While Ukraine’s president prepares for a visit to Washington, Kyiv is accepting COVID-19 vaccines from China and has signed a major infrastructure agreement with Beijing to cooperate on roads, bridges and railway projects. Some experts worry China is attaching strings to the ventures, as VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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About 40 migrants were feared dead after a boat carrying about 50 people traveling from Western Sahara to Spain’s Canary Islands capsized, a Spanish nongovernmental organization said on Friday.”Tragedy: forty-two people, among those thirty women, eight children and four men, died when a boat capsized off the coast of Dakhla,” tweeted Helena Maleno of Caminando Fronteras, which monitors migratory flows.Official sources, quoted by the Spanish newspaper El Pais, said the number of people feared dead was 30.Maleno said 10 people survived and were picked up by fishermen.The accident happened when the migrant boat set out in bad weather on Tuesday, but details had only emerged on Friday.From Jan. 1-July 31, at least 7,531 people reached Spain’s Canary Islands from Western Africa, according to Spanish government figures, a 136% rise compared with the same period in 2020.Caminando Fronteras claims that during the first six months of 2021, 2,087 migrants died or disappeared as they tried to make the perilous voyage by sea to Spain from Western Africa.
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European Union ministers will hold emergency talks on what they view as a Belarusian pressure campaign of illegal migration against EU nations, according to Agence France-Presse.The bloc has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging new migrants to cross the border in reaction to Poland’s decision to provide refuge to Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who refused to return home from the Tokyo Olympics.Slovenia, which currently serves as rotating president of the EU, said the talks would take place virtually on August 18, AFP reported.In addition to the EU’s 27 member states, representatives of the Frontex border guard agency, the European Asylum Support Office and Europol were also invited.The EU meeting was announced as Poland and Lithuania reportedly called on European institutions to help them deal with the surge in illegal migration from Belarus.In the statement Friday, Poland and Lithuania called on the European Commission, Frontex, EASO, other EU member states and non-EU partners to explore solutions to EU migration and asylum issues, according to the Associated Press.In the past two days, 133 illegal migrants were stopped at the Belarusian-Polish border, compared to 122 in all of 2020, a spokesperson for the Poland Border Guard said, according to AP.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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The Vatican Museums began requiring visitors Friday to present a so-called Green Pass, a digital certificate proving they have been vaccinated, tested negative or recovered from COVID-19 using a digital or paper certificate.The Green Pass is an extension of the European Union’s COVID-19 certificate, designed to make travel, as well as entry into certain venues, easier.Early Friday, tourists could be seen waiting to enter the museums to have QR codes scanned. The pass can be downloaded as a smartphone app, and is available in a paper version.The Vatican implemented its rules the same day the surrounding country of Italy implemented mandatory use of the pass to access places like bars and restaurants, gyms, theaters, museums, sporting events, and concerts.France was the first EU nation to make proof of immunity mandatory to access a range of services and venues.The Italian government announced Thursday it will widen the Green Pass requirement to all teachers, university students and long-distance transport beginning September 1. Some information in this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and the French news agency, AFP. 
 
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Two Belarusian coaches have been stripped of their Tokyo Olympics accreditations over an alleged attempt to force a sprinter to fly home, an incident that drew international condemnation.The International Olympic Committee on Friday said it had removed the accreditations of Artur Shimak and Yury Maisevich and they had left the Olympic Village.The body said this week that it was investigating the pair over their role in the case of Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who sought protection at a Tokyo airport to avoid being put on a plane home.She said she feared for her life if forced back to Belarus, which has been wracked by political upheaval and a crackdown on dissent after disputed elections that returned strongman Alexander Lukashenko to power last year.Tsimanouskaya is one of more than 2,000 Belarusian sports figures who signed an open letter calling for new elections and for political prisoners to be freed.But her trouble in Tokyo came after she posted on her Instagram, criticizing her coaches for entering her into a race without informing her first.The IOC said the two coaches “will be offered an opportunity to be heard” but that the measures against them were taken “in the interest of the well-being of the athletes” from Belarus who are still in Tokyo.Tsimanouskaya, 24, arrived in Warsaw on Wednesday after being granted a humanitarian visa, saying she was “happy to be in safety.”The row blew up after Tsimanouskaya, who was entered in the 100- and 200-meter races, complained about being entered into the 4×400-meter relay without being consulted.She said she was “surprised that the situation became such a political scandal because it started out as a sporting issue,” adding that “she was” not thinking about political asylum in EU member Poland.“I just want to pursue my sporting career,” Tsimanouskaya said.The alleged attempt to return Tsimanouskaya to Belarus has prompted condemnation, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accusing Minsk of “another act of transnational repression.”In power since 1994, Lukashenko sparked international outrage in May by dispatching a fighter jet to intercept a Ryanair plane flying from Greece to Lithuania to arrest a dissident on board.Belarus has also been in the crosshairs of the IOC since last year. Lukashenko and his son Viktor have been banned from Olympic events over the targeting of athletes for their political views.Shortly before the Tokyo Games, Lukashenko warned sports officials and athletes that he expected results in Japan.“Think about it before going,” he said. “If you come back with nothing, it’s better for you not to come back at all.” 
