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Erdogan Reiterates Interest in Securing Kabul Airport, Faces Criticism

Despite earlier reports that Turkey had dropped plans to secure Kabul’s international airport, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey is ready to talk with the Taliban about what role, if any, Turkey would play in Afghanistan.“If there is a knock on our door, we will open it for dialogue,” Erdogan said Friday.Turkey has been involved in infrastructure efforts in Afghanistan, Erdogan added, and is still interested in providing such work.Turkey is also still interested in providing security at Kabul’s airport, Erdogan said Wednesday in a television interview, despite reports by Reuters Monday that plans to secure the airport had been dropped after the Taliban takeover.“Turkey’s military presence in Afghanistan will strengthen the new administration’s hand in the international arena,” Erdogan said in the interview, adding that Turkey is in contact with all sides in Afghanistan.As a NATO member, Turkey has about 600 troops in Afghanistan, and Turkish authorities do not view their presence as a combat force.In June, Turkey proposed to guard the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul after the withdrawal of NATO forces. The United States and Turkey had negotiated the details to keep the airport open as a safe passage for diplomatic missions in Afghanistan.In July, the Taliban warned Turkey against a military presence at the airport, calling the proposal “a violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity and against our national interests.”Taliban Threaten Turkish Troops with ‘Jihad’ if They Stay in Afghanistan Warning comes amid fresh battlefield moves that critics say show Taliban are planning military takeover of Afghanistan in defiance of their peace pledges’New picture’Erdogan said Wednesday that a new picture to maintain security at the airport emerged after the Taliban fighters took control of the country.“Now we are making our plans according to these new realities that were formed on the field, and we are continuing our talks accordingly,” Erdogan said.Some experts argue that Turkey would guard the airport if the Taliban requested it; however, NATO and the U.S. would not subsidize such a military presence in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.“What people overlooked is that in the initial agreement, Ankara wasn’t going to fight the Taliban,” Aaron Stein, the director of research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told VOA. “Ankara was having indirect or perhaps even direct discussions with the Taliban via Doha, via Pakistan, to basically get the Taliban’s approval to stick around. They had to balance this with the official Afghan government.” EvacuationsTurkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the daily Hurriyet that it is too early to say whether Turkey has canceled its plans to secure the airport.“We work together with the United States and other countries on evacuations and other issues. Our priority is to evacuate our citizens who want to return,” Cavusoglu said.As of August 18, Turkey has evacuated 552 citizens from Afghanistan. OppositionOn the other hand, the Turkish opposition, including the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Iyi Party, is urging the government to evacuate the Turkish soldiers from Afghanistan.“What is left from Afghanistan? Why should our troops stay there? Stop talking nonsense to please the United States and withdraw our soldiers from this swamp,” Meral Aksener, the leader of the Iyi Party, tweeted on August 16.Çıkmış hâlâ, “Türk askeri Afganistan’da kalmalı.” diyorlar.Kardeşim; Afganistan kaldı mı da askerimiz kalsın?ABD’ye şirinlik peşinde abuk sabuk konuşmayı bırakın, askerimizi derhal o bataklıktan çekin! pic.twitter.com/jHqdwP39bN— Meral Akşener (@meral_aksener) August 16, 2021The CHP and Iyi parties also voiced concerns over the government’s Afghan policy, warning that it would cause large numbers of Afghan refugees to enter Turkey.“I am saying this once again: Erdogan, you are not going to sign an agreement that would bring more refugees (to Turkey),” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of main opposition CHP, tweeted on Tuesday. The tweet came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany should work closely with Turkey on a potential Afghan refugee influx.Earlier this month, in a Twitter thread, Kilicdaroglu claimed that Erdogan had an agreement with the U.S. to accept Afghan refugees into Turkey.It is also evident why a young interpreter from the Kavakci family is allowed to take part in the meeting instead of an official interpreter. Erdogan behaved so in order to conceal his decision.— Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (@kilicdarogluk) August 3, 2021The U.S. Embassy in Turkey denied this claim on Wednesday.The U.S. Embassy wishes to state that allegations regarding an “agreement” or “deal” between President Biden and President Erdoğan regarding Afghan refugees or migrants are completely without foundation.— U.S. Embassy Turkey (@USEmbassyTurkey) August 18, 2021Erdogan described the opposition’s stance on Afghan refugees as hate speech in a televised address following a Cabinet meeting late Thursday. He said that Turkey is home to 300,000 Afghan refugees, including unregistered ones.He also criticized the European countries for staying out of the refugee problem “by harshly sealing its borders to protect the safety and well-being of its citizens.”“Turkey has no duty, responsibility, or obligation to be Europe’s refugee warehouse,” Erdogan said.Erdogan announced that Turkey had reinforced its border with Iran with law enforcement units and that a wall along the Turkey-Iran border was almost completed.An increasing number of Afghan refugees have been crossing into Turkey from Iran, prompting the rise in anti-refugee rhetoric in the country.However, Aykan Erdemir, senior director of the Turkey program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former member of the Turkish parliament, said the Erdogan government views the Afghan refugee flow as a unique opportunity “to cut various deals to extract concessions from Brussels and Washington.”“This time around, however, the domestic political costs of instrumentalizing refugees in relations with the West appear to be much higher. Amid Turkey’s economic crisis, there has been a dramatic spike in nativist and anti-refugee sentiment, including violent attacks, undermining the popularity of Turkey’s ruling coalition,” Erdemir said.This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.

