Italy imposed an entry ban Friday on people who have visited any one of eight southern African states in the last 14 days, because of the spread of a new COVID-19 variant there.
Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza signed an executive order banning entry of travelers from South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and Eswatini.
“Our scientists are studying the new B.1.1.529 variant. In the meantime, we will adopt the greatest possible caution,” Speranza said.
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It is likely that the new coronavirus variant B.1.1.529 that is spreading in South Africa will end up in Britain, the head of the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium said Friday, but efforts to buy time and reduce transmission would help.
“I think buying time is important and it’s worthwhile, because we can find out what we need to know about that particular variant,” Sharon Peacock told reporters, saying that the health service might need to make preparations.
“This is part of important planning and preparation for something that I would guess is likely to be transmitted into the UK at some point, but it buys that time.”
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Spain’s cabinet will restrict flights from South Africa and Botswana over concerns about a highly contagious new COVID-19 variant there, Health Minister Carolina Darias said Friday, following similar decisions by other European nations.
“We will see about other countries but for now those two,” she told state broadcaster TVE.
Darias did not give details on when the restrictions would come into force, but a cabinet meeting, at which such measures would be approved, is scheduled for Tuesday.
“We will also imminently adopt a resolution … to require passengers from high-risk countries to provide, in addition to vaccination [proof], either an antigen test or a PCR,” she added.
The announcement came shortly after the European Commision recommended an EU-wide travel ban to and from southern Africa due to the rapid rise of the B.1.1.529 variant in South Africa, which scientists fear could evade vaccines.
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An exhibition that examines the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico has opened at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The Wall/El Muro: What Is a Border Wall? looks at the structure from the perspective of design and architecture, but also reflects its environmental, historical and symbolic impact. Maxim Moskalkov has the story. Camera: Andrey Degtyarev, Producer: Anna Rice
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In early October, a ruptured underwater pipeline spilled crude oil in the waters off the Southern California coast. Almost two months later, life in Huntington Beach is back to normal, but residents say the reputation of the tourist city has been damaged and businesses are still hurting. Genia Dulot reports
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In Zimbabwe, a former boxing champion is using his skills to teach the next generation and hopefully help keep impoverished young people away from drugs and crime.
Anthony Possible Mapako, 24, trains at the Mosquito Boxing School of Excellence with founder and coach Zvenyika Arifonso.
The former street fighter and drug user from the poor suburb of Mbare in Harare says things have changed since he joined Arifonso’s school.
“l always say, ‘Thank you, Coach.’ . . . [H]e is not just a teacher of boxing, but he can change even your mind about the bad things you think to do — he can change you. Like what he did to me. He changed my mind because I was just thinking of beating people around this ghetto of Mbare and have a popular name of being a street fighter. But he changed my mind and said, ‘You can be a boxer, and you can be a champion.’”
Arifonso, 44, started the academy after he left boxing. As a fighter, he was known as “Mosquito” for the way he would “sting” his opponents. Now, his focus is on helping troubled youth in Mbare township.
“I’m in this project because l wanted to remove kids from drug abuse and womanizing and stealing, because there is a lot of crime committed by these young guys,” he said. “When you are drunk, dozed by those drugs, it’s very bad. So I decided to open this club to rehab them, to teach them life. They have got life. When someone is not schooling, it’s very hard to deal with. The moment he catches up to what you are saying, then he will come back to sense.”
Arifonso now has about 120 students, divided into three groups per day. He hopes some become professional boxers.
Shingai Gwatidzo, from the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe, said substance abuse among youths is a “scourge” that needs to be dealt with soon as possible.
“As such, we are trying to do a lot of work to reduce supply and demand,” Gwatidzo said. “In terms of supply, we are working with law enforcement agencies to try and curb illicit substances coming into the country. In terms of demand, we are trying to educate members of the public around the dangers of engagement in illicit substance abuse. This is a multiple stakeholder problem that we need to address.”
Arifonso is working to get assistance so he can set up programs in other poor townships and pull more youths away from drugs.
Like many others in Europe, Switzerland is facing a steep rise in coronavirus cases. But its federal government, unlike others, hasn’t responded with new restrictive measures. Analysts say it doesn’t want to stir up more opposition to its anti-COVID-19 policies, which face a crucial test at the ballot box this weekend as critics have grown increasingly loud.
On Sunday, as part of the country’s regular referendums, Swiss voters will cast ballots about the so-called “COVID-19 law” that has unlocked billions of Swiss francs (dollars) in aid for workers and businesses hit by the pandemic. The law has also imposed the use of a special COVID certificate that lets only people who have been vaccinated, recovered, or tested negative attend public events and gatherings.
If the Swiss give a thumbs-up, the government may well ratchet up its anti-COVID efforts.
The vote offers a relatively rare bellwether of public opinion specifically on the issue of government policy to fight the coronavirus in Europe, the global epicenter of the pandemic. The continent enjoys relatively high rates of vaccination compared with countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, but has been nearly alone in facing a surge in cases in recent weeks.
Polls suggest a solid majority of Swiss will approve the measure, which is already in effect and the rejection of which would end the restrictions — as well as the payouts. But in recent weeks, opponents have raised heaps of cash for their campaign and drawn support from abroad, including a visit from American anti-vaccination campaigner Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to a rally in the capital, Bern, this month.
Swiss weekly NZZ am Sonntag reported that campaigners have sent hundreds of petitions to government offices around the country alleging that the language in the referendum question is vague and makes no mention of the “COVID certificate” that affords access to places like restaurants and sporting events.
On Tuesday, Swiss health authorities warned of a rising “fifth wave” in the rich Alpine country, where vaccination rates are roughly in line with those in hard-hit Austria and Germany — at about two-thirds of the population. Infection rates have soared in recent weeks. The seven-day average case count in Switzerland shot up to more than 5,200 per day from mid-October to mid-November, a more than five-fold increase — with an upward curve like those in neighboring Germany and Austria.
Austria has responded with a much-ballyhooed lockdown, and Germany — which is forming a new government as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s tenure nears its end — has taken some steps like requiring workers to provide their employers with proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative test set to take effect next week.
The Swiss Federal Council, the seven-member executive branch, went out of its way on Wednesday to say: “It’s not the time to decree a tightening of measures nationwide,” while opting for a region-by-region approach and calling on citizens to act responsibly through mask-wearing, physical distancing, and proper airing of indoor areas.
