A tsunami watch was issued for Hawaii on Wednesday evening following a large earthquake off the Alaska peninsula.

According to the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center listed the magnitude as 8.1 and said, “an investigation is underway to determine if there is a tsunami threat to Hawaii.” But the U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was magnitude 8.2 and hit 91 kilometers east-southeast of Perryville, Alaska.

“Based on all available data, a tsunami may have been generated by this earthquake that could be destructive on coastal areas even far from the epicenter,” PTWC said.

Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should have been widely felt by almost everyone in the area of the epicenter. It might have caused light to moderate damage.

Moderate shaking probably occurred in Perryville, Chignik Lake and Sandpoint. 
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In this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams looks at what’s behind the social uprisings led by youth across Africa.

Our guests include Kamissa Camara, expert for the Sahel at the United States Institute of Peace, Dimah Mahmoud, Sudanese activist and political analyst and Aya Chebbi, youth activist and former African Union youth envoy.
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From racist slurs and gestures to harassment while working out in public, Asian Americans representing their country at the Olympics in Tokyo have recounted some of the discrimination they have faced in the United States.

Sakura Kokumai is competing in karate, a sport being contested for the first time at the Olympics.

She described in a May post on the Team USA website how a man at a park in California “verbally harassed me because of my race.”

“It was my first experience with such an aggressive and obvious hate crime,” Kokumai wrote.  “I was a target because of how I looked. Not because I am an athlete. Not because I compete in karate — but because I am Asian. And no matter how you look at me, I will always look Asian.”

Kokumai said she had talked about such crimes with friends, but experiencing it firsthand made her really understand and want to be vocal about the issue.

“I wish there was one thing that would fix this problem, but the first step is spreading awareness,” she wrote.  “And then we have to have empathy and compassion for one another. Over time we can help change things in the world for the better.”

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across the country have faced verbal and physical attacks, with the group Stop AAPI Hate reporting in May that from March 19, 2020 to March 31, 2020 it received 6,603 incident reports.

According to a report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, the number of hate crimes against Asians reported to police in large U.S. cities rose 189% during the first quarter of this year.

For gymnast Yul Moldauer, who is competing in his first Olympics, an incident with an angry driver prompted him to share his story in a March Instagram post with the caption: “Asian American. The United States is my home.” 

Moldauer said the woman, who had cut him off, yelled to him at a traffic light, “Go back to China.”

“For me, this really shocked me,” he explained.  “I was confused.  I felt uncomfortable.  I really just tried to act like it didn’t happen.  When I put USA on my chest when I compete, it hurts to know that I have to represent people like that.”

Erik Shoji, a two-time Olympian on the U.S. men’s volleyball team, used his social media to call attention to the suspension of a Serbian player who during a match in June used her fingers to narrow her eyes in a gesture toward players from the opposing team from Thailand.

“On behalf of the Asian community and the Asian volleyball community, I just want to thank the [International Volleyball Federation] and the [Volleyball Nations League] for taking a stance against racist gestures like this one, against racism as a whole and making our sport an even safer place,” Shoji said.

Alexander Massialas, competing in fencing in his third Olympics, wrote on his Instagram account about the need to confront and push back against acts of hate.

“Being half Chinese, I often experience racism through a different lens, not as a direct target but as a witness and secondhand victim,” Massialas wrote.

He describes a time when he went to get into a ride share car driven by a Chinese man, when a passenger getting out of the car objected to the driver taking photos of the back seat where the passenger had spilled alcohol and drug paraphernalia.

“The man stumbled over to me and tried to get me to join him by saying, ‘can you believe this f*ing chnk?'”

Massialas said he intervened when the passenger tried to steal the car, going against what he says is a cultural norm in his community to “ignore what everyone else says, no matter how wrong or hurtful.”  He writes that the driver even told him he should not have put himself in harm’s way, but that the incident was an example to Massialas of what needs to change “when it comes to racism.”