US Extends Restrictions on Travel from Canada and Mexico

The U.S. government on Friday once again extended a ban on nonessential travel across its land borders from Canada and Mexico, citing efforts to minimize the spread of the delta variant. The ban limits border crossings by land or ferry, though flights between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico remain unrestricted.The Department of Homeland Security has extended the travel restrictions on a monthly basis since the coronavirus pandemic began last year. The restrictions, set to end on August 21, have been extended through at least September 21.”In coordination with public health and medical experts, DHS continues working closely with its partners across the United States and internationally to determine how to safely and sustainably resume normal travel,” the department said on Twitter.Nonessential travel restrictions do not apply to U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, who have been permitted to enter Canada since August 9 upon presentation of proof of an approved vaccination. But the United States has not reciprocated for visitors from other countries. Members of Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, have criticized the ongoing restrictions for separating binational families and hurting businesses reliant on cross-border tourism. Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican, recently introduced legislation to loosen nonessential travel restrictions for families and businesses.”The cost of President Biden’s inaction is devastating to North Country families, businesses, and communities hopeful that the United States would restore travel across the border,” Stefanik said in a Friday statement. “It is shameful that while the Canadian government has opened travel for fully vaccinated American travelers, President Biden would still deny northern border communities access to family, travel, and commerce.”Organizations such as Let Us Reunite have also been lobbying the federal government to loosen land border restrictions, pointing out discrepancies in the application of travel policies and citing a need to reconnect with family members across the border.Founder Devon Weber said that the group has attracted over 3,000 members and has held meetings with dozens of congressional offices about loosening travel restrictions since its inception last year.Weber, who has dual citizenship, moved from New York to Canada in February 2020. Because her French-Canadian husband doesn’t have a U.S. passport and they can’t afford multiple plane tickets, Weber has visited her family in New York only once during the pandemic.She described the lack of air travel restrictions as “classist” and said Let Us Reunite hopes to make it easier for binational families to visit each other by car and boat.”There’s just sort of this hodgepodge of closures with no rhyme or reason to them and that is very frustrating to folks,” Weber said. “It’s bureaucratic paralysis. The border closure is rolling over every 30 days, and there is no comment from the White House and nothing more than a tweet from DHS the day of the closure.”The Biden administration has provided few details on when or how the restrictions will end. It may require all foreign nationals entering the U.S. to be fully vaccinated, according to Reuters, but no official plans have been announced.Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have been on the rise domestically since the more transmissible delta variant took hold in July. Over 70% of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and infections are occurring primarily among the unvaccinated. Some information for this report came from Reuters.

