling networks and end up working black market jobs.

That’s the complaint in France, where the interior minister said British employers appear more than happy to hire under the table, providing yet another financial incentive.

“If they’re in Calais, it’s to get to Britain, and the only people who can guarantee them passage are these networks of smugglers,” said Ludovic Hochart, a Calais-based police officer with the Alliance union. “The motivation to get to England is stronger than the dangers that await.” 

On Sunday ministers from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and EU officials will meet to search for solutions. But, with France and Britain at sharp odds over migration, fishing and how to rebuild a working relationship after Brexit, there is one notable absence: a British delegation. 

For Vu, that’s a missed opportunity: “This is transnational crime. It spans many borders and it’s not up to only one country to solve it.”
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Anti-Government Protesters Block Bridges, Roads in Serbia 

Posted on by SeeEU

Skirmishes on Saturday erupted in Serbia between police and anti-government demonstrators who blocked roads and bridges in the Balkan country in protest over new laws they say favor interests of foreign investors devastating the environment. 

Hundreds of people on Saturday appeared simultaneously in the capital Belgrade, the northern city of Novi Sad and other locations to block main bridges and roads for one hour in what organizers described as a warning blockade. They pledged further protests if the laws on property expropriation and referendum weren’t withdrawn. 

Police officers blocked the demonstrators from reaching the bridges, which led to skirmishes as police helicopters flew overhead. The protesters then marched around while managing to stop traffic at a key bridge in Belgrade and in various central streets. 

Organizers said a number of people have been detained. Police earlier have warned that any blockade of bridges is illegal.

Environmental concerns

A number of environmental groups and civil society organizations are angry that the authorities have lowered the referendum threshold and allowed for swift expropriation of private property if deemed to be in the public interest. Activists argue this will pave the way for foreign companies to circumvent popular discontent over projects such as the bid by the Rio Tinto company to launch a lithium mine in western Serbia.

Serbia’s authorities have rejected the accusations, saying the new laws are needed because of infrastructure projects. The country’s autocratic president, Aleksandar Vucic, said a referendum will be organized on the Rio Tinto mine. 

Environmental issues recently have drawn public attention as local activists accuse the populist government of allowing for the devastation of nature for profit. Experts have warned that the planned lithium mine in western Serbia would destroy farmland and pollute the waters.

Following decades of neglect, Serbia has faced major environmental problems such as air and water pollution, poor waste management and other issues. Serbia is a candidate nation for European Union entry, but little so far has been achieved with regards to improving the country’s environmental situation.

Show of support

Protesters on Saturday blew whistles during the blockade and chanted “We won’t give up Serbia.” Huge columns of cars and other vehicles formed at several locations as the demonstrators allowed only the emergency services to pass. 

The protest coincided with a convention of Vucic’s populist Serbian Progressive Party as thousands of his supporters were bused into the capital for the gathering that was designed as a show of support for his policies. 

Although formally seeking EU membership, Vucic has refused to align the country’s foreign policies with the 27-nation bloc and has instead strengthened the Balkan country’s alliance with Russia and China. 
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We’re Ready, Ukrainian Soldiers Say on Frontier With Rebels

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Ukraine’s military is ready and able to repel any attack, says Ukrainian soldier Oleksander, standing in a trench just a few hundred meters from pro-Russian separatists.

Ukraine’s military intelligence said last week that Russia had more than 92,000 troops massed around Ukraine’s borders and was preparing for an attack by the end of January or beginning of February.

Russia’s foreign intelligence chief said Saturday that such suggestions were “malicious U.S. propaganda.” But Ukrainian forces who control the borders are prepared for any escalation between the two sides.

“If there is an attack, we have means for defense. We are well-prepared. We’re getting ready, better day by day, considering different options. We can repel an attack without big problems and we’re not afraid of it,” said Oleksander.

Ukraine, which wants to join the NATO military alliance, has blamed Moscow for supporting separatists in a conflict in its east since 2014.

Russia has said it suspects Ukraine of wanting to recapture separatist-controlled territory by force. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Friday that Kyiv had no such plans and Russia’s rhetoric opposing Ukraine’s bid to join NATO was worrying.

Ukraine received a large consignment of U.S. ammunition and Javelin missiles earlier this year, and soldiers say they also have mortars and Turkish attack drones.

“It’s a bad idea to be afraid when someone comes to your house, and you hide in your basement. It won’t work. One should get up and go to fight,” another soldier Vlad said.

“We’re fighting here to not let them come, and then it’s luck of a draw.”
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Sudanese PM Dismisses Police Chief and His Deputy

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Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said Saturday he dismissed the chief of police, Lieutenant-General Khaled Mahdi Ibrahim Al-Emam, and his deputy.  

 

Lieutenant-General Anan Hamed Mohammed Omar was appointed as the new police chief and Major General Muddathir Abd al-Rahman Nasr al-Din as his deputy, Hamdok added in a post on Twitter.

 

 
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Malawi Court Dismisses Presidential Elections Challenge

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A challenge to Malawi’s 2020 presidential elections has been dismissed by the country’s constitutional court. The opposition Democratic Progress Party had asked the court to rule on voting results, which put President Lazarus Chakwera into office.  Party officials have not yet decided their next move.

Reading the final judgment Friday, chairperson of a five-judge panel Sylvester Kalembera faulted the opposition Democratic Progress Party’s argument that Attorney General Chakaka Nyirenda was not supposed to handle the case because he was not yet sworn into his position.

“Our finding is that the framers of the constitution did not intend for the attorney general to take an oath of office,” said Kalembera. “We have found that the attorney general is properly before us.”    

Kalembera said the DPP’s court challenge was irregular on seven grounds.

“Six, the claimant being precluded from benefiting from its own illegality,” said Kalembera. “And seven, the proceeding being frivolous, vexatious and abuse of court’s process. The claimant actions have been struck out. The claimant has been condemned in the attorney general’s costs. This is the ruling of the court.”

Attorney General Nyirenda, who is also the defense lawyer in the case, said the ruling was not a surprise.

“This is what we expected,” said Nyirenda. “From [the] word go we said that it’s a hopeless case, so I am happy that I am vindicated.”

Public reaction to the closely followed case has been swift.  Rhoda Chigalu, a resident of Ndirande Township in Blantyre, says the judge has saved the country from spending a lot of money on the case.

“And I applaud the court because the DPP should not take Malawians for granted. And this is the small country,” said Chigalu. “Why do we have to be doing elections now again. And I think the court is standing for the people, protecting Malawians who pay taxes”

However, political analyst George Phiri says both sides could have saved time by addressing the issue without involving the court.

“The hiring of commissioners and firing of commissioners is a process, especially on the appointment, it’s a process,” said Phiri. “And the process went through well. Why didn’t they object to the appointment right at the time of the appointment and not through the court, just like it has happened?”

Charles Mhango is the lead lawyer for the DPP.  He says the party will decide whether to appeal the judgment after going through the detailed judgment document. 

“At the moment, the only thing that I can say is that yes, our client’s case has been dismissed, and we are going to consult with our client because we want to read through, reflect on a sober manner on the issues they have raised,” said Mhango.

The court says it will release a detailed judgment on December 30.

The DPP petitioned the high court in June to nullify results of last year’s rerun presidential election, and the court had been considering the case since September.

The party’s court challenge came soon after the high court quashed the appointment of four DPP commissioners, saying their appointment was invalid and unconstitutional.

The party also wanted the court to invalidate the rerun election because it was managed by commissioners who it says were wrongly appointed.

Former president Peter Mutharika appointed commissioners Jean Mathanga, Linda Kunje, Steven Duwa and Arthur Nanthuru during the 2020 re-run presidential elections.

DPP lawyers argue that Malawi’s Constitution does not recognize an election that was presided over by undeserving commissioners.

During a preliminary hearing on the case in September, however, Attorney General and government defense lawyer Nyirenda, asked the court to dismiss the case, saying it lacked merit.

