A small but influential group of Western nations has announced diplomatic boycotts of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, citing its record of human rights abuses.

The boycott allows the nations to send athletic delegations to the Games while refusing to send any high-ranking officials or dignitaries as an official delegation.

The nations involved in the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games include:

United States: White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters Monday that the U.S. “will not be contributing to the fanfare of the Games, but said the nation will be behind the members of Team USA “100% as we cheer them on from home.”

Australia: Relations between Canberra and Beijing have deteriorated in recent years over several issues, especially Australia’s push for an independent probe into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first detected in late 2019 in central China.China has retaliated by imposing heavy tariffs on Australian commodities.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Wednesday “there has been no obstacle” on Australia’s side to hold talks with China to resolve the issues, but said his country “will not step back from the strong position we’ve had standing up for Australia’s interests.”

Britain: Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the announcement Wednesday during a session in Parliament, adding that athletes would still participate as he did not believe “sporting boycotts are sensible.”

Canada: “We are extremely concerned about the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday in announcing his country’s diplomatic boycott.

Lithuania: Education, Science and Sport Minister Jurgita Šiugždinienė said in a press release last Thursday — days before the United States officially announced its diplomatic boycott — that she and other senior ministry officials will not travel to the Beijing Games. Relations between Vilnius and Beijing have worsened since Taiwan opened an unofficial embassy in Lithuanian capital last month.

Human rights groups have called on nations to fully boycott the Beijing Winter Games over China’s human rights abuses, including the detention of millions of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province and the crackdown on pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong.

Beijing has denounced the boycotts as “posturing” and has vowed to retaliate with unspecified “countermeasures” against the United States over its decision to stage a diplomatic boycott of the Games, which run Feb. 4-20.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.

 
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The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Wednesday to ban imports from China’s Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labor, one of three measures backed overwhelmingly as Washington continues its pushback against Beijing’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.

The House backed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act by an overwhelming 428-1. To become law, it must also pass the Senate and be signed by President Joe Biden.

The Uyghur measure would create a “rebuttable presumption” that all goods from Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has set up a vast network of detention camps for Uyghurs and other Muslim groups, were made with forced labor.

China denies abuses in Xinjiang, but the U.S. government and many rights groups say Beijing is carrying out genocide there.

Republicans have accused Biden’s White House and his fellow Democrats in Congress of slow-walking the legislation because it would complicate the president’s renewable energy agenda.

Xinjiang supplies much of the world’s materials for solar panels.

The White House — and congressional Democrats — deny delaying the bills.

Citing China’s human rights “atrocities,” the Biden administration on Monday announced that U.S. government officials would boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

The Democratic-led House also passed two other measures related to China and rights by huge margins Wednesday. The House voted 428-0 for a resolution saying that the International Olympic Committee violated its own human rights commitments by cooperating with China’s government.

It voted 427-1 for a resolution condemning the “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity” committed against Uyghurs and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups by China and calling for action at the United Nations. 
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With more than two dozen states poised to ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court gives them the OK next year, California clinics and their allies in the state legislature on Wednesday revealed a plan to make the state a safe place for those seeking reproductive care, including possibly paying for travel, lodging and procedures for people from other states. 

The California Future of Abortion Council, made up of more than 40 abortion providers and advocacy groups, released a list of 45 recommendations for the state to consider if the high court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 48-year-old decision that forbids states from outlawing abortion. 

The recommendations are not just a liberal fantasy. Some of the state’s most important policymakers helped write them, including Toni Atkins, the San Diego Democrat who leads the state Senate and attended multiple meetings.

Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom started the group himself. In an interview last week with The Associated Press he said some of the report’s details would be included in his budget proposal in January. 

“We’ll be a sanctuary,” Newsom said, adding he’s aware patients will likely travel to California from other states to seek abortions. “We are looking at ways to support that inevitability and looking at ways to expand our protections.” 

California already pays for abortions for many low-income residents through the state’s Medicaid program. And California is one of six states that require private insurance companies to cover abortions, although many patients still end up paying deductibles and co-payments. 

Enough money

But money won’t be a problem for state-funded abortion services for patients from other states. California’s coffers have soared throughout the pandemic, fueling a record budget surplus this year. Next year, the state’s independent Legislative Analyst’s Office predicts California will have a surplus of about $31 billion. 

California’s affiliates of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, got a preview of how people might seek abortions outside their home states this year when a Texas law that outlawed abortion after six weeks of pregnancy was allowed to take effect. California clinics reported a slight increase in patients from Texas.

Now, California abortion providers are asking California to make it easier for those people to get to the state.

The report recommends funding — including public spending — to support patients seeking abortion for travel expenses such as gas, lodging, transportation and child care. It asks lawmakers to reimburse abortion providers for services to those who can’t afford to pay — including those who travel to California from other states whose income is low enough that they would qualify for state-funded abortions under Medicaid if they lived there.

