Month: July 2021
The leader of the Taliban said Sunday that his movement is committed to a political settlement to end decades of war in Afghanistan, even as the insurgents battle in dozens of districts across to country to gain territory.
The statement by Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada came as Taliban leaders were meeting with a high-level Afghan government delegation in the Gulf state of Qatar to jump-start stalled peace talks. The Kabul delegation includes the No. 2 in the government, Abdullah Abdullah, head of Afghanistan’s national reconciliation council.
The talks resumed Saturday, ahead of the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which in many parts of the world is expected to start Tuesday. A second session took place Sunday afternoon.
Washington’s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who is in Qatar, previously expressed hope for a reduction in violence and possibly a cease-fire over Eid al-Adha.
Akhundzada said that “in spite of the military gains and advances, the Islamic Emirate strenuously favors a political settlement in the country, and every opportunity for the establishment of an Islamic system.”
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is what the Taliban called their government when they ruled the country for five years, until their ouster by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001.
Still, there are few signs of a political agreement on the horizon. Battles between the Taliban and government forces are continuing in dozens of provinces, and thousands of Afghans are seeking visas in hopes of leaving the country. Most are frightened that the final withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops after nearly 20 years will plunge their war-ravaged nation into deeper chaos. With the U.S. withdrawal more than 95% complete, Afghanistan’s future seems uncertain.
Militias with a brutal history have been resurrected to fight the Taliban but their loyalties are to their commanders, many of them U.S.-allied warlords with ethnic-based support.
This has raised the specter of deepening divisions between Afghanistan’s many ethnic groups. Most Taliban are ethnic Pashtuns and in the past there have been brutal reprisal killings by one ethnic group against another.
In a sign of how little progress has been made in negotiations, both sides are still haggling over terminology, unable to agree on the name for the nation. The Taliban are insisting on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Kabul wants the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Meanwhile Akhunzada’s statement demanded an Islamic system without explaining what that meant.
He promised to support education, but for girls he said the “Islamic Emirate will … strive to create an appropriate environment for female education within the framework of sublime Islamic law.”
He didn’t say how that differed from the educational institutions that have been created during the last 20 years and whether women would be allowed the freedom to work outside their home and move freely without being accompanied by a male relative.
He said the Taliban have ordered their commanders to treat civilians with care and to protect institutions and infrastructure. Yet, reports have emerged from areas coming under Taliban control that schools have been burned, women have been restricted to their homes and some government buildings have been blown up.
The Taliban have denied reports of such destruction, saying that the footage being shown is old and accused the government of being engaged in disinformation and propaganda.
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Tens of thousands of vaccinated Muslim pilgrims circled Islam’s holiest site in Mecca on Sunday but remained socially distanced and wore masks as the coronavirus takes its toll on the hajj for a second year running.The hajj pilgrimage, which once drew about 2.5 million Muslims from all walks of life around the globe, is now almost unrecognizable. It is being scaled back for the second year in a row because of the coronavirus pandemic.The pared-down hajj prevents Muslims from outside Saudi Arabia from fulfilling an Islamic obligation and causes financial losses to Saudi Arabia, which in pre-pandemic years took in billions of dollars as the custodian of the holy sites.The Islamic pilgrimage lasts about five days, but traditionally Muslims begin arriving in Mecca weeks ahead of time. The hajj concludes with the Eid al-Adha celebration, marked by the distribution of meat to the poor around the world. This year, 60,000 vaccinated citizens or residents of Saudi Arabia have been allowed to perform the hajj because of continued concerns around the spread of the coronavirus. Last year’s largely symbolic hajj saw fewer than 1,000 people from within the kingdom taking part.It’s unclear when Saudi Arabia will play host again to millions of Muslims. The kingdom has no clear standard for a vaccine passport, vaccination rates are uneven in different countries and new variants of the virus are threatening the progress made in some nations.The kingdom’s Al Saud rulers have staked their legitimacy in large part on their custodianship of hajj sites, giving them a unique and powerful platform among Muslims around the world. The kingdom has gone to great lengths to ensure the annual hajj continues uninterrupted, despite changes caused by the pandemic. Robots have been deployed to spray disinfectant around the cube-shaped Kaaba’s busiest walkways. The Kaaba is where the hajj pilgrimage begins and ends for most. Saudi Arabia is also testing a smart bracelet this year in collaboration with the government’s artificial intelligence authority. The touchscreen bracelet resembles the Apple Watch and includes information on the hajj, a pilgrim’s oxygen levels and vaccine data and has an emergency feature to call for help. International media outlets already present in the kingdom were permitted to cover the hajj from Mecca this year, but others were not granted permission to fly in as had been customary before the pandemic.Cleaners are sanitizing the vast white marble spaces of the Grand Mosque that houses the Kaaba several times a day. “We are sanitizing the floor and using disinfection liquids while cleaning it two or three times during (each) shift,” said Olis Gul, a cleaner who said he has been working in Mecca for 20 years. The hajj is one of Islam’s most important requirements to be performed once in a lifetime. It follows a route the Prophet Muhammad walked nearly 1,400 years ago and is believed to ultimately trace the footsteps of the prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, or Abraham and Ishmael as they are named in the Bible.The hajj is seen as a chance to wipe clean past sins and bring about greater unity among Muslims. The communal feeling of more than 2 million people from around the world — Shiite, Sunni and other Muslim sects — praying together, eating together and repenting together has long been part of what makes hajj both a challenging and a transformative experience.There are questions around whether the hajj will be able to again draw such large numbers of faithful, with male pilgrims forming a sea of white in white terrycloth garments worn to symbolize the equality of mankind before God and women forgoing makeup and perfume to focus inwardly. Like last year, pilgrims will be drinking water from the holy Zamzam well in plastic bottles. They were given umbrellas to shield them from the sun. They have to carry their own prayer rugs and follow a strict schedule via a mobile app that informs them when they can be in certain areas to avoid crowding. “I hope this is a successful hajj season,” said Egyptian pilgrim Aly Aboulnaga, a university lecturer in Saudi Arabia. “We ask God to accept everyone’s hajj and for the area to be open to greater numbers of pilgrims and for a return to an even better situation than before.”The kingdom, with a population of more than 30 million, has reported over half a million cases of the coronavirus, including more than 8,000 deaths. It has administered nearly 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, according to the World Health Organization.
