The coffin of Queen Elizabeth is flown to London from the Scottish capital of Edinburgh after lying in St. Giles’ Cathedral. In London, her coffin will be driven to Buckingham Palace, her official home.
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Month: September 2022
Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy in Africa a Mixed Bag
As Africa reflects on the legacy of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Kenyans remember how a princess visiting the country in 1952 left a queen. Analysts note how Elizabeth helped steer the end of Britain’s empire and exploitative colonial rule. But while relations were repaired and improved under the monarch, colonialism left lasting wounds, as Juma Majanga reports from VOA’s Africa News Center in Nairobi, Kenya. VOA footage by Amos Wangwa.
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What is the UN General Assembly — Better Known as the UNGA?
Every September, leaders from around the world come to the United Nations headquarters for the General Assembly’s annual debate. But what is the UNGA and what’s so important about the annual debate?
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Plastics, Waste Burning on Agenda at African Environment Conference
More than 50 African environment ministers are gathering in Senegal this week for the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment. Plastics and the harmful burning of waste are high on the agenda.
The conference is taking place in the wake of major flooding and drought throughout the continent, which have aggravated food insecurity, damaged vital infrastructure and cost fragile economies billions of dollars.
On top of these disasters is the issue of plastic pollution and the burning of waste, which releases methane and other harmful gases into the environment.
Richard Munang is the deputy regional director of the United Nations Environment Program’s Africa office.
“If that is not addressed, it will not only end up creating inconvenience in the cities, but at the same time the open burning is causing outdoor pollution. And so, converting that waste into opportunities like recycling plastic waste into plastic tiles, where young people can learn skills, will create jobs,” he said.
About 600,000 million Africans die from air pollution-related illnesses each year, according to the U.N. Environment Program.
The ministers in attendance will also discuss the development of an international agreement on plastic pollution — a major issue in African countries where waste management systems and anti-littering education are often lacking.
“We have to ensure that Africa calls out the major causes: the producers who cause the problem of plastic to take action in curbing plastic production, removing harmful substances in the production and looking at the redesign of the product,” said Griffins Ochieng, the executive director of the Center for Environmental Justice and Development.
John Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, is expected to attend the conference Wednesday and Thursday to discuss methane emissions, climate adaptation and waste management.
Badgie Dawda, the executive director of Gambia’s National Environment Agency says he hopes the event will allow attendees to create meaningful partnerships that span the globe.
“It is important for us to work as a team, look at areas of concern, and maximize how best we can work on those issues. The environment has no boundaries. What affects us here also goes to other parts of the world,” he said.
The conference will continue through Friday.
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EU Wants to Assess Media Mergers for Media Pluralism, Editorial Independence
The European Union wants to enact tougher rules for media groups seeking to acquire smaller rivals on whether their deals ensure media pluralism and safeguard editorial independence, according to draft EU rules seen by Reuters.
The Media Freedom Act (MFA), which the European Commission will present later this week, comes during concerns about media freedom in Poland, Hungary and Slovenia.
The EU is also worried about the allocation of some countries’ state advertising to pro-government outlets to influence the media.
The rules will apply to TV and radio broadcasters, on-demand audiovisual media services, press publications and very large online platforms and providers of video-sharing platforms.
They will need to be thrashed out with EU countries and lawmakers before they can become law in a process likely to take a year or more.
The concerns around media freedoms have grown ahead of European Parliament elections in 2024.
“It should be considered whether other media outlets, providing different and alternative content, would still coexist in the given market(s) after the media market concentration in question,” the document said.
Editorial independence safeguards should consider undue interference by owners, management or governance structures, it added.
The proposed rules also require regulators to examine whether the merging companies would remain economically sustainable if there was no deal.
The EU executive and a new European Board for Media Services can offer their opinions on whether the two criteria have been met.
State advertising to media service providers should be transparent and non-discriminatory, the document said.
The proposed rules set out the right of journalists and media service providers not to be detained, sanctioned, subjected to surveillance or search and seizure by EU
governments and regulatory bodies.
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‘Spend With Ukraine’ – New Online Platform Promotes Ukrainian Companies Amid War
In addition to fighting on the front lines, Ukrainians are fighting on the economic battlefront. Businesses are trying to survive, and with a bit of help, succeed. A new online platform helps them do just that. Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Andre Sergunin.
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LogOn: Absorbent Powder Could Revolutionize Air Conditioning
As temperatures reach record highs worldwide, air conditioning is becoming more of a necessity. From Somerville, Massachusetts, Matt Dibble has this story of a company hoping to make AC units more efficient.
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Photo Gallery: 74th Primetime Emmy Awards
A look at the fashion and passion of the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Monday.
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Armenia, Azerbaijan Clash Along Border
Fresh clashes broke out Tuesday between Armenia and Azerbaijan, with each side reporting casualties and blaming the other for the violence.
Armenia said Azerbaijani forces attacked several points near the border, killing 49 Armenian soldiers.
Azerbaijan said Armenian forces fired on its positions, leaving an unspecified number of casualties.
The two countries have had a decades-long conflict involving the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is inside Azerbaijan but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.
