The death toll from a devastating earthquake that struck Haiti over the weekend rose by almost 250 on Wednesday to 2,189, the Caribbean nation’s civil protection agency said. “The toll from the earthquake is 2,189,” the agency said on Twitter. More than 12,260 people were injured when the quake hit the southwestern part of Haiti on Saturday, about 160 kilometers to the west of the capital Port-au-Prince, according to the updated toll.   The civil protection agency added that 332 people have been reported missing and rescue operations were ongoing. Tremors continue to rock the area.   Tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed and damaged in the impoverished country, still recovering from another devastating earthquake in 2010. Haiti has also been beleaguered by gang violence, Covid-19, and political chaos, which spiked last month after the assassination of president Jovenel Moise.   The government has declared a month-long state of emergency in the four provinces affected by the quake.  
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Pressure for a coordinated response to Haiti’s deadly weekend earthquake mounted Wednesday as more bodies were pulled from the rubble and the injured, in search of medical care, continued to arrive from remote areas. Aid was slowly trickling in to help the thousands who were left homeless.  International aid workers on the ground said that hospitals in the areas worst hit by Saturday’s quake are mostly incapacitated and there is a desperate need for medical equipment. But the government told at least one foreign organization that has been operating in the country for nearly three decades that it did not need assistance from hundreds of its medical volunteers.  Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Henry said Wednesday that his administration will work to avoid “repeat history on the mismanagement and coordination of aid,” a reference to the chaos that followed the country’s devastating 2010 earthquake, when the government was accused of not getting all the money raised by donors to the people who needed it.  People look for goods while an excavator removes rubble from a destroyed building after Saturday’s 7.2 magnitude quake, in Les Cayes, Haiti, August 18, 2021.In a message on his Twitter account, Henry said that he “personally” will ensure that the aid gets to the victims this time around. The Core Group, a coalition of key international diplomats from the United States and other nations that monitors Haiti, said in a statement Wednesday that its members are “resolutely committed to working alongside national and local authorities to ensure that impacted people and areas receive adequate assistance as soon as possible.” Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency put the number of deaths from the quake at 1,941 and said more than 10,000 people were injured. The magnitude 7.2 earthquake destroyed more than 7,000 homes and damaged more than 12,000, leaving about 30,000 families homeless, officials said. Schools, offices and churches were also demolished or badly damaged. The U.S. Geological Survey said a preliminary analysis of satellite imagery after the earthquake revealed hundreds of landslides. Crowds demand aid Tensions were growing Wednesday over the slow pace of aid efforts. At the airport in the southwest city of Les Cayes, one of the hardest-hit areas, throngs of people gathered outside the fence at the terminal after an aid flight arrived and crews began loading boxes into waiting trucks. One of the members of a Haitian national police squad on hand to guard the shipments fired two warning shots to disperse a group of young men. Angry crowds also massed at collapsed buildings in the city, demanding tarps to create temporary shelters that were needed more than ever after Tropical Storm Grace brought heavy rain on Monday and Tuesday. One of the first food deliveries by local authorities — a couple dozen boxes of rice and premeasured bagged meal kits — reached a tent encampment set up in one of the poorest areas of Les Cayes, where most of the warren’s one-story tin-roofed cinderblock homes were damaged or destroyed by Saturday’s quake. A boy injured after Saturday’s 7.2 magnitude quake cries while being treated at the Ofatma Hospital, in Les Cayes, Haiti, August 18, 2021.But the shipment was clearly insufficient for the hundreds who have lived under tents and tarps for five days. “It’s not enough, but we’ll do everything we can to make sure everybody gets at least something,” said Vladimir Martino, a resident of the camp who took charge of the precious cargo for distribution. Gerda Francoise, 24, was one of dozens who lined up in the wilting heat in hopes of receiving food. “I don’t know what I’m going to get, but I need something to take back to my tent,” said Francoise. “I have a child.” The quake wiped out many of the sources of food and income that many of the poor depend on for survival in Haiti, which is already struggling with the coronavirus, gang violence and the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. “We don’t have anything. Even the (farm) animals are gone. They were killed by the rockslides,” said Elize Civil, 30, a farmer in the village of Fleurant, near the quake’s epicenter. Civil’s village and many of those in the Nippes province depend on livestock such as goats, cows and chickens for much of their income, said Christy Delafield, who works with the U.S.-based relief organization Mercy Corps. The group is considering cash distributions to allow residents to continue buying local products from small local businesses that are vital to their communities. Large-scale aid has not yet reached many areas, and one dilemma for donors is that pouring huge amounts of staple foods purchased abroad could, in the long run, hurt local producers. “We don’t want to flood the area with a lot of products coming in from off the island,” Delafield said. She said aid efforts must also take a longer view for areas like Nippes, which has been hit in recent years by ever-stronger cyclical droughts and soil erosion. Support for adapting farming practices to the new climate reality — with less reliable rainfall and more tropical storms — is vital, she said. Etzer Emile, a Haitian economist and professor at Quisqueya University, a private institution in the capital of Port-au-Prince, said the disaster will increase Haitians’ dependence on remittances from abroad and assistance from international nongovernmental groups. “Foreign aid unfortunately never helps in the long term,” he said. “The southwest needs instead activities that can boost economic capacity for jobs and better social conditions.”  Medical equipment needed One of the country’s most immediate needs now is medical equipment.  “The hospitals are all broken and collapsed, the operating rooms aren’t functional, and then, if you bring tents, it’s hurricane season. They can blow right away,” said Dr. Barth Green, president and co-founder of Project Medishare, an organization that has worked in Haiti since 1994 to improve health services.  A nurse walks next to beds with people injured by the earthquake on Saturday, at a hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti, August 18, 2021.Green was hopeful the U.S. military would establish a field hospital in the affected area.  U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crews concentrated on the most urgent task, ferrying the injured to less-stressed medical facilities. A U.S. Navy amphibious warship, the USS Arlington, was expected to head for Haiti on Wednesday with a surgical team and landing craft. Green noted that his organization has “hundreds of medical volunteers, but the Haitian government tells us they don’t need them.”  He said Project Medishare was deploying nonetheless, along with other organizations. He said he sensed caution on the part of the government after bad experiences with outside aid following previous disasters. At the public hospital in L’Asile, deep in a remote stretch of countryside in the southwest, the obstetrics, pediatric and operating wing collapsed, though everyone made it out. Despite the damage, the hospital was able to treat about 170 severely injured quake victims in improvised tents set up on the grounds of the facility.  People were arriving from isolated villages with broken arms and legs.  Hospital director Sonel Fevry said five such patients showed up Tuesday.  “We do what we can,” Fevry said. Mercy Corps said about half of L’Asile’s homes were destroyed and 90% were affected in some way. Most public buildings where people would normally shelter also were destroyed. The nearby countryside was devastated: In one 10-mile (16-kilometer) stretch, not a single house, church, store or school was left standing. 
 