That’s even though the council admitted in a statement that cases — particularly among the young — are rising and “the number of daily infections has reached a record for the year and the exponential rise is continuing.” Hospitalizations — notably among the elderly — are rising too, it said, but not as fast.
Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset has insisted his government hasn’t tightened restrictions because COVID-19 patients still make up only a small percentage of people in intensive-care units.
“But we also know that the number of hospitalizations lags behind the number of infections,” said Pascal Sciarini, a political scientist at the University of Geneva. “One can imagine that if Switzerland didn’t have this particular event — the vote on Sunday — we’d already be preparing (the) next steps.”
The Swiss council may simply be holding its breath through the weekend, he suggested.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if as early as next week, the tone changes,” Scarini said. “It’s starting to budge … the Federal Council is surely going to wait until after the referendum.”
At America’s southern border, pandemic-related restrictions continue to block most migrants from filing claims for asylum in the United States. New arrivals, including large numbers of children, have settled into border encampments and shelters hoping for a change in U.S. policy.
As the months drag on, one organization has marshaled former teachers among the tent dwellers to give daily classes for migrant children.
The Sidewalk School for Children Asylum Seekers started almost three years ago as a Texas couple’s effort to keep up with the humanitarian crisis on the border. This month it officially registered as a U.S. nonprofit organization and opened its largest school yet. Some 10 teachers are providing instruction to roughly 500 children in three massive tents erected in a squalid encampment a few blocks away from the bridge linking Reynosa, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, to Hidalgo, Texas.
Under one of those tents, 36-year-old Josue Herman Sanchez Mendoza spoke into a microphone in front of dozens of students, ages 10 to 17, who had gathered for a social science class. He talked about a set of virtues the students should embrace: honesty, patience, tolerance, respect, generosity and willpower.
“If we don’t practice our values, our lives will be more difficult,” Sanchez told the students seated in rows atop foam mats on the ground.
Sanchez used to be an academic, an investigator at the Honduran Institute for Anthropology and History. Then he and his family, like his students and their parents, abandoned their homes and made a treacherous weeks-long journey to the U.S. border.
Sanchez said he paid various traffickers a total of $17,500 for his family of five to travel a month across Mexico. They hiked hidden jungle trails and congested roads. They stood for 72 hours in a jam-packed bus and rode 36 hours in a sweltering truck trailer with 40 other people and no bathroom. They waited five days in one hiding house and four days in another.
“It’s the kids who most suffer. As an adult I understand that I’m a refugee, but a child doesn’t,” Sanchez said. “A child just says, ‘I’m hungry, I’m cold, I want to bathe.’ A parent feels impotent.”
About a month after they left home, Sanchez and his family floated across the Rio Grande on inflatable rafts and scrambled to U.S. territory. U.S. Border Patrol found them and their group, processed them and drove them to the Hidalgo-Reynosa bridge in late September.
Since then Sanchez has lived in the camp, eating simple food provided by local churches and helping the Sidewalk School organize daily instruction, which began earlier this month. He now teaches social science classes every day.
The Sidewalk School came about in 2019 when Felicia Rangel and Victor Cavazos of Brownsville, Texas, started organizing short informal classes on a sidewalk near a camp in Matamoros, Mexico, 90 kilometers from Reynosa.
The project has since raised more than $300,000 in grant funding. It serves food every day at the camp in Reynosa, sponsors 11 portable bathrooms there and pays rent on about 20 apartments for vulnerable asylum seekers and office space across the street from the camp in Reynosa. It also runs four smaller school projects in the area.
Rangel, 45, said she’s met four times with Biden administration officials, in person or by video call, to answer questions about the situation across the border. U.S. government funding for the project has been requested but has yet to materialize, Rangel said.
“There are so many things we have to do every day just to keep people going, to keep alive their hope,” she added.
For many people, hope was wearing thin in the camp as winter months approached and the U.S. showed no sign of relaxing a ban on processing migrant asylum petitions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Imposed by the former Trump administration, the policy, called Title 42, has continued under the Biden administration with an exception for unaccompanied minors.
The day after a cold rain had soaked the camp and forced classes to be canceled, Larisa Michel Flories kicked off her lower-level Spanish class by speaking into a bullhorn. A former staffer of a Honduras-based NGO that counsels children at risk of criminal involvement, she now lives in the border camp where hundreds of blankets and clothes hung to drip dry after the deluge.
“How was yesterday?” she asked her class cheerfully.
“Bad,” more than 50 kids shouted back.
But without the school and the rudimentary instruction it provides, the responses might have been worse.
Five U.S. lawmakers met with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen Friday morning in a surprise one-day visit intended to reaffirm the United States’ “rock solid” support for the self-governing island.
The bi-partisan group of lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives arrived in Taiwan on Thursday night and were planning to meet with senior leaders including Tsai, said the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto embassy. No further details were provided about their itinerary.
The visit comes as tensions between Taiwan and China have risen to their highest level in decades. Taiwan has been self-ruled since the two sides split during a civil war in 1949, but China considers the island part of its own territory.
“When news of our trip broke yesterday, my office received a blunt message from the Chinese Embassy, telling me to call off the trip,” Representative Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who is part of the delegation, wrote on Twitter.
Representatives Mark Takano, D-Calif.; Colin Allred, D-Texas.; Sara Jacobs, D-Calif.; and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., are also part of the visiting delegation.
“We are here in Taiwan this week to remind our partners and allies, after two trying years that we’ve endured, that our commitment and shared responsibility for a free and secure Indo-Pacific region remain stronger than ever,” said Takano.
Takano added that the U.S. relationship with Taiwan is “rock solid and has remained steadfast as the ties between us have deepened.”
Tsai, who welcomed the lawmakers and the AIT director at the Presidential Office in Taipei, noted the two sides’ cooperation in veterans’ affairs, economic issues and trade while reiterating the island’s close alignment with the U.S.
“Taiwan will continue to step up cooperation with the United States in order to uphold our shared values of freedom and democracy and to ensure peace and stability in the region,” Tsai said.
The visit is the third by U.S. lawmakers to Taiwan this year and comes just a few weeks after a group of six Republican members of Congress visited the island. That delegation met with President Tsai, National Security Secretary General Wellington Koo and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, among others.
In June, three members of Congress flew to Taiwan to donate badly needed vaccines at a time when the island was struggling to get enough.
