German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Thursday the nation has vaccinated millions more people than previously thought, thanks to some unreported vaccination numbers discovered by the Robert Koch Institute for Disease Control.

The institute says nearly 80% of adults in Germany are fully vaccinated, and about 84% have received at least one shot. Previous official reports were about 5% lower — meaning there are about 3.5 million more people vaccinated than had been reported. 

Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Spahn said the discrepancy was discovered in surveys conducted by the RKI that revealed additional vaccinations. He believes some big companies’ employee vaccination programs and mobile vaccination teams in nursing centers and elsewhere may account for those initially unreported.

The new RKI figures are based on surveys and do not include people under the age of 18, which is why the agency has yet to give a new overall number of vaccinated people in Germany.

Spahn said these new numbers are good news in terms of any new COVID-19 restrictions that might be contemplated in the coming months, barring any unforeseen new variants or surges of cases.  

“From today’s perspective, we will not need any further restrictions in autumn and winter to get through this time well without overburdening the health system,” he said.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

NATO is expelling eight Russian diplomats and plans to halve the size of Russia’s observer mission to the Western alliance in response to alleged malign Russian espionage activities in Europe, which have included killings, attempted assassinations and explosions, say European officials.

The diplomats have been told to leave Brussels by the end of this month. Two other Russian diplomatic slots currently vacant at NATO headquarters will not be allowed to be filled, NATO officials told VOA.

The stripping of the accreditations of the eight Russian diplomats, first reported by Britain’s Sky News, was denounced swiftly by Russian lawmakers. The lawmakers said the Kremlin would retaliate, although not necessarily with a tit-for-tat round of expulsions of Western diplomats based in Moscow, setting the stage for a further deterioration of relations between Western countries and Russia, reminiscent of the Cold War.

A NATO official said Wednesday, “We have reduced the number of positions which the Russian Federation can accredit to NATO to 10,” down from 20 previously. The official described the diplomats targeted as “undeclared Russian intelligence officers.”

“We have strengthened our deterrence and defense in response to Russia’s aggressive actions, while at the same time we remain open for a meaningful dialogue,” he added.

NATO’s action Wednesday, came a day after Democratic and Republican senators in Washington urged US President Joe Biden to expel 300 Russian diplomats from the United States if Moscow refuses to issue more visas for Americans to represent the US in Russia. There are only about 100 American diplomats stationed in Russia, compared with 400 Russian diplomats based across the United States, the senators said.

“This disproportionality in diplomatic representation is unacceptable. Accordingly, Russia must issue enough visas to approach parity between the number of American diplomats serving in Russia and the number of Russian diplomats serving in the United States,” the senators wrote in a letter to Biden.

Troubled history

All 30 NATO member countries approved the decision to halve Russia’s observer mission, which was established two decades ago to help promote dialogue and cooperation in common security areas. The Russian diplomats based in Brussels are meant to meet with their Western counterparts in a forum known as the NATO-Russia Council, although there have been no formal proceedings for months.

This is not the first time NATO has expelled Russian diplomats based at the alliance’s headquarters. Seven Russian diplomats were expelled in 2018 after the poisoning in England of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer who defected to Britain, and his daughter. The Kremlin denied any involvement in the attempted assassination but Britain has identified Russian intelligence officers it says were behind the poisoning.

Last month, Britain’s Metropolitan Police charged a third suspect, Denis Sergeev, an officer for Russia’s military intelligence agency, GRU, over the poisoning.

In April, Czech officials said two of the Russian agents allegedly involved in the Skripal poisoning were behind a fatal blast at a Czech ammunition depot in 2014, which left two dead. Czech officials told local media that Russia orchestrated the blast to stop arms deliveries to Ukraine via Bulgaria. The Czech government subsequently expelled 18 Russian diplomats and the Kremlin responded by ordering 20 Czech diplomats to leave Russia.

The Czechs since then have been urging NATO to downsize the Russian mission in Brussels, a British official told VOA.

The NATO-Russia Council has hardly been operating in recent years, largely because of increasing disputes and rising tensions between Western powers and the Kremlin, fueled initially by Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and the support given to pro-Moscow separatists in the eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko,  accused NATO Thursday of being responsible for the deterioration of relations.

“The leaders of NATO yesterday spoke of the importance of de-escalating relations with Russia and spoke out in favor of a resumption in dialogue in the framework of the Russia-NATO Council,” he told Russia’s Kommersant daily newspaper.

“If anyone believed in the sincerity of those statements then today they don’t. Their real worth is clear to all. After the dramatic end of the Afghan era, how can they get by without the bogeyman of the ‘Russian threat.’ They can’t,” Grushko added.

Leonid Slutsky, a Russian lawmaker and chair of the Duma’s international affairs committee, told the Interfax news agency NATO’s move would damage dialogue between Moscow and the West and said he expected the Kremlin to respond with “asymmetric” measures. “The collective West is continuing its policy of diplomatic confrontation with Russia,” he said.

Some information from Reuters was used for this report
…

Victims of sexual abuse by priests in France are calling for historic reform of the Catholic Church after an independent commission found that hundreds of thousands of children had suffered systematic abuse over the past seven decades. Henry Ridgwell reports.
…

Russia’s Federal Security Service has issued an arrest warrant for investigative journalist Roman Dobrokhotov, editor of the Insider news website. He’s being accused of illegally crossing the border into Ukraine in August and could face up to two years in prison. Anna Rice has the story.
…

NATO said Wednesday it expelled eight members of Russia’s mission to the military alliance for allegedly working in secret as intelligence officers. 

“We can confirm that we have withdrawn the accreditation of eight members of the Russian Mission to NATO, who were undeclared Russian intelligence officers,” an unnamed NATO official said.

NATO also said it would cut the number of positions that Russia could accredit to NATO from 20 to 10 at the end of October. The alliance did not immediately explain why the decision was made. 

The official said, “NATO’s policy towards Russia remains consistent. We have strengthened our deterrence and defense in response to Russia’s aggressive actions, while at the same time we remain open for a meaningful dialogue.” 

Senior Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian lower house of parliament’s international affairs committee, said Moscow would retaliate but did not provide specifics, according to Interfax. 