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Hundreds of Jewish pilgrims visited a contested Jerusalem holy site under heavy police guard on Sunday, shortly after Muslim worshippers briefly clashed with Israeli security forces at the flashpoint shrine.
No injuries were reported, but the incident again raised tensions at the hilltop compound revered by Jews and Muslims. Heavy clashes at the site earlier this year helped spark an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Jews revere the site as the Temple Mount, where the biblical Temples once stood. It is the holiest site in Judaism. Today, it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Tensions at the compound have frequently spilled over into violence over the years.
The Jews were visiting to mark Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning and repentance when Jews reflect on the destruction of the First and Second Temples, key events in Jewish history.
The Islamic Waqf, which administers the site, said that about 1,500 Jews entered the compound — a number much higher than on typical days. It accused Israeli police of using heavy-handed tactics and said some visitors violated a long-standing status quo agreement barring Jews from praying at the site.
Ahead of the visit, Israeli police said a small group of Muslim youths threw rocks at security forces who quickly secured the area. Amateur video showed police firing what appeared to be rubber bullets, a common crowd-control tactic, and Muslim worshippers were barred from entering the compound for several hours.
In a statement, the Wafq accused Israel of “violating the sanctity” of the mosque by allowing “Jewish extremists to storm the mosque, make provocative tours and perform public prayers and rituals.”
It said the area “is a purely Islamic mosque that will not accept division or partnership.”
The visit came days before Muslims celebrate the festival of Eid al-Àdha, or Feast of the Sacrifice.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of “dragging the region into a religious war.”
Jordan, which serves as the custodian over Muslim sites in Jerusalem, said it had sent a letter of protest to Israel and urged it to respect the status quo.
“The Israeli actions against the mosque are rejected and condemned,” said Daifallah al-Fayez, spokesman for Jordan’s Foreign Ministry.
Israel’s new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, praised police for their handling of the visit and vowed to protect “freedom of worship” for Jews and Muslims at the site.
His comments raised speculation that Israel might be trying to change the norms of the site to allow Jewish prayer.
But Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev told Channel 13 that Israel remains committed to the status quo and that Jewish prayer at the site is “against the law.”
COVID-19 is taking a devastating toll on medical professionals in Indonesia, where 114 doctors have died so far this month, more than double the number of doctors who died in June, according to a physicians’ network known as the Mitigation Team of the Indonesian Medical Association, or IDI.
The rising number of doctor deaths comes as the government notes that 95% of health workers have received COVID-19 vaccines.
On Sunday, the chief of the mitigation team, Mahesa Paranadipa Maikel, told the press in Jakarta that the doctor monthly death toll is the highest since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020. The record was last set in January 2021, when 65 doctors died.
A total of 545 doctors in Indonesia have died since the beginning of the pandemic. The highest death toll is in East Java with 110, followed by Jakarta with 83 and central Java with 81.Relatives attend funerals of family members who died from the coronavirus at a cemetery for COVID-19 victims in TPU Rorotan, north Jakarta, Indonesia, July 8, 2021. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)In all of June, 51 doctors died, but that toll has jumped 123% so far this month.
“These numbers might be higher since there are hospitals or clinics that have not reported to us,” said Mahesa.
Most of the doctors who died due to COVID-19 were general practitioners, obstetricians, internists and surgeons. COVID-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus.
The team also noted that hundreds of others health workers have died as a result of the pandemic, including 445 nurses, 42 pharmacists, 223 midwives and 25 laboratory workers.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin says the government has started to use a batch of Moderna vaccines as booster shots to health workers who already received China’s Sinovac vaccine. Sinovac is one of seven coronavirus vaccines that have received emergency use approval by the World Health Organization. Studies on the vaccine’s efficacy rate are ongoing, but Sinovac appears to be less powerful against the coronavirus than other COVID-19 vaccines.Makeshift grave markers are seen at a cemetery for COVID-19 victims in TPU Rorotan, north Jakarta, Indonesia, July 8, 2021. The 8,000 square meter plot of land, which saw its first funerals in March, is now almost full. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)Meanwhile, in the past week the number of daily infections among Indonesians has increased to more than five thousand, with more than a thousand new deaths.