A six-week war in 2020 killed more than 6,600 people and saw Azerbaijan reclaim territory in and around the region.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the two sides to “end any military hostilities immediately,” saying in a statement that there is no military solution to the conflict.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry also urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the conflict through political and diplomatic means.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Hospital Official: Airstrike Hits Capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray Region
An airstrike wounded at least one person on Tuesday in Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, a hospital official said, two days after Tigrayan forces said they were ready for a cease-fire with the federal government.
The strike hit the business campus of Mekelle University and Dimitsi Woyane TV station, which is run by the regional government, said Kibrom Gebreselassie, the chief executive officer at Ayder Referral Hospital. He cited a witness who arrived with a man wounded in the strike.
Getachew Reda, spokesperson for the regional government, said on Twitter that the business campus had been hit by drones.
Ethiopian military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not respond to requests for comment.
The airstrike is the third to hit Mekelle since the nearly two-year-old conflict resumed late last month after a five-month cease-fire. Each side blames the other for the renewed fighting.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which governs Tigray, said on Sunday it was ready for a cease-fire without preconditions and would accept an African Union-led peace process.
Diplomats described the offer as a potential breakthrough. The Ethiopian government has not yet officially responded.
Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, appointed as the AU’s chief mediator, met with the American envoy to the Horn of Africa region, Mike Hammer, on Monday, Djibouti’s former ambassador to Ethiopia, Mohamed Idriss Farah, who was also present, said in a tweet.
The TPLF dominated national politics for nearly three decades until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018.
The TPLF accuses Abiy of centralizing power at the expense of Ethiopia’s regions. Abiy denies this and accuses the TPLF of trying to reclaim power, which it denies.
Journalists arrested
The conflict has also repeatedly spilled into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.
Two Amhara journalists who publicly criticized the federal government were arrested last week, according to a police document seen by Reuters. The Amhara region, Ethiopia’s second most populous, has been a key part of Abiy’s powerbase.
Gobeze Sisay, the founder of Voice of Amhara, was accused of supporting the TPLF on social media. Meaza Mohamed, a journalist with Roha Media, was accused of encouraging Amhara people to allow the TPLF to pass through their areas, the police document showed.
“Amhara people, especially those close to the Tigrayan border — we are tired of war,” Gobeze said in a Facebook post a week ago.
Amhara journalists, politicians and militia members were among thousands arrested during a regional crackdown in May; some still remain in prison.
An Ethiopian government spokesperson, the head of the Ethiopian Media Authority and a police spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said last month it had documented the arrest of at least 63 journalists and media workers since the conflict erupted.
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Kenya Swears in President Ruto After Heated Elections
Kenya’s new president, William Ruto, was sworn in Tuesday after a tightly contested election and a narrow win against his rival, Raila Odinga, who declined to attend the inauguration.
Tens of thousands of Kenyans and at least 20 heads of state gathered at Moi International Sports Center in Nairobi to witness the ceremony.
Many people tried to force their way into the stadium, and Kenya’s Red Cross communications manager Peter Abwao said first responders treated about 40 people with minor injuries.
“There were those who tried to jump over the fence and then some fell. Some sustained cuts,” Abwao said. “There were no major injuries as such, and they have been given first aid. Our teams are on the ground in case of anything, but the situation is calm.”
Ruto takes the reins of power from outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, his former boss.
As deputy president, Ruto fell out with Kenyatta, who supported Odinga in last month’s election.
Odinga lost with 6.9 million votes to Ruto’s 7.1 million in an election marked by low voter turnout, a split election commission, and allegations of fraud by Odinga.
Despite supporting Odinga, Kenyatta welcomed the incoming president with a tour of State House, the Kenyan president’s official residence.
He urged Ruto to work for all Kenyans without favoritism.
President Ruto faces the daunting tasks of lowering a high cost of living and managing a massive debt after years of borrowing.
He vowed to work for all Kenyans, reduce external borrowing, and deal with corruption.
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Mourners Pay Final Respects to Queen Elizabeth in Edinburgh Cathedral
Members of the public paid their respects Tuesday to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II at St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, with many waiting overnight for a final opportunity to file past the queen’s coffin before it is flown to London.
Princess Anne is due to accompany the coffin on the flight back to London later Tuesday.
The queen’s body will be taken to Buckingham Palace first, then transferred in a public procession led by King Charles III to the 11th-century Westminster Hall, where she will lie in state for four days. The hall will be open 23 hours a day for visitors. It will be guarded by soldiers from the royal household.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to travel to Westminster to pay their respects.
A solemn procession
Elizabeth died Thursday at Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands, a place she cherished.
King Charles III, Princess Anne and their siblings Prince Andrew and Prince Edward held a silent vigil Monday in St. Giles’ Cathedral, bowing their heads as they stood at the four sides of their mother’s coffin.
The body was brought to the cathedral in a solemn procession through the streets of Edinburgh, where thousands of people turned out to pay their respects to the late monarch.
After the procession reached St. Giles’ Cathedral, members of the royal family along with political leaders attended a service inside for the queen.