NATO-Russian relations have steadily deteriorated since Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. NATO and Russia also disagree over issues such as Russia’s nuclear missile development and aerial intrusions into NATO airspace. 

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters. 

 
…

Russia’s opposition activists and rights groups had hoped the Kremlin would ease off on a crackdown on dissent, independent media outlets and civic organizations once the elections for the Duma, the lower house of parliament, concluded last month.

But there’s little sign of that happening, they say.

The Justice Ministry has added nearly two dozen activists and journalists, an independent rights watchdog and a news site to its Soviet-style blacklist of designated “foreign agents.” The moniker can mean the death knell for a media outlet as it prompts nervous advertisers to pull out. Both Russians and non-Russians can be branded as foreign agents.

“Russian authorities have intensified their efforts to silence independent voices,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. The rights group says the authorities are using “a battery of laws that allow even greater infringements on freedoms of expression, association, and assembly.”

In the runup to Russia’s parliamentary elections in September, which saw the ruling United Russia party retain its majority in the 450-seat Duma, opposition leaders and critics of President Vladimir Putin complained of an intensification of a campaign of repression that saw an exodus of dissidents. 

The Kremlin barred most genuinely independent candidates — first and foremost supporters of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny — from running in the polls.

Last week, Russia’s domestic spy agency added to its list of topics and issues that can earn the moniker of “foreign agent.” The Federal Security Service listed 60 non-classified topics, many related to the armed forces, including military procurement and soldiers’ morale, that can be exploited by foreign enemies. The topics include gathering or publishing information about corruption within the military as well as Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos.

The expansion of the list will add to the risks for journalists trying to report on Russia’s military, rights lawyers complain.

In an interview with the Reuters news agency after the elections, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the authorities would continue to take a tough line against what he termed “the non-systemic opposition.” He said opponents had “crossed a red line a while ago.” And, he added, “What they were doing was using provocations and all methods to try to stir up social unrest.”

Peskov said, “Naturally, any authorities would adopt as tough a position as possible to that. The aim is to maintain stability in society. There is no place for lawlessness and we are ready to force people to obey the law. This is not connected to the Duma elections. This is our line and it will continue to be our line.”

People designated as foreign agents can be fined and jailed for up to five years for failing to meet various administrative requirements, including filing regular financial reports.

They are also required to add this statement to anything they publish: “This message is created and/or distributed by a foreign media outlet carrying out the functions of a foreign agent, and/or by a Russian legal entity carrying out the functions of a foreign agent.”

Russia’s law on foreign agents was initially introduced in 2012 but has been beefed up and amended several times since. Last month, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a global network of 50 independent media outlets, announced it was halting operations in Russia in order to protect its Russian journalist collaborators.

More than 70 individuals are on the foreign agent blacklist, nearly one-third of them added since the parliamentary elections. The most recent additions include Sergey Smirnov and Pyotr Verzilov, respectively the editor-in-chief of the independent news site Mediazona and its publisher, Zona Prava; a rights organization founded by the Pussy Riot protest punk rock band to monitor abuses in Russia’s prison system; and several members of the election watchdog Golos.

Three members of the feminist Pussy Riot were jailed after staging what authorities considered a sacrilegious and unauthorized performance in 2012 inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

The incident, which gained the group international notoriety, was billed as an anti-Putin demonstration. Putin was prime minister at the time.

The Mediazona news site published Tuesday three videos obtained by an NGO, Gulagu.net, showing inmates being beaten and tortured by guards in several prisons across the country, including in the city of Saratov. Gulagu.net’s website was blocked by state media watchdog Roskomnadzor earlier this year following requests from Russia’s security agencies.

“Russian authorities have amassed a wide array of tools to intimidate, marginalize, and punish human rights defenders,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

HRW has raised concerns also about a crackdown on two Russian rights groups, both of which have won cases against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights, and a migrant rights campaigner, Valentina Chupik, an Uzbek barred last month from re-entering Russia, where she has been a resident since 2005.

Border officials handed Chupik a notice saying she would be prohibited from entering the country for 30 years.

“Whether the moves against these three are coordinated or not, they are certainly consistent with the authorities’ wider efforts to stifle effective critics, in particular groups that work to rectify human rights abuses,” says Williamson.

A group of 45 Western countries demanded Tuesday that Russia provide urgent answers about the poisoning of Kremlin critic Navalny. Western nations say Navalny was poisoned in Russia with a Soviet-era nerve agent in August last year. He was treated in Germany before returning to Russia, where he’s now in jail.

Moscow has 10 days to respond to the questions posed by the EU, the United States, Canada and Australia, under the rules of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). “It is essential that Russia sets out in detail the steps taken to investigate and shed light on the use of a chemical weapon on its territory,” said the statement by the 45 countries.

Moscow denies any involvement in Navalny’s poisoning. Navalny was jailed on his return to Russia on fraud charges, which his supporters say were trumped up. He is being held at Penal Colony No. 2 in Pokrov in the Vladimir region of Russia.

His prison sentence is due to end in mid-2023, but Russian authorities have launched a new case against Navalny and other directors of his Anti-Corruption Fund and he could face new extremism charges, each of which carries a possible sentence of 10 years.

“The organization that I founded specializes in fighting against corruption. And this, evidently, is enough to make it extremist in the eyes of my country’s authorities,” Navalny said Wednesday in a speech delivered for him at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Miami.

Information from Reuters was used in this report.
…

After a push to patch U.S.-French relations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken closes a Paris visit Wednesday with the final day of ministerial talks at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 

Blinken highlighted several challenges as he spoke at the opening of the meeting Tuesday, including the coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis, inequity and setting rules for a technologically advancing world. 

“The principles at the heart of this organization and our democracies are being challenged by authoritarian governments that argue their model is better at meeting people’s basic needs. Some of these same governments are actively seeking to undermine the rules-based order that has been fundamental to security and prosperity of our countries for generations,” Blinken said, without naming specific nations.  

Blinken said member nations must “prove that our approach can make a better life for people … in all countries and in a way that’s more equitable than in the past” while holding “ourselves accountable.”  

In addition to the final work at the OECD meetings Wednesday, Blinken is holding separate talks with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares and Colombian Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez. 

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken and Di Maio discussed the need for Libyan leaders to do what is necessary to support national elections in December, as well as concern about the political and humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia. 