Indonesia currently has more than 2.8 million confirmed cases and 72,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the global outbreak. Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, with more than 275 million people.
Windhu Purnomo is an epidemiologist who serves on the faculty of public health at Airlangga University. He told VOA that the situation might worsen due to three factors: the slow pace of vaccinations, the failure to curb people’s mobility and the spread of the more virulent delta variant.
“We have just got many new vaccines like from the U.S., Japan, etc., so even if we increase the vaccinations program, it is still not optimal,” Purnomo said.COVID-19 patients line up for room placement to receive medical treatment, in front of RSUD Bekasi Hospital, in Bekasi City, West Java, Indonesia, June 30, 2021. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)The country can’t impose a lockdown as has happened in other nations, because it doesn’t have the money to pay people to stay home. And the delta variant, which is sweeping the world, is hitting Indonesia hard as well.
“Our burden is too heavy,” he added.
The government imposed strict curbs on movements on July 3 to slow the spread of COVID-19. They include a work-from-home order for non-essential workers and the closure of shopping malls, markets, and all public facilities on the islands of Java, Bali, and 15 other cities across the archipelago.
Luhut Pandjaitan, senior minister who coordinates pandemic restrictions, told VOA on Friday that the government will decide within days whether to extend the timeline for lifting the restrictions, which are set to end on July 20.
“It is not easy and there are several other options. But we will most likely extend it because it’s impossible to reduce or control the spread of the delta variant in two weeks, he said. “But we’ll see what happens first.”COVID-19 patients are seen in an emergency tent put up outside of RSUD Bekasi Hospital, in Bekasi City, West Java, June 30, 2021. The surge in new daily cases has overwhelmed the hospital itself. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)Health facilities may break down, the mitigation team warned, because there may be too many people needing care, limited medicine and medical equipment available and a lack of doctors, nurses and other medical staff available to provide care.
“We are worried about the potential of a functional collapse. We must create a mapping to see the capabilities of each local health facility,” said Adib Khumaidi, another leader on the team.
The government says it plans to speed up the opening of a number of field hospitals, as well as mobilize 2,000 doctors and 20,000 nurses to cope with the surge in cases.
Sasmito Madrim in Jakarta contributed to this report.
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With COVID-19 cases rising in the United States, some cities and counties are telling residents to wear masks indoors, even if they are vaccinated, while the Biden administration points to the prevalence of misinformation about vaccinations, especially on social media, as one of the drivers keeping people from getting shots. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Marcus Harton
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U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Sunday he is worried about the increasing number of new coronavirus cases in the country and laid part of the blame on social media companies for not doing enough to remove misinformation about the need to get vaccinated. “I’m concerned about what we’re seeing,” Murthy told “Fox News Sunday,” as about 29,000 new cases are being diagnosed every day in the United States, roughly the same level as in April 2020, when the pandemic first swept through the country. The highly contagious delta variant has been particularly problematic. “This pandemic isn’t over,” he said. “The good news is that the vaccinated are still highly protected,” he said. But he noted that 95% of the deaths occurring now in the U.S., more than 250 a day, are of people who have not been vaccinated. FILE – Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)Echoing recent remarks by President Joe Biden, Murthy said people are being “inundated with misinformation,” about the available vaccines being unsafe or unnecessary. President Biden last week said misinformation posted to social media sites was “killing people,” and that, “The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated.” The Facebook site used by millions of Americans says it has removed 18 million pieces of wrong vaccination information. Murthy said, “Despite what they’ve done, it’s not enough. The intention is good, but I’m asking them to step up” and do more. In a separate interview on ABC’s “This Week” show, Murthy urged people using social media sites to “verify their sources before posting” comments about the efficacy of the shots. Analyses have shown that the vaccination rate in the U.S. is markedly lower in states that voted in last November’s election for then-President Donald Trump, who at times downplayed the severity of the pandemic, and now often the number of new cases is higher in the Trump states. Biden set a goal several months ago of having at least 70% of adults in the U.S. getting at least one vaccine shot by the annual July 4th Independence Day holiday. The U.S., however, fell short of that objective and the number now stands at 68.1%, according to government statistics. Facebook on Saturday pushed back against claims that it is to blame for people not getting vaccinated. In a blog post, Facebook said Biden and his aides should stop “finger-pointing” and detailed what it had done to encourage inoculations. “The Biden administration has chosen to blame a handful of American social media companies,” said Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity. “The fact is that vaccine acceptance among Facebook users in the U.S. has increased.” Rosen said the company’s data showed that 85% of its U.S. users had been or wanted to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. “Facebook is not the reason (the 70% goal) was missed,” Rosen said. Over a period of months, Facebook has acted against misinformation on its site, banning anti-vaccination ads and later removing posts with false claims about vaccines, such as that they cause autism or that it is safer for people to contract the coronavirus than to be inoculated.