It’s unclear how many people would come to California for abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned. California does not collect or report abortion statistics. The Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, said 132,680 abortions were performed in California in 2017, or about 15% of all abortions nationally. That number includes people from out of state as well as teenagers, who are not required to have their parents’ permission for an abortion in California. 

Planned Parenthood, which accounts for about half of California’s abortion clinics, said it served 7,000 people from other states last year. 

A huge influx of people from other states “will definitely destabilize the abortion provider network,” said Fabiola Carrion, interim director for reproductive and sexual health at the national Health Law Program. She said out-of-state abortions would also likely be later-term procedures, which are more complicated and expensive.

More workers

The report asks lawmakers to help clinics increase their workforce to prepare for more patients by giving scholarships to medical students who pledge to offer abortion services in rural areas, help them pay off their student loans and assist with their monthly liability insurance premiums.

“We’re looking at how to build capacity and build workforce,” said Jodi Hicks, CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. “It will take a partnership and investment with the state.” 

Abortion opponents in California, meanwhile, are also preparing for a potential surge of patients from other states seeking the procedure — only they hope to persuade them not to do it. 

Jonathan Keller, president and CEO of the California Family Council, said California has about 160 pregnancy resource centers whose aim is to persuade women not to get abortions. He said about half of those centers are medical clinics, while the rest are faith-based counseling centers. 

Many of the centers are located near abortion clinics in an attempt to entice people to seek their counseling before opting to end pregnancies. Keller said many are already planning on increasing their staffing if California gets more patients. 

“Even if we are not facing any immediate legislative opportunities or legislative victories, it’s a reminder that the work of changing hearts and minds and also providing real support and resources to women facing unplanned pregnancies — that work will always continue,” Keller said.

He added: “In many ways, that work is going to be even more important, both in light of [the] Supreme Court’s decision and in light of whatever Sacramento decides they are going to do in response.” 
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U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would not order the deployment of American troops to Ukraine to counter a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“That is not on the table,” Biden told reporters on the White House South Lawn. “The idea the United States is going to unilaterally use force to confront Russia invading Ukraine is not in the cards right now. But what will happen is there will be severe consequences that will happen.”

Biden’s remarks came one day after meeting virtually for two hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin, after which he said the United States and its European allies have “deep concerns” about Moscow massing troops near the border it shares with Ukraine and would respond with “strong” economic sanctions if Russia invades the country.

But even without the prospect of sending in U.S. troops, top White House and Pentagon officials insisted Wednesday there are still ways Washington could bolster Kyiv’s defense.

“There are options to expand security assistance to assist in Ukraine’s self-defense,” Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told a virtual security summit, pointing to the ongoing provision of ammunition, javelin anti-tank systems, counter mortar radars and other capabilities.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan further defended the administration’s assistance.

“What it means to be proactive is to set the table,” Sullivan told the summit. “We have gone above and beyond what any administration has done in terms of providing the kinds of defensive support to the Ukrainian military well in advance of any contingency that might happen.”

“We are working with them across the board and that does include the kinds of anti-armor, defensive weaponry that is central to their planning for how they would try to resist a substantial incursion,” he said.

The U.S. president also said Wednesday, before leaving for Kansas City to tout his new Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, he hoped to announce meetings “at a higher level” with Russia and other NATO countries by Friday.

According to the Kremlin, Putin emphasized to Biden the lack of progress by Ukraine in implementing the 2015 Minsk agreement, which was meant to stop the fighting in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, and he raised “serious concerns about the provocative actions of Kyiv in the Donbass.”

The Russian leader accused NATO “of making dangerous attempts to conquer Ukrainian territory” and of building up its military capabilities near the Russian border, according to the Kremlin.

The Washington Post reported last Friday that Russia is planning a multifront offensive into Ukraine involving up to 175,000 troops as early as next year, citing U.S. officials and an intelligence document obtained by the newspaper.

Biden said that same day he has been developing a set of initiatives that will make it “very, very difficult” for Russia to escalate the situation at the border.

In turn, Moscow has suggested the U.S. and Ukraine might launch their own offensive.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
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The U.S. Senate rejected a resolution on Tuesday that would have prohibited the proposed sale of advanced medium range air-to-air missiles, missile launchers and other weapons and support to Saudi Arabia. 

The vote was 67 to 30 against the resolution, which was introduced by Republicans Rand Paul and Mike Lee, as well as Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats. 

They have refused to approve military sales for the kingdom without assurances U.S. equipment would not be used to kill civilians.

Backers of the sale noted that President Joe Biden’s administration has already barred U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia. 