Arson Attack Hits Home of Journalist in Netherlands

Unidentified attackers on Thursday threw Molotov cocktails into the Netherlands home of journalist Willem Groeneveld.The motive for the attack, which took place in the city of Groningen around 2:45 a.m. local time, was not clear, but Groeneveld had previously been harassed over reporting on issues involving real estate and landlords.No one was injured in the assault, and the journalist was cited in reports as saying he woke to the sound of breaking glass and was able to put out the fire.Media organizations said they were troubled by the attack, which came just a month after veteran crime journalist Peter R. de Vries died after being shot in Amsterdam.“This is a very sad year for journalism. This attack on Willem with a firebomb could have ended very differently,” Thomas Bruning, head of the Dutch Association of Journalists, told local media.Thursday’s attack was not a first for Groeneveld, who founded the investigative website Sikkom and is a contributor to the daily regional newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden.In 2019, attackers threw stones through the windows of the journalist’s home, and on another occasion someone posted Groeneveld’s address and phone number on Facebook. In June, about 30 bicycles were left outside the journalist’s apartment after he reported that a businessman had been removing bikes from around the city, according to local reports.Police on Friday announced they had arrested two suspects on accusations of arson and attempted murder.  The Netherlands has one of the best records for press freedom, ranking 6th out of 180 countries, where 1 is freest, on the annual index by watchdog Reporters Without Borders.But recent attacks and July’s fatal shooting are concerning rights groups, including the International Press Institute and European Centre for Press and Media Freedom.The arson “represents another serious attack on media freedom in the Netherlands,” several press freedom groups said in a joint statement. “It is an attack on Willem Groeneveld, but also on the entire Dutch journalistic community.”The media groups called for a “rigorous investigation” into what is behind the increase in attacks on journalists.The Netherlands is not the only European Union member state to experience violence and fatal attacks on media this year.In April, Greek police reporter Giorgos Karaivaz was killed outside Athens, in what authorities have said they believe was a contract killing.The same month, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that police in Greece had arrested three people suspected of involvement in an alleged plot to kill investigative journalist Kostas Vaxevanis. 

More Than 1 Million Haitians Affected by Quake, UN Estimates

The United Nations warned Friday that desperation was growing among hundreds of thousands of Haitian earthquake survivors who have little or no access to the shelter, food, medical care and other essential relief they need.More than 2,000 people have died as a result of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit southwestern Haiti a week ago. The United Nations estimated that more than 1 million people were affected by the latest crisis to hit the Caribbean island state. Tens of thousands of houses have been reduced to rubble, rendering their inhabitants homeless.Aid is slow to reach survivors of the disaster because roads are blocked by debris from the earthquake. Heavy rains and flooding from Tropical Storm Grace also have made it difficult for aid workers to reach people in need.A resident crawls away with a donated bag of rice after residents overtook a truck loaded with earthquake relief supplies, in Vye Terre, Haiti, Aug. 20, 2021.World Food Program official Marianela Gonzales said she was awakened by the earthquake Saturday inside her home in the capital, Port-au-Prince. In the few seconds it took her to realize what was happening, she said, hundreds of people died. Two days later, she headed for Les Cayes, one of the hardest-hit areas.”WFP was here, even before the earthquake, supporting over 200,000 people who cannot even afford any meal per day,” Gonzales said. “So the earthquake happened on the same people. The roof fell on the same people and Tropical Storm Grace rained on the same people for the next few days. … Definitely hard to be here today to enter these hospitals, to see people in the streets without a roof to sleep under, especially children.”Police stand guard near the entrance of a Red Cross center after people entered and took off with several foam mattresses, in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 20, 2021, six days after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the area.The WFP estimated 215,000 people in earthquake-hit areas urgently need food assistance. The agency is using air, sea and road routes to transport essential supplies to the affected areas. And a U.N. Humanitarian Air Service helicopter managed by WFP is transporting staff, medical supplies and other essential needs. The agency said it needed $2.5 million for that operation.Other U.N. and private agencies are ramping up their relief efforts. The U.N. children’s fund estimated that children accounted for nearly half of the 1.2 million people affected by the earthquake. The director of the U.N. information service in Geneva, Alessandra Vellucci, said a UNICEF assessment found that 95 of 255 schools were either damaged or destroyed just weeks before classes were to start. “UNICEF is rushing lifesaving supplies including medicine, safe water, hygiene and sanitation material to points in the affected areas even as flooding and mudslides hamper relief efforts,” Vellucci said.UNICEF appealed for $15 million to assist 385,000 people over the next eight weeks.The World Health Organization warned of possible outbreaks of cholera, dengue, meningitis and other infectious diseases and the continued spread of COVID-19. This comes at a time when most hospitals, it said, are overwhelmed with patients and require emergency support and medical supplies and equipment.