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A resurgent wildfire burned homes north of Athens, and blazes across southern Greece forced more evacuations Thursday as weather worsened and firefighters in a round-the-clock battle strove to save a former royal palace and the birthplace of the ancient Olympics.In a dramatic scene as flames approached, fire crews went house to house to escort residents out of homes 20 kilometers (12½ miles) north of the capital. The fire threatened the power supply to parts of the capital after damaging the transmission network, officials said, adding that fire crews with more than 700 people were working through the night.Greek and European Union officials described the huge fires as a consequence of climate change.Fueled by the worst heat wave in decades, the blazes drew closer to a summer palace at Tatoi outside Athens once used by the former Greek royal family, as well as a major archaeological site in southern Greece that was the birthplace of the ancient Olympics.Late Thursday, officials said both sites appeared to be in no immediate danger.’Simply impossible’ task”Our priority is always the protection of human life, followed by the protection of property, the natural environment and critical infrastructure. Unfortunately, under these circumstances, achieving all these aims at the same time is simply impossible,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an evening televised address. The wildfires, he said, display “the reality of climate change.”A burned hotel during a wildfire in Lalas village, near Olympia town, western Greece, Aug. 5, 2021. Wildfires rekindled outside Athens and forced more evacuations around southern Greece as weather worsened.Earlier, he visited Tatoi, as well as Ancient Olympia, where flame-lighting ceremonies for the modern summer and winter Olympics are held every two years. Earth movers were being used to create big fire breaks around the ancient site.As additional support arrived from Greece’s military and EU countries, water-dropping planes and helicopters swooped over blazes near the capital, in central Greece, on the island of Evia, and near ancient Olympia to the south.Ninety-nine new fires were reported, while more than 50 villages and settlements were evacuated, including a beachside campsite and hotels on Evia, where boats were used to transport stranded vacationers to safety.Turkey, AlbaniaA heat wave baking southeast Europe for a second week has also triggered deadly fires in Turkey and Albania and blazes across the region.North Macedonia’s government on Thursday declared the country in a state of crisis for the next 30 days because of wildfires.The EU commissioner for the environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, said the fires and extreme weather globally over the summer were a clear signal for the need to address climate change.”We are fighting some of the worst wildfires we’ve seen in decades. But this summer’s floods, heat waves and forest fires can become our new normality,” he wrote in a tweet.”We must ask ourselves: Is this the world we want to live in? We need immediate actions for nature before it’s too late.”A convoy of firetrucks use a road during a wildfire in Lalas village, near Olympia town, western Greece, Aug. 5, 2021.The EU bolstered assistance from member states and partners to Greece, sending firefighters, water-dropping planes and helicopters from Cyprus, France, Sweden, Romania and Switzerland. Help from the Netherlands and other EU members was also heading to fire-stricken countries in the region.In an emergency measure, public access to Greek forests at risk of fire will be limited through August 9.Greece’s Civil Protection Agency said the fire threat across southern Greece would increase further Friday, with windy weather forecast for parts of the country, despite an expected slight dip in temperatures that reached 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) earlier this week. The heat wave was described as Greece’s worst since 1987.Armed forces’ roleDefense Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos said the armed forces would expand their role in fire prevention, with ground patrols, drones and aircraft over areas vulnerable to wildfires.Outside Athens, a forest fire that broke out on the northern fringes of the capital Tuesday and damaged or destroyed scores of homes rekindled, triggering fresh evacuations, threatening homes and sending thick smoke over the capital.The EU Atmosphere Monitoring Service said smoke plumes from the region’s wildfires were clearly visible in satellite images, adding that the estimated intensity of the wildfires in Turkey was at the highest level since records started in 2003.The fires in Greece have not caused any deaths or serious injuries. But Greek scientists said the total destruction in just three days this month exceeded 50% of the average area burned in the country in previous years. An Athens Observatory report said an estimated 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres) went up in smoke between Sunday and Wednesday, compared with 10,400 hectares in the whole of last year.The causes of the Greek wildfires were unclear, but authorities say human error and carelessness are most frequently to blame.
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Russia begins mass military exercises with its Central Asian allies Tajikistan and Uzbekistan near the Tajik border with Afghanistan this week.  The maneuvers come against the backdrop of a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan – and rapid territorial gains by its adversaries in the Afghan Taliban. For VOA from Moscow, Charles Maynes reports.  Camera: Ricardo Marquina-Montanana, Producer: Marcus Harton
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A Belarusian Olympic sprinter told reporters Thursday she was advised by family members not to return home because she was being criticized by the Belarus media, who reported that she was mentally ill.Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, arrived in Warsaw, Poland, late Wednesday. Polish authorities granted her a humanitarian visa to seek political asylum earlier this week after she alleged her team’s officials were trying to force her to fly home to Belarus against her wishes.At a news conference, Tsimanouskaya told reporters that after she posted a message on social media earlier this week criticizing how she was being handled by her coaches, members of the Belarus coaching staff, along with other men, came to her room in the Olympic village and told her she had “some injury” and had to go home.Tsimanouskaya said she was told if she did not, there be “some problems for her in her country.” She said as she gathered her things, her grandmother called and warned her not to return home, saying television reports said the sprinter had mental problems, and that she might be put in a hospital or jailed. At the Tokyo airport, Tsimanouskaya sought help from Japanese police, translating a plea on her phone and showing it to them.As the drama unfolded, European countries offered to help her, and she ended up at the Polish Embassy, where she received a humanitarian visa. Many Belarusian activists have fled to Poland to avoid a brutal crackdown by President Alexander Lukashenko’s government.Tsimanouskaya told reporters she had not decided about seeking political asylum. She said her husband would be joining her in Poland later Thursday, and they would make a decision. She said she wanted to continue her sports career and support freedom in her country. Belarus has been wracked by political upheaval and a crackdown on dissent after disputed elections that returned Lukashenko to power last year.Tsimanouskaya was one of more than 2,000 Belarusian sports figures who signed an open letter calling for new elections and for political prisoners to be freed.
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A heat wave in southern Europe, fed by strong hot winds from North Africa, has contributed to the outbreak of wildfires across the Mediterranean, including in Italy, Greece, Spain and Turkey. Firefighters in Italy have been deployed from all regions to battle blazes raging in many areas of the country, destroying thousands of hectares of forests. The high temperatures in southern Italy have prompted health ministry officials to put some areas of the country on red alert, like Sicily. Fires have been raging on the island and in other parts of Italy for days with authorities struggling to contain the fast-spreading blazes that have charred thousands of hectares of forests.Authorities deployed thousands of firefighters and water-dropping planes from across Italy, but due to the scale of the fires, the EU has also had to send in resources.In Sardinia, 20,000 hectares of forests were destroyed, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate. The fires damaged farmland and livestock, businesses and homes, and there is concern about losses to the island’s biodiversity.Christian Solinas, president of the Sardinia region, calls the fires an “unprecedented disaster.”  Residents spoke of apocalyptic scenes.In Sicily, fires are still raging in different areas with the flames having also reached the southern city of Catania on the eastern coast. Here, too, many residents were forced to leave their homes and police had to intervene by sea to save some 200 people stranded at beach resorts because of the fires and heavy smoke. Catania airport had to temporarily close due to the smoke.A view of a fire at Le Capannine beach in Catania, Sicily, Italy, July 30, 2021, in this photo obtained from social media. (Credit: Roberto Viglianisi/via Reuters)Also hard hit is the region of Abruzzo, where flames devoured a pine forest in Pescara, on the Adriatic coast, sending tourists and residents to the hospital after inhaling smoke.Authorities say many of the fires were cause by people and have already made some arrests. Speaking on Italian TV, Pescara mayor Carlo Masci called the events in his area truly dramatic and said those responsible must pay.Masci describes it as an attack on the heart of the city, the green lung of Pescara, its tradition, its history, its roots. The mayor says the blazes developed in various parts and the winds fueled the massive flames. He adds that he had never seen anything like this before and people were practically encircled by the fires.Like in other parts of Italy, Masci said the impact on the local environment was incalculable with the whole area of the Dannunziana Reserve, the city’s large pine forest, destroyed. He said it hurt to see all those skeletons of the trees.