Blinken thanked both Di Maio and Albares for their governments’ efforts in helping evacuate people from Afghanistan ahead of the withdrawal of U.S. forces. 

At the start of his meeting with Ramirez, Blinken said Colombia is a regional leader on democratic values and human rights, and that the United States and Colombia have a “lot on our common agenda now” such as work on climate change and counternarcotics.

Tensions over AUKUS deal     

The first part of his Paris trip was focused on repairing strained ties with ally France following a dispute about a security partnership among the United States, Britain and Australia. 

That included a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron during which a U.S. official said Blinken and Macron discussed joint projects the two sides could announce during a meeting later this month between Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden. 

“We could and we should have communicated better,” Blinken told France 2 television in an interview after his meeting with Macron. “We sometimes tend to take for granted a relationship as important and deep as the one that links France and the United States.” 

The Biden administration announced September 15 a new security pact with Australia and Britain. Under the deal, Australia will get at least eight nuclear-powered submarines to be built domestically using American technology. The agreement came as Australia pulled out of an earlier deal with France for diesel-electric submarines, which angered Paris.     

France recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia within two days following the announcement. Le Drian declared a “crisis of trust” in the United States.          

Blinken heads to Mexico         

Blinken’s weeklong trip also includes a stop at Stanford University, and meetings in Mexico City on Thursday and Friday for the U.S.-Mexico High Level Security Dialogue.          

He will join U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to discuss security issues, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said this week.     

The high-level meeting comes amid a recent migration crisis as tens of thousands of Haitian migrants gathered at the U.S.-Mexico border last month.          

The Biden administration confirmed on September 24 that a makeshift camp where 15,000 Haitian migrants braved desperate conditions along the U.S.-Mexico border was now vacant.

In late September, Mexico also began flying Haitian migrants back to their homeland.

 Some information for this report came from the Associated Press. 
…

A group of French senators arrived in Taiwan for a five-day visit Wednesday following a large Chinese show of force with fighter jets amid the highest tensions in decades between China and Taiwan. 

The group, led by senator Alain Richard, will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwanese economic and health officials and the Mainland Affairs Council. Richard, a former French defense minister, previously visited Taiwan in 2015 and 2018, according to Taiwan’s semi-official Central News Agency, and heads the Taiwan Friendship group in the French senate. 

China’s ambassador to France Lu Shaye sent a warning letter in February calling on Richard to cancel the Taiwan visit, according to local media reports. 

The visit will likely provoke a rebuke from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and therefore opposes any international engagement with the island such as visits by foreign government officials. It also has aggressively poached Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic allies. 

In its most recent display of sustained military harassment, China flew fighter jets 149 times toward Taiwan over four days from Friday to Monday. The White House called the flights risky and destabilizing, while China responded that the U.S. selling weapons to Taiwan and its ships navigating the Taiwan Strait were provocative.

Taiwan’s defense minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told legislators Wednesday that the situation “is the most severe in the 40 years since I’ve enlisted.” Chiu was answering questions as the legislature decides whether to approve a special budget for air and naval defense purchases. 

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949. Today they have extensive trade and investment ties but no official relations, and China has increasingly mobilized military, diplomatic and economic pressure to undermine Tsai’s independence-leaning administration. 
…

NATO’s top official is signaling that it would be a mistake to see the withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan or simmering tensions between France and the United States as a weakening of the trans-Atlantic alliance. 

Instead, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned would-be adversaries that NATO will remain unified and resolute against a growing number of threats from old adversaries and new ones. 

“Questions are being asked about the strength of the bond between Europe and North America,” Stoltenberg told an audience at Georgetown University in Washington following a series of meetings with top U.S. officials. 

“They do not change the big picture,” he said. “We do not know what the next crisis will be, but we do know that whatever happens, we are safer when we stand together.” 

Specifically, Stoltenberg pushed back against charges that U.S. President Joe Biden cast aside NATO allies when he decided to make good on the previous U.S. administration deal to pull American troops from Afghanistan. 

“The idea that the United States did not consult is wrong,” Stoltenberg said. “That’s factually wrong.” 

The NATO leader also said that while France was “disappointed” by a new security pact between the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia — the so-called AUKUS deal in which the U.S. and the U.K. will share technology with Australia to help it build nuclear-powered submarines — “NATO allies agree on the big picture that we need to stand together also working with our Asia-Pacific partners.” 

“China has the second-largest defense budget in the world. They’re investing heavily in new military capabilities, including nuclear long-range weapons systems,” Stoltenberg said. “I expect that the upcoming new strategic concept for NATO will actually reflect a much more comprehensive and unified position on how to relate to China.” 

But the NATO secretary-general saved his toughest talk for Russia, warning that relations between NATO and Moscow are “at the lowest point since the end of the Cold War.” 

“They have deployed new, advanced weapon systems. They have violated one of the cornerstones of arms control, the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty) that banned all intermediate-range weapon systems,” he said. “And we have seen a more aggressive Russia abroad, in many places, and then a more repressive Russia at home.” 

And Stoltenberg went even further, appearing to chastise Moscow for its stance on NATO enlargement, specifically its opposition to membership for Georgia and Ukraine. 

“It is the right for any sovereign nation to decide its own path. The whole idea that it’s a provocation to Russia that small neighbors join NATO is absolutely wrong,” he said. “That’s the provocation, that anyone is saying that.” 

Stoltenberg declined to say when Georgia or Ukraine might gain NATO membership, calling it a matter for the two countries and the alliance, and “no one else.” 

Stoltenberg also said that during his time in Washington, specifically during his meeting Monday with Biden, he pushed for NATO members to do more to help aspiring members. 

“We need to step up and do more for those aspirant countries, because as long as they are not members, we should provide more support, more training, more capacity building, help them implement reforms, fight corruption and build the security and defense institutions,” Stoltenberg said.

“We need to establish that there is a lot in between nothing and full membership,” he added. 

A White House readout of Monday’s meeting said the two leaders, “discussed the international security environment and NATO’s ongoing efforts to safeguard Transatlantic defense.” 

It also said Biden “reaffirmed his strong support for NATO and the importance of bolstering deterrence and defense against strategic competitors and transnational threats.” 