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Britain’s National Health Service has contacted Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his finance minister, Rishi Sunak, to let them know that they have been close to someone who tested positive for COVID-19.Downing Street said Sunday in a statement the men will participate in a daily contact testing pilot that will allow them to continue to work from Downing Street but self-isolate when not in their offices.The announcement came after U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who leads the country’s coronavirus response said Saturday he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating.COVID-19 cases are rising in the U.S. and around the world, largely driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus. Regions are beginning to return to measures such as mask-wearing to reduce the number of victims.Los Angeles County, in the U.S. state of California, reimposed a mask-wearing mandate that went into effect Saturday, but a county sheriff said the Public Health Department’s move was “not backed by science” and his department will not enforce the measure.“Forcing the vaccinated and those who already contracted COVID-19 to wear masks indoors is not backed by science and contradicts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva wrote in a statement on the department’s website.“The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) has authority to enforce the order, but the underfunded/defunded Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will not expend our limited resources and instead ask for voluntary compliance. We encourage the DPH to work collaboratively with the Board of Supervisors and law enforcement to establish mandates that are both achievable and supported by science.”It was not immediately clear what, if any repercussions, the sheriff’s office will face for the statement and its refusal to enforce the mandate.Meanwhile, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an advocacy group based in Washington and London, has produced a report that identifies a dozen pandemic profiteers “who have enriched themselves by spreading misinformation” about the COVID vaccines.The group said the 12 entities operate “in plain sight, publicly undermining our collective confidence in doctors, governments and medical science. Their confidence in openly promoting lies and false cures comes from years of impunity in which they were hosted on popular social media platforms, driving traffic and advertising dollars to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, while benefiting from the enormous reach those platforms gladly afforded them.”Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy decried the COVID misinformation that has spread across social media.More stringent COVID-19 containment measures were imposed in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, as cases of infections continued to rise in the third week of a citywide lockdown.New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters Saturday the new restrictions would remain in effect until the end of July.Officials ordered the shutdown of building sites and nonessential retail businesses, restrictions that also apply to Sydney’s surrounding communities in New South Wales.Residents in the Sydney suburbs of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool are prohibited from traveling outside their communities unless they are health care workers or emergency responders.Vietnam also is reportedly imposing new restrictions as it grapples with its worst COVID-19 outbreak to date.The government announced Saturday that it would impose two-week travel restrictions in 16 southern provinces beginning Monday, according to Reuters.”The curbs are to protect people’s health,” the government reportedly said in a statement.In the United Kingdom, every adult has been offered a first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine ahead of the country’s reopening Monday. So far 87.8% of adults have received at least one shot.Johnson said the reopening will go forward even though new infections are at their highest level since January, driven by the delta variant.One U.K. COVID-19 restriction that will not be lifted Monday is on travelers from France, because of concerns about the beta variant first identified in South Africa.Travelers from France must isolate for up to 10 days on entering Britain, even if they are fully vaccinated. However, fully vaccinated travelers from most of the rest of Europe can forgo quarantining as of Monday as planned.In the United States, three Texas state lawmakers have tested positive for the coronavirus, even though they had been vaccinated, the Texas State House Democratic Caucus said on Saturday.The lawmakers left their state and flew to Washington to block passage of new, restrictive voting legislation in their state.Two of the lawmakers met Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris. In a statement Saturday, Harris spokesperson Symone Sanders said Harris and her staff are fully vaccinated and “were not at risk of exposure because they were not in close contact with those who tested positive.””We are taking these positive confirmations very seriously,” Texas state Representative Ron Reynolds, told MSNBC. “We’re following all CDC guidelines and … we are going to make sure that we don’t expose anyone.”Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said Sunday that there have been more than 4 million global COVID-19 deaths and over 190 million infections have been confirmed.Some information for this report came from Associated Press and Reuters.
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Two athletes have become the first to test positive for the coronavirus in the Tokyo Olympic Village, officials said on Sunday, just days before the pandemic-delayed Games open.The cases will heighten concerns over the Olympics, which are facing opposition in Japan over fears they will bring new cases to a country already battling a surge in infections.A daily tally of new cases revealed two athletes tested positive in the Village and one elsewhere. They come a day after an unidentified person, who was not a competitor, became the first case in the Village.The Olympic Village, a complex of apartments and dining areas, will house 6,700 athletes and officials at its peak when the 2020 Games, delayed last year over the pandemic, finally get under way.The Tokyo Olympics, which will be held largely behind closed doors to prevent infections, are unpopular in Japan where opinion polls have consistently demonstrated a lack of support.On Saturday, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach appealed for Japanese fans to get behind the Games, saying he was “very well aware of the skepticism” surrounding the event.
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More than 100,000 people protested Saturday across France against the government’s latest measures to push people to get vaccinated and curb rising infections by the delta variant of the coronavirus.
In Paris, separate protest marches by the far right and the far left wound through different parts of the city. Demonstrations were also held in Strasbourg in the east, Lille in the north, Montpellier in the south and elsewhere.
Thousands of people answered calls to take to the streets by Florian Philippot, a fringe far-right politician and former right hand of Marine Le Pen who announced earlier this month that he would run in the 2022 presidential election. Gathered a stone’s throw from the Louvre Museum, protesters chanted “Macron, clear off!” and “Freedom,” and they banged metal spoons on saucepans.
While Philippot has organized small but regular protests against the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, Saturday’s demonstration drew a larger and more diverse crowd of people broadly disaffected with politics: yellow vest activists angry over perceived economic injustice, far-right supporters, medical staff and royalists.
