Pope Francis led Palm Sunday services in an almost empty St. Peter’s Basilica because of coronavirus restrictions for the second consecutive year and he urged people to be close to the poor and suffering.   In pre-COVID times, Palm Sunday, which marks the start of Holy Week and leads to Easter, tens of thousands of people would pack St. Peter’s Square holding olive branches and intricately weaved palm fronds in an outdoor ceremony.  Instead, only about 120 members of the faithful participated in Sunday’s Mass, joining the pope and about 30 cardinals in a secondary wing of the huge basilica.  Italy is in the midst of another national lockdown, which is due to end after Easter. The Vatican, a sovereign city-state surrounded by Rome, has applied similar measures.  Nearly everyone who took part in the Mass, except the pope and the choir, wore masks.   The Vatican re-created the traditional Palm Sunday service, albeit on a much smaller scale, with the 84-year-old pope and the cardinals processing to the altar holding palm fronds.  Palm Sunday commemorates the day the gospels say Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was hailed by the people, only to be crucified five days later.  During the Mass, the pope had a pronounced limp. He suffers from sciatica, which causes pain in his legs when it flares up.  In his homily during the Mass, televised and streamed worldwide, Francis encouraged people to keep their faith from growing dull from habit and to let themselves be amazed by God and by good.  “With the grace of amazement we come to realize that in welcoming the dismissed and discarded, in drawing close to those ill-treated by life, we are loving Jesus. For that is where he is: in the least of our brothers and sisters, in the rejected and discarded,” he said.  The remainder of the pope’s Holy Week services – Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter next Sunday, also will take place with a limited number of participants. Italy has registered 107,636 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain. 
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In one of Mexico’s most notorious cities for organized crime, migrants are expelled from the United States throughout the night, exhausted from the journey, disillusioned about not getting a chance to seek asylum and at a crossroads about where to go next. Marisela Ramirez, who was returned to Reynosa about 4 a.m. Thursday, brought her 14-year-old son and left five other children — one only 8 months old — in Guatemala because she could not afford to pay smugglers more money. Now, facing another agonizing choice, she leaned toward sending her son across the border alone to settle with a sister in Missouri, aware that the United States is allowing unaccompanied children to pursue asylum. “We’re in God’s hands,” Ramirez, 30, said in a barren park with dying grass and a large gazebo in the center that serves as shelter for migrants. Lesdny Suyapa Castillo, 35, said through tears that she would return to Honduras with her 8-year-old daughter, who lay under the gazebo breathing heavily with her eyes partly open and flies circling her face. After not getting paid for three months’ work as a nurse in Honduras during the pandemic, she wants steady work in the U.S. to send an older daughter to medical school. A friend in New York encouraged her to try again. “I would love to go, but a mother doesn’t want to see her child in this condition,” she said after being dropped in Reynosa at 10 p.m. The decisions unfold amid what Border Patrol officials say is an extraordinarily high 30-day average of 5,000 daily encounters with migrants. Children traveling alone are allowed to remain in the U.S. to pursue asylum while nearly all single adults are expelled to Mexico under pandemic-era rules that deny them a chance to seek humanitarian protection. Families with children younger than 7 are being allowed to remain in the U.S. to pursue asylum, according to a Border Patrol official speaking to reporters Friday on condition of anonymity. Others in families — only 300 out of 2,200 on Thursday — are expelled. Reynosa, a city of 700,000 people, is where many migrants are returned after being expelled from Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. The Border Patrol has said the vast majority of migrants are expelled to Mexico after less than two hours in the United States to limit the spread of COVID-19, which means many arrive when it is dark. Migrants recently expelled from the U.S. after trying to seek asylum sit next to the international bridge in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, March 27, 2021.In normal times, migrants are returned to Mexico under bilateral agreements that limit deportations to daytime hours and the largest crossings. But under pandemic authority, Mexicans and citizens of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras can be expelled to Mexico throughout the night and in smaller towns. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott acknowledged in an interview last year that agreements limiting hours and locations for deportations are suspended “on paper” but said U.S. authorities try to accommodate wishes of Mexican officials. The U.S. also coordinates with nongovernmental organizations. “I would never sit here and look at you and say Tijuana is not dangerous, Juarez is not dangerous, Tamaulipas (state) is not dangerous,” Scott said. “However, a lot of it is like any other U.S. city. There are certain U.S. cities that there are pockets of it that are very dangerous and there are pockets of it that aren’t.” Tamaulipas, which includes Reynosa, is among five Mexican states that the U.S. State Department says American citizens should not visit. A U.S. travel advisory says heavily armed criminal groups patrol Reynosa in marked and unmarked vehicles. More than 100 fathers, mothers and children who were expelled overnight waited in a plaza outside the Mexican border crossing at sunrise Saturday, many bitter about the experience and scared to venture into the city. Several said they left Central American in the past two months because they could finally afford it, but information about President Joe Biden’s more immigrant-friendly policies contributed to their decisions. Some reported paying smugglers as much as $10,000 a person to reach U.S. soil. Michel Maeco, who sold his land in Guatemala to pay smugglers $35,000 to bring his family of five, including children aged 15, 11 and 7, said he was going home after a 25-day journey. He left Guatemala after hearing “on the news” that Biden would allow families to enter the United States. Maeco’s family was expelled to the streets of Reynosa at 3 a.m. Saturday. “Supposedly (Biden) was going to help migrants, but I see nothing,” said Maeco, 36. A Honduran woman who declined to give her name said she left two months ago because her home was destroyed in Tropical Storm Eta and she heard Biden would “open the border” for 100 days — unaware that the president’s 100-day moratorium on deportations, suspended by courts, does not cover new arrivals. She planned to send her 9-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son across alone to live with their aunt in Alabama while she returns to Honduras. Underscoring the dangers, the Border Patrol said Friday that a 9-year-old Mexican girl died crossing the Rio Grande near the city of Eagle Pass. Mexico’s migrant protection agency, Grupos Beta, persuaded many overnight arrivals to be bused to a distant shelter. Crowds at the nearby park had thinned from a few hundred migrants days earlier. Felicia Rangel, founder of the Sidewalk School, which gives educational opportunities to asylum-seeking children in Mexican border cities, sees the makings of a squalid migrant camp like in nearby Matamoros, which recently closed. “If they get a foothold in this gazebo, this is going to turn into an encampment,” she said as a church distributed chicken soup, bread and water to migrants for breakfast. “They do not want another encampment in their country.” Martin Vasquez is among the migrants staying for now. The 19-year-old was expelled after being separated from his 12-year-old brother, who was considered an unaccompanied child and will almost certainly be released to a grandfather in Florida. He said he was inclined to return to Guatemala, where he worked for a moving company, but wanted to wait a while “to see what the news says.” 
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Facebook has frozen Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s page, according to a spokesperson for the social media giant, because the page contained misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.Maduro violated Facebook policy when he posted a video without any medical evidence, promoting Carvativir, a drink made with the herb thyme, as a cure for the coronavirus, a company spokesperson told Reuters. He described the drink as a “miracle” medication capable of neutralizing the coronavirus without any side effects.“We follow guidance from the WHO [World Health Organization] that says there is currently no medication to cure the virus,” Facebook’s spokesperson told Reuters.The company said it is taking action to limit use of Maduro’s Facebook page. “Due to repeated violations of our rules, we are also freezing the page for 30 days,” the company spokesperson said, “during which it will be read-only.”Brazil is averaging nearly 2,400 deaths a day from COVID-19, about one-fourth of the world’s daily tally, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.The South American nation is on pace to reach 4,000 deaths a day, six experts told The Associated Press, a level that would rival the worst seen in the U.S., which has about one-third more people. The U.S. set a record of 4,477 deaths on Jan. 12, according to Johns Hopkins data.“Four thousand deaths a day seems to be right around the corner,” Dr. José Antônio Curiati, a supervisor at Sao Paulo’s Hospital das Clinicas, the biggest hospital complex in Latin America, told the AP.President Jair Bolsonaro remains unconvinced that restrictions on activity are needed. At this point, they may be too late.Miguel Nicolelis, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University who advised several Brazilian governors and mayors on pandemic control, anticipates the total death toll reaching 500,000 by July and exceeding that of the U.S. by year-end, according to the AP.“We have surpassed levels never imagined for a country with a public health care system, a history of efficient immunization campaigns and health workers who are second to none in the world,” Nicolelis said. “The next stage is the health system collapse.”Spain tests mass-gathering limitsIn Spain, an experiment is under way to find a pandemic-safe way to hold mass events indoors. The setting is an arena in Barcelona filled with 5,000 fans Saturday night for a live concert.The morning of the show, those looking to attend came to one of three field hospitals set up in closed nightclubs. They were given COVID-19 and antigen tests, tests introduced to the body to induce an immune response. If they tested negative, they received a pass to the show and were told to wear a surgical mask. The arena was equipped with a ventilation system.“Over the next 14 days we will look at how many of the audience test positive for COVID and will report back,” Josep Maria Llibre, a doctor at the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital just north of Barcelona, told Agence France-Presse.The aim is “to discover a way in which we can coexist with COVID and hold concerts which are completely safe,” Ventura Barba, executive director of Barcelona’s Sonar festival, one of the organizers, told AFP.WHO seeks COVAX donationsThe head of the World Health Organization on Friday urged the global community to donate COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income countries, citing the urgent need for 10 million doses for a WHO-backed vaccine distribution program.“COVAX is ready to deliver but we can’t deliver vaccines we don’t have,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a virtual news conference in Geneva.COVAX, an abbreviation for the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative, aims to provide equitable access to vaccines worldwide to low- and middle-income countries.