Nyirenda accused the DPP of trying to benefit from the mistake it made by wrongly appointing its own commissioners. He said the DPP cannot be rewarded for its own irregularities.

He also argued the election result challenge should have been filed by the candidate, Peter Mutharika, who represented the party in the presidential election, and not by the party itself.

 
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Britain, Germany and Italy Detect Omicron Coronavirus Variant Cases

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Britain, Germany and Italy detected cases of the new omicron coronavirus variant Saturday, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new steps to contain the virus, while more nations imposed restrictions on travel from southern Africa.

 

The discovery of the variant has sparked global concern, a wave of travel bans or curbs and a sell-off on financial markets on Friday as investors worried that omicron could stall a global recovery from the nearly two-year pandemic.  

 

The two linked cases of the new variant detected in Britain were connected to travel to southern Africa, British Health Minister Sajid Javid said.

 

Speaking later, Johnson laid out measures that included stricter testing rules for people arriving in the country but that stopped short of curbs on social activity other than requiring mask wearing in some settings.

 

“We will require anyone who enters the UK to take a PCR test by the end of the second day after their arrival and to self-isolate until they have a negative result,” Johnson told a news conference.

People who had come into contact with people testing positive for a suspected case of omicron would have to self-isolate for 10 days and the government would tighten up the rules on wearing face coverings, Johnson said, adding the steps would be reviewed in three weeks.

 

The health ministry in the German state of Bavaria also announced two confirmed cases of the variant. The two people entered Germany at Munich airport on November 24, before Germany designated South Africa as a virus-variant area, and were now isolating, said the ministry, indicating without stating explicitly that the people had traveled from South Africa.  

 

In Italy, the National Health Institute said a case of the new variant had been detected in Milan in a person coming from Mozambique.

 

Czech health authorities also said they were examining a suspected case of the variant in a person who spent time in Namibia.

 

Omicron, dubbed a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization, is potentially more contagious than previous variants of the disease, although experts do not know yet if it will cause more or less severe COVID-19 compared to other strains.

 

England’s Chief Medical Officer, Chris Witty, said at the same news conference as Johnson that there was still much uncertainty around omicron, but “there is a reasonable chance that at least there will be some degree of vaccine escape with this variant.”

 

The variant was first discovered in South Africa and had also since been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.

 

Flights to Amsterdam

 

Dutch authorities said that 61 out of about 600 people who arrived in Amsterdam on two flights Friday from South Africa had tested positive  for the coronavirus. Health authorities were carrying out further tests to see if those cases involved the new variant.

One passenger who arrived Friday from South Africa, Dutch photographer Paula Zimmerman, said she tested negative but was anxious for the days to come.

 

“I’ve been told that they expect that a lot more people will test positive after five days. It’s a little scary the idea that you’ve been in a plane with a lot of people who tested positive,” she said.

 

Financial markets plunged on Friday, especially stocks of airlines and others in the travel sector, as investors worried the variant could cause another surge in the pandemic. Oil prices tumbled by about $10 a barrel.

 

It could take weeks for scientists to fully understand the variant’s mutations and whether existing vaccines and treatments are effective against it.

 

 Travel Curbs

 

Although epidemiologists say travel curbs may be too late to stop omicron from circulating globally, many countries around the world – including the United States, Brazil, Canada and European Union nations – announced travel bans or restrictions Friday on southern Africa.

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and State Department added Saturday to Washington’s previously announced travel restrictions, advising against travel to eight southern African countries.

 

Also Saturday, Australia said it would ban non-citizens who have been in nine southern African countries from entering and will require supervised 14-day quarantines for Australian citizens returning from there.

 

Japan said it would extend its tightened border controls to three more African countries after imposing curbs Friday on travel from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Lesotho.

 

Britain also said it was expanding its “red list” to put travel curbs on more southern Africa countries, while South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Oman, Kuwait and Hungary announced travel restrictions on southern African nations.

 

South Africa is worried that the curbs will hurt tourism and other sectors of its economy, the foreign ministry said on Saturday, adding the government is engaging with countries that have imposed travel bans to persuade them to reconsider.

 

Omicron has emerged as many countries in Europe are already battling a surge in COVID-19 infections, and some have re-introduced restrictions on social activity to try to stop the spread. Austria and Slovakia have entered lockdowns.

 

Vaccinations

 

The new variant has also thrown a spotlight on disparities in how far the world’s population is vaccinated. Even as many developed countries are giving third-dose boosters, less than 7% of people in low-income countries have received their first COVID-19 shot, according to medical and human rights groups.  

 

Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Vaccine Alliance that with the WHO co-leads the COVAX initiative to push for equitable distribution of vaccines, said this was essential to ward off the emergence of more coronavirus variants.

 

While we still need to know more about omicron, we do know that as long as large portions of the world’s population are unvaccinated, variants will continue to appear, and the pandemic will continue to be prolonged,” he said in a statement to Reuters.

 

“We will only prevent variants from emerging if we are able to protect all of the world’s population, not just the wealthy parts.”

 
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French Convoy Faces New Protests Crossing Into Niger From Burkina Faso

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Protesters in Niger blocked a French military convoy  Saturday shortly after it crossed the border from Burkina Faso, where it had been stuck for a week due to demonstrations against the former colonial ruler there, France’s army said.

 

French soldiers and Nigerien military police fired warning shots to prevent protesters from approaching their vehicles, before the convoy was able to continue on its way toward the capital Niamey, said army spokesperson Colonel Pascal Ianni.  

 

Anger about France’s military presence in its former colonies has been rising in Niger, Burkina Faso and other countries in West Africa’s Sahel region, where France has thousands of troops to fight local affiliates of al-Qaida and Islamic State.

 

Last weekend, hundreds of people in the Burkinabe city of Kaya blocked French armored vehicles and logistics trucks, protesting against the failure of French troops to stop escalating violence by Islamist militants.

 

The convoy, which is on its way from Ivory Coast to northern Mali, was finally able to leave Burkina Faso on Friday. It ran into new protests less than 30 kilometers across the border in western Niger town of Tera, where it had stopped to spend the night, Ianni told Reuters.

 

“Protesters tried to pillage and seize the trucks,” Ianni said. “There were warning shots by the Nigerien gendarmes and French soldiers.”

 

Video shared by a local official showed the protesters, mostly young men, shouting “Down with France!” as black smoke rose from a burning barricade.

 

France intervened in Mali in 2013 to beat back militants who had seized the desert north, before deploying soldiers across the Sahel. While it has killed many top jihadist leaders, violence has continued to intensify and spread in the region.

 

In the demonstrations in Burkina Faso and elsewhere, protesters have cited conspiracy theories that France is secretly supporting the militants to justify its continued military presence in its former colonies.

 
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Kurdish Woman Is First Channel Victim to Be Named: BBC

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A Kurdish woman from northern Iraq, who was among 27 migrants who died trying to cross the Channel between France and Britain this week, has become the first victim to be named by British media.

 

Their dinghy deflated as they made a perilous crossing Wednesday of the English Channel, the worst tragedy on record in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

 

Maryam Nuri Mohamed Amin, 24, made the journey in order to see her fiance, the BBC reported, citing family members and a close friend.

 

“When she left Kurdistan, she was very happy, she couldn’t believe that she was going to meet [him],” the woman’s friend Imann Hassan was quoted as saying by the British broadcaster, which said her fiance already lived in Britain.

 

“She tried to live a better life, she chose the UK, but she died,” Hassan added.

 

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the information. The tragedy has further strained ties between France and Britain, with French President Emmanuel Macron telling Britain Friday it needed to “get serious” or remain locked out of discussions over how to curb the flow of migrants across the Channel.

 
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Blinken calls for speedy negotiations over Ethiopia military escalation

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Blinken is greatly concerned about Ethiopia’s military escalation and called for urgent negotiations over the crisis, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said.

The comments came hours after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appeared on the frontline with the national army.

“Secretary Blinken expressed grave concern about worrying signs of military escalation in Ethiopia and emphasized the need to urgently move to negotiations,” Ned Price said in a statement late on Friday.

