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Western powers are promising recent successes by the Islamic State across Africa will not go unanswered, backing plans for a task force to focus on the terror group’s spread from Iraq and Syria to the African continent.The announcement Monday following a meeting in Rome by the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS comes a day before the seventh anniversary of the terror group’s proclamation of its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, and two years since the caliphate’s territorial defeat in Syria.But despite constant pressure from the U.S. military and other coalition members, Western counterterrorism officials warn that IS, or Daesh as the group is also known, has found ways not just to survive but to spread, increasingly focusing the group’s propaganda on the exploits of its African affiliates.“We are fearing the expansion and spread of Daesh in Africa,” Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told reporters Monday, citing what he described as a “cry for help” from communities in countries such as Niger and Mali.”We know that many villages have fallen in the hands of terrorists,” Di Maio said through an interpreter, adding the threat is pressing ever closer.“We’re now seeing that a number of terrorist cells are proliferating in regions such as the Sahel, where obviously the main migration routes are present, the routes of those who come to Europe,” he said.#ISIS-#Africa: “In my recent missions to #Niger & #Mali, I witnessed the cry for help from those communities” per #Italy FM Di Maio (via translator)”We know that many villages have fallen in the hands of terrorists…” Di Maio says, noting need for “holistic approach”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 28, 2021Di Maio did not share details about how the new African task force will work to combat IS, though he noted the need for a “holistic approach,” which considered factors such as climate change and poverty that might drive some people toward extremism.“We must step up the action undertaken by the coalition, not by shifting our focus but by increasing the areas in which we can operate … [in] the Sahel, Mozambique and the Horn of Africa,” he said.Speaking alongside Di Maio Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken backed the call for the task force to push back against IS gains in Africa.”We strongly support Italy’s initiative to make sure that the coalition against Daesh focuses its expertise on Africa while keeping our eyes closely on Syria and Iraq,” Blinken said. “We heard a strong consensus.”In a communique issued after the meeting, ministers from the 83-coalition countries noted three of the coalition’s newest members — the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mauritania — are from Africa.Three other African nations — Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Ghana — attended as observers, officials said.As if to underscore the growing threat from IS affiliates in Africa, IS’s West Africa Province circulated a video last Friday allegedly showing fighters from the Boko Haram terror group switching sides to join with their former rivals.”We have now joined with our Ikhwan (brothers),” a former Boko Haram fighter said in the video obtained by SITE Intelligence Group.“We should not relent in our effort to fight the kuffar (infidels),” the speaker added, according to a copy obtained by Reuters.The video comes less than a month after IS-West Africa first issued claims that longtime Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau died after being captured by its fighters..@HumAngle_@Reuters have reported #ISIS-West #Africa leader Abu Musab al-Barnawi confirmed #BokoHaram’s Shekau death last month in a recent audio recordinghttps://t.co/o69685Q6TL— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 7, 2021U.S. officials have yet to confirm Shekau’s death, though they tell VOA the sourcing for such reports appear to be more credible than previous claims of his demise.Yet while U.S. officials and experts say Shekau’s death would be a positive development, they caution that the danger from terror groups like IS-West Africa are far from gone.“The Islamic State’s presence in Africa has been clear and steadily growing, even as IS Central’s power has waned,” said Jason Warner, lead Africa researcher at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center.“The sheer number of IS African provinces and wings with clear staying power has arguably created an even more intractable threat from IS than we’ve seen in the past,” he added, noting the threat in Africa “is arguably at its pinnacle right now.”Yet, other experts worry that the Defeat ISIS coalition’s focus on Africa, first suggested by U.S. officials in late 2019, may be a case of too little, too late.“We agreed at the working level that West #Africa & the #Sahel would be a preferred, initial area of focus for the Coalition outside of the #ISIS core space –& w/good reason” per @SecPompeo “ISIS is outpacing the ability of regional gvts and int’l partners to address the threat”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) November 14, 2019 “While it is good that the coalition is talking about Africa and bringing relevant countries into the discussion, any coordination seems to be still in the early stages, while the conditions on the ground are deteriorating very fast,” Emily Estelle, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA.“The proposed task force should focus its energy on backing up military success with governance success,” she added. “This is the gap that lets IS and other groups keep coming back after military losses.”But there are questions about how much military might the coalition will be able to muster across Africa.France this month announced it would end its counterterrorism operation in the Sahel, and the U.S. military is still in the process of a posture review that could see more of its troops leave Africa.U.S. military officials have previously noted that the removal of U.S. forces from Somalia, ordered by former U.S. President Donald Trump, “has introduced new layers of complexity and risk.”And a report from the Pentagon’s inspector general late last year warned the terrorist threat across Africa was expanding, despite U.S. efforts to contain it.In a separate but related move Monday, the U.S. designated Ousmane Illiassou Djibo, a top official with IS in the Greater Sahara, as a specially designated global terrorist, describing him as the architect of a network to kidnap or kill westerners in Niger and surrounding areas.US designates a top #ISIS in the Greater Sahara (ISIS-GS) official as a Specially Designated Global TerroristPer @StateDept, Ousmane Illiassou Djibo –aka Petit Chapori – is a close collaborator/key lieutenant of ISIS-GS leader, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi pic.twitter.com/ii9XEWXNB2— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 28, 2021IS in SyriaDespite the focus on IS in Africa, U.S. officials have been warning of the ongoing threat from the terror group’s core leadership in Iraq and especially in Syria, where IS has been able to revive its fortunes in areas nominally controlled by the Syrian government and its Russian allies.There have also been persistent concerns about the 10,000 IS fighters, including 2,000 foreign fighters, being held by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a situation Blinken described as untenable.“There is some urgency,” he told reporters. “There is a need for countries to take action to repatriate foreign fighters that come from those countries, to prosecute them where appropriate, to rehabilitate and reintegrate where appropriate.”AfghanistanThe Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS also expressed concerns about the terror group’s fortunes in Afghanistan, praising efforts by Kabul to counter the so-called Khorasan province.Earlier this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers there was a “medium” risk of groups like IS-Khorasan regenerating the ability to threaten the West.Intelligence assessments from the U.S. and from United Nation member states have also warned of the affiliate’s ability to threaten both Afghanistan and the wider region.Cindy Saine, Chris Hannas contributed to this report 
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It was around 10:30 p.m. on a Sunday when journalist Verónica Chávez heard a loud noise as she put her son to bed. She looked out to see her husband, Miguel Mora, frantically trying to open the door to their home as members of Nicaragua’s police tried to kick it in. Mora, a presidential hopeful and the former director of the news outlet 100% Noticias, shouted for the police to stop kicking so he could open the door for them.  “They were shouting, kicking, and Miguel was trying to open the door and was saying ‘Here I am,'” Chávez said through tears. “They said, ‘Come out,’ but as he was going to open, they didn’t stop kicking the door.”  FILE – Nicaraguan journalist Miguel Mora speaks to the press after his release from prison, at his home in Managua, Nicaragua, June 11, 2019.Mora was arrested in 2018, as well, and jailed for nearly six months as Ortega’s government violently put down street protests that he says were an attempted coup. During the past month, Ortega’s police have rounded up some 20 opposition figures, including five presidential hopefuls like Mora, and raided the homes of others. Often the police would arrive at night with overwhelming force — in Mora’s case, seven to 10 patrol vehicles — insult their targets and their families, break windows and doors. They grabbed electronics: cellphones, computers, external memory drives, cameras.  Families are not told where the detainees are taken. They are not given access to lawyers. Most of the charges concern vague allegations of crimes against the state, usually involving the acceptance of foreign funding. In most cases, the police put out public statements about the latest arrest, and the intimidation and fear spread.  A week before police grabbed Mora, Víctor Hugo Tinoco had gone out to dinner with two of his children at the Galerias mall in Managua. Around 9 p.m., he was getting into his car when police descended on them. FILE – Opposition legislator Victor Hugo Tinoco, of the Sandinista Renewal Movement, gestures in Managua, Nicaragua, Jan. 28, 2014.”Ten masked men grabbed him, put him in a truck and took him,” his daughter Arlen Tinoco said. Police snatched her cellphone and threatened to hit her as she tried to film the arrest. Three days later, police came to Tinoco’s home. “They wanted to jump the gates. They shouted and threatened to break them down,” said Deyanira Parrales, Tinoco’s wife. She asked them to be respectful and not be violent.  Two of their daughters received police in the house praying and holding up a crucifix. “San Miguel archangel, drive away evil demons,” Parrales said her daughters chanted. The police did not damage their home. Still, Parrales said, “Those were the worst hours of my life.”  