The Biden administration has also invited Taiwan to a Summit for Democracy next month, a move that drew a sharp rebuke from China.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Wednesday, “What the U.S. did proves that the so-called democracy is just a pretext and tool for it to pursue geopolitical goals, suppress other countries, divide the world, serve its own interest and maintain its hegemony in the world.”
Germany will have a new government next month after three parties agreed this week to form a coalition, ousting the ruling Christian Democrats, the party of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel. The new government faces an early test of foreign policy, as Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops on Europe’s eastern borders.
Members of the Social Democratic Pary, or SDP, which narrowly won the highest vote share in September’s election, agreed to lead a coalition alongside the Green party and the Free Democrats. SDP leader Olaf Scholz, who will be Germany’s next chancellor, pledged to strengthen Germany’s existing alliances in a speech Wednesday.
“Our friendship with France, our partnership with the United States, and a commitment to peace and prosperity in the world are the pillars on which our foreign policy is based,” Scholz said in Berlin.
That peace appears increasingly fragile on Europe’s eastern borders. Russia has deployed around 90,000 troops alongside military hardware close to its border with Ukraine and continues to support separatist rebels in Ukraine’s Donbass region.
On Thursday, Merkel warned of tougher sanctions.
“Any further aggression against the sovereignty of Ukraine would carry a high price. That’s totally clear,” she told reporters.
Support for Belarus
Russia is also supporting Belarus, which Europe accuses of manufacturing a migrant crisis on its border with Poland. So how will Germany’s new government deal with these immediate security challenges?
Scholz has yet to detail his policy toward Russia. The 177-page coalition agreement restates strong German support for NATO as the basis of European security, noted Liana Fix, the program director for international affairs at the Körber-Stiftung analyst group in Berlin.
“Broadly, there’s continuity, but what is interesting is that there’s also quite a strong rhetoric when it comes to supporting civil society in Russia, and also quite a strong rhetoric when it comes to countering the autocratic challenge that is coming from Russia. And here you definitely see the footprint of the Green party which has entered the coalition,” Fix told VOA.
Green party leader Annalena Baerbock will be Germany’s next foreign minister. A first major decision will be to approve the opening of the completed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany, which critics fear could be used by the Kremlin to blackmail Europe. The U.S. recently tightened sanctions on Russian companies involved in its construction.
“The Greens, that were at the beginning actually opposed to Nord Stream 2, did not want to use their political capital to enforce a stop of Nord Stream 2 in the coalition treaty,” Fix said.
What of the personal relationships? Merkel was raised in East Germany under communism and speaks fluent Russian. “This gave her special access to the Russian president,” Fix told VOA. “Olaf Scholz doesn’t have this background, but he’s very much aware of the situation, where he always argued that ‘might does not make right’ and that this is one of the bases for his understanding of foreign policy and also of policy towards Russia.”
‘The world will change’
In his speech Wednesday after striking the coalition agreement, Scholz said Germany must be ready for a new world order.
“The world will change,” he said. “It will become multipolar, which means there will be many strong countries and powers across the globe which will have influence on what happens in the future.”
For now, much of the new government’s focus will be on the soaring coronavirus infection rate at home. In Germany this week, COVID-19-related deaths surpassed 100,000 since the start of the pandemic, a grim milestone as the coalition prepares to take the reins of power in December.
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Germany will have a new government next month after three parties agreed to form a coalition, ousting the ruling Christian Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel. The new government under Olaf Scholz faces an early test of foreign policy, as Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops on Europe’s eastern borders. Henry Ridgwell considers Berlin’s future relationship with Moscow.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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Aboubacar shared tea and sugary snacks with his colleagues gathered on a mat at a United Nations camp in battle-scarred Mali.
He speaks plainly but with a hint of irony about his transformation from a tour guide with 14 years of experience, until 2014 when he became a front-line military interpreter.
After the war upended his business, he sought work as a translator for the British contingent of the U.N.’s mission in Mali, MINUSMA.
“Before we were protecting the white tourists, but now it’s the whites who protect us in the bush,” he said with a smile.
There are dozens of others like him who work with the British blue helmets every day, speaking Tamasheq, Songhai or Arabic.
He pulled a scarf over his nose, donned dark glasses and became almost unrecognizable.
“It’s very different from what we did before, but the goal is the same: to show the country to foreigners,” said Aboubacar, an alias to protect him and his colleagues.
There were numerous tour guides in the region during the golden age of tourism in the 1990s and 2000s.
They took visitors to see the famed mosque at Djenne, the manuscripts of Timbuktu and to bathe in the Banfora waterfalls in Burkina Faso, among other places.
But they lost their livelihoods in the 2010s when separatist movements and jihadi groups unleashed a cycle of deadly violence that made the region, rich in heritage and natural beauty, too dangerous for tourists.
Most did not find other work.
From tourists to troops
After several years of unemployment, Aboubacar followed a friend’s advice and used the English he learned guiding tourists to approach the U.N. He flew to their base at Gao, which is home to the peacekeepers as well as French forces.
Now he is an intermediary with the local population, dressed in a large army jacket and weaving in and out of the bush in armored vehicles.
He makes introductions, explains the armed foreigners’ mandate and the significance of their U.N. blue helmets.
A day later, under a leafy tree offering the only shade around, Aboubacar’s colleague Moussa approached armed men whose firearms permits the force wanted to check.
Jovial and tactile, he held the shoulders of one member of the armed group, giving the impression more of a gathering of old friends than a tense encounter colored by suspicion.
Essential to UN’s job
Having the translators “is absolutely central for us to do our job,” said Pierre Russell of the British Army Long Range Reconnaissance Group.
“We go out and speak to the local population and without their ability to communicate in up to five or six different languages we wouldn’t be able to do our job.”
The total number of interpreters working with foreign forces is unknown. The dozen who spoke to AFP described a translator corps several hundred in number.
Back at the U.N. base, there were lively discussions.
There is nostalgia for a simpler era, when “life was good” and whites came with cameras in hand.
There are some in Mali who have criticized the intervention of the U.N. and France in a country where the presence of foreign forces has previously proved controversial.
“Obviously we see things, but we keep our opinions to ourselves,” Moussa said.
‘Feed our families’
There is also fear that once the foreign forces leave, the Malian interpreters could face a similar fate to those who supported Western forces in Afghanistan and were suddenly left to their fate after the Taliban takeover.