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A growing number of U.S. governors say they will help resettle Afghan refugees in their states following a rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan that blindsided Western nations and left them scrambling to evacuate ambassadors and allies.At least 10 governors offered support this week as the Pentagon looked to secure temporary space for up to 22,000 Afghan allies in the United States. As of Monday, the first 2,000 Afghans were placed at the Fort Lee military base in Virginia, with thousands more refugees expected to arrive at bases in Texas and Wisconsin in the coming weeks.”The chaotic and heartbreaking scenes out of Afghanistan over the last several days … is the result of a rushed and irresponsible withdrawal,” Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, said. “Many of these Afghan citizens, our allies, bravely risked their lives to provide invaluable support for many years to our efforts, as interpreters and support staff, and we have a moral obligation to help them.”To date, California, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin have offered refuge or indicated a willingness to resettle refugees. The governor of Guam, a U.S. territory, also offered to house evacuees.Humanitarian organizations estimate that nearly 80,000 Afghan allies and their families have applied for special immigrant visas (SIVs) to the U.S., a program the government set up to expedite the process of resettling Afghan allies.An Afghan child sleeps on the cargo floor of a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III, kept warm by the uniform of Airman 1st Class Nicolas Baron, during an evacuation flight from Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug 18, 2021. (U.S. Air Force/Handout via Reuters)”More than 70,000 … have participated in the SIV program since 2005. Our military has done an outstanding job supporting this effort,” said Garry Reid, director of the Afghanistan crisis action group for the Department of Defense.Afghan allies are generally people who had helped the U.S. war effort by acting as translators for the military, cultural guides or sources of information.The International Rescue Committee estimates that more than 300,000 Afghans have helped the American mission over two decades, though far fewer will qualify for refugee protection in the U.S.’Wisconsin is ready’“We have been in contact with federal partners about resettlement efforts for Afghan people who are seeking refuge at Fort McCoy,” Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said in an official statement. “As we learn more information, Wisconsin is ready to assist these efforts and help these individuals who served our country and are now seeking refuge.”The Taliban have promised a peaceful transition of power with no retaliation against former soldiers or government officials, though Reuters reported Wednesday that at least three anti-Taliban demonstrators were killed in protests in Jalalabad after members of the Taliban opened fire.Since it is unlikely the U.S. will be able to absorb so many refugees in a compressed time frame, President Joe Biden has turned to other countries for help.FILE – Afghan refugees who supported Canada’s mission in Afghanistan wait to board buses after arriving in Canada at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Aug. 13, 2021.Canada announced last week it would resettle approximately 20,000 refugees. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also urged the international community to accept Afghan refugees.“The world is watching. We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan,” he said.Thousands per dayAfter the U.S. military secured the international airport in Kabul on Monday, the Pentagon ramped up evacuation efforts and now estimates it can remove between 5,000 and 9,000 people from Afghanistan per day.The hasty evacuations follow a sooner-than-expected collapse of the Afghanistan government as Taliban forces swept the country, emboldened by the removal of U.S. troops. Meeting little resistance from the Afghan military, the Taliban reclaimed the Afghanistan capital of Kabul in mere days, despite previous predictions from national security officials that doing so could take months.In a Monday address to the nation, Biden said large-scale evacuations didn’t start sooner because the Afghan government didn’t want to incite a “crisis of confidence” in the Afghan military’s ability to fight the Taliban.“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” Biden said. “We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future.”Some information for this report came from Reuters
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Grace, in the Caribbean, is likely to become a hurricane later Wednesday, while Tropical Storm Henri, in the Atlantic, could reach hurricane status later in the week. In its latest report, forecasters with the hurricane center say Grace is 65 kilometers  south-southeast of Grand Cayman Island and moving west toward Mexico at 26 kilometers per hour. Grace’s maximum sustained winds are about 100 kilometers per hour. The system is expected to move near or over the Cayman Islands Wednesday.Forecasters say some additional strengthening is possible prior to the center reaching the eastern Yucatan Peninsula. Hurricane warnings are in effect for that area, including Cozumel. A hurricane watch is in effect for the Cayman Islands.Meanwhile, in the Atlantic, forecasters are watching Tropical Storm Henri, which is currently about 260 kilometers south to southwest of Bermuda and moving west. Its current maximum sustained winds are also at about 100 kilometers per hour. They say the storm is expected to move to the north-northwest Thursday.While the forecasters say they do not expect the storm to strengthen significantly in the next 24 hours, it could be a hurricane by Friday and by Sunday or Monday, affecting the northeastern United States.The hurricane center advises due to the increased uncertainty in the track forecast, people living along the New England coast should monitor the progress of the storm.
 
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One of Malta’s wealthiest businessmen, Yorgen Fenech, has been indicted for the murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, prosecutors said in court documents filed on Wednesday. No date for the trial has yet been set. Fenech has been under arrest since November 2019, accused of complicity to murder. He has since been undergoing a pre-trial compilation of evidence where he pleaded not guilty. Caruana Galizia was blown up by a car bomb as she drove out of her residence on Oct. 16, 2017, in a killing that shocked Europe and raised questions about the rule of law in the European Union’s smallest member state. Fenech headed a business empire with a range of interests including property, imports and a car dealership. He also headed a consortium which was controversially awarded a government contract for the building of a power station. Caruana Galizia was investigating possible corruption in the contract when she was killed. Three men accused of actually planting and setting off the bomb were arrested in December 2017. One has since pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain and been jailed for 15 years. The other two are awaiting trial. The murder plot’s self-confessed middleman, Melvin Theuma, turned state evidence and was granted a pardon. He has pointed to Fenech as having tasked him with organizing the assassination. The prosecutors are pushing for a life sentence for Fenech, court officials said. Fenech was arrested on Nov. 20, 2019, when his yacht was just off Malta in what police say was an attempt to flee the island. Malta’s then-prime minister, Joseph Muscat, announced his resignation within days of Fenech’s arrest after close links were found between the businessman and senior government officials. Muscat himself has always denied wrongdoing. An independent inquiry into the murder of Caruana Galizia said last month that the state had to bear responsibility for the killing after creating a “culture of impunity.” 
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The interior ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, comprising the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, held a conference call Wednesday to discuss how to coordinate safe and legal migration routes for Afghans fleeing the Taliban.British officials said most of the focus was on the immediate security and logistical challenges of extracting Afghan officials and others, mainly civilians, who have worked with Western security forces during the 20 years of the NATO deployment in Afghanistan.The meeting came hours after French President Emmanuel Macron promised not to abandon Afghans who had served or partnered with French forces in Afghanistan. But he added Europe needs to “anticipate and protect itself from a wave of migrants.”“Europe alone cannot assume the consequences of the situation,” he said in a primetime televised address, which attracted criticism from rights groups and some French opposition leaders on the left. They said his remarks were at best inappropriate when juxtaposed with what is unfolding in Afghanistan, with desperate Afghans mobbing Kabul airport and clinging to the wheels of evacuation planes.Hundreds of people run alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the international airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug.16. 2021.Macron was accused of pandering to the far right ahead of next year’s presidential election, where he’s expected to face a strong challenge from Marine Le Pen, leader of the anti-migrant National Rally.“But why these words? Is this what politics has become, the tactical and icy at the same time, again and again, no matter what the distressing circumstances?” said Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a former French minister during François Hollande’s presidency, in a Twitter post.Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who also faces an election, has adopted a different tone from Macron. He has said he’s “absolutely horrified” by the heartbreaking scenes coming from Kabul and vowed Sunday to continue the evacuation alongside allies.Canada has said it will take in 20,000 Afghans, although that figure includes interpreters who worked alongside Canadian forces. Canada’s interior minister told the Five Eyes meeting that it is unlikely that the 20,000 would all be admitted in the next 12 months and the time span would be longer, British officials told VOA. Hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021.Since April, Australia has admitted 430 Afghans who worked with Australian forces, along with their families. But Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Wednesday his government expects to provide only around 3,000 visas for Afghan applicants this year. Morrison said Australia has “no clear plans” to operate a program comparable to Canada’s or Britain’s. “Australia is not going into that territory. What we’re focused on is right here and right now,” he said. Earlier in the week, Morrison admitted Australia would not be able to rescue all its former interpreters and staff that assisted in its 20-year mission in Afghanistan. New Zealand officials say they will try to evacuate Afghans who worked with New Zealand deployments and their families and have identified about 200 eligible people. But has made no public commitment about a dedicated program for other Afghan asylum-seekers.Greece has also made clear it is not prepared to accept an influx of Afghan asylum-seekers. Notis Mitarachi, Greece’s migration minister, said his country “will not and cannot be the gateway of Europe for the refugees and migrants who could try to come to the European Union.”“The solution needs to be common, and it needs to be a European solution,” he told state broadcaster ERT.Taliban fighters patrol in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 18, 2021.Germany and the Netherlands were among the group saying they wanted to continue with forced deportations, but then backtracked and announced they were suspending involuntary deportations of Afghans, joining Finland, Norway and Sweden, which announced they were halting any involuntary returns.Britain’s interior minister, Priti Patel, who led the Five Eyes conference call Wednesday, has urged European neighbors to offer sanctuary to Afghans fleeing the Taliban. She announced Britain would grant asylum to 20,000 Afghan refugees.Writing in the Telegraph newspaper, Patel said Britain would prioritize women and girls and religious and other minorities who face “tyranny and oppression” under Taliban rule. “The U.K. Government will always stand by those who have had the lights switched off on their liberties,” wrote Patel. She said Europe must help. “The U.K. is also doing all it can to encourage other countries to help. Not only do we want to lead by example, we cannot do this alone,” she added.But Patel came under fire from British opposition politicians and from some lawmakers from the ruling Conservative party Wednesday for the numbers the British government is planning to accept. The 20,000 will be spread over five years, with a maximum of 5,000 resettled this year.Demonstrators, including former interpreters for the British Army in Afghanistan, hold placards as they protest opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, Aug. 18, 2021.Patel said Britain “cannot accommodate 20,000 people all in one go.” However, critics say more Afghans should be admitted this year, otherwise they might not be alive by next year. David Davis, a former Conservative minister, said Britain has a “moral responsibility to do more” and said the British government should be thinking of welcoming “north of 50,000” refugees from Afghanistan.Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the British parliament’s defense committee, dubbed Patel’s plan “a woefully inadequate response given the scale of the refugee crisis we are about to face as a direct response to our withdrawal from Afghanistan.” Ellwood, a former British army captain who served in Afghanistan, told local media: “The Government really needs to see the bigger picture here and grasp the scale of the crisis we created.”The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has called on the Taliban to allow safe and unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to Afghan women, men and children in need, including hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people.“The EU calls on the Taliban to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law in all circumstances,” he said. But Borrell stopped short of making any migration pledges on behalf of the bloc. “The EU will also support Afghanistan’s neighbors in coping with negative spillovers, which are to be expected from an increasing flow of refugees and migrants,” he said.
 