 
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British police have arrested 11 people as part of an investigation into the online racist abuse directed at some of the Black players in the England soccer team following their defeat in last month’s Euro 2020 final.Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were the targets of the abuse after they missed spot-kicks in a penalty shootout with Italy which settled the July 11 final after the game finished as a 1-1 draw.The incident prompted a police investigation and drew wide condemnation from the England captain, manager, royalty, religious leaders and politicians.The UK Football Policing Unit said 207 posts on social media were identified as criminal, of which 123 accounts belong to individuals overseas and 34 from the United Kingdom.”There are people out there who believe they can hide behind a social media profile and get away with posting such abhorrent comments. They need to think again,” Chief Constable Mark Roberts, National Police Chiefs’ Council Football Policing Lead, said in a statement.”We have investigators proactively seeking out abusive comments in connection to the match and, if they meet a criminal threshold, those posting them will be arrested.”Our investigation is continuing at pace and we are grateful for those who have taken time to report racist posts to us.”A Twitter Inc spokesperson said last month they had removed more than 1,000 tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts, while Facebook Inc said it too had quickly removed abusive comments.
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The Mexican government sued U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors Wednesday in U.S. federal court, arguing that their negligent and illegal commercial practices have unleashed tremendous bloodshed in Mexico.The unusual lawsuit was filed in Boston. Among those being sued are some of the biggest names in guns, including Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc.; Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc.; Beretta U.S.A. Corp.; Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC, and Glock Inc. Another defendant is Interstate Arms, a Boston-area wholesaler that sells guns from all but one of the named manufacturers to dealers around the U.S.The manufacturers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The Mexican government argues that the companies know that their practices contribute to the trafficking of guns to Mexico and facilitate it. Mexico wants compensation for the havoc the guns have wrought in its country.The Mexican government “brings this action to put an end to the massive damage that the defendants cause by actively facilitating the unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico,” the lawsuit said.Mexico’s figuresThe government estimates that 70% of the weapons trafficked to Mexico come from the U.S., according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and that in 2019 alone, at least 17,000 homicides were linked to trafficked weapons.The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the U.S. firearm industry’s trade association, said in a statement it rejected Mexico’s allegations of negligence.”These allegations are baseless. The Mexican government is responsible for the rampant crime and corruption within their own borders,” said Lawrence G. Keane, the group’s senior vice president and general counsel. The Mexican government is responsible for enforcing its laws, he said.FILE – A security guard stands outside the Glock Inc. headquarters in Smyrna, Ga., Oct. 8, 2014. Glock is one of the gunmakers Mexico sued on Aug. 4, 2021, in U.S. federal court.The group also took issue with Mexico’s figures for the number of guns recovered at crime scenes and traced back to the U.S. It said traces were attempted on only a small fraction of the recovered guns and only on the ones carrying a serial number, making them more likely to have originated in the U.S.Alejandro Celorio, legal adviser for the ministry, told reporters Wednesday that the damage caused by the trafficked guns would be equal to 1.7% to 2% of Mexico’s gross domestic product. The government will seek at least $10 billion in compensation, he said. Mexico’s GDP last year was more than $1.2 trillion.”We don’t do it to pressure the United States,” Celorio said. “We do it so there aren’t deaths in Mexico.”Goal: Reduce homicidesForeign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said the lawsuit was another piece of the government’s efforts against guns. “The priority is that we reduce homicides,” he said. “We aren’t looking to change American laws.”Mexico did not seek the advice of the U.S. government on the matter but advised the U.S. Embassy before filing the lawsuit.Steve Shadowen, the lead attorney representing Mexico, said that in the early 2000s, about 30 U.S. cities brought similar litigation against gun manufacturers, arguing that they should be responsible for increased police, hospitalization and other costs associated with gun violence.As some cities started winning, gun manufacturers went to Congress and got an immunity statute for the manufacturers. Shadowen said he believes that immunity doesn’t apply when the injury occurs outside the United States.”The merits of the case are strongly in our favor, and then we have to get around this immunity statute, which we think we’re going to win,” he said. “That statute just simply doesn’t apply. It only applies when you’re in the United States.”He said he believes it is the first time a foreign government has sued the gun manufacturers.Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California-Los Angeles and an expert on gun policy, called Mexico’s effort a “long shot.””It is a bold and innovative lawsuit,” he said. “We haven’t seen anything like this before. The gun manufacturers have enjoyed broad immunity from lawsuits for now two decades.”FILE – The Beretta U.S.A. facility is shown in Accokeek, Md., Aug. 4, 2014. Beretta is one of the U.S. gunmakers sued by Mexico on Aug. 4, 2021.He said he had not seen arguments that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act applies only to damages in the United States.The sale of firearms is severely restricted in Mexico and controlled by the Defense Department. But thousands of guns are smuggled into Mexico by the country’s powerful drug cartels.There were more than 36,000 murders in Mexico last year, and the toll has remained stubbornly high, despite President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pledge to pacify the country. Mexico’s nationwide murder rate in 2020 remained unchanged at 29 per 100,000 inhabitants. By comparison, the U.S. homicide rate in 2019 was 5.8 per 100,000.El Paso shootingIn August 2019, a gunman killed 23 people in an El Paso Walmart, including some Mexican citizens. At that time, Ebrard said the government would explore its legal options. The government said Wednesday that recent rulings in U.S. courts contributed to its decision to file the lawsuit.It cited a decision in California allowing a lawsuit against Smith & Wesson to move forward, a lawsuit filed last week against Century Arms related to a 2019 shooting in Gilroy, California, and the $33 million settlement reached by Remington with some of the families whose children were killed in the Newtown, Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in 2012.Winkler of UCLA mentioned the Sandy Hook lawsuit as one that initially few people thought would go anywhere.”The plaintiffs in that case made an innovative and bold argument, too,” he said. “They argued that the immunity statute does not prevent these gunmakers from being held liable where they act negligently.””Over the past year or so, we’ve seen some cracks in the immunity armor provided by federal law,” Winkler said. “Even if this lawsuit moves forward, it will be extremely difficult for Mexico to win because it will be hard to show that this distribution process or their distribution practices are a manifestation of negligence on the part of the gunmakers.”