FILE – Former Sandinista revolutionary commander Dora Maria Tellez, president of the Sandinista Renewal Movement, speaks during the party meeting in Managua, Nicaragua, Aug. 21, 2005.When the police came for Dora María Téllez and Ana Margarita Vijil, two leaders of the opposition party, Unamos, there were more than 60 riot police securing the perimeter, according to a statement from relatives. Police broke down doors and roughly handled the women. Téllez had been a Sandinista guerrilla with Ortega before splitting with him years ago. “The logic in democratic countries is that first they investigate and then they arrest, but we’re getting closer and closer to Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea,” said lawyer and opposition figure José Pallais, after the initial arrests early this month. On June 9, police arrested Pallais at his home in Leon. The police did not find former Education Minister Humberto Belli when they broke through his home’s front gate and disabled the home’s security cameras, according to an account he published Monday in La Prensa. His wife told them he was out of the country and prayed while police searched the house for the next four hours. The next day, Belli’s wife and daughter were sleeping when the dog barked. His daughter opened a door to let it out and at that moment, at least six men dressed in black and wearing masks forced their way inside. One carried a rifle, the others, knives, according to Belli. Again, they asked for Belli. Then they asked where he had his guns. His wife told them the police had already searched the house, and one of the men said this was a “second operation.” The men forced the women to hand over all of their jewelry and cellphones. They ransacked the house. At one point, one man tried to rape Belli’s daughter but was stopped by another. After an hour and a half, as Belli’s wife began to tremble, the men left.  “I am aware that what my family suffered pales beside what many others have suffered, but I think it is important to document the tribulations that so many families in today’s Nicaragua continue suffering,” Belli wrote. “To remain silent could be a way to lie and rig the abuses.” 
 
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The vice president of the European Commission on Monday warned against complacency regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as the highly infectious delta variant, first discovered in India, continues to spread on the continent. During a European Union parliamentary committee meeting, European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas said a recent advisory from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) indicates the delta variant is expected to account for 70% of all new cases in Europe by August, and 90% by the end of that month.  He said ECDC modeling scenarios suggested that further relaxations of coronavirus safety restrictions would lead to “a significant increase in daily cases in all age groups with an associated increase in hospitalizations and probably deaths.” Schinas added he had doubts about London’s Wembley stadium hosting the semi-final or final match of the European soccer championship at high capacity. He said given Britain’s travel restrictions on travel to Europe, “there needs to be a certain amount of symmetry to these decisions.””I think here that UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) would do well to carefully analyze its decision,” he added. The British government has said Wembley will be allowed to hold the Euro 2020 semi-finals and final with at least 60,000 fans. Britain’s new Health Minister Sajid David told Parliament Monday he sees no reason why the government cannot go ahead with its plan to lift all restrictions in the country by July 19. This article contains content from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
 
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The Kremlin on Monday strongly rejected claims that Russian military instructors in the Central African Republic have been involved in killing civilians and looting homes. During a heated discussion at the U.N. Security Council last week, the United States, Britain and France accused Russian military contractors of committing human rights abuses in the conflict-stricken country. On Sunday, The New York Times cited a report to the Security Council that accused the Russians of killing civilians and looting homes during fighting earlier this year. FILE – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov listens during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 19, 2019.Asked about the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov categorically denied the assertion. “Russian military advisers couldn’t take part and didn’t take part in any killings or lootings,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “This is yet another lie.” The mineral-rich Central African Republic has faced deadly interreligious and intercommunal fighting since 2013. A peace deal between the government and 14 rebel groups was signed in February 2019, but large-scale violence has continued.  FILE – Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera delivers his speech in Bangui, March 30, 2021.The country’s Russia-backed president, Faustin-Archange Touadera, won a second term in December’s election, but he has continued to face resistance from rebel forces linked to former President Francois Bozize. Russia has deployed military advisers in CAR training its military at the invitation of the government. Last week, the U.S., Britain and France accused Russian personnel in CAR of committing abuses against civilians and obstructing U.N. peacekeeping — accusations Russia angrily denied.  FILE – Yevgeny Prigozhin gestures during a meeting outside St. Petersburg, Russia, Aug. 9, 2016.The Western powers linked the Russian personnel in CAR to the notorious Wagner Group, a private security company allegedly tied to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman who has been indicted in the United States on charges of meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Companies linked to Prigozhin also have reportedly secured lucrative mining contracts in CAR. In 2018, three Russian journalists were killed in CAR while investigating Wagner’s activities there, and no suspects have been found. Prigozhin earned the nickname “Putin’s chef” for hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign guests at his restaurant and catering important Kremlin events. 
 
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Coalition ministers met face-to-face in Rome for the first time in two years, pledging to maintain watch against a resurgence of the insurgents.The resumption in ISIS “activities and its ability to rebuild its networks and capabilities to target security forces and civilians in areas in Iraq and Syria where the coalition is not active, requires strong vigilance and coordinated action,” the diplomats said in a concluding communique.The coalition said it needed “both to address the drivers that make communities vulnerable to recruitment by Daesh/ISIS and related violent ideological groups, as well as to provide support to liberated areas to safeguard our collective security interests.” The group “noted with grave concern that Daesh/ISIS affiliates and networks in sub-Saharan Africa threaten security and stability, namely in the Sahel Region and in East Africa/Mozambique.” The coalition said it would work with any country that requested help in fighting ISIS.Daesh is Arabic acronym for Islamic State.Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at Quirinale Palace in Rome, June 28, 2021.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the start of the coalition meeting, “We’ve made great progress because we’ve been working together, so we hope you’ll keep an eye on the fight, keep up the fight against this terrorist organization until it is decisively defeated.”He said coalition efforts had produced “significant achievements,” including virtually ceasing the movement of foreign fighters into Iraq and Syria.Blinken noted that 10,000 ISIS militants are being detained by Syrian Democratic Forces, calling the situation “simply untenable” and calling on governments to repatriate their citizens for rehabilitation or prosecution.The top U.S. diplomat announced $436 million in additional humanitarian aid for Syrians and communities in surrounding countries that have been hosting Syrian refugees. He said the money would go toward providing food, water, shelter, health care, education and protection.The United States launched a coalition effort, now involving 83 members, aimed at defeating the Islamic State group in 2014 after the militants seized control of a large area across northern Syria and Iraq, and in 2019 declared the militants had been ousted from their last remaining territory.  Secretary of State Antony Blinken accompanied by Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, right, speaks during a news conference at Fiera Roma in Rome, June 28, 2021.Another meeting Monday in Italy focused specifically on Syria, where in addition to issues related to the Islamic State group, Blinken, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi De Maio and other ministers called for renewed efforts to bring an end to the decade-long conflict that began in 2011.  Humanitarian access, in particular the ability for the United Nations to deliver cross-border aid, were among the issues that Blinken highlighted, the State Department said.  He also expressed U.S. support for an immediate cease-fire in Syria.  “Stability in Syria, and the greater region, can only be achieved through a political process that represents the will of all Syrians,” Joey Hood, the acting assistant secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, told reporters.  “We’re committed to working with allies, partners, and the U.N. to ensure that a durable political solution remains within reach.”  Efforts to resolve the Syrian conflict, through a combination of halting the fighting and carrying out a political roadmap endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, have seen little progress in recent years.  Hood said the international community “must renew its shared resolve to ensure the protection, dignity, and human rights of the Syrian people.”  Pope Francis shakes hands with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as they meet at the Vatican, June 28, 2021.Earlier Monday, Blinken visited the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis and other officials, with climate change, human rights and human trafficking among the topics of discussion.  The visit came ahead of an expected October meeting between the pope and Joe Biden, the second Catholic U.S. president.  Blinken is on a multi-nation tour of Europe, which on Tuesday takes him to Matera, Italy for a meeting of G-20 foreign ministers. The agenda for those talks includes the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and equitable economic recovery. 
