The 94th Academy Awards ceremony ended in a climactic way, giving the Oscar for Best Picture to “CODA,” a seeming underdog that celebrated deaf representation. Other highlights included an unexpected scuffle and women sweeping the Oscars for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Song. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
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Month: March 2022
Philippines, US Hold Biggest Military Exercises in Seven Years
The Philippines and the United States kicked off on Monday their biggest joint military drills since 2015, underscoring improved defense ties after President Rodrigo Duterte had scaled back some earlier war games to pursue warmer ties with China.
The annual “Balikatan” (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises involve 8,900 troops this year and will include live fire exercises and training with amphibious assault vehicles.
Since taking office in 2016, Duterte had sought closer ties with China in exchange for pledges of loans, aid and investment, and distanced himself from the United States, a treaty ally.
But last year he withdrew a threat to scrap a two-decade old pact governing the presence of U.S. troops in the Southeast Asian country.
“We are sending a message to the world that the alliance between our countries is stronger than ever,” Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement.
The Balikatan deployment in 2017 had been nearly halved to 5,500 troops from the previous year and stripped of all combat-related exercises at the behest of Duterte, who had viewed them as an obstacle to rapprochement with China.
Live fire exercises returned in 2018 and 2019 but the scale of the drills remained smaller and in 2020 they were cancelled due to the pandemic, while only 640 troops took part last year.
U.S. exercise director, Major General Jay Bargeron, said the latest drills, which are designed to improve the country’s defensive capabilities and readiness to respond to crises, should not be seen as a show of force.
But the exercises, which will last for two weeks, come as Manila has slammed China’s maritime activities in disputed parts of the South China Sea.
Despite efforts to build closer ties, the Philippines has become more critical of Beijing’s actions, including what it calls “swarming” by fishing vessels manned by militia off the disputed Spratly islands, and a blockade of a military resupply mission last year.
Manila also recently summoned China’s ambassador over what it called the “illegal intrusion and lingering presence” of a Chinese navy vessel.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which about $3 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims on the waterway.
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Heineken Exits Russia in Wake of Ukraine War
THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS — Dutch brewer Heineken announced on Monday it was pulling out of Russia, becoming the latest Western firm to exit the country in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The beer company had already halted the sale and production of its Heineken brand in Russia, as well as suspended new investments and exports to the country earlier this month.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened to watch the war in Ukraine continue to unfold and intensify,” Heineken said in a statement.
“Following the previously announced strategic review of our operations, we have concluded that Heineken’s ownership of the business in Russia is no longer sustainable nor viable in the current environment,” the statement said.
“As a result, we have decided to leave Russia.”
Heineken said it would aim for an “orderly transfer” of its business to a new owner in compliance with international and local laws and would not take any profit from the transaction, which will cost the company 400 million euros ($438 million) in exceptional charges.
The company said it would continue on reduced operations during a transition period to reduce the risk of nationalisation and “ensure the ongoing safety and wellbeing of our employees.”
“In all circumstances we guarantee the salaries of our 1,800 employees will be paid to the end of 2022 and will do our utmost to safeguard their future employment.”
Hundreds of Western firms have closed shops and offices in Russia since the war started, a list that includes famous names such as Ikea, Coca-Cola and MacDonald’s.
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Ukraine Prioritizing Sovereignty in New Russia Talks
Turkey is hosting latest round of peace talks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
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Latest Developments in Ukraine: March 28
Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine
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Central African Republic Peace Talks End Without Concrete Progress
Peace talks in the Central African Republic, where civil war has raged since 2013, concluded Sunday without any concrete progress.
The talks kicked off Monday — but no rebel groups were invited, and the opposition is boycotting the forum.
President Faustin Archange Touadera promised in late 2020, following his controversial reelection, to hold the so-called Republican Dialogue for reconciliation.
It was then a major surprise when he announced March 15 that talks would begin with the opposition and civil society March 21.
But the agenda for the talks remained vague and lacked concrete aims.
Regional experts say the dialogue forum looked increasingly like an attempt to pacify the international community, which has put the Central African Republic, one of the world’s poorest nations, on a drip feed.
There were tense moments during talks this week held at the National Assembly in Bangui, especially when a constitutional change allowing a head of state to stand for a third term was raised at initial discussions.
The proposal was later withdrawn.
During a closing ceremony, chair of the dialogue Richard Filkota announced 600 recommendations had been made.
One of the proposals was an end to the weapons embargo, imposed by the United Nations in 2013 after a coalition of armed groups overthrew Francois Bozize’s regime and plunged the country into civil war. The president has always said he would bring peace to this country with dialogue, all the recommendations are necessary,” a spokesman for the presidency, Albert Yaloke Mokpeme, told AFP.
But Thierry Vircoulon, a specialist in Central Africa at the French Institute of International Relations, said the recommendations “will not be implemented.”
“Even if the government wanted to implement them, it doesn’t have the time or the money,” he added.
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Malta Labour Party Cruises to Third Term Despite Corruption Woes
Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela promised “greater humility” Sunday as his Labour Party claimed they were headed for a landslide win in elections to secure a third term in government, despite a legacy of corruption and the lowest turnout in decades.
Official results are not expected until early Monday morning, but Labour Party officials briefed reporters that they were heading for a big win based on preliminary results, while the opposition Nationalist Party conceded defeat.
“The public decided that Malta must continue moving forward,” Abela told reporters at the counting center in the town of Naxxar, as supporters nearby chanted his name.
“It is a result which brings a greater responsibility, and which we must translate into greater humility,” he added, vowing to work “with a sense of national unity… in the interests of everyone.”
Abela had campaigned on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and Labour’s economic record during nine years in power. By contrast, the opposition Nationalist Party has been hamstrung by internal divisions.
But turnout was lower than expected after a lackluster campaign limited by coronavirus restrictions, dogged by worries about the war in Ukraine and perhaps some resignation among voters after opinion polls indicated a Labour landslide.
The Electoral Commission estimated turnout at 85.5%, the lowest in a Maltese general election since 1955 — and the first time it has dropped below 90% since 1966.
However Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne told AFP the turnout was “high by European standards.”
Labour is still tainted by the high-level corruption exposed by journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb near her home in October 2017, in a murder that shocked the world.
Seven men have either been accused or admitted complicity in her murder, but a public inquiry last year said the state under then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat must bear responsibility for having created a “culture of impunity” in which her enemies felt they could silence her.
Muscat had already stepped down in January 2020, after public protests at his perceived attempts to shield allies from the probe into her death. Abela replaced him following a Labour party vote.
The 44-year-old lawyer has since moved to strengthen good governance and press freedom, including by reducing the prime minister’s powers over judges and the police.
Caruana Galizia’s family says he has not gone far enough, however.
The Nationalist Party had pressed the issue of corruption on the campaign trail, highlighting the gray-listing last year of Malta by an international money-laundering watchdog, the FATF.
Despite few natural resources, Malta built a thriving economy based largely on tourism, financial services and online gaming, but it has long fought allegations it acts as a quasi-tax haven.
It has also been criticized by the EU and anti-corruption campaigners for its “golden passports” scheme, which awards citizenship to wealthy investors.
Under political pressure, Abela suspended the scheme for Russians and Belarusians after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Politics is hugely important in Malta, a Catholic-majority country of around 516,000 people living in 316 square kilometers (122 square miles) off the coast of Sicily.
Labour agents attending the election count had earlier erupted into cheers at news of victory, jumping for joy and banging the Perspex screens through which they had been monitoring the officials checking ballots.
As the day wore on, cars decorated in Labour’s red and white flags filled the roads, honking their horns, while outside the party’s headquarters supporters gathered dancing and cheering.
Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech later visited the count center to thank his own supporters, where he vowed to keep working for “those people who are not happy with the current government.”
Aside from the economy, the environment was a big issue on what is the smallest and most densely populated country in the European Union.
Huge development projects lined Malta’s coastline, green spaces are squeezed, concrete trucks cause gridlock on the streets and the sound of construction fills the air.
There is a green party, the ADPD, but no third party has held even a single seat in Malta’s parliament since before independence from Britain in 1964.
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Nigerian Citizens Worried After Armed Men Attacked Airport, Killed One Official In Kaduna
Many Nigerian citizens and security experts are raising concerns that the country may be overturn by terrorists after some 200 gunmen Saturday invaded an airport in Kaduna State and killed an official. The attack followed days of violent raids in the state with dozens of people killed.
Saturday’s attack was the latest in a spate of violence that has hit the northwestern Nigerian state for days.
Federal airport authorities said the armed terrorists invaded ‘runway five’ of the airport from a nearby forest and opened fire, killing one official and causing flight delays.
Kaduna State Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said the military deployed to the airport immediately to repel the attack before it escalated.
Armed gangs have been terrorizing the state for years. In the last few weeks, dozens of people were reported killed in series of attacks on local communities southward of the state where sectarian violence has persisted.
Jakes Tudu, an activist from southern Kaduna, says the recent development is worrying.
“I’m scared because it is actually overwhelming. These guys are actually doing the unimaginable, like things you could not believe or imagine,” Tudu said. “Coming out in broad daylight to attack the airport is really crazy and scary.”
Saturday’s attack also occurred as Nigerian President and top officials of his ruling political party, All Progressive Congress (APC) hosted thousands of people in Abuja to mark the party’s conference ahead of next year’s polls, sparking criticism.
The critics say the attacks highlighted major failures on election promises made to Nigerians.
“Being a state that has the Nigerian defense academy, we have the police college, name it, Kaduna used to be a fortified ground,” Tudu said. “But now today we have these guys moving around in Kaduna kidnapping people.”
In 2015, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to address security concerns and boost the country’s economy.
But authorities have been struggling to curb frequent attacks by armed gangs who rose to prominence for the mass kidnappings of students and the killings of local residents since late 2020.
Authorities say the military operations against gangs have been successful and that hundreds have been killed in recent months — the latest being the killing of more than 200 armed gangs, known locally as ‘bandits’ in central Niger state earlier this month.
But security analyst Senator Iroegbu says while the military appears to be making some progress there’s still reason to be worried.
“Government’s claim to be winning the war I’m sure it’s a way of motivation,” Iroegbu said. “Yes there’s some progress but evidence like this shows that the war has not been won.”
Aids groups say in recent years, that attacks like the one in southern Kaduna have sacked communities and displaced at least 30,000 people from their homes.
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For a California Cafe, a New Lease Is Hope After Two Bad Years
Last month, not quite two years after the COVID-19 pandemic sent the U.S. and world economies into their steepest downturn in decades, Chris and Amy Hillyard renewed the lease on their downtown Oakland coffee spot, Farley’s East.
The location had notched record sales in February 2020 and then, like all other “non-essential” local businesses, had to shut the following month as authorities moved to curb the spread of the new and deadly infection.
Two years on, most of the nearby office workers who used to pop in for lunch and lattes are still doing their jobs from home, and the cafe still doesn’t bring in enough money to cover monthly expenses, Chris Hillyard said.
That’s despite their landlord agreeing to a slightly lower rent for the new five-year term, he said. But Hillyard is undeterred.
“Two bad years isn’t going to kill us off,” he said. “We’ll get through it… We are betting on that happening.”
On the face of it, it’s a good bet. COVID cases have dropped, schools have loosened rules, and more local businesses are bringing workers back to their offices. Last quarter, the vacancy rate for U.S. office space fell for the first time since mid-2019, figures from CBRE Econometric Advisors show.
There’s still a long way to go. CBRE economists don’t expect the vacancy rate to ease to its 30-year average of 15% until 2026.
A back-to-work barometer measuring keycard swipes and other building access data from security firm Kastle Systems registered just 40% of pre-pandemic levels across 10 major cities this week; the San Francisco metro area registered around 30%.
“This is about to jump considerably,” said Phil Ryan, director of U.S. Office Research at JLL, citing announcements from large tech and financial tenants to have employees back in the office at least half time beginning in late March. “Over the short-term, foot traffic is likely to rise.”