“And so, we gather to bid Scotland’s farewell to our late monarch, whose life of service to the nation and the world we celebrate. And whose love for Scotland was legendary,” the Rev. Calum MacLeod said.
New monarch speaks to Parliament
Earlier Monday, King Charles III spoke to both houses of Parliament in London for the first time as the monarch.
His brief address to approximately 1,000 lawmakers and their guests at London’s Westminster Hall came after the lawmakers offered their condolences on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II during a ceremony filled with pageantry.
Charles said of his mother who served as monarch for 70 years: “She set an example of selfless duty which, with God’s help and your counsels, I resolved faithfully to follow.”
Residents line streets for glimpse, goodbye
The hearse carrying the queen’s body set off on Sunday from Balmoral Castle, the beginning of her long and final journey.
The convoy, which included royal officials and security personnel, tracked slowly through the majestic Scottish hills, a landscape treasured by the late monarch, where she spent her final peaceful weeks of life. In years past, the queen was frequently seen visiting these remote Scottish villages when she resided at Balmoral Castle.
Residents gathered on the roadside to glimpse her for the last time and to say goodbye.
Some onlookers threw flowers as the hearse passed; many in the crowd shed tears. Gentle ripples of applause followed as the convoy continued southward.
“We’ve known (her) for all our lives. So, it’s been the one constant thing in the whole of our lives — the queen,” said Stephanie Cook, a resident of the village of Ballater, close to Balmoral.
After a six-hour journey, the hearse crossed the River Forth toward Edinburgh.
Fiona Moffat traveled from Glasgow to witness the moment. She fought back tears as she described her emotions.
“A very historic moment. I am quite speechless actually,” Moffat said to The Associated Press. “She was a lovely lady. Great mother, grandmother. She did well. I am very proud of her.”
Elaine Robertson, visiting Edinburgh from her home in Ayr on Scotland’s west coast, was also in tears. “I think it is just important to be here. Just important to say goodbye,” Robertson said. “She has been on the throne for a long time. So, yes, it means a lot.”
The funeral is scheduled for September 19 at Westminster Abbey. The coffin will then be taken to Windsor for the committal service, where the queen’s husband, Prince Philip, was laid to rest in April 2021.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Ukraine Says It Pushed Back Russian Forces, Reclaimed Territory
Ukraine claimed Monday it had recaptured several more villages in the northeastern part of the country, pushing some Russian forces back to the border between the two nations.
After months of only incremental territorial gains and losses by Kyiv’s and Moscow’s forces, Ukrainian leaders exulted in the sudden advance since the beginning of September in the Kharkiv region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address to the nation Monday that Ukrainian forces had retaken more than 6,000 square kilometers of territory since the offensive began this month.
“The movement of our troops continues,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there has been “significant progress by the Ukrainians, particularly in the Northeast,” citing both support from the United States and other allies and “the extraordinary courage and resilience of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian people.”
“This is early days still,” Blinken said. “So, I think it would be wrong to predict exactly where this will go, when it will get there and how it will get there.”
The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged over the weekend it was pulling back forces, saying they were regrouping them in the eastern Donetsk region.
Oleh Syniehubov, the Ukrainian governor of the northeastern Kharkiv region, said, “In some areas of the front, our defenders reached the state border with the Russian Federation,” with Russian troops chaotically retreating.
“The Russians were here in the morning. Then at noon, they suddenly started shouting wildly and began to run away, charging off in tanks and armored vehicles,” Dmytro Hrushchenko, a resident of recently liberated Zaliznychne, a small town near the eastern front line, told Sky News.
“Making progress”
The general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said Monday its troops had recaptured more than 20 settlements within the past day. The British Defense Ministry said that, in recent days, Kyiv’s forces had reclaimed territory at least the size of the London metropolitan area.
A senior U.S. military official said Monday Ukrainians are “making progress” in their efforts to reclaim territory in the south and the east and said Russian forces around Kharkiv have ceded ground to Ukraine.
The official said the Russian pullback was “indicative” of morale issues, among other factors, and said Ukraine has presented Russian forces with “multiple dilemmas.” Many of the Russian forces who have ceded ground have moved across the border to Russia, according to the official.
Analysts say the war is likely to continue into 2023, but the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Monday that “Ukraine has turned the tide of this war in its favor” through its effective use of Western-supplied weapons like the long-range HIMARS missile system and strategic battlefield maneuvers. “Kyiv will likely increasingly dictate the location and nature of the major fighting.”
In Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said power and water that had been cut off by Russia were restored to about 80% of the region’s population.
In Russia, some complaints were voiced, even on state-controlled television, about the setbacks its forces were sustaining.
“People who convinced President [Vladimir] Putin that the operation will be fast and effective … these people really set up all of us,” Boris Nadezhdin, a former parliament member, said on an NTV television talk show. “We’re now at the point where we have to understand that it’s absolutely impossible to defeat Ukraine using these resources and colonial war methods.”
Death, destruction continues
But the war’s death toll continued to mount, with Ukraine’s presidential office reporting that at least four civilians were killed, and 11 others wounded in a series of Russian attacks in nine regions of the country. Even in liberated Kharkiv, a police station in the city’s center was hit by a missile, setting part of it on fire and killing one person, a regional police chief said.
