The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on three Bulgarians and 64 companies linked to them over alleged corruption, including an oligarch accused of planning to create a conduit for Russian political leaders to influence the Bulgarian government.The Treasury Department in a statement called the move its single biggest action targeting graft to date.Bulgaria ranks as the European Union’s most corrupt member state, according to the Transparency International advocacy group. The Balkan country has repeatedly been criticized by the European Commission for failing to root out corruption and place a single high-ranking senior official behind bars for graft.Bulgarian interim Prime Minister Stefan Yanev said he was informed by U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland by telephone about the move, part of efforts to effectively combat corruption in Bulgaria.”In our relations with our partners and allies, we have unequivocally shared our conviction that the fight against corruption in all its forms should be our unconditional principled and practical priority,” Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.The move comes ahead of a July 11 snap parliamentary election in Bulgaria and after massive anti-corruption protests in 2020.The Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions on businessman and oligarch Vassil Bozhkov, accusing him of planning to create a channel for Russian leaders to influence the Bulgarian government and bribing government officials.Bozhkov, a gambling tycoon and one of Bulgaria’s richest men, fled the country in 2020 to escape criminal charges, including extortion, tax fraud and influence peddling, among others. He denies any wrongdoing and is now based in Dubai.The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on Delyan Peevski, a Bulgarian businessman and former member of Parliament, and on Ilko Zhelyazkov, a government official who the department said was used by Peevski for conducting bribery schemes.Sanctions also were imposed on 64 companies owned or controlled by Bozhkov and Peevski.The sanctions block the people and companies blacklisted from accessing the U.S. financial system, freezing any of their U.S. assets and barring Americans from dealing with them.The U.S. State Department also designated former Bulgarian officials Alexander Manolev, Petar Haralampiev, Krasimir Tomov, as well as Peevski and Zhelyazkov, over their alleged involvement in corruption, barring them and their families from entering the United States.Peevski sold many of his real estate holdings and media in the past year. Critics at home see him as a powerful behind-the-scenes power broker with strong influence on Bulgaria’s judiciary and political elites.The Treasury Department accused him of using “influence peddling and bribes to protect himself from public scrutiny and exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian society.”In a statement to the media, Peevski decried his blacklisting. He denied any involvement in corrupt activities and said he plans to take legal action against the sanctions. 
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Oxygen levels have dropped in hundreds of lakes in the United States and Europe over the last four decades, a new study found.
 
And the authors said declining oxygen could lead to increased fish kills, algal blooms and methane emissions.
 
Researchers examined the temperature and dissolved oxygen — the amount of oxygen in the water — in nearly 400 lakes and found that declines were widespread. Their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, found dissolved oxygen fell 5.5 % in surface waters of these lakes and 18.6% in deep waters.
 
The authors said their findings suggest that warming temperatures and decreased water clarity from human activity are causing the oxygen decline.
 
“Oxygen is one of the best indicators of ecosystem health, and changes in this study reflect a pronounced human footprint,” said co-author Craig E. Williamson, a biology professor at Miami University in Ohio.  
 
That footprint includes warming caused by climate change and decreased water clarity caused in part by runoff from sewage, fertilizer, cars and power plants.
 
Dissolved oxygen losses in Earth’s water systems have been reported before. A 2017 study of oxygen levels in the world’s oceans showed a 2% decline since 1960. But less was known about lakes, which lost two to nine times as much oxygen as oceans, the new study’s authors said.
 
Prior to this study, other researchers had reported on oxygen declines in individual lakes over a long period of time. But none have looked at as many lakes around the world, said Samuel B. Fey, a Reed College biology professor who studies lakes and was not involved in this study.
 
“I think one of the really interesting findings here is that the authors were able to show that there’s this pretty pronounced decline in dissolved oxygen concentrations in both the surface and (deep) parts of the lake,” Fey said.  
 
The deep water drop in oxygen levels is critical for aquatic organisms that are more sensitive to temperature increases, such as cold water fish. During summer months, they depend on cooler temperatures found deeper in the water, but if deep waters are low on oxygen, these organisms can’t survive.
 
“Those are the conditions that sometimes lead to fish kills in water bodies,” said study co-author Kevin C. Rose, a professor of biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “It really means that a lot of habitats for cold water fish could become inhospitable.”
 
Other organisms, Rose said, are more tolerant of warmer temperatures found at the surface level and can get enough oxygen by remaining near the surface, where water meets air.
 
About a quarter of the lakes examined actually showed increasing oxygen in surface waters, which Rose says is a bad sign because it’s likely attributable to increased algal blooms — sudden growth of blue green algae.
 
In these lakes, he said, dissolved oxygen was “very low” in deep waters and was unlivable for many species.
 
And the sediment in such oxygen-starved lakes tends to give off methane, a potent greenhouse gas, research shows.
 
Lakes examined in the new study were in the U.S. or Europe, except for one in Japan and a few in New Zealand. The authors said there was insufficient data to include other parts of the world.
 
