India’s efforts to begin registering its 1.4 billion people for COVID-19 inoculations stumbled Wednesday as the country struggles under the weight of a disastrous second surge of the disease. The government launched a website for all Indians 18 and older to sign up for a vaccination drive that is set to begin Saturday. However, many people flooded social media with complaints that either the website had crashed or they were unable to make an appointment. The problems with the website come as the health ministry reported 379,257 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 3,645 fatalities, marking yet another one-day record for fatalities. The new figures have pushed India’s coronavirus casualty numbers well over 18.3 million total confirmed cases and 204,832 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.The second wave of the coronavirus has pushed India’s health care system to the brink of collapse, with hospitals at full capacity and an acute shortage of oxygen aggravating an already desperate situation. Beds are seen in an indoor stadium converted into a COVID-19 care facility amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Srinagar, Apr. 29, 2021.Many parks and parking lots have been converted into makeshift crematories that are working day and night to burn dead bodies. Public health experts have blamed the spread on more contagious variants of the virus, plus the easing of restrictions on large crowds when the outbreak appeared to be under control earlier this year. Despite the worsening crisis, more than 8 million residents in West Bengal state are expected to show up at polling stations Thursday to vote in the eighth and final phase of state elections. India’s vaccination drive has dragged at a slow pace since it was launched in January, with only 1.7% of the population fully vaccinated. The country has a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines as it struggles with a lack of raw materials needed to manufacture doses. Assistance from international communityThe international community has responded by shipping critical supplies to India, including ventilators, oxygen concentrators, drug treatments and the raw materials necessary to develop vaccines. The White House says an initial shipment of medical supplies worth $100 million will begin arriving in India on Thursday, including 1,000 oxygen cylinders, 15 million N95 face masks and 1 million rapid diagnostic tests, along with the raw materials that will allow India to manufacture 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca two-dose vaccine. The U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory Wednesday urging Americans not to travel to India, becoming the latest country to impose a warning or outright prohibition on visiting the country. Syringes and a vial of AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 sit on a general practitioners’ table during a vaccination campaign in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, April 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)AstraZeneca vaccineMeanwhile, the head of Australia’s drug regulatory agency said Thursday there is no evidence the AstraZeneca vaccine was responsible for the deaths of two people shortly after their inoculations. Two men in North South Wales state, including one in his 70s, died within days after receiving the vaccine. John Skerritt, the head of the government’s Therapeutic Goods Administration, told reporters the men’s deaths are being investigated, but said “the current evidence does not suggest a likely association” between the deaths and the vaccination. The AstraZeneca vaccine has had a troubled rollout across the world, with many nations suspending its use after reports first surfaced of a severe side effect that combines blood clots with low platelet counts following inoculation, including a handful of deaths.
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Month: April 2021
Spain’s Matadors Fight Back After COVID-19 Nearly Kills Their Art
For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, crowds are expected to return on Sunday to Las Ventas bullring in Madrid, the spiritual home of this controversial spectacle. Six matadors will do battle with bulls in front of 6,000 cheering aficionados amid tight health restrictions that included limiting ticket sales to 25% of capacity. However, for lovers of what is known in Spain as the fiesta nacional it will be a huge emotional boost after a year in which rings across the country have remained closed. The charity bullfight will raise money for matadors and some of the 200,000 people who work in this sector who have been hard-hit by the coronavirus. In normal times, the bloody spectacle generates $4.8 billion for the economy annually, almost 1% of GDP, according to the National Association of Organizers of Bullfights. Regarded as an art by admirers in Spain, bullfighting has met with increasing criticism in recent years from a growing animal rights lobby which has been supported by left-wing parties. Fighting back Now, after the pandemic has pushed the industry onto the ropes financially, the men who wear the colorful “suit of lights” are staging a fight back. “For bullfighting this will be hugely symbolic. It will be the first time we return to Las Ventas, the world home of bullfighting, since before the start of the pandemic,” Antonio Lorca, bullfighting critic of El País, one of Spain’s major newspapers, told VOA. “The hope is that this will be the start of many more fights. It will be in aid of those who work in the industry. They have all struggled to get through the past year.” Victorino Martín, president of the Foundation of Fighting Bulls that represents breeders, believes this weekend’s contest will mark the start of a recovery for an industry which, he says, has cultural as well as economic importance for Spain. “This bullfight will be strategically important as it will mark the start of a series of similar fights in Madrid next month,” he told VOA. “This industry has suffered economically but it is also a part of Spanish culture, a little like theatre.” Tradition and politics The pandemic has accelerated the decline of a spectacle which in the past has inspired artists including Francisco de Goya, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso. In 2012, there were 1,997 fights but this fell to 1,425 by 2019, according to Spain’s ministry of culture which deals with bullfighting as it is considered an art form. After the financial crisis of 2008, many local councils, which traditionally pay for bullfights, cut their budgets. A younger generation are attracted as much to Tik Tok or YouTube as a paying to see a spectacle which is seen by some as old fashioned. Bullfighting has recently become an increasing political issue. Rocio Monasterio, the candidate for the far-right Vox party in regional elections in Madrid on May 4, took on a bull in the ring – with the aid of a real matador – to kick off her campaign. Vox, which is the third largest party in the Spanish parliament with 52 deputies, supports countryside pursuits. “I wasn’t scared at all. In fact, I enjoyed it a lot. It was great in spite of the nonsense of the totalitarians who oppose bullfighting,” she told VOA afterwards. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the current conservative president of Madrid who polls suggest will win, has promised to organize 18 bullfights in small towns in coming months and pledged $3.63 million in subsidies. Spaniards have been split over the issue of bullfighting in recent years with some considering it an art, while others see it as cruelty. FILE – People hold banners reading in Spanish: “92% of Spain, don’t attend the bullfights” during a protest against bullfighting in downtown Madrid, Spain, Sunday, July 12, 2020.A 2019 poll for the online newspaper El Español found 56.4% of Spaniards opposed bullfighting while 24.7 per cent supported it and 18% were indifferent. José Zaldivar has been campaigning to ban bullfighting but holds out little hope of success – at least in the short term. He works from an office that contains an arsenal of the weapons which matadors use to battle with the bull, from the sword which ends the animal’s life to the banderillas which are punctured into its back to weaken it during the duel. “What the animal goes through in terms of stress and pain cannot be anything else but torture,” said Zaldivar, who is president of the Association of Veterinarians for the Abolition of Bullfighting. He believes as long as bullfighting is protected as part of Spain’s cultural heritage it will be impossible to deal the estocada – the sword thrust in which the matador kills the bull. In 2013, the then conservative government passed a law which established the “indisputable” cultural character of bullfighting. This meant that in 2016 the Constitutional Court was able to annul a ban on bullfighting by regional authorities in Catalonia and in the Balearic Islands.