Russia also shelled Nikopol across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, damaging several buildings there. The last operational reactor in that plant has been shut down to prevent a radiation leak.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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Thousands of Minnesota Nurses Launch 3-day Strike Over Pay
Thousands of nurses in Minnesota launched a three-day strike Monday, pressing for salary increases they say will help improve patient care by resolving understaffing stresses that have worsened in the coronavirus pandemic.
Some 15,000 nurses at seven health care systems in the Minneapolis and Duluth areas walked out, a number the union says makes it the largest strike ever by private-sector nurses. The affected hospitals said they have recruited temporary nurses and expected to maintain most services.
Scores of nurses began walking the picket line at 7 a.m. outside Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, one of 15 hospitals affected. Clad in the red T-shirts of the Minnesota Nurses Association and carrying signs with such slogans as, “Something has got to give,” several said their chief concern was patient safety.
Tracey Dittrich, 50, a registered nurse at the hospital for nearly 24 years, said nurses are tired of “hospital administrators and managers that are telling us to do more.” The hospitals need more nurses and more support staff, and higher pay will help, she said.
“There are shifts where you have three critically ill patients, and you have to decide which patient gets the care, when,” Dittrich said. “I work with people all the time that go home every day and feel horrible because one child had to wait longer for medication, or another child needed to wait longer for an IV. Another child maybe had to wait for a breathing treatment because we just couldn’t get to them all fast enough.”
Union spokesman Sam Fettig said the nurses chose a three-day strike, rather than an open-ended walkout, out of concern for patients.
The hospitals have offered a 10-12% wage increase over three years, but nurses are seeking more than 30%. Hospital leaders called their wage demands unaffordable, noting that Allina and Fairview hospitals have posted operating losses and that the cost of such sharp wage increases would be passed along to patients.
“The union rejected all requests for mediation and held fast to wage demands that were unrealistic, unreasonable and unaffordable,” several of the Twin Cities hospitals under strike said in a joint statement.
The statement said people with emergency issues should continue to call 911 or go to emergency rooms. It said despite staffing hospitals with “experienced nurse managers, trained replacement nurses and some existing traveler nurses” that people may see some delay in being treated.
Jean Ross, co-president of National Nurses United, billed as the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in the U.S., said more nurses across the country are pushing back and that most job actions revolve around the same core issues — staffing and pay.
“The pandemic did so many things in pointing out, clarifying and shining a light on what life is like in the hospitals and what nurses are expected to do, which is a lot with very little,” Ross said. “We have to have a bottom line where you just can’t shove any more patients on to that nurse.”
Kathy Misk, another registered nurse at Children’s, works in case management and helps families transition from hospital care to caring for their child at home. Misk said a shortage of nurses has sometimes required keeping “high-tech” children — those who need special equipment to breathe, for example — from going home as soon as they otherwise could. Raising pay could help the hospital keep nurses on staff, she said.
“You don’t retain nurses with low wages,” Misk said. “When you incentivize nurses with pay, what you’re saying to them is they have worth, and they are able to stay in one job.”
When asked about Misk’s statement that some children have not gone home as soon as they might have, Nick Petersen, a spokesman for Children’s, said children are admitted or discharged “based on the expert judgment of the medical professionals who care for them.”
The hospitals affected by the strike are operated by Allina Health, M Health Fairview, Children’s Hospital, North Memorial and HealthPartners. In Duluth, it is Essentia and St. Luke’s.
Separately, in Wisconsin, a potential three-day strike by nurses at UW Health, one of the state’s largest health systems, that was set to start Tuesday was averted when the nurses and the UW Hospital board reached an agreement. Details weren’t immediately released.
The Minnesota nurses’ strike comes amid an upsurge in union activity nationwide.
A national railroad strike could begin as early as Friday unless Congress steps in to block it. The two largest railroad unions have been demanding that the major freight carriers go beyond a proposed deal recommended by arbitrators appointed by President Joe Biden.
Some high-profile companies, including Starbucks, are among those trying to stifle ongoing unionization efforts. Since late last year, more than 230 U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize, which Starbucks opposes.
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Swedish Conservatives Close to Election Win Amid Crime Fears
Near final results in Sweden’s election Sunday show that a bloc of right-wing parties was expected to defeat a left-wing bloc headed by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson. The conservative group includes a populist anti-immigration party that made its best showing.
However, the result was so close that the election authority said it would not be known before Wednesday when some uncounted votes, including those cast abroad, have been tallied.
According to the early count, Andersson’s ruling left-wing Social Democrats won 30.5% of the vote, more than any other party. However, a bloc of four left-wing parties appeared to fall short as a whole of winning a majority of votes in the 349-seat parliament, or Riksdag.
Exit polls had initially predicted a narrow victory for Andersson’s camp but as the evening wore on, and the vote count supplanted the exit poll, the results tipped in favor of the conservatives.
Early Monday, the conservatives appeared to have 176 seats to 173 for the center-left.