“Bilateral deals, export bans, and vaccine nationalism have caused distortions in the market with gross inequities in supply and demand,” Tedros said. “Ten million doses are not much, and it’s not nearly enough.”Tedros’ appeal comes after India, a key supplier to the agency’s COVAX vaccine-sharing program, said it was prioritizing local needs.The WHO chief said India’s move was “understandable” given the rising number of infections in India. He said talks were in progress with India to find a balance between local and international needs.India said Friday it set a record with a tally of more than 59,000 new cases from the previous 24-hour period.UN demands fair vaccine accessAt the United Nations in New York, 181 nations signed onto a political declaration that calls for COVID-19 vaccinations to be treated as a global public good, ensuring affordable, equitable and fair access to vaccines for all.“We can see the end of the crisis, but to reach it, we need to work together with a deeper sense of collaboration,” part of the declaration states.Among the appeals are calls on nations to fully fund the COVAX facility to distribute vaccines to low-income and developing countries, scale up vaccine production through the distribution of technology and licenses and launch public information campaigns on the importance and safety of COVID-19 vaccines.COVAX has so far distributed more than 31 million doses of vaccines to 57 countries.“There is a race everywhere between the vaccines and the pandemic,” said Lebanon’s Ambassador Amal Mudallali, on behalf of the countries that drafted the document. “This race will be won before the start by the ‘haves,’ if there is no equitable, affordable sharing of vaccines.”The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday there are more 126 million global COVID-19 infections. The research center updates its data constantly and provides expert input.The United States has more cases than any other country, with more than 30.2 million infections, followed by Brazil, with 12.5 million, and India, with almost 12 million, according to the center.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday criticized what he called “disgraceful attacks” on police officers after protests over a new policing bill in the city of Bristol turned violent, resulting in 10 arrests.Local police said a demonstration involving more than 1,000 people Friday afternoon had been largely peaceful, but a minority had shown hostility to police later in the evening.”Last night saw disgraceful attacks against police officers in Bristol. Our officers should not have to face having bricks, bottles and fireworks being thrown at them by a mob intent on violence and causing damage to property,” Johnson tweeted.”The police and the city have my full support.”Police in riot gear had beaten back crowds of protesters with shields and batons.Large demonstrations are not allowed because of coronavirus restrictions, and police have urged people not to attend even peaceful protests.On Saturday, a peaceful demonstration against the policing bill in Manchester, where protesters lay down on tram tracks, was ended by police, who made 18 arrests, citing disruption to the transport network.But Bristol has seen the most dramatic protests. Last Sunday, two police officers were seriously injured and at least two police vehicles set on fire in the city after a peaceful protest turned violent.The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill would give police new powers to impose time and noise limits on street protests.That has angered activists, and scrutiny of police tactics has increased since a heavy-handed response to a London vigil for murder victim Sarah Everard.Matthew Dresch, a journalist for the Daily Mirror newspaper, on Friday filmed a policeman hitting him as he shouted “What are you doing? I’m press.”In a tweet accompanying the video, Dresch said: “Police assaulted me at the Bristol protest even though I told them I was from the press. I was respectfully observing what was happening and posed no threat to any of the officers.”Police said they were aware of the video and were trying to contact the journalist.
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They locate survivors in collapsed buildings, track down fugitives, foil drugs and explosives smugglers and help control rowdy crowds. All in exchange for food and lodging — and an occasional pat on the head.But when retirement time comes, state care ends for the dogs and horses that serve in Poland’s Police, Border Guard and Fire Service. They are given away, with no safeguards for their future welfare.Following appeals from concerned service members, the Interior Ministry has proposed new legislation that would give these animals an official status, and paid retirement to help cover the often-costly care bills their new owners face.Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski described the draft law as a “moral obligation” that should get unanimous backing when presented in Parliament for approval later this year.”More than one human life has been saved, more than one dangerous criminal caught thanks to the animals in service,” he said in February.The new law would affect about 1,200 dogs and more than 60 horses currently in service.Each year, about 10% of the animals are retired, according to the Interior Ministry. Most of the dogs are German or Belgian shepherds.Pawel Kuchnio, handler of Warsaw police sniffer dog Orbita, says retired dogs almost always require expensive medical care, to deal with complaints such as strained hind joints.Police officer Pawel Kuchnio trains with patrol dog Orbita in Warsaw, Poland, on March 19, 2021.The pension money “will certainly be a great help and will make things easier,” he said.The bill would confirm the unwritten rule that the animals’ handlers have priority in keeping them before they’re offered up for adoption.But more importantly, it would extend state responsibility for the animals into their retirement time and secure financial support for the owners.Slawomir Walkowiak, 50, a former police officer caring for retired service dogs and horses at Poland’s only dedicated shelter, named The Veterans’ Corner, says regular state payments would ease concern over bills that reach into thousands of zlotys [dollars] monthly.The privately run, farm-like shelter in Gierlatowo, west-central Poland, houses 10 dogs, and five retired police horses in a spacious paddock.The oldest horse there, Hipol, is in his late 20s and almost blind. Walkowiak says he would have a slim chance of surviving at a regular stable.Walkowiak says many service dogs end up chained to posts or being given unsuitable tasks, as people think they would make good guardians for farms or other properties. This isn’t always the case.”The dog may suddenly remember that it was trained to bite and it will start biting, and when left alone at home it may demolish the couch because it needs to have something in its mouth,” Walkowiak said.In Warsaw, mounted police officer Dariusz Malkowski says he would have to pay the stabling fees for his 13-year-old black gelding, Rywal, if he were to keep him after retirement.Mounted police patrol in a park in Warsaw, Poland, on March 5, 2021.A stall near Warsaw can cost some 2,500 zlotys ($650) a month. The average pre-tax monthly salary in Poland is some 5,500 zlotys ($1,400).On patrol with Malkowski was Sgt. Katarzyna Kuczynska, riding 13-year-old Romeo II, or Romek, who can identify Kuczynska by her voice.”These animals have worked for the state, they have done their jobs well and they should be entitled to health care and proper retirement — on green pastures in the case of horses,” Kuczynska said.
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China on Saturday announced tit-for-tat sanctions against two Americans, a Canadian and a rights advocacy body in response to sanctions imposed this week by the two countries over Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs.Two members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Gayle Manchin and Tony Perkins; Canadian Member of Parliament Michael Chong; and a Canadian parliamentary committee on human rights are prohibited from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, the Chinese foreign ministry said.Chong reacted by calling the sanctions a “badge of honor.””We’ve got a duty to call out China for its crackdown in #HongKong & its genocide of #Uyghurs,” Chong wrote on Twitter. “We who live freely in democracies under the rule of law must speak for the voiceless.”At least 1 million Uyghurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups have been held in camps in northwestern Xinjiang, according to rights groups, who accuse authorities of forcibly sterilizing women and using forced labor.The European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States sanctioned several members of Xinjiang’s political and economic hierarchy this week in coordinated action over the allegations, prompting retaliation from Beijing in the form of sanctions on individuals from the EU and Britain. China’s foreign ministry on Saturday accused the U.S. and Canada of imposing sanctions “based on rumors and disinformation.” The sanctioned officials, who are also banned from conducting business with Chinese citizens and institutions, “must stop political manipulation on Xinjiang-related issues, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs in any form,” the ministry said. “Otherwise, they will get their fingers burnt,” the foreign ministry statement warned.FILE – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a COVID-19 pandemic briefing from Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, Nov. 20, 2020.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the sanctions were “an attack on transparency and freedom of expression.””We will continue to defend human rights around the world with our international partners,” he said on Twitter.Trudeau’s comments came after top Canadian diplomat Marc Garneau accused Beijing of deploying heavy-handed tactics.”Bullies don’t change unless you send very clear messages to them,” Garneau told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview recorded shortly before Beijing announced its retaliatory sanctions.Consumer boycottsThe diplomatic standoff spilled over into the fashion world this week when pledges made last year by several companies to boycott Xinjiang cotton resurfaced this week on Chinese-owned social network Weibo, triggering additional controversy.The resurfacing of the pledges, made by the likes of Sweden’s H&M, American sportswear giant Nike, Germany’s Adidas and Japan’s Uniqlo, was denounced Friday by the United States, which implied the timely reappearance was a calculated move by Beijing. “The U.S. condemns the PRC … social media campaign and corporate and consumer boycott against companies, including American, European and Japanese businesses,” U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.Chinese celebrities and tech firms have pulled partnerships with companies ranging from Nike and H&M to Adidas, Burberry and Calvin Klein.Beijing, which insists Xinjiang is an “internal affair,” announced sanctions Friday against nine British individuals and four entities, saying they had “maliciously spread lies and disinformation” over the treatment of Uyghurs.China flatly denies any abuses in the region, describing detention centers there as work camps intended to boost incomes and deter extremism in a region made restive by central control.China previously sanctioned dozens of U.S. officials including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for “crazy moves” against Beijing under the Trump administration.Meanwhile, Canada-China relations are at their lowest point in decades, with China trying two Canadians for alleged espionage this month while an extradition hearing in Vancouver for Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou enters its final months. 
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed the head of the constitutional court, who has opposed some anti-corruption reforms, calling his actions a threat to national security, Zelenskiy’s office said Saturday.
 