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Ethiopia Detains Tigrayans Amid War
Ethiopia has swept up thousands of ethnic Tigrayans into detention centers across the country on accusations that they are traitors, often holding them for months and without charges, the AP has found. The detentions, mainly but not exclusively of military personnel, are an apparent attempt to purge state institutions of the Tigrayans who once dominated them, as the government enters its sixth month of fighting in the Tigray region. Detainees, families and visitors spoke of hundreds or even more than 1,000 people in at least nine individual locations, including military bases and an agricultural college. The government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed acknowledges that it has locked up a small number of high-level military officials from the Tigrayan minority. But the AP is reporting for the first time that the detentions are far more sweeping in scope and more arbitrary, extending even to priests and office workers, sometimes with ethnic profiling as the sole reason. A military detainee told the AP he is being held with more than 400 other Tigrayans, and lawyers are not allowed to contact them. Even families can’t visit. The AP is not using his name for his safety but has seen his military ID. “They can do what they want,” he said on a smuggled phone. “They might kill us….We are in their hands, and we have no choice but to pray.” Many of the military personnel were not combatants but held jobs such as teachers and nurses, according to interviews with 15 detainees and relatives, along with a lawyer and a camp visitor. Civilian employees of state-owned companies also have been held. The arbitrary locking up of non-combatants is against international law, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has met with family members of detainees but declined to answer questions. Conditions vary, but some detainees are given just one meal a day and crowded dozens to a room in sweltering metal shelters, at a time when COVID-19 infections are rapidly rising in Ethiopia. Families worry that needed medications are withheld. Detainees and families the AP tracked down did not directly witness beatings or other such physical abuse, but almost all asked not to be identified out of fear for their lives. Once detained, the Tigrayans often end up in Ethiopia’s opaque military justice system. That means they can lose the right to private lawyers and face judges who one lawyer said tend to hand out the maximum penalty. With fewer means to challenge their detention, detainees say they feel helpless, their fate in the hands of the people who accuse them of treason. One Tigrayan living in the United States said she could understand war between soldiers but objected to the detention of two cousins with non-combat roles in communications and peacekeeping. One hasn’t been seen or heard from since November. “Is the danger in their blood? In their DNA?” she asked. “I thought they were Ethiopians.” The mass detentions and house arrests are an extension of the war in the Tigray region marked by massacres, gang rapes, expulsions and forced starvation, which witnesses call a systematic effort to destroy the Tigrayan minority of more than 6 million. The detentions are all the more striking because Abiy was once praised for releasing thousands of political prisoners in a country long known for locking up people deemed a threat. Tigrayans are further targeted by state media reports amplifying the government narrative of pursuing Tigray “criminals” and their supporters. Family members of detainees are sometimes stripped of their jobs, kicked out of military housing and subjected to frozen bank accounts. Tigray leaders were prominent in Ethiopia’s repressive government for nearly three decades and are blamed by Abiy and others for fostering sometimes deadly ethnic politics, but they were sidelined when he took office in 2018. After national elections were delayed last year, they held their own vote in Tigray and called Abiy’s government illegitimate. Ethiopia then accused Tigray fighters of attacking a military base and launched an offensive, unleashing a war that has killed thousands. Ethiopia’s government is “only after the top leadership” of Tigray’s former rulers, the minister for public diplomacy at the country’s embassy in Britain, Mekonnen Amare, told the AP. “So there is no such thing as mass detention or mass abuse of rights.” But in a leaked video posted online earlier in the war and verified by the AP, a senior military official said of Tigrayans, “We had to clean out our insides. … Even if there may be good people among them, we can’t differentiate the good from the bad. To save the country, we made it so they were excluded from doing work.” Now the security forces were “completely Ethiopian,” Brig. Gen. Tesfaye Ayalew said in what appeared to be an internal briefing. Ethiopia’s attorney general’s office, which has said it would set up a hotline to report ethnic profiling, did not respond to questions from the AP, and neither did a military spokesman. The U.S. State Department said it could not confirm reports of people detained in camps, but noted that it has paused most security assistance to Ethiopia because of concerns over the Tigray crisis. Another Tigrayan who spoke to the AP from custody, his voice hushed on a borrowed phone, said he is being held without charges along with more than 30 pilots, technicians and other military personnel. He said families at times have no idea where relatives are, and his own mother still thinks he’s working, just far away. He despairs of justice in military court. “If peace comes, maybe they’ll release us,” he said. “If not, we don’t have any future. I fear even they may kill us.” Then he hurriedly ended the call. Estimates of the number of detainees and camps vary. More than 17,000 Tigrayans were in the military alone when the war began and have been detained, according to an estimate given to a researcher by Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe, a former senior