 
…

Add U.S. military officials to the crescendo of voices warning Mali’s interim government against brokering any deal to use mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group to help with security and counterterrorism. 

For weeks, U.S. and French officials have publicly tried to dissuade Malian leaders from moving forward with a reported deal that would pay Wagner $10.8 million a month for 1,000 mercenaries to train Mali’s military and provide security for senior officials. 

Now, the Pentagon says such a deal could cost Mali in multiple ways. 

“Given the Wagner Group’s record, if these reports are true, any role for Russian mercenaries in Mali will likely exacerbate an already fragile and unstable situation,” U.S. Defense Department spokesperson Cindi King told VOA. 

King also warned a deal between Mali and the Wagner Group “would complicate the international response in support of the transition government.” 

The U.S. had been providing training and other support to Mali as it tries to confront the threat from various terrorist groups, including the Islamic State affiliate IS-Greater Sahara and the al-Qaida-affiliated Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, also known as JNIM. 

But that support was suspended following the August 2020 coup that saw elements of the Malian military depose the country’s elected leaders.

More recently, France announced this past June that it would bring home some 2,000 counterterrorism forces it had stationed in Mali and neighboring countries. 

Mali’s interim government has so far denied a deal with Russia’s Wagner Group is in the offing, but the country’s prime minister told VOA last week that the actions of the U.S., France and others have left the interim government with few choices. 

“The security situation keeps deteriorating by the day,” Choguel Maiga told VOA in an interview on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. 

“We have to find new partners who can help,” he said. “We can seek partnership either with Russia or with any other country.” 

Some Western officials with knowledge of the potential deal between Mali and the Wagner Group have called the potential deployment of the Russian mercenaries “a real concern.” 

The officials point to what they describe as a destabilizing impact of about 2,000 Wagner mercenaries in the Central African Republic, where allegations of human rights abuses and exploitation have been rampant. 

Russia has denied any abuses by contractors there and has welcomed talk of the potential deal between Mali’s interim government and Wagner. 

“They are combating terrorism,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a news conference at the U.N. last week. “And they have turned to a private military company from Russia in connection with the fact that, as I understand, France wants to significantly draw down its military component.” 

“We don’t have anything to do with that,” Lavrov said, adding, “at the government level, we are also contributing to providing for military and defense capacities of Mali.” 

Many Western governments, though, insist that there is little practical difference between the Kremlin and the exploits of the Wagner Group, run by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. 

Prigozhin, sometimes called “Putin’s cook” because of his catering company’s work for Russian President Vladimir Putin, is thought to have extensive ties to Russia’s political and military establishments, according to U.S. intelligence officials. 

The U.S. State Department sanctioned Prigozhin and Wagner back in July 2020, as well as several front companies for the group’s operations in Sudan. 

 
…

The European Union announced a comprehensive plan Tuesday to fight the growing problem of antisemitism on the continent, using a three-pronged strategy that includes combating hate speech and crimes, protecting Jewish culture, and educating the public about Judaism.

The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, introduced the plan at a news conference in Strasbourg, France.

In a statement, the commission said antisemitism is worryingly on the rise, in Europe and beyond. Citing statistics from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, 90% of Jews said antisemitism has increased in their country and it is a serious problem, and 38% of Jews have considered emigrating because they do not feel safe in the EU. 

Under the newly unveiled plan, which will be rolled out over a decade, the commission will use EU funds to support member countries as they develop their own national strategies to fight hate speech online and elsewhere and to promote fundamental rights. 

Discussing the strategy with reporters, EU Commission Vice-President for Promoting European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas said, “Antisemitism is not the problem of the Jews, but the problem of antisemites, and fighting it is the responsibility for all of us. I want to be very clear: antisemitism is incompatible with everything that the European Union stands for.” 

The aim is to set up a Europe-wide network of “trusted flaggers” along with Jewish organizations to help remove illegal online hate speech. 

EU leaders will also work with industry and IT companies to prevent the illegal display and sale of Nazi-related symbols, memorabilia and literature online. 

Funding will be provided to better protect public spaces and places of worship to help Jewish people feel safer, with $28 million available next year. 

Other steps will be taken to safeguard Jewish heritage and raise awareness about Jewish culture, life and traditions. 

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press.
…

The United States is sending nearly 900,000 doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to Mongolia. They are scheduled to arrive Wednesday, a White House official told VOA.  

“Scientific teams and legal and regulatory authorities from both countries have worked together to ensure the prompt delivery of safe and effective vaccine lots to Mongolia,” the official said.  

The 899,730 doses, sent through COVAX, the global vaccine-sharing initiative co-led by Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance), the WHO (World Health Organization) and CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), are in addition to 188,370 doses of the Pfizer vaccine shipped to Mongolia in September. The U.S. has also provided more than $4 million to support the country’s pandemic response.

Mongolia has administered around 4.4 million vaccine doses so far, according to its Ministry of Health. That’s enough for about 68% of the country’s population, assuming each person receives two doses.  

The number of infections is decreasing, with 2,230 new cases reported on average each day. That is 60% of the peak reported on September 6.  

There have been 312,376 infections and 1,347 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began. COVID-19 is caused by the coronavirus.

Vaccine inequality

Humanitarian organizations say wealthy nations still need to do more to address global vaccine inequality.  

“When it comes to vaccine access around the world, you have 80% of the doses that have been administered have gone to rich countries, while only 0.5% have gone to low-income countries,” said Robbie Silverman, Oxfam America’s senior advocacy manager.  

The U.S. has been criticized for announcing plans to provide booster shots for certain demographic groups while many at-risk populations around the world have yet to receive a single shot.   

The Biden administration says they can help vaccinate the world at the same time as they protect Americans.  

“As the president has said, America will be the arsenal of vaccines in our fight against COVID-19,” the White House official told VOA Tuesday.

At the virtual COVID-19 summit on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in September, U.S. President Joe Biden announced an additional donation of 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to low-income and lower-middle-income countries, bringing total U.S. pledged donations to 1.1 billion shots.

The U.S. is the global leader in both pledged and shipped doses, according to data compiled by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center.  

As of October 1, however, the U.S. had shipped only 15% of the 1.1 billion doses it has promised. It is lagging behind other areas with less ambitious donation goals, including China (46%), Japan (30%) and the European Union (25%).