Zelenskiy and the court under Oleksandr Tupytskyi have been locked in a stand-off since last year over anti-corruption legislation, hobbling Ukraine’s chances of securing more foreign loans.
 
Zelenskiy signed a decree canceling the appointment of Tupytskyi as a judge of the court. Tupytskyi was appointed in 2013 by former President Viktor Yanukovych.
 
“Certain judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine appointed by Viktor Yanukovych, continuing to exercise their powers, pose a threat to the state independence and national security of Ukraine,” said the document published Saturday on the presidential website.
 
The constitutional court did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
 
The court ruled in October against some anti-corruption laws, citing as excessive the punishment for false information on officials’ asset declarations, and also struck down some powers of the main NAZK anti-graft agency.
 
Following that, Zelenskiy temporarily suspended Tupytskyi. Tupytskyi has previously accused Zelenskiy of trying to engineer a “constitutional coup” by removing him. Tupytskyi is under investigation in a witness-tampering case that he has called falsified and politically motivated.
 
Restoring all anti-corruption measures is a key condition of unlocking more loans under a $5 billion stand-by approved by the IMF last June. Ukraine has received only one tranche since then.
 
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The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has departed for Turkey and the region, the U.S. State Department said Saturday, in a push to encourage Afghan parties to accelerate negotiations to end conflict in the country.
 
President Joe Biden is deciding whether to meet a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of the last 3,500 American troops in Afghanistan that was set in a February 2020 accord struck with the Taliban under former President Donald Trump.
 
Biden’s administration has sought to build international pressure on the Taliban and U.S.-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government to reach a peace agreement and a cease-fire before the deadline.
 
“He will engage the two sides on their preparatory efforts for talks on a political settlement that produces a permanent cease-fire and a durable and just peace,” the State Department said in a statement, adding that Khalilzad departed Thursday for the talks.
 
The Taliban said Friday it would resume hostilities against foreign forces – which ended under the U.S.-Taliban deal – if they remain beyond the deadline.
 
Biden said Thursday it would be hard to comply with the deadline, which also requires the departure of some 7,000 allied forces.
 
The Taliban has said it was committed to the agreement, which it has termed the “most sensible and shortest path” to end 20 years of war in Afghanistan – America’s longest foreign conflict.
 