High inflation, scarce labor
Still, Hillyard’s optimism is challenged by inflation that’s already the highest in 40 years and could rise even more.
Consumer prices were up 7.9% in February year over year, and look set to post an even bigger gain this month as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives up the price of gas, wheat and other commodities.
The Hillyards are feeling the pinch. Each week brings a new notice from one supplier or another: a March 1 price hike from the bakery that supplies its pastries, a half-gallon of milk now $2.68 instead of $2.25, a 25% increase in the price of coffee beans.
To compensate, Farley’s raised its own prices last month for the first time since the start of the pandemic, about 10% for most items. And though customers seemed to take it in stride, it’s not something Hillyard says he will be able to soon repeat.
“Prices can’t keep going up or the whole system will go down,” Hillyard said.
Meanwhile, he said he can’t hire enough workers, despite offering higher pay. The Oakland-area workforce – the pool of those working or in the market for a job – has been recovering but was about 33,000 people short of its prepandemic level in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a deficit of about 2.3% from February 2020, 2 percentage points greater than the national average.
With only five employees on shifts that really need six, “it’s hard on the staff because they are asked to do more,” he said.
Nonetheless, the Hillyards are hopeful. One reason is the success of their second, smaller operation in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, where sales have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels thanks to plenty of foot traffic from work-from-homers and brisk sales of a new line of merchandise including T-shirts, totes and coffee mugs.
A second reason is the long-planned opening of two airport locations, one in San Francisco, where international travel is still sluggish, and a second one starting last month at Oakland airport, where Southwest Airline’s domestic business is burgeoning.
Yes, local gas prices jumped about a dollar on the gallon in the weeks after Russia’s invasion, and Hillyard says he’s probably in for fuel surcharges ahead as delivery trucks try to recoup losses.
But after two rough years, “I just can’t worry about something so specific,” he said.
“We’re just looking to move forward and sell more coffee.”
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Al-Shabab Surge in Somalia’s Suicide Attacks ‘Change of Tactics,’ Experts Say
Al-Shabab extremists in Somalia are getting “bolder” in their attacks and have increased using suicide bombers wearing homemade explosives in what security experts call a “change in tactics.”
The Islamist militant group mounted one of its deadliest attacks Wednesday, targeting elections at the regional presidential palace in Beledweyne town around 300 km north of Mogadishu. Forty-eight people were killed, and more than 100 others wounded.
Among the dead was a member of parliament, Amina Mohamed, a vocal critic to the government, who was on the campaign trail when she was targeted and killed by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest.
Hours earlier, two Shabab militants breached the heavily fortified compound at Mogadishu’s airport, where presidential elections are scheduled to take place. Offices for the U.N., Western embassies and the African Union peacekeeping mission are in the same area.
For more than a decade, al-Shabab has been fighting the U.N.-backed Somali government in Mogadishu, and during its violent campaign it has used a range of tactics that include intimidation and use of violence.
But in recent months, al-Shabab increased attacks in which individual suicide bombers deliver explosives and detonate them on selected targets with precision to inflict the greatest possible damage, security experts told VOA Somali service.
In November of last year, Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled, a critic of al-Shabab, was killed in Mogadishu in a suicide attack carried out by a man wearing a vest.
In January 2022, former Somali government spokesman and now lawmaker Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu survived a similar attack on his car by a man wearing a suicide bomb. Militants also carried out several other attacks in the same way.
“So, this shows a change of a tactics from using vehicles and armed raids to more individual suicide bombers,” said former Somalia National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) chief Abdullahi Mohamed Ali. “For them [al-Shabab] deploying suicide bombers, who strike intended targets, is cheaper, effective, and easier strategy,” Ali said.
Former NISA deputy director Abdisalan Guled says when one of the group’s strategies fails, it always comes up with another.
“Before, the militants used mainly gunmen storming on military bases, government offices, hotels, and restaurants, roadside IEDs, drive-by shootings, guerrilla style ambushes, and among others. But now as security at government key installations and military basis beefed up, they use more bombers wearing suicide-vests with huge magnitude and impact,” Guled said.
Al-Shabab now stronger
Former deputy NISA chief Ismail Osman believes the group is now in a stronger financial position than before, allowing it to purchase more bomb making materials and weapons.
“The group generates millions of dollars of revenue from its taxation of all aspects of Somalia’s economy, including the money they get from Zakat, a big revenue stream, an annual religious tax of 2.5% of an individual’s wealth. Therefore, they used much of the money to purchase weapons and the materials they need to manufacture more homemade bombs,” said Osman.
Guled, agrees that the terror group is possibly now in one of its strongest positions in years, given its increasing willingness to launch bolder, daylight, face-to-face attacks while penetrating security agencies to plan their bombings and assassinations.
“Another thing that helped the group to grow stronger and bolder is how they have been able to infiltrate within the country’s security agencies and institutions “to operate within,” said Guled.
“Along with their military dedication, al-Shabab always had cohesive and adaptable strategies and intelligence structures capable of disguising simply as ordinary civil servants, and more into the security agencies ranks,” he added.
The experts also said repeated political disputes among the country’s top leaders and more focus on the elections gave the militants a better breeding ground.
“The national security has been politicized by rival politicians jockeying for power and that created division and negligence within the security sectors. Also, the focus of the government for more than a year shifted from security to elections and disputes between the top leaders. That indeed gave al-Shabab a space to remobilize and plan their attacks accordingly,” said Osman.
“Political disputes and lack of effective government security measures in place in Somalia continue to weaken the security apparatus and strengthen the militants,” said Ali.
According to Somali security data, al-Shabab commands as many as 10,000 fighters across Somalia and parts of Kenya.
U.S. troops withdrawal
Somalia security efforts and the fight against al-Shabab has been mainly relying on the support of the U.N.-backed African Union Mission in the country, and limited military assistance from the United States and other international partners.
According to Somali military officials, the U.S. military has been very effective in degrading al-Shabab’s capacity and movement through kinetic airstrikes with the coordination of the Somali National Army. But the U.S. military withdrew from Somalia in 2021, in one of the last actions of President Donald Trump’s presidency.