Ethiopian official and Tigrayan who founded the Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University. Along with the at least nine centers cited by detainees, families and visitors, the AP obtained three separate lists that allege several others across the country. One detainee who escaped a center in Mirab Abaya in southern Ethiopia estimated that more than 1,500 people were held there alone. A man who visited two other centers said detainees had counted 110 people in one, mostly military commanders, and 270 in the other, many of them commandos and air force officers. Some had served in the military for more than 30 years with no history of misconduct, he said. The visitor described 40 to 50 people living in a room made of metal sheets. The detainees told him they were not allowed to speak in groups or have family visits or phone calls, and they didn’t get enough food. “The area is very hot, extremely hot…..they don’t look good,” said the visitor, whom the AP is not identifying further to preserve his access to the centers. He said detainees alleged that people are held in at least 20 places across the country. “It’s scary, you know?” he said. “These people were serving their country as military personnel but were attacked by their own government….They have been identified as treasonous by the community, so they’re seriously worried about their families.” Their families also are worried about them. A man in the capital, Addis Ababa, wept as he described not seeing or speaking to his brother, a human resources staffer with the military, for three months. His brother’s family has been evicted from military housing, he said, sharing photos of their items strewn outdoors. “He was serving his country honestly,” the man said. “The situation is not good, not only for me but for all the Tigrayan people.” Another detainee had been serving in a neighboring country on a peacekeeping mission when he was called home to Ethiopia and seized, his son said. He was freed on bail, and the AP has seen the federal court document for his release. But then he was sent to a military camp, accused of creating instability although he wasn’t in the country. “I spoke with him yesterday. He sounded stressed,” his son said. “People with the military gave him the phone in secret. He’s a proud person. It’s unsettling to hear him like that.” His father has lost about 10 kilograms (22 pounds) because of the lack of proper food, he said. The transfer of people into the military system after being released on bail in the federal courts is illegal, said a lawyer in the capital, Tadele Gebremedhin, who has worked on more than 75 cases involving detained Tigrayans from the military and federal police. He said detainees at one center he visited on the outskirts of the capital sleep about 25 to a room, get food once a day and are denied family visits. “They are innocent,” the lawyer said. “The only thing is, they’re Tigrayans.” Civilians have been held, too. One employee with state-owned Ethiopian Airlines said he fled the country after being released on bail. “We need you very badly today,” he recalled federal police saying as they took him from his home without explanation. He said he saw almost 100 high-ranking military officials during his two months in detention, from late November to late January. Dozens of Tigrayan priests and deacons were detained in the capital, most for a month, according to Lisanewerk Desta, who leads the library and museum department of the Ethiopia Orthodox Church. He also said he has spoken with a detainee at a center near Harar who estimated that more than 2,000 military personnel were held there. “I don’t have words. How to explain this kind of hatred?” he asked. Beyond the camps, an unknown number of Tigrayans are under house arrest. A man described how one parent, a nurse in the military, has been barred from work since the war began and is under a curfew. The United Nations human rights office said it was aware of reports of arbitrary detention of Tigrayans but did not have reliable estimates “given the lack of transparency.” The government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission did not answer questions, instead sharing recent statements on Tigrayan detainees and ethnic profiling. In a statement this week, the commission said the denial of fair trials, family visits and medical treatment is “still rife” at several detention centers, and detainees are often unable to tell families where they are. The commission spoke earlier this year with 21 detainees at a federal police center in the capital, with some describing “lengthy pre-trial detention periods and being subjected to insults, threats, beatings and to physical injuries from shots fired at the time of their capture.” However, the commission said detainees were in good health and the conditions of detention met acceptable standards. Tigrayans dispute that. In neighboring South Sudan, more than a dozen members of the United Nations peacekeeping mission refused to board a flight home in February when their stay ended. For detainees, it is unclear what happens next. Two people told the AP that a campaign to “re-educate” them has begun, including lectures promoting Abiy’s political party. One person said their cousin had gone through the training, and another said their relative had been told it would start soon. The risk for the government is that the detentions could turn Tigrayans who once swore their loyalty into active opponents. Teklebrhan Weldeselassie, an air force pilot, said he and colleagues were accused of being in contact with Tigray’s now-fugitive leaders. He escaped house arrest and fled Ethiopia, but he said colleagues have told him they are among an estimated 1,000 Tigrayans detained near the air force headquarters in Debre Zeit. Once shocked by being suspected as a traitor, he is so horrified by Ethiopia’s treatment of Tigrayans that he now says he would consider taking up arms. “Before, I didn’t plan to fight on the side of Tigray,” Teklebrhan said. “At this time, if I get a chance, yeah, of course I would defend my people.”