A shot? ‘Never’
They denounced the government’s decision on Monday to make vaccines compulsory for all health care workers, and to require a “health pass” proving people are fully vaccinated, have recently tested negative or have recovered from the virus in order to access restaurants and other public venues. President Emmanuel Macron’s government is presenting a draft law Monday to enshrine the measures.
“I will never get vaccinated,” Bruno Auquier, 53, a town councilor who lives on the outskirts of Paris. “People need to wake up,” he said, questioning the safety of the vaccine.
While France requires several vaccinations to enter public school, Auquier pledged to take his two children out of school if the coronavirus vaccine became mandatory.
“These new measures are the last straw,” Auquier said.
The government warned of the continued spread of the delta variant, which authorities fear could again put pressure on hospitals if not enough people are vaccinated against the virus. The pandemic has cost France more than 111,000 lives and deeply damaged its economy.
During a visit to a pop-up vaccination center in the southwest, Prime Minister Jean Castex exhorted the French to stick together in order to overcome the crisis.
“There is only one solution: vaccination,” he said, stressing it “protects us, and will make us freer.”
At the Paris protest, a manual worker in his 60s expressed bitterness about jobs in his sector being sent offshore. A 24-year-old royalist said he was there to demand “the return of God and the king.”
‘Going too far’
Lucien, 28, a retail shop manager, said he wasn’t anti-vaccine, but thought people should be able to do as they please with their own bodies.
“The government is going too far,” he said. His friend Elise, 26, said, “I am vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and polio. But the COVID vaccine is just too experimental.”
While a majority of French health care workers have had at least one vaccine dose, some are resisting the government’s decision to make vaccination compulsory for all staff in medical facilities.
At Saturday’s Paris protest, a 39-year-old green party supporter and hospital laboratory worker said she might resort to buying a fake vaccination certificate to avoid losing her job. A health care worker dressed as the Statue of Liberty called it “act of violence” to force people to get vaccinated.
In Montpellier, more than 1,000 people marched to the train station, chanting “Liberty!” and carrying signs reading “Our kids aren’t guinea pigs.” Security officials closed the main entrance to travelers and a dozen police officers took posts in front.
The Interior Ministry said 114,000 people took part in protests nationwide.
Overnight on Friday, vandals ransacked a vaccination center in the southeast. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin asked prefects and police chiefs to reinforce security for elected officials, after several complained they had received threats in recent days over the latest anti-COVID measures.
Vaccine hesitancy is considered widespread in France, though it appears to have faded somewhat as 36 million French people have gotten coronavirus vaccine doses in recent months. Millions more have gotten injected or signed up for vaccinations since Monday’s announcement.
French health care workers have until September 15 to get vaccinated. The requirement for COVID passes for all restaurants, bars, hospitals, shopping malls, trains, planes and other venues is being introduced in stages starting Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the French government announced tightened border controls starting Sunday, but also said it would allow in travelers from anywhere in the world who have been fully vaccinated.
That now includes people who received AstraZeneca’s Indian-manufactured vaccine. The move came after a global outcry because the European Union’s COVID-19 certificate recognizes only AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured in Europe.
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Martine Moise, the wife of Haiti’s assassinated president who was injured in the July 7 attack at their private home, returned to the Caribbean nation on Saturday following her release from a Miami hospital.
Her arrival was unannounced and surprised many in the country of more than 11 million people still reeling from the assassination of Jovenel Moise in a raid authorities say involved Haitians, Haitian Americans and former Colombian soldiers.
Martine Moise disembarked the flight at the Port-au-Prince airport wearing a black dress, a black bulletproof vest and a black face mask. Her right arm was in a black sling as she slowly walked down the steps of what appeared to be a private plane. She was greeted by interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph and other officials.
Earlier this week, she tweeted from the Miami hospital that she could not believe her husband was gone “without saying a last word. This pain will never pass.”
On Friday, government officials announced that Jovenel Moise’s funeral would be on July 23 in the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haitien and that his wife was expected to attend.
Group: Let chosen PM form government
Earlier Saturday a key group of international diplomats issued a statement urging Ariel Henry, the designated prime minister, to form a government following Moise’s killing.
Joseph has been leading Haiti with the backing of police and the military even though Moise had announced Joseph’s replacement a day before he was killed.
Joseph and his allies argue that Henry was never sworn in, though he pledged to work with him and with Joseph Lambert, the head of Haiti’s inactive Senate.
The statement was issued by the Core Group, which is made up of ambassadors from Germany, Brazil, Canada, Spain, the U.S., France, the European Union and representatives from the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
The group called for the creation of “a consensual and inclusive government.”
“To this end, it strongly encourages the designated Prime Minister Ariel Henry to continue the mission entrusted to him to form such a government,” the group said.
U.S. officials could not be immediately reached for comment. A U.N. spokesman declined comment except to say that the U.N. is part of the group that issued the statement. An OAS spokesman said: “For the moment, there is nothing further to say other than what the statement says.”
Henry and spokespeople for Joseph did not immediately return messages for comment.
Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, said the statement was very confusing, especially after the U.N. representative had said that Joseph was in charge.
The question of who should take over has been complicated by the fact Haiti’s parliament has not been functioning because a lack of elections meant most members’ terms had expired. And the head of the Supreme Court recently died of COVID-19.