In the Sahel, “either we resolve the problem and are congratulated … or the jihadists will still be there after the departure of the foreigners and we’ll have to leave,” Youssouf said, wistfully.
He now runs a small business employing interpreters who served with the British blue helmets.
The mood turns when the interpreters recount how some of their number have been accused of being traitors.
Some hide their work from their families, allowing them to believe they simply work in the U.N. camps as contractors like many other local people.
“We have to feed our families,” Youssouf said.
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When the U.S. government allowed so-called hero pay for front-line workers as a possible use of pandemic relief money, it suggested occupations that could be eligible, from farmworkers and child care staff to janitors and truck drivers.
State and local governments have struggled to determine who among the many workers who braved the raging coronavirus pandemic before vaccines became available should qualify: only government workers, or private employees, too? Should it go to a small pool of essential workers such as nurses or be spread to others, including grocery store workers?
“It’s a bad position for us to be in because you have your local government trying to pick winners and losers, if you would, or recipients and nonrecipients. And hence by default, you’re saying importance versus not important,” said Jason Levesque, the Republican mayor of Auburn, Maine, where officials have not yet decided who will receive hazard pay from the city’s American Rescue Plan funds.
A year and a half into the pandemic, such decisions have taken on political implications for some leaders as unions lobby for expanded eligibility, with workers who end up being left out feeling embittered.
“It sounds like it’s about the money, but this is a token of appreciation,” said Ginny Ligi, a correctional officer who contracted COVID-19 last year in Connecticut, where the bonus checks have yet to be cut amid negotiations with unions. “It’s so hard to put into words the actual feeling of what it was like to walk into that place every day, day in, day out. It scarred us. It really did.”
What the federal rules say
Interim federal rules published six months ago allow state and local COVID-19 recovery funds to be spent on premium pay for essential workers of up to $13 per hour, in addition to their regular wages. The amount cannot exceed $25,000 per employee.
The rules also allow grants to be provided to third-party employers with eligible workers, who are defined as people who have had “regular in-person interactions or regular physical handling of items that were also handled by others” or a heightened risk of exposure to COVID-19.
The rules encourage state and local governments to “prioritize providing retrospective premium pay where possible, recognizing that many essential workers have not yet received additional compensation for work conducted over the course of many months,” while also prioritizing lower-income eligible workers.
As of July, about a third of U.S. states had used federal COVID-19 relief aid to reward workers considered essential with bonuses, although who qualified and how much they received varied widely, according to an Associated Press review.
A list of hazard and premium pay state allocations as of Nov. 18, provided by the National Conference of State Legislatures, shows funds have typically been set aside for government workers such as state troopers and correctional officers.
In Minnesota, lawmakers still have $250 million in aid set aside for hero pay, but they’ve been struggling with how to distribute it. A special committee was unable to come up with a compromise plan, instead sending two competing recommendations to the full Legislature for consideration.
“I think every time we take another week, we’re just delaying the whole process, and I think the fastest way is to get them over to the Legislature,” said Republican state Senator Mary Kiffmeyer, a member of the committee, during a meeting last month.
Minnesota Senate Republicans want to offer a tax-free bonus of $1,200 to about 200,000 workers who they say took on the greatest risk, such as nurses, long-term care workers, prison staff and first responders.
But House Democrats want to spread the money more widely, providing roughly $375 to about 670,000 essential workers, including low-wage food service and grocery store employees, security guards, janitors, and others.
Earlier this week, after it appeared that a political impasse was easing over another issue, Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman told Minnesota Public Radio that she believed an agreement could be reached on frontline worker pay, noting there was a “pretty natural middle ground” between the dueling proposals.
Connecticut governor pressured
Connecticut has yet to pay out any of the $20 million in federal pandemic money set aside by state lawmakers in June for essential state employees and members of the Connecticut National Guard.
As negotiations continue with union leaders, the Connecticut AFL-CIO labor organization has stepped up pressure on Democratic Governor Ned Lamont, who is up for reelection in 2022, to provide $1 an hour in hazard pay to all public- and private-sector essential workers who worked during the pandemic before vaccinations became available.
“The governor needs to reevaluate his priorities and show that these workers who put themselves and their lives at risk are a top priority. I think it’s really the least he can do for these workers,” said Ed Hawthorne, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO. “These workers showed up for Connecticut. It’s time (for the) . . . governor to show up for them.”
Max Reiss, Lamont’s spokesperson, said the figures cited by organized labor are “just not feasible.”
In the meantime, he said, the administration is in negotiations with state employee unions, classifying the work state employees did during the pandemic and determining whether they might have shifted to other responsibilities that were more or less risky, which could also affect whether they receive more or less money.
“We want to recognize the workers who kept going into work every day because they had to and there was not a choice. And those range from people working in state-run health care facilities to people who needed to plow our roads during severe weather and work in-person jobs,” he said. “The next piece is that you have to come up with the determination as to who all those people were. And there’s a verification process to that.”
In some states such as California, cities are determining how to fairly distribute some of their federal funds to help essential private-sector workers who may not have received extra pay from their employers.
Rachel Torres, deputy of the political and civil rights department at United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 770, said her union is urging cities to follow the lead of Oxnard and Calabasas, which voted this year to provide grocery and drug store workers with payments of as much as $1,000.
“It really should not be a competition among essential workforces. There should be moneys available for many workers,” Torres said.
David Dobbs and his fellow firefighters in Bridgeport, Connecticut, are upset their city has yet to provide them with a share of the $110 million it received in federal pandemic funds. Mayor Joe Gamin, a Democrat, said in a statement that he supports the concept of premium pay but that the matter is still being reviewed to make sure any payments comply with federal rules.
“We’ve demonstrated a commitment to this partnership. And I think we feel a little betrayed by the city right now, when they’re not dealing with us, when they came into this windfall,” said Dobbs, president of the Bridgeport Firefighters Association, which had given up pay raises when the city’s budget was tight. “Imagine loaning your friends a decent amount of money and then hitting the Powerball and not making things right.”
The stillness that enveloped Chaco Canyon was broken only by the sound of a raven’s wings as it circled overhead.
Then a chorus of leaders from several Native American tribes began to speak, their voices echoing off the nearby sandstone cliffs.
The Indigenous leaders from the Hopi Tribe in Arizona and several New Mexico pueblos were beyond grateful that the federal government is taking what they believe to be more meaningful steps toward permanent protections for cultural resources in northwestern New Mexico.