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Doctors Without Borders Urges Kenyan Officials to Consult Refugees Before Closing Camps
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is urging the Kenyan government to consult with people living in refugee camps before closing the camps permanently. In a news release, the medical humanitarian organization said on Wednesday that a human-centered approach would ensure that authorities understand the plight of refugees and adequately map out a more desirable future. “While MSF supports the need for sustainable alternatives to refugee camps, our teams are extremely concerned that the voices of refugees living in the camps are not being heard,” the news release said. Earlier this year, Kenyan authorities announced they were ready to shut down the Dadaab and Kakuma camps.In this Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017 file photo, Somali refugee girls stand by the fence surrounding their hut at Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya.In the announcement, the Interior Ministry said there was no room for negotiation. The minister in charge gave the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR two weeks to present a road map for evacuation. But the UNHCR said it would continue the dialogue with the East African country to ensure the protection of camp residents. After the announcement, Peter Gichira, a lawyer and, according to The Associated Press, a former presidential aspirant, filed a case against the government’s intentions, describing them as unconstitutional. The court agreed and suspended closure of the camps for 30 days, making it the second time a Kenyan court has prevented authorities from shutting down camps. As the suspension period ends, MSF wants attention paid to camp residents because their lives and livelihoods are at stake. “To reach viable and humane solutions, refugees must be included in conversations about their future and the future of the camps,” MSF stated. Since the pandemic hit, humanitarian aid and funds to support the lives of refugees have dwindled, further worsening their plight, according to MSF. In 2020, deteriorating conditions in the Dagahaley camp in Dadaab resulted in three suicides and 25 attempts, the group said. When Adrian Guadarrama, deputy program manager for MSF in Kenya, visited Dagahaley in March, he reiterated the impact that an uncertain future was having on camp residents. He underscored the importance of the refugee bill in Parliament, which, if passed, would allow refugees to “move freely, earn a living and access public services.” Guadarrama also stressed the need for funds to expedite resettlement processes for camp dwellers. “When the time comes for them to leave Dadaab, it must be because they freely choose to do so, and only once their dignity, health and freedom have been assured,” he said. Dadaab and Kakuma are in the northern and eastern parts of the country, respectively, and are home to more than 410,000 people from Somalia and South Sudan. Plans to shut the camps began in 2016 when Kenyan authorities cited national security concerns arising from intelligence that suggested elements within the camps were involved in attacks on Kenya in 2013 and 2015. A high court blocked the move, calling it unconstitutional.
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Third Straight Win Produces a Test for Albania’s Socialist Party
The United States and the European Union are urging Albania’s leaders to set aside their differences and move forward toward establishing a stable democracy after elections Sunday that gave the ruling Socialist Party a third consecutive mandate. Prime Minister Edi Rama’s party is the first to achieve the feat since the collapse of communism more than three decades ago. It secured 74 out of 140 seats in Parliament, more than enough to govern without coalition partners, if it chooses to do so. However, the main opposition Democratic Party has not yet accepted the results, which follow a heated and occasionally violent campaign. What comes next may determine whether Albania can move forward toward becoming a full-fledged democracy and integrate in the European Union. The United States — an ally and strong supporter of reforms in the country — recognized Rama’s win and called for the results to be respected. “The U.S. congratulates the people of Albania on their recent elections. We look forward to continuing our close partnership with Prime Minister Rama and commend the opposition’s strong campaign. Respect for the results of legitimate elections strengthens Albania’s democracy,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price tweeted on Wednesday.Damon Wilson, executive vice president at the Atlantic Council in Washington, said the United States and the EU seem to be on the same page. “I think the message that you’re hearing from Washington, Brussels, is let’s accept these results as they are confirmed by the Central Election Commission. Let’s play your democratic roles and parts expected in a modern European, a parliamentary democracy,” he told VOA. Rama declared victory and thanked party supporters at a rally in the capital, Tirana, on Tuesday, saying, “This was the most difficult, greatest and the most beautiful victory of the Socialist Party of Albania.”Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama speaks to his supporters during a rally in Tirana, Albania, April 27, 2021.He campaigned on promises to boost tourism, energy and infrastructure projects, among other things, and waved off criticism on a weak scorecard, saying back-to-back crises of a deadly earthquake in November 2019 and the coronavirus pandemic had hampered his program. While Lulzim Basha, head of the right-wing opposition Democrats, conceded that his party had received fewer votes than the Socialist rivals, he has so far stopped short of acknowledging the results as legitimate. “The election had nothing to do with democracy. We entered this battle not with a political opponent but with a regime that did the utmost to destroy a fair electoral race,” he said. He is now under pressure from prominent members of his party to step down. Improved elections, but problems remain Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe noted improvements over past electoral contests, but with qualifications. “The Albanian parliamentary elections were characterized by a lively and inclusive campaign, thanks to a legal framework that helped ensure respect of fundamental freedoms,” said an OSCE preliminary report. “At the same time, the campaign saw authorities taking advantage of public office and allegations of pervasive vote-buying.” Daniel Serwer of Johns Hopkins University said this election seemed “better than some in Albania’s past.” He said he is concerned about the allegations of vote-buying but added that is a “common problem in transitional democracies.” “The abuse of incumbency seems to me to be a much more profound criticism,” he added. “And we must somehow avoid capture of the state by political forces. And especially when you elect the same prime minister three times in a row, there’s a tendency for state capture to solidify a little bit.” There were some serious issues in the days leading up to the election. A news site broke the news that a database with the personal data of over 900,000 Albanians might be in the hands of party officials. The database reportedly could have come only from a government agency. And a bitter political fight turned deadly when a Socialist Party activist was shot by someone whom police identified as a member of the Democratic Party. Political tensions were amplified when President Ilir Meta accused Rama of usurping all powers and running a “kleptocratic regime.” Meta’s former party, the Socialist Movement for Integration, which is run by his wife, Monika Kryemadhi, was a DP ally in the election but ran alone and lost seats. Meta said on Wednesday he plans to go back to the party when his term as prime minister expires next year. Incomplete democracy A 2020 report on human rights by the U.S. State Department said corruption in Albania is “pervasive in all branches of government.” The latest “Nations in Transit” report issued on Wednesday by Freedom House ranks the country as a transitional or hybrid regime and registered declines in the overall democracy score. “It’s quite clear that in Albania, you need stronger institutions to consolidate democracy. And first and foremost among those institutions is an independent judiciary,” Serwer of Johns Hopkins said. While the Socialist Party sees its third mandate as validation, Wilson of the Atlantic Council said the government is being sent a signal “that it really needs to move on some of the key issues like rule of law and anticorruption measures to really get the EU accession process moving.” But he said a signal is also being sent to Basha, who is blamed for his party and allies boycotting Parliament in 2017 and not participating in local elections two years later. “People want to see democracy work, want to see the opposition participate in Albania’s parliamentary democracy and be that active opposition within the Parliament, supportive of the interests of the country and moving towards the EU but working through its democratic institutions,” he said.
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UN Calls on Countries to Take Action to Prevent Drowning
The U.N. General Assembly encouraged all countries Wednesday to take action to prevent drownings, which have caused over 2.5 million deaths in the past decade, over 90% of them in low-income and middle-income countries.The resolution, co-sponsored by Bangladesh and Ireland and adopted by consensus by the 193-member world body, is the first to focus on drowning. It establishes July 25 as “World Drowning Prevention Day.”The assembly stresses that drowning “is preventable” using “low-cost interventions” and calls on countries to consider introducing water safety, swimming and first aid lessons as part of school curricula. It encourages nations to appoint “a national focal point for drowning prevention,” develop countrywide prevention programs, and enact and enforce water safety laws.Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect global opinion.According to the United Nations, the world’s highest drowning rates are in Africa while the highest number of drowning deaths are in Asia.”Drowning is a social equity issue that disproportionately affects children and adolescents in rural areas, with many countries reporting drowning as the leading cause of childhood mortality and drowning being among the 10 leading causes of death globally for 5- to 14-year-olds,” the resolution says.It notes “with concern” that the official global estimate of 235,000 annual deaths from drowning excludes drownings attributed to flood-related climate events and water transport incidents. This has resulted “in the underrepresentation of drowning deaths by up to 50 percent in some countries,” it says.The assembly says that “water-related disasters increasingly affect millions of people globally,” in part due to the escalating impact of climate change, “and that flooding affects more people than any other natural hazard, with drowning being the main cause of death during floods.”Bangladeshi Ambassador Rabab Fatima told the assembly after the resolution’s adoption: “The imperative to act on drowning is not simply moral or political. The economic cost is equally untenable.”
He said drowning is a leading cause of child mortality in Bangladesh and in the South Asia region, and the resolution’s call for preventive action is urgent.Ireland’s U.N. ambassador, Geraldine Byrne Nason, called the resolution and designation of July 25 as a day for the world to focus on preventing drowning a moment “to highlight the immediate need for strategic and significant international action to save lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.”Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the World Health Organization’s global ambassador for noncommunicable diseases and injuries, said: “Encouraging governments to adopt effective measures to prevent drowning will save thousands of lives and call attention to this urgent public health issue.””We have the tools to prevent these deaths – and need to act on them now,” he said in a statement.