“Today I think about the victims of the senseless attack on Asian women in Atlanta, the Thai grandfather that was murdered within a 10-minute walk of my own home in San Francisco, and the countless acts of racism and violence against the AAPI community,” he said.  “Instead of ignoring and internalizing the ignorance that propagates hate, we can combat this by sticking together, speaking out, and standing up to hate against vulnerable communities.”
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Kenyan aid groups and analysts say the al-Shabab terror group is preying on young people who are struggling during the COVID pandemic, to recruit them into their ranks. To counter the effort, local groups in Kenya hold outreach sessions in low-income neighborhoods, as Ruud Elmendorp reports from Mombasa.
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A man accused of attempting to stab Mali’s interim President Assimi Goita last week has died in hospital while in the custody of security services, the government said in a statement on Sunday.

Goita, a special forces colonel who orchestrated two coups in the last year, escaped unharmed after the assailant tried to stab him during prayers at a mosque in the capital Bamako on Tuesday.

Security agents threw a man into the back of a military pickup truck, video obtained by Reuters showed, as Goita was ringed by bodyguards.

“During the investigations … his state of health deteriorated,” the statement said. He was taken to hospital, where he died, it said.

An investigation is underway to determine the cause of death.

Mali, the theatre of French-supported operations against al Qaeda and Islamic State-linked insurgents for a decade, was thrown into political turmoil after a military junta led by Goita toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020.

Goita served as vice-president to transitional leader Bah Ndaw until the latter’s ouster in May.  

 
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Jackie Mason, a rabbi-turned-comedian whose feisty brand of standup comedy led him to Catskills nightclubs, West Coast talk shows and Broadway stages, has died. He was 93. 

Mason died Saturday at 6 p.m. ET at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan after being hospitalized for more than two weeks, celebrity lawyer Raul Felder told The Associated Press. 

The irascible Mason was known for his sharp wit and piercing social commentary, often about the differences between Jews and gentiles, men and women and his own inadequacies. His typical style was amused outrage. 

“Eighty percent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe,” he once joked. Another Mason line was: “Politics doesn’t make strange bedfellows, marriage does.” About himself, he once said: “I was so self-conscious, every time football players went into a huddle; I thought they were talking about me.” 

Religious roots

Mason was born Jacob Maza, the son of a rabbi. His three brothers became rabbis. So did Mason, who at one time had congregations in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Comedy eventually proved to be a more persistent calling than God.  

“A person has to feel emotionally barren or empty or frustrated in order to become a comedian,” he told The Associated Press in 1987. “I don’t think people who feel comfortable or happy are motivated to become comedians. You’re searching for something and you’re willing to pay a high price to get that attention.” 

Mason started in show business as a social director at a resort in the Catskills. He was the guy who got everybody up to play Simon Says, quiz games or shuffleboard. He told jokes, too. After one season, he was playing clubs throughout the Catskills for better money.  

“Nobody else knew me, but in the mountains, I was a hit,” Mason recalled.  

In 1961, the pint-sized comic got a big break, an appearance on Steve Allen’s weekly television variety show. His success brought him to The Ed Sullivan Show and other programs.  

He was banned for two years from the Sullivan show when he allegedly gave the host the finger when Sullivan signaled to him to wrap up his act during an appearance on Oct. 18, 1964.  

Mason’s act even carried him to Broadway, where he put on several one-man shows, including Freshly Squeezed in 2005, Love Thy Neighbor in 1996 and The World According to Me in 1988, for which he received a special Tony Award. 

“I feel like Ronald Reagan tonight,” Mason joked on Tony night. “He was an actor all his life, knew nothing about politics and became president of the United States. I’m an ex-rabbi who knew nothing about acting and I’m getting a Tony Award.”  

Mason called himself an observer who watched people and learned. From those observations he said he got his jokes and then tried them out on friends. “I’d rather make a fool of myself in front of two people for nothing than a thousand people who paid for a ticket,” he told the AP.  

A reliable presence

His humor could leap from computers and designer coffee to then-Sen. John Kerry, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Donald Trump. He was able to articulate the average Joe’s anger, making the indignities of life seem funny and maybe just a little bit more bearable. 

“I very rarely write anything down. I just think about life a lot and try to put it into phrases that will get a joke,” he said. “I never do a joke that has a point that I don’t believe in. To me, the message and the joke is the same.”  

On TV, Mason was a reliable presence, usually with a cameo on such shows as 30 Rock or The Simpsons or as a reliable guest on late night chat shows. He performed in front of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, and his show Fearless played London’s West End in 2012.  