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Cuba has revoked the right to home detention of leading dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer and ordered him to serve the remaining 4 years of a sentence for assault in prison, sparking criticism that the order was politically motivated.Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, one of the Communist-run country’s largest and most active opposition groups, was arrested in October 2019 on charges of abducting and assaulting a man.He denied the charges but was convicted in February 2020, with his 4 1/2 year prison sentence commuted to house arrest two months later under international pressure.At the time, Cuba called Ferrer a U.S.-financed counter-revolutionary but said he was not arrested for his political views. Critics said the government invents common crimes to impute to its opponents that it can silence them while claiming not to have political prisoners.Ferrer told Reuters he would not comply with one of the conditions of his house arrest: that he refrain from political activism.On July 11, he was arrested as he attempted to join a protest in his eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, that was part of an unprecedented wave of anti-government protests nationwide, and held in “preventative prison” on charges of public disorder. Since then, relatives say they have not been able to speak to him or visit him. This week they shared a court document dated Aug. 12 showing authorities had determined Ferrer had contravened the terms for his right to home detention for his previous conviction.As such, he should stay in prison to serve the remaining 4 years and 14 days of his original sentence, according to the document.“This is absolutely motivated by politics, not the law, he didn’t commit any crime, they just don’t want him on the streets of Cuba because they are afraid,” said Ferrer’s sister Ana Belkis Ferrer.Rights activists say authorities have used the wave of detentions in the wake of the July 11 protests to silence some of the country’s most charismatic opponents.The government blames the protests on counterrevolutionaries backed by its old and much larger foe the United States, that has long openly sought to force political change on the island.Ferrer’s relatives say they are worried about his health, especially as he had vowed to go on a hunger strike if he were detained on July 11 but has been incommunicado since.“No-one has been able to speak to Jose Daniel, not even by phone,” said Ferrer’s sister. “It’s a constant uncertainty.”Ferrer was one of 75 dissidents arrested in 2003 during a nationwide crackdown known as the Black Spring. He was released on parole in 2011 and soon after formed UNPACU. 
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Pope Francis says people who get the coronavirus vaccine would be committing “an act of love” towards their fellow men and women. The pontiff made the personal appeal in a filmed public service message that was released Wednesday online and on television.  “Thanks to God’s grace and to the work of many, we now have vaccines to protect us from Covid-19,” Pope Francis said in the message, which he made on behalf of the U.S.-based nonprofit group the Ad Council. He said the vaccines “bring hope to end the pandemic, but only if they are available to all and if we collaborate with one another.” The pontiff added that getting vaccinated “is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable.”   Church officials in North and South America also appeared in the three-minute message, including Archbishop José Horacio Gómez of the United States, Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes of Mexico and Cardinal Carlos Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras.   New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed Wednesday that a 58-year-old man who became the first to test positive for COVID-19 since February was infected with the highly contagious delta variant. The news was announced on the first day of a strict three-day nationwide lockdown imposed by Ardern. Auckland, the country’s largest city, and the coastal town of Coromandel, where the infected man also visited, will be shut down for a full week. New Zealand has been praised for imposing a strict lockdown in the early days of the pandemic that has led to just 2,937 confirmed infections and just 26 deaths among its five million citizens. But only about 20% of all New Zealanders have been fully vaccinated, the lowest rate among all 38-member nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD. Ten people have now tested positive in this new outbreak, according to the New Zealand Herald, and Ardern warned that the numbers would continue to grow. She said genomic testing has linked the outbreak to the one that began in Australia’s New South Wales state and its capital, Sydney, which was first detected back in June.   New South Wales posted a new single-day record of 633 confirmed new COVID-19 infections Wednesday, breaking the previous record of 478 cases posted just on Monday. Three deaths were also confirmed Wednesday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 fatalities in this new outbreak to 60.   Like New Zealand, Australia had boasted of success in containing the spread of COVID-19 in the initial months of the pandemic, with just 40,774 total infections and 970 deaths, but with only 20% of its citizens fully vaccinated due to a sluggish vaccination campaign, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.   Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.  
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The problems in Haiti may be summed up by the public hospital in L’Asile, deep in a remote stretch of countryside in the nation’s southwest area. Here, a full four days after a powerful earthquake hit this region the hardest, people are still showing up from isolated villages with broken arms and legs. Hospital director Sonel Fevry said five such patients showed up Tuesday, the same day officials raised the disaster’s death toll by more than 500. Grinding poverty, poor roads and faith in natural medicine all conspire to make the problems worse. “We do what we can, remove the necrotized tissue and give them antibiotics and try to get them a splint,” Fevry said, adding that road access to the facility in the department of Nippes is difficult and not everyone can make it. Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency increased the number of fatalities from Saturday’s earthquake to 1,941. It also raised the number of injured to 9,900, many of whom have had to wait for medical help lying outside in wilting heat and riding out a storm Monday night that brought heavy rains and wind gusts. The countryside was worse hit by the quake, perhaps, than the cities, but news is only slowly trickling out. The whole obstetrics, pediatric and operating wing at the L’Asile hospital collapsed, though everyone made it out. Despite the collapse, the hospital was able to treat about 170 severely injured quake victims in improvised tents in the facility’s yard. The nearby countryside was devastated: In one 10-mile (16-kilometer) stretch not a single house, church, store or school was left standing. Surprisingly, some of the traditional, old style wood-and-pressed-mud homes offered their inhabitants a better chance of survival as their tin roofs remained standing, even after their relatively light walls crumbled. But traditional knowledge was not serving Haiti well in a medical sense. “We know that many of us Haitians prefer to remain at home and treat themselves with leaves and natural remedies,” Fevry said, further delaying their arrival at hospitals. Officials said the magnitude 7.2 earthquake destroyed more than 7,000 homes and damaged nearly 5,000, leaving about 30,000 families homeless. Hospitals, schools, offices and churches also were demolished or badly damaged. Rain and wind from Tropical Storm Grace raised the threat of mudslides and flash flooding as the system slowly passed over southwestern Haiti’s Tiburon Peninsula before heading toward Jamaica and southeastern Cuba. The storm forced a temporary halt to search and rescue efforts, feeding growing anger and frustration among thousands who were left homeless. Bodies continued to be pulled from the rubble in southwestern Haiti. In the community of Les Cayes, the smell of death hung heavily over a pancaked, three-story apartment building. A simple bed sheet covered the body of a 3-year-old girl that firefighters had found an hour earlier. Neighbor Joseph Boyer said he knew the girl’s family. “The mother and father are in the hospital, but all three kids died,” he said. The bodies of the other two siblings were found earlier. Illustrating the lack of government presence, volunteer firefighters from the nearby city of Cap-Haitien left the girl’s body out in the rain because there were no police officers, who had to be present for a body to be taken away. A throng of angry, shouting men gathered in front of the collapsed building, a sign that patience was running out for people who have waited days for help from the government. The head of the Civil Protection Agency, Jerry Chandler, acknowledged the situation. Earthquake assessments had to be paused because of the heavy rain, “and people are getting aggressive,” Chandler said. Haiti is the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation. Residents already were struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, gang violence, worsening poverty and the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse when the quake hit. Etzer Emile, a Haitian economist and professor at Quisqueya University, a private institution in the capital of Port-au-Prince, said the earthquake’s impacts will almost certainly result in even more long-term poverty for the country’s struggling southwest region. Political instability and gang criminality along the southern roads into the region have particularly hobbled economic activity in recent years. “The earthquake has just given a fatal blow to a regional economy already on its knees for about two-and-a-half years” Emile said in an email. Dependence on remittances from abroad and assistance from international non-governmental groups will only accelerate, he said, likely making Haiti even weaker. “Foreign aid unfortunately never helps in the long term. The southwest needs instead activities that can boost economic capacity for jobs and better social conditions,” he said. Foreign aid has already begun to arrive. Sarah Charles, assistant administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, said its disaster response teams were forced to suspend operations as the storm arrived Monday, but members were back Tuesday to assess its impact and continue helping. “We do not anticipate that the death toll related to this earthquake will be anywhere near the 2010 earthquake, where more than 200,000 people were killed,” Charles told reporters.The U.S. military’s Southern Command said it was moving eight helicopters from Honduras to Haiti. Three U.S. Coast Guard helicopters had already assisted in life-saving transports and moved 17,350 pounds of cargo. A U.S. Navy amphibious warfare ship, the USS Arlington, was expected to head for Haiti on Wednesday with a surgical team and landing craft. 
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America’s NATO allies are scrambling to evacuate their citizens from Afghanistan amid the U.S. military withdrawal from the country and the collapse of the Afghan government. Many European officials have voiced fears that the Taliban takeover will increase the risk of terrorism and renew an influx of refugees into Europe.  Britain and other NATO allies began evacuating their citizens from Afghanistan on Sunday, along with hundreds of Afghan citizens who worked alongside them. France, Germany, Spain and Italy are also operating evacuation flights after U.S. troops reasserted control of the airport Monday, following chaotic scenes over the weekend. Several European states are to outline soon their emergency asylum programs for interpreters and other Afghan nationals who worked alongside NATO troops and civilians over the past two decades. They are now seen as particularly at risk of Taliban reprisals.  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference at a NATO summit in Brussels, June 14, 2021.In a press conference Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg blamed the country’s political leadership for the capitulation to the Taliban.  “What we have seen in the last few weeks was a military and political collapse at a speed which had not been anticipated. Part of the Afghan security forces fought bravely, but they were unable to secure the country because ultimately, the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban and to achieve the peaceful solution that Afghans desperately wanted. This failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today,” Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The failure to build a democratic state in Afghanistan could have wider implications for NATO, said Natasha Lindstaedt, a U.S. foreign policy analyst at Britain’s University of Essex. “I think NATO might return to more limited aims, of just trying to maintain stability and deter rather than to engage in these grand interventions,” she told VOA. Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace blamed the collapse of the Afghan government on the 2020 deal struck with the Taliban by former U.S. President Donald Trump. FILE – Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain, Feb. 3, 2021.”It was done directly to the Taliban. It didn’t involve the Afghan government — so (it) fatally potentially undermined the government of that day. We, as international partners, found it uncomfortable because we had deployed through a U.S. framework. We hadn’t deployed in a unilateral manner. So, when they pulled that framework, we had to leave,” Wallace told the BBC. However, many European officials have also criticized the manner of the U.S. withdrawal. “It was very abrupt, and it wasn’t coordinated, and there wasn’t much consultation at all from Biden and his administration with its NATO allies,” Lindstaedt said. “(NATO allies) couldn’t really stay there because they were dependent upon the U.S. military power providing that type of support.” Meanwhile, European leaders are also wary of the longer-term consequences of the Taliban takeover. French President Emmanuel Macron gave a televised address Monday evening. “An historic turning point is underway in Afghanistan, far from our borders, but with major consequences for the entire international community, for Europe and for France,” Macron said. “Afghanistan’s destabilization risks causing irregular migration to Europe. France, as I’ve said, has and will continue to do its duty for those who are most threatened. … Europe cannot be the only ones to take on consequences of the current situation,” he added. French President Emmanuel Macron speaks in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France, August 17, 2021.Macron also warned of the increased terror threat. “Terrorist groups are present in Afghanistan and seek to profit from the destabilization. The United Nations’ Security Council will have to come up with a common and united answer,” the French president said. That threat extends beyond the region and has implications for the global fight against terrorism, said analyst Raffaello Pantucci of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “I think there’s going to be an undoubted sense of wind of victory blowing through the sails of jihadists around the world as they say, ‘Look, victory is attainable. This isn’t a hopeless struggle. Keep to the fight, stick to your beliefs, and 20 years later, you can end up winning this war.’ And I think that narrative will carry them forward for some time into the future,” Pantucci told Agence France-Presse. “I think it remains to be seen the degree to which Afghanistan will become a base once again for international terrorist groups to launch attacks outside. I think certainly al-Qaida will be rejuvenated by this and will strengthen itself,” he added. Afghan migrants demonstrate against the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, August 16, 2021.Several thousand Afghan asylum-seekers remain stranded on the Greek island of Lesbos, having fled to Europe in recent years. Several hundred staged a protest Monday against the Taliban takeover. Among them was Elena, who did not wish to give her full name, fearing reprisals for family members in Afghanistan. “What will happen now in Afghanistan for (the) young generation? For children? For women’s rights? Everything is destroyed by the Taliban,” she told Reuters. Those questions remain unanswered, as Western nations rush to leave Afghanistan, and the Taliban retakes the reins of power. Some material from this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.  
 