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Pakistan, US Discuss Afghan Drawdown, Regional Security
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke Wednesday by phone with Pakistan’s top military official to discuss regional security and the foreign troop drawdown in neighboring Afghanistan.Austin’s conversation with General Qamar Javed Bajwa came as the last remaining 2,500 or so U.S. troops were preparing to begin pulling out of Afghanistan. The withdrawal, which starts Saturday and is to end by September 11, is intended to conclude America’s longest war.FILE – Pakistan’s army chief of staff, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, arrives to attend the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 23, 2017.The Pentagon said Austin “expressed appreciation” for Pakistan’s support for Afghan peace negotiations and “reaffirmed the importance” of Washington’s relationship with Islamabad.A readout of the conversation said the two leaders talked about the importance of regional stability and the desire for the United States and Pakistan to continue working together on “shared goals and objectives in the region.”The Pakistani military’s media wing quoted Bajwa as telling Austin that peace in Afghanistan “means peace in Pakistan.”The general reiterated that his country would “always support [an] Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace process based on mutual consensus of all stakeholders.”The withdrawal of American forces and around 7,000 NATO troops is in line with a year-old agreement Washington negotiated with the Taliban.Key role in talksPakistan, which has been accused of harboring insurgent sanctuaries, is credited with arranging the U.S.-Taliban talks that culminated in the signing of the agreement on February 29, 2020.The deal encouraged the Taliban to open peace talks last September in Qatar with Afghan government negotiators, though the process has long been deadlocked and has largely failed to reduce deadly violence.FILE – Zalmay Khalilzad, special envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation, testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, April 27, 2021.Zalmay Khalilzad, the American chief peace negotiator, told lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that the U.S. administration had urged Pakistani leaders to exercise their “considerable leverage” over the Taliban to reduce violence and support a negotiated settlement to the conflict.”Pakistan has a special responsibility given its influence over the Taliban, so we appreciate what Pakistan has done so far,” Khalilzad told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”But we are not there yet, and of course we look forward to working with them to get to a peace agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government in the coming weeks and months,” the U.S. envoy said.The troop withdrawal from Afghanistan was supposed to be completed by May 1, as stipulated in the U.S.-Taliban deal. But U.S. President Joe Biden, while announcing the final drawdown plans earlier this month, cited logistical reasons for not meeting the deadline.FILE – Taliban delegates speak during talks between the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 12, 2020.His decision upset the Taliban, and they have threatened to resume attacks on foreign troops for violating the pact. The insurgents also refused to attend any future peace-related meetings until all international forces leave Afghanistan.Reviving the dialogueIslamabad has lately stepped up diplomatic efforts to help in advancing the stalled intra-Afghan peace dialogue.Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq, is due to travel to Doha on Thursday to meet with Taliban peace negotiators based in the Qatari capital.Sadiq has reportedly been tasked to urge the insurgents to ease battlefield violence and return to the table for talks with Afghan government interlocutors.Sources said the Pakistani envoy would also press the Taliban to attend a U.S.-proposed multination conference that Turkey plans to host in coordination with the United Nations and Qatar to accelerate the Afghan peace process.The 10-day Istanbul conference was supposed to start on April 24, but the Taliban’s refusal forced the organizers to postpone it.Meanwhile, senior officials from Russia, the U.S., China and Pakistan will reportedly meet on Friday to discuss ways to advance intra-Afghan peace talks.”We will be discussing solutions to the current situation in the intra-Afghan negotiations. We will be trying to work out a common position to give an impetus for the talks to take place,” Zamir Kabulov, Russian presidential envoy for Afghanistan, told the Tass news agency.Kabulov did not say where the huddle would take place, but last month Moscow hosted envoys from the four nations, together with delegates of the Taliban and the Afghan government. They pressed the two warring parties to restart their stalled talks but were unsuccessful.
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Social Media Giants Comply with Turkish Demands
The decision by global media giants to comply with demands by the Turkish government to open offices in Turkey is prompting concerns about media freedoms. Press freedom advocates say because the companies will now be subject to Turkish laws, that could mean Turkey’s people will no longer have a venue to freely express their views. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Botswana Anti-Rape Campaigner Wants More Done to Tackle Rising Offenses
Lawmakers in Botswana, a country with a high and increasing rate of rape cases, recently set up a committee to address the problem and plan to establish a sex offenders registry. But campaigners like rape survivor Refilwe Mooki say those actions don’t go far enough, as Mqondisi Dube reports from Gaborone.Videographer: Reference Sibanda
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Is EU-China Investment Deal ‘Dead as a Doornail’?
China may have sabotaged its own prospects for securing a sought-after investment agreement with the European Union when it penalized a long list of politicians, researchers and institutions – including a key member of Germany’s Green Party – in response to recent EU sanctions.The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, or CAI, was agreed to in principle at the end of last year but remains as much as a year from final ratification by the European Parliament, where support from Germany is seen as crucial to its approval.Recent polling shows the Greens – who are considered much tougher on China than the current administration in Berlin – as well positioned to participate in or even lead the next German government after elections expected in late September.And that could leave the investment deal as “dead as a doornail,” according to Green Party lawmaker Reinhard Buetikofer, who heads the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with China and appeared at the top of a list of EU individuals and institutions targeted for sanctions by Beijing last month.Speaking at a recent FILE – A Chinese officer stands outside the British Embassy in Beijing, March 26, 2021. Days earlier, China sanctioned British entities following the U.K.’s joining the EU and others in sanctioning Chinese officials over alleged rights abuses.But EU-Chinese relations soured dramatically on March 22 after the European bloc announced travel bans and asset freezes for four Chinese officials over their roles in the mistreatment of their nation’s Uyghur minority.China immediately retaliated with a much larger set of sanctions targeting a number of EU lawmakers, researchers and institutions, including Buetikofer.“Europe is heading into an intense political season, and China has made itself a much higher political priority for many with the sanctions,” Brussels-based political economist Jacob F. Kirkegaard told VOA in a written interview. “This bodes very badly for CAI in the near term.”Kirkegaard continued: “It all depends frankly on the German elections – if for instance the Greens actually win and supply the next chancellor, the CAI is surely dead. It may even be dead if the Greens [which seems highly likely] enter the government.”The analyst predicted that when Merkel steps down, and “more importantly [when] a new coalition comes to power, things will change; the only question is how much.”FILE – Reinhard Buetikofer attends a congress of the German Green party in Bielefeld, western Germany, Nov. 16, 2019.Theresa Fallon, the founder and director of the Center for Russia Europe Asia Studies in Brussels, cautioned in a telephone interview against considering the EU-China investment deal completely dead.While its current prospects appear dim, “a lot can happen in a year,” said Fallon, a former member of the Strategic Advisers Group for the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe. She added that the debate over the investment deal reflects a larger discussion taking place within the EU on the appropriate response toward China.While commercial interests are a factor in the eagerness of Germany and some of its European partners to do business with China, Fallon said that until recently some in Europe had looked at closer relations with China as a potential check on hegemonic U.S. power.Chinese actions lately, however, have compelled the Europeans to “see China as it is, not as what they imagined it to be,” she said. “What are we really doing? Is this the type of world order we want, with China at the top? We talk about strategic autonomy, but autonomy from what?”Nabila Massrali, EU spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, told VOA the bloc continues to regard trade with China as important and sees the CAI as “part of our toolbox” to rebalance its economic relationship with Beijing.However, “economic interests will not prevent us from standing up for global values, including where necessary, through sanctions,” she said. Massrali pointed out that the EU moved before the U.S., Britain and Canada in imposing its sanctions last month.