In a speech to her supporters, Andersson said that while the results were unclear, it was obvious that the social democratic movement, which is based on ideals of creating an equal society and a strong welfare state, remains strong in Sweden.
The biggest winner of the evening was the populist anti-immigration party, the Sweden Democrats, which had a strong showing of nearly 21%, its best result ever. The party gained on promises to crack down on shootings and other gang violence that have shaken a sense of security for many in Sweden.
The party has its roots in the white nationalist movement but years ago began expelling extremists. Despite its rebranding, voters long viewed it as unacceptable and other parties shunned it. But that has been changing, and its result in this election show just how far it has come in gaining acceptance.
“We are now the second-biggest party in Sweden, and it looks [like] it’s going to stay that way,” party leader Jimmie Akesson told his supporters.
“We know now that if there’s going to be a shift in power, we will be having a central role in that,” he said. “Our ambition is to be in the government.”
The conservative bloc was led during the campaign by the center-right Moderates, who won 19%. It was previously the country’s second largest party.
Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson told his supporters that he stands ready to try to create a stable and effective government.
Regardless of the election outcome, Sweden is likely to face a lengthy process to form a government, as it did after the 2018 election.
Andersson, a 55-year-old economist, became Sweden’s first female prime minister less than a year ago and led Sweden’s historic bid to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
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Mozambique’s Jihadis Spread Into Most Populous Province
Extremists allied with the Islamic State group have spread their attacks farther south into Mozambique’s most populous province, Nampula, including an assault on a Catholic mission in which an Italian nun was among those killed.
The extremists first struck the province earlier this month and have sustained the offensive, attacking rural centers and beheading some residents.
Their insurgency had been confined to Mozambique’s northernmost Cabo Delgado province, where an estimated 4,000 people have been killed and 950,000 displaced over four years.
The violence has also disrupted big economic projects, including one by the France-based TotalEngergies to produce liquified natural gas and the development of a large mine to extract graphite to make lithium batteries for Tesla motors.
The extremists’ push into Nampula comes despite the deployment for more than a year of a military force from the 16-nation Southern Africa Development Community, along with troops from Rwanda, in support of the Mozambican military.
The Islamic State Mozambique Province group has claimed responsibility for setting fire to two churches and more than 120 homes of Christians last week in Nampula province.
In their attack on the Catholic Mission of Chipene, the jihadi rebels shot and killed Sister Maria de Coppi and set fire to the church, health center and residential quarters, according to Mozambican reports.
At the Vatican Sunday, Pope Francis said he was remembering in prayer the 83-year-old Italian nun who had “served with love for nearly 60 years” as a Comboni missionary in Mozambique.
“The population is disoriented and suffers a lot because they live in uncertainty and do not know what to do, many are fleeing but do not know where to go,” the Archbishop of Nampula, Inacio Saure, said in comments carried by Agenzia Fides, the Vatican news agency.
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Supreme Court Sends Abortion Decision Back to US States
The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe versus Wade this June sent the decision to regulate abortion up to individual states. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson traveled to Wyoming to see how the fight over so-called trigger bans is playing out.
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Nigeria Loses Africa’s Top Oil Producer Spot to Angola
Nigeria has lost its position as Africa’s top oil producer to Angola, industry insiders say, and could soon become third after Libya.
Oil analysts say Nigeria’s production struggle is coming at the worst time, as oil prices have jumped, partly because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to the Nigerian oil regulation commission, the country’s oil production during August dropped to 972,000 barrels per day, down from about 1.1 million barrels per day in July.
That allowed Angola to pass Nigeria in monthly oil production for the third time this year. The other months were May and June.
Nigeria’s oil production has been declining steadily for months. Authorities blame rising crude oil theft and sabotage at production sites.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said recently that thieves from all levels of society, including religious groups, were stealing 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Oil and gas expert Emmanuel Afimia said Nigeria’s its position as Africa’s biggest oil producer has consequences.
“[It] actually sends a wrong signal to the global oil market,” Afimia said. “The country may slowly be losing its influence in the global market, and it may be difficult for Nigeria to contribute to decisions in the global market as time goes on. And most importantly, buyers may start to panic, because if you look at the reasons behind the decline, the buyers will think Nigeria is slowly losing its grasp.”
The lost production also translates into billions of dollars in lost revenue. Global oil prices skyrocketed in March soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and oil is still trading at around $96 per barrel.
At that level, crude oil is trading 36 percent above Nigeria’s benchmark for its 2022 budget.
But in July, the NNPC reported zero revenue from crude oil exports, compared with $5.96 million earnings in June.
Last Friday, President Muhammadu Buhari instituted a Committee on National Economy and immediately discussed issues of oil theft with the new team.
He said the theft is putting the country in a precarious economic position.
“The fall in production is essentially due to economic sabotage,” the president said. “Producing at about half our OPEC quota has deprived us of much-needed revenue and foreign exchange. The government is working tirelessly to reverse this situation.”
Afimia said authorities must address theft and invest more in oil production before companies can raise monthly output.
“Once the country is able to increase its surveillance and improve security as well, it will really encourage existing firms to maximize their production. That confidence will be restored,” he said.