Price released the statement after a phone call between Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and Blinken.

On Friday, Ethiopia’s state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting reported that Abiy was on the frontline with the army fighting rebellious Tigrayan forces in the northeastern Afar region. Abiy posted the same video on his Twitter account.

Abiy’s government has been fighting Tigrayan forces for more than a year, in a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions in Africa’s second-most populous nation.
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Omar Seeks Action Over House Colleague’s Remarks on Muslims

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Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota called Friday for House leaders to take “appropriate action” against Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert for using anti-Muslim language in describing a recent encounter she had with Omar at the U.S. Capitol.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders demanded Boebert retract her comments.

According to a video clip posted by a Twitter account called PatriotTakes, Boebert made the remarks this holiday break. In it, she says she and a staffer were taking a Capitol elevator when she saw an alarmed Capitol police officer running toward them. She said she turned to her left and spotted Omar standing beside them.

“Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine,” Boebert recalled saying, drawing laughs from her audience. “And I said, ‘Oh look, the jihad squad decided to show up for work today.’”

Omar publicly urged Pelosi and GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to discipline Boebert.

“Saying I am a suicide bomber is no laughing matter,” Omar tweeted. “@GOPLeader and @SpeakerPelosi need to take appropriate action, normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all Muslims. Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in Congress.”

Boebert has become a partisan lightning rod during her first term in Congress, insisting on her right to bring a gun onto the floor of the House, voting to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory and maintaining a fiery presence on social media in which she insists Biden and Democrats are leading the country to socialism.

Pelosi and other top House Democrats called on Boebert in a statement later Friday to “fully retract these comments and refrain from making similar ones going forward.” They also demanded that Republican leaders “to address this priority with the Congresswoman and to finally take real action to confront racism.”

Omar said Thursday that Boebert had fabricated the story.

“Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up,” Omar tweeted. “Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.”

Boebert tweeted earlier Friday that “I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar. I have reached out to her office to speak with her directly. There are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction.”

The offices of McCarthy didn’t immediately respond to email and telephone requests for comment late Friday. Telephone calls and emails seeking comment from Boebert and Omar also weren’t immediately returned.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Boebert’s remarks in a statement urging McCarthy and other Republican leaders to repudiate Boebert’s remarks.

It said Boebert’s allusion to a backpack is an “Islamophobic smear that all Muslims are terrorists,” as well as her use of the term “jihad squad.”

Omar and Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib sometimes refer to themselves as “the squad.” 

 
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South African Scientists Brace for Wave Propelled by Omicron

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As the world grapples with the emergence of the new highly transmissible variant of COVID-19, worried scientists in South Africa — where omicron was first identified — are scrambling to combat its lightning spread across the country.

In the space of two weeks, the omicron variant has sent South Africa from a period of low transmission to rapid growth of new confirmed cases. The country’s numbers are still relatively low, with 2,828 new confirmed cases recorded Friday, but omicron’s speed in infecting young South Africans has alarmed health professionals.

“We’re seeing a marked change in the demographic profile of patients with COVID-19,” Rudo Mathivha, head of the intensive care unit at Soweto’s Baragwanath Hospital, told an online press briefing.

“Young people, in their 20s to just over their late 30s, are coming in with moderate to severe disease, some needing intensive care. About 65% are not vaccinated and most of the rest are only half-vaccinated,” said Mathivha. “I’m worried that as the numbers go up, the public health care facilities will become overwhelmed.”

She said urgent preparations are needed to enable public hospitals to cope with a potential large influx of patients needing intensive care.

“We know we have a new variant,” said Mathivha. “The worst-case scenario is that it hits us like delta … we need to have critical care beds ready.”

What looked like a cluster infection among some university students in Pretoria ballooned into hundreds of new cases and then thousands, first in the capital city and then to nearby Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city.

Studying the surge, scientists identified the new variant that diagnostic tests indicate is likely responsible for as many as 90% of the new cases, according to South Africa’s health officials. Early studies show that it has a reproduction rate of 2 — meaning that every person infected by it is likely to spread it to two other people.

The new variant has a high number of mutations that appear to make it more transmissible and help it evade immune responses. The World Health Organization looked at the data on Friday and named the variant omicron, under its system of using Greek letters, calling it a highly transmissible variant of concern.

“It’s a huge concern. We all are terribly concerned about this virus,” Professor Willem Hanekom, director of the Africa Health Research Institute, told The Associated Press.

“This variant is mostly in Gauteng province, the Johannesburg area of South Africa. But we’ve got clues from diagnostic tests … that suggest that this variant is already all over South Africa,” said Hanekom, who is also co-chair of the South African COVID Variant Research Consortium.

“The scientific reaction from within South Africa is that we need to learn as much as soon as possible. We know precious little,” he said. “For example, we do not know how virulent this virus is, which means how bad is this disease that it causes?”

A key factor is vaccination. The new variant appears to be spreading most quickly among those who are unvaccinated. Currently, only about 40% of adult South Africans are vaccinated, and the number is much lower among those in the 20- to 40-year-old age group.

South Africa has nearly 20 million doses of vaccines — made by Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson — but the numbers of people getting vaccines is about 120,000 per day, far below the government’s target of 300,000 per day.

As scientists try to learn more about omicron, the people of South Africa can take measures to protect themselves against it, said Hanekom.

“This is a unique opportunity. There’s still time for people who did not get vaccinated to go and get the vaccine, and that will provide some protection, we believe, against this infection, especially protection against severe infection, severe disease and death,” he said. “So I would call on people to vaccinate if they can.”

Some ordinary South Africans have more mundane concerns about the new variant.

“We’ve seen increasing numbers of COVID-19, so I’ve been worried about more restrictions,” said Tebogo Letlapa, in Daveyton, eastern Johannesburg. “I’m especially worried about closing of alcohol sales because it’s almost festive season now.” 

 
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US Shoppers Return for ‘Black Friday,’ But Many Have Already Bought

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Americans returned to stores for the “Black Friday” kickoff of the holiday shopping season, but online data shows that consumers have been spending big for weeks amid worries over shortages.

The day after the U.S. Thanksgiving celebration is the traditional start to the holiday shopping season, and normally sees Americans line up outside stores before they open to clinch deals on popular items.

After the pandemic kept crowds away last year, many shoppers were out in force Friday, a sign of how COVID-19 vaccines have returned life in the United States to something closer to normal.

“I just wanted to make sure that this Christmas was a good Christmas for all my friends and family,” said a masked Sylvia Gonzalez as she waited in line outside the jewelry chain Pandora in New York.

But even before retailers opened their doors early Friday morning, e-commerce shoppers in the United States had already spent $76 billion since early November, up more than 20% from the year-ago period, according to data from software company Adobe, which has projected somewhat fewer promotions this year in light of rising costs.

The jump has added to companies’ optimism about the season, suggesting some shoppers heeded calls from businesses to purchase items early this year after port backlogs and other logistics problems sparked worries that popular goods would be in short supply.

Toys led the buying spree, with Adobe pointing to actions by “anxious parents increasingly aware of supply chain challenges.”

The National Retail Federation projects overall spending could rise as much as 10.5% to $859 billion.

Nonetheless, out-of-stock listings online are up 261% compared with two years ago, according to Adobe.

Item in hand

Retailers and market watchers are broadly optimistic about the holiday shopping season in light of low unemployment and relatively strong household finances due in part to pandemic stimulus bills enacted by the government.

Countering those positive trends are lingering supply chain problems, spiking consumer prices that have affected household staples such as food and fuel, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still far from over.

On Friday, stock markets worldwide tumbled on worries that the latest strain of the virus found in South Africa could derail the global recovery.

Reminders of the pandemic were visible throughout shopping districts in the New York borough of Manhattan.

Signs at Macy’s reminded customers to keep 2 meters apart, and pop-up COVID-19 testing sites were positioned outside stores where mostly masked crowds were large, but not as sizeable as before the pandemic.