He portrayed a Jewish ex-pajama salesman in love with an Irish-Catholic widow portrayed by Lynn Redgrave in a series called Chicken Soup in 1989, but it didn’t last. During the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Scottish service hired Mason as a weekly commentator. 

Mason’s humor sometimes went too far, as when he touched off a controversy in New York while campaigning for GOP mayoral candidate Rudolph Giuliani against Democrat David Dinkins, who was Black. Mason had to apologize after saying, among other things, that Jews would vote for Dinkins out of guilt.  

Felder, his longtime friend, told the AP that Mason had a Talmudic outlook on life: “That whatever you would say to him, he would start an argument with you.”  

He is survived by his wife, producer Jyll Rosenfeld, and a daughter, Sheba. 
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The world champion U.S. women’s water polo squad began its quest for a third straight Olympic gold medal Saturday by storming into the record books with a 25-4 humbling of hosts Japan at the Tatsumi Water Polo Center.

But the U.S. record for most goals scored in a single match at the Olympics stood just a few hours before being overhauled by reigning European champion Spain, which crushed South Africa 29-4 to lay down a marker of its own.

Teenager Elena Ruiz, making her Olympic debut at age 16, led Spain in scoring with five goals, while nine of her teammates also were on target.

Japan, which like South Africa is playing in its first Olympics, started brightly against the U.S. and even drew level at 3-3, but was outpowered and outclassed once its opponents settled into the match.

“We got off to a rocky start, especially defensively,” said U.S. captain Maggie Steffens, who scored five goals. “The Olympics gives you extra bit of energy and excitement and it was nice to see our team recover and take a deep breath.”

Stephania Haralabidis also scored five, while Madeline Musselman and Aria Fischer chipped in with four apiece for the Americans, who have dominated women’s water polo in the past few years.

Five other U.S. players got on the scoresheet as the match quickly descended into a drubbing.

“We’re human, and we get nervous just like everyone else,” U.S. coach Adam Krikorian said in response to a question on his team’s slow start.

“It’s the first game of the Olympics and those jitters aren’t going to go away for us or for any other team. Sometimes it just gets us, but once we settled down, we were much better.”

US tough in goal

Miku Koide scored twice for Japan, including her country’s first women’s water polo goal at the Olympics, with Yumi Arima and Eruna Ura also on target for the hosts.

But U.S. goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson was in scintillating form, saving 15 of the 19 shots she faced and shutting out the Japanese offense completely in the second and fourth quarters as her team made a dream start in Group B.

Australia also started with a win, beating Canada 8-5 in Group A, with driver Bronte Halligan the pick of the Aussie players with three goals in her Olympic debut.

The Russian Olympic Committee team, who won bronze in Rio five years ago, was locked in a fiercely physical battle with China in the day’s final match, but held on to win 18-17, with captain Ekaterina Prokofyeva helping her team snatch victory with two late goals.
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On this edition of Encounter, Ambassador Michelle Gavin, senior fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Ambassador to Botswana, and Frans Cronje, CEO of the Johannesburg-based Institute of Race Relations, analyze with host Carol Castiel the political, economic and social situation in South Africa following the arrest and detention of former South African president Jacob Zuma given the protests, looting and violence which this incident triggered.  How did the celebrated multiracial democracy led by Nelson Mandela reach this critical juncture point, and what does the future hold for South Africa? 
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Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, on the eve of slain President Jovenel Moise’s national funeral to be held there Friday.

The day began with a special mass in honor of Moise, attended by members of the president’s PHTK political party. Immediately afterward, protesters wearing white in a sign of mourning marched through the streets chanting, “Justice!”

“We are saying there must be justice for President Moise,” a protester wearing a Haitian flag bandana on his head told VOA Creole. An investigation into Moise’s death has already resulted in more than 20 arrests.

Other protesters yelled slogans against opposition politicians and wealthy Haitians, whom they blame for the assassination.

A band played traditional rara music while marching alongside protesters. The demonstration ended at the Vertières historical site, located to the south of Cape Haitian, where one of the most decisive battles of the Haitian Revolution was fought in 1803.

In some parts of the Caribbean nation’s second-largest city, tires were seen burning in the streets. VOA Creole’s reporter in Port-au-Prince, who traveled Thursday to Cap-Haitien, said she saw a group of people trying to set fire to a bridge. Police rushed to the scene to stop them, she said. The main highway to the north was jammed with cars, the reporter said.