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Leaders of Turkey and France are pledging to ease tensions after months of trading insults, but tensions between them remain over their competing interests in Africa.French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian declared Turkey and France are in what he described as  “recovery period” after the French and Turkish President met on the sidelines of the NATO summit earlier this month and pledged to resolve their differences. French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan had engaged in a war of words as the two leaders competed for international influence. Sinan Ulgen of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies says there has been a diplomatic breakthrough but he voices caution. “We can talk about a reset with France, but it’s a question about how deep that reset will go. This is part of a broader reset that Turkey has been trying in terms of its foreign relations with the West. However, none of the areas of disagreement with France have been resolved,” said Ulgen. Libya remains a crucial point of tension. France and Turkey backed rival sides in the Libyan civil war, and Paris is at the forefront of an international call for the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the north African country. Last year, Turkish and French warships almost clashed off the shores of Libya over French claims that Turkey was violating a Libyan arms embargo. But Ulgen says both sides now recognize the need for diplomacy.  “There is realization both Ankara and Paris that some progress can be achieved, if the two are less confrontational and work diplomatically towards some sort of negotiated formula,” says Ulgen. A Turkish presidential advisor has suggested France and Turkey could extend cooperation beyond Libya to the rest of Africa to contain China’s growing influence.  The Sahel RegionAnkara is building up its presence on the continent, especially in the Sahel region. But Turkish moves to develop ties with former French colonies like Niger and Mali is causing alarm in Paris, says  Jalel Harchouai, a senior fellow at the Geneva-based GlobHarchaoui says the Sahel could become an increasing point of tension rather than cooperation. “There is a real rivalry,” he said. “There is an actual competition in the Sahel. Because Turkey wants to be present militarily, it is already very present diplomatically, and it’s very ambitious commercially. We are talking about a time horizon of fifteen years or thirty years. So if France sees an adversary in that, I think that France [is] correct because there is not enough room for both former colonizers of the area.” For now, both French and Turkish Presidents appear interested in downplaying their differences. But that could change with next year’s French presidential elections, where the role of Islam in French society is a campaign issue. Erdogan portrays himself as a defender of global Muslim rights and has in the past accused Macron of Islamophobia — an issue Erdogan also uses for leverage in majority-Muslim African countries, much to Paris’ unease. 
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Marianela Rojas huddles in prayer with her fellow migrants, a tearful respite after trudging across a slow-flowing stretch of the Rio Grande and nearly collapsing onto someone’s backyard lawn, where, seconds before, she stepped on American soil for the first time.
“I won’t say it again,” interrupts a U.S. Border Patrol agent, giving orders in Spanish for Rojas and a dozen others to get into an idling detention van. “Only passports and money in your hands. Everything else — earrings, chains, rings, watches — in your backpacks. Hats and shoelaces too.”
It’s a frequent scene across the U.S.-Mexico border at a time of swelling migration. But these aren’t farmers and low-wage workers from Mexico or Central America, who make up the bulk of those crossing. They’re bankers, doctors and engineers from Venezuela, and they’re arriving in record numbers as they flee turmoil in the country with the world’s largest oil reserves and pandemic-induced pain across South America.
Two days after Rojas crossed, she left detention and rushed to catch a bus out of the Texas town of Del Rio. Between phone calls to loved ones who didn’t know where she was, the 54-year-old recounted fleeing hardship in Venezuela a few years ago, leaving a paid-off home and once-solid career as an elementary school teacher for a fresh start in Ecuador.
But when the little work she found cleaning houses dried up, she decided to uproot again — this time without her children.
“It’s over, it’s all over,” she said into the phone recently, crying as her toddler grandson appeared shirtless on screen. “Everything was perfect. I didn’t stop moving for one second.”
Last month, 7,484 Venezuelans were encountered  by Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border — more than all 14 years for which records exist.
The surprise increase has drawn comparisons to the midcentury influx of Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro’s communist rule. It’s also a harbinger of a new type of migration that has caught the Biden administration off guard: pandemic refugees.
Many of the nearly 17,306 Venezuelans who have crossed the southern border illegally since January had been living for years in other South American countries, part of an exodus of nearly 6 million Venezuelans since President Nicolás Maduro took power in 2013.
While some are government opponents fearing harassment and jailing, the vast majority are escaping long-running economic devastation marked by blackouts and shortages of food and medicine.
With the pandemic still raging in many parts of South America, they have had to relocate again. Increasingly, they’re being joined at the U.S. border by people from the countries they initially fled to — even larger numbers of Ecuadorians and Brazilians have arrived this year — as well as far-flung nations hit hard by the virus, like India and Uzbekistan.
U.S. government data shows that 42% of all families encountered along the border in May hailed from places other than Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — the traditional drivers of migratory trends. That compares with just 8% during the last sharp increase in migration in 2019. The Border Patrol recorded more than 180,000 encounters in May, a two-decade high that includes migrants’ repeated attempts to cross.
Compared with other migrants, Venezuelans garner certain privileges — a reflection of their firmer financial standing, higher education levels and U.S. policies that have failed to remove Maduro but nonetheless made deportation all but impossible.
The vast majority enter the U.S. near Del Rio, a town of 35,000 people, and they don’t try to evade detention but rather turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents to seek asylum.
Like many of the dozens of Venezuelans The Associated Press spoke to this month in Del Rio, 27-year-old Lis Briceno had already migrated once before. After graduating with a degree in petroleum engineering, she couldn’t get hired in the oil fields near her hometown of Maracaibo without declaring her loyalty to Venezuela’s socialist leadership. So she moved to Chile a few years ago, finding work with a technology company.
But as anti-government unrest and the pandemic tanked Chile’s economy, sales plunged and her company shuttered.
Briceno sold what she could — a refrigerator, a telephone, her bed — to raise the $4,000 needed for her journey to the U.S. She filled a backpack and set out with a heart lock amulet she got from a friend to ward off evil spirits.
“I always thought I’d come here on vacation, to visit the places you see in the movies,” Briceno said. “But doing this? Never.”
While Central Americans and others can spend months trekking through the jungle, stowing away on freight trains and sleeping in makeshift camps run by cartels on their way north, most Venezuelans reach the U.S. in as little as four days.
“This is a journey they’re definitely prepared for from a financial standpoint,” said Tiffany Burrow, who runs the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition’s shelter in Del Rio, where migrants can eat, clean up and buy bus tickets to Miami, Houston and other cities with large Venezuelan communities.
They first fly to Mexico City or Cancun, where foreign visitors are down sharply but nearly 45,000 Venezuelans arrived in the first four months of 2021. Smugglers promoting themselves as “travel agencies” have cropped up on Facebook, claiming to offer hassle-free transport to the U.S. in exchange for about $3,000.
“We’re doing things the way they do things here — under the table,” a smuggler said in a voice message a migrant shared with the AP. “You’ll never be alone. Someone will always be with you.”
The steep price includes a guided sendoff from Ciudad Acuna, where the bulk of Venezuelans cross the Rio Grande. The hardscrabble town a few hundred wet steps from Del Rio is attractive to both smugglers and migrants with deeper pockets because it had been largely spared the violence seen elsewhere on the border.