“In 2018, it was more like the New York you heard of,” said German tourist Ilke Zienteck. “Now, it’s a little bit like a small town.”

Still, the hum of customers inside shops suggested that many had adjusted to the “new normal” of pandemic living.

There were obvious gaps at some stores. At a Best Buy near Grand Central Station, a shelf of Apple accessories was almost completely empty, while the camera bags section had few remaining offerings.

Other chains like Victoria’s Secret and Foot Locker have acknowledged shortages of some choice products.

Taylor Schreiner, a digital research expert at Adobe, expects more consumers to order online and pay for expedited shipping, or pick up goods at stores.

“It’s not just because people want it quickly,” he said in an interview. “Having the item in hand is the surest way to have the gift for the person.”

January glut?

An emerging worry in the industry is that retailers will be stuck with goods originally intended for the holidays but that don’t arrive until January.

Macy’s is generally canceling orders for items with a Christmas motif but plans to keep other items if they are cold-weather-oriented and could sell later in the winter, executives said earlier this month.

Gap Chief Financial Officer Katrina O’Connell said the apparel chain was planning to hold some items for next winter.

“If we think items are going to be too late for the holiday season, we won’t put them in stores or online and have them generate markdowns,” she said earlier this week on a conference call with Wall Street analysts. “We’ll hold them for next year.”

Gap has been one of the companies hardest hit by supply chain problems due to lengthy factory shutdowns in Vietnam caused by the country’s COVID-19 restrictions, which contributed to a loss of some $300 million in sales in the most recent quarter. 

 
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Iraqi Kurds Cite Work, Graft as Reasons that Belarus Beckons

Posted on by SeeEU

The smuggler had said the car would come in 10 minutes, but Zaid Ramadan had been waiting in the dense forest straddling the Poland-Belarus border for three hours, desperate for signs of headlights in the mist – and a new life in Europe.

His pregnant wife Delin shivered under a blanket. She had been against leaving their life in Dohuk, a mountainous province in the northern Kurdish-run region of Iraq. The journey was perilous, expensive and the change too drastic, she told him.

“But I convinced her to leave. In Dohuk, we can’t live a real life; there is corruption, no work, repression,” the 23-year-old said.

The couple were among a disproportionate number of Iraqi migrants, most of them from Iraq’s Kurdish region, who chose to sell their homes, cars and other belongings to pay off smugglers with the hope of reaching the European Union from the Belarusian capital of Minsk — a curious statistic for an oil-rich region seen as the most stable in all of Iraq. But rising unemployment, endemic corruption and a recent economic crisis that slashed state salaries have undermined faith in a decent future for their autonomous region and kindled the desire in many to leave.

Iraqi Kurdistan is co-ruled by a two-party duopoly under two families that carved the region into zones of control – the Barzanis in Irbil and Dohuk, and the Talabanis in Sulaymaniyah. This arrangement created relative security and prosperity, compared with the rest of Iraq, but it has been accompanied by nepotism and growing repression. Those downsides prompted would-be migrants to leave. Many were school dropouts, certain an education would not guarantee them work. Others were government employees and their families, no longer able to survive amid salary cuts.

Of the 430 Iraqis who returned from Minsk on a repatriation flight last week, 390 disembarked in the Kurdish region. Among them were Zaid and Delin Ramadan, now back living with Zaid’s parents in Dohuk.

Like thousands of others, they had been lured to the European Union’s doorstep by easy visas offered by Belarus. The EU has accused Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of using asylum-seekers to retaliate for sanctions imposed after he claimed victory in a disputed 2020 election.

The migrants flocked to Belarus in hopes of getting into the EU. Most were from war-scarred Iraq and Syria. Smuggling networks appeared to be particularly efficient in Iraq’s Kurdish area, where an economic crisis triggered by a crash in oil prices rendered the regional government insolvent.

Oil prices have rebounded but the region relies on budget transfers from Iraq’s federal government to pay public sector salaries. The payments have been intermittent because of disputes over the Kurdish region’s independent oil export policy.

Thousands of students in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah have taken to the streets this week to protest lack of funding from the Kurdistan government. Dozens gathered in front of the KRG Ministry of Higher Education to demand stipend payments frozen for eight years.

Kurdish officials said Iraqi Kurds were lured to Belarus by traffickers with false promises of an easy journey. “This isn’t a migrant issue but a criminal human trafficking issue,” tweeted Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Migrants said they left by their own accord, desperate for a life with the dignity they couldn’t find at home, and were not coerced by smugglers.

No work

Ramadan had dropped out of school in the 9th grade. At first his father, a teacher, and mother, a nurse, were against it. But they relented when Ramadan countered that his two older sisters were trained dentists in Dohuk and still unemployed.

He was never able to secure steady work. Since 2013, Ramadan has been a valet, waiter, construction worker and taxi driver. He never made more than $200 a month, barely enough for rent. In 2019 he volunteered as an ambulance driver, hoping in vain it would turn into a paid job.

The government is the main employer in the Kurdish region. Last year’s austerity measures, including salary cuts of up to 21%, spurred protests and deepened disenchantment with the ruling class. The cutbacks were reversed in July, but the impact is still felt.

Young men often look to the peshmerga, the Kurdish branch of the Iraqi armed forces, for work. Ramadan tried but said he didn’t have the right connections.

Iraqi Kurds say repressive policies of the ruling Kurdish elite are also driving their departure.

Over the last year, journalists, human rights activists and protesters who questioned or criticized actions by Kurdish authorities have faced intimidation, threats and harassment as well as arbitrary arrest, according to reports by the UN and Human Rights Watch. The Kurdish government has rejected allegations of systematic stifling of dissent. KRG officials say nepotism is a product of individuals abusing their power.

Ramadan said in the current repressive environment, he was too scared to speak up.

In October, after hearing about the Belarus route, Ramadan deposited $10,000 at a local money exchange office in Dohuk that had connections with a smuggler.

He and his wife were expecting their first baby and he was determined to start over in Germany.

Back where he started

As dawn broke, the car that would supposedly take them to Germany hadn’t arrived, and Ramadan grew concerned.

He and his wife had walked along with 12 others through the soggy woods, crossing into Poland in search of a GPS point marked by the smuggler. Hours passed.

When the vehicle finally arrived, it was a minibus, not the small car they expected. Ramadan knew a larger vehicle would raise the suspicion of Polish authorities but the migrants got in anyway, unable to withstand another day of cold.

A few kilometers down the road, they heard sirens. The minibus and his dreams came to a halt.

Ramadan and his wife, now five months pregnant, returned to Dohuk on last week’s repatriation flight, his dream of an escape dashed.

“What can I say? My heart is broken. I am back where I started,” he said.

‘ How can I live in Kurdistan?’

Many other Iraqi asylum-seekers have decided to remain in Belarus, hoping they can somehow still cross into Poland. About 2,000 people are currently staying at a warehouse facility near the border.

Miran Abbas, 23, once a day laborer and former barbershop assistant, is among them.

His father, Abbas Abdulrahman, spoke to him via video call this week from the family home in Sulaymaniyah province. “How’s it going?” he asked the hollow-eyed face on the screen.

Abbas said food was running low and that Belarusian authorities had poured cold water over them to push them to cross into Poland.

But he won’t return.

“How can I live in Kurdistan? I prefer to stay here even if they disrespect me thousands of times,” he said.

He could not secure work in Kurdistan, his mother Shukriyeh Qadir said.

“It was the time for him to get married, but he couldn’t afford it. He wanted to buy a car, but he couldn’t afford that either. He wanted to build a family and settle down in a house, but that was not possible,” she said.

“So, he left because of his sufferings.”
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‘They Become Our Family’: US Farming Couple Rescues Afghans 

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. soldiers called them “Caroline’ guys.” They transformed farms in a war zone – risking their lives for the program she built, sharing her belief that something as simple as apple trees could change the world. 

The university-educated Afghans helped turn land in an overgrazed, drought-stricken and impoverished region in eastern Afghanistan into verdant gardens and orchards that still feed local families today. 