Extra security measures are in place as the city prepares to host an A-list of Haitian government officials, foreign officials, diplomats and ordinary citizens for Moise’s funeral on Friday.

Moise was assassinated inside his private residence in a wealthy suburb of the Haitian capital in the pre-dawn hours of July 7. His wife, Martine Moise, was injured during the attack and was transferred to a Miami, Florida, hospital for treatment. The first lady returned to Haiti last weekend to help plan and attend her husband’s funeral.

New US Haiti envoy

Meanwhile in Washington, the U.S. State Department announced the appointment of a new envoy to Haiti. Ambassador Daniel Foote is a career Foreign Service officer whose experience as a diplomat includes serving as the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince twice. He also served as U.S. ambassador to Zambia under the Trump administration.

A State Department statement emailed to VOA says Foote will work with the U.S. ambassador to “lead U.S. diplomatic efforts and coordinate the effort of U.S. federal agencies in Haiti from Washington, advise the secretary and acting assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, and coordinate closely with the National Security Council staff on the administration’s efforts to support the Haitian people and Haiti’s democratic institutions in the aftermath of the tragic assassination of Jovenel Moise.”

U.S. Representative Albio Sires applauded the appointment in a message posted on Twitter.

“I welcome the Biden admin’s naming of Daniel Foote as special envoy for #Haiti. It’s a positive step toward supporting the Haitian people in restoring their democracy,” Sires said.

It is unclear when Foote will arrive in Haiti, but earlier this week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the U.S. would send a delegation to attend Moise’s funeral. She did not specify who would be part of the delegation.

Washington diaspora honor Moise

At the Haitian Embassy in Washington, Haitian Americans and foreign dignitaries gathered for a somber ceremony honoring Moise. Among the diplomats present was former U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten. He declined to comment to VOA on the event.

During the well-choreographed program featuring a slideshow of Moise, poetry, prayers and music, Haitian Ambassador Bocchit Edmond recounted highlights of Moise’s political career in French and English. He also criticized The New York Times for reporting that Moise was seeking a third term. Haiti’s constitution bars heads of state from seeking successive terms.

“They killed the president but not his dream,” Edmond said.

Members of the Haitian diaspora who spoke to VOA after the program expressed sadness and regret about not being in Haiti for the funeral.

“No matter where we are living in the world, we can come together in support of an event like this,” Jean Junior Morisett told VOA. “I would personally love to travel to Haiti to attend the funeral, but unfortunately, I’m unable to. So, I’m participating in this event in honor of the president.”

Marie Rachelle Volcy, a member of a musical group that sang during the memorial service, said the people of Haiti should know they are in the thoughts and prayers of the diaspora.

“You’re not alone. We don’t know where we are heading, we know how this started. Although we are not physically by your side, we do share the burden of having lost a fellow Haitian who was a child of Haiti,” Volcy said. “We will continue to pray and work together toward peace.” 
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The largest wildfire in the United States continued to burn Thursday in southern Oregon, but lower winds and higher humidity were assisting firefighting crews. In Northern California, a fire spread to the neighboring state of Nevada.

Oregon’s Bootleg Fire grew to 1,616 square kilometers (624 square miles), yet firefighting crews were reportedly improving fire lines.

The fire was also nearing an area burned during a previous fire, giving officials hope that the lack of fuel would hinder its spread.

“Fire crews and support personnel have made significant progress in containing this fire in the last few days,” Joe Prummer, incident commander trainee of Pacific Northwest Incident Management Team 2, said in a statement. “However, we still have a long road ahead of us to ensure the safety of the surrounding communities.”

In Oregon, 2,000 homes were ordered evacuated and 5,000 were still under threat, The Associated Press reported. No deaths from the fire have been reported.

Smoke and ash were reportedly affecting air quality as far away as the East Coast.

The Oregon fire was started by a lightning strike.

In California, the Tamarack fire, south of Lake Tahoe, has burned 176 square kilometers (68 square miles) and crossed the state line into Nevada.

California power company Pacific Gas & Electric announced a plan to bury 10,000 miles of its power lines to prevent tree falls from starting fires.

The cost of burying what amounts to 10% of the company’s power lines could be $15 billion to $30 billion. That cost was expected to be passed along to PG&E customers, who already pay among the highest electricity rates in the nation.