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China has lodged a stern representation with Britain’s BBC about its reporting of the floods in Henan and its statement on how foreign journalists were being treated, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.The head of communications for the BBC World Service declined to comment.The broadcaster had said in a statement last month that the Chinese government should take immediate action to stop attacks that endanger foreign journalists.The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China had said journalists from several media outlets covering the floods were harassed online and by local residents. Some journalists received death threats, it said.”The BBC statement is inverting black and white,” China’s foreign ministry said on its official website.It said the BBC reports on the Henan floods were an attack on the Chinese government, and were “prejudiced,” without giving further details.The death toll from last month’s floods in Henan rose to 302 as of Monday, officials said, triple the figure of 99 that was reported last week, with most of the fatalities reported in the provincial capital, Zhengzhou.
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Britain’s top military commander, General Nick Carter, said Wednesday that Western powers need to retaliate for a suspected Iranian drone strike on an oil tanker, which killed a British security guard and the ship’s Romanian captain — otherwise Tehran will feel emboldened.Speaking to the BBC, Carter, chief of the British Defense Staff, said if a regime of deterrence is not restored in the Gulf, there will be more attacks and a higher risk of “miscalculation” by Iran. “What we need to be doing, fundamentally, is calling out Iran for its very reckless behavior,” he said.FILE – Britain’s Chief of Defense Staff General Nick Carter speaks during a remote press conference, inside 10 Downing Street in central London, April 22, 2020, in this handout image released by 10 Downing Street.Iran has vehemently denied playing any role in the July 29 drone strike on the MV Mercer Street off the coast of Oman. The vessel is Japanese-owned but managed by London-based firm Zodiac Maritime, which in turn is owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. The British government and the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden have accused Iran of being behind the deadly drone strike with Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, labeling it “unlawful and callous.”FILE – Britain’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Dominic Raab walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain, Feb. 3, 2021.Earlier this week, he added, “We believe this attack was deliberate, targeted and a clear violation of international law by Iran. Iran must end such attacks, and vessels must be allowed to navigate freely in accordance with international law.” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday there was “no justification for this attack, which follows a pattern of attacks and other belligerent behavior,” adding, the U.S. is “confident” Iran carried out the attack, using multiple drones. The Israeli government Wednesday publicly accused an Iranian military officer, Saeed Ara Jani, of overseeing the strike, alleging Ara Jani heads the Revolutionary Guards’ drone unit. “For the first time ever, I will also expose the man who is directly responsible for the launch of suicide UAVs [unmanned vehicles] — his name is Saeed Ara Jani,” Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said.”The UAV command conducted the attack on the Mercer Street. Saeed Ara Jani plans and provides the training and equipment to conduct terror attacks in the region,” Gantz added in a briefing to ambassadors from member states of the U.N. Security Council.Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, described “as totally suspicious the reports of successive security incidents involving vessels in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman” and warned “against any effort to create a vicious atmosphere to pursue certain political goals.”In a tweet, he reaffirmed Iran’s “strong commitment to regional stability & maritime security,” and said, “Iran stands ready to offer assistance in case of any maritime accidents.”The drone strike blasted a hole in the oil tanker’s bridge when the vessel was 159 kilometers from Al Duqm port in Oman, according to British and U.S. officials, who say they are coordinating a possible response to the assault. What form the retaliation will take or when is not clear.FILE – The Liberian-flagged oil tanker Mercer Street is seen off Cape Town, South Africa, Jan. 2, 2016.In his interview with the BBC, Carter said, “We have got to restore deterrence because it is behavior like that which leads to escalation, and that could very easily lead to miscalculation and that would be very disastrous for all the peoples of the Gulf and the international community.”Carter’s remarks came as Iranian hijackers were accused of boarding another oil tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday before leaving the vessel 24 hours later, Britain’s Royal Navy reported.Britain is due to raise the issue of the Mercer Street incident formally at a U.N. Security Council meeting scheduled for Friday.  Raab tweeted that the U.K. has written to U.N. Security Council President T.S. Tirimurti, alongside Romania and Liberia, “to raise Iran’s attack on MV Mercer Street.” He added, “The Council must respond to Iran’s destabilizing actions and lack of respect for international law.”Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday said during a Cabinet meeting, “We know, at any rate, how to convey the message to Iran in our own way.”The U.S. State Department initially said the attack involved “one-way explosive UAVs,” otherwise known as suicide drones. Previously, shipping attacks in the Gulf have more often than not involved limpet mines, which can be placed on the hull of a target vessel. The switch in tactics is being seen by Western diplomats and Israeli defense experts as a major escalation in a shadow war between Iran and Israel.Israeli Defense Minister Gantz on Monday accused Iran of intensifying aggression in the Gulf. He told the Knesset, or parliament, that there are ”hundreds of Iranian UAVs in Iran, Yemen, Iraq and other countries.” He added, “We will act to remove any such threat.” 
 
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The World Health Organization says more than 700 health care workers and patients were killed, more than 2,000 injured, and hundreds of health facilities destroyed in countries of conflict between 2018 and 2020.A three-year analysis was carried out in 17 conflict-ridden countries and territories, including Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria, Mozambique, the occupied Palestinian territories, and Myanmar.New data show that health care continues to be under attack. So far this year, the World Health Organization has recorded 588 incidents in 14 countries with emergencies, causing 114 deaths and 278 injuries of health care workers and patients.   The WHO’s director of health emergencies interventions, Altaf Musani, says the impact of those health care attacks goes well beyond claiming lives. He says the ramifications are significant and alarming, especially considering the ongoing COVID-19 response.   “Their impact reverberates on health care workers’ mental health and willingness to report to work, equally, on communities’ willingness to seek health care, and also drastically reduces resources for responding to a health crisis, amongst others,”  Musani said. Musani says the ripple effect of a single incident is huge and has a long-lasting impact on the system at large. When health facilities are destroyed, he says, they need to be rebuilt.    When health care workers are killed or wounded, he says a vital work force must be reinforced. Building back those vital systems, he says, requires years of costly investment, years in which people in need are underserved.“During the pandemic, more than ever, health care workers must be protected, must be respected,”  Musani said. “Hospitals and health care facilities, including the transportation of ambulances should not be used for military purposes. Essential conditions for the continued delivery of vital health care must be given the necessary space.”   Musani notes any reduction in capacity will interrupt services and deprive vulnerable communities of urgent care.   The WHO is calling on all parties in conflicts to ensure safe working spaces for the delivery of health care services. It says people caught in emergency situations must be able to safely access care, free from violence, threat, or fear.