“If you’re a smuggler in the business of moving a commodity — because that’s how they view money, guns, people, drugs and everything they move, as a product — then you want to move it through the safest area possible charging the highest price,” said Austin L. Skero II, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector.
But the number of smugglers caught with weapons has recently increased in the area, and agents who normally hunt down criminals are tied up processing migrants.
The uptick in migrants crossing is “purely a diversion tactic used by the cartels” to carry out crime, Skero said as a group of Haitians carrying young children emerged from a thicket of tall carrizo cane on the riverbank.
Once in the U.S., Venezuelans tend to fare better than other groups. In March, Biden granted Temporary Protected Status to an estimated 320,000 Venezuelans. The designation allows people coming from countries ravaged by war or disaster to work legally in the U.S. and gives protection from deportation.
While new arrivals don’t qualify, Venezuelans requesting asylum — as almost all do — tend to succeed, partly because the U.S. government corroborates reports of political repression. Only 26% of asylum requests from Venezuelans have been denied this year, compared with an 80% rejection rate for asylum-seekers from poorer, violence-plagued countries in Central America, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
“I can write their asylum requests almost by heart,” said Jodi Goodwin, an immigration attorney in Harlingen, Texas, who has represented over 100 Venezuelans. “These are higher-educated people who can advocate for themselves and tell their story in a chronological, clean way that judges are accustomed to thinking.”
Even Venezuelans facing deportation have hope. The Trump administration broke diplomatic relations with Maduro when it recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful leader in 2019. Air travel is suspended, even charter flights, making removal next to impossible.
Meanwhile, as the migrants leave Del Rio to reconnect with loved ones in the U.S., they are confident that with sacrifice and hard work, they’ll get an opportunity denied them back home.
Briceno said that if she had stayed in Venezuela, she would earn the equivalent of $50 a month — barely enough to scrape by.
“The truth is,” says Briceno, hustling to catch a bus to Houston where her boyfriend landed a well-paying oil industry job, “it’s better to wash toilets here than being an engineer over there.”
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The U.N. human rights chief, in a landmark report launched after the killing of George Floyd in the United States, is urging countries worldwide to do more to help end discrimination, violence and systemic racism against people of African descent and “make amends” to them — including through reparations.  
The report from Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, offers a sweeping look at the roots of centuries of mistreatment faced by Africans and people of African descent, notably from the transatlantic slave trade. It seeks a “transformative” approach to address its continued impact today.  
The report, a year in the making, hopes to build on momentum around the recent, intensified scrutiny worldwide about the blight of racism and its impact on people of African descent as epitomized by the high-profile killings of unarmed Black people in the United States and elsewhere.
“There is today a momentous opportunity to achieve a turning point for racial equality and justice,” the report said.
The report aims to speed up action by countries to end racial injustice; end impunity for rights violations by police; ensure that people of African descent and those who speak out against racism are heard; and face up to past wrongs through accountability and redress.
“I am calling on all states to stop denying — and start dismantling — racism; to end impunity and build trust; to listen to the voices of people of African descent; and to confront past legacies and deliver redress,” Bachelet said in a video statement.  
While broaching the issue of reparation in her most explicit way yet, Bachelet suggested that monetary compensation alone is not enough and would be part of an array of measures to help rectify or make up for the injustices.
“Reparations should not only be equated with financial compensation,” she wrote, adding that it should include restitution, rehabilitation, acknowledgement of injustices, apologies, memorialization, educational reforms and “guarantees” that such injustices won’t happen again.
The U.N.-backed Human Rights Council commissioned the report during a special session last year following the murder of Floyd, a Black American who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was sentenced to 22-1/2 years in prison last week.  
Protests erupted after excruciating bystander video showed how Floyd gasped repeatedly, “I can’t breathe!” as onlookers yelled at Chauvin to stop pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck.
The protests against Floyd’s killing and the “momentous” verdict against Chauvin are a “seminal point in the fight against racism,” the report said.
The report was based on discussions with more than 340 people — mostly of African descent — and experts; more than 100 contributions in writing, including from governments; and review of public material, the rights office said.  
It analyzed 190 deaths, mostly in the U.S., to show how law enforcement officers are rarely held accountable for rights violations and crimes against people of African descent, and it noted similar patterns of mistreatment by police across many countries.  
The report ultimately aims to transform those opportunities into a more systemic response by governments to address racism, and not just in the United States — although the injustices and legacy of slavery, racism and violence faced by African Americans was clearly a major theme.
The report also laid out cases, concerns and the situation in roughly 60 countries including Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Colombia and France, among others.
“We could not find a single example of a state that has fully reckoned with the past or comprehensively accounted for the impacts of the lives of people of African descent today,” Mona Rishmawi, who leads a unit on non-discrimination at the U.N. human rights office, told a news conference. “Our message, therefore, is that this situation is untenable.”
Compensation should be considered at the “collective and the individual level,” she said, while adding that any such process “starts with acknowledgment” of past wrongs and “it’s not one-size-fits-all.” She said countries must look at their own pasts and practices to assess how to proceed.
 
The U.N. report called on countries to make ” amends for centuries of violence and discrimination” such as through “formal acknowledgment and apologies, truth-telling processes and reparations in various forms.”
It also decried the “dehumanization of people of African descent” that was “rooted in false social constructions of race” in the past to justify enslavement, racial stereotypes and harmful practices as well as tolerance for racial discrimination, inequality and violence.  
It cited inequalities faced by people of African descent and the “stark socioeconomic and political marginalization” they face in many countries, including unfair access to education, health care, jobs, housing and clean water.
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Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, who lost a confidence vote last week, faces a stark choice Monday; call snap elections or resign and trigger the search for a successor. The Social Democrat leader — a master of consensus for some, a dull and visionless party man for others — has had seven days since the confidence vote in which to attempt to secure a parliamentary majority in his favor. Now, barring last-minute success in persuading other parties to create a more stable coalition, his options are very limited.The 63-year-old Lofven, a former welder and union leader with the square build and nose of a boxer, guided the Swedish left back to power in 2014, and then hung on by moving his party closer to the center right after the 2018 elections. He finally fell out with the Left Party propping up his government, becoming the first Swedish government leader to be defeated by a no-confidence vote. The motion of no confidence was filed by the far-right Sweden Democrats, after the Left Party said it was planning such a motion itself in protest of a plan to ease rent controls. On the left,the proposal for “market rents”, that would potentially allow landlords to freely set rents for new apartments, is seen as being at odds with the Swedish social model and a threat to tenants’ rights.The conservative Moderate Party and the Christian Democrats were quick to back the motion, which was passed by 181 MPs in the 349-seat parliament.  Last-ditch efforts to appease the Left Party, which holds 27 seats, failed. Critics have described the constellation as an “unholy alliance” of parties at opposite ends of the political spectrum.After 11 unsuccessful no-confidence votes in modern Swedish political history, Lofven, who has previously distinguished himself by his ability to survive political crises, thus ended up setting an unwanted precedent.Elections or resignation? Any snap poll would be held in addition tothe general election scheduled for September 2022, which would result in two ballots in just over a year. If Lofven opts for fresh elections, they would be the first snap polls in the country since 1958. According to an Ipsos opinion poll published Tuesday, the right and far-right would come out on top in a general election, with a very slim parliamentary majority.If Lofven chooses instead to resign,it will be up to parliamentary speaker Andreas Norlen to open negotiations to find a new prime minister.That could open the way for Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson to assume the office, according to the Expressen daily’s Patrik Kronqvist. The process could also bea slow one. Norlen would have to consult each party before proposing a new PM. The parliamentary speaker would then need to receive backing from 175 deputies for his choice.  If he failed to do so, then it would be back to a general election. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Monday with Pope Francis and other officials at the Vatican, with climate change, human rights and human trafficking among the topics of discussion. The visit comes ahead of an expected October meeting between the pope and U.S. President Joe Biden, who is the second Catholic to lead the United States. Also Monday, Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio co-chair a meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS where State Department officials said ministers will discuss maintaining pressure on the militant group in Iraq and Syria while also working to counter affiliates elsewhere in the world. Patrick Worman, acting director of the U.S. Office of the Special Envoy to Defeat ISIS, told reporters a particular focus of the meeting will be “new challenges ISIS is posing in Africa,” particularly West Africa and the Sahel. The United States launched a coalition effort, now involving 83 members, aimed at defeating the Islamic State group in 2014 after the militants seized control of a large area across northern Syria and Iraq, and in 2019 declared the militants had been ousted from their last remaining territory. “ISIS remains a determined enemy,” Worman told reporters.  “There is still much work to do in Iraq and Syria, where ISIS continues to conduct attacks and sow fear among local populations.” Worman said the coalition is working with the Iraqi government, including supporting Iraq’s security forces, to “target remaining ISIS cells, deny ISIS sanctuary, and to eliminate ISIS media, finance, and facilitation networks.” Worman also highlighted a need to help victims of ISIS atrocities, hold those who committed crimes accountable, and to focus on humanitarian efforts. Another meeting Monday focuses specifically on Syria, where in addition to issues related to the Islamic State group, Blinken, De Maio and other ministers will focus on renewing efforts to bring an end to the decade-long conflict in Syria. Humanitarian access, in particular the ability for the United Nations to deliver cross-border aid, will be among the issues Blinken highlights, the State Department said. He is also expected to discuss U.S. support for an immediate cease-fire in Syria. “Stability in Syria, and the greater region, can only be achieved through a political process that represents the will of all Syrians,” Acting Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs Joey Hood told reporters.  “We’re committed to working with allies, partners, and the UN to ensure that a durable political solution remains within reach.” Efforts to resolve the Syrian conflict, through a combination of halting the fighting and carrying out a political roadmap endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, have seen little progress in recent years. Hood said the international community “must renew its shared resolve to ensure the protection, dignity, and human rights of the Syrian people.” Blinken is on a multination tour of Europe, which on Tuesday brings him to Matera, Italy for a meeting of G-20 foreign ministers. The agenda for those talks includes the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and equitable economic recovery. 