The announcement came after the company said a tree’s plunge onto a power line might have ignited a major fire.

PG&E’s poorly maintained equipment was blamed for devastating fires in 2017 and 2019, leading to the company’s bankruptcy filing in 2019.

Since emerging from bankruptcy, the company has faced criticism for not addressing the problem of trees near its power lines, which it has promised to fix.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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Armenia is struggling to leave behind its war in 2020 with neighboring Azerbaijan and the political turbulence that surrounded recent legislative elections.  With the social and political upheaval of the last several months now easing, the calm is allowing many Armenians to examine and deal with the war wounds that continue to fester, along with the pain of defeat and the losses that Armenia says amount to nearly 4,000 mostly young soldiers.  Roderick James narrates this report by Pablo Gonzalez in Yerevan and Ricardo Marquina in Moscow.

(Ricardo Marquina contributed to this video.)

Camera:  Pablo Gonzalez   

Produced by:  Ricardo Marquina, Henry Hernandez 
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The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee fired the director of the opening ceremony on Thursday because of a Holocaust joke he made during a comedy show in 1998.

Organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto said a day ahead of the opening ceremony that director Kentaro Kobayashi has been dismissed. He was accused of using a joke about the Holocaust in his comedy act, including the phrase “Let’s play Holocaust.”

“We found out that Mr. Kobayashi, in his own performance, has used a phrase ridiculing a historical tragedy,” Hashimoto said. “We deeply apologize for causing such a development the day before the opening ceremony and for causing troubles and concerns to many involved parties as well as the people in Tokyo and the rest of the country.”

Tokyo has been plagued with scandals since being awarded the Games in 2013. French investigators are looking into alleged bribes paid to International Olympic Committee members to influence the vote for Tokyo. The fallout forced the resignation two years ago of Tsunekazu Takeda, who headed the Japanese Olympic Committee and was an IOC member.

The opening ceremony of the pandemic-delayed Games is scheduled for Friday. The ceremony will be held without spectators as a measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections, although some officials, guests and media will attend.

“We are going to have the opening ceremony tomorrow and, yes, I am sure there are a lot of people who are not feeling easy about the opening of the Games,” Hashimoto said. “But we are going to open the Games tomorrow under this difficult situation.”

Earlier this week, composer Keigo Oyamada, whose music was to be used at the ceremony, was forced to resign because of past bullying of his classmates, which he boasted about in magazine interviews. The segment of his music will not be used.

Soon after a video clip and script of Kobayashi’s performance were revealed, criticism flooded social media.

“Any person, no matter how creative, does not have the right to mock the victims of the Nazi genocide,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and global social action director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based human rights group.

He also noted that the Nazis gassed Germans with disabilities.

“Any association of this person to the Tokyo Olympics would insult the memory of 6 million Jews and make a cruel mockery of the Paralympics,” he said.

Kobayashi is a former member of a popular comedy duo Rahmens and known overseas for comedy series including The Japanese Tradition.

Japan is pushing ahead with the Olympics against the advice of most of its medical experts. This is partially due to pressure from the IOC, which is estimated to face losses of $3 billion to $4 billion in television rights income if the Games were not held.

“We have been preparing for the last year to send a positive message,” Hashimoto said. “Toward the very end now there are so many incidents that give a negative image toward Tokyo 2020.”

Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the Tokyo organizing committee, also acknowledged the reputational damage.

“Maybe these negative incidents will impact the positive message we wanted to deliver to the world,” he said.

The last-minute scandals come as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government faces criticism for prioritizing the Olympics despite public health concerns amid a resurgence of coronavirus infections.

Kobayashi’s Holocaust joke and Oyamada’s resignation were the latest to plague the Games. Yoshiro Mori resigned as organizing committee president over sexist remarks. Hiroshi Sasaki also stepped down as creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies after suggesting a Japanese actress should dress as a pig.

Also this week, the chiropractor for the American women’s wrestling team apologized after comparing Olympic COVID-19 protocols to Nazi Germany in a social media post. Rosie Gallegos-Main, the team’s chiropractor since 2009, will be allowed to finish her planned stay at USA Wrestling’s pre-Olympic camp in Nakatsugawa, Japan. 
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