In the process, the 12 agricultural specialists, all traditional Afghan men, formed a deep, unexpected bond with their boss, an American woman who worked as a U.S. Department of Agriculture adviser in the region for two years. 

Now Caroline Clarin is trying to save them one by one, doing it all from the 1910 Minnesota farmhouse she shares with her wife, drawing from retirement funds to help a group of men who share her love of farming. 

Clarin has helped get five of her former employees and their families into the U.S. since 2017, while her wife has helped them rebuild their lives in America. 

 

Since the Taliban seized power in August, texts from those remaining have grown more urgent and Clarin says she can “feel the panic increasing” as winter approaches and food shortages grow. She has stepped up her efforts, working endless hours, diligently tracking their visa applications. She calls senators to apply pressure so they don’t languish like the thousands of other visa applications in the backlogged system for Afghans who supported the U.S. government during the long war. 

She’ driven by fear her team will be killed by the Taliban, though the new government has promised not to retaliate against Afghans who helped the U.S.. She also wants to give them a future. 

Since U.S. forces withdrew, more than 70,000 Afghans have come to the United States and thousands are languishing at U.S. military bases as resettlement agencies struggle to keep up. 

Clarin knows she cannot save everyone, but she’ determined to help those she can. 

After she left Afghanistan in 2011, she was consumed by anger over her program being gutted as the U.S. government changed its priorities. 

“When I got on the plane, it was like leaving my family on the helipad,” she said. “I felt like I deserted them.” 

The most recent of her friends to escape was Ihsanullah Patan, a horticulturist who waited seven years for a special immigrant visa. After he texted her that two of his close friends had just been killed, Clarin withdrew $6,000 from a retirement fund to get him and his family on a commercial flight to Minnesota before the Taliban took control of the country this summer. 

When Clarin picked them up at the airport in Minneapolis at midnight for the three-hour drive back to Fergus Falls, she was consumed with joy. 

“It was like my son came home,” she said. 

Patan arrived in Minnesota with saffron, Afghan almonds, and 5 kilos (11 pounds) of Afghan green tea to share. He also gave Clarin and her wife, Sheril Raymond, seeds of Afghanistan’ tender leeks for their garden. 

He was the first member to join Clarin’ team after she was sent to Paktika province. A confident, young university graduate, Patan spelled out what was needed in the region. It would become the basis of her program: Seeds, trees and the skills to plant gardens and orchards. 

Patan considers Clarin and her wife family. His three sons and daughter call them their “aunties.” 

In fact, he’ decided to live in nearby Fergus Falls, a town of 14,000, instead of moving to a larger city with an Afghan transplant community. 

Surrounded by farmland stretching to the North Dakota border, the town’ skyline is dominated by grain elevators and the spires of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, a reflection of the region’ Scandinavian roots. 

The only other Afghan family in town is his cousin’. Sami Massoodi, who has a degree in livestock management, also worked for Clarin’ team in Afghanistan and arrived in 2017. He and his family lived on their farm before they got established in Fergus Falls. 

“In Fergus Falls, they have really good people, really friendly people,” Patan said as he drives his minivan down the tree-lined streets to pick up his 5-year-old daughter at a Head Start program. 

It is a place where neighbors pay unannounced visits to say “hi” and people greet the postmaster by name. It is also staunchly Republican. Fergus Falls is the county seat of Otter Tail County, which voted twice for former President Donald Trump. 

But people in town say friendships and family take precedence over political views, and there is broad empathy for the struggle of immigrants since many people’ parents, grandparents or great grandparents came from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. 

 

Only months after they arrived, the Patan family already feels at home in large part because of Raymond. 

She helped enroll their kids in school, find a dentist for 9-year-old Sala’ infected tooth, and sign Patan up for car insurance, something that was new for the 35-year-old. 

She lined up English classes and state and federal services for new immigrants. She drove Patan an hour to the nearest testing site for a driver’ license. After he failed twice because his English was not proficient enough, he asked if there was a test in his native Pashto language, like in Virginia and California. There wasn’t. So Raymond found a site, another hour away, that would allow him to review his errors. On his third try, he passed. 

Clarin has tracked down a sheep on craigslist for Eid, while Raymond watched YouTube videos on how to slaughter livestock according to halal principles, since the closest halal butcher is an hour away in Fargo, North Dakota. 

For Patan, they have been a comfort in a strange place. 

“When we are going to their house, we feel like we went to Afghanistan and we are going to meet our close relatives,” he said. 

He longs for his homeland, the family festivities. Patan’ wife makes their traditional dishes still, like Bolani Afghani, a fried, vegetable-filled flatbread that Clarin enjoyed with him in Afghanistan. 

Over there, Patan and her team were the ones helping her feel at home. 

It was the longest she and Raymond had been apart since they started dating in 1988. 

Raymond, who cares for the chickens, pigs and other animals on their farm, would do video calls often, staying online even after Clarin had fallen asleep. 

Two years after Clarin returned, they married in August 2013 when same-sex marriage became legal in Minnesota. 

Homosexuality is still widely seen as taboo and indecent in Afghanistan, where same-sex relations are illegal. 

Yet, none of the Afghan families have asked about their marriage or expressed judgment, the couple said. 

Patan calls them his “sisters.” 

“We have a lot of respect for them,” he said.

 

Both Clarin and Patan speak passionately about farming, describing in detail how to get a good apple crop and ward off disease. 

Clarin arranged for the U.S. military to take her team in convoys to remote areas to train farmers, empowering Afghans to teach each other skills. They lined canals to ensure clean water. They worked with farmers to plant trees and build stone barriers to control flooding. They distributed seeds to 1,200 families, who have since shared seeds with more people. 

The program trained about 5,000 farmers in Paktika from 2009 to 2011. They provided growers hoop-houses, apple trees, pruning equipment and small grants. They taught farmers tangible solutions, including using buckets with drip lines to irrigate gardens and conserve water. 

The Taliban tried to sabotage the trust they built with farmers, Clarin said. Once, an explosive blew up in a red bucket like the ones they used for irrigation. 

Patan has stayed in contact with some of the farmers in Paktika and proudly shows photos on his iPhone of the tiny stems he distributed that are now trees several feet tall. One farmer texted him to say his harvest is feeding his family as millions of others in the country face severe hunger. 

That offers some solace after seeing his homeland fall to the Taliban. It feels good he said to know his work left something lasting and that “the people can still benefit from it. We educated one generation and those fathers will tell it to their sons.” 

Patan misses his career back in Afghanistan. Most U.S. employers do not recognize degrees from Afghan universities so he plans to return to school to earn a U.S. degree. For now, he is training to be a commercial truck driver, a field flush with opportunities: There were 21 job openings in the area when he started his classes this month. 

He wants a local truck route to stay close to home, but it will still be challenging for his family. His wife, Sediqa, does not speak English, nor does she know how to read or write, and does not feel comfortable going out by herself. 

She also does not drive. 

When she started learning English online, she was at “ground zero,” said her teacher, Sara Sundberg at Minnesota State Community and Technical College. 

“When she came, she didn’t know what to do with a pencil. We had to show her. She held it kind of like a Henna tube,” said Sundberg, holding together her thumb and index finger tightly at the tip as if squeezing something. 

Five months later, her handwriting is “meticulous,” and her pronunciation is excellent, Sundberg said. She’ even learning to say Minnesota with the long “oooo.” 

“I’m teaching her how to communicate with the community and I want people to understand her,” Sundberg said. “Everything is brand new for her.” 

Sediqa is slowly gaining confidence in speaking with her teacher, but with others she is silent, smiling and staying back with her children. 

Everything is new for their children, too. Patan’ sons befriended a neighbor boy and jumped for the first time on a trampoline. 

His oldest son, Maiwan, decorated his first pumpkin, while his two younger sons wore their traditional Afghan clothes because their teachers told them that on the Friday before Halloween the kids could “dress up,” something that was lost in translation but went unnoticed as the other kids excitedly showed them their costumes. 