Last week, Nigeria’s oil workers union said massive crude oil theft was putting worker safety and jobs at risk and threatened to go on strike if the issue is not addressed.
Nigerian authorities say they have improved surveillance of oil assets, especially in areas prone to bunkering and vandalism.
This month, security authorities arrested 122 oil thieves and said operatives recovered nearly 36 million liters of stolen oil and 22 million liters of diesel.
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Biden Administration Plans to Boost US Biotechnology Manufacturing
In an executive order signed Monday, President Joe Biden announced steps by his administration to bolster the “bioeconomy” in the United States, a classification that covers research and development across a broad swath of products, including medical supplies, sustainable new fuels and food, as well as technologies meant to help fight climate change.
The order comes barely a month after Biden signed a major piece of legislation, the CHIPS Act, meant to supercharge U.S. manufacturing of semiconductors, an area in which the U.S. has lost its once-dominant global position.
The effort to boost the U.S. biotech sector further underscores the administration’s apparent belief that deeper engagement by the federal government with domestic manufacturing operations is necessary to preserve U.S. competitiveness in the global economy.
In a briefing over the weekend, administration officials made it clear that the administration’s push to bring more U.S.-based biotechnology manufacturing online comes as a response to other countries — particularly China — investing heavily in the sector.
Administration officials stressed that biotechnology-based products and “biomanufacturing” present a promising alternative to many current products — fuel, plastics and other materials — that are currently made using the byproducts of carbon-laden petrochemicals.
Order text
The executive order reads, in part, “It is the policy of my Administration to coordinate a whole-of-government approach to advance biotechnology and biomanufacturing towards innovative solutions in health, climate change, energy, food security, agriculture, supply chain resilience, and national and economic security.”
It continues, “Central to this policy and its outcomes are principles of equity, ethics, safety, and security that enable access to technologies, processes, and products in a manner that benefits all Americans and the global community and that maintains United States technological leadership and economic competitiveness.”
Caution urged
Among the Biden administration’s promises in the executive order is a vow to “substitute fragile supply chains from abroad with strong chains at home.” But not everyone agrees that a government effort to manipulate the supply chain is the smartest strategy for the long run.
“Government can play a role in funding basic research, university labs and the rest, but when it starts micromanaging supply chains, you end up with more fragile supply chains than robust ones,” Scott Lincicome, a director for general economics and trade at the Libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, told VOA.
Similarly, he said, government decisions to privilege “onshore” production over foreign producers can be dangerous.
“There’s nothing wrong with domestic manufacturing, but as we’ve learned throughout the pandemic, there’s a big problem with putting all of your eggs in one basket, either all foreign or all domestic,” Lincicome said.
“While onshoring can insulate you from foreign shocks, it makes you far more vulnerable to domestic shocks,” he added. “And in the process, it makes you poorer and weaker overall. The best approach is to have a very open, diverse global supply chain with domestic networks, foreign suppliers, and a very light government touch on trade, investment, talent and the rest.”
Multiple aims
The executive order lays out a number of areas in which the Biden administration plans to flex the federal government’s muscle, including the domestic manufacturing of biotechnology products. The aim is to encourage both the creation of domestic manufacturing facilities, as well as the supply chains of fuel and raw materials needed to operate them.
The administration also promises to help create markets for biotechnology products by increasing mandatory purchasing requirements for federal agencies.
In addition, the executive order proposes to push more funding into research and development and to provide innovators support in the form of federal data that helps identify unmet needs. Other efforts will include job training programs, streamlined regulatory approval of new products, and cooperative programs with international partners.
Mending fences
The administration’s push to help U.S. biotechnology firms could go some way toward mending fences with the industry, which was angered by elements of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which Biden recently signed into law.
The IRA, for the first time, allows Medicare, the government health insurance program for senior citizens, to bargain with pharmaceutical firms over the prices of some prescription drugs. Many in the industry strongly opposed the measure, claiming it would reduce incentives to innovate.
The executive order comes less than a week after the Biotechnology Innovation Organization sent a letter to the administration requesting it to “take additional steps to foster the development and deployment of pioneering technologies that will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions in manufacturing, transportation, and agricultural supply chains to build a stronger, more resilient, and environmentally sustainable economy.”
Biden signed the order before traveling to Boston, where he was scheduled to tout the results of the infrastructure bill he signed last year, which pumped federal money into a wide array of construction projects.
Also on Monday, Biden named Renee Wegrzyn, a biotechnology executive, to head the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. The announcement came as part of a discussion of Biden’s “moonshot” initiative to drive new research on treatments for cancer.
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Ukraine Surprise Victories Hurting Russian Soldiers’ Morale, Experts Say
Experts say Ukraine has dealt its opponent a major operational defeat with a surprise counteroffensive in the country’s northeast, sending shockwaves through the invading Russian army. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine looks at the likely impact of the Ukrainian military gains on the war.
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Biden Hopes Ending Cancer Can Be ‘National Purpose’ for US
President Joe Biden on Monday urged Americans to come together for a new “national purpose” — his administration’s effort to end cancer “as we know it.”