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Israel’s new government on Sunday pledged close cooperation with the United States even as it expressed “serious reservations” about efforts by Washington to rejoin the international pact to restrain Iran’s nuclear program.Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Rome in their first face-to-face meeting since a new coalition government assumed power in the Jewish state, ending the 12-year control by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Ahead of their talks, Lapid acknowledged that “in the past few years, mistakes were made” in relations between the two countries, with Netanyahu closely aligning himself with former U.S. President Donald Trump and Republicans in the U.S. Congress, at times to the exclusion of close ties with Democratic officials.”Israel’s bipartisan standing was hurt,” Lapid said. “We will fix those mistakes together.”The top Israeli diplomat, who under a power-sharing arrangement will become the country’s prime minister in two years following new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, said he has spoken with both Democrats and Republicans since taking office and had “reminded them all that we share America’s most basic, basic values — freedom, democracy, free markets and constant search for peace.”Blinken noted that although the administration of President Joe Biden is five months old and Bennett’s two weeks, “the foundation that we’re working on is one of an enduring partnership, a relationship, friendship between the United States and Israel.”Lapid did not spell out Israel’s objections to the U.S. rejoining the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Trump withdrew from in 2018, saying it was not tough enough on Tehran. The former U.S. leader reimposed economic sanctions on Iran.Biden is seeking to rejoin Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China in the agreement to block Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.”Israel has some serious reservations about the Iran nuclear deal that is being put together in Vienna,” Lapid said, adding he would make his country’s objections known privately to the U.S.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in Rome, Italy, June 27, 2021.”We have the same objective,” Blinken said. “Sometimes we differ on the tactics, and we, I think, are very clear and direct to each other when that’s the case and that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be.”Blinken and Lapid also discussed Israel’s normalization accords with Gulf Arab states, as well as the need for humanitarian aid to Gaza after nearly two weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in May.Blinken is on a multination trip to Europe. He is also holding several days of meetings with top Italian leaders, Pope Francis, Group of 20 leaders and ministerial-level officials.After being warmly welcomed in France and Germany, Blinken left Paris Sunday for Rome, where, in addition to Lapid, he also met with the Italian foreign minister, United Nations food security agencies and U.S. embassy officials.   On Monday, Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio will co-chair a meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, while Blinken also meets with Prime Minister Mario Draghi and President Sergio Mattarella to discuss Syria’s civil war and the humanitarian needs in that country.The State Department says Syria remains a big concern, with tens of thousands of women and children in humanitarian camps subject to security issues as members of the Islamic State terrorist group work to exploit the camps to recruit the next generation of fighters.Also Monday, Blinken goes to Vatican City for meetings with Pope Francis and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister. Among the topics he and Vatican officials are expected to discuss are climate change, human trafficking and debt relief for impoverished countries.  His meeting with the pope comes ahead of an expected October meeting between the pontiff and Biden, the second Catholic U.S. president. 
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A large, newly restored area of the Colosseum, which used to be the underground backstage of the ancient Roman amphitheater, is now accessible to the public for the first time. Visitors can use a newly constructed wooden walkway to admire the tunnels and chambers under the arena that were used by wild animals and human performers before they joined the action in front of large audiences.A team of more than 80 experts, including archaeologists, engineers and restorers, worked on the Colosseum’s hypogeum for two years. The project was the second phase in a major restoration of the iconic landmark that began in September 2013. Funding was provided by Diego Della Valle’s Tod’s fashion group. At the time, Della Valle pledged 25 million euros for the ambitious and complicated feat.Diego Della Valle, who funded the works at the Colosseum. (Sabina Castelfranco/VOA)Speaking at the opening of the hypogeum, Della Valle expressed satisfaction at what has been achieved so far for a monument that “the whole world loves.” He also praised the decision that allowed the public and private sectors to come together “for a good cause.”Alfonsina Russo, director of the archaeological park of the Colosseum, said “a monument within a monument has now been fully restored and reopened”. She said the restoration of the hypogeum was very complex adding that “each stone here is a witness of everything that occurred under the great arena of the Colosseum from its inauguration in AD 80 to its final performance in AD 523.” Alfonsina Russo, director of the archaeological park of the Colosseum. (Sabina Castelfranco/VOA)Russo said 2,000 years ago this was the heart of the Flavian amphitheater where all the preparations for the shows took place. She added that this was the backstage where gladiators prepared for their challenges and where cages with wild animals were kept for the shows.A new 160-meter wooden walkway for visitors has now been constructed in the hypogeum, which provides access to parts of the monument which were not previously visible.Russo explained that this 15,000-square-meter area was filled with technology advanced for its time, with mobile platforms and wooden elevators that allowed the animals and performer out onto the arena so that they could join the combat action. There was also special water system which filled the arena with water for naval battles, normally for the grand finale of the shows at the Colosseum.Tourists outside Rome’s ancient amphitheater. (Sabina Castelfranco//VOA)In the first phase of the works the northern and southern facades of the Colosseum were cleaned, damaged mortar in arches was replaced and the monument was fitted with new gates. The third phase, soon to be launched, will involve the restoration of galleries, the creation of a completely new visitors’ center and a new lighting system.Another project approved for the Colosseum involves installation of a high-tech retractable stage, expected to be operational by 2023 and which is likely to bring back cultural events and performances. 