Since then, security concerns have been growing sharply as the country’s fragile political system wrestled with the completion of a bitterly contested election process and increased attacks by militants.
Guled says the withdrawal of some vital U.S. military forces and the decrease of airstrikes by U.S. drones gave the militants a freedom to move around the country and plan their attacks accordingly.
“Before, due to the U.S military pressure and drone attacks targeting their leaders and possible explosive vehicles, al-Shabaab was largely confined to rural areas and hideouts, but now, with the reduction of the U.S. troops’ direct engagement with the group, the decrease of the drone attacks, plus a lack of military movement on the government and AMISOM side, al-Shabab has the opportunity and the momentum to show off its military presence and capability and that it was operating without fear,” said Guled.
This report originated in VOA Somali service’s “THE TORCH” program.
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New World Order? Pandemic and War Rattle Globalization
Globalization, which has both fans and detractors alike, is being tested like never before after the one-two punch of COVID and war.
The pandemic had already raised questions about the world’s reliance on an economic model that has broken trade barriers but made countries heavily reliant on each other as production was delocalized over the decades.
Companies have been struggling to cope with major bottlenecks in the global supply chain.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has raised fears about further disruptions, with everything from energy supplies to auto parts to exports of wheat and raw materials under threat.
Larry Fink, the head of financial giant BlackRock, put it bluntly: “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put an end to the globalization we have experienced over the last three decades.”
“We had already seen connectivity between nations, companies and even people strained by two years of the pandemic,” Fink wrote in a letter to shareholders Thursday.
But U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen disagrees.
“I really have to push back on that,” she told CNBC in an interview.
“We’re deeply involved in the global economy. I expect that to remain, it is something that has brought benefits to the United States, and many countries around the world.”
‘An animal that evolves’
Shortages of surgical masks at the outset of the pandemic in 2020 became a symbol of the world’s dependence on Chinese factories for all sorts of goods.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has raised concerns about food shortages around the globe as the two agricultural powerhouses are among the major breadbaskets of the world.
It has also put a spotlight on Europe’s — and especially Germany’s — heavy dependence on gas supplies from Russia, now a state under crippling sanctions.
“A number of vulnerabilities” have emerged that show the limits of having supply chains spread out in different locations, the former director general of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, told AFP.
The global trade tensions have prompted the European Union, for instance, to seek “strategic autonomy” in critical sectors.
The production of semiconductors — microchips that are vital to industries ranging from video games to cars — is now a priority for Europe and the United States.
“The pandemic did not bring radical changes in terms of reshoring (bringing back business from overseas),” said Ferdi De Ville, professor at Ghent Institute for International & European Studies.
“But this time it might be different because (the conflict) will have an impact on how businesses think about their investment decisions, their supply chains,” he said.
“They have realized that what was maybe unthinkable before the past month has now become realistic, in terms of far-reaching sanctions,” said de Ville, author of an article on “The end of globalization as we know it.”
The goal now is to redirect strategic dependence towards allies, what he coined as “friend-shoring” instead of “off-shoring.”
A U.S.-EU agreement Friday to create a task force to wean Europe off its reliance on Russian fossil fuels is the most recent example of friend-shoring.
For Lamy, this shows “there is no de-globalization.”
Globalization, he said, is “an animal that evolves a lot.”
Decoupling from China
Globalization had already faced an existential crisis when former U.S. President Donald Trump launched a trade war with China in 2018, triggering a tit-for-tat exchange of punitive tariffs.
His successor, Joe Biden, invoked the need to “buy American” in his sweeping investment plan to “rebuild America.”
“We will buy American to make sure everything from the deck of an aircraft carrier to the steel on highway guardrails are made in America,” he said in his State of the Union speech.
One concept that emerged during the Trump years was “decoupling” — the idea of untangling the U.S. and Chinese economies.
The threat has not subsided, especially with China refusing to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The United States has warned the world’s second-biggest economy would face “consequences” if it provides material support to Russia in its war in Ukraine.
China already had other contentious issues with the West, such as Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy which Beijing has vowed to seize one day, by force if necessary.
“It is not in China’s interest for now to go into competition with the West,” said Xiaodong Bao, portfolio manager at the Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management firm.
But the war in Ukraine is a chance for China to reduce its reliance on the U.S. dollar. The Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing is in talks with Saudi Arabia to buy oil in yuan instead of dollars.
“China will continue to build foundations for the future,” Bao said. “The financial decoupling is accelerating.”
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Blinken to Attend Israeli-Arab Summit, Eyes Iran And Ukraine in Mideast Tour
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicks off a Middle East trip on Sunday in Israel, where he will take part in a rare Arab-Israeli summit and hold talks with regional partners on stalled Iran nuclear talks and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Blinken will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on the first leg of a Middle East and North Africa trip lasting until March 30.
Topping the agenda are the Iran nuclear talks, about which Israel and Gulf Arab states have voiced strong misgivings, and Russia’s monthlong invasion of Ukraine, a conflict in which Israel has emerged as a potential mediator.
“What you’ve got is a two-fold agenda,” Dennis Ross of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said. “One is Ukraine, to talk about how we see things but also to hear from the Israelis, what they are picking up … The other part of it is going to be Iran, because there is every expectation on the Israeli side that we are going to see a deal.”
The nuclear talks had been close to an agreement several weeks ago until Russia made last-minute demands of the United States, insisting that sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine should not affect its trade with Iran.
Lapid will host Blinken and their counterparts from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco at an Israeli desert retreat to discuss how to improve cooperation. The three Arab nations have been part of the so-called Abraham Accords, agreements brokered by the Trump administration in 2020 to normalize ties with Israel.
Egypt’s foreign minister, whose country on Saturday marked 43 years of peace with Israel, will also join the summit.
Blinken’s visit comes at a time when ties with several countries in the Middle East face challenges as key allies such as Israel and the UAE question the Biden administration’s commitment to the region.
While Washington’s strategic focus has been on China, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has further complicated U.S. foreign policy priorities, leaving it to grapple with challenges on several fronts.