“I completely agree with the need to hold Saudi leadership accountable for a variety of actions … but I also believe that it is important that our security partners know that we will uphold our commitments,” said Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

While many U.S. lawmakers consider Saudi Arabia an important partner in the Middle East, members of Congress have criticized the country for its involvement in the war in Yemen, a conflict considered one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. 

“Exporting more missiles to Saudi Arabia does nothing but further this conflict and pour more gasoline on already raging fire,” Sanders said in a speech urging support for the resolution of disapproval. 

The weapons package, which was approved by the State Department as well as leaders of the Senate and House foreign affairs committees, would include 280 AIM-120C-7/C-8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), 596 LAU-128 Missile Rail Launchers (MRL) along with other equipment and support. 

Raytheon Technologies makes the missiles. 

The Biden administration said earlier on Tuesday that it strongly opposed the resolution. 

Passage “would undermine the president’s commitment to aid in our partner’s defenses at a time of increased missile and drone attacks against civilians in Saudi Arabia,” the White House Office of Management of Budget said in a statement. 

 
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The omicron variant is making headlines as the world’s newest strain of coronavirus. In the United States, where nearly 200,000 new coronavirus cases were reported Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University, top public health officials warn Americans to stay vigilant even as vaccination rates rise and travelers from countries where the variant was first detected are shut out. 

Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a news briefing on Tuesday that the delta variant accounts for 99% of positive cases sequenced in the United States. She and other members of the White House’s COVID-19 response team asked the public for patience as researchers learn more about the omicron variant, which was first reported in South Africa on November 24.

In the U.S., 19 states have reported omicron infections, but that number is expected to rise as Americans continue to grapple with a pandemic that has persisted since the first COVID-19 case was identified in Washington state in January 2020.

“We must act together, in this moment, to address the impact of the current cases we are seeing, which are largely delta, and to prepare ourselves for the possibility of more omicron,” Walensky said. 

The jury is still out on several key questions related to the variant’s transmissibility, severity and ability to evade immune responses, according to Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser. But early data is encouraging, he said. Preliminary evidence from South Africa, where omicron has overtaken delta as the country’s dominant variant, shows shorter hospital visits and reduced need for ventilators.

“It’s too early to be able to determine the precise severity of disease, but … it appears that with the cases that are seen, we have not seen a very severe profile of disease,” Fauci said. “In fact, it might be – and I underscore, might – be less severe.” 

Still, Fauci said many COVID-19 variants demonstrate increased transmissibility, underscoring the interconnectedness of a pandemic where hot spots often expand to engulf larger shares of the population. Omicron may be more transmissible than the delta variant, according to Fauci.

To help fight this, Jeff Zients, the administration’s COVID-19 coordinator, said the U.S. has donated more than 300 million vaccine doses to 110 countries since Biden opened America’s vaccine reserves in June. These efforts join a new program headed by the U.S. Agency for International Development to expand access and infrastructure in countries where vaccination rates lag. The program, called the Initiative for Global Vaccine Access, pledges $400 million to shore up poorer countries’ vaccine manufacturing and delivery capabilities, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Southern African countries have been the subject of recent travel restrictions after researchers in South Africa first discovered the omicron variant. The Biden administration announced November 26 that travelers from eight African countries would be barred from the United States, and on Monday, the CDC began asking travelers passing through U.S. airports to submit proof of a negative COVID-19 test.

“There are lots of unknowns about the transmissibility, the severity, the vaccine impact of omicron,” Zients said. “We understand that this limitation is causing difficulty for those in southern Africa, but we think a temporary limitation on a limited number of countries until we have the answers we need is a reasonable measure for a reasonable period of time.” 

Zients said the administration continues to make progress in vaccinating Americans: Last week, 12.5 million shots were administered, the highest weekly total since May. On Tuesday, 5 million children ages 5 to 11 received at least one dose – a “major milestone in our effort to keep our kids safe and our schools open,” Zients said.

Nearly 61% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data. CDC data show climbing demand for vaccines as the omicron variant spreads and more age groups become eligible for the shot. Nearly 2.2 million vaccines were administered last Thursday, the highest single-day total in seven months. In the past week, nearly 7 million people received a booster, according to Zients.

Though research is still under way on how effective current vaccines are against the omicron variant, Walensky, Fauci and Zients encouraged Americans to stick with tried-and-true methods of limiting the spread of the coronavirus: testing, contact tracing, physical distancing and masks.

“At a time where there is much uncertainty with omicron, we find ourselves in a far better position now than we were last year,” Walensky said. “We have gained knowledge and experience from addressing other variants, such as delta, and we have far more science, tools and treatment options available.” 

 
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U.S. officials are hopeful of developing a good working relationship with Germany’s incoming chancellor, Olaf Scholz, whose new coalition government featuring the Social Democrats, the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats, has already indicated it will observe a longstanding nuclear sharing arrangement allowing the U.S. to continue to deploy 20 atomic bombs at an airbase in western Germany.