Britain, US Sanction Russian Intelligence Agents Over Navalny Poisoning

Britain and the United States imposed sanctions Friday on men they said were Russian intelligence operatives responsible for the poisoning one year ago of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny.The two countries targeted seven Russians with sanctions and issued a joint statement warning Russia about chemical weapons.Washington separately imposed sanctions on another two men and four Russian institutes it said were involved in chemical weapons research or what it described as an assassination attempt against Navalny.Navalny was flown to Germany for medical treatment after being poisoned in Siberia on August 20, 2020, with what Western experts concluded was the military nerve agent Novichok.Moscow has rejected their findings and accused the West of conducting a smear campaign against it.”The sanctioned individuals are directly responsible for planning or carrying out the attack on Mr. Navalny,” a Foreign Office statement said.British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said the move was a warning to Russia.Call for investigation”We are sending a clear message that any use of chemical weapons by the Russian state violates international law, and a transparent criminal investigation must be held,” he said.The sanctions will affect those people named who have overseas assets.The British document listed Alexey Alexandrov, Vladimir Panyaev, Ivan Osipov, Vladimir Bogdanov, Kirill Vasilyev, Stanislav Makshakov and Alexei Sedov. It said they were all members of Russia’s FSB security service and were either directly or indirectly involved in the poisoning.The U.S. Treasury later said it was imposing sanctions on the same seven men and two additional Russian officials it said were involved in the poisoning: Konstantin Kudryavtsev and Artur Zhirov.It also targeted the FSB Criminalistics Institute, a lab where most of those implicated in the attack worked, and the Russian defense ministry’s State Institute for Experimental Military Medicine.The State Department also imposed sanctions on two other Russian military scientific institutes involved in chemical weapons, it said.Neither the Kremlin nor any of those named offered any immediate comment.Phone, travel records citedThe British government cited evidence including phone and travel records showing some of the operatives were present in the Siberian city of Tomsk at the time of the poisoning.For others it said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that, because of their positions in the intelligence service, they had “responsibility for, provided support for or promoted the actions of the operatives who carried out the operation.”Navalny was jailed for parole violations on what he said were politically motivated charges when he flew back to Russia earlier this year from Germany.”We call on Russia to comply fully with the Chemical Weapons Convention, including its obligations to declare and dismantle its chemical weapons program,” the joint U.S.-British statement said.”We remain determined to uphold the global norm against the use of chemical weapons.”

Merkel Makes Final Visit to Russia as German Chancellor

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, scheduled to leave office later this year after nearly 16 years, is in Moscow for one final meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.Before the two leaders met for talks in the Kremlin Friday, Merkel took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at Russia’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow and viewed a military procession immediately after.German Chancellor Angela Merkel takes part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin Wall in central Moscow, Russia, Aug. 20, 2021.Later, at the Kremlin, Putin presented the German chancellor with a bouquet of flowers as they met for a photo opportunity before their talks.  In front of reporters, Merkel told Putin though they have deep differences, she feels it is important they meet for talks.  Merkel said the two leaders had much to discuss, including, among other issues, the situation in Afghanistan and Libya as well as bilateral relations.Putin and Merkel are likely to broach Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany, which is nearly complete. The U.S. has raised questions about the deal, as it represents a huge blow to ally Ukraine by bypassing the historic gas transit country.The two were scheduled to hold a joint news conference soon after their talks.Merkel is scheduled to visit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday.Some Information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and the French news agency, AFP.