The venue for the foreign ministers’ meeting is Sde Boker, where Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, retired and is buried. The remote Negev desert farm collective has long been a symbol of Israeli innovation.
It will provide an opportunity for delegates to hold discussions in repose, one Israeli official involved in the planning said, calling it “our version of Camp David.”
Sde Boker may also have provided an uncontroversial alternative to Jerusalem, which Israel considers its capital – a status not recognized by most countries in the absence of a resolution to Palestinian claims on the city.
Blinken is set to visit the West Bank, Morocco and Algeria. He will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, the State Department said in a statement.
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Latest Developments in Ukraine: March 27
Full developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine
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Biden Says Russia’s Vladimir Putin ‘Cannot Remain in Power’
In an impassioned speech Saturday at the end of his trip to Europe, U.S. President Joe Biden said his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin ‘cannot remain in power’ and vowed to defend every inch of NATO territory. The speech in Warsaw came at the end of a frantic week of diplomacy with NATO, G-7 and European allies, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Henry Ridgwell reports from the Polish capital.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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State Department: US to Provide $100 Million in Civilian Security Assistance to Ukraine
The United States intends to provide Ukraine with an additional $100 million in civilian security assistance, the State Department said Saturday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the assistance would be to build the capacity of the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs with a view to aid “border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure.”
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Six Niger Troops Killed in Attack Near Burkina Faso Border
Six Niger soldiers have been killed in an attack in the southwest of the country, near the Burkina Faso border, the defense ministry announced Saturday.
The attack, which took place Thursday, was the second in 10 days, marking a return to violence in the region after weeks of relative calm.
“A Nigerien Armed Forces escort mission was ambushed by a group of armed terrorists in the vicinity of the village of Kolmane,” the ministry said in a statement giving the first information of Thursday’s attack.
The defense ministry gave the toll as “six soldiers killed, one injured and a vehicle destroyed,” with the casualties on the attackers’ side “not determined.”
The Tillaberi region, where Thursday’s attack took place, is a vast area on the borders of Burkina Faso and Mali, which has been the scene of bloody attacks by jihadi movements linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group since 2017.
Last week suspected jihadis attacked a bus and a truck in the southwest, killing 21 people.
Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, in a new approach, has initiated dialogue with jihadi leaders in an attempt to keep the peace.
But the military response continues, with some 12,000 soldiers fighting in a dozen anti-jihadi operations, nearly half of them along the more than 1,400 kilometers of borders with Mali and Burkina Faso.
your ad here‘This Man Cannot Remain in Power,’ Biden Says of Putin
President Joe Biden aimed squarely at Vladimir Putin in an impassioned address in Warsaw directed at Ukrainians, Europeans and the global community, blaming the Russian president for the monthlong siege on Ukraine and saying, “for God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
By doing so, Biden finally drew a red line that Ukrainians have been begging him to draw – but not through the tanks, jets, air support and military action Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly asked of the West.
Such strong words by the U.S. president Saturday effectively end any further chance of U.S.-Russia diplomacy, and they set the U.S. and Russia again on opposite sides in an ideological divide that Biden warned would “not be won in days or months,” invoking the painful struggles of former communist nations – including Poland – to separate from the former USSR.
But just minutes later, Biden’s administration walked back some of his rhetoric, with a senior administration telling reporters: “The president’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
The Kremlin was dismissive of the president’s remarks when asked about them after the speech. Its chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russians would decide who their leader should be.
“That’s not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians.”
Biden also praised the Ukrainian people, who have conscripted every able-bodied adult male to the fight, which recently passed the one-month mark.
“Their brave resistance is part of a larger fight for essential democratic principles that unite all free people: the rule of law; fair and free elections; the freedom to speak, to write and assemble; the freedom to worship as one chooses; the freedom of the press: these principles are essential in a free society,” Biden said to the crowd of nearly 1,000 people. It included Ukrainian and Polish officials, ordinary citizens and diplomats who crowded in the courtyard in the biting cold at Warsaw’s Royal Castle, which was lit in the colors of the Ukrainian and Polish flags, blue and yellow, red and white.
Biden also appealed to the Russian people, saying, “This is not who you are. This is not the future reserve you deserve for your families, and your children. I’m telling you the truth. This war is not worthy of you, the Russian people.”
The speech comes at the very end of a whirlwind diplomatic tour, in which Biden met with NATO, European and G-7 leaders in Brussels and then headed to southeastern Poland, where Patriot missiles were prominently parked near a temporary U.S. base, within easy range of western Ukraine.
The city of Lviv, just 50 miles from the Polish border, has come under increasing attack in recent days and was struck by rockets in two attacks Saturday. When asked earlier in the day if Putin has adjusted his bold, all-fronts conventional warfare strategy on Ukraine, Biden replied, “I don’t think he has.”
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Southern Malawi Records Continued Rise in Cholera Cases
Southern Malawi has started recording a rise in cholera cases, which health authorities blame on flooding from a recent tropical storm and cyclone. More than 30 people have been infected and two have died. UNICEF is intervening to reduce the spread of the disease.
Malawi confirmed the first cholera case March 2 in the Machinga district.
Health authorities say the disease has so far hit the Nsanje and Machinga districts in southern Malawi with a cumulative number of cases now reaching 33. There have been two deaths as of Friday.
“Out of 33 cases, eight cases were still receiving treatment at the cholera treatment center, Ndamera treatment center specifically. We also have a cumulative number of two deaths. The rest were discharged,” said George Mbotwa, the spokesperson for the Nsanje District Health Office.
He says they have put in place measures to prevent and control the further spread of the disease such as surveillance and contact tracing.
“We are also doing health education; health talks in [evacuation] camps where there are a lot of people and of course in surrounding communities. We have also instituted health workers; HSAs (Health Surveillance Assistants) in all uncharted entry points where actually they are conducting health promotion in water treatment efforts, health talks and all that,” he said.
Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with bacteria. The disease affects both children and adults if untreated and it can kill within hours. Cholera is more common during the rainy season.