Some information from this report comes from Reuters.
…

The crew of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft was welcomed aboard the International Space Station Tuesday, though a communications glitch during their final approach delayed their eventual boarding.

The Soyuz spacecraft was launched Tuesday from the Russian spaceport in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The ship was carrying a history-making crew, as it included film director Klim Shipenko and actor Yulia Peresild, who will be filming a feature film during their stay at the station.

After the spacecraft orbited the earth twice and made a final approach to the ISS, mission control reported the Soyuz craft experienced some communication issues. Those issues resulted in the crew abandoning automated docking procedures. Veteran Cosmonaut Shkaplerov, the other crew member on the Soyuz craft, manually guided the spacecraft into place without a problem.

The manual docking set back the scheduled opening of the hatch between the spacecraft and the station by an hour.

Once they were welcomed on board the ISS, Shipenko and Peresild will spend the next 12 days filming segments of a new feature film called “Challenge” — the first to actually be shot in outer space.  

NASA says filming will begin almost immediately. Pereslid will play a doctor who is launched to the orbital outpost to save an ailing cosmonaut. Shkaplerov and two fellow cosmonauts already on board the ISS, Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov, will all have speaking roles in the film.

Shipenko and Pereslid will return to Earth on October 17 with Novitskiy.

The historic mission beats out a similar plan announced last year by Hollywood superstar actor Tom Cruise, the U.S. space agency NASA and Elon Musk’s privately-owned SpaceX company, which ferries crews and cargo to the ISS.  

Russian space officials are hoping the film will restore some luster to the program, which has fallen from its glory days of the 1950s and `60s, when it launched the first man-made satellite as well as the first man and woman, into orbit, but has been plagued by delays, accidents and corruption scandals in recent years.

Tuesday’s launch comes nearly a month after four Americans became the first all-civilian crew to orbit the Earth, spending three days in space aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press.
…

World leaders, politicians and pop stars are among thousands of individuals revealed to be concealing huge wealth through a network of anonymous companies. The revelations, known as the Pandora Papers, are part of a huge leak of almost 12 million files from the archives of several legal firms, which shed light on the secret world of offshore finance. 

Camera: Henry Ridgwell

 
…

World leaders, politicians and pop stars are among the thousands of individuals revealed to be concealing huge wealth through a network of anonymous companies.

The documents, known as the Pandora Papers and published Sunday, are part of a leak of almost 12 million files from the archives of several legal firms, which shed light on the secret world of offshore finance. They are being analyzed by a team of more than 600 journalists.

Among the most startling revelations in the Pandora Papers is the hidden wealth of the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and his family. The leaks show the Aliyevs and their associates traded property in Britain worth $544 million over the past 15 years.

“Since this family took power in 1993, they have taken control of many of the country’s vital industries and its natural resources and used that to amass wealth,” said Rachel Davies Teka, head of advocacy at the anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International UK. “And this is being done at the expense of the people of that country. There are people who are suffering because their leaders are taking resources which should be shared out amongst those countries’ citizens,” Davies Teka told VOA.

Jordanian king’s property empire 

The leaked documents show that King Abdullah II of Jordan has a secret property empire in the United States and Britain worth more than $100 million, using anonymous offshore companies incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. In a statement, the Jordanian royal palace said that the foreign properties were not disclosed for security and privacy reasons, adding that they were purchased using the monarch’s private wealth. 

During a meeting with tribal elders Monday, Abdullah rejected allegations he had tried to conceal his wealth. “Unfortunately, there is a campaign against Jordan; there are still people who want to sow discord and build doubt between us. There is nothing I have to hide from anyone, but we are stronger than this, and this is not the first time Jordan gets targeted,” the king said. 

Pakistani Cabinet ministers and their families, including close allies of Prime Minister Imran Khan, are revealed to own offshore companies worth millions of dollars. Khan said they would be investigated.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, the country’s second-richest person, used anonymous offshore companies to finance the purchase of an $18 million property in France. Babiš is competing in a general election this week. In a televised debate with rival candidates, he defended his actions.

“The money was sent out of a Czech bank. The money was taxed. It was my money and it returned back to the Czech Republic,” he told the television audience in Prague on Sunday. 

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and six members of his family are linked to more than a dozen offshore companies, one with assets worth at least $30 million. There is no evidence that the Kenyatta family stole any state assets.

In a statement issued by the office of the president, Kenyatta welcomed the publication of the Pandora Papers. 

“These reports will go a long way in enhancing the financial transparency and openness that we require in Kenya and around the globe. The movement of illicit funds, proceeds of crime and corruption thrive in an environment of secrecy and darkness. The Pandora Papers and subsequent follow up audits will lift that veil of secrecy and darkness for those who cannot explain their assets or wealth,” the statement read.

Music stars, including Shakira and Elton John, and Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar are also revealed to have set up offshore companies. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing concerning any of their financial activities.

Much of the activity revealed by the Pandora Papers, including use of offshore companies, is legal. Governments must do more to reveal hidden wealth, argues Davies Teka.

“This investigation and what these journalists have uncovered is vital because, unfortunately, governments, particularly in the West, are not doing enough to bring transparency to where all this money is moving to — where this money is being hidden,” she told VOA.

Role of London 

One thread that is common to many of the revelations is London. The capital and the British Overseas Territories linked to it, such as the British Virgin Islands, offer a hidden network of legal structures designed to conceal who really owns the money, says Davies Teka.

“You can buy property anonymously if you use a company that’s registered and formed in an overseas territory where there is currently secrecy. We also have luxury services on offer to the global elite, and, unfortunately, we have a concerning amount of professionals, accountants, lawyers, estate agents who are happy to help corrupt and criminal actors launder and hide and manage their wealth.”

The British government has put forward legislation to prevent individuals from using offshore companies to conceal ownership. “However, for three years now they have hesitated to lay this legislation down in parliament and actually pass it, which raises questions about how serious they really are about tackling this problem,” Davies Teka said. 

Britain’s ruling Conservative Party has become embroiled in the accusations after the leaks revealed party donors were linked to alleged corruption. Speaking at the start of the weeklong Conservative Party conference Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected accusations that his party had accepted corrupt money.