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Classified documents from Britain’s defense ministry containing details about a British warship and Russia’s potential reaction to its passage through the Black Sea have been found at a bus stop in southern England, the BBC reported on Sunday.The BBC said the documents, almost 50 pages in all, were found “in a soggy heap behind a bus stop in Kent early on Tuesday morning” by a member of the public, who wanted to remain anonymous.The Ministry of Defense said it had been informed last week of “an incident in which sensitive defense papers were recovered by a member of the public”. “The department takes the security of information extremely seriously and an investigation has been launched. The employee concerned reported the loss at the time. It would be inappropriate to comment further,” a spokesperson said. The BBC reported that the documents, which included emails and PowerPoint presentations, related to British warship Defender, which sailed through waters off the Crimean peninsula which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014 last week.Russia said on Wednesday it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of the ship to chase it out of what the Kremlin says are its territorial waters but which Britain and most of the world say belong to Ukraine.It later summoned the British ambassador in Moscow for a formal diplomatic scolding over what it described as a provocation.Britain rejected Russia’s account of the incident. It said it believed any shots fired were a pre-announced Russian “gunnery exercise”, and that no bombs had been dropped.It confirmed the destroyer had sailed through what it said were Ukrainian waters, describing its path as “innocent passage” in accordance with international law of the sea.The BBC said the documents suggested the ship’s mission was conducted in the expectation that Russia might respond aggressively.”What do we understand about the possible ‘welcome party’…?” asked an official at Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ), the UK’s tri-service headquarters at Northwood, according to the BBC.  
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France was voting in the second round of regional elections on Sunday after a first round that saw a drubbing for President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party, disappointment for Marine Le Pen’s far-right and record low turnout.    For some observers, the outcome of the June 20 first round raised doubts over whether the 2022 presidential election would come down to a duel between Macron and Le Pen in a run-off long seen as the most likely scenario.  French President Emmanuel Macron shows his passport at a polling station during the first round of French regional and departmental elections, in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, June 20, 2021. (Reuters/Christian Hartmann/Pool)The first-round results marked a boost for the traditional right-wing The Republicans as well as the Socialist Party, who have been squeezed after the centrist Macron surged into power in 2017 with his brand-new Republic on the Move (LREM) party.   Analysts warn against too much extrapolation onto a nationwide scale from the results of the regional elections, which choose the heads of France’s 13 mainland regions from Brittany in the northwest to the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur (PACA) region in the southeast.   But there was cross-party concern over the turnout for last week’s polls, which were shunned by 66.72 percent of voters — a record in modern France.   “What we are seeing is the culmination of a disconnection between voters and the political class,” said Jessica Sainty, politics lecturer at Avignon University, while acknowledging the COVID-19 crisis also played a role in high abstention rate.   The woeful turnout prompted a debate over how to improve participation, with several figures including government spokesman Gabriel Attal suggesting electronic voting could help in future.   According to a poll published Thursday, just 36 percent of voters plan to cast their ballots on Sunday. “France is sulking,” the Le Parisien newspaper said.   Far-right eyes breakthrough The first-round results put Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) ahead in just one region, PACA, a major disappointment after polls showed a possible breakthrough in several areas.   FILE – President of the French far-right party Rassemblement National (National Rally) and MP Marine Le Pen gives a press conference, in Paris, March 9, 2021.One of the most closely watched races on Sunday will be whether RN candidate Thierry Mariani can defeat his right-wing rival Renaud Muselier in the region.    Gaining control of a region for the first time would be a huge boost for Le Pen as she seeks to convince voters that the RN — which she has reformed and rebranded since taking over from her firebrand father Jean-Marie — is a serious party of power.    Muselier could be helped by the withdrawal of left-wing candidates in a repeat of the “Republican Front” seen in past presidential elections to block the far-right.   “The idea of a victory for Mariani — even if it is far from being probable — would show that the RN can almost triumph alone over the coalition of all the others and head the powerful executive of a modern region,” said Jerome Sainte-Marie, president of the Pollingvox Institute.   Mariani has been accused by critics of being an admirer of authoritarians like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Prime Minister Jean Castex warned last week that a Mariani victory would be “very serious” for the country.    The RN also came up short in the Ile-de-France region that includes Paris, where its 25-year-old rising star Jordan Bardella failed to trouble right-wing incumbent Valerie Pecresse, who is now expected to easily win the second round.   ‘Lacks local presence’  The first-round results made even more unpalatable reading for Macron and his LREM, confirming the party’s failure to put down local and regional roots despite controlling the presidency and lower house of parliament.   Despite sending several ministers to campaign and Macron himself embarking on a nationwide tour — that saw him slapped by an onlooker at one point — in some regions LREM did not muster the required 10 percent to make round two.   “2022: What if it wasn’t them?” asked the headline in the left-wing Liberation newspaper over a picture of Macron and Le Pen.   LREM has almost no chance of winning control of a single region and is currently just number five among political parties in France.   The Socialists are expected to pick up some regions, partly due to support from the far-left France Unbowed party.   “LREM lacks a local presence, but in 2017 that did not prevent them from winning the presidential and legislative elections,” said Sainty.   Voting began at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) on Sunday, with the last polling stations due to close 12 hours later.  
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s multination trip to Europe takes him to Italy Sunday for several days of meetings with top Italian leaders, Pope Francis, Group of 20 leaders and ministerial-level officials.After being warmly welcomed in France and Germany, Blinken left Paris on Sunday for Rome, where he meets with the Italian foreign minister, United Nations food security agencies and U.S. Embassy officials. He will also meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio will co-chair a meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in Rome on Monday, when he also meets with Prime Minister Mario Draghi and President Sergio Mattarella to discuss the Syrian civil war and the humanitarian needs in that country. The State Department says Syria remains a big concern, with tens of thousands of women and children in humanitarian camps subject to security issues as members of the Islamic State terrorist group work to exploit the camps to recruit the next generation of fighters.Also Monday, Blinken goes to Vatican City for meetings with Pope Francis and Archbishop Paul Gallagher. Among the topics he and Vatican officials are expected to discuss are climate change, human trafficking and debt relief for impoverished countries.His meeting with the pope comes ahead of an expected October meeting between the pontiff and U.S. President Joe Biden, the second Catholic U.S. president.At a recent conference, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops voted to draft a statement on Communion that may rebuke Catholic political figures, including Biden, who defend abortion rights but personally oppose the practice.During his visit to Paris on Friday, Blinken warned that the absence of an interim agreement to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities could prompt the U.S. to abandon efforts to rejoin a nuclear deal.“We’ll see if we can bridge the differences, but they’re real, and we have to — we have to be able to bridge them,” Blinken said at a briefing in Paris after meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian.“I would tell you that with regard to the [International Atomic Energy Agency], this remains a serious concern, a concern that we’ve communicated to Iran, and it needs to be … resolved.” Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, accompanied by Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Mathias Cormann, of Australia, speaks at the OECD headquarters in Paris, June 25, 2021.The top U.S. diplomat arrived in France from Germany, where on Thursday he and German leaders said the U.S. and Germany were partnering to counter Holocaust denial and antisemitism, an effort the secretary of state said will “ensure that current and future generations learn about the Holocaust and also learn from it.”Speaking at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Blinken said Holocaust denial and antisemitism go hand in hand with homophobia, xenophobia, racism and other forms of discrimination, and have become “a rallying cry for those who seek to tear down our democracies.”The top U.S. diplomat also met Thursday with Libya’s interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dabaiba on the heels of an international conference focused on supporting Libya’s transition to a permanent, stable government.Wednesday’s conference, hosted by Germany and the United Nations, included officials from 17 countries and reinforced support for national elections in Libya scheduled for late December.Libya has experienced political instability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi from power.  Rival governments operated in separate parts of the country for years before a cease-fire deal in October that included a demand for all foreign fighters and mercenaries to leave Libya within 90 days.This report includes information from Reuters and AFP.   