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After years of waiting tables, Danae De Vries is one step closer to achieving her lifetime dream of becoming a theater coach.Ironically, she owes that to the pandemic. It was after last year’s brutal lockdown that shut the Spanish economy down for weeks that the owners of a small restaurant chain in Madrid offered De Vries to cut her weekly work schedule by one day.Already struggling to make ends meet in a city that has seen rental prices spiral, the 28-year-old was hesitant at first — and then enthusiastic when she was told her wages would remain untouched.“Now I have time to work, to see my family and friends, and to find enough time to study,” she said. “It’s marvelous to have time, to not rush everywhere and find a bit of inner peace.”A happier and more motivated De Vries is also better for her boss María Álvarez, the entrepreneur who turned her two-restaurant business upside-down when she proposed rotational four-day week shifts. Álvarez, a mother of two toddlers, and her startup partner at La Francachela had both struggled to keep the business going with no childcare support.“There was a feeling that society had turned its back on families, that we had been betrayed,” explained Álvarez. “As business owners, we had to come up with some solutions for our businesses, our employees and also for our personal lives.”Experimenting with cutting back one workday per week is about to go nationwide in Spain — the first country in Europe to do so. A three-year pilot project will be using 50 million euros ($59 million) from the European Union’s massive coronavirus recovery fund to compensate some 200 mid-size companies as they resize their workforce or reorganize production workflows to adapt to a 32-hour working week.The funds will go to subsidizing all of the employers’ extra costs in the first year of the trial and then reduce the government’s aid to 50% and 25% each consecutive year, according to a blueprint by the Más País progressive party that’s behind the initiative.Maria Alvarez co-owner of La Francachela and founder of the Campaña 4 Suma poses for a picture at La Francachela restaurant in Madrid, Spain, March 26, 2021.The only condition is that the readjustment leads to a real net reduction of working hours while maintaining full-time contract salaries, explained Héctor Tejero, a lawmaker with Más País in the Madrid regional assembly.“It’s not using the European funds for Spaniards to work less, it’s about seeing how we can improve productivity and competitiveness of our companies,” said Tejero.Arguments in favor of the move also cite benefits for the overall economy. A mass shift to a three-day weekend would lead to more consumption, especially in entertainment and tourism, a backbone of the Spanish economy.Reducing work hours from 40 to 35 per week in 2017 would have resulted in a 1.5% GDP growth and 560,000 new jobs, a study published earlier this year in the Cambridge Journal of Economics found. Salaries would have also increased nationally by 3.7%, especially benefitting women who more often take part-time jobs, the research said.Software Delsol, in southern Spain, invested 400,000 euros last year to reduce working hours for its 190 employees and has since then reported a 28% reduction in absenteeism, with people choosing to go to the bank or see their doctor on their weekday off. Their sales increased last year by 20% and no single employee has quit since the new schedule was adopted.Rocio Sanchez works in the kitchen at La Francachela restaurant in Madrid, Spain, March 26, 2021.Critics say that a pandemic-shaken economy is not the best scenario for experiments. With a 10.8% GDP contraction last year, its worst since the 1930s Civil War, Spain has suffered from intermittent lockdowns and the near-total freeze in international travel. Some experts argue that the priority should instead be fixing the country’s dysfunctional labor market, which is dragging one of Europe’s highest unemployment rates and is marred by precarious, low-wage jobs.ESADE Business School’s Carlos Victoria also warned against the one-size-fits-all approach of the proposal. “There are probably industries or economic areas in which a reduction of working hours won’t necessarily lead to productivity gains,” the economic policy researcher said.But Más País argues that it’s best to try first and decide later how to scale it up — or whether to do it at all.Still, not all unions are fully backing the plan, conservatives have been defensive and CEOE, the main Spanish business association, has so far offered a lukewarm response to the project.Nevertheless, at least half a dozen companies have already reached out expressing interest, according to Tejero, who said the pilot won’t be launched at least until September, when and if mass vaccination helps revive the economy.“In Spain, we have moved from presenteeism, where people had to be at the office for a very long time, to be in front of the computer, at home, for an even longer time,” said La Francachela’s Álvarez. “People are increasingly angry because remote working in itself is not going to solve our problems from a broader perspective.”
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The U.N.’s premiere global body fighting for gender equality called for a sharp increase of women in global decision-making in a hotly debated final document adopted Friday night that saw continuing pushback against women’s rights and a refusal to address issues of gender identity.The Commission on the Status of Women reaffirmed the blueprint to achieve gender equality adopted 25 years ago at the Beijing women’s conference and shone a spotlight on several major issues today, including the imbalance of power between men and women in public life and the growing impact of violence against women and girls in the digital world.Diplomats were negotiating until almost the last minute over language on women human rights defenders, gender-based violence, and earlier on reproductive and sexual health and rights. Some Western nations sought unsuccessfully to get the commission to recognize gender non-conforming and transgender women. The closest they got was a reference to women and girls “who experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination” and face “diverse situations and conditions.”The European Union said it would have liked to see “more ambitious language” in the 23-page document, stressing that “the systematic attempts by some delegations to derail the process and question international commitments and obligations on gender equality show that the pushback against women’s rights continue.”Shannon Kowalski, director of advocacy and policy for The International Women’s Health Coalition, said at a briefing earlier Friday that this year “Russia has been very vocal and on the front lines” in pushing “for language that is often regressing and that seeks to deny women and girls … their rights.” The Holy See often joined their positions, and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Cuba were also vocal opponents on many issues, she said, while China opposed any reference to women human rights defenders.”Russia played an exceptionally disruptive role in the negotiations,” an EU diplomat said. “Today’s low common denominator result demonstrates that a pushback against women’s rights continues at the U.N., and that Russia is doing all it can to undermine progress on the issue.” The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of private discussions.Saudi Arabia, China have objectionsThe “Agreed Conclusions” were negotiated by the 193 U.N. member nations and adopted by consensus by the commission’s 45 members at the end of a two-week meeting. The U.N. women’s agency said more than 25,000 members of civil society registered to participate in the partly in-person but mainly virtual meeting that saw 200 side events led by member states and more than 700 events by civil society representatives.After Ambassador Mher Margaryan, the commission chair, banged the gavel signifying consensus, about two dozen countries spoke.Saudi Arabia stressed that any reference to gender “means women and men” and to marriage as “between women and men.” China said it would not join consensus on the role of women human rights defenders.In the document, the commission supports the important role of civil society in promoting and protecting the human rights and freedoms of all women, “including women human rights defenders.”U.N. Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said areas in the outcome document “do not please everybody,” and the conclusions could have been “more ambitious” and the recommendations “even bolder and decisive.”She urged member states to use the recommendations “as a building block and to outperform what is contained in these Agreed Conclusions.” She said next week’s mainly virtual Gender Equality Forum in Mexico City, another follow-up to the 1995 Beijing conference, “will take forward what we have learned from the discussions of this commission and look at how we take concrete actions.”Mlambo-Ngcuka said the conclusions “contribute to important advances” on women’s participation in public life, the main focus of the meeting along with tackling violence against women which increased during last year’s COVID-19 pandemic.The commission recognized that despite some progress women have a long road to reach equality with men in elections or appointments to decision-making bodies and administrative posts, she said. And it recognized that temporary special measures, including quotas, substantially contribute to increasing women’s representation in national and local legislatures, and called on all governments to set specific targets and timelines to achieve the goal of 50/50 gender balance in elected positions.’Very strong leadership’On violence against women in the digital world, Mlambo-Ngcuka said the commission noted the lack of preventive measures and remedies. She said member states should take action to encourage women’s digital participation and protect them, including from cyberstalking and cyberbullying.The Beijing declaration and platform approved by 189 countries in 1995 called for bold action in 12 areas to achieve gender equality, including combating poverty and gender-based violence, ensuring all girls get an education and putting women at top levels of business and government, as well as at peacemaking tables.It also said, for the first time in a U.N. document, that women’s human rights include the right to control and decide “on matters relating to their sexuality, including their sexual and reproductive health, free of discrimination, coercion and violence.”In Friday’s outcome document, the commission urges governments at all levels to “ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.”It also urges governments to provide information on sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention, gender equality and women’s empowerment” to adolescent girls and boys and young women and men, “with appropriate direction and guidance from parents and legal guardians.”On a positive note, the International Women’s Health Coalition’s Kowalski said the commission’s meeting saw “very strong leadership” from a number of Latin American and Pacific island countries and the “really strong and vital return of the United States as a leader and defender of sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality and women’s rights more broadly.”A highlight of the meeting was the virtual appearance by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who told the commission “the status of women is the status of democracy” and President Joe Biden’s administration will work to improve both.
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Fifteen people accused of plotting a coup in Haiti were released from prison Friday, 48 hours after an appeals court judge’s order.Two detainees, a man and a woman, are still incarcerated.According to Le Nouvelliste newspaper, the woman remains in prison because her name was misspelled in the release order. The name of the man, who is being detained at the Croix-des-Bouquets prison, was withheld. One of the lawyers representing the group, Marc-Antoine Maisonneuve, said he was doing everything possible to secure their release soon.The judge who ordered the 17 people released agreed with Maisonneuve’s argument that the arrests were illegal because they occurred outside the parameters set out in the constitution. According to the law, arrests must be made between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., unless they occur during the commission of a crime.The accused were asleep in their beds when they were arrested by law enforcement February 7.Haitian Président Jovenel Moïse speaks to VOA Creole about his decision to retire three Supreme Court Justices, Feb. 9, 2021.President Jovenel Moise announced the arrest of 23 people during a midday address streamed live on Facebook on February 7. Standing in front of his private plane at the international airport with first lady Martine Moise, the president told Haitians that Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe would provide more details later that afternoon.Jouthe said among those arrested was Supreme Court Justice Yvickel Dabresil.“Those people had contacted the official in charge of security for the national palace who were to arrest the president and take him to Habitation Petit Bois and also facilitate the swearing in of a new provisional president who would oversee the transition,” the prime minister told reporters.Jouthe said he saw and heard proof in the form of audio recordings, signed documents and the text of a speech for the inauguration of the new president.American Dan Whitman, a retired U.S. State Department and Foreign Service employee, was allegedly the mastermind of the plot. Whitman denied the accusation in an interview with VOA a day after the incident.”I don’t know who is spreading this narrative or why. I’ve never met or heard of any of the individuals mentioned — and don’t know why my name would be used in this regard,” Whitman told VOA in a phone interview, adding that he has not been to Haiti in 20 years. Five of the detainees were released within days, after it was determined they were not involved in the coup plot. Supreme Court Justice Dabresil was released February 11.The arrests sparked outcry from the opposition and nationwide protests calling for their release. The country’s judges have been on strike for weeks as well, to protest their colleague’s arrest and the forced retirement of three supreme court justices. The work stoppage has virtually paralyzed Haiti’s judicial system.Matiado Vilme contributed to this report from Port au Prince, Haiti.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday praised a recent Russian military exercise in the Arctic region showcasing the Russian military’s ability to operate in extreme conditions. During the exercise, three nuclear-powered submarines surfaced through the polar ice simultaneously, reported the commander-in-chief of the Russian fleet, Nikolai Yevmenov, during a videoconference with the Russian leader. Yevmenov also said three Russian warplanes flew over the North Pole.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a video-conference meeting at Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Feb. 10, 2021.Putin called the exercise unprecedented.”The Arctic expedition … has no analogues in the Soviet and the modern history of Russia,” Putin said, according to Reuters. He also ordered continued “Arctic expeditions and research in the Far North to help ensure Russia’s security,” according to The Associated Press. The exercises were conducted near Alexandra Land, a large island among the Franz Josef Land archipelago, where Russia recently constructed a military base, according to The Associated Press.Russia has also invested in other bases in the region. Countries with a stake in the polar region, including Russia, the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway, are eager to assert their jurisdiction in the area as potential shipping lanes open because of melting ice caps. The region is also rich in natural resources, including oil. Putin has said Arctic mineral reserves could be worth up to $30 trillion, news wires reported.
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A Turkish court sentenced two former police chiefs on Friday to life in prison for their role in the killing of prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink more than 14 years ago, the Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency said.Editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos and a leading promoter of reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian communities, Dink was shot twice in the head outside his office in central Istanbul.After the slaying, tens of thousands of people gathered in central Istanbul to mourn. His death plunged Turkey’s Armenian community into mourning and sparked a sprawling trial that lasted more than a decade and involved senior security officers who were accused of being aware of the plot to kill Dink but failing to act.Demonstrators hold a banner reading “For Hrant, For Justice” during a gathering in front of the Caglayan Courthouse in Istanbul, March 26, 2021.Istanbul’s main court sentenced the city’s former police intelligence chief Ramazan Akyurek and his former deputy Ali Fuat Yilmazer to life in prison for “premeditated murder,” according to Agos.Former top Istanbul interior ministry officers Yavuz Karakaya and Muharrem Demirkale were also jailed for life, while charges against another top city police chief were dropped because of the statute of limitation.In 2011, Dink’s assassin, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison by a juvenile court. He was 17 when the killing took place. The following January, a man named Yasin Hayal was sentenced to life in jail for instigating the killing.Ali Oz, a former interior ministry commander of the Black Sea region of Trabzon where the gunman came from, was sentenced Friday to 28 years in jail.Dink’s supporters and rights activists still maintain that the most senior police officials have gone unpunished and want the investigation and trials to run on. “Some of those responsible for this assassination, including the sponsors, have still not been prosecuted,” said Erol Onderoglu, Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who has closely followed the trial. ”This partial justice rendered after 14 years leaves a bitter taste and should not mark the end of the search for the truth.” State media said the court ruled that the murder was carried out in line with the goals of a clandestine network linked to U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim preacher whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating an attempted coup in July 2016. FILE – Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen is pictured at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pa., Sept. 26, 2013.Gulen, who has lived in the United States since 1999 and denies any involvement in the failed putsch, was one of 13 fugitives from justice among 76 defendants on trial in the Dink case. The court did not rule on the case of Gulen and the other 12 fugitives and instead separated their cases.Various other defendants in the Dink case were given jail sentences on charges including accessory to murder and membership of a terrorist group — because of links to Gulen’s network — as well as faking and destroying documents, state media said.The Istanbul court ruled Friday that Dink’s murder was committed “in line with the objectives of Feto,” an acronym Ankara uses for Gulen’s banned movement, NTV reported.Dink’s wife, Rakel, had said in January that blaming Gulen’s movement for her husband’s death nearly a decade before the failed coup was like, “I didn’t kill him, but my hand did.”
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European Union (EU) leaders have told the British-Swedish makers of the AstraZeneca vaccine they must honor their contract with the EU and deliver promised vaccine before exporting doses to other parts of the world.
 