“All I can say on that one is that all these donations are vetted in the normal way,” he told reporters.

British Chancellor Rishi Sunak denied that London’s reputation on tax avoidance was “shameful” and said the government had a strong track record on tackling global corruption. 
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Like many others, Azra Ozdemir’s parents sent her off on the first day of school with the usual sage advice about doing well so she could get into a good college.  

That was her first day of kindergarten.   

“I knew three words in English: Yes. No,” and the letter P to indicate the need to use the facilities. But by the end of that first year, “the teacher was already telling my parents that I was talking too much in class.”

Now a law student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Ozdemir speaks for others who might encounter language, cultural or financial barriers. She has been working in the Las Vegas Misdemeanor Clinic at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law.  

A misdemeanor charge usually indicates a lesser infraction, like a driving violation, and carries a penalty of less than one year in jail. Misdemeanors can include endangering the welfare of a child and sex crimes, like prostitution.  

Based on arrest data from the FBI and other statistical reports, legal scholar Alexandra Natapoff of Harvard University estimates that 80% of all arrests are misdemeanors, according to her website. “Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal,” is the title of her 2018 book on the subject. 

While misdemeanors have decreased in the past decade, Blacks and Hispanics are arrested at much higher rates than whites, according to the Data Collective for Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. John Jay College is part of the City University of New York. 

Ozdemir says growing up, she saw other immigrants also at a loss for where to find legal help, particularly for lesser charges like misdemeanors.  

“I just saw so much of the hardship in my community and just how hard it was to get a good immigration lawyer, even in my own family,” she said. “There was nobody we could talk to, you know. Nobody knew.”

Now that she’s part of the legal community in Las Vegas, Ozdemir said she realizes that many resources are available.  

“I wanted to really just pick a career where I could just be a part of this community that helps with the people in need, and to me the best way to do that was to be a lawyer,” said Ozdemir, who also credits hours and hours of watching court television while waiting after school in her father’s car repair shop.

Although misdemeanors will be reduced in Nevada from criminal charges in 2023 when the law will lessen their legal impact, until then a motorist could be offered community service or be sent to jail for rolling through a stop sign, she said, if the person misses a court date or fails to pay a fine.

“If you have to spend a night or two in jail to pay off a ticket, what about your work? What about your employment? A lot of people in that situation are already having a hard time with making ends meet. So, what are we expecting them to take time off of work?” she asked.  

Jails are crowded. Not everyone incarcerated may be in the best of health, physical or mental. There might be needs at home that imperil family members — child or elder care — without the jailed person present.  

Ozdemir and UNLV classmate Mia Bacher work with the courts to find a solution that works for both parties.

“We’re like, ‘Hey, this is really what the issue is,’ and oftentimes, we really hope that the judges or the courts are understanding and accepting. Sometimes they’re not and then we need to get creative with solutions. So, it’s an interesting situation.”

Azra and her parents came to the U.S. from Turkey on a family sponsorship in 1996 when she was five years old. Her aunt had married an American, and other family members followed. Education was always paramount, she was told. UNLV, she said, offers experiential learning that gives students hands-on exposure to their field beyond the classroom.  

“It’s an incredible opportunity for everybody involved that we get to work really closely with our clients, and we really get to know them and interview them and really see what their specific needs are,” Ozdemir said. “It’s probably one of the best things I’ve done so far in my education.”
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Pope Francis and other religious leaders made a joint appeal on Monday for next month’s U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) to offer concrete solutions to save the planet from “an unprecedented ecological crisis”.

The “Faith and Science: Towards COP26” meeting brought together Christian leaders including Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, as well as representatives of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism and Jainism.

“COP26 in Glasgow represents an urgent summons to provide effective responses to the unprecedented ecological crisis and the crisis of values that we are presently experiencing, and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations,” the pope said.

“We want to accompany it with our commitment and our spiritual closeness,” he said in an address which he gave to participants instead of reading out in the Vatican’s frescoed Hall of Benedictions so that others had more time to speak.

The appeal, which described climate change as a “grave threat”, was handed to Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Britain’s Alok Sharma, president of COP26 in Glasgow.

“The faith leaders who have come here today represent around 3/4 of the world’s population. That is by any measure a significant percentage of people across the globe and that’s why their voice matters so much,” Sharma said after the meeting, which was organised by the Vatican, Britain and Italy.

‘War on Creation’

Welby, spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans, called for a “global financial architecture which repents of its past sins”, including changes in tax rules to promote green activity.

“We have in the past 100 years declared war on creation… Our war against the climate affects the poorest among us,” Welby said.

The appeal urges all governments to adopt plans to help limit the rise in the average global temperature to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions as soon as possible.

Wealthier countries must take the lead in reducing their own emissions and in financing poorer nations’ emission reductions, it said.

“We plead with the international community, gathered at COP26, to take speedy, responsible and shared action to safeguard, restore and heal our wounded humanity and the home entrusted to our stewardship,” said the appeal, which followed months of online meetings among the 40 or so religious leaders.

Several participants stressed that no nation could go it alone.

“If one nation sinks, we all sink,” said Rajwant Singh, a Sikh leader from the United States, who sang a poem for the participants.

In his written address, Francis said cultural and religious differences should be seen as a strength, not a weakness, in defending the environment.

“Each of us has his or her religious beliefs and spiritual traditions, but no cultural, political or social borders or barriers prevent us from standing together,” he said.

The Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, told Reuters on Sunday he hoped Monday’s meeting could “raise ambitions” on what can be achieved at Glasgow.

Scotland’s bishops said in July that the pope would attend the opening of COP26, health permitting. A decision is expected in the next few days.

Francis, 84, strongly supports the goals of the 2015 U.N. Paris accord to reduce global warming. He told young people at the weekend that theirs was “perhaps the last generation” to save the planet.

U.S. President Joe Biden returned the United States to the Paris accords after his predecessor Donald Trump pulled it out. Biden and the pope are expected to meet at the Vatican at the end of October.
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Police confiscated the computer equipment of a journalist working for a leading newspaper in Poland which has carried out investigations of the country’s right-wing government.

The seizure of the equipment of Piotr Bakselerowicz, a reporter for the liberal Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, took place on Saturday in Zielona Gora, a city in western Poland 450 kilometers (280 miles) from Warsaw. The raid and seizure of the equipment was done on orders from police in Warsaw.