Health authorities in Malawi say the disease is largely a result of floods caused by Tropical Storm Ana and Cyclone Gombe, which hit Malawi in the past two months.
Estere Tsoka, an emergency specialist for the U.N.’s children agency, UNICEF, in Malawi, told VOA that UNICEF is making several interventions to control the further spread of the disease.
“UNICEF is supporting the disinfection of household water sources and also chlorination of water sources at community level that got affected by the floods. UNICEF is also supporting sanitation of the cholera treatment centers that have been established so that they should not become a source of infection,” she said.
Tsoka also says plans are underway to procure a cholera vaccine.
“Also there are plans to administer oral cholera vaccine in eight districts of the country. And UNICEF is providing support to bring in the vaccines in the country and also supporting planning processes for the vaccine’s national campaign.”
Maziko Matemba, the national health ambassador in Malawi, says cholera can be prevented if community health structures are financially empowered to effectively perform their task of educating communities on matters of hygiene and sanitation particularly in flood-prone areas.
“Because we already know that we normally have cholera and also floods more especially in that part of Malawi because it’s a low-lying area and our rivers do burst when the rains come more than expected,” Matemba said.
The Ministry of Health said in a statement this week that it is distributing chlorine to communities in affected areas for water treatment as well as sending cholera control information to all the people there through various channels of communication.
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Civil Society Under Siege in Libya as Crackdown Intensifies, UN Officials Say
U.N. human rights officials warn a deepening crackdown on civil society in Libya is creating a chilling effect on human rights defenders and other activists, who are subject to arbitrary arrests and other forms of government intimidation.
Human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell says the trend of a shrinking civic space in Libya has been going on for many months. She notes it reached an apex in the run-up to planned presidential elections last December 24.
She says election-related hate speech and smear campaigns attacking the freedom of expression in Libya were at an all-time high during that period.
The U.N.-sponsored election was meant to end a decade of conflict. It was subsequently delayed because of bitter arguments about divisive candidates. However, Throssell notes the hate speech campaigns have not stopped.
“We noted that there are attacks against human rights defenders, journalists, civil society actors and members of social movements, as I said. And these attacks appear aimed to silence movements, such as youth movements, social, cultural, peaceful movements. So, it is a broader concern,” she said.
Throssell says members of the Internal Security Agency and state-affiliated armed groups have arbitrarily detained, tortured, and intimidated human rights and civic activists. That was justified under the pretense of protecting so-called Libyan and Islamic values.
She says videos were posted of seven young men arbitrarily arrested between November and March in the capital, Tripoli. They were seen seemingly confessing to being “atheist, areligious, secular, and feminist.”
“We have received allegations that these confessions were obtained by coercion, raising serious concerns regarding the use of torture, which is absolutely prohibited. These confessions also implicate several other men and women, many of whom have now gone into hiding after receiving death threats,” she said.
Throssell says the Facebook videos have sparked a wave of hate speech against human rights defenders. She says there have been calls to prosecute activists as apostates under Sharia law and for death sentences. She says some campaigners for gender equality and social and cultural rights have fled overseas fearing for their safety.
The human rights office is calling on Libyan authorities to stop the aggressive campaign against Libyans defending their human rights and to release those arbitrarily detained. It says perpetrators of alleged torture and other violations should be prosecuted, including members of the Internal Security Agency.
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Almost a Quarter of Ukrainians Now Displaced, UN Agency Says
More than 10 million Ukrainians, nearly a quarter of the population, have been displaced since Russia invaded the country a bit more than one month ago, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR says.
An estimated 3.7 million people have fled to neighboring countries, while more than 6.5 million have been displaced inside Ukraine since the Russian invasion began February 24. U.N. refugee officials say another 13 million are stranded in conflict areas, unable to leave because of the danger.
From the western city of Lviv, UNHCR Ukraine representative Karolina Lindholm Billing says everything has changed for Ukraine in the past month. She says development projects, homes, and social structures have been turned into rubble under the relentless Russian bombing.
She says the past month has reversed and set back the many development gains that have been achieved for disabled children, the elderly, and many other vulnerable people over the past eight years.
“We are today confronted with the realities of a massive humanitarian crisis, which is growing by the second. And the seriousness of the situation in Ukraine cannot be overemphasized. Overnight, lives have been shattered and families ripped apart. And today, these millions of people in Ukraine live in constant fear of indiscriminate shelling and heavy bombardment,” she said.
Lindholm Billing says UNHCR staff is working around the clock to deliver as much humanitarian aid as it can to wherever possible.
Russian forces have become bogged down around the capital, Kyiv, and have suffered setbacks elsewhere in the country. Media reports suggest Russian President Vladimir Putin is changing tactics and plans to concentrate on the so-called liberation of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Russian-backed rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions have been fighting a war of separation from Ukraine for eight years.
Matilda Bogner, who heads the U.N. Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, says Russian bombers do not distinguish between people living on either side of the 500-kilometer contact line separating government- and rebel-held territories.
“People are dying on what was before both sides of the contact line. Now, there is no clear contact line. There is a sort of front of fighting there, but people are dying in the areas that are controlled by the Russian-affiliated armed groups and they are dying in the areas of the East that are controlled by the government,” she said.
Bogner says all civilians in this area are victims.
Putin’s justification for waging war in Ukraine was to stop the alleged mistreatment and so-called genocide of Russian speakers in the Donbas.
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Blinken Flies to Israel for Summit With 4 Arab States
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flies on Saturday to Israel, where he will attend an Israeli-Arab summit during a visit also likely to be dominated by discussions about the Iran nuclear talks and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Blinken will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday, the U.S. State Department said. Bennett has been trying to mediate an end to the month-old Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s office said he would convene Blinken and counterparts from United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt for a “historic meeting” on Sunday and Monday.
The summit will take place in a luxury hotel in the southern Israeli desert farm collective of Sde Boker, where the country’s founding father and first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, retired and is buried.
Blinken is set to visit the West Bank, Morocco and Algeria in a trip that will also focus on Iran and regional security matters.
He will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, the State Department said in a statement.