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Titane, a wildly imaginative film about a serial killer by French director Julia Ducournau, won the top Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival, jury head Spike Lee told a ceremony Saturday before the award was slated to be revealed.In a moment of confusion when asked in French to reveal what one of the prizes was, the U.S. film director read off a card and prematurely announced the best movie winner.Ducournau, 37, became only the second woman to win the top award at Cannes. Her violent film, in which the heroine has sex with a car, split critics, with some praising its originality but others put off by its frantic and messy approach.Described as a “body horror” movie and based around a character with a titanium plate in her head, the film impressed some critics with its energy.Ducournau had previously found critical success with Raw in 2016. The only previous female winner of Cannes’ top award was Jane Campion who shared the prize in 1993 for The Piano.The world’s biggest film festival returned to the French Riviera after a 2020 hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.Stars happy to be backThe event drew stars such as Matt Damon and Sharon Stone to the red carpet, with moviemakers and actors delighted to be back, though attendance was down from figures of previous years.Other big winners revealed when results were officially announced included Leos Carax, picked as best director for Annette, a musical about two artists caught in a twisted love affair.Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Takamusa Oe of Japan won best screenplay for their tale of heartbreak and loss, Drive My Car. Renate Reinsve won best actress for her role in The Worst Person in the World by Joachim Trier, a modern-day romantic comedy that was a big hit with critics.Compartment no6 by Juho Kuosmanen, about a woman who embarks on a train journey across Russia, tied with A Hero by Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, which features a prisoner faced with a moral quandary, for the Grand Prix distinction.Caleb Landry Jones, who starred in Australian film Nitram, won best actor.The Jury Prize, another runner-up award for best movie, went to two films: Ahead’s Knee by Israel’s Nadav Lapid and Memoria by Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
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Raul Castro was among thousands who attended a government-organized rally in Havana on Saturday to denounce the U.S. trade embargo and reaffirm their support for Cuba’s revolution, a week after unprecedented protests rocked the communist-run country.
Government supporters gathered on the city’s seafront boulevard before dawn to wave Cuban flags and photos of late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and his brother Raul. The latter retired as Communist Party leader in April but promised to continue fighting for the revolution as a “foot soldier.”
The rally was a reaction to demonstrations that erupted nationwide last Sunday amid widespread shortages of basic goods, demands for political rights and the island nation’s worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic.
The government admitted some shortcomings this week but mostly blamed the protests on U.S.-financed “counter-revolutionaries” exploiting economic hardship caused by U.S. sanctions.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who also heads the Communist Party, told the crowd that Cuba’s “enemy has once again thrown itself into destroying citizens’ sacred unity and tranquility.”
He said it was no small matter to call a rally as the country saw increasing numbers of COVID cases: “We convened you to denounce once more the blockade, the aggression and terror.”
‘Revolution will continue’
Authorities said similar rallies were held nationwide.
“This revolution will continue for a long time,” said Margaritza Arteaga, a state social worker who attended the rally in Havana.
Workers had been convened by neighborhood block committees, known as the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, she said, and a state bus had picked her up at 4 a.m.
Shortly before the rally in Havana officially began, authorities removed a man shouting anti-government slogans including “freedom” from the crowd.
The number of those detained during or after protests has grown as new reports trickle in amid irregular outages in internet and messaging applications on the island, where the state has a monopoly on telecommunications.
The latest tally from exiled rights group Cubalex put those detained at 450, although some have since been released. Activists have accused authorities of repression as some videos have emerged on social media of police beating protesters.
The government has not yet given official figures for those detained although it has said it arrested those it suspected of instigating unpatriotic unrest or of carrying out vandalism. State television has broadcast images of people looting Cuba’s controversial dollar stores and overturning empty police cars.
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Temple elephants in southern India’s Kerala state began their monthlong wellness camp at Vadakkunnathan temple, Saturday, July 17.
Eating fruits, rice sweet balls, and other items, the elephants were seen happily interacting with people.
The elephants are ritualistically relieved from daily chores for a monthlong restorative treatment called Aanayoottu, beginning from Saturday.
Aanayoottu means feeding the elephants with specially prepared food, which is known for its high medicinal value. This medicinal concoction is regarded as vital for enhancing the well-being of elephants.
The formulation is administered to the animals to protect and improve their health during the monsoon months when they are not taken for any temple processions, of which they are an essential part, and are provided with full rest.
(Reuters)
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South African authorities in the port city of Durban said Saturday they were investigating a coastal chemical spill that may have been caused by a warehouse fire during unrest this week.Other possible sources are also being investigated as the cause of the spill, which is affecting marine and bird life, the eThekwini municipality said late Friday, urging local residents not to use beaches in the area.”Extensive environmental impacts are being reported at uMhlanga and uMdhloti lagoons and beaches in the vicinity, that have killed numerous species of marine and bird life,” the municipality said in a statement.”The pollution is considered serious and can affect one’s health if species are collected and consumed. Lagoon and seawater contact must be avoided.”Reuters reporters saw dead fish that had washed onshore on Saturday, as a clean-up company worked to mop up the spill.KwaZulu-Natal province’s head of environmental affairs, Ravi Pillay, said water samples would be tested Monday.”We will see the results from there,” Pillay told Reuters. “We have some evidence of some limited impact on marine life. Our team is satisfied that there is no impact on public health.”President Cyril Ramaphosa said Friday the unrest that ripped through several parts of the country in the past week was stabilizing and calm had been restored to most affected areas.Protests broke out after former President Jacob Zuma was jailed for failing to appear at a corruption inquiry and swiftly degenerated into looting and arson which has killed more than 200 people and destroyed hundreds of businesses.The municipality also said some residents were reporting smoke residue from burned chemical products. It advised people to close windows and doors and put wet cloths over vents until the smoke cleared.Pillay said air quality testing was being undertaken.