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America’s NATO allies are scrambling to evacuate their citizens from Afghanistan following the U.S military withdrawal from the country, and the collapse of the Afghan government. Many European officials have voiced fears that the Taliban takeover will increase the risk of terrorism and cause a renewed influx of refugees. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell    
 
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Afghanistan’s leadership was responsible for the rapid collapse of the Afghan military but noted the alliance should learns lessons on how it conducts military training. “This failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today,” Stoltenberg said after a NATO meeting to discuss the security effects of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.The speed with which Afghan troops weakened during the Taliban’s offensive  “was a surprise,” said Stoltenberg, who also admitted “there are lessons that need to be learned” at NATO.In its reaction to the Taliban’s victory, Russia, which declared the Taliban a terrorist group in 2003, said it would not immediately recognize the new government.Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow was “in no rush to recognize” the Taliban government and called for an “inclusive national dialogue with the involvement of all political … forces in Afghanistan.”Taliban officials arrange a Taliban flag, before a press conference by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, at the Government Media Information Center, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021.For its part, Turkey is negotiating with the Taliban and all other parties in Afghanistan and has favorable views of Taliban messages that were conveyed since taking control, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday.“We are keeping up dialogue with all sides, including the Taliban,” Cavusoglu said at a news conference in Jordan. “We view positively the messages that the Taliban has given so far, whether to foreigners, to diplomatic individuals or its own people. We hope to see these in action as well.”China encouraged the Taliban Tuesday to pursue “moderate and steady” religious policies and to establish an “open and inclusive” political structure involving all parties in the country.At a televised news conference, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, also criticized the U.S. for its role in the South Asian country. “In Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, we have seen that wherever the U.S. military went, turmoil, division, and destruction of homes and deaths have been left behind,” she said.At the White House on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden said televised scenes of Afghan civilians trapped in the embattled country were “gut-wrenching” and acknowledged the Taliban had seized control of the country much more quickly than his administration had expected.Some information for this report came from Associated Press and Reuters.
 