Tropical Storm Grace Crosses Yucatan Peninsula; Henri Poised to Become Hurricane

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Grace is back over open water after crossing Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and is likely to become a hurricane once again by late Friday, while in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Henri is likely to reach hurricane status Saturday.In its latest advisory, the hurricane center says Grace is in the Gulf of Mexico about 425 kilometers east of Tuxpan, Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 110 km/h.Forecasters expect the storm to continue strengthening in the warm waters and regain hurricane strength by the time it makes landfall later Friday.  Hurricane Grace Makes Landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan PeninsulaHeavy rainfall associated with Grace could trigger flash and urban flooding as well as mudslides throughout regionThe governor of the Yucatan state of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín, told reporters that over 300 people were evacuated in the path of the storm, mainly from Carrillo Puerto and Tulum. He said the storm knocked out power in some areas of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Puerto Aventura, and Tulum.  Emergency crews worked early Friday to clear downed trees from roadways and video from the area shows buildings damaged and boats driven onto land by the storm.Forecasters expect Grace to bring heavy rain to areas of Mexico Friday, with as much as 45 centimeters in isolated areas.Meanwhile, in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Henri, at last report, was about 600 km off the coast of the southeastern U.S. state of North Carolina with maximum sustained winds of about 100 km/h.  While it is moving to the west-northwest, forecasters expect it will turn to the north Friday and move up the U.S. east coast.  The hurricane center expects Henri to gain strength as it accelerates north over the next 24 hours and reach hurricane strength by Saturday.  The forecasters say Henri is expected to approach the coast of southern New England on Sunday. It is likely to create swells along much of the east coast of the U.S. and Canada through the next two to three days.Some information in this report was provided by the Associated Press news service.

Mexican Journalist Shot to Death in Gulf Coast State

A radio journalist was shot and killed in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz Thursday, according to his station and state authorities.Jacinto Romero Flores was gunned down in the community of Potrerillo, in the township of Ixtaczoquitlan, according to Hugo Gutierrez Maldonado, the head of Veracruz state security agency, via Twitter. Gutierrez said state police were carrying out an operation in the area following the killing.Romero worked for Ori Stereo 99.3 FM. The station expressed its sadness for his death. “The media are not the cause nor the effect of violence in the country, but we do suffer the consequences for carrying out journalism and communication,” it said in a statement.The State Commission for Attention to and Protection of Journalists condemned the killing and called on the state prosecutor’s office to open a full investigation, including into what role if any Romero’s journalism played in his murder.Press freedom organization Article 19 said Romero had received threats. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists said via Twitter that it had “learned of and strongly condemns the murder of reporter Jacinto Romero in the state of Veracruz and urges authorities to undertake a swift, transparent and exhaustive investigation into the killing.”Veracruz has for years been one of Mexico’s most deadly states for reporters. Multiple organized crime groups operate within the state and have infiltrated local and state government. Journalists marched late Thursday in the port city of Veracruz to protest Romero’s killing.Press groups say nine journalists were killed in Mexico in 2020, making it the most dangerous country for reporters outside of war zones. Romero is at least the fifth journalist killed in Mexico this year.Earlier this month, the Jalisco New Generation cartel publicly threatened to kill a prominent television news anchor.

US Sanctions More Cuban Officials Over Protest Crackdown

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on three senior Cuban officials, the latest in a series of actions in response to the crackdown on recent anti-government protesters on the island.The penalties targeted two top defense ministry officials for their role in suppressing the rare demonstrations in the communist-ruled nation, where hundreds were jailed, the Treasury Department said in a statement.Washington “will continue to hold accountable those who enable the Cuban government to perpetuate human rights abuse,” said Andrea M. Gacki, head of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.”Today’s action exposes additional perpetrators responsible for suppressing the Cuban people’s calls for freedom and respect for human rights.”After previously slapping sanctions on defense minister Alvaro Lopez Miera and the Cuban police, the latest move hits Roberto Legra Sotolongo and Andres Laureano Gonzalez Brito of the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces.They also cover Abelardo Jimenez Gonzalez, who is in charge of prisons at the Interior Ministry.”Cuban security forces have detained more than 800 people in response to the protests, with many being held in ‘preventative jail,’ and the whereabouts of multiple people still unknown,” the statement said.Adding them to Treasury’s sanctions blacklist freezes any property they have in the United States and bars any transactions using the US financial system.President Joe Biden has warned Havana that more actions are possible, and Washington has called for the release of detained protesters, while trying to find ways to ensure internet access for the Cuban people.