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A Truce in Ethiopia – Does It Make Peace Any More Likely?
Ethiopia has declared a conditional truce, and its rebel opponents in Tigray have agreed to cease hostilities if certain terms are met.
Does this bring Ethiopia any closer to peace?
Why now?
There has been sustained diplomatic pressure to end the conflict between the federal government and rebels aligned to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that has raged since November 2020.
Diplomats have been shuttling back and forth between the two sides for months. The new U.S. special envoy to the region, David Satterfield, was in Ethiopia earlier this week.
“I think international pressure has played a part in this decision,” Awet Weldemichael, a Horn of Africa security expert at Queen’s University in Canada, told AFP.
“Ethiopia is facing economic challenges due to the war, meanwhile negotiations have been going on behind the scenes.”
The U.S. has not imposed sanctions so far but legislation making it possible has been advanced. Limits on financial assistance from international lenders and U.S. development agencies has also been considered.
It comes as Ethiopia faces “one of its worst food crises in decades” with nearly 30% of its 110 million people in dire need of assistance, said Rene Lefort, an independent researcher on the Horn of Africa.
“Yet, Ethiopia cannot face a food crisis without international aid,” Lefort said.
The TPLF has also been forced to reconsider its position. Their stronghold of Tigray reels from what the U.N. says is a de facto blockade on the region where famine looms.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, meanwhile, has abandoned his quest to recapture Tigray to the displeasure of allies in the Amhara region, while confronting a simmering rebellion from an insurgent group in Oromia, Lefort said.
“In recent months, there has been a change in priority for Abiy Ahmed.”
Will it work?
The government said it hoped the truce would hasten aid delivery to Tigray, where food, fuel and medicine are desperately needed.
But at present, road convoys would need to pass through the Afar region, where the TPLF is present and local authorities have refused aid passage to Tigray until the rebels withdraw.
“It is not certain that convoys would be able to resume quickly,” just because a truce was declared, a humanitarian source told AFP.
Ethiopia made the truce conditional on the TPLF withdrawing from Amhara and Afar.
The TPLF, in turn, agreed to cease hostilities only if food aid reached Tigray.
The TPLF may be willing to make concessions on Afar but would not likely withdraw from Amhara, analysts say.
But the impasse in Afar posed a particular challenge on its own, Lefort said.
“The Afar government has little control over Afar territory. It will be difficult to prevent the population, which is also hungry, from blocking convoys,” he said.
Observers said it was also unlikely the TPLF’s opponents in Amhara would open their region to allow aid convoys to travel onward to Tigray.
Is peace near?
The Eurasia Group said both sides continued to see military pressure as a means to extracting concessions ahead of any talks, even if outright victory was no longer the objective.
“The ‘truce’ effectively acts as a trust-building exercise between the TPLF and federal government, yet a comprehensive and sustainable cease-fire remains unlikely in the short term given both sides’ hardline stances on outstanding issues,” the think tank said.
The quick restoration of basic services denied to Tigray for months — electricity, communications and banking chief among them — would be a test of the government’s goodwill, observers said.
The truce “could be a turning point, but it will depend on whether it’s genuinely intentioned,” said Awet.
“I hope this is a starting point for peace talks but it’s not very promising.”
What hurdles remain?
Even if a lasting cease-fire was brokered with the TPLF, the rebels are not the only armed actor in northern Ethiopia.
Abiy faces increasing pressure from hardliners in the Ahmara elite unhappy the TPLF is not being pursued in Tigray.
The Amhara have territorial disputes with the TPLF in western Tigray, where they have militias that do not fall under federal control.
“For some within the Amhara, you have to go all the way to Mekele to crush the TPLF,” said Lefort, referring to the capital of the Tigray region.
“But authorizing humanitarian convoys to Tigray means giving up this military conquest, and leaving the TPLF in place.”
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Egypt Discovers Ancient Tombs of Palace Officials
Egyptian officials have unearthed several over 4,000-year-old tombs of palace officials, including senior diplomats, priests and a prince who lived in a time of natural and political crises. For VOA, Hamada Elrasam has this photo gallery with captions by Elle Kurancid.
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Costs of Going Unvaccinated in America Mounting for Workers, Companies
Nearly a year after COVID vaccines became freely available in the U.S., one fourth of American adults remain unvaccinated, and a picture of the economic cost of vaccine hesitancy is emerging. It points to financial risk for individuals, companies and publicly funded programs.
Vaccine hesitancy likely already accounts for tens of billions of dollars in preventable U.S. hospitalization costs and up to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, say public health experts.
For individuals forgoing vaccination, the risks can include layoffs and ineligibility to collect unemployment, higher insurance premiums, growing out-of-pocket medical costs or loss of academic scholarships.
For employers, vaccine hesitancy can contribute to short-staffed workplaces. For taxpayers, it could mean a financial drain on programs such as Medicare, which provides health care for seniors.
Some employers are looking to pass along a risk premium to unvaccinated workers, not unlike how smokers can be required to pay higher health premiums. One airline said it will charge unvaccinated workers $200 extra a month in insurance.
“When the vaccines emerged it seemed like everyone wanted one and the big question was how long it would take to meet the demand,” said Kosali Simon, a professor of health economics at Indiana University. “It didn’t occur to me that, a year later, we’d be studying the cost of people not wanting the vaccines.”
Alicia Royce, a 38-year-old special education teacher in Coachella, California, opted out of getting the COVID vaccine or having her two vaccine-eligible children get it. Royce’s parents got the shots, but she has been concerned by issues including reports of adverse reactions.
The decision puts Royce in a delicate spot. Her school, like others in California, began a vaccine mandate for staff last year. For now, Royce has a religious exemption and gets tested for COVID twice a week before entering the classroom. The situation has prompted her family to plan a move to Alabama, where schools have not imposed mandates, after the school year.
“I’ll get paid less,” said Royce, who expects to take a $40,000-a-year pay cut. “But I’m moving for my own personal freedom to choose.”