They look forward to the weekends with their “aunties” at the farm. 

On a warm October Saturday, Clarin jogged next to 12-year-old Maiwan driving a small tractor as Ali and his 9-year-old brother, Sala, dug in the dirt for worms with their cousins, giggling and chatting incessantly in Pashto. 

“They are kinda free,” Patan says of his kids now, recalling how bomb blasts in Kabul caused them to miss school more than once. 

They still carry the trauma. When fireworks were shot off for Fourth of July this summer, Patan called his cousin in a panic and asked if Fergus Falls was being bombed.

 

Clarin has vowed to get all her guys out. 

Since the Taliban took control of the country in August, she has been starting most days around 3 a.m. when she quietly makes her way to her basement office, hours before she heads to her job in Fergus Falls as a U.S. Department of Agriculture wetlands restoration engineer. 

Stacks of passport photos, recommendation letters, visa applications and other paperwork cover the tables, her desk and the top of a freezer. Across the hall, Raymond has prepared a guest room for the next Afghan family they get out. 

Besides the guys from her program still in Afghanistan, she is aiding other Afghans, including several women. “Why US government did this to us? Why did they leave us behind?,” one texts. Desperate pleas for help from more Afghans keep popping up in her phone as word spreads of her efforts. 

“My sister said, ‘You got your own little Underground Railroad in the basement,'” Clarin said. 

So far, the couple has spent just under $10,000 since May. That includes the airfare for the Patan family, a contribution toward the family’ used minivan, and fees for five applications for humanitarian parole for families still in Afghanistan. 

Raymond keeps the tally in a notebook. 

“It does make me a little nervous because we’ve lived on the edge for so long,” said 57-year-old Raymond, who sews her dresses, knits hats, and bakes bread. 

“So I work another year before retiring,” Clarin, 55, answers with a shrug. 

Two other Afghan families Clarin helped chose to settle in Austin, Texas, and San Diego, partly because in both places there are mosques, halal butcher shops and established Afghan communities. None of that exists in Fergus Falls. They also wanted to avoid Minnesota’ winters where wind chill temperatures a few years ago dropped to as low as 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, (-45 degrees Celsius), something Patan was shocked to learn. 

But Patan knows there are drawbacks to cities. Another former member of Clarin’ team who moved to California recently returned to Minnesota after complaining about the crime in Sacramento. They now live about an hour away but close to Fargo, where there is a mosque. 

Patan, who speaks Dari and Pashto, translates documents for Clarin for the visa applications. He worries about his former colleagues, who remain his close friends.

“I hope that one day they can also come here and we will make a big Afghan kind-of-family over here,” he said. “All of them want to come here to Fergus.” 

Raymond worries more than Clarin about money, and she finds the government fee of $575 per application for humanitarian parole outrageous. 

But she also acknowledges they cannot step back now. 

“When we bring in a family, they become our family,” she said. 
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Tourists Rush to South Africa Airport After Travel Bans Issued

Posted on by SeeAF

Anxious-looking travelers thronged Johannesburg international airport and stood in long queues on Friday, desperate to squeeze onto the last flights to countries that had just shut their doors to South Africa.

Many cut short their holidays, rushing back from safaris and vineyards when Britain announced late Thursday night that all flights from South Africa and its neighbors would be banned the following day.

A flurry of nations — including the United States, Canada and several European countries — have followed suit, concerned about the discovery of a new coronavirus variant, renamed omicron, with several mutations fueling an infection resurgence in South Africa.

United Kingdom citizen Toby Reid, a 24-year-old trader in London, was camping on Cape Town’s Table Mountain with his girlfriend when the ban was announced.

“At about 5:30 a.m., we got up to see if we could catch the sunrise, and at six in the morning, we found out that there was still a possibility to get back,” he told AFP while standing in line for check-in at the Johannesburg airport just hours later.

The couple managed to grab the last two seats on an evening flight to Frankfurt, Germany.

Others who were not so lucky discussed options at ticket counters, eyes widening at proposed prices and convoluted itineraries.

“There should have been more notice,” muttered Christian Good, 50, returning to Devon, England, via Frankfurt with his husband after a beach holiday.

By chance, the pair had originally planned to return on that flight, meaning they would arrive home before mandatory hotel quarantine begins on Sunday — a requirement for citizens returning from “red list” countries.

“It’s ridiculous. We will always be having new variants,” his husband, David, exclaimed, passports in hand.

“South Africa found it, but it’s probably all over the world already,” he told AFP.

The variant has so far been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.

‘Tired of this’

At the airport, red “canceled” signs flashed next to London-bound flights listed on the departures board.

Other destinations were still in limbo.

A KLM flight to Amsterdam was delayed by several hours after passengers were suddenly compelled to produce negative COVID-19 results.

Rapid PCR tests were offered at the airport, with results guaranteed in two hours, but at a cost of $86, compared with the standard fee of around $52 for results delivered in roughly 12 hours.

An AFP correspondent observed Some African passport holders being told they would not be allowed to fly to Europe.

Earlier, travelers milled around a closed Air France check-in desk, waiting to find out whether an evening flight to Paris would take off as scheduled, just hours after France announced its own ban.

Among them were U.K. citizen Ruth Brown, 25, who lives in South Africa and had planned to return home for the first time since 2019 next week.

Britain kept South Africa on its red list until early October, meaning many of its citizens have been unable to travel back since the pandemic started because of the costly hotel quarantine.

They had only a few weeks of leeway before the status was revoked.

“We are tired of this situation,” said Brown, who spent the morning on the phone trying to change her flight.

“Apparently (this one) is full, but we are trying to see if we can still get seats,” she sighed.

Further down the line, Elke Hahn cradled a toddler.

She had traveled to South Africa with her partner to adopt the child and was desperate to get back to their home in Austria.

The child’s paperwork was only valid for a specific flight route that had since been changed.

“We will have to get another flight, but I don’t know how that will work,” she said. 
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Nigeria Designates Gunmen in Troubled North as Terrorists 

Posted on by SeeAF

Nigeria has designated armed groups blamed for hundreds of abductions and killings in northern areas as terrorist organizations, a major swing in response to a key security challenge facing Africa’s most populous country. 

The office of Nigeria’s attorney general, Abubakar Malami, said in a statement Friday that the designation was made by a court following an application by the federal government. The court made its decision Thursday. 

The decision will allow authorities to charge suspected members of the groups with terrorism-related offenses, which some believe will lead to a more effective crackdown on their activities. 

The Nigerian government argued in court documents that the groups’ activities should be considered terrorist acts as they “can lead to a breakdown of public order and safety and [pose] a threat to national security.” 

The groups mostly consist of young men from the Fulani ethnic group, who had traditionally worked as nomadic cattle herders and are caught up in a decades-long conflict with Hausa farming communities over access to water and grazing land. 

They often plunder villages in the northwest and central parts of the West African country, where they have killed thousands and have kidnapped hundreds of travelers and schoolchildren for ransom. The attacks have sometimes taken on religious dimensions. 

In many remote communities in northern Nigeria, the gunmen outnumber and outgun security forces. When troops deployed to respond to attacks end their operations and depart, the groups return. 

Some of the gunmen — who often operate in bands of more than 100, hiding out in abandoned forest reserves — have been joining forces with Islamic extremist rebels, security analysts and residents say.

Assaults on villages can often last hours. Last week more than 40 people were killed in the northwest Sokoto state in an attack that lasted through the night. 

In the first half of 2021, at least 2,500 people were killed in the northwest and central states, mostly as a result of such attacks, according to an analysis of media reports collated by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations.

The gunmen, often referred to in Nigeria as bandits, have also abducted about 1,400 children from their schools over the last year and more than 100 of them have yet to be released. Sixteen children have died in the attacks. 

The troubles in the northwest come in addition to the 10-year Islamic extremist insurgency in northeast Nigeria. 

Prosecution of the gunmen in the northwest is rare even when the military announces that dozens of them have been arrested. Umar Gwandu, a spokesperson for Nigeria’s attorney general, said that part of the challenge was that the groups had not been banned as terrorist organizations. 