Roman Imielski, the paper’s deputy editor, said the police incursion took place without a warrant and “strikes against the fundamental right to journalistic secrecy in a democracy.” 

He said in an article published on the paper’s website Saturday that the editors have “no doubts” that the police raid is “to intimidate the journalists” of the newspaper, citing other moves by the ruling authorities against independent media.

Warsaw police said the reporter wasn’t specifically targeted. It said that offensive messages containing threats had been sent to Polish lawmakers, who reported the threats to the police. 

The messages were then traced to an IP address that led to that of a “little-known local journalist.”

Bakselerowicz denied having sent any threatening emails.

“I have never threatened anyone. To me, it is a provocation or an attempt at revenge for writing inconvenient articles,” Bakselerowicz said.

Meanwhile, the editors of the newspaper vowed to use all legal means to protect its journalists “from harassment by the authoritarian authorities.”

“We declare that we will not bow to repression and will not allow ourselves to be intimidated. Criticizing all power and exposing its abuses is our civic and democratic duty. Even when the abuse of power affects our journalists and ourselves,” they said.

The ruling party has also sought recently to pass a law that would strip the U.S. company Discovery Inc. of its ownership of TVN, a Polish television network.

TVN believes that the main aim is its evening news program Fakty, which offers critical coverage of the authorities and is watched by millions daily.
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More earthquakes rattled the Spanish island of La Palma on Monday, as the lava flow from an erupting volcano surged after part of the crater collapsed.

Officials said they didn’t expect to evacuate any more people from the area, because the fiery molten rock was following the same route to the sea as earlier flows.

Spain’s National Geographical Institute said it recorded two quakes early Monday that measured more than 3.0 magnitude, two weeks after the volcano erupted on what is one of the Canary Islands off northwest Africa.

“It’s not over yet, we don’t even know how long there is to go,” the Canary Islands’ regional president Angel Victor Torres told public broadcaster RTVE. “We’re in nature’s hands.”

Most of La Palma, where some 85,000 people live, has been unaffected by the eruption. Swift evacuations helped avoid casualties from the eruption.

But the lava is causing significant damage to property, public infrastructure and farmland.

It has so far partially or completely wrecked more than 1,000 buildings, mostly homes, destroyed almost 34 kilometers of roads and entombed 400 hectares of land, according to a European Union satellite monitoring agency.

Local authorities prepared to distribute drinking water to homes after the lava flow broke public supply pipes.

The Canary Islands volcanic emergency committee ordered emergency workers and scientists to pull back from the area around the volcano due to poor air quality.

The seismic activity and flow of lava have been uneven, fluctuating from day to day.
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Russia said on Monday it had successfully test launched a Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile from a submarine for the first time, a weapon President Vladimir Putin has lauded as part of a new generation of unrivaled arms systems. 

The defense ministry said that the Severodvinsk submarine had fired the missile in the Barents Sea, successfully hitting its chosen target. 

The launch took place at night, video footage released by the ministry showed. 

Russia tested firing the Tsirkon missile from a warship in July. 

Putin announced an array of new hypersonic weapons in 2018 in one of his most bellicose speeches in years, saying they could hit almost any point in the world and evade a U.S.-built missile shield.
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Russia reported its highest one-day coronavirus death toll since the pandemic began. According to Russia’s national coronavirus task force, there were 890 deaths on Sunday. It was the fifth day in a row that it reported a new daily record for coronavirus deaths. 

The task force also said the number of new coronavirus infections reported Sunday was the second highest of the year at nearly 25,800 infections. 

Since the pandemic began, Russia has reported nearly 205,000 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, the most in Europe, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The country has a population of about 146 million and has recorded nearly 7.5 million coronavirus infections, according to Johns Hopkins. The United Kingdom, with a population of about 67 million, leads Europe with 7.9 million cases since the pandemic began. 

Russian officials say they have no plans to impose a lockdown, strictly enforce mask-wearing regulations or require proof of vaccination. About 30% of Russia’s population is fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins, despite the country having developed its own vaccine, Sputnik V. 

Saliva test 

A British company says it has developed an easy-to-administer, saliva-based test that can detect whether a person is infectious enough to pass along the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.  

The company, Vatic, said in a statement that its test is “extremely accurate” and has not returned a single false positive result in its test group. “This is so important for getting life back to normal,” the company said.  

Vatic said its “mission was to design a test that people won’t mind using multiple times a week.” 

Tests results are available in 15 minutes, the company said.  

The test is not available to the public yet while it undergoes more trials. Vatic is seeking approval for its sale directly to the public.

Life expectancy 

A report in The Economist says COVID in 2020 has brought an abrupt halt to the steady rise of life expectancy in much of the world.  

Researchers in Britain, Denmark and Germany said that between 2019 and 2020 life expectancy dropped in all but two of the 28 countries surveyed. Life expectancy 

rose in Denmark and Norway and for women in Finland. Meanwhile, male life expectancy fell by more than a year in Italy, Poland and Spain and fell by more than two years in the United States. 

Another report in The Economist says that the death rate from COVID in the U.S. “is about eight times higher in America than in the rest of the rich world” due to vaccine hesitancy and other factors. The report said, “America’s antipathy to vaccines and continued resistance to other interventions, particularly among Republicans, is worrying. YouGov’s poll indicates that, among those who voted for [former U.S. President] Donald Trump in 2020, 31% say they will not get vaccinated, 71% strongly disapprove of President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate and nearly 40% never wear a face mask. That remains a deadly combination.” 

“The pandemic has destabilized societies, economies, and governments. It has shown that there is no global security without global health security,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said about COVID-19 in a recent address to ambassadors and representatives to the European Union’s political and security committee.  

“The fastest and best way to end this pandemic is with genuine global cooperation on vaccine supply and access,” Tedros said. “The longer vaccine inequity persists, the longer the social and economic turmoil will continue, and the more opportunity the virus has to circulate and change into more dangerous variants. We need a global realization that no country can vaccinate its way out of this pandemic in isolation from the rest of the world.” 

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported Sunday it had recorded 234.6 million global COVID infections and nearly 5 million deaths.  