Afghan Refugees in Turkey Terrified at Taliban Takeover

Afghan refugees in Turkey say they made the dangerous journey to escape living again under Taliban rule. VOA’s Arif Aslan reports from eastern Turkey, where some of the Afghans he spoke with arrived over the past few days as the Taliban were taking over the Afghan capital. Sirwan Kajjo narrates his report.Camera: Arif Aslan.

Why Russia Backs China in Disputes with Third Countries

Russia, once a thorn in China’s side, is backing Beijing in its disputes with third countries, including a maritime sovereignty flap in Southeast Asia, to counter Washington’s influence in Asia, scholars believe.With the world’s second strongest military, after the United States, Russia holds occasional military exercises with China – with at least four events publicized to date — sells arms to its giant neighbor to the south and joins it in criticizing the West.Officials in Moscow are trying now to boost Beijing’s claim to the contested South China Sea without overtly taking its side over five other Asian governments that vie with Chinese sovereignty in the same waterway, said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.China and Russia need each other to show the United States – former Cold War foe of both – along with its allies that neither is “alone,” he said.U.S. Navy ships regularly sail the South China Sea to keep Beijing in check. At least eight other Western-allied countries have indicated since late July plans to send navy vessels into the resource-rich South China Sea, which stretches from Hong Kong to Borneo Island, in support of keeping it open internationally rather than ceding it to Chinese control.“Basically, it’s more about a challenge to global U.S. power rather than Russia siding with China in the territorial disputes in the South China Sea,” Vuving said.FILE – A view shows a new S-400 “Triumph” surface-to-air missile system after its deployment at a military base outside the town of Gvardeysk near Kaliningrad, Russia, March 11, 2019.“The fact that they would actually share a joint portal for command and control actually means something,” Koh said. “They actually wanted to promote further interoperability.”In March, as both powers faced pressure from the West, they panned the United States in a joint statement after talks between their foreign ministers. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a March news conference that U.S. intentions had a “destructive nature” that were “relying on the military-political alliances of the Cold War era.”Scholars say Sino-Russian cooperation has its limits, however. As major powers, neither side wants the other to grow too powerful, said Wang Wei-chieh, South Korea-based politics analyst and co-founder of the FBC2E International Affairs Facebook page.“Russia and China, they are also worried about each other,” Wang said. “They don’t want any side to be the superior country.”Previously strong Sino-Russian relations faded in the 1960s when the two Communist parties split over ideology and border conflicts ensued. They call their military events today “interaction” rather than any kind of alliance, Koh noted.Russia maintains crucial political and economic ties with Vietnam, a rival to Beijing in the South China Sea dispute, and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute called Russia the top arms supplier to Southeast Asia between 2010 and 2017 with combined sales of $6.6 billion. China fumed in 2013 when Russian oil company Rosneft was drilling, on behalf of Vietnam, in waters claimed by Beijing. Russia officially advocates neutrality in Southeast Asia, Vuving said.Russia could tell Vietnam today, if pressed, that its ties with China are just “symbolic,” Koh said.Russia does not claim any part of the sea, which is prized for fisheries and undersea fossil fuel reserves. China disputes maritime sovereignty instead with Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines. China has irked the other claimants by landfilling islets for military installations and sending vessels into the exclusive economic zones of its rivals.China hopes Russia avoids sailing through the sea, where it Russia held a stronghold on the coast of Vietnam during the Cold War, at the risk of violating China’s claim to 90% of the waterway, Koh said.The latest joint military exercises may be aimed at deterring any threat from nearby Central Asia, Wang said. China has sought to clarify borders with Central Asian nations since the fall of the Soviet Union to promote peace in its own restive Xinjiang region, the Indian policy formulation group Observer Research Foundation said.Troops disembark from a Chinese military helicopter during joint war games held by Russia and China held in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwestern China, Aug. 13, 2021. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/Handout)Exercises last week, called Zapad/Interaction 2021, targeted terrorists by “seizing the high ground and trench[es] followed by “penetrating the enemy in depth,” the official Chinese Military Online website said August 5.The 2018 exercises sent “a message to the rest of the world and, in particular the United States” that the two countries were growing closer, the Swedish research and policy organization Institute for Security and Development wrote at the time.Future Sino-Russian military exercises will occur in places aimed at warning specific third countries with which China has disputes, Wang forecast. 