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Somali Opposition Welcomes President Dropping Term Extension
Somalia’s opposition politicians have cautiously welcomed President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s move to drop a controversial two-year extension of his term in office. But questions remain on his intentions, and how the country is going to hold already-delayed elections. Forces loyal to opposition leaders and government security agencies had clashed in Mogadishu on Sunday, injuring several people. But residents who fled their neighborhoods are returning home now that the president, commonly known as Farmajo, and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble are calling for calm.While members of the opposition supported Farmajo’s announcement Tuesday, they remain skeptical about the next moves by the president, whose term in office expired in February. Residents load their belongings into rickshaws as they flee following renewed clashes between rival factions in the security forces, who have split in a dispute over an extension to the president’s term, in Mogadishu, Somalia, April 27, 2021.Abdulrahman Abdishakur, a presidential candidate and the leader of the Wadajir political party, said Farmajo is not clear on the way forward. “… our position is, in order to reach inclusive agreement, the talks must be inclusive by including all stakeholders to resolve all outstanding issues once for all,” Abdishakur said. “I don’t see Farmajo has backed down his agenda for two-year term extension. He is still looking for excuse and he is plotting with former speaker of the lower house to reject and to fail the 17th September agreement,” Abdishakur added, referring to a 15-point agreement on the election process signed September 17, 2020.President Farmajo bowed to pressure Tuesday after the leaders of Hirshabelle and Galmudug states, who initially supported his bid for a term extension, reversed their decision. The speaker of the lower house of parliament has confirmed an extraordinary session on Saturday to formally nullify the extension, which the lower house of parliament had given Farmajo earlier this month. The federal government, the opposition, and state governments still have to reach agreement on the process for presidential and parliamentary elections. Abdimalik Abdullahi, Somali analyst affairs, said all parties should negotiate in good faith with the help of an envoy appointed by the African Union. “The incoming AU envoy would be better suited to mediate, oversee the negotiations, build bridges and act as a guarantor as well,” Abdullahi said. “The September 17 agreement and the Baidoa recommendations should form the basis of the talks. If any of the parties brings to the forth any other valid issues and genuine concerns that have a bearing with the electoral process, it should be accommodated as well.” The United States has urged federal government leaders to resume dialogue immediately, saying political conflict will only destroy Somalia’s hopes for peace and stability.
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Ghana Sends in Army to Enforce Mining Ban Near Rivers, Lakes
Ghana’s military has launched a nationwide operation to clear illegal miners out of its water bodies, the West African country’s lands minister said Wednesday.Two hundred soldiers were deployed on Wednesday morning to lakes, rivers and waterways in the country’s central and western regions to “remove all persons and logistics involved in mining,” a statement said.Pollution from mining has contaminated water sources across the country with mercury and heavy metals, raising the costs of water treatment and limiting access to drinking water, according to Ghana’s water utility agency.FILE – A miner carries a shovel as he climbs out from inside a gold-mining pit at the site of Nsuaem-Top, Ghana, Nov. 24, 2018.Ghana is one of Africa’s largest gold producers, with gold products accounting for just under half its export revenues. Several of the world’s top mining firms, including Newmont , Kinross, and Anglogold Ashanti, operate gold mines there.But more than 35% of the country’s gold is unearthed by small-scale and informal miners, the majority of whom operate illegally, according to the finance ministry.President Nana Akufo-Addo has made combating illegal mining one of his signature issues, repeatedly accusing miners of damaging the country’s water bodies and environment.”Mining becomes a danger to the society when, after extracting the gold, diamond, or other stones and minerals, the land is left degraded and poisoned with toxic materials,” Akufo-Addo said in a speech earlier this month.”The water bodies are turned into entities that can no longer support life, and plants and fish cannot survive in our rivers,” he said. Akufo-Addo first vowed to end illegal mining in 2017, and ordered what became the largest joint military-police action against illegal miners in the country’s history.His predecessor John Mahama created a military task force in 2013 that also used the army to conduct raids on small-scale mining operations.
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Germany’s Merkel Presses Chinese Prime Minister on Human Rights
During a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a return to discussions on human rights, saying such consultations in the past have improved relations between their two nations.
The comments came during wide-ranging governmental consultations between Merkel and Li — held virtually due to the pandemic — on issues like the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, economic cooperation and other issues.
Merkel, who is not running for re-election, noted the regular consultations between the two countries during her nearly 16 years in power improved cooperation on issues from climate change to business. She said those talks at times covered areas of disagreement such as human rights and Hong Kong.