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A Belarusian Olympic sprinter who said she faced punishment if she returned to her country departed Japan Wednesday on a flight bound for Austria. Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was scheduled to land in Vienna Wednesday afternoon. She is then expected to travel on to Poland, where the government has offered her a humanitarian visa. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki posted Tuesday on Facebook that he had spoken with Tsimanouskaya and that she should be able to live in Poland without obstacles. Polish authorities granted Tsimanouskaya a humanitarian visa to seek political asylum on Monday after she alleged her team’s officials were trying to force her to fly home to Belarus against her wishes.Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya arrives at the Polish embassy in Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 2, 2021. Tsimanouskaya told officials in Tokyo she feared she would not be safe in Belarus from the autocratic government of President Alexander Lukashenko.  “They made it clear that upon return home I would definitely face some form of punishment,” she told The Associated Press in a Tuesday videocall interview. “There were also thinly disguised hints that more would await me.”  Her departure from Tokyo comes days after she provoked backlash in state-run media in Belarus by criticizing how official were managing the Belarusian Olympians. On her Instagram account, Tsimanouskaya said she was put on the country’s 4×400 relay team even though she has never raced in the event.    The Belarus National Olympic Committee has been led for more than 25 years by Lukashenko and his son, Viktor.    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Lukashenko government was trying to force Tsimanouskaya to leave the Games “simply for exercising free speech.” Some information in this report came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.  
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More than 500 firefighters struggled through the night to contain a large forest fire on the outskirts of Athens, which raced into residential areas Tuesday, forcing thousands to flee. It was the worst of 81 wildfires that broke out in Greece over the past 24 hours, amid one of the country’s most intense heatwaves in decades.Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said the fire north of Athens was “very dangerous,” and had been exacerbated by strong winds and tinder-dry conditions thanks to the heat that reached 45 Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in the area.No severe injuries were reported, and authorities said several buildings had been damaged, but no detailed breakdown was available. The cause of the blaze was unclear.”We continue to fight hour by hour, with our top priority being to save human lives,” Hardalias said. “We will do so all night.””These are crucial hours,” Hardalias said. “Our country is undergoing one of the worst heatwaves of the past 40 years.”The wind dropped later Tuesday, and the regional governor for greater Athens, Giorgos Patoulis, said this could allow the fire to be tamed after water-dropping aircraft resume operations at first light Wednesday.”If the winds don’t grow, it can be brought under control by the early morning so the planes can provide the final solution,” he told state ERT TV.A firefighting plane drops water over a fire near holiday homes in Costa village in the Argolida region, in Southeastern Greece during a developing wild fire, July 20, 2015.The blaze sent a huge cloud of smoke over Athens, prompting multiple evacuations near Tatoi, 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) to the north and forcing the partial closure of Greece’s main north-south highway. Residents left their homes in cars and on motorcycles, often clutching pets, heading toward the capital amid a blanket of smoke.One group stopped to help staff from a riding school push their horses into trucks to escape the flames.Fire crews went house to house to ensure that evacuation orders were carried out, and 315 people were escorted to safety after calling for help. Authorities said nobody was listed as missing, and Greek media said six people required treatment for breathing complaints.As the heat wave scorching the eastern Mediterranean intensified, temperatures reached 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) in parts of the Greek capital. The extreme weather has fueled deadly wildfires in Turkey and blazes in Italy, Greece, Albania and across the region.Wildfires also raged in other parts of Greece, prompting evacuations of villages in Mani and Vassilitsa in the southern Peloponnese region, as well as on the islands of Evia and Kos, authorities said. A total 40 blazes were raging late Tuesday.The fires prompted Greek basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo to cancel celebrations planned in Athens for the NBA championship he won recently with the Milwaukee Bucks.”We hope there are no victims from these fires, and of course we will postpone today’s celebration,” Antetokounmpo wrote in a tweet.Earlier, authorities closed the Acropolis and other ancient sites during afternoon hours. The site, which is normally open in the summer from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., will have reduced hours through Friday, closing between midday and 5 p.m.A Ch-47D Chinook helicopter is watched by a paddleboarder as it fills up with water while firefighting near Lambiri Beach at Patras on Aug. 1, 2021.The extreme heat, described by authorities as the worst in Greece since 1987, has strained the national power supply and fueled the wildfires.The national grid operator said the power supply to part of the capital was endangered after part of the transmission system, damaged and threatened by the fires, was shut down.Seven water-dropping planes and nine helicopters were involved in the firefighting effort near Athens, including an aircraft leased from Russia. They ceased operations after dark for safety reasons.The Greek Fire Service maintained an alert for most of the country for Tuesday and Wednesday, while public and some private services shifted operating hours to allow for afternoon closures.Hardalias appealed to the public for high vigilance.”Because the heatwave will continue in coming days, please avoid any activity that could spark a fire,” he said.