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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The Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who had lived under police protection since his 2007 sketch of the Prophet Muhammad with a dog’s body brought death threats, died from a traffic accident Sunday, Swedish news media reported.

The accident reportedly involved a truck colliding with a civilian police car in which Lars Vilks and his police protection were traveling, news media said.

The Swedish news agency TT said police had confirmed that Vilks, 75, was traveling in the car with two police officers. The newspaper Dagens Nyheter said the artist’s partner confirmed his death.

The cause of the accident was under investigation.

Vilks was largely unknown outside Sweden before his Muhammad drawing. At home, he was best known for building a sculpture made of driftwood in a nature reserve in southern Sweden without permission, triggering a lengthy legal battle. He was fined, but the seaside sculpture — a jumble of wood nailed together in chaotic fashion — draws tens of thousands of visitors a year.

Vilks’ life changed radically 13 years ago after he drew the sketch of Muhammad. Dogs are considered unclean by conservative Muslims, and Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Al-Qaida put a bounty on Vilks’ head. In 2010, two men tried to burn down his house in southern Sweden. Last year, a woman from Pennsylvania pleaded guilty in a plot to try to kill him.
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Georgia’s ruling party won a commanding lead in a municipal election held a day after the arrest of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who had returned from exile to support the opposition.

The ruling Georgian Dream party won 46.7% of the votes to 30.7% for the United National Movement (UNM), founded by Saakashvili, according to results released on Sunday by the Election Administration of Georgia with 99.97% of votes counted.

In the capital Tbilisi, incumbent Mayor Kakha Kaladze won 45% of the vote, while the chairman of the opposition UNM, Nika Melia, received 34%. As no candidate won more than 50%, the city will hold a second round of voting on October 30.

Melia was jailed for three months earlier this year on charges of fomenting violence, which he rejected as politically motivated. His release in May was part of an EU-brokered agreement aimed at resolving Georgia’s political crisis.

Saturday’s election was overshadowed by the return and arrest of Saakashvili, president from 2004-2007 and 2008-2013, who had been living in exile and was convicted in absentia in 2018 of abuse of office.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on Sunday that Saakashvili would serve his full term of six years in prison. 

The country of about 3.9 million has faced a political standoff since a disputed election last year, which prompted the main opposition party to boycott the parliament.

A mission of observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said in a statement that Saturday’s local election had been “marred by wide-spread and consistent allegations of intimidation, vote-buying, pressure on candidates and voters, and an unlevel playing field,” although candidates were able to campaign freely.

The outcome is likely to buoy the ruling party, which had agreed at one point to hold a new parliamentary election if its vote share in the local poll was below 43%. Political analysts had said a failure to exceed that threshold could have inspired opposition demonstrations.

“It is very important that today one more step towards democracy and stabilization was made,” President Salome Zourabichvili was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency, describing the election as calm, safe and fair.

Saakashvili’s return created fresh drama. The authorities said they had warned him he would be arrested if he returned. In a statement released after his arrest, he blamed his detention on court decisions manufactured by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Georgia’s domestic politics have been dominated for decades by accusations of Russian meddling, and Saakashvili was president in 2008 when Russia launched a military intervention. The Kremlin said on Friday questions about Saakashvili’s arrest were outside its competence.

Saakashvili holds a passport issued by Ukraine, where he served as a regional governor from 2015-2016. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he would engage personally in trying to return Saakashvili to Ukraine.
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Current and former leaders from throughout the world have amassed vast wealth and secret real estate holdings across the globe, hundreds of investigative journalists reported on Sunday after months of combing through millions of previously undisclosed documents.

The documents, dubbed the Pandora Papers, exposed the offshore holdings of 35 current and former country leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Jordan’s King Abdullah.

The investigation of nearly 12 million documents from 14 sources was led by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, with 650 journalists from around the world working on the project. The Washington Post, one of the news outlets that helped conduct the investigation, said the files included private emails, secret spreadsheets, clandestine contracts and other records that revealed financial schemes and who was behind them.

The documents showed that national leaders on five continents hid assets, often in other countries, with the investigation exposing more than twice as many offshore account holders as the Panama Papers, an examination five years ago by the investigative journalists of hidden financial assets at offshore entities across the world.

The new material comes from 29,000 offshore accounts at 14 separate financial-services companies operating in countries that include Switzerland, Singapore, Cyprus, Belize, the British Virgin Islands and elsewhere. Among the account owners, the Post said, are more than 130 people Forbes magazine lists as billionaires and more than 330 public officials in more than 90 countries and territories.

“Off-shore” refers to a time when remote island nations were the primary locales where people put money to shield it from government regulators, tax authorities, creditors, investigators and others. 

“The offshore financial system is a problem that should concern every law-abiding person around the world,” Sherine Ebadi, a former FBI officer worked on dozens of financial-crimes cases, told the Post. 

The records showed that the Jordanian ruler spent $106 million on luxury homes along the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, California, Washington and other locations, while millions of dollars in property and cash were secretly held by the leaders of Kenya and the Czech Republic.

Czech leader Babis, facing an election later this week, used an offshore investment company to buy two villas in the south of France for more than $16 million, according to the records.

The records showed that a luxury waterfront apartment in Monaco is the residence of a Russian woman who reportedly had a child with Putin. The Post said representatives of Abdullah denied any impropriety or use of public funds, while none of the Kenyan, Czech or Russian leaders commented on the reports, nor did the Russian woman.

In recent years, U.S. presidents have imposed financial sanctions on oligarchs in Russia for what the U.S. Treasury has called malign activity. The Pandora Papers showed that those targeted have often made substantial efforts to evade the effects of the sanctions by shifting ownership of their assets. Nonetheless, the documents showed that the sanctions caused financial losses, including for Kremlin officials. 

The documents, according to the BBC in Britain, said that Blair and his wife, Cherie, saved $421,000 in stamp duty when they bought a London office from an offshore company that owned the building. 

The BBC said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, his family and close associates have secretly bought more than $540 million worth of property in Britain.

For years, international tax havens have been a favorite of the wealthy looking to hide assets. But the Post said the Pandora Papers showed that in recent years foreign, political and corporate officials have moved some holdings to even more secret American trust companies, including in the Midwestern state of South Dakota.
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