At a news conference following the summit, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen singled out AstraZeneca, saying “the company has to catch up.”
 
The comments followed the EU’s summit, in which EU leaders agreed on a plan announced earlier in the week that would tighten criteria for exporting EU-made COVID-19 vaccines in a bid to secure supplies for citizens inside the bloc.
 
Von der Leyen insisted the new export criteria was not about punishing any one country or company, but about a level playing field for trade.  
 
“The reciprocity element is something where we needed also transparency to show how much is going in different countries that are also producing vaccines so that it is in our common interests that supply chains stay intact, that an exchange of vaccines is the normal state of play,” she said.
 
Britain, the main supplier of AstraZeneca vaccine, has been the focus of the new export rules. The British government and the commission issued a joint statement earlier this week pledging to work together to “ensure a reciprocally beneficial arrangement” on COVID-19.
 
The focus on vaccine by EU leadership comes as the continent is facing a “third wave” of coronavirus infections and the overall vaccination rollout has been slow or stalled in some areas.
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The British government announced Friday its full support for parliamentarians and other citizens of Britain sanctioned by China for raising their voices in defense of the Uyghur Muslim minority in the Asian country.  
 
“The MPs [Members of Parliament] and other British citizens sanctioned by China today are performing a vital role shining a light on the gross human rights violations being perpetrated against Uyghur Muslims,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a tweet.  
 
“Freedom to speak out in opposition to abuse is fundamental and I stand firmly with them,” Johnson said.The MPs and other British citizens sanctioned by China today are performing a vital role shining a light on the gross human rights violations being perpetrated against Uyghur Muslims. Freedom to speak out in opposition to abuse is fundamental and I stand firmly with them.— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 26, 2021China is imposing sanctions against nine Britons and four British entities, raising allegations that they had “maliciously spread lies and disinformation” over Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs.
 
Also, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Justice Minister Robert Buckland strongly condemned China’s move.  
   