Preventable care, billions in costs
As the pandemic enters its third year, the number of U.S. patients hospitalized with COVID is near a 17-month low. Most Americans are vaccinated, and the country is regaining a semblance of normalcy, even as authorities predict a coming uptick in infections from the BA.2 sub-variant.
Yet as millions return to offices, public transportation and other social settings, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures show nearly 25% of U.S. adults haven’t been fully vaccinated, and the latest data suggests many holdouts won’t be easily swayed: The number of people seeking a first COVID vaccine in the U.S. has fallen to 14-month lows.
Vaccines have proven to be a powerful tool against the virus. CDC figures from 2021’s Delta wave found that unvaccinated Americans had four times greater risk of being infected, and nearly 13 times higher risk of death from COVID. The disparities were even greater for those who received booster shots, who were 53 times less likely to die from COVID. Less than half of the country’s vaccinated population has so far received a booster.
In a December study, the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks U.S. health policy and outcomes, estimated that between June and November of 2021, unvaccinated American adults accounted for $13.8 billion in “preventable” COVID hospitalization costs nationwide.
Kaiser estimated that over that six-month period, which included the Delta wave, vaccinations could have averted 59% of COVID hospitalizations among U.S. adults. Kaiser tallied 690,000 vaccine-preventable hospitalizations, at an average cost of $20,000. And it estimated vaccinations could have prevented 163,000 U.S. deaths over the same period.
If vaccine hesitancy accounted for half of the more than 1 million new U.S. COVID hospitalizations since December, the added cost of preventable hospital stays could amount to another $10 billion, Reuters found.
One thing is clear: As U.S. insurance providers and hospital networks reckon with vaccine hesitancy, it’s likely that patients hospitalized for COVID will end up shouldering a bigger portion of the bill.
“These hospitalizations are not only devastating for patients and their families but could also put patients on the hook for thousands of dollars,” Krutika Amin, a Kaiser associate director and one of the December study’s co-authors, told Reuters. Unlike earlier in the pandemic, Amin said, most private health insurers have stopped waiving cost-sharing or deductibles for COVID patients who end up hospitalized.
For some insurance plans, the cost to a hospitalized COVID patient can exceed $8,000 just for “in-network” services, she added. The expenses could balloon for the uninsured and those turning to out-of-network care.
Now that Americans have the choice to protect themselves with vaccines, insurance companies are requiring patients to bear more of these costs, but “many people do not have enough money to pay,” Amin said.
More recent data – covering the Omicron wave – underscores the risk for the unvaccinated. During January in New York State, unvaccinated adults were more than 13 times as likely to be hospitalized with COVID than fully vaccinated adults, state health department figues show.
Political flashpoint
The U.S. has spent billions to get vaccine shots into arms, including more than $19.3 billion to help develop vaccines, federal reports show.
Still, the United States has one of the largest COVID vaccine holdout rates among highly developed countries, as some question the need for getting the shots or bristle at government or workplace mandates.
“The subset of the population that is really anti-COVID vaccine, ready to quit jobs or test in order to go to work, is now pretty hardened,” said Julie Downs, a social psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
COVID vaccines have become a political flashpoint, and vaccination rates vary widely by region: In Vermont, public health data shows 84% of those 18 and up are fully vaccinated, while the rate is just above 60% in Alabama.
Nearly 76% of people in the United States have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, CDC data shows, but the fully vaccinated figure – across all age-groups – stands at 64%. The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t yet approved a COVID vaccine for children under 5.
Perhaps the biggest financial risk vaccine holdouts have faced is getting laid off from their jobs, said Kaiser’s Amin.
New York City, which requires city workers to be vaccinated, fired more than 1,400 of them last month who hadn’t received a vaccine shot by the city’s deadline, while around 9,000 other workers remained in the process of seeking exemptions to the requirement, city figures show. The vast majority of the city’s 370,000-person workforce is vaccinated.
A Kaiser Family Foundation nationwide survey in October found that about a quarter of workers said their employer required proof of vaccination. Only 1% of workers surveyed — and 5% of unvaccinated workers — reported having left a job due to a workplace vaccine mandate.
A tiny minority of healthcare workers across the country have been fired or placed on work leave because they chose to remain unvaccinated, but the dismissals still amount to thousands of layoffs, according to a report from Fierce Healthcare, which tracks the trend.
No-vax tax
Giant employers including J.P. Morgan and Bank of America have informed their U.S. employees they can expect to pay more – or receive fewer perks through company wellness programs – if they don’t provide proof of vaccination.
Other companies have extended an insurance premium surcharge for unvaccinated spouses or family members of employees if they want to be insured as a dependent under an employee’s health plan.
And after global life insurance providers were hit with a higher-than-expected $5.5 billion in claims during the first nine months of 2021, insurers will be looking to calibrate premiums more closely to COVID mortality risks going forward, Reuters reported.
Vaccination status and other health risks – such as obesity or smoking — are metrics life insurers can probe when customers seek coverage. Under the U.S. Affordable Care Act, individuals seeking health insurance can’t be denied for pre-existing conditions, including COVID, or charged more for not being vaccinated. But companies who cover some of employees’ health insurance costs can pass along higher costs to unvaccinated employees.
Delta Airlines said last year it would charge employees who didn’t vaccinate an extra $200 a month for health insurance. The airline said the extra charge reflected the higher risk of COVID hospitalization for those employees, and noted that employee hospitalizations for COVID had cost $50,000 each so far, on average.
University students also can face financial consequences for opting out. At least 500 U.S. colleges have vaccine mandates, some barring enrollment or in-person schooling for those who don’t comply, or requiring them to undergo frequent COVID testing.
Cait Corrigan said she enrolled in a master’s program in theology at Boston University this year and was offered an academic scholarship. Corrigan, who has led public-activism efforts against vaccine mandates, said she got a religious exemption to the school’s vaccine mandate, but the school required that she take regular nasal swab tests to attend. Corrigan said she declined to submit to nasal tests for “medical reasons.”
The university suspended her and withdrew funding, she said. “It was a big loss.” Boston University didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Now in New York, Corrigan says she is campaigning for a congressional seat as a Republican. Her platform: “medical freedom.”
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