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Like many countries, France is seeing its COVID-19 cases rise — and nowhere as sharply as its overseas territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Low vaccination rates, fueled by suspicion of Paris, help explain the exploding pandemic in the Caribbean islands.Health workers from mainland France are arriving to the two Caribbean islands to help their overwhelmed colleagues deal with record COVID-19 cases. Hardest hit is Guadeloupe, where one in four people now tests positive for the disease caused by coronavirus—a number that doubled in a week. The situation is also alarming in Martinique. Hospitals are overflowing. Doctors say some basic medical equipment — like instruments to measure oxygen levels — are in short supply. The two islands are now under strict lockdown, with all but essential services open. But that hasn’t stopped some residents from heading to beaches—although they’re not supposed to. “People respect distancing and the beach isn’t crowded,” this beachgoer told French TV explaining her presence. Islanders are joining protests like those taking place in mainland France against COVID-19 vaccines and a new health pass required to access places like restaurants and movie theaters. FILE – Demonstrators hold up banners and placards, one of which reads as ‘freedom’, during a national day of protest in Capesterre-Belle-Eau, on the French Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe, on Aug, 7, 2021.As nurse protesting in Martinique told French radio that she will never get vaccinated — there are other ways, she said, to prevent COVID-19.  But those sentiments are not shared by the majority of French, especially on the mainland. Polls show most support the health pass. More than half are fully vaccinate — compared to about one in five in Guadeloupe and Martinique.  FILE – French Health Minister Olivier Veran (L) and French Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu (2nd L) talk with military medical staff during a visit at the CHU hospital in Fort-de-France, Martinique, on Aug. 12, 2021.Visiting Martinique last week, Health Minister Olivier Veran urged residents to get vaccinated. Coming out of a hospital there, he noted many of the patients in intensive care were very young and were previously healthy. Now, they’re hooked up to ventilators.  
But it’s a hard sell.  Suspicion of the French state is high — partly experts say, because of France’s colonial past and old health scandals… like a hazardous pesticide used on the islands’ banana plantations long after it was banned elsewhere. Critics also fault Paris for neglecting the islands’ health infrastructure. So multiple misgivings are surfacing now…along with COVID-19.   
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Days after a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, Tropical Depression Grace brought heavy rains and strong winds to the country.Forecasters said the storm could drop 12 to 25 centimeters of rain on southern Haiti through Tuesday, bringing the threat of flash floods and mudslides.It could also affect the search for survivors and aid efforts for the displaced, with the southern part of the country hardest hit by Saturday’s magnitude 7.2 earthquake.Injured people lie in beds outside the hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 16, 2021, two days after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the southwestern part of the country.The quake was centered near the town of Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, about 125 kilometers west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.The quake, which damaged houses, roads and bridges on the country’s southwest peninsula, displaced thousands of people. The streets of towns near the epicenter were lined with concrete as rescue workers and scrap metal salvagers dug through the rubble.”We must work together to provide rapid and effective responses to this extremely serious situation,” Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry said on Sunday. He had flown to Les Cayes on Saturday to survey the damage.Many residents of Les Cayes, the country’s third-largest city with a population of 90,000, stayed outdoors overnight, as aftershocks continued to rock the area through Sunday.The U.S. Geological Survey said on Saturday that the earthquake increased the risk of landslides in the area.The Dominican Republic and Mexico were among the countries that sent food and medicine to Haiti. Cuba dispatched a 235-member health care team.Just over a month ago, the country was left reeling after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home July 7. His wife, Martine Moise, was injured in the attack.Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 
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Officials in Turkey said Monday the death toll from flooding in the country’s northwestern Black Sea provinces rose to 77 as rescue crews continued to search for dozens of people still reported missing.The flooding began last week after torrential rains, demolishing buildings and bridges and damaging roads and electricity infrastructure.Disaster and emergency officials said more than 30 villages remained without power on Monday.The dead included 62 people in Kastamonu province, 14 in Sinop and one in Bartin, according to the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate.AFAD said since the flooding began, more than 2,000 people have been evacuated from those areas.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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European leaders said Monday they will press for a unified international approach to dealing with a Taliban government in Afghanistan, as they looked on with dismay at the rapid collapse of two decades of a U.S.-led Western campaign in the country. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke Monday to French President Emmanuel Macron, stressing the need for a common stand on recognizing any future Afghan government and preventing a humanitarian and refugee crisis.  FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks at the Downing Street Briefing Room in London, July 5, 2021.Both leaders agreed to cooperate at the U.N. Security Council, and Johnson also said he will host a virtual meeting of the Group of Seven leaders on Afghanistan in the next few days. Johnson said on Sunday, “We don’t want anybody to bilaterally recognize the Taliban.”  German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman echoed that sentiment Monday, saying the question of whether there can be a dialogue with the Taliban needs to be discussed internationally.  “We do not have any illusions about the Taliban and the essence of their movement,” said spokesman Steffen Seibert. The French leader said in a speech to the nation Monday night that the fight against “Islamist terrorism in all its forms” would not end.  FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference at the Elysee Presidential Palace, in Paris, July 9, 2021.”Afghanistan cannot again become the sanctuary for terrorism that it was,” Macron said. He stressed that the U.N. Security Council is the forum for a coordinated response, and added, “We will do everything so that Russia, the United States and Europe can cooperate efficiently because our interests are the same.”  Macron also raised fears of uncontrolled migration to Europe by Afghans, saying that France, Germany and other European countries would work to swiftly develop a “robust, coordinated and united response.” FILE – Afghans flee fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces, on the outskirts of Herat, 640 kilometers (397 miles) west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 8, 2021.As far as the crisis inside Afghanistan, European leaders’ hands are tied in many ways: They have little leverage over the Taliban, and they are deeply reluctant to publicly criticize the withdrawal decision by the United States, their powerful NATO ally — or comment on their own role in the failed intervention.  NATO countries were left with little choice but to pull out the roughly 7,000 non-American forces in Afghanistan after President Joe Biden announced in April that he was ending the U.S. involvement in the war by September, 20 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.  Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of London’s Royal United Services Institute, said that Britain — which for much for the war contributed the second-largest number of troops to the mission — “was especially upset that the Biden administration didn’t consult it more fully about the decision to withdraw this summer.” “That is water under the bridge, but the fact that there wasn’t a coordinated alliance approach to the withdrawal makes it even more important now to coordinate a Western response — starting with the question of recognition” of a Taliban government, he said. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last week that theFILE – European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a news conference in Brussels, May 10, 2021.Taliban “need to understand that they will not be recognized by the international community if they take the country by force.” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has also warned that the militant group would face “isolation” and “lack of international support.”  Borrell is expected to chair an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers to discuss Afghanistan on Tuesday, while NATO envoys will also hold talks.  Meanwhile, Russia’s envoy on Afghanistan said that Moscow will decide whether to recognize the new Taliban government based on its conduct. Chalmers said “Western influence on the Taliban is very limited” compared with that of Pakistan, Iran and China. And Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said that warning the Taliban that they face international isolation is a threat “unmoored from reality.” “It is part of the Taliban’s ideology to reject modernism and the international community — and the reputation won by forcing the U.S. to leave is worth far more than aid budgets,” he wrote for the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank.  “Indeed, having earned a reputation for abandoning its mission, its friends, and its allies, it is the United States that may actually feel more isolated,” Volker added. The U.K. has repeatedly alluded to how it had been put in a “very difficult position” to continue the mission once the United States announced its decision to pull out, and British leaders have spoken with a tone of resignation as the situation deteriorated rapidly after NATO’s exit.  “I think it’s fair to say that the U.S. decision to pull out has accelerated things, but this has been in many ways something that has been a chronicle of an event foretold,” Johnson said Sunday.  Other European allies have made veiled criticisms of NATO’s most powerful member country.  Taliban fighters stand guard in a vehicle along the roadside in Kabul on August 16, 2021.Asked Monday whether France and the U.S. were responsible for the collapse of the armed forces and the unfolding humanitarian crisis, Defense Minister Florence Parly said, “France hasn’t been in Afghanistan since 2014. There’s no parallel to make with the U.S. involvement.” Briefing reporters last week about the crisis in Afghanistan, a senior EU official said that “the decisions which were made in this respect were made in NATO.” He did not single out the alliance’s most influential member, but the criticism was implicit. Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni was much more direct, saying, “Let’s give a welcome back to the cynical Obama-Clinton-Biden doctrine: ‘If you can’t win, create chaos.'” Western governments have also appeared to be caught off guard by the stunning speed of the Taliban’s advance on Kabul. For months, European ambassadors at NATO and the EU have been unable to answer questions from reporters about what security arrangements might be in place in Afghanistan should the situation deteriorate. Questions about how to protect embassies and the Kabul airport, where chaos reigned Monday as scores sought to flee the country, were never unanswered. In the past few days, U.S., British and other Western governments have scrambled to evacuate their embassies, their citizens and Afghans who have helped with their military mission as the Taliban seized power.  “All of us, the government, the intelligence services, the international community, all of us misjudged the situation,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas admitted Monday. “Neither we nor our partners and experts did foresee the speed with which the Afghan security forces withdrew and capitulated.” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace choked up during an interview as he expressed deep regret that some of those people will be left behind.  “It’s sad, and the West has done what it’s done,” he acknowledged. “We have to do our very best to get people out and stand by our obligations and 20 years of sacrifice. … It is what it is.” 
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The search for survivors of Haiti’s devastating earthquake continued Monday, as hospitals were overwhelmed with injured people. Hundreds of people waited on the steps of Les Cayes’ general hospital, and many patients were being treated on mattresses on the ground outside as the hospital ran low on pain pills and other drugs. Haitian authorities said Monday that the death toll from Saturday’s 7.2-magnitude earthquake had climbed to 1,419 — nearly 200 more than a previous figure released Sunday.  At least 6,000 more were injured and seeking treatment, before Tropical Depression Grace makes landfall on the island, possibly bringing heavy rain and flooding and increasing the risk of landslides. A tropical storm watch has been issued for the entire coast of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. People remove debris at the collapsed Le Manguier hotel in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 16, 2021, two days after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the southwestern part of the country.The quake was centered near the town of Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, about 125 kilometers west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake, which damaged houses, roads and bridges on the country’s southwest peninsula, displaced thousands of people. The streets of towns near the epicenter were lined with concrete as rescue workers and scrap metal salvagers dug through the rubble.”We must work together to provide rapid and effective responses to this extremely serious situation,” Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry said Sunday. He had flown to Les Cayes on Saturday to survey the damage. Many residents of Les Cayes, the country’s third-largest city with a population of 90,000, stayed outdoors overnight, as aftershocks continued to rock the area through Sunday. The U.S. Geological Survey said on Saturday that the earthquake increased the risk of landslides in the area, which is a major concern as Tropical Depression Grace, downgraded from a tropical storm on Sunday, bears down on the island of Hispaniola.  The U.S. National Hurricane Center forecast the storm is likely to reach Hispaniola by Monday and will drop from 10 to 20 centimeters of rain in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the western and eastern sides of the island, respectively. The heavy rain could trigger landslides, hampering search and rescue efforts and preventing aid from reaching affected areas. The Dominican Republic and Mexico were among the countries that sent food and medicine to Haiti. Cuba dispatched a 235-member health care team.  Just over a month ago, the country was left reeling after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home July 7. His wife, Martine Moise, was injured in the attack.  Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 
 
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Turkey has dropped plans to take over the Kabul airport after NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan but is ready to provide support if the Taliban request it, two Turkish sources said Monday. Turkey, which has 600 troops in Afghanistan, had offered to keep them in Kabul to guard and operate the airport after other NATO members pulled out, and was discussing details with Washington and the government of President Ashraf Ghani. The plans were thrown into disarray in the past two days after Ghani fled the country on Sunday as the Taliban swept into Kabul and thousands of Afghans, also hoping to escape, thronged the airport on Monday. The Taliban had also warned Turkey against keeping soldiers in Afghanistan to run the airport, warnings that Ankara had dismissed before the Islamist militants surged toward the capital. “At the point reached, there is total chaos at Kabul airport. Order has been completely disrupted,” said one of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity. “At this stage, the process of Turkish soldiers taking up control of the airport has automatically been dropped,” the person added. “However, in the event that the Taliban asks for technical support, Turkey can provide security and technical support at the airport.” Opposition parties in Turkey had criticized the government’s plans, saying such a mission would put Turkish soldiers at risk and calling for their immediate withdrawal amid the uptick in violence. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has called for calm in Afghanistan and criticized the Taliban’s advance, said last week he could meet with the Taliban as part of efforts to end the fighting in Afghanistan. Ankara had viewed the airport mission as a potential area of cooperation that could help heal frayed ties with Washington and other NATO allies, which have been strained over several issues. 
 