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Haiti will hold elections this year despite setbacks, Provisional Electoral Council (KEP) President Guirlande Mesadieu told VOA Creole.  “We will hold elections. We will hold a referendum,” Mesadieu said. She admitted that the current September 26 date may have to be pushed back.  Despite some political groups’ attempts to pressure the KEP to put election plans on hold after President Jovenel Moise’s assassination in July, Mesadieu said the council is determined to respect the presidential decree, which called for a referendum and general elections this year.  FILE – A picture of the late Haitian President Jovenel Moise hangs on a wall before a news conference by interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 13, 2021.”We, as members of the electoral council, would be acting irresponsibly if we were to decide unilaterally to hold a referendum but not general elections, or general elections and not a referendum. So, everything in the (presidential) decree is what we are focused on,” she told VOA. The United States and the international community have repeatedly called on Haitian officials to hold general elections to restore crippled democratic institutions, such as the Parliament, and begin resolving major issues.In an interview Tuesday with VOA, Julie Chung, acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, reiterated that message.  “I think it’s a critical time for the people of Haiti to come together with consensus and to listen to the voices of all stakeholders to build that pathway to free and fair elections as soon as is technically feasible,” Chung told VOA.The assistant secretary said U.S. Special Envoy for Haiti Daniel Foote stayed in the country after attending Moise’s funeral to meet with Haitian officials and civil society representatives and “hear their voices.”   FILE – U.S. Special Envoy Daniel Foote meets with National Police Chief Leon Charles, U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison and a police official in Haiti over the weekend, in this image posted by the national police on Twitter on July 24, 2021.But Andre Michel, spokesperson for the Democratic and Popular Sector, said the opposition wants a dialogue to select a new transitional government and a new electoral council to organize the elections. “There must be an electoral council that is credible, an electoral council that is honest and is made up of representatives from all sectors of society,” Michel said during a press conference Tuesday.But Mesadieu told VOA the KEP will not stop working while it waits for such a dialogue.  “So, whatever people are discussing doesn’t really concern us, because we are not part of those discussions. What is clear is that if there is some sort of political accord that would allow more people to participate in the election, it will be a pleasure for us to accommodate that,” she said. “If you’re asking us to just sit idle and wait for a political accord, we’ll just keep working. If there is a political accord, it will happen while we are moving forward.”  Before Moise’s death on July 7, the opposition was unsuccessful in its attempts to agree on a consensus government and a path forward.  Mesadieu admits the KEP faces multiple obstacles as it works to organize elections.  “Of course it’s tough, because we are living in the country, and we have to deal with reality. Politics, security, the environment — all those things have repercussions on our work,” Mesadieu told VOA.It is unclear how far the September 26 election date would be pushed back, but Mesadieu said the KEP is committed to seeing its mission completed. Jacquelin Belizaire, Jorge Agobian and Renan Toussaint in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.
 
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The United Nations accused the government of Iraq of the widespread torture of detainees held in the country’s detention centers. A U.N. report covers conditions in the centers from July 1, 2019 to April 30, 2021.Torture and ill treatment are prohibited under international law. Iraq ratified the international convention against Torture in 2011 and since has enacted national laws criminalizing torture.The problem is the government has not implemented the procedural safeguards to prevent torture, and so the practice continues throughout the country. That assessment in a report released Tuesday by the U.N. human rights office and the U.N. assistance mission for Iraq is based on interviews that the authors conducted with 235 people deprived of their liberty.FILE – In this July 18, 2017 file photo, suspected Islamic State members sit inside a small room in a prison south of Mosul, Iraq. In some cells in Iraq, Iran, Syria and other countries in the Middle…U.N. human rights spokeswoman Marta Hurtado says more than half of those interviewed provided accounts of having been tortured or ill-treated while in custody. She says some detainees described beatings by officers with metal pipes, or of being shocked with exposed electrical wires. One inmate, she says, spoke of having his handcuffs hooked on a chain and hung from the ceiling.“The report states that legal procedures designed to bring interrogations and detention under judicial control within 24 hours of the initial arrest are not respected; and access to a lawyer is systematically delayed until after suspects have been interrogated by the security forces,” Hurtado said.Hurtado said torture is used to extract confessions and access to a lawyer is systematically delayed until after suspects have been interrogated by security forces. She said the location of 17 official detention sites remains opaque.“The report also raises concerns that the authorities ignore complaints and signs of torture and says that the systems established to address official complaints appear to be neither fair nor effective,” Hurtado said. “The report also says that the limited accountability for such failures on the part of the authorities suggests acquiescence and tolerance of these practices.”The report calls on Iraqi authorities to put the nation’s anti-torture legal framework fully in line with international human rights law, particularly the United Nations Convention against Torture.Commenting on the report, U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet says the prevention of torture, and not just on paper, would contribute to peace and stability in the long term. Bachelet adds such an outcome is in the interest of the state as well as the victims. 
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Wildfires scorching some of Turkey’s most popular destinations have upended a nascent recovery in the country’s tourism sector hobbled for more than a year by the COVID-19 pandemic.Scenes of happy beachgoers flocking to coastal areas turned nightmarish as fires forced mass-evacuations of tourists and locals alike in cities such as Bodrum and Marmaris.Tuesday marked the seventh consecutive day Turkish firefighters battled the blazes, fueled by abnormally high summer temperatures and strong winds. The fires have been blamed for at least eight deaths and forced numerous residents, many of them farmers, to flee. 10,000 Flee Turkey Wildfires; Greece Power Grid Threatened At least 8 people have been killed in Turkey since Wednesday; EU sends firefighters Beyond physical destruction, the economic impact is already costly.“We are devastated,” said Huseyin Aydin of Bordum Tour, a travel agency that books boating excursions in the Mediterranean Sea. “All the routes for the boat tours have been canceled as of now, and they will also be canceled into next year because all the nature sightseeing parts of our tours are completely burned.”Aydin told VOA his business will have to shift to other tourist ventures or risk shutting completely.
 
Elsewhere in the country, things look less grim.Tourists visit the 150A.D Roman temple dedicated to Apollo the Greek and Roman god of music, harmony and light, in Antalya, southern Turkey, June 20, 2021In Istanbul, crowds of tourists can be seen strolling the streets after the Turkish government lifted almost all pandemic-related restrictions to boost economic activity and stimulate the country’s vital tourism sector.
 
“It’s been an overwhelmingly positive experience,” said Tania Nel, a resident of Qatar who has spent almost a month traveling Turkey.“It was a country that I could enter easily, with just a PCR [COVID test], and obtain a visa for online. I’ve always wanted to see Turkey and, with other countries being closed, it seemed like a very obvious choice,” she told VOA. “Things being comparatively cheap here also meant I could stay longer and see quite a lot of regions in the country.”Turkey sought to remain an international tourist destination throughout the pandemic, requiring only a negative COVID-19 test to enter the country and exempting foreigners from some restrictions, such as curfews and travel limitations within the country. Nel said ease of access drew her to Turkey.“I had originally planned to travel to South Africa in July to see my family, but they experienced a spike in cases and stricter restrictions, hence the decision to come to Turkey,” Nel said, who is originally from Cape Town, South Africa.Lagging recoveryTurkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism says incoming foreigners in June of this year barely topped 2 million, less than half the total recorded in June 2019 which saw over 5 million foreign visitors.That hits especially hard in Turkey, where tourism is a key contributor to the national economy. The Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation describes Turkey’s tourism economy as “one of Turkey’s most dynamic and fastest growing sectors,” accounting for more than two million jobs and more than 7% of total employment.Arriving tourists report receiving especially warm greetings by cash-strapped hospitality workers.“They welcomed all tourists like royalty,” Nel said.