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Forces in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region have released about 1,000 government soldiers captured during recent fighting, the head of its ruling party said, as both sides prepared for a showdown over contested land in the west of the region.
Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), told Reuters by satellite phone late Friday they have released 1,000 low-ranking soldiers. “More than 5,000 [soldiers] are still with us, and we will keep the senior officers who will face trial,” he said.
He said the soldiers had been driven to Tigray’s southern border with the Amhara region on Friday, but he did not say who received them or how the release was negotiated.
Reuters could not independently confirm his account. A military spokesman said he was not immediately available to comment Saturday, and the spokesman for the Amhara regional administration said he had no information on the release.
Officials in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office and a government taskforce on Tigray did not answer calls seeking comment.
Fighting broke out in Tigray in November when the government accused the TPLF of attacking military bases across the region, which the party denied. The government declared victory three weeks later when it took control of the regional capital, Mekelle, but the TPLF kept fighting.
In a dramatic turn, the TPLF retook Mekelle and most of Tigray at the end of June, after the government pulled out its soldiers and declared a unilateral cease-fire.
The TPLF vowed to keep fighting, however, until it had regained control of disputed territory in the south and west of Tigray that was seized during the fighting by the government’s allies from Amhara.
Abiy said this week that the military would repel any TPLF threat, effectively abandoning the self-declared truce. Amhara and three other regions said they were mobilizing forces to support the national army in its fight against the TPLF.
Thousands of people have died in the fighting; around 2 million have been displaced and more than 5 million rely on emergency food aid.
On Friday, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry issued a statement accusing aid groups of arming rebels.
“Some aid agencies have been actively engaged in a destructive role. We have also confirmed that they have been using aid as a cover and are arming the rebel groups to prolong the conflicts,” it said.
The statement did not identify the groups and there was no immediate response from the agencies that operate in Tigray. The United Nations humanitarian organization OCHA did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.N. has said desperately needed aid is being blocked at checkpoints as convoys travel through government-held territory. Ethiopian authorities say the aid needs to be checked.
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Issues in the News moderator Kim Lewis talks with VOA Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson and correspondent for Marketplace Kimberly Adams about the ongoing battle between Democrats and Republicans over voting rights legislation, what’s next after Senate Democrats agree to a $3.5 trillion human infrastructure package, the impact of the crises in Haiti and Cuba on the Biden Administration, and much more.
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Suzanne Firstenberg is a self-described social issues artist who finds inspiration in America — economic inequality, racism and climate change, among other issues. She doesn’t limit herself to any particular medium but instead uses whatever she thinks works best to draw attention to the most pressing issues of our time. Maxim Moskalkov talked to the artist about her works and inspiration.
Camera: Sergey Sokolov
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The U.S. is experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths. The highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus among unvaccinated people is largely responsible for the outbreak.Four states with low vaccination rates were responsible for 40% of last week’s new cases, but cases have risen in all 50 states, officials say.Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday that last week the U.S. had a daily average of 26,000 new cases. She said the outbreak has become “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Later Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden repeated Walensky’s assessment, saying, “The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated.”Vaccine Mandates Prompt Sharp Legal Debate In recent months, lawmakers in Republican-led states have introduced more than 100 bills that would ban school and employer vaccination mandates A group of international government advisers say they are concerned about England’s plans to lift virtually all its pandemic restrictions Monday. The advisers believe that would leave Britain susceptible to new coronavirus variants, possibly transforming the country into a superspreader location.Elsewhere, there is worry that Tokyo’s Olympics could become a superspreader event after an unidentified person inside the Olympic Village tested positive for the coronavirus. The person is reportedly not an athlete, but someone from abroad helping to organize the games.“The case is one of 15 new positive results among games participants and workers reported on Saturday, the highest daily count since the committee started compiling figures on July 1,” Kyodo news service reported.“There have been a total of 45 COVID-19 infections announced by organizers since July 1,” according to Kyodo.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said Saturday that there have been more than 4 million global COVID-19 deaths. More than 189 million cases have been confirmed, according to Johns Hopkins.
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Rescue workers searched flood-ravaged parts of western Germany for survivors on Saturday as water levels remained high in many towns and houses continued to collapse in the country’s worst natural disaster in half a century.
At least 133 people have died in the flooding, including some 90 people in the Ahrweiler district south of Cologne, according to police estimates on Saturday. Hundreds of people are still missing.
Around 700 residents were evacuated late on Friday after a dam broke in the town of Wassenberg near Cologne, authorities said.
Over the past several days the floods, which have mostly hit the states of Rhineland Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, have cut off entire communities from power and communications.
The flooding has also hit parts of Belgium and the Netherlands. At least 20 people have died in Belgium.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Armin Laschet, state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, were scheduled to visit Erftstadt, one of the hardest hit towns, on Saturday.