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With the Taliban seizing control of Afghanistan, Turkey seeks to avert a refugee exodus, with the country already hosting over four million refugees, with about 120,000 of them from Afghanistan, according the United Nations.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pledging to step up diplomatic and security efforts to prevent an Afghan refugee exodus into Turkey. Erdogan, speaking Sunday, warned that the Taliban’s victories in Afghanistan inevitably opens the door to more refugees heading to his country.Erdogan said “Turkey is facing a growing migration wave of Afghans transiting through Iran.” He said, “we will continue to make efforts to bring stability to the region, starting with Afghanistan.”Erdogan spoke with Pakistani President Arif Alvi at his side, who was visiting Istanbul. The Turkish president said Pakistan, a close Turkish ally, was key to restoring stability in Afghanistan.Earlier this month, Erdogan said he was ready for talks with the Taliban leadership. The Taliban said last week they consider Turkey an ally of Afghanistan. Ankara has also held diplomatic talks with Tehran over the refugee crisis. Turkish officials have accused Iran of sending some Afghan refugees to the Turkish border, which Tehran has denied.FILE – A group of Afghan migrants rest on a main road after crossing the Turkey-Iran border near Dogubayazit, Agri province, eastern Turkey, April 11, 2018.Ali Hekmat, head of the Turkish-based Afghan Refugee Solidarity Association, said many Afghan refugees in Iran are desperate to leave.“I am expecting that more refugees will be moving to Turkey from Iran because lots of Afghan army and authorities escaped into Iran. Yesterday, the Iranian government sent them back to Afghanistan. So, most of the refugees are afraid [of] Iran pushing them back to Afghanistan. So, it’s the best choice to arrive in Turkey, and maybe they will be near Europe,” said Hekmat.Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, right, and top army commanders check the Turkey-Iran border in Van, eastern Turkey, Aug. 15, 2021.Erdogan has declared a frontier wall with Iran will soon be completed to prevent new arrivals. With Turkey already hosting over four million refugees, mainly from the Syrian civil war, analysts warn of rising social tensions in the country.Last week, hundreds of people attacked Syrian refugees’ homes and shops in a suburb in the capital, Ankara. Recent opinion polls indicate a majority of people want many of the refugees to leave, a stance backed by the main opposition party.Analyst Asli Aydintasbas said the prospect of a new wave of Afghan refugees poses a major problem for Erdogan.“It’s a huge challenge and an increasingly divisive issue in Turkish public opinion. There is an overwhelming anxiety in Turkish society about refugees, in general, including some 4 million Syrians. The issue is so explosive in Turkey right now; that would be huge political blow to him (Erdogan) if it were to come out that Turkey was formerly accepting Afghan refugees,” said Aydintasbas.Ankara is expected to continue to step up its efforts to control its borders. But with another significant refugee exodus being widely predicted, time is not on the government’s side. 
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Monday that Tropical Storm Fred had strengthened slightly on its approach toward the northwestern Florida panhandle region, where it was expected to bring heavy rains and a dangerous storm surge later in the day. In its latest forecast, the hurricane center said Fred is now about 145 kilometers from the coastal panhandle town of Apalachicola. The storm has maximum sustained winds of about 85 kilometers per hour and is expected to strengthen slightly before it comes ashore.  Tropical storm warnings are in effect for the region, and forecasters say some areas could see 10- to 20 centimeters of rain, as well as storm surges. Fred is expected to weaken and turn after it comes ashore and is likely to bring storms and heavy rains to the southeastern and mid-Atlantic sections of the eastern United States later in the week. Meanwhile, hurricane center forecasters continue to watch Tropical Depression Grace as it brings heavy rains to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Flash floods are possible in all those areas, with the highest potential in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which comprise the island of Hispaniola.  In Its latest advisory, forecasters say it is looking more likely that the weather system will track over only the southern portion of Hispaniola, sparing Haiti further hardship. The nation experienced a powerful earthquake Saturday just weeks after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse left the nation in a political crisis. The current track of the system has it moving into the Gulf of Mexico where slow strengthening is expected in the next 24 to 48 hours.  
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Two new wildfires burned uncontrollably outside the Greek capital, Athens, on Monday, forcing nearby villages to evacuate.An area near the town of Lavrio, southeast of Athens, was the first to ignite, as flames fanned by strong winds decimated mountainside vegetation before spreading to pine trees. Three villages were evacuated, while 91 firefighters, six water-dropping planes and six helicopters were deployed to contain the blaze.The raging fire is in danger of spreading to Sounio National Park, which boasts the ancient Temple of Poseidon.A second fire broke out northwest of the capital in Vilia, forcing another three villages to evacuate. Over 240 firefighters were fighting the blaze, along with eight water-dropping planes and nine helicopters, according to The Associated Press.The blazes are the latest in a series of over 500 wildfires to break out in Greece, elongating weeks of devastation that brought the destruction of hundreds of buildings and tens of thousands of acres of land. One volunteer firefighter and an Athens official died as a result of the fires, and tens of thousands of people have been evacuated.The severity of the wildfires was driven by the country’s worst heat wave in decades, during which temperatures topped 45° C (113° F). The record heat wave also sparked uncontrolled fires across Albania, Algeria, Italy, Lebanon, North Macedonia, Russia, Spain and Turkey. The Greek government has been criticized for its lackluster response to the fires and has relied on assistance from the United States, the European Union and Middle Eastern countries to contain them.Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologized on television last week for “any weaknesses that may have occurred” in his government’s response.”I fully understand the pain of our fellow citizens who saw their homes or property burned,” Mitsotakis said. “Any failures will be identified. And responsibility will be assigned wherever necessary.”The same day, Mitsotakis approved an aid package of 500 million euros ($587 million) to fund reforestation efforts and compensate those who lost homes or property.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
 
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center said early Monday that reconnaissance aircraft has found that Tropical Storm Fred “has slowed down a little,” but is expected to produce heavy rainfall and a dangerous storm surge along the coast of the Florida Panhandle later in the day.  Fred may have slowed its forward speed, but forecasters warned about the possibility of tornadoes and life-threatening surf and storm surges.  The weather forecasters cautioned that “a tornado or two” could be possible Monday morning over the Florida west coast and Panhandle, and during the late morning and into the afternoon from the Florida Panhandle northward into southwest Georgia and southeast Alabama. 
Once Fred makes landfall, it is expected to weaken, NHC said.  Meanwhile, Tropical Depression Grace is continuing to produce heavy rains in western Puerto Rico, the forecasters reported, and flash floods and mudslides are possible across the island of Hispaniola Monday.  On Hispaniola, tropical storm watches are posted for the entire coast of the Dominican Republic and Haiti as Grace approaches. Haiti needs “grace” of another kind after suffering an earthquake Saturday, which came just weeks after the political crisis of a presidential assassination. Haiti has never fully recovered from a devastating earthquake in 2010.  
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The death toll rose to 1,297 on Sunday after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti a day earlier, civil authorities said.
 