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Argentine prosecutors will on Monday question Diego Maradona’s personal physician, implicated with six other medical professionals in having neglected the ailing football icon in his final days.The appearance of Leopoldo Luque, 39, will close a two-week process of interrogating the seven, who appeared one-by-one to state their case.A judge will next decide whether to order a trial, in a process that could take years. The suspects risk between eight and 25 years in jail if found guilty.The seven were placed under investigation for manslaughter after a board of experts looking into Maradona’s death found he had received inadequate care and was abandoned to his fate for a “prolonged, agonizing period.”The sporting legend died of a heart attack last November at the age of 60, weeks after undergoing brain surgery for a blood clot.An investigation was opened following a complaint filed by two of Maradona’s five children against neurosurgeon Luque, whom they blame for their father’s deterioration after the operation.A panel of 20 medical experts convened by Argentina’s public prosecutor said last month that Maradona’s treatment was rife with “deficiencies and irregularities” and the medical team had left his survival “to fate.”The panel concluded he “would have had a better chance of survival” with adequate treatment in an appropriate medical facility.Instead, he died alone in his bed in a rented house in an exclusive Buenos Aires neighborhood where he was receiving home care.’I did my best’Luque has repeatedly denied guilt, and recently said “I’m proud of what I did,” to assist the patient, who he described as his friend.”I did my best. I offered Diego everything I could: some things he accepted, others not,” he said.The doctor is seeking a dismissal of the case and says Maradona had been depressed in his final days.”I know that the (coronavirus) quarantine hit him very hard,” Luque has said.He could on Monday decline to respond to questions and submit a written statement instead.Last week, a lawyer for co-accused nurse Dahiana Madrid, 36, told prosecutors the doctors in charge had “killed Diego.””In the end, there were many warning signs that Maradona was going to die, give or take a day. And none of the doctors did anything to prevent it,” attorney Rodolfo Baque said at the time.The other five people under suspicion are nurse Ricardo Almiron, 37; nursing coordinator Mariano Perroni, 40; medical coordinator Nancy Forlini, 52; psychologist Carlos Diaz, 29; and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, 36.All have denied responsibility for Maradona’s death.Cosachov, who appeared before prosecutors on Friday, denied that the psychiatric medicine she had prescribed could have contributed to Maradona’s heart condition.Maradona had battled cocaine and alcohol addictions for years.The former Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Napoli star was suffering from liver, kidney and cardiovascular disorders when he died.Maradona is an idol to millions of Argentines after he inspired the South American country to only their second World Cup triumph in 1986.His death shocked fans around the world, and tens of thousands queued to file past his coffin, draped in the Argentine flag, at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires amid three days of national mourning. 
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After being warmly welcomed in France and Germany, Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Italy on Sunday to meet with top Italian leaders and the pope and to take part in ministerial level meetings on Syria and defeating Islamic State fighters and attending a G-20 meeting. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Paris.
Camera: Bronwyn Benito
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In a blaze of publicity, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan laid a foundation stone close to Istanbul, starting the construction of a 45-kilometer canal linking the Black and Marmara seas. Erdogan declared the project would usher in a new era for Istanbul and for Turkey.“This going to be a brand-new page in Turkey’s development. On the path to this development, we will leap forward,” he said, adding, “This will save Istanbul’s Bosphorus waterway.”The canal will provide an alternative route from the Bosphorus, which cuts through Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul, and is one of the world’s busiest waterways.Erdogan said the channel would offer a more efficient, faster and safer passage. But this month, Istanbul’s opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, voiced alarm.”I am sweating when I talk about this channel, because I can feel this is a nightmare, I can feel it deep inside,” he said. “Because I listened to tens of briefings from the scientists who are all warning against it.”The mayor warned that the project threatens the city’s water supplies and risks wider environmental consequences in the region’s delicate balance of interconnected seas.Marine biologist Cemal Saydam, contending that the government was ignoring the scientists, said such concerns were well-founded.“If you are connecting two marine bodies, you have to ask the opinion of marine scientists, which they have not done,” Saydam said. “Scientifically, it’s going to devastate the Sea of Marmara for sure, and it’s going to devastate the Black Sea for sure, and it’s going to change the whole water budget of the Mediterranean Sea, as well, because there are interconnected seas.“Riot police prevent protesters from marching to the scene where Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends the groundbreaking ceremony of Sazlidere Bridge over the planned route of Kanal Istanbul, in Istanbul, Turkey, June 26, 2021.The government dismisses such warnings, claiming it has carried out the necessary research. But most of Turkey’s leading banks are refusing to finance the canal, with an estimated cost of up to $65 billion, citing international commitments to support only environmentally sustainable projects.The canal also is a point of tension with Russia. Erdogan has said the canal is not covered by the 1936 International Montreux Convention. The convention limits foreign warships’ size and their access to the Black Sea to 21 days.Moscow considers the convention vital to limiting NATO’s naval presence and maintaining the sea as its sphere of influence. NATO-Russian tensions have been rising since Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territory in early 2014.While questions remain over whether the funds exist to complete the canal, Zaur Gasimov of Germany’s Bonn University said Ankara sees the project as a bargaining chip with Moscow.“That would open certain leverage for Ankara,” Gasimov said. “That would open a new field for the negotiation between Moscow and Ankara, and that gives new possibilities for Ankara to promote its interests in its interaction with Russia.”Analysts say the importance of access to the Black Sea is likely to grow in coming years, as NATO-Russia tensions escalate over Ukraine.Next week, the United States is scheduled to carry out a major naval exercise with Ukraine in the Black Sea.
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Thousands of Peruvians supporting socialist Pedro Castillo and right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori took to the streets Saturday amid swirling uncertainty over the result of a tight June 6 presidential election that has been held up by legal challenges.Castillo supporters marched in downtown Lima toward Plaza San Martín, a block from the headquarters of the electoral jury, with giant banners and photos of the socialist candidate, calling for his apparent election win to be confirmed.A few blocks away, thousands of others supporting Fujimori paraded with Peruvian flags and banners that read “no to fraud,” arriving at the Plaza Bolognesi, where a stage had been set up ahead of the expected arrival of the conservative.Castillo holds a slender 44,000-vote lead over Fujimori with all ballots counted. But his right-wing rival has sought to disqualify votes, largely in rural areas that backed the leftist, making claims of fraud with little evidence.Castillo’s Free Peru party has denied the allegations of fraud while international election observers have said the vote was carried out cleanly. The U.S. State Department described the process as a “model of democracy.”A supporter wears a shirt with an image of Peru’s presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori that reads, “Always with you,” in Lima, Peru, June 26, 2021.In Fujimori’s march were members of various right and center-right parties, as well as retired military personnel who have backed her fraud claims. Many had banners saying “no to communism,” a criticism they often aim at Castillo.In the rival camp, many wore the same wide-brimmed hats Castillo has used in the campaign. Some wore outfits from the country’s Andean regions and danced, while others carried whips as used by rural “ronderos,” or civil police.Castillo, 51, a former elementary school teacher and the son of peasant farmers, plans to redraft the country’s constitution to give the state a more active role in the economy and take a larger share of profits from mining companies.The already tense election process was plunged into disarray this week after one of the four magistrates on the jury reviewing contested ballots quit after clashing with the other officials over requests to nullify votes.Replacement sworn inOn Saturday the electoral jury swore in a replacement to allow the process to restart, key to restoring stability in the copper-rich Andean nation, which has been rattled by the tight vote.”Electoral justice cannot be paralyzed or blocked, much less in this phase of the process,” said the president of the National Elections Jury, Jorge Salas. “These interruptive arts will not prosper.”The election jury will restart its work reviewing contested ballots Monday, a spokeswoman for the body said. It must complete the review before an official result can be announced.The polarized election has deeply divided Peruvians, with poorer rural voters rallying behind Castillo and wealthier urban voters from Lima supporting Fujimori, the daughter of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori.The demonstrations came despite calls from health authorities to avoid crowds, with the country battling the most deadly per capita COVID-19 outbreak in the world.