They spoke of a deep connection to the canyon — the heart of Chaco Culture National Historic Park — and the importance of ensuring that oil and gas development beyond the park’s boundaries does not sever that tie for future generations.
After fighting for years with multiple presidential administrations, they’re optimistic the needle is moving now that one of their own — U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — holds the reins of the federal agency that oversees energy development and tribal affairs.
Haaland, who is from Laguna Pueblo and is the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency, joined tribal leaders at Chaco this week to celebrate the beginning of a process that aims to withdraw federal land holdings within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of the park boundary, making the area off-limits to oil and gas leasing for 20 years.
New leases on federal land in the area will be halted for the next two years while the withdrawal proposal is considered.
Haaland also committed to taking a broader look at how federal land across the region can be better managed while taking into account environmental effects and cultural preservation.
“It’s a nice day — a beautiful day that our father the sun blessed us with. The creator laid out the groundwork for today,” Hopi Vice Chairman Clark Tenakhongva said Monday.
Hub of Indigenous civilization
A World Heritage site, Chaco is thought to be the center of what was once a hub of Indigenous civilization with many tribes from the Southwest tracing their roots to the high desert outpost.
Within the park, walls of stacked stone jut from the bottom of the canyon, some perfectly aligned with the seasonal movements of the sun and moon. Circular subterranean rooms called kivas are cut into the desert floor, and archaeologists have found evidence of great roads that stretched across what are now New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.
Visitors often marvel at the architectural prowess of Chaco’s early residents. But for many Indigenous people in the Southwest, Chaco Canyon holds a more esoteric significance.
The Hopi call it “Yupkoyvi,” simply translated as way beyond the other side of the mountains.
“Whose land do we all occupy? We walk the land of the creator. That’s what was told to us at the beginning — at the bottom of the Grand Canyon,” Tenakhongva said. “Many of us have that connection. Many of us can relate to how important the Grand Canyon is. Ask the Zuni, the Laguna, the Acoma. They made their trip from there to this region. We know the importance of these areas.”
Source of strength
Pueblo leaders also talked about areas near Zuni Pueblo in western New Mexico and Bears Ears National Monument in Utah that are tied to Chaco civilization.
Laguna Governor Martin Kowemy Jr. said Chaco is a vital part of who his people are.
“Pueblo people can all relate through song, prayer and pilgrimage,” he said. “Now more than ever, connections to our peoples’ identities are a source of strength in difficult times. We must ensure these connections will not be severed, but remain intact for future generations.”
Acoma Pueblo Governor Brian Vallo said the beliefs, songs, ceremonies and other traditions that have defined generations of Pueblo people originated at Chaco.
“Our fight to protect this sacred place is rooted in what our elders teach us and what we know as descendants of those who settled here,” Vallo said. “That is our responsibility — to maintain our connection, our deep-felt obligation and protective stewardship of this sacred place.”
Development pressure
Both the Obama and Trump administrations put on hold leases adjacent to the park through agency actions, but some tribes, archaeologists and environmentalists have been pushing for permanent protections.
Congressional legislation is pending, but there has been disagreement over how big the buffer should be.
The Navajo Nation oversees much of the land that makes up the jurisdictional checkerboard surrounding the national park. Some parts belong to individual Navajos who were allotted land by the federal government generations ago.
Navajo leaders support preserving parts of the area but have said individual allottees stand to lose an important income source if the land is made off-limits to development. Millions of dollars in royalties are at stake for tribal members who are grappling with poverty and high unemployment rates.
Haaland’s agency has vowed to consult with tribes over the next two years as the withdrawal proposal is considered, but top Navajo leaders are suggesting they’re being ignored. Noticeably absent from Monday’s celebration were the highest elected leaders of the tribe’s legislative and executive branches.
Navajo Nation Council Delegate Daniel Tso has been among a minority within tribal government speaking out against development in the region. He said communities east of Chaco are “under siege” from increased drilling.
“Yes, we want the landscape protected, we want better air quality, we want to protect the water aquifer, we want to protect the sacred,” he said. “The undisturbed landscape holds much sacredness. It brings peace of mind, it brings a settled heart and it gives good spiritual strength.”
No matter what side they’re on, many Navajos feel their voices aren’t being heard.
Listening sessions
Haaland on Monday invited everyone to participate in the listening sessions that will be held as part of the process, which she has dubbed “Honoring Chaco.”
Environmentalists say the region is a prime example of the problems of tribal consultation and that Haaland’s effort could mark a shift toward more tribal involvement in future decision-making when it comes to identifying and protecting cultural resources.
“By creating a new collaborative process with ‘Honoring Chaco’ we have the ability to ameliorate broken promises and to right the wrongs of consultation just being a check-the-box exercise,” said Rebecca Sobel, of the group WildEarth Guardians. “Hopefully it will be the beginning of a new relationship.”
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France and Britain appealed Thursday for European assistance, promised stepped-up efforts to combat people-smuggling networks, and traded blame and barbs in the wake of this week’s tragedy in the English Channel that again shone a light on the scale and complexity of Europe’s migration problems.
At least 27 migrants drowned Wednesday after their inflatable dinghy capsized as they tried to cross the channel. It was the deadliest migration accident to date on the dangerous stretch of sea, a busy shipping lane crisscrossed by hulking freighters and frequently beset by treacherous weather, waves and currents.
French President Emmanuel Macron appealed to neighboring European countries to do more to stop illegal migration into France, saying that when migrants reach French shores with hopes of heading on to Britain, “it is already too late.”
Macron said France was deploying army drones as part of new efforts to patrol its northern coastline and help rescue migrants at sea. But he also said that a greater collective effort was needed, referring to France as a “transit country” for Britain-bound migrants.
“We need to strengthen cooperation with Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, but also the British and the [European] Commission,” he said on a visit to Croatia. “We need stronger European cooperation.”
Ministers from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Britain and EU officials will meet Sunday to discuss increasing efforts to crack down on migrant-smuggling networks, Macron’s government announced.
They will convene in Calais, one of the French coastal towns where migrants gather, looking for ways to cross to the British coast, which is visible from France on clear days.
Macron described the dead in Wednesday’s sinking as “victims of the worst system, that of smugglers and human traffickers.”