 
Low tourism levels have capped the economic stimulation usually expected during the summer. Many businesses report continued and intense financial hardship.“We are in a really hard time economically at the moment,” said Turgay Karahan, who owns two gift shops in an area of Istanbul frequented by tourists.Foreign tourists visit Buyukada, the largest of the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara, off Istanbul, Turkey, July 14, 2021. 
A lack of customers forced Karahan to let employees go and work longer hours for a fraction of pre-pandemic earnings.
 
“We’re working more but we’re also earning less. Most of the money we make is spent on taxes and rent. Therefore, as an employer I am in a very hard spot,” Karahan told VOA.Numerous cafes, restaurants, and bars in Istanbul and elsewhere have permanently closed since the pandemic first struck.  
 
Karahan spoke wistfully of the throngs of tourists that used to pack into his gift shops.“In the past, Turks felt like foreigners on this street because so many international tourists were here. Before the pandemic, you’d see tourists from England, Germany, France, Italy all crowding the streets in the summer. Nowadays, it’s not like this at all,” he said.  
 Lost earningsThe financial pain is also felt by Kuzey Yucehan, who owns a restaurant around the corner from Galata Tower, a top Istanbul tourist attraction.Staff at Kuzey Yucehan’s restaurant Art Smyrna are seen setting up freshly repainted tables to attract customers during an otherwise sluggish summer tourism season in Istanbul (VOA/ Salim Fayeq) 
“For months we were only operating for takeaway [orders], but the business that brought was not sustainable. Because of that, we have many problems with making ends meet and being profitable,” Yucehan told VOA, adding that many businesses have had to fend for themselves.
 
“Although in the media the government presented themselves as helpful and generous toward businesses in Turkey, we did not receive any financial relief as an independent business,” Yucehan said. “We hope that COVID passes and the world will get back to normal soon.”This report includes some information from Reuters.
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A court in Belarus convicted a journalist of insulting the president in messages in a deleted chat group and sentenced him to 1 1/2 years in prison, the Belarusian Association of Journalists said Monday. The verdict in the case against Siarhei Hardziyevich, 50, comes as part of a massive crackdown that Belarusian authorities have unleashed on independent media and human rights activists. Hardziyevich on Monday was found guilty of insulting the president and slandering police officers, according to the association. The court sentenced him to a prison term and a $1,600 fine. The charges against the journalist from Drahichyn, a city 300 kilometers (185 miles) southwest of Belarus’ capital of Minsk, were brought over messages in a chat group on the messaging app Viber which was deleted last year. Hardziyevich, who worked for a popular regional news outlet, The First Region, has maintained his innocence. His defense team demanded the charges be dropped due to a lack of evidence and because the crime was impossible to establish. “I have nothing to do with these crimes, I don’t consider myself guilty,” Hardziyevich said in his address to the court before the verdict. The Viasna human rights center declared Hardziyevich a political prisoner. Belarusian authorities have ramped up the pressure against non-governmental organizations and independent media in recent weeks, conducting more than 200 raids of offices and apartments of activists and journalists in July alone, according to Viasna.Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to continue what he called a “mopping-up operation” against civil society activists whom he has denounced as “bandits and foreign agents.”Lukashenko faced months of protests triggered by his being awarded a sixth term in an August 2020 vote that the opposition and the West saw as rigged. He responded to demonstrations with a massive crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police.
A total of 29 Belarusian journalists remain in custody either awaiting trial or serving their sentences.
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France hopes to secure more than $350 million in humanitarian aid for Lebanon’s crisis-battered population at a donors’ conference it co-hosts with the United Nations Wednesday — marking the year anniversary of Beirut’s deadly port blast. International pressure is growing for Lebanon’s fractious parties to unify and push through reforms.  Roughly 40 representatives of international institutions and heads of state were expected at this video conference, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Jordan’s King Abdullah.    FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron attends a donor teleconference with other world leaders concerning the situation in Lebanon following the Beirut blast, in Fort de Bregancon in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France, Aug. 9, 2020.It marks the third international meeting Paris has hosted this past year to support ordinary Lebanese, struggling under deepening poverty and spiraling inflation and unemployment. The World Bank calls Lebanon’s political and financial crisis since 2019 the world’s worst since the mid-19th century.    Co-hosted by the U.N. Wednesday’s virtual talks come exactly a year after the massive explosion of fertilizer stocked at Beirut’s port, which killed more than 200 people, injured thousands and devastated big chunks of the capital.    International frustration is growing over Lebanon’s squabbling political parties. Lebanon’s new prime-minister-designate, billionaire businessman Najib Mikati, said he was unable to form a new government before the blast anniversary. His predecessor, Saad Hariri, gave up efforts to do so.    FILE – Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, speaks to journalists after his meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, July 26, 2021.Hasni Abidi, international relations professor at the University of Geneva, said France and other donor nations cannot invest in Lebanon in a sustainable way so long as there is no government willing to engage in real reforms demanded by the international community.   Apparently to ramp up pressure on Lebanon’s parties, the European Union announced it had adopted a legal framework for sanctioning individuals and entities seen as undermining the country’s rule of law and democracy.      Before the EU framework was announced, a European Union spokeswoman said it was too soon to talk about specifics in terms of sanctions.  Former colonial power France has played a leading role in mobilizing international backing for struggling Lebanese and in prodding the country’s politicians.FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron, center, visits the devastated site of the explosion at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, Aug.6, 2020.French President Emmanuel Macron was the first foreign leader to visit Beirut after the 2020 blast. Days later, he held a first international funding conference — and another, this past June, to support Lebanon’s financially strapped army.    Some critics suggest France has little to show for its efforts thus far and should have imposed tough sanctions against Lebanon’s political elite early on. Others say it is up to Lebanon’s politicians to act. Otherwise, they say, there is little the international community can do.      Sources: AFP, Reuters, Al Jazeera, The New York Times, AP, ESSEC-French business school webinar.   