At the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Biden channeled JFK’s famed moonshot speech 60 years ago, likening the space race to his own effort and hoping it, too, would galvanize Americans.
“He established a national purpose that could rally the American people and a common cause,” Biden said of Kennedy’s space effort, adding that “we can usher in the same unwillingness to postpone.”
Biden hopes to move the U.S. closer to the goal he set in February of cutting U.S. cancer fatalities by 50% over the next 25 years and to dramatically improve the lives of caregivers and those suffering from cancer. Experts say the objective is attainable — but with adequate investments.
The president called his goal of developing treatments and therapeutics for cancers “bold, ambitious, and I might add, completely doable.”
In his speech, Biden called on the private sector to make drugs more affordable and data more regularly available. He ticked off medical advancements possible with focused research, funding and data.
And he spoke of a new federally backed study that seeks evidence for using blood tests to screen against multiple cancers — a potential game-changer in diagnostic testing to dramatically improve early detection of cancers.
Danielle Carnival, the White House coordinator for the effort, told The Associated Press that the administration sees huge potential in the commencement of the blood diagnostic study on identifying cancers.
“One of the most promising technologies has been the development of blood tests that offer the promise of detecting multiple cancers in a single blood test and really imagining the impact that could have on our ability to detect cancer early and in a more equitable way,” Carnival said. “We think the best way to get us to the place where those are realized is to really test out the technologies we have today and see what works and what really has an impact on extending lives.”
In 2022, the American Cancer Society estimates, 1.9 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed and 609,360 people will die of cancer diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rank cancer as the second-highest killer of people in the U.S. after heart disease.
The issue is personal to Biden, who lost his adult son Beau in 2015 to brain cancer. After Beau’s death, Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act, which dedicated $1.8 billion over seven years for cancer research and was signed into law in 2016 by President Barack Obama.
Obama designated Biden, then vice president, to run “mission control” on directing the cancer funds as a recognition of Biden’s grief as a parent and desire to do something about it. Biden wrote in his memoir Promise Me, Dad that he chose not to run for president in 2016 primarily because of Beau’s death.
Despite Biden’s attempts to hark back to Kennedy and his space program, the current initiative lacks that same level of budgetary support. The Apollo program garnered massive public investment — more than $20 billion, or more than $220 billion in 2022 dollars adjusted for inflation. Biden’s effort is far more modest and reliant on private sector investment.
Still, he’s tried to maintain momentum for investments in public health research, including championing the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), modeled after similar research and development initiatives benefiting the Pentagon and intelligence community.
On Monday, Biden announced Renee Wegrzyn as the inaugural director of ARPA-H, which has been given the task of studying treatments and potential cures for cancers, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and other diseases. He also announced a new National Cancer Institute scholars’ program to provide funding to early-career scientists studying treatments and cures for cancer, with a focus on underrepresented groups and those from diverse backgrounds.
The president was joined by Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of JFK who is now the U.S. ambassador to Australia. And he was expected to speak later in the day at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee.
Experts agree it’s far too early to say whether these new blood tests for finding cancer in healthy people will have any effect on cancer deaths. There have been no studies to show they reduce the risk of dying from cancer. Still, they say setting an ambitious goal is important.
Carnival said the National Cancer Institute study was designed so that any promising diagnostic results could be swiftly put into widespread practice while the longer-term study — expected to last up to a decade — progresses. She said the goal was to move closer to a future where cancers could be detected through routine bloodwork, potentially reducing the need for more invasive and burdensome procedures like colonoscopies, and therefore saving lives.
Scientists now understand that cancer is not a single disease, but hundreds of diseases that respond differently to different treatments. Some cancers have biomarkers that can be targeted by existing drugs that will slow a tumor’s growth. Many more targets await discovery.
“How do we learn what therapies are effective in which subtypes of disease? That to me is oceanic,” said Donald A. Berry, a biostatistician at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. “The possibilities are enormous. The challenges are enormous.”
Despite the challenges, he’s optimistic about cutting the cancer death rate in half over the next 25 years.
“We can get to that 50% goal by slowing the disease sufficiently across the various cancers without curing anybody,” Berry said. “If I were to bet on whether we will achieve this 50% reduction, I would bet yes.”
Even without new breakthroughs, progress can be made by making care more equitable, said Dr. Crystal Denlinger, chief scientific officer for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a group of elite cancer centers.
And any effort to reduce the cancer death rate will need to focus on the biggest cancer killer, which is lung cancer. Mostly attributable to smoking, lung cancer now causes more cancer deaths than any other cancer. Of the 1,670 daily cancer deaths in the United States, more than 350 are from lung cancer.
Dr. Michael Hassett of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston said Biden’s goal to reduce cancer deaths could be met by following two parallel paths: one of discovery and the other making sure as many people as possible are reaping the advantages of existing therapies and preventive approaches.
“If we can address both aspects, both challenges, major advances are possible,” Hassett said.
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EU Regulator Backs Pfizer’s Omicron-Adapted Vaccine Booster
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Monday recommended a COVID-19 booster designed to combat the currently circulating Omicron BA.4/5 subvariants, days after endorsing a pair of boosters tailored to target the older BA.1 Omicron variant.