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Britain’s Health Minister Matt Hancock quit Saturday after he was caught breaking COVID-19 rules by kissing and embracing an aide in his office, enraging colleagues and the public who have been living under lockdown.Hancock, 42, wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign after The Sun newspaper published photos on Friday of the married minister embracing a woman whom he had appointed to a taxpayer-funded role to scrutinize the performance of his department.Hancock has been at the center of the government’s fight against the pandemic, routinely appearing on television and radio to tell people to follow the strict rules to contain the virus.His departure means Johnson will have to appoint a new minister to take on the huge department that is responsible for overseeing the health service and tackling the virus, at a time when cases have started to rise again.Johnson said Friday that he had accepted an apology from the minister and considered the matter to be closed, but Hancock faced rising pressure to quit.”We owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down as I have done by breaching the guidance,” Hancock said in his letter.Johnson expresses gratitudeJohnson said in reply that he was sorry to receive it. “You should be immensely proud of your service,” he wrote. “I am grateful for your support and believe that your contribution to public service is far from over.”The Sun showed Hancock kissing the aide in his office last month, at a time when it was against the rules for people to have intimate contact with others  outside their households.The opposition Labor Party also questioned whether he had broken the ministerial code: the woman, a longtime friend of Hancock’s, was appointed as a nonexecutive director, on a taxpayer-funded salary, to oversee the running of his department.Labor leader Keir Starmer said on Twitter that Hancock was right to resign. “But Boris Johnson should have sacked him.”With 128,000 deaths, Britain has one of the highest official death tolls from COVID-19 in the world and Hancock, in the post for almost three years, had been heavily criticized for his initial handling of the pandemic.Johnson’s Conservative government has been boosted by a rapid rollout of the vaccine program, however, with 84% of adults having one dose and 61% having both, well ahead of most other countries.
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Iran said Saturday it believes a reinstatement of its 2015 nuclear deal with major world powers is possible but warned that Tehran “will not negotiate forever.””Out of a steadfast commitment to salvage a deal that the U.S. tried to torpedo, Iran has been the most active party in Vienna, proposing most drafts,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Twitter, referring to talks aimed at reviving the nuclear deal.
 
Iran and the United States have been holding indirect talks on reviving the 2015 agreement between Tehran and six powers that imposed restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for lifting international sanctions.US Could Quit Iran Nuclear Deal if Talks Do Not AdvanceBlinken addresses reporters after meeting with French foreign minister 
Then U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the agreement in 2018, but President Joe Biden has been seeking to revive it. Officials on all sides have said there are major issues to resolve before the deal can be reinstated.
 
“Still believe a deal is possible, if the U.S. decides to abandon Trump’s failed legacy. Iran will not negotiate forever,” Khatibzadeh tweeted.
 
The U.N. nuclear watchdog Friday demanded an immediate reply from Iran on whether it would extend a monitoring agreement that expired overnight. An Iranian envoy responded that Tehran was under no obligation to provide an answer.
 
The Vienna talks, which began in April, are now in a pause that had been expected to last until early July, but failure to extend the monitoring accord could throw those negotiations into disarray.
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Investigators were looking Saturday for a motive behind an attack in the German city of Wuerzburg in which a man armed with a long knife killed three people and wounded at least five others.The suspect, a 24-year-old Somali, was shot in the leg by police and arrested after the Friday afternoon attack in the southern city’s downtown area. Police said his life was not in danger and he was being questioned in a hospital.Bavaria’s top security official, Joachim Herrmann, said the suspect had been known to police and had been admitted to a psychiatric unit a few days earlier. He told news agency dpa late Friday that he couldn’t rule out an Islamic extremist motive because one witness had reported hearing the suspect shout “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”The man had lived in Wuerzburg since 2015, most recently in a shelter for the homeless. He apparently did not know the victims. People laid flowers and candles at the scene of the attack.Videos posted on social media showed pedestrians surrounding the attacker and trying to hold him at bay with chairs and sticks.Bavarian governor Markus Soeder praised the “really impressive dedication” of those who tried to stop the man. “Now the circumstances have to be cleared up, the motives,” he said in a statement to reporters in Nuremberg.“All of Bavaria is in mourning today,” said Soeder, who added that he would order flags flown at half-staff in the state. 
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President Ivan Duque said the helicopter he was flying in Friday near the border with Venezuela was hit by gunfire in the first attack against a Colombian head of state in nearly 20 years.No one was injured, and authorities did not say which side of the border the shots came from. Colombia regularly accuses Venezuela of harboring Colombian rebels on its territory.”It is a cowardly attack, where you can see bullet holes in the presidential aircraft,” Duque said in a statement.Duque said he was flying with the defense and interior ministers and the governor of Norte de Santander province, which borders Venezuela, when the helicopter was attacked.Photos released by the president’s office showed the tail and main blade had been hit.Duque said the aircraft’s “safety features” prevented a “lethal” attack.”I have given very clear instructions to the entire security team to go after those who shot at the aircraft,” he said.The U.S., European Union and U.N. mission in Colombia all condemned the attack.The presidential delegation had left the town of Sardinata and was headed to the border city of Cucuta when they came under fire.Duque had attended an event in the Catatumbo region, one of the main coca-growing areas of the country. Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine producer.Holdouts from the disbanded FARC rebel group, an active guerrilla group called the National Liberation Army (ELN), and other armed bands fight drug trafficking turf wars along the long and porous border with Venezuela.The two countries broke off relations after Duque, a conservative, came to power in 2018. Venezuela is governed by socialist President Nicolas Maduro.The Duque government has repeatedly accused Venezuela of giving refuge to ELN fighters.”We are not frightened by violence or acts of terrorism. Our state is strong and Colombia is strong to confront this kind of threat,” Duque said after the attack on his chopper.The border area has been violent of late.Anger in the streetsOn June 16, a car bomb exploded on a military base in Cucuta, wounding 36 people.The government blamed the ELN, with which it ended peace negotiations in 2019.Those talks started after the government concluded a historic peace accord in 2016 with the much bigger FARC that ended decades of civil war.The last attack against a president in Colombia was a bombing that targeted then leader Alvaro Uribe in 2003.A 20-kilogram bomb hidden in a building near the airport in the southwest city of Neiva exploded prior to the landing of a plane carrying Uribe, who is Duque’s political mentor.The blast killed 15 people and wounded 66. The government blamed the FARC for that attack.Since Duque came to power the country has been enduring its worst outbreak of violence since the peace accord with the FARC.The government accuses armed groups financed with drug money of carrying out massacres in isolated coca-producing regions.With his approval record at rock bottom, Duque is also facing anger in the streets.Tens of thousands of people voiced their discontent on April 28 against a proposed tax hike that they said would hurt the middle class, already suffering economically from the pandemic.The government withdrew the proposal, but the protests morphed into a broader grassroots movement to air gripes about inequality, education and other woes, amid complaints of heavy-handed police action to put down the marches. More than 60 people have died in the unrest.
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The United Nations said 12 German troops and a Belgian soldier serving in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali were wounded Friday in an attack in the country’s restive north.The U.N. mission in the country, MINUSMA, had earlier said that 15 peacekeepers were wounded when a temporary operational base in the Gao region was targeted with a vehicle bomb. Later, it corrected the numbers.German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said three of the soldiers were seriously wounded. She told reporters in Bonn, Germany, that two soldiers were in a stable condition while the third was still undergoing surgery.All of the wounded soldiers were flown by helicopter to Gao, where they were being treated at German, French and Chinese medical facilities, the minister said.”The military operations on site aren’t completed yet,” she said.A German medevac plane will fly to Gao overnight to bring the wounded soldiers back to Germany on Saturday, said Kramp-Karrenbauer.Germany has hundreds of troops taking part in U.N. stabilization and European Union training missions in the West African nation.Mali has been trying to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012.Islamic extremist rebels were forced from power in Mali’s northern cities with the help of a French-led military operation in 2013. However, the insurgents quickly regrouped in the desert and began launching frequent attacks on the Malian army and its allies fighting the insurgency.The extremists have expanded their reach well into central Mali, where their presence has inflamed tensions between ethnic groups in the area. 
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