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A Belarusian activist was found dead in a park near his home in Kyiv early on Tuesday, a day after he was reported missing, Ukrainian police said. Vitaly Shishov, who led a Kyiv-based organization that helps Belarusians fleeing persecution, had been reported missing by his partner on Monday after not returning home from a run. Police said they had launched a criminal case for suspected murder but would investigate all possibilities including murder disguised as suicide. “Belarusian citizen Vitaly Shishov, who disappeared yesterday in Kyiv, was found hanged today in one of Kyiv’s parks, not far from his place of residence,” the police statement said. Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania have become havens for Belarusians during a crackdown by President Alexander Lukashenko following a disputed election last year. Shishov led the Belarusian House in Ukraine (BDU) group, which helps Belarusians find accommodation, jobs and legal advice, according to its website. The organization said on Monday it was not able to contact Shishov. It said Shishov had left his residence at 9 a.m. and was supposed to have returned an hour later. The Belarusian authorities have characterized anti-government protesters as criminals or violent revolutionaries backed by the West and described the actions of law enforcement agencies as adequate and necessary. 
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The number of children traveling alone who were picked up at the Mexican border by U.S. immigration authorities likely hit an all-time high in July, and the number of people who came in families likely reached the second-highest total on record, a U.S. official said Monday, citing preliminary government figures. The sharp increases from June were striking because crossings usually slow during stifling — and sometimes fatal — summer heat. U.S. authorities likely picked up more than 19,000 unaccompanied children in July, exceeding the previous high of 18,877 in March, according to David Shahoulian, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security. The June total was 15,253. The number of people encountered in families during July is expected at about 80,000, Shahoulian said. That’s shy of the all-time high of 88,857 in May 2019 but up from 55,805 in June. Overall, U.S. authorities stopped migrants about 210,000 times at the border in July, up from 188,829 in June and the highest in more than 20 years. But the numbers aren’t directly comparable because many cross repeatedly under a pandemic-related ban that expels people from the country immediately without giving them a chance to seek asylum but carries no legal consequences. The activity was overwhelmingly concentrated in the Border Patrol’s Del Rio and Rio Grande Valley sectors in south Texas, accounting for more than 7 of 10 people who came in families.Lizeth Morales, of Honduras, hugs the daughter of a Honduran friend she met at a camp for migrant families as she waits to cross into the United States to begin the asylum process, July 5, 2021, in Tijuana, Mexico.In the Rio Grande Valley sector, the “epicenter of the current surge,” agents stopped migrants about 78,000 times in July, Shahoulian said, up from 59,380 in June and 51,149 in May. The government disclosures came in a court filing hours after immigrant advocacy groups resumed a legal battle to end the government’s authority to expel families at the border on grounds it prevents the spread of the coronavirus. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention renewed those emergency powers, known as Title 42 and named for a 1944 public health law. The Homeland Security Department said it would continue to enforce the ban on asylum for single adults and families despite growing pressure from pro-immigration groups that it isn’t justified on public health grounds. Unaccompanied children are exempt. “Title 42 is not an immigration authority, but a public health authority, and its continued use is dictated by CDC and governed by the CDC’s analysis of public health factors,” the department said in a statement. The final count for July border arrests isn’t expected for several days, but preliminary numbers are usually pretty close. Over the first 29 days of July, authorities encountered a daily average of 6,779 people, including 616 unaccompanied children and 2,583 who came in families, Shahoulian said. The number of people stopped in families is expected to hit an all-time high for the 2021 fiscal year that ends September 30, Shahoulian said, adding it will likely be higher if courts order that the pandemic-related powers be lifted. The rising numbers have strained holding facilities, Shahoulian said. The Border Patrol had 17,778 people in custody on Sunday, despite a “COVID-19 adjusted capacity” of 4,706. The Rio Grande Valley sector was holding 10,002 of them. The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups said Monday that they were ending settlement talks with the Biden administration over their demand to lift the pandemic-related ban on families seeking asylum. The impasse resumes a legal battle before U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington. “We are deeply disappointed that the Biden administration has abandoned its promise of fair and humane treatment for families seeking safety, leaving us no choice but to resume litigation,” said Neela Chakravartula, managing attorney for the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies. Since late March, the ACLU has been working with advocates to choose particularly vulnerable migrants stuck in Mexico for the U.S. government to allow in to seek asylum. ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said the exemptions will continue for another week. “Seven months of waiting for the Biden administration to end Title 42 is more than enough,” Gelernt said. The breakdown reflects growing tensions between advocates and the administration over use of expulsions and the government’s decision last week to resume fast-track deportation flights for families to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.  Last week, the International Rescue Committee and HIAS also said they were ending efforts to help the administration choose asylum-seekers to exempt from the pandemic-related ban. The asylum advocacy groups had been working on a parallel track with the ACLU to identify particularly vulnerable migrants stuck in Mexico. The CDC said Monday that the ban would remain until its director “determines that the danger of further introduction of COVID-19 into the United States from covered noncitizens has ceased to be a serious danger to the public health.” 
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Huan Huan, a giant panda on loan to France, gave birth to twin cubs very early Monday, according to the Beauval zoo.  The twins, born around 1 a.m., are Huan Huan and her partner Yuan Zi’s second and third cubs, after the first panda ever born in France, Yuan Meng, in 2017. “The two babies are pink. They are perfectly healthy. They look big enough. They are magnificent,” said Rodolphe Delord, president of ZooParc de Beauval in Saint-Aignan, central France. WATCH: Using Pandas for DiplomacySorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 16 MB480p | 23 MB540p | 33 MB720p | 74 MB1080p | 134 MBOriginal | 725 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioPanda reproduction, in captivity or in the wild, is notoriously difficult. Experts say few pandas get in the mood or even know what to do when they do.  Further complicating matters, the window for conception is small since female pandas are in heat only once a year for about 24-48 hours. Huan Huan and her partner Yuan Zi — the star attractions at Beauval — thrilled zoo officials in March when they managed to make “contact,” as they put it, eight times in a weekend. Veterinarians also carried out an artificial insemination, just to be sure. Huan Huan’s first cub, Yuan Meng, now weighs more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and is to be sent this year to China, where there are an estimated 1,800 giant pandas living in the wild and another 500 in captivity. Huan Huan’s newborns will not be named for 100 days, with Peng Liyuan — the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping — set to choose what they will be called, the zoo said.  
 
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