“The security agencies can now lawfully declare war on the bandits,” he told The Associated Press on Friday.
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51 Presumed Dead in Russia Coal Mine Accident; ‘Miracle’ Survivor Found 

Posted on by SeeEU

Russian authorities on Friday released the names of 51 people presumed dead after a devastating methane explosion in a coal mine in Siberia, believed to be the deadliest since 2010.

The list with the names of 46 miners and five rescuers was published online by the government of the Kemerovo region in southwestern Siberia, where the mine is located. Authorities had initially reported 52 possible fatalities, but search teams on Friday found a survivor in what officials described as a miracle. 

A total of 285 miners were in the Listvyazhnaya mine at the time of an explosion on Thursday morning that quickly filled the mine with toxic smoke. A total 239 people were rescued shortly after the blast, and more than 60 sought medical assistance for an assortment of injuries.

Officials on Thursday confirmed 14 fatalities — 11 miners and three rescuers who perished while searching for others trapped in a remote section of the mine. Rescuers were forced to halt several hours into their search because of a buildup of methane and carbon monoxide gas.

Rescuer Alexander Zakovryashin was pulled out of the rubble Friday morning still conscious. He was hospitalized with moderate carbon monoxide poisoning, according to emergency officials.

“I can consider it a miracle,” acting Emergency Minister Alexander Chupriyan said.

Kemerovo Governor Sergei Tsivilyov admitted on Friday morning that finding other survivors was highly unlikely.

It was the deadliest mine accident in Russia since 2010, when two methane explosions and a fire killed 91 people at the Raspadskaya mine in the same Kemerovo region.

In 2016, 36 miners were killed in a series of methane explosions in a coal mine in Russia’s far north. In the wake of the incident, authorities analyzed the safety of the country’s 58 coal mines and declared 20 of them potentially unsafe. Media reports say the Listvyazhnaya mine wasn’t among them, however in 2004 a methane explosion in the mine killed 13 people.

Russia’s top independent news site, Meduza, reported that this year authorities suspended work in certain sections of the mine nine times and fined the mine more than 4 million rubles (roughly $53,000) for safety violations. 

Law enforcement officials also said Friday that miners had complained about the high level of methane in the mine. 

Regional officials have declared three days of mourning while Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe into potential safety violations. The director of the mine and two senior managers were detained. 

A separate criminal probe was launched Friday into allegations that state officials who inspected the mine earlier this month were negligent. 
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Ethiopia’s Abiy Vows to ‘Bury the Enemy’

Posted on by SeeAF

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed vowed Friday to “bury the enemy” in his first message from the battlefront, according to state media, as the U.N. warned the yearlong conflict has left millions short of food.

As Tigrayan rebels report major territorial gains, claiming this week to have seized a town 220 kilometers (135 miles) from Addis Ababa, international alarm over the escalating conflict has deepened, with foreign countries urging their citizens to leave.

State media reported Wednesday that Abiy, a former lieutenant colonel in the military, had arrived at the front line to lead a counteroffensive against the rebels, handing regular duties to his deputy.

In an interview shown Friday on the state-affiliated Oromia Broadcasting Corporation channel, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner said he was certain of achieving victory against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group.

“Until we bury the enemy … until Ethiopia’s independence is confirmed, we won’t reverse course,” he said.

He added that the military had secured control of Kassagita and planned to recapture Chifra district and Burka town in Afar region, which neighbors Tigray, the TPLF’s stronghold.

“The enemy doesn’t have the standing to compete with us. We will win,” he said.

The interview was broadcast hours after the government announced new rules Thursday against sharing information on battlefield outcomes that was not published by official channels, a move that could bring sanctions against journalists.

Hunger crisis

The war has exacted a huge humanitarian toll, with the U.N.’s World Food Program saying Friday that the number of people requiring food aid in the country’s north had surged to more than 9 million.

Hundreds of thousands are on the brink of famine as aid workers struggle to deliver urgently needed supplies to desperate populations in Tigray, Amhara and Afar.

The WFP said the situation had sharply deteriorated in recent months, with an estimated 9.4 million people facing hunger “as a direct result of ongoing conflict,” compared with around 7 million in September.

“Amhara region -– the front lines of the conflict in Ethiopia — has seen the largest jump in numbers with 3.7 million people now in urgent need of humanitarian aid,” WFP said.

“Of the people across northern Ethiopia in need of assistance, more than 80% (7.8 million) of them are behind battle lines.”

This week, aid workers were able to distribute food in the Amhara towns of Dessie and Kombolcha for the first time since they were captured by the TPLF nearly a month ago, the WFP said, adding that it was granted access to its warehouses only last week.

The risk of malnutrition has also increased across the three regions, with screening data showing rates between 16% and 28% for children, it said. 

“Even more alarmingly, up to 50% of pregnant and breastfeeding women screened in Amhara and Tigray were also found to be malnourished.” 

Fighting has also damaged more than 500 health facilities in Amhara, the U.N.’s humanitarian agency OCHA said late Thursday. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “expressed grave concern about worrying signs of military escalation” in Ethiopia during a telephone conversation with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday. 

He also “emphasized the need to urgently move to negotiations” on the conflict, according to a statement from the State Department. 

Airstrikes

As the war has dragged on, the government has stepped up its use of air power against the TPLF — one of the areas where it enjoys a military advantage. 

On Friday the TPLF and a hospital official reported two airstrikes in Tigray’s capital, Mekelle. 

Dr. Hayelom Kebede, research director at Mekelle’s Ayder Referral Hospital, told AFP the bombings occurred about 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) and 12:30 p.m., with the first one destroying two homes. 

“Still waiting for the casualty report,” he said.

Sources told AFP the first strike hit close to the house of a rebel commander and near a hill with an anti-aircraft machine gun. 

Much of the conflict-affected zone is under a communications blackout and access for journalists is restricted, making battlefield claims difficult to verify. 

Abiy’s spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, said she had no information about any drone strikes in Mekelle, which was recaptured by the rebels in June before they expanded into Amhara and Afar. 

The war erupted in early November 2020 when Abiy deployed troops into Tigray, bringing to a head a long-simmering row with the TPLF, the region’s ruling party. 
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US Stocks Sink on New COVID Variant; Dow Loses 905 Points 

Posted on by SeeUS

Stocks sank Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly falling more than 1,000 points, as a new coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa appeared to be spreading across the globe. Investors were uncertain whether the variant could reverse months of progress at getting the COVID-19 pandemic under control.

The S&P 500 index dropped 106.84 points, or 2.3%, to close at 4,594.62. It was the worst day for Wall Street’s benchmark index since February.

The index was dragged lower by banks, travel companies and energy companies as investors tried to reposition to protect themselves financially from the new variant. The World Health Organization called the variant “highly transmissible.” 

The price of oil fell about 13%, the biggest decline since early in the pandemic, amid worries of another slowdown in the global economy. That in turn dragged down energy stocks. Exxon shares fell 3.5% while Chevron fell 2.3%. 

The blue chips closed down 905.04 points to end the day at 34,899.34. The Nasdaq Composite lost 353.57 points, or 2.2%, to 15,491.66. 

Bond yields fall; banks hit

“Investors are likely to shoot first and ask questions later until more is known,” Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said in a report. That was evident from the action in the bond market, where the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.48% from 1.64% on Wednesday. As a result, banks took some of the heaviest losses. JPMorgan Chase dropped 3%. 

There have been other variants of the coronavirus — the delta variant devastated much of the U.S. throughout the summer — and investors, public officials and the general public are jittery about any new variant that’s spreading. It’s been nearly two years since COVID-19 emerged, killing more than 5 million people around the globe so far.

The economic impacts of this variant were already being felt. The European Union and the U.K. both announced travel restrictions from southern Africa on Friday. After the market closed, the U.S. also put travel restrictions on those coming from South Africa as well as seven other African nations.