Laschet is ruling CDU party’s candidate in September’s general election. The devastation of the floods could intensify the debate over climate change ahead of the vote.
Scientists have long said that climate change will lead to heavier downpours. But determining its role in these relentless downpours will take at least several weeks to research, scientists said on Friday.
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Pope Francis cracked down Friday on the spread of the old Latin Mass, reversing one of Pope Benedict XVI’s signature decisions in a major challenge to traditionalist Catholics who immediately decried it as an attack on them and the ancient liturgy.
Francis reimposed restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass that Benedict relaxed in 2007 and went further to limit its use. The pontiff said he was acting because Benedict’s reform had become a source of division in the church and been exploited by Catholics opposed to the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church and its liturgy.
Critics said they had never witnessed a pope so thoroughly reversing his predecessor. That the reversal concerned something so fundamental as the liturgy, while Benedict is still alive and living in the Vatican as a retired pope, only amplified the extraordinary nature of Francis’ move, which will surely result in more right-wing hostility directed at him.
Francis, 84, issued a new law requiring individual bishops to approve celebrations of the old Mass, also called the Tridentine Mass, and requiring newly ordained priests to receive explicit permission to celebrate it from their bishops, in consultation with the Vatican.
Under the new law, bishops must also determine if the current groups of faithful attached to the old Mass accept Vatican II, which allowed for Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin. These groups cannot use regular churches; instead, bishops must find alternate locations for them without creating new parishes.
In addition, Francis said bishops are no longer allowed to authorize the formation of any new pro-Latin Mass groups in their dioceses.
Francis said he was taking action to promote unity and heal divisions within the church that had grown since Benedict’s 2007 document, Summorum Pontificum. He said he based his decision on a 2020 Vatican survey of all the world’s bishops, whose “responses reveal a situation that preoccupies and saddens me, and persuades me of the need to intervene.”
The pope’s rollback immediately created an uproar among traditionalists already opposed to Francis’ more progressive bent and nostalgic for Benedict’s doctrinaire papacy.
“This is an extremely disappointing document which entirely undoes the legal provisions,” of Benedict’s 2007 document, said Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales.
While Latin celebrations can continue, “the presumption is consistently against them: bishops are being invited to close them down,” Shaw said, adding that the requirement for Latin Masses to be held outside a parish was “unworkable.”
“This is an extraordinary rejection of the hard work for the church and the loyalty to the hierarchy which has characterized the movement for the Traditional Mass for many years, which I fear will foster a sense of alienation among those attached to the church’s ancient liturgy,” he said.
Benedict had issued his document in 2007 to reach out to a breakaway, schismatic group that celebrates the Latin Mass, the Society of St. Pius X, and which had split from Rome over the modernizing reforms of Vatican II.
But Francis said Benedict’s effort to foster unity had essentially backfired.
The opportunity offered by Benedict, the pope said in a letter to bishops accompanying the new law, was instead “exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.”
Francis said he was “saddened” that the use of the old Mass was accompanied by a rejection of Vatican II itself “with unfounded and unsustainable assertions that it betrayed the Tradition and the ‘true Church.’”
Christopher Bellitto, professor of church history at Kean University, said Francis was right to intervene, noting that Benedict’s original decision had had a slew of unintended consequences that not only created internal divisions but temporarily roiled relations with Jews.
“Francis hits it right on the head with his observation that Benedict’s 2007 loosening of regulations against the Latin rite allowed others to use it for division,” he said. “The blowback proves his point.”
The blowback was indeed fierce, though it’s also likely that many will simply ignore Francis’ decree and continue as before with sympathetic bishops. Some of these traditionalists and Catholics already were among Francis’ fiercest critics, with some accusing him of heresy for having opened the door to letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion.
Rorate Caeli, a popular traditionalist blog run out of the U.S., said Francis’ “attack” was the strongest rebuke of a pope against his predecessors in living memory.
“Francis HATES US. Francis HATES Tradition. Francis HATES all that is good and beautiful,” the group tweeted. But it concluded: “FRANCIS WILL DIE, THE LATIN MASS WILL LIVE FOREVER.”
Messa in Latino, an Italian traditionalist blog, was also blistering in its criticism.
“Mercy always and only for sinners (who are not asked to repent) but no mercy for those few traditional Catholics,” the blog said Friday.
For years, though, Francis has made known his distaste of the old liturgy, privately labeling its adherents self-referential naval gazers who are out of touch with the needs of the church. He has cracked down on religious orders that celebrated the old Mass exclusively and frequently decried the “rigidity” of tradition-minded priests who prioritize rules over pastoral accompaniment.
Traditionalists have insisted that the old liturgy was never abrogated, and that Benedict’s 2007 reform had allowed it to flourish.
They point to the growth of traditionalist parishes, often frequented by young, large families, as well as new religious orders that celebrate the old liturgy. The Latin Mass Society says the number of traditional Masses celebrated each Sunday in England and Wales had more than doubled since 2007, from 20 to 46.
But for many, the writing was on the wall as soon as Francis stepped out onto the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica after his 2013 election without the ermine-trimmed red velvet cape that was preferred by Benedict and is a symbol of the pre-Vatican II church.
The restrictions went into immediate effect with its publication in Friday’s official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.
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