The latest recommendation is for a so-called bivalent vaccine developed by Pfizer PFE.N and BioNTech 22UAy.DE, which targets BA.4/5 as well as the strain of the virus that originally emerged in China in December 2019 targeted by earlier COVID vaccines.
The EMA recommendation is to authorize the retooled booster shots for people aged 12 and above who have received at least primary vaccination against COVID. The final go-ahead will be subject to European Commission approval, which is expected to come shortly.
If authorized, the BA.4/5-tailored booster will be available in days to all 27 EU member states, Pfizer said in a statement on Monday.
While existing coronavirus vaccines provide good protection against hospitalization and death, their effectiveness, particularly against infection, was reduced as the virus evolved.
Earlier this month, the EMA endorsed both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s MRNA.O vaccines updated for BA.1.
EU officials signaled in recent months they were open to initially using boosters targeting the older BA.1 variant, given those specifically targeting the newer, now dominant Omicron BA.4/5 offshoots are further behind in development.
In contrast, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration insisted it was only interested in vaccines targeting BA.4/5. Last week, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna secured U.S. authorization for those despite limited available clinical data.
Given BA.1’s earlier emergence, data from human trials testing those redesigned vaccines has been submitted to EU regulators. For the BA.4/5 adapted vaccines, regulatory submissions are largely based on lab and animal studies.
Using animal and lab data to solicit regulatory approval is done regularly for flu vaccines that are revamped each year to combat the latest circulating strains.
On Monday, the EMA said its backing of the Pfizer-BioNTech updated BA.4/5 shot relied partly on data from human clinical trials available on the companies’ BA.1-tailored vaccine.
A clinical trial testing the Pfizer-BioNTech BA.4/5 vaccine in humans was initiated in early September, and data should be available later this autumn. Meanwhile, human trial data on Moderna’s BA.4/5 shot is expected by later this month or early October.
EU officials have encouraged member states to roll out boosters of the established original vaccines and the bivalent shots — whatever is readily available — for the vulnerable and elderly following a rise in summer infections, as protection waned due to the domination of BA.4 and especially BA.5.
Uptake could be limited, as people have become less worried about the disease, thanks in large part to the success of the first generation of shots. Experts also worry that the public may be suffering from vaccine fatigue and less likely to seek the boosters, which could be a fourth or fifth COVID shot for some.
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Fighting Puts Damper on Ethiopian New Year
Ethiopians on Sunday marked Enkutatash, the start of their new year. Renewed fighting prompted a curfew in some areas close to the conflict, dampening celebrations. Reports that peace talks may start again have lifted people’s hopes, however. Henry Wilkins reports from Kombolcha, Ethiopia.
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Trump Lawyers Don’t Want FBI to Review Seized Classified Documents
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump said Monday that they oppose allowing the Justice Department to resume reviewing the more than 100 classified government documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida as part of an investigation into his handling of government records.
The Trump team’s widely anticipated opposition came in a court filing after federal prosecutors asked a federal judge last week to lift an order barring them from viewing the documents and authorizing the appointment of a special master to assess the seized files.
The judge, Aileen Cannon of the federal district for southern Florida, gave the Trump lawyers until Monday to file their response.
Arguing that the judge’s order for a special master is a “sensible preliminary step towards restoring order from chaos,” attorneys for Trump asked Cannon to reject the government’s motion.
“In short, the merits of this matter do not support staying the Court’s Order pending the Government’s appeal,” they wrote. “Accordingly, and in light of the remaining stay factors, the Court should deny the Government’s motion.”
Last Monday, Cannon ordered the appointment of a special master to determine whether any of the seized documents are privileged and should be returned to Trump. She also barred investigators from accessing the classified documents for investigative purposes.
On Thursday, the Justice Department said it would appeal Cannon’s order if she doesn’t allow FBI agents to resume viewing the seized documents. Lawyers for the department argued that barring the FBI agents from gaining access to the records would undermine a separate national security assessment because the same agents are assisting the review by the intelligence community.
The Trump lawyers countered that the Justice Department’s claim of “irreparable damage” to national security appears exaggerated, asserting that the intelligence community’s review is “another facet” of the FBI investigation.
The monthslong controversy centers on the discovery of hundreds of pages of classified documents at Trump’s Florida club more than a year after he left the White House. It is one of several criminal investigations that have dogged Trump since the end of his presidency.
Under the Presidential Records Act, Trump was required to turn over the documents to the National Archives. The FBI learned later that Trump had held on to some documents despite repeated efforts by the National Archies to retrieve them.
That triggered a criminal investigation. As part of that probe, the FBI executed a search warrant at the premises on August 8, seizing nearly 13,000 items and documents, including more than 100 documents bearing classified markings.
The Justice Department and the Trump legal team remain at loggerheads over access to the documents and the appointment of a special master.
On Friday, the two sides proposed two candidates each for the role of the independent arbiter but differed over the official’s purview.
The Trump lawyers proposed that the special master be allowed to view all seized documents and to be given 90 days to complete the work.
The Justice Department wants the special master to view only non-classified documents and to finish the job by October 17.
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