“While the UK joins the international community to sanction human rights abuses, Chinese govt sanctions its critics. If Beijing want to credibly rebut claims of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, it should give @UNHumanRights access to verify facts,” Raab tweeted.While the UK joins the international community to sanction human rights abuses, Chinese govt sanctions its critics. If Beijing want to credibly rebut claims of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, it should give ⁦@UNHumanRights⁩ access to verify facts. https://t.co/FP3676fFlB— Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) March 26, 2021“We strongly deprecate the statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry” imposing sanctions on British citizens and entities, including a British law firm that has taken up Uyghur rights causes, Buckland said.We strongly deprecate the statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry imposing sanctions on, among others, a set of Chambers for “spreading lies and disinformation” @DXWQC 1/2— Robert Buckland (@RobertBuckland) March 26, 2021The European Union, Britain, the United States, and Canada have sanctioned several members of Xinjiang’s political and economic power elite this week over allegations of widespread human right abuses there. 
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Chinese state TV called Thursday for a boycott of H&M as Beijing lashed out at foreign clothing and footwear brands following Western sanctions on Chinese officials accused of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.The ruling Communist Party criticized H&M for saying in March 2020 it would stop buying cotton from the northwestern Chinese region. The Swedish retailer joined other brands in expressing concern about reports of forced labor there.The party newspaper Global Times also criticized statements by Burberry, Adidas, Nike, New Balance and Zara about Xinjiang as early as two years ago.”For enterprises that touch the bottom line of our country, the response is very clear: don’t buy!” China Central Television said on its social media account. It said the ‘H’ and ‘M’ in the Swedish name stood for Chinese words meaning lie and falsehood.The attacks follow Monday’s decision by the 27-nation European Union, the United States, Britain and Canada to impose travel and financial sanctions on four Chinese officials blamed for abuses in Xinjiang.More than 1 million people in Xinjiang, most of them from predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, have been confined to work camps, according to foreign researchers and governments. Beijing denies mistreating them and says it is trying to promote economic development and stamp out radicalism.”The so-called existence of forced labor in the Xinjiang region is totally fictitious,” said a Commerce Ministry spokesman, Gao Feng. He called on foreign companies to “correct wrong practices” but did not say what they were expected to do.Celebrities including Wang Yibo, a popular singer and actor, announced they were breaking endorsement contracts with H&M and Nike.H&M products were missing from China’s most popular e-commerce platforms, Alibaba Group’s TMall and JD.com. News reports said they were removed due to public criticism over its Xinjiang statement. The companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.Beijing often attacks foreign clothing, auto, travel and other brands for actions by their governments or to pressure companies to conform to its official positions on Taiwan, Tibet and other sensitive issues.Companies usually apologize and change websites or advertising to maintain access to China, one of the biggest global markets. But Xinjiang is an unusually thorny issue. Western brands face pressure at home to distance themselves from possible abuses.A man wearing a mask rides past a Uniqlo store in Beijing on March 25, 2021.A loss of sales in China, the only major economy where consumer spending has rebounded to above pre-pandemic levels, can be especially painful at a time when U.S. and European demand is weak.H&M Group “doesn’t represent any political standpoint” and “respects Chinese consumers,” the company said on its social media account.The company said it deals with 350 Chinese manufacturers to make products that “comply with the principles of sustainable development.” H&M said it “is committed to long-term investment and development in China.”Brian Ehrig, partner in the consumer practice of global strategy and management consulting firm Kearney, said it is likely that roughly 60% to 70% of H&M’s raw materials, like fabrics, come from China. He said that if H&M is cut off, it will be much harder for the company to get access to these materials and could mean higher prices and production delays.H&M had 520 stores and $1.4 billion in sales in China in 2019, the last year for which annual figures have been reported. China is its third-largest market after Germany and the United States.The criticism began when the ruling party’s Youth League on Wednesday called attention to last March’s H&M statement on its social media account. It gave no indication why it singled out the company or an explanation for citing a year-old statement.A delivery man walks past an Adidas store and an H&M store in Beijing on March 25, 2021.”Spreading lies to boycott Xinjiang while wanting to make money in China? Wishful thinking,” the Youth League said.The Global Times said Burberry, Adidas, Nike and New Balance also made “cutting remarks” about Xinjiang cotton. A separate Global Times report cited what it said was a statement by Zara that it had a “zero-tolerance approach towards forced labor.”H&M’s statement last year cited a decision by the Better Cotton Initiative, an industry group that promotes environmental and labor standards, to stop licensing Xinjiang cotton because it was “increasingly difficult” to trace how it was produced. In September, H&M announced it would stop working with a Chinese manufacturer that was accused of using forced labor in a unit unrelated to the Swedish brand.In January, Washington imposed a ban on imports of cotton from Xinjiang, a major supplier to clothing producers for Western markets.China’s official outrage has focused on Europe, possibly because relations with the EU had been amicable amid rancor with Washington over trade disputes and accusations of Chinese spying and technology theft.Official criticism of H&M reflected that tone of grievance at being hurt by a friend.”How can H&M eat Chinese rice and then smash China’s pot?” state television said in a commentary Wednesday.Comments on the internet cited clothing brands Uniqlo of Japan and The Gap of the United States as other possible offenders. It was unclear how many of those accounts were members of the public and how many were run by the ruling party’s vast propaganda apparatus.The pop star Wang’s announcement that he was quitting as a Nike “brand ambassador” didn’t mention Xinjiang. It said he “firmly resists any words and actions that pollute China.”Others including singer and actress Song Qian, a former member of Korean pop group f(x) who also is known as Victoria Song, and actor Huang Xuan, who announced they would end endorsement contracts with H&M. Actress Tang Songyun said she was breaking ties with Nike.Chinese athletic shoe brand ANTA announced it was pulling out of BCI, the industry cotton group.
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Popular Haitian Rapper Izolan, is a free man after being arrested Wednesday night at the Toussaint Louverture international Airport in Port-au-Prince by agents of the anti-drug trafficking branch of the Haitian National Police. News of the arrest went viral on Twitter and Instagram after lawyer and opposition leader Andre Michel alerted his followers. 
 La DCPJ vient de procéder illégalement à l’arrestation de Jean Léonard Tout Puissant( IZOLAN),un artiste populaire.Maitre Palvin Phizéma, un avocat du du Secteur Démocratique et Populaire,est en route pour la DCPJ.Le Secteur Démocratique et Populaire exige sa libération immédiate— Me. André Michel (@avokapepla) March 24, 2021″DCPJ has just illegally arrested Jean Leonard Tout Puissant (IZOLAN) a popular artist. Palvin Phizema, a lawyer who works for the Democratic and Popular sector (of opposition groups), is on his way to the DCPJ. The Democratic and Popular Sector demand his immediate release,” Michel tweeted.   
 
VOA spoke to Phizema shortly after he arrived at the headquarters of the judiciary police, DCPJ. He told VOA he had not yet been allowed to see or speak with the rapper. It is still unclear why the rapper was arrested.  
 
Popular Haitian American rapper Wyclef Jean, who has recorded several songs with Izolan, posted a video on his Instagram account condemning the arrest. .⁦@wyclef⁩ on the news that pioneering rap Kreyol artist ⁦@izolanofficial⁩ was arrested today in #Haiti, (we’re still waiting info from ⁦@PNH_officiel⁩ ) calls for his immediate release. pic.twitter.com/JMHIlcNIEL— Jacqueline Charles (@Jacquiecharles) March 25, 2021 
“I’m only going to say this once, this thing – I’m not going for it,” Wyclef said, speaking in a mixture of Haitian Creole and English. “I’m not going for it, we’re not going for it … Let Izolan go. Please let Izolan go.” The video has since been deleted from Wyclef’s Instagram account.  
 
About 10 p.m., after being released from DCPJ custody, Izolan posted a black-and- white selfie on his Instagram account and thanked fans for their support.  
 
“Thanks everybody for your support. DCPJ asked me to join them to respond to some questions. I didn’t panic because I know myself. I will always be who I am, nothing can change that,” Izolan posted in Creole.   
 
The rapper told a local radio station he had been interrogated but did not elaborate. He would say only that he was not asked about his ties to Fantom 509, the renegade group of former and current police officers who have been blamed for a series of jailbreaks, looting, violence and the Monday hold-up at gunpoint of the Belize national team bus, shortly after they arrived in Haiti for a World Cup qualifier. The team was unharmed. The U.S. State Department has described the group as “criminals.” Earlier this week, the national police announced several arrest warrants for members of Fantom 509.  
 
Lawyer Michel tweeted his thanks.  
 
“Good News. IZOLAN has just been released. In the name of the Democratic and Popular Sector I would like to thank all the lawyers who went to the DCPJ to help IZOLAN,” he tweeted. 
 Bonne nouvelle. IZOLAN fenk Jwenn liberasyon li.Nan non Sektè Demokratik e Popilè a,Mwen Remèsye Tout Avoka( Mèt Palvin Phizéma, Arnel Rémy, Jules Frantz, Bellevue, Théophin) Ki te rive nan DCPJ nan Kad Dosye IZOLAN an.— Me. André Michel (@avokapepla) March 25, 2021Izolan says he is ready to talk to the police again if needed. 
 
The rapper has been an outspoken critic of President Jovenel Moise’s governance and widespread insecurity. In an interview with VOA during a pro-democracy demonstration on February 21, Izolan said he has received threats due to his outspokenness.  
 