Airline stocks quickly sold off, with United Airlines dropping 9.6% and American Airlines falling 8.8%. 

“COVID had seemingly been put in the rear-view mirror by financial markets until recently,” Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. “At the least, [the virus] is likely to continue throwing sand in the gears of the global economy in 2022, restraining the recovery [and] keeping kinks in the supply chain.” 

Even Bitcoin got caught up in the selling. The digital currency dropped 8.4% to $54,179, according to CoinDesk.

In Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he is spending a holiday weekend, President Joe Biden said he wasn’t concerned about the market’s decline. 

“They always do when there’s something on COVID [that] arises,” Biden said.

‘Fear gauge’

One sign of Wall Street’s anxiety was the VIX, the market’s measurement of volatility that is sometimes referred to as its “fear gauge.” The VIX jumped 53.6% to a reading of 28.54, its highest reading since January, before the vaccines began to be widely distributed.

Fearful of more lockdowns and travel bans, investors moved money into companies that largely benefited from previous waves, like Zoom Communications for meetings or Peloton for at-home exercise equipment. Shares in both companies rose nearly 6%. 

The coronavirus vaccine manufacturers were among the biggest beneficiaries of the emergence of this new variant and the subsequent investor reaction. Pfizer shares rose more than 6% while Moderna shares jumped more than 20%.

Merck shares fell 3.8%, however. While U.S. health officials said Merck’s experimental treatment of COVID-19 was effective, data showed the pill was not as effective at keeping patients out of the hospital as originally thought. 

Investors are worried that the supply chain issues that have impacted global markets for months will worsen. Ports and freight yards are vulnerable and could be shut by new, localized outbreaks.
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EU to Suspend Travel From Southern Africa Over New COVID Variant 

Posted on by SeeEU

European Union states have agreed to suspend travel from southern Africa after the detection of a new COVID-19 variant, the presidency of the EU said Friday.

A committee of health experts from all 27 EU states “agreed on the need to activate the emergency break & impose temporary restriction on all travel into EU from southern Africa,” the Slovenian presidency of the EU said on Twitter. 

 

Restrictions will apply to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, European Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer said on Twitter.

An EU official said that EU governments have also been asked to discourage travel to those countries.

Each of the 27 EU countries is free to apply the new measures when it prefers. Some are already applying restrictions.

EU officials said that no decision had yet been made on other countries in other parts of the world where cases were detected, which include Hong Kong, Israel and Belgium, an EU country.

Global alarm

The new coronavirus variant, first detected in South Africa, has caused global alarm as researchers seek to find out if it is vaccine-resistant.

Marc Van Ranst, the virologist who detected the new variant in Belgium, told Reuters it was more likely the infected woman had contracted the variant in Belgium rather than while traveling outside Europe.

She had been in Egypt earlier in November but developed symptoms only 11 days after her return to Belgium. She is not vaccinated.

Switzerland imposed on Friday a requirement of 10-day quarantine and a negative test for travelers from Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong, in addition to travel bans on southern African countries.
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WHO Names New COVID Variant Omicron, Cautions Against Travel Measures

Posted on by SeeEU

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday classified the B.1.1.529 variant detected in South Africa as a SARS-CoV-2 “variant of concern,” saying it may spread more quickly than other forms.

Preliminary evidence suggested there is an increased risk of reinfection and there had been a “detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology,” it said in a statement after a closed meeting of independent experts who reviewed the data.

Infections in South Africa had risen steeply in recent weeks, coinciding with detection of the variant now designated as omicron, WHO said.

“This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning. Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other (variants of concern),” it said.

Omicron is the fifth variant to carry such a designation. “This variant has been detected at faster rates than previous surges in infection, suggesting that this variant may have a growth advantage,” the WHO said.

Current PCR tests continue to successfully detect the variant, it said.

Earlier, the WHO cautioned countries against hastily imposing travel restrictions linked to the variant of COVID-19, saying they should take a “risk-based and scientific approach.”

Global authorities reacted with alarm to the new variant detected in South Africa, with the EU and Britain among those tightening border controls as scientists sought to find out if the mutation was vaccine-resistant.

“At this point, implementing travel measures is being cautioned against,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a U.N. briefing in Geneva. “The WHO recommends that countries continue to apply a risk-based and scientific approach when implementing travel measures.”

It would take several weeks to determine the variant’s transmissibility and the effectiveness of vaccines and therapeutics against it, he said, noting that 100 sequences of the variant have been reported so far.

People should continue to wear masks whenever possible, avoid large gatherings, ventilate rooms and maintain hand hygiene, Lindmeier added.

Mike Ryan, WHO’s emergency director, praised South African public health institutions for picking up the signal of the new variant.

But he warned that while some countries had systems in place to do this, the situation elsewhere was often unclear.

“So, it’s really important that there are no knee-jerk responses here. Especially with relation to South Africa,” he said. “Because we’ve seen in the past, the minute that there is any mention of any kind of variation, then everyone is closing borders and restricting travel.”

 
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US State Department: ‘All Options’ on Table Over Russian Troop Build-Up Near Ukraine

Posted on by SeeUS

All options are on the table in how to respond to Russia’s ‘large and unusual’ troop build-up near Ukraine’s border, and the NATO alliance will decide what the next move will be following consultations next week, the top U.S. diplomat for European affairs said Friday.

 

“As you can appreciate, all options are on the table, and there’s a toolkit that includes a whole range of options,” Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried told reporters in a telephone briefing.

 

“It’s now for the alliance to decide what are the next moves that NATO wants to take,” she said, speaking ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Latvia and Sweden next week to attend NATO and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meetings, where she said Moscow’s “large and unusual” troop buildup would be topping the agenda.

 

U.S., NATO and Ukrainian officials have raised the alarm in recent weeks over what they say are unusual Russian troop movements closer to Ukraine, suggesting that Moscow may be poised to launch an attack on its neighbor, accusations Russia has rejected as fear-mongering.

 

Asked if Blinken was going to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov while in Stockholm, Donfried said she had no announcements to make on such a bilateral but added: “Stay tuned.”

 
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Kenya on High Alert As New Coronavirus Variant Emerges

Posted on by SeeAF

Kenya has not banned travel to southern Africa but its Ministry of Health says it will carefully screen people arriving from South Africa, Botswana, and Hong Kong for the new COVID variant discovered in South Africa.

The Kenyan government directs passengers arriving from southern African countries to take the COVID test before being allowed into the country.

 

South Africa and Botswana have reported a new variant in their countries that scientists say is highly transmittable and vaccine resistant.

 

Kenya’s Director General for Health Patrick Amoth told VOA his country is on high alert to combat the new variant.

“We are working to ensure that our surveillance system is top-notch and looking specifically at people coming from South Africa, Botswana and Hong Kong to put them through a robust surveillance system,” said Amoth. “We insist on having you fully vaccinated before you come to the country. And you also need to have a negative PCR test taken 96 hours before your arrival in the country.”

This week, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta traveled to South Africa, where he signed deals to boost trade and economic cooperation between the two countries,  

 

To combat the spread of the virus in the population, the East African nation launched a ten-day mass vaccination campaign Friday. Kenya has vaccinated at least 6.5 million people.

 

Amoth says they have enough vaccines to inoculate even more.

“It’s part of the ongoing vaccination process and we wanted to scale up in view of the events that are happening in Europe and the rest of the world,” said Amoth. “So to ensure we reach herd immunity and the entire population is protected and now we have more vaccines available we thought to be able to scale up so that we can be able to reach more people.”

Amoth expressed confidence that more Kenyans will get vaccinated.

“For example, yesterday we vaccinated close to 111,000 people from the previous daily rate of about 50,000-60,000,” said Amoth. “So Kenyans are enthusiastic to be able to take the vaccine and also now this emerging information we believe will sway the public opinion towards going for the vaccine instead of vaccine hesitancy.”

Kenya has a policy of not providing government services to unvaccinated people as a way of encouraging them to get inoculated.

Kenya hopes to vaccinate 10 million people by the end of the year.
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