Hurricane Grace Makes Landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Grace made landfall in the predawn hours Thursday near the city of Tulum on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The Florida-based center said the storm came ashore about 15 kilometers south of Tulum with 130-kilometer-per hour winds and a dangerous storm surge of about one to two meters above normal tide levels. The heavy rainfall associated with Grace could trigger flash and urban flooding as well as mudslides throughout the region.Ahead of the storm, Quintana Roo State Governor Carlos Joaquín told reporters state and municipal civil protection officials will tour hotels in Tulum to evacuate those facilities unequipped to handle a Category One hurricane. A storm in that category has winds ranging from 119 kilometers to 153 kilometers per hour on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.Forecasters expect Grace to move across the Yucatan Peninsula Thursday, and over the southwest Gulf of Mexico late in the day or early Friday. It is expected to continue to weaken as it crosses the peninsula but regain some strength once it moves back over water. The forecasters also say they expect Grace to be a hurricane once it makes landfall over Mexico’s mainland coast. At last report, the hurricane center said Grace’s winds had dropped to 75 kilometers per hour.Meanwhile, forecasters continue to watch Henri, which, at last report, was about 845 kilometers off the coast of North Carolina and a very strong tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 110 kilometers per hour, approaching hurricane strength.Weather forecasters expect Henri to become a hurricane within the next 24 hours and take a turn to the north. Forecasters are advising people in the coastal northeastern United States and Canada to continue monitoring the progress of the storm as it is likely to affect those areas early next week. (Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press news agency.) 

US Ships Pfizer Vaccine to Kosovo Amid Delta Variant Surge

Thursday, the United States plans to ship 35,100 doses of Pfizer vaccine to Kosovo through COVAX, the United Nations vaccine-sharing mechanism, a White House official told VOA.The doses are part of the purchase of half a billion Pfizer doses secured by the Biden administration earlier this year.Kosovo is experiencing another spike in infection, largely due to the delta variant. There have been 120,862 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 2,295 deaths according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Fewer than 550,000 vaccine doses have been administered in the country.In addition to the $2 billion donated to COVAX, the Biden administration has pledged to purchase 500 million Pfizer vaccines and distribute them through the year to 92 low-income and lower middle-income countries that are members of COVAX and the African Union. It represents the largest purchase and donation of vaccines by a single country.Even with its large vaccine donation program, the U.S. is being criticized for announcing its plan to provide booster shots to all Americans beginning September 20 and starting eight months after an individual’s second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines.“The inequitable rollout of vaccines globally is not just a moral stain on wealthy nations, it’s prolonging the pandemic for the entire world. The longer it takes to share vaccines globally, the more variants we’ll see and the more booster shots we’ll need,” the ONE Campaign, which works against poverty and preventable disease, said in a statement to VOA.So far, only 1.3% of people in poorer countries have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.President Joe Biden dismissed criticism that U.S. is turning a blind eye to the fact that many around the world still have not received even a single dose.“I know there’s some world leaders who say America shouldn’t get a third shot until other countries get their first shot. I disagree,” Biden said during remarks at the White House Wednesday.“We can take care of America and help the world at the same time. In June and July America administered 50 million shots here in the United States. And we donated 100 million shots to other countries. That means that America has donated more vaccines to other countries than every other country in the world combined,” he said. 

Haiti Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 2,189: Official

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.  

Desperation, Pressure for Aid Increase in Haiti After Quake

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. 
 

As Taliban Take Over, US Governors Offer Afghans Refuge

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

Tropical Storms Grace, Henri Could Become Hurricanes

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.
 

Top Businessman to Face Trial for Malta Journalist’s Murder 

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.” 

Europe Braces for Fleeing Afghans, But Fearful, Reluctant to Accept Many

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.
 

Leading Cuban Dissident Ordered to Serve 4 Year Prison Sentence

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. 

Pope Francis Makes Urgent Appeal on Behalf of COVID-19 Vaccination

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.  

Injured in Haiti’s Quake Continue to Show up at Hospitals

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. 

Frustration, Fear Among US Allies Scrambling to Leave Afghanistan

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.