Haiti’s Civil Protection service said the number of injured people also rose to 5,700. Hospitals were struggling to cope with those who had arrived for care.
 
Officials continued to search for survivors in the aftermath of the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Saturday morning. The quake was centered near the town of Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, about 125 kilometers west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
 
The quake, which damaged houses, roads and bridges on the country’s southwest peninsula, displaced thousands of people.
 
Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry said on Sunday, “We must work together to provide rapid and effective responses to this extremely serious situation.” He had flown to Les Cayes on Saturday to survey the damage.Compounding the difficulties facing the country, a tropical storm watch has been issued for the entire coast of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Tropical Depression Grace is expected to bring heavy rain to the island Monday, leading to flash flooding and mudslides. Many residents in Les Cayes, the country’s third-largest city with a population of 90,000, stayed outdoors overnight, as aftershocks continued to rock the area into Sunday.Haiti earthquake location map, Aug. 14, 2021 (Credit: USGS)The U.S. Geological Survey said on Saturday that the earthquake increased the risk of landslides in the area, which is a major concern as Tropical Depression Grace, downgraded from a tropical storm on Sunday, bears down on the island of Hispaniola.  
 
The U.S. National Hurricane Center forecast the storm is likely to reach Hispaniola by Monday and will drop from 10-20 centimeters of rain on Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the western and eastern sides of the island, respectively.
 
The heavy rain could trigger landslides, hampering search and rescue efforts and stalling aid reaching affected areas.
 
The Dominican Republic and Mexico were among the countries that sent food and medicine to Haiti. Cuba dispatched a 235-member health care team to Haiti.
 
Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said Sunday that the U.S. had deployed a 65-person urban search and rescue team with specialized equipment, as well as medical supplies, as part of its disaster response.Firefighters search for survivors inside a collapsed building, after Saturday´s 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 15, 2021.Bruno Maes, the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Haiti, told Reuters the U.N. was “calling for a humanitarian corridor in Haiti to allow quicker and safer transfer of goods and people.”
 
“We are really advocating for armed groups to allow this humanitarian aid to go to reach the people as soon as possible,” he said.
 
Due to security concerns, Jery Chandler, head of Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency, told Reuters that while authorities worked to create access for aid through Martissant, the government was sending most of the help by helicopters, planes and boats.
 
In Les Cayes Sunday, social media and wire reports showed rescuers, some using heavy equipment, searching through the rubble for survivors.
 
“Thanks to God and also to my phone, I’m alive,” Marcel Francois told Agence France-Presse. He was rescued from his collapsed two-story home in Les Cayes.
 
His younger brother Job Francois said Marcel Francois had called, sounding desperate, saying, “‘Come save me, I’m under the concrete’… He told me he couldn’t breathe, that he was dying.”Red Cross paramedics carry a girl injured during a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 14, 2021.The neighbors and Job spent hours freeing him and his 10-year-old daughter from the heavy debris, AFP reported.
 
Just over a month ago, the country was left reeling after President Moise was assassinated in his home July 7 and his wife, Martine Moise, was injured in the attack.  
 
Humanitarian aid groups said the earthquake would only worsen the suffering in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas.
 
“We’re concerned that this earthquake is just one more crisis on top of what the country is already facing, including the worsening political stalemate after the president’s assassination, COVID and food insecurity,” Jean-Wickens Merone, spokesman for World Vision Haiti, said, according to the AP.
 Some material for this article came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
 
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The powerful earthquake that hit Haiti on Saturday killed hundreds and injured thousands more. The destruction comes just 11 years after a temblor killed tens of thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands. Some 100,000 buildings were destroyed in the 2010 quake.  
 
As rescuers search for survivors in the Caribbean nation, here’s a look at why Haiti has had so many devastating earthquakes over the centuries and why they are often so devastating.  
 What makes Haiti prone to earthquakes?  
 
The Earth’s crust is made up of tectonic plates that move. And Haiti sits near the intersection of two of them — the North American plate and the Caribbean plate.  
Multiple fault lines between those plates cut through or near the island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic. What’s worse, not all of those fault lines behave the same way.  
 
“Hispaniola sits in a place where plates transition from smashing together to sliding past one another,” said Rich Briggs, a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Geologic Hazards Science Center.  
 
“It’s like a rock stuck in the track of a sliding glass door,” he said. “It just does not want to move smoothly because it’s got so many different forces on it.”  
 What caused the most recent quake?  
 
Saturday’s magnitude 7.2 earthquake likely occurred along the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone, which cuts across Haiti’s southwestern Tiburon Peninsula, according to the USGS.  
 
It’s the same fault zone along which the devastating 2010 earthquake occurred. And it’s likely the source of three other big earthquakes in Haiti between 1751 and 1860, two of which destroyed Port-au-Prince.  
 
Earthquakes are the result of the tectonic plates slowly moving against each other and creating friction over time, said Gavin Hayes, senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards at USGS.
 
“That friction builds up and builds up and eventually the strain that’s stored there overcomes the friction,” Hayes said. “And that’s when the fault moves suddenly. That’s what an earthquake is.”
 Why can earthquakes in Haiti be so devastating?
 
It’s a combination of factors that include a seismically active area, a high population density of 11 million people and buildings that are often designed to withstand hurricanes — not earthquakes.  
 
Typical concrete and cinder block buildings can survive strong winds but are vulnerable to damage or collapse when the ground shakes. Poor building practices can also play a role.  
 
The 2010 quake hit closer to densely populated Port-au-Prince and caused widespread destruction. Haiti’s government put the death toll at more than 300,000, while a report commissioned by the U.S. government placed it between 46,000 and 85,000.
 
“I think it’s important to recognize that there’s no such thing as a natural disaster,” said Wendy Bohon, a geologist with Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology. “What you have is a natural hazard that overlaps with a vulnerable system.”  
 What does the future hold?  
 
Geologists say they cannot predict the next earthquake.  
 
“But we do know that earthquakes like this can cause similar-sized earthquakes on the next portion of the fault,” said Hayes of USGS. “And it’s quite a significant hazard in places that don’t have the construction practices to withstand the shaking.”  
 
Construction of more earthquake-resistant buildings remains a challenge in Haiti, which is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.  
 
Before Saturday’s quake, Haiti was still recovering from the 2010 earthquake as well as Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Its president was assassinated last month, sending the country into political chaos.  
 
And while there have been some success stories of Haitians building more earthquake-resistant structures, the country has lacked a centralized effort to do so, said Mark Schuller, a professor of anthropology and nonprofit and NGO studies at Northern Illinois University.  
 
Haiti’s government has become increasingly weak, while non-governmental organizations focus on their own compartmentalized projects.
 
“There is technical knowledge in Haiti. There are trained architects. There are city planners. That’s not the problem,” Schuller said. “The problem is a lack of funding for coordination, and lack of political will from donors (to organizations providing aid).”
 
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