Merkel said, “Part of our partnership includes addressing difficult topics and putting everything on the table. Traditionally, the issue of human rights repeatedly plays a role and here, differences of opinion exist.” She said in the past, they always succeeded in addressing those issues and, “I would wish that we can soon reinstall the human rights dialogue.”
A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement acknowledged Beijing and Berlin have different views on some issues but did not mention a human rights dialogue. It called for mutual respect of core interests and communication on the basis of non-interference.
In the statement, Li said China and Germany should demonstrate “cooperation and unity” in their push for global economic recovery.”
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EU Official Warns of Risks of Disjointed COVID Vaccine Records
European Union countries introducing their own COVID vaccination certificates would have to grapple with a myriad of disjointed systems if the bloc fails to build a shared one, a senior official said on Wednesday.
The EU is pushing to have a shared digital health pass to allow tourists to travel freely this summer. But discussions are not yet settled on costs, data and privacy issues, as well as technical and medical aspects of the new system.
“If we can deliver politically, the technical solution will be ready in time. If we don’t, we risk fragmentation across Europe, with a multitude of possibly incompatible national solutions,” EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said.
“We would risk having a variety of documents that cannot be read and verified in other member states. And we risk the spread of forged documents, and with it, the spread of both the virus and the mistrust of citizens,” he told the European Parliament.
Tourism-reliant southern EU countries like Spain and Italy are keen to launch the new tool as soon as possible to help economies that have been mauled by the pandemic. But they face a more reluctant north, as well as complex EU decision procedures.
With no central gateway to ensure interoperability yet in place, countries including Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, Spain, Germany and France, are introducing their own solutions to record vaccinations. Dry run
Commission officials told a separate briefing that the gateway – which would allow officials in one EU country to check the health pass of a visitor from elsewhere in the bloc – would enter testing next month.
Twenty member states will be ready to join the trial phase with a view to making it possible to go fully live by mid-June.
The technology for the digital passes is secure and no sensitive personal data would be shared, the officials said.
Disputes between EU countries over supplies of medical equipment, drugs and vaccines have already complicated the bloc’s joint response earlier in the pandemic.
As it now faces a third wave of infections, sceptics say discussions about restarting free travel are premature given low vaccination levels.
The rushed implementation of the joint system raises questions over how visitors from overseas will be handled.
Questions also remain over which vaccines they would honour, with a distinction between those approved for the EU by the European Medicines Agency and those like the Russian or Chinese jabs that might only be allowed by some countries.
Another issue is whether antibody tests provide adequate proof that a person who has recovered from COVID-19 is immune. EU countries including Belgium also worry about discriminating against those who would not get the jab.
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Kenyan Experts: Pesticides Killing Bees, Forcing Farmers to Hand-Pollinate
Kenyan farmers say they are being forced to hand-pollinate their crops due to a decline in bee populations from pesticides. Kenya’s insect experts say the chemicals, meant to kill desert locusts and other pests, are killing off bees and other pollinating insects. Kenyan farmer Samuel Nderitu says he made a good living from his crops for nearly a decade until 2019, when he noticed neighboring farmers spraying for pests. His crop yields started dropping, says Nderitu, and he’s convinced it’s because the pesticides killed off pollinating insects like bees. He has since been forced to hand-pollinate the plants. “It has been quite successful — not 100% though because that’s not natural,” he said. “The natural one is where the insects transfer the pollen from one plant to another; that’s the most successful one. But now, because the pollinators are not there, we have to help in that process.”
A 2019 desert locust invasion in east Africa forced Kenyan authorities and farmers into a massive spraying campaign to save their crops. But Kenya’s International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology says the unchecked use of pesticides is ironically killing off the pollinators on which the crops depend. ‘’The pesticides are affecting the health of the bees because the pesticides reduce immunity of bees,” says Nelly Ngungu, a research scientist at the center. “Now, aggravating the effects of pesticides, and lack of forage because of climatic conditions, change in climate, all this they reduce the immunity of bees and can eventually lead to bee death and decline in population.’’ Kenya’s agricultural experts are researching pest control options that reduce chemical use. Agricultural research professor Hamadi Boga says biological control — using predators that feed on pests — is one option.
“The biggest challenge is that biological control works exito, where exito means ‘in the lab.’ It works very well but when you take it to the field, because of rain and other environmental issues, sometimes it’s not quite as perfect,” said Boga. Biodiversity groups are also training Kenya’s farmers on how to repel pests without harmful chemicals that can kill pollinators. The national coordinator of the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, Anne Maina, explains. ‘’We train them on what is called integrated pest management,” she said. “For example, if you find that you have a particular pest that is giving you trouble or disease — how do you plant crops? For example, even in your kitchen garden, if you are growing vegetables, we encourage farmers to grow them with things like onions, pepper, or pilipili [chili peppers], and these are able to repel some of the pests.” Kenyan farmers like Nderitu hope to one day attract bees to their farms again. Until then, he will have to do the pollinators’ work by hand.
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Kenyan Experts: Pesticides Killing Bees, Forcing Farmers to Hand Pollinate
Kenyan farmers say they are being forced to hand pollinate their crops due to a decline in bee populations from pesticides. Kenya’s insect experts say the chemicals, meant to kill desert locusts and other pests, are killing off bees and other pollinating bugs. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi. Camera: Robert Lutta
Producer: Rob Raffaele
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