“I’m one of the people who receives threats all the time because of my political views. That’s why I don’t bother anyone, and I don’t want anyone to bother me either. Everyone clearly sees that gangs rule this capital [Port-au-Prince],” he told VOA.  He also had a message for Fantom 509. “Everyone knows the 509 policemen are not illegal, they are legal, they are working with the union (SPNH17) to claim their rights. They are unable to eat or sleep and they spend their days out in the streets,” he told VOA, adding that as an artist he considers the police to be heroes. 
 Our reporter ran into rapper @izolanofficial on the street during the protest against dictatorship and kidnapping in #Haiti. He expressed support for the 509 Policemen who are trying to unionize. ?Matiado Vilme pic.twitter.com/BcxdoSz62w— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) February 21, 2021
Izolan says he will participate in two days of protests on March 28 and March 29. The demonstrations, organized by Haitian civil society groups, aim to protest violence and demand respect for the constitution.Matiado Vilme in Port-au-Prince, Haiti contributed to this report
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Debate over the future of the Commonwealth and Britain’s relationship with its former colonies has been fueled by claims of racism within the royal family in the aftermath of a TV interview this month of Prince Harry and his American wife, Meghan, by media mogul Oprah Winfrey.The couple said that a member of the royal family, who was not identified, had asked about the skin color of their son, Archie, before his birth. Meghan’s mother is Black, and her father is white. The prince and his wife broke away from official royal duties last year, citing a need to escape press intrusion amid claims that negative media coverage of Meghan had been racially motivated.FILE – In this image taken from video and made available by Buckingham Palace, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II addresses the nation and the Commonwealth from Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, April 5, 2020.The Commonwealth is made up of 54 countries, mostly former British colonies, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head.Barbados, one of several Caribbean Commonwealth members, had already planned to remove the queen as head of state later this year. Former Barbadian Ambassador to Britain Guy Hewitt, who is now a pastor in Florida, told VOA that the interview raised questions about Britain’s relations with people of the Commonwealth.“Regrettably, the interview — and I would say the previous separation that took place — reflected that the royal family still did not fully understand diversity, and literally did not know how to embrace it,” Hewitt told VOA. “Especially for a younger generation, Harry and Meghan symbolized that hope for a new way of being royal.”Windrush generationIn 2018, news emerged that Britain had wrongly denied citizenship rights to migrants from Caribbean colonies who arrived after World War II — the Windrush generation, named after the Empire Windrush ship that took them across the Atlantic.Migrants who had the right to stay were forcibly deported. Others were denied health care and state benefits. Anthony Bryan, 62, was almost deported to his birth country of Jamaica in 2015, half a century after coming to Britain. Authorities told him he was in Britain illegally when he applied for a passport to go on vacation.“It did break something,” Bryan said. “It broke the trust that I thought I had with the British.”That sense of injustice, fueled by the Black Lives Matter movement, is feeding into a narrative that Britain is out of touch. Harry and Meghan’s claims of racism are confirming those suspicions, Hewitt said.“The Commonwealth is invaluable to small states and to developing countries,” he said. “However, it has to be able to prove that it is still relevant by being responsive to the needs and sensitive to the aspirations of people in the [global] south,” he said.FILE – Malcolm Turnbull, then Australia’s prime minister, announces his cabinet during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Sept. 20, 2015.Reacting to Harry and Meghan’s television interview, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a republican who wants to sever links with the royal family, reiterated his call for Australia to abandon the British monarch as head of state.Canada’s political opposition leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters, “I don’t see the benefit of the monarchy in Canadians’ lives.”’Not of mutual benefit’The queen last visited Nigeria, the Commonwealth’s most populous Black nation, in 2003. The claims of racism within the royal family are a shock, Idayat Hassan, head of the Center for Democracy and Development in Abuja, said in a recent interview with VOA.“It raises a lot of questions that maybe again, this relationship is not of mutual benefit,” she said. “This relationship has not transcended what it was in the colonial days.”Hassan said many Nigerians thought Harry and Meghan’s marriage signaled a new chapter.“Maybe we live too much in a make-believe world,” she told VOA. “In this present day and age, we feel that race is not real, and the world has actually moved on — moved way, way, way up. But somehow, again, we discover that race is still a factor.”In a statement after the interview, the royal family said that it was dealing with Harry and Meghan’s claims privately and that “recollections may vary.”Both the queen and Prince Charles, who is next in line to the throne, have praised the Commonwealth in recent days and hailed its collective strength.FILE – Britain’s Prince Charles delivers a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2020.”On Commonwealth Day, I’m reminded once again that the essence of the Commonwealth is its remarkable diversity — a family of some 2.4 billion people from 54 nations across six continents whose traditions, knowledge and talents offer an incomparable richness of ideas and perspectives on the world we share,” Prince Charles said March 8 during a ceremony in Westminster Abbey.”As we recover from everything that we have endured and continue to endure through this pandemic, we have an unprecedented opportunity to change course by harnessing the extraordinary potential of our Commonwealth family. We are uniquely placed to lead the way, so let us be the boldest of the bold, and let us offer an example to the world,” Charles added.Claims of racism disputedSupporters of the royal family reject claims that the institution is racist. Commentator Penny Junor has been covering the royals for 40 years in broadcast and print media. She said, “This is a family that I would say, you know, it’s a family that is intertwined with the Commonwealth. I have never seen anything like racism.”The debate shows there are deeper, historical issues that need addressing in Britain, Hewitt said.“What may be required in the United Kingdom is that telling of truth, of unpacking a very long, oppressive, racist colonial history and starting to come to terms with and be reconciled to what it means in the 21st century,” he said.Hewitt said the debate over the future of the Commonwealth would likely intensify when the British crown passed to Charles.    
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European Union leaders on Thursday offered new incentives to Turkey to improve cooperation on migration and trade despite democratic backsliding in the country and lingering concerns about its energy ambitions in the Mediterranean Sea.Seizing on the recent conciliatory tone from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leaders said, should the relative calm continue, “the European Union is ready to engage with Turkey in a phased, proportionate and reversible manner to enhance cooperation in a number of areas of common interest.”This includes “a mandate for the modernization” of customs arrangements, the future launch of “high level dialogues” on issues like the pandemic, climate change, counterterrorism and regional issues, and strengthened cooperation “on people-to-people contacts and mobility.”The “customs union” agreement between the EU and Turkey removed duties on most Turkish goods and produce entering the 27-nation bloc but has not functioned as well as the government in Ankara would like.FILE – Migrants on a dinghy are approached by a Greek coast guard boat near the port of Thermi, as they crossed part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the island of Lesbos, Greece, March 1, 2020.The leaders also ordered the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, to build on the EU-Turkey migrant agreement from 2016 and explore ways to continue to help finance the estimated 4 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, as well as those in Jordan and Lebanon.That deal massively reduced migrant arrivals into the Greek islands, compared with 2015 when hundreds of thousands of people landed on European shores. Under it, the EU offered Ankara 6 billion euros ($7.1 billion) to help Syrian refugees and other incentives to prevent people from leaving Turkey to go to Europe.The EU believes the deal saved countless lives, stopped most people from trying to cross the Aegean Sea to Greek islands like Lesbos and Samos, and improved life for refugees in Turkey. It wants to use the agreement as a model for similar arrangements with countries in North Africa.But aid groups say the pact created open-air prisons where thousands have languished in squalid conditions on the Greek islands while others were blocked in Turkey.The agreement ground to a standstill a year ago as the coronavirus spread and after Turkey encouraged thousands of migrants to leave, sparking clashes at the Greek border. Still, the EU is desperate for Turkey’s help to keep migration in check, and in December extended two programs for Syrian refugees in Turkey worth almost half a billion euros (nearly $600 million) over a year.But amid the offers, the leaders did warn that provocations by Turkey will prompt the EU to “use the instruments and options at its disposal to defend its interests and those of its member states, as well as to uphold regional stability.”FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Charles Michel, center, participate in a video meeting with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, March 19, 2021The EU leaders said they will assess progress again on EU-Turkey ties when they meet in June.EU diplomats said before their videoconference summit that the leaders wanted to take advantage of a lull in tensions between Greece, Cyprus and Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean and to avoid any threats or sanctions that could undermine a new peace effort for divided Cyprus.Periods of calm in EU-Turkey relations have quickly come and gone, and worrying trends concerning human and political rights in Turkey have continued.Over the weekend, Erdogan ended his nation’s participation in the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention aimed at preventing violence against women. The move was a blow to Turkey’s women’s rights movement, which says domestic violence and femicide are on the rise.Last week, the EU criticized Turkish authorities for stripping a prominent pro-Kurdish legislator of his parliamentary seat and seeking to shut down his political party.
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Denmark health officials Thursday announced they were extending their suspension of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for another three weeks to allow for more time for safety tests in connection to a fatal blood clot in a vaccine recipient.
 