Ever-increasing numbers of people fleeing conflict or poverty in Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, Eritrea or elsewhere are risking the perilous journey from France, hoping to win asylum or find better opportunities in Britain. The crossings have tripled this year, compared with 2020.
The French prosecutors office tasked with investigating the sinking said the dead included 17 men, seven women, and two boys and one girl thought to be teenagers. Magistrates were investigating potential charges of homicide, unintentional wounding, assisting illegal migration and criminal conspiracy, the prosecutors office said.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said two survivors were treated for hypothermia; one is Iraqi and the other is Somali. He said authorities were working to determine the victims’ nationalities.
Macron’s government vowed to bring those responsible for the tragedy to justice, piling pressure on investigators. Darmanin announced the arrests of five alleged smugglers who he said were suspected of being linked to the sinking. The prosecutors office investigating the deaths confirmed five arrests since Wednesday but said they didn’t appear to be linked to its probe.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Macron spoke after the tragedy and agreed “to keep all options on the table to stop these lethal crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs behind them,” Johnson’s office said.
Macron advocated an immediate funding boost for the European Union’s border agency, Frontex, according to his office.
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The sinking of a boat with more than 30 people on board this week was the deadliest migration tragedy to date in the English Channel.
Migrant shipwrecks of that scale, however, are not uncommon in the waters surrounding Europe’s southern borders.
This year alone, U.N. officials estimate that 1,600 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea, the main gateway to Europe for migrants trying to enter the continent with the help of human smugglers.
The death toll is higher than last year, but by no means unique. The International Organization for Migration estimates that 23,000 people have perished since 2014 while trying to cross the Mediterranean in rickety boats or rubber dinghies, peaking at more than 5,000 in 2016. In the same seven-year period, about 166 people have died in the English Channel.
Just last week, 85 people died in two separate incidents while trying to reach Italy from Libya, said Flavio di Giacomo, the IOM’s spokesman in Italy. Those tragedies were barely noticed in Europe.
“I think it’s a question of proximity,” di Giacomo said. “I think the media attention of what happened between U.K. and France is also because this is new. Europe is not used to have that inside the continent; usually it’s on the external borders.”
Deadliest route
This year the busiest and deadliest migrant route to Europe is the central Mediterranean where people travel in crowded boats from Libya and Tunisia — and in some cases all the way from Turkey — toward Italy. About 60,000 people have arrived in Italy by sea this year, and 1,200 have died or disappeared on the journey, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
The number of missing is an estimate partly based on information from survivors of shipwrecks.
Migrant rescue activists on Thursday said a boat in the central Mediterranean with 430 people on board was taking on water and called on European authorities to assist. Another boat operated by charity Sea-Watch was looking for a safe port to disembark 463 rescued migrants.
Canaries route
Meanwhile, since last year, traffic has increased on an even more dangerous route in the Atlantic Ocean where migrants set out from Senegal, Mauritania or Morocco in simple wooden boats with the hope of reaching Spain’s Canary Islands. Some boats sink not far from the coast of Africa and others disappear farther out, in some cases missing the Canaries and drifting deep into the Atlantic.
“The route from western Africa is very long and very dangerous,” di Giacomo said.
IOM has registered 900 deaths on the Canaries route this year, he said, but the true number could be double “and no one is paying a lot of attention.”
More than 400 people were rescued this week while trying to reach the island group.
Human rights groups often criticize European governments for not doing more to rescue migrants trying to reach the continent on unseaworthy vessels. European rescue efforts led by Italy in the central Mediterranean were scaled back a few years ago and more emphasis was placed on training and equipping the Libyan coast guard to intercept migrant boats before they can reach European waters. Critics say Europe is turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in Libyan detention centers for migrants.
Noting that nine out of 10 refugees have fled to neighboring countries, Carlotta Sami of UNCHR in Italy said the agency is pushing for EU governments to provide “safe passageways” for refugees “to diminish the number of those who attempt to make the extremely risky journey.”
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A new coronavirus variant has been detected in South Africa that scientists say is a concern because of its high number of mutations and rapid spread among young people in Gauteng, the country’s most populous province, Health Minister Joe Phaahla announced Thursday.
The coronavirus evolves as it spreads, and many new variants, including those with worrying mutations, often just die out. Scientists monitor for possible changes that could make the virus more transmissible or deadly, but sorting out whether new variants will have a public health impact can take time.
South Africa has seen a dramatic rise in new infections, Phaahla said at an online press briefing.
“Over the last four or five days, there has been more of an exponential rise,” he said, adding that the new variant appears to be driving the spike in cases. Scientists in South Africa are working to determine what percentage of the new cases have been caused by the new variant.
Currently identified as B.1.1.529, the new variant has also been found in Botswana and Hong Kong in travelers from South Africa, he said.
The WHO’s technical working group is to meet Friday to assess the new variant and may decide whether to give it a name from the Greek alphabet.
The British government announced that it was banning flights from South Africa and five other southern African countries effective at noon (1200GMT) Friday, and that anyone who had recently arrived from those countries would be asked to take a coronavirus test.
U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said there were concerns the new variant “may be more transmissible” than the dominant delta strain and “the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective” against it.
‘Constellation’ of mutations
The new variant has a “constellation of new mutations,” said Tulio de Oliveira, from the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa, who has tracked the spread of the delta variant in the country.
The “very high number of mutations is a concern for predicted immune evasion and transmissibility,” de Oliveira said.
“This new variant has many, many more mutations,” including more than 30 to the spike protein that affects transmissibility, he said. “We can see that the variant is potentially spreading very fast. We do expect to start seeing pressure in the health care system in the next few days and weeks.”
De Oliveira said a team of scientists from seven South African universities was studying the variant. They have 100 whole genomes of it and expect to have many more in the next few days, he said.
“We are concerned by the jump in evolution in this variant,” he said. One piece of good news is that it can be detected by a PCR test, he said.
After a period of relatively low transmission in which South Africa recorded just more than 200 new confirmed cases per day, in the past week the daily new cases rapidly increased to more than 1,200 on Wednesday. On Thursday, they jumped to 2,465.
The first surge was in Pretoria and the surrounding Tshwane metropolitan area and appeared to be cluster outbreaks from student gatherings at universities in the area, said Phaahla, the health minister. Amid the rise in cases, scientists studied the genomic sequencing and discovered the new variant.
Seriousness required
“This is clearly a variant that we must be very serious about,” said Ravindra Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge. “It has a high number of spike mutations that could affect transmissibility and immune response.”