Since early on in the Cold War, Germany has allowed American tactical nuclear weapons to be based in the country, but the arrangement has been opposed by luminaries on the left among Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD). In their election manifestos, both the SPD and the Greens election programs condemned the basing of nuclear weapons in Germany.

The incoming coalition government’s decision to continue with the nuclear arrangement has prompted a sigh of relief in Washington. Any abandonment of the arrangement would have complicated transatlantic security ties. And the coalition government’s acceptance of the deal is being seen as a promising sign of how the relationship may develop between the new government and the Biden administration. 

Scholz has gone out of his way to emphasize the significance of German-U.S. relations, calling the United States “Europe’s closest and most important partner.” As finance minister in the outgoing government of his predecessor, Angela Merkel, he forged close ties with Washington policymakers. There are likely to be bumps in the road, though, according to Western diplomats.

They note the 64,000-word agreement struck by the German coalition partners — the SPD, the Greens and the Free Democrats — makes no mention of Nord Stream 2, the recently completed undersea natural-gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany. The U.S. and some of Germany’s eastern European neighbors want Germany to abandon the pipeline — and so do Germany’s Greens — but SPD insiders tell VOA it is highly unlikely Scholz will do so. 

If he decides to continue with Merkel’s policy and not to abandon the pipeline, Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Congress are likely to redouble their pressure on the Biden administration to impose sanctions on businesses involved with the pipeline, say analysts.

President Joe Biden waived Nord Stream sanctions earlier this year, a few months before the $11 billion pipeline was finished, on the grounds its completion was a “fait accompli.” His decision drew criticism from Republicans and some Democrats, but U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken sought to assuage congressional critics saying the Biden administration would respond, if the Kremlin seeks to leverage gas exports as a political weapon. 

Successive American administrations have opposed the building of Nord Stream 2, fearing it will deepen Europe’s energy dependence on Russia, as well as allow Russia to bypass Ukraine when it supplies energy to western European markets, depriving Kyiv of much needed transit fees.

The leaders of Germany’s three-party coalition formally signed a governing agreement Tuesday. The move came a day after the Greens voted to approve the deal, the last party to do so. Scholz is due to be sworn in later this week, marking the start of the post-Merkel era.

Coalition party leaders held a press conference in Berlin just hours before President Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin were set to hold a critical discussion amid rising tensions over a massive Russian military buildup along its border with Ukraine. Scholz was pressed to clarify his foreign policy aims and said his first overseas trip as chancellor will be to Paris and then Brussels — a signal of his government’s intentions to ensure “Europe is strong and sovereign,” he said. 

Scholz also emphasized the importance of transatlantic cooperation, saying he soon would be talking with President Biden. “It is now clear what binds us together,” Scholz said. On the Russian troop buildup, the incoming chancellor said it must be made “very, very clear” to Russia that threats to Ukraine would be unacceptable. But he did not detail how Germany would respond to any new Russian military action in Ukraine. 

Asked about what policy he intended to pursue toward China, he answered only by saying his immediate priorities would be working with the EU and the U.S. Some analysts predict Scholz is likely to continue with Merkel’s approach toward China. Merkel was the driving force behind the signing last December of an EU-China agreement on investment and trade that caused unease in Washington. 

Critics of the deal said it would give China preferential access to European markets while Beijing continued to tamp down Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and maintain detention centers in Xinjiang province, where China’s Communist government has interned more than a million Uighurs, according to rights groups. Though signed, the European Parliament has not voted on the agreement amid rising tensions between the EU and China.

Some diplomats don’t expect Scholz to significantly change course from Merkel when it comes to China, arguing the German business lobby is strong and the country’s export-driven economy needs to be exporting to China. But other European diplomats tell VOA that with China becoming increasingly assertive, they suspect Scholz will have little alternative but to adopt a more muscular policy regarding Beijing.

Scholz appeared to signal that last month, when, during a press conference in Berlin, he highlighted his eagerness to pursue a values-driven foreign policy. “That which makes us who we are, that we are democracies, that we stand for freedom and the rule of law, will of course play a role, because we are particularly connected with some countries, especially the United States, because these values have shaped us,” he said.

How Germany responds in coming days toward an increasingly bellicose Russia will be an early indicator of what kind of foreign policy leader Scholz will be, say analysts. Putin may have decided to time the Russian military buildup to coincide with Germany’s political transition, according to Benjamin Haddad, senior director of the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council, a research group in New York. “Putin may think this is the right moment to act, with Germany going through a political transition and with France heading toward an election,” he told VOA recently. 

But if the Russian leader thinks he can bank on Berlin being distracted, that might be a miscalculation, Haddad underscores. He says the new center-left German government led by Scholz will “want to show it can be a good transatlantic partner.”  
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