The ruling comes as Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the World Health Organization (WHO) each pronounced the vaccine safe and effective.  
 
Denmark suspended administering the vaccine March 11 after reports that a 60-year-old Danish woman died from blood clots after receiving the vaccine. Several other European nations followed suit.
 
At a news conference in Copenhagen, Tanja Lund Erichsen of the Danish Medicines Agency agreed with the decision.
 
“From a pharmacological perspective, the vaccine is still a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19.” But it cannot be ruled out that there is a connection between the vaccine and a very rare form of blood clotting.
 
Both the EMA and WHO made similar comments last week but felt the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks. Danish Health Authority Director General Soeren Brostroem told reporters they may decide to end the suspension sooner, depending on the ”ongoing assessment.”
 
Denmark’s decision comes as AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford released updated information about its effectiveness. The new information, based on its late-stage clinical trial involving more than 30,000 participants in the United States, shows the two-dose regimen is 76% effective in preventing symptomatic coronavirus.  
 
The latest release revises an announcement the British-Swedish company made Monday the vaccine was 79% effective against the virus. Those claims were questioned hours later by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Data and Safety Monitoring Board that AstraZeneca “may have included outdated information” from the late-stage clinical trial, “which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.”
 
Along with the European countries, South Africa stopped using the AstraZeneca shot due to concerns about its efficacy against a local variant of the virus. The country sold at least a million of its AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to the African Union.  
 
Canada’s federal health agency announced Wednesday that it is updating the label on vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine with information about  “very rare reports of blood clots,” but continued to stand by the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness against COVID-19.   
The AstraZeneca vaccine has been the leading choice in the developing world because of its low cost and simple storage requirements.
 
The latest twist in the AstraZeneca vaccine saga comes as the United States and Brazil reach new milestones in the yearlong pandemic.  According to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, the U.S. has now surpassed 30 million total cases, the most of any nation, while Brazil has gone beyond the 300,000 fatality mark.
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Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny is in poor health, according to one of his lawyers. The lawyer said Navalny is suffering back pain and has virtually lost the use of one of his legs.
Lawyer Olga Mikhailova said Navalny, 44, received an MRI scan but had not been given the results.
 
“In my opinion, he is in bad shape healthwise because he is experiencing severe pain in his back and in his right leg,” she said on TV Rain, according to Reuters. “One of his legs practically doesn’t work.”
 
She added that pleas for Navalny to be given necessary medicine were ignored for four weeks.
 
Russian authorities said Navalny was in “satisfactory” condition, according to the French news agency.
 
Navalny allies are asking for proof of his health after reports that his lawyers were denied access to him.
 
Navalny was sentenced to two-and-a half-years in prison in February on an embezzlement charge.
 
He is being held at the Pokrov correctional colony, which he described as “a real concentration camp.”  
 
Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany.  
 
The United States and other countries have sanctioned Kremlin officials over the poisoning, and many are calling for Navalny’s release.
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Denmark is embarking on a program to move tens of thousands of immigrants out of ethnically-concentrated communities, in what the country’s media have dubbed “the biggest social experiment of this century.”  To encourage integration, the center-left government is planning mass housing evictions and a cap on the number of migrants allowed to live in 58 housing estates and neighborhoods deemed as troubled and designated as “special prevention areas” because of high crime.The strategy aims to prevent the continuation of what top officials have called self-isolating communities and the emergence of “parallel religious and cultural societies.”The plan is drawing fire from minority groups and civil libertarians, who accuse the government of stigmatizing migrants and of planning to evict public tenants to gentrify estates for the benefit of more affluent Danes.Critics say the measure is based on false premises. They say surveys show that migrants want to live in mixed neighborhoods, but that is hard to do because of a national housing crisis. One-third of migrants polled said they wanted also to live close to friends and family for practical assistance and emotional support.  Marie Northroup, a tenants’ activist in Copenhagen’s Mjolnerparken housing estate, has dismissed the government characterization of migrant communities as self-isolating and says the government is whipping up public panic “in order to discriminate.”The proposal by the center-left government is seen as a continuation of the approach of the previous center-right government, which started drawing up a list of neighborhoods designated as “ghettos.”    The largest migrant groups in the country comprise 64,000 Turks, 43,000 Syrians, 33,000 Iraqis, 27,000 Lebanese, 26,000 Pakistanis and 23,000 Bosnians.FILE – Young Muslim women in burqas chat on a playground in a park near Mjolnerparken, in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 3, 2018.Under the plan, some of these migrants would be relocated elsewhere, away from Copenhagen and some of the large cities, which have severe housing shortages.  Denmark’s government says the migrant dilution would help foster social cohesion, curb crime and give migrants better opportunities to assimilate and expose them more to “Danish values.”“There are a number of large residential areas with high rates of unemployment and crime, a low degree of education and with social and integration problems,” according to Kaare Dybvad Bek, the housing and interior minister.The goal is that by 2030, there will be no residential area in Denmark that has more than 30 percent of non-Western immigrants and their descendants.  “We have the next 10 years to strike a balance in our integration policies and in the way we live and work together. Otherwise, I think we end up with a two-part society where people withdraw from each other,” Bek told lawmakers earlier this month. “This whole effort is about fighting parallel societies and creating a positive development in residential areas, so that they are made attractive to a broad section of the population,” he added.  Under the initiative, which still needs parliamentary approval, municipalities would be prevented from allocating housing to specific groups in some areas, in order to prevent concentrations of low-income families or people who are not European Union citizens.  Municipalities would also be directed to pay attention to social and income mixes and to maintain a balance. Government ministers say the eviction and relocation of some poorer residents in order to bring in private renters opens up opportunities for “left-behind” residents.  FILE – Men pray at the Grand Mosque of Copenhagen, a Sunni house of worship popular with residents of nearby Mjolnerparken, in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 11, 2018.The main opposition group, the center-right Liberal Party, is supportive of the measure, but has raised concerns about the large number of people the government will have to relocate, questioning how the move will be achieved without using force.   Speaking this week in a meeting hosted by Facebook, Bek said, “We need to get better at spreading cultures so that not all perpetrators of violence live together and reinforce the norms they have been accustomed to.” Migrant representatives have pushed back against that characterization, saying crime rates in the so-called troubled neighborhoods are in line with rates elsewhere.Bek added, “We do not interfere in what people eat or do not eat, or how they arrange themselves, but we believe that people must adapt to the basic values and norms we have in Denmark.”   In a statement, the housing ministry said there is a better chance of that happening by breaking up large concentrations of migrants, creating the circumstances for them to mix more with native Danes.  “The objective is to give every child in Denmark the same life opportunities regardless of the neighborhood they grow up in or of their parents’ background. This means that they have to be exposed to the cultural norms of society as such and not grow up in closed and isolated communities,” the ministry said.  Public sentiment in recent years has turned distinctly against migrants. The far-right Danish People’s party recently proposed that any refugees denied resident permits, and who are deemed to be criminals, should be herded on to a remote island. Race- and religious-based hate crimes have become more frequent in recent years.  The Liberal Party proposed this month that foreign nationals applying to become citizens should face much tougher interviews designed to examine whether they have absorbed “Danish values.” The government has expressed support for the idea.  “Good behavior alone is not enough. If you want to be a Danish citizen, you should have taken Denmark in,” the Liberal Party spokesperson for citizenship, Morten Dahlin, told the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. 
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U.S. officials say Russian state media is citing false reports to undermine faith in Western COVID vaccines to promote Russia’s own Sputnik V vaccine.  Daria Dieguts has the story.Camera: Artyom Kokhan  
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