Gupta said scientists in South Africa needed time to determine if the surge in new cases was attributable to the new variant.
“There is a high probability that this is the case,” he said. “South African scientists have done an incredible job of identifying this quickly and bringing it to the world’s attention.”
South African officials had warned that a new resurgence was expected from mid-December to early January and had hoped to prepare for that by getting many more people vaccinated, Phaahla said.
About 41% of South Africa’s adults have been vaccinated and the number of shots being given per day is relatively low, at fewer than 130,000, significantly below the government’s target of 300,000 per day.
South Africa has about 16.5 million doses of vaccines, by Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, in the country and is expecting delivery of about 2.5 million more in the next week, according to Nicholas Crisp, acting director-general of the national health department.
“We are getting in vaccines faster than we are using them at the moment,” Crisp said. “So for some time now, we have been deferring deliveries, not decreasing orders, but just deferring our deliveries so that we don’t accumulate and stockpile vaccines.”
South Africa, with a population of 60 million, has recorded more than 2.9 million COVID-19 cases including more than 89,000 deaths.
To date, the delta variant remains by far the most infectious and has crowded out other once-worrying variants including alpha, beta and mu. According to sequences submitted by countries worldwide to the world’s biggest public database, more than 99% are delta.
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Cameroon’s largest lake, Lake Ossa, has been invaded by salvinia molesta, an aquatic fern native to Brazil that hinders navigation, makes fishing impossible and blocks water access. Now, to combat the spreading plant, a local aid group is training fishermen to harvest the fern and transform it into organic coal. Anne Nzouankeu reports from Dizangué, Cameroon.
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Three Burkina Faso soldiers died and 11 militants were killed during an attack on the troops Wednesday, the army said, amid worsening insecurity that has sparked anti-government protests.
The attack took place against an army detachment in Thiou in the Yatenga Region, the army said in a statement Thursday.
“Eleven terrorists were neutralized. However, three soldiers fell during combat and dozens were wounded,” it said.
The attack by suspected Islamist militants was the latest of three since November 14 that have killed more than 60 security forces and more than a dozen civilians, sparking nationwide anger and protests, with calls for President Roch Marc Kabore to resign.
Opponents urged people to stage fresh protests Saturday against the government’s inability to contain a four-year insurgency by militants linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State that has killed thousands and displaced upward of a million people.
Ouagadougou’s mayor issued a statement Wednesday saying no protests had been authorized and asking police to take necessary measures to stop illegal demonstrations.
The education ministry said schools would be shut nationwide on Friday and Saturday for the safety of students and teachers, given the calls for protests.
The U.N. special representative for West Africa and the Sahel said Thursday that the situation in Burkina Faso was concerning, particularly in a region that has seen three military takeovers since the start of the year.
“I appeal to the wisdom of civil society and other actors to prevent a country like Burkina … from falling into a crisis like what is happening elsewhere,” Mahamat Saleh Annadif told a news conference.
Some of the anger in Burkina Faso last week was directed against former colonial power France, which has deployed thousands of soldiers in the West Africa Sahel region to combat the militants.
Hundreds of people in the city of Kaya massed over the weekend to block a convoy of French logistics and armored vehicles on its way to neighboring Niger. The convoy has still not been able to leave Burkina Faso.
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Italy has given safe haven to Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed “Afghan Girl” whose 1985 photo in National Geographic became a symbol of her country’s wars, Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office said Thursday.
The government intervened after Gula asked for help to leave Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country in August, a statement said, adding that her arrival was part of a broader program to evacuate and integrate Afghan citizens.
U.S. photographer Steve McCurry took the picture of Gula when she was a youngster, living in a refugee camp on the Pakistan-Afghan border.
Her startling green eyes, peering out from a headscarf with a mixture of ferocity and pain, made her known internationally, but her identity was only discovered in 2002 when McCurry returned to the region and tracked her down.
An FBI analyst, forensic sculptor and the inventor of iris recognition all verified her identity, National Geographic said at the time.
In 2016, Pakistan arrested Gula for forging a national identity card in an effort to live in the country.
The then Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, welcomed her back and promised to give her an apartment to ensure she “lives with dignity and security in her homeland.”
Since seizing power, Taliban leaders have said they would respect women’s rights in accordance with Sharia, or Islamic law. But under Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, women could not work, and girls were banned from school. Women had to cover their faces and be accompanied by a male relative when they left home.
Ethiopia’s government has asked the United States to stop spreading what it considers falsehoods against the country, the state minister of communication Kebede Dessisa said Thursday, after the State Department issued an alert about potential “terrorist attacks.”
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and rebellious forces from the Tigray region in the north have been fighting for more than a year, in a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions in Africa’s second most populous nation.
This week, the Irish government said Ethiopia had expelled four of six Irish diplomats from the country because of Ireland’s stance on the conflict. Spokespeople for the Ethiopian government also have warned against unnamed external threats and repeatedly criticized Western governments for what they say is inaccurate coverage of the war.
Kebede, the state minister of communication, was quoted by state broadcaster EBC as telling a news conference the U.S. government should refrain from disseminating “shameful fake news and defamation regarding Ethiopia.”
He referred to a statement Wednesday on Twitter by the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa that urged its citizens to maintain a high level of vigilance due to “the ongoing possibility of terrorist attacks in Ethiopia.”
Earlier this month, tens of thousands of Ethiopians lied in the capital to support the government, where they denounced the United States for alleged interference in Ethiopia’s internal affairs. Washington has urged its citizens to leave Ethiopia immediately while the security situation still permits.
On Thursday, dozens of protesters took their anger to the U.S. Embassy in the city, where they displayed banners reading “Interference is Undemocratic” and “Truth Wins.”
Asked for comment, a U.S. Embassy official said the safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the State Department, adding: “We continue to urge U.S. citizens in Ethiopia to depart now using commercially available flight options.”
Tigrayan forces and their allies have threatened to march on the capital Addis Ababa. They also have been fighting fiercely to try to cut a transport corridor linking landlocked Ethiopia with the region’s main port Djibouti.
On Tuesday, U.S. Special Envoy Jeffrey Feltman warned of an “alarming” increase in military operations and said both Abiy and the Tigrayan forces seem to believe they are on the cusp of military victory.
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The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) says the wheat seeds it recently provided to farmers in northeast Syria meet “high standards for safety and quality.”
The announcement comes after claims by the Syrian government that the seeds donated by the U.S. agency “are not suitable for cultivation.”
Last week, USAID donated 3,000 tons of wheat seeds to Syria’s northeast to help address wheat shortages in a region hit by a growing drought.
The Syrian government claimed Tuesday, however, that a sample analysis of the U.S.-provided seeds found they are not suitable for cultivation.
The “seeds contain a high rate of nematodes [plant-parasitic worms], which reached 40 percent, and this poses a great danger to agriculture in the region, especially as its effects cause great damage that is exacerbated by the passage of time,” Said Hajji, head of the government’s agriculture directorate in Hasaka province, was quoted by Syria’s state-run SANA news agency as saying.
The Syrian government official warned local farmers in northeast Syria against using the seeds, urging people to destroy them.
A USAID spokesperson, however, told VOA in a statement that the wheat seeds go through treatment and testing for safety and quality before they are donated.
“USAID is supplying Adana and Cihan wheat seed varieties to Syrian farmers, which are sourced from the region and undergo a series of tests at a qualified lab in (the) Kurdish Region of Iraq to verify their quality before they are transported and distributed to farmers in northeast Syria,” the spokesperson said.
The U.S. official added that the “seeds are tested for purity, germination rate, smut, presence of barley, insects, Cephalonia, nematodes, and to ensure they are effectively treated with fungicide.”
Some local farmers told the Kurdish news network Rudaw they have received wheat seeds from USAID partners and have already cultivated them in their farmlands.
Northeast Syria is largely under the control of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led military alliance that has been a major U.S. partner in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) terror group in the war-torn country.
The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has minimal presence in the area, doesn’t recognize an SDF-led local administration and opposes the presence of about 900 American troops, who are deployed in northeast Syria as part of an international coalition against IS.
John Saleh, a Washington-based Syrian affairs analyst said, “The Assad regime, along with its main backer, Russia, don’t want to see development in the Kurdish region, especially if it is supported by the U.S.”
He told VOA the Syrian government wants northeast Syria to remain economically weak in the hope that it will control it again if U.S. forces depart at some point.
“Therefore, they spread these types of absurd rumors to create fear and panic among farmers who are in desperate need for help during these tough economic times,” Saleh said.
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At least eight people were killed and 17 were wounded Thursday in a suicide car bombing targeting a security convoy near a school in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.
“A deafening, huge blast sent plumes of smoke into the sky, shocked us and forced us to run and duck behind walls,” said one eyewitness who spoke to VOA’s Somali Service on condition of anonymity. “I came out and saw the dead bodies of at least 8 people and more than 10 others wounded.”
Mogadishu police spokesperson Abdifatah Aden Hassan said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber targeting a security convoy.
“A suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden SUV car drove alongside a convoy providing security to the United Nations and detonated. Police counted the dead bodies of eight people, and 17 others were injured,” Hassan told reporters.
It was not immediately clear if any U.N. personnel or foreign nationals were among those killed or injured in blast and U.N. officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The blast occurred on the road between Mogadishu’s busy strategic KM4 Junction and the Tarabunka area in the Hodan district of the capital.
According to multiple eyewitnesses, the blast destroyed small businesses, a restaurant, and part of nearby Mucassar primary and secondary school.
“The blast occurred as more than a thousand students were in classes. Seventeen people injured in the school … [including] 13 students, a teacher and three school drivers,” Yusuf Hussein Abdi, one of the school administrators, told VOA Somali.
“Gunfire around the scene followed the blast, causing panic and shock in the school and forced our students to run for their lives,” he added.
A statement released by pro-al-Shabab media, including Andalus radio, the Islamist group’s mouthpiece, claimed responsibility for the attack and said an African Union convoy escorting western officials was the target.
Thursday’s blast comes four days after a suicide bomber in Mogadishu killed a prominent Somali journalist with state-run media, Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled, better known as Afrika.
It also comes amid corruption allegations and charges of marred elections in seats of the Lower House of federal parliament.
Somalia’s Acting National Intelligence and Security Agency boss Yasin Abdullahi Farey was elected to parliament Thursday in the central Somali state of Galmudug.
Meanwhile, the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, a Mogadishu-based independent think tank, has warned that electoral corruption might lead to political instability in Somalia.
“If the politicians’ gerrymandering of the indirect electoral process continues unchecked, Somalia’s state-building project might unravel,” a new report released by the group Thursday has warned.
The Islamist terrorist group al-Shabab has been fighting Somalia’s central government for years, seeking to take power and impose its strict interpretation of Islam’s Sharia law.
The group frequently carries out violent attacks in Somalia and elsewhere in its war against the Somalia military and the African Union-mandated forces that help protect the government.
Seynab Abukar and Jamal Osman contributed to this report.
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Pope Francis, meeting the prime minister of Lebanon Thursday, compared the country to a dying person and promised to do everything in his power to help it “rise again.”
Francis and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who took office in September after a year-long government vacuum, met privately for about 20 minutes and discussed the country’s devastating economic and social crisis, the Vatican said in a statement.
The fallout from Lebanon’s financial collapse in 2019 has left swathes of the nation in poverty and foreign donors are demanding an audit of the central bank and financial reforms before they release funds.
U.N. agencies have warned of social catastrophes, with one report saying that more than half of families in Lebanon had at least one child who skipped a meal amid a dramatic deterioration of living conditions.
“Lebanon is a country, a message and even a promise worth fighting for,” Francis told the extended Lebanese delegation after the private meeting.
He then referred to the Gospel story of Jairus in which Jesus raises up the man’s 12-year-old daughter, who was believed to be dead. Jesus told the parents she was only sleeping and the girl rose up when Jesus commanded.
“I pray that the Lord will take Lebanon by the hand and say ‘arise’,” the pope said, adding that the country was going through a “very difficult, ugly period” of its history. “I assure you of my prayers, my closeness and promise to work diplomatically with countries so that they unite with Lebanon to help it rise again.”
The seemingly never-ending crisis has sunk Lebanon’s currency by more than 90%, caused poverty to skyrocket and led many Lebanese to emigrate. Mikati’s government was finally formed after a year of political conflict over cabinet seats that only worsened the crisis.
In August, on the first anniversary of the huge chemical blast at Beirut port that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars of damage, Francis promised to visit Lebanon as soon as the situation permitted.