Rose said lakes outside the study area probably are experiencing drops in dissolved oxygen, too. The reason, he said, is that warmer temperatures from climate change reduce the ability of oxygen to dissolve in water — its solubility.
 
“We know that most or many places around the planet are warming,” he said. “And so, we would expect to see declining solubility.” 
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The United States is calling on Central American countries to confront corruption and poverty as Washington examines root causes and strategies to manage the flood of migrants at its southern border.
 
Wednesday in Costa Rica, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard discussed “a variety of issues to promote the prosperity and security” in the region.The top U.S. diplomat thanked Ebrard “for the Mexican government’s continued collaboration on addressing the root causes of irregular migration in the region.”Both also “discussed progress toward addressing COVID-19 and economic recovery, as well as issues related to regional democracy and governance, and security,” according to the U.S. State Department.Blinken embarked on his first in-person trip to the Western Hemisphere this week when he traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica.U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris stands by as President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building’s South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, June 2, 2021.The top U.S. diplomat’s trip comes ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’ upcoming visit to Guatemala and Mexico.Harris has been tapped by U.S. President Joe Biden to lead diplomatic efforts in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to address the underlying causes of migration in hopes of halting the flow of Central American migrants to the U.S.Some experts see Blinken’s visit to Costa Rica as laying the foundation for a successful visit by Harris.“The U.S. is also looking for cooperation on immigration, and we’re more likely to get that cooperation when governments see the carrot of a broad-based economic integration program,” said Professor Richard Feinberg, who teaches international political economy at the University of California, San Diego.Feinberg suggested including Caribbean Basin countries in the U.S. “transportation networks” and “economic integration,” as Biden is eyeing large expenditures on infrastructure, roads, ports and airports in the U.S.COVID vaccinesBlinken’s trip to the region also comes as China actively positions itself as the dominating provider of COVID-19 vaccinations in Latin America. FILE – Refrigerated containers with supplies to produce China’s Sinovac vaccines against the coronavirus disease arrive at Sao Paulo International Airport in Guarulhos, Brazil, April 19, 2021.As countries in Latin America continue to get doses, three Chinese vaccines — CanSino, Sinopharm, and Sinovac — are reaching wider distribution in the region.  The U.S. has announced its goal to ship 80 million vaccine doses abroad by the end of June. Blinken said Biden will detail this global distribution plan, possibly as early as Thursday.  
 
“In a few short days — in fact, possibly as early as tomorrow — the president is going to announce in more detail the plan that he has put together to push out 80 million vaccines around the world that we have at our disposal,” Blinken said Wednesday during his remarks at the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica.
A day before, the top U.S. diplomat pledged no political strings would be attached when providing U.S. vaccines to other countries.“Among other things, we will focus on equity — on the equitable distribution of vaccines. We’ll focus on science. We’ll work in coordination with COVAX. And we will distribute vaccines without political requirements of those receiving them,” Blinken said during a joint press conference with Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado on Tuesday.
 
Asked if he was worried that getting Chinese vaccines would come with certain conditions, Alvarado said there should be “no strings attached.”“Our condition is that those vaccines that we buy or receive as donations should be qualified by a strict agency,” he said.In May, the United States said it would share an additional 20 million coronavirus vaccine doses with other countries, in addition to the 60 million it has already committed. Officials said the U.S. will distribute according to need and not to curry favor.US to Distribute 80 Million Vaccine Doses Globally, on Basis of Need  Sharing is caring: US distribution of vaccines is, president says, a case of ‘the fundamental decency of American people’  Blinken also attended a regional meeting of the Central American foreign ministers held Tuesday under the auspices of the Central American Integration System, where collaborating on migration challenges, combating the COVID-19 pandemic, improving economic growth, as well as reinforcing democratic institutions, were said to be high on the agenda.VOA’s Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
 
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U.S. President Joe Biden will discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month the harboring of cyber attackers like those believed to have targeted meatpacking giant JBS, the White House said Wednesday.
 
Press secretary Jen Psaki also told reporters at the White House that Biden “has launched a rapid strategic review” of the attack that affected JBS operations in Australia and North America.
 
Biden will meet with his Russian counterpart in Geneva on June 16 as tensions between the two world powers have escalated over election meddling, human rights and Russian aggression toward Ukraine.Meat Producer JBS Back Online After Cyberattack White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says JBS told administration it received a random ransomware demand from a criminal organization likely based in Russia 
A U.S. subsidiary of the Brazilian meat processor told the U.S. government it received a ransom demand in the cyberattack it believes originated in Russia, deputy White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.  
 
“The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals,” Jean-Pierre said.
 
JBS, meanwhile, says it has made “significant progress” in resolving a cyberattack that affected its operations in North America and Australia.
 
JBS USA’s CEO, Andre Nogueira, said he expected “the vast majority of our beef, pork, poultry and prepared food plants” to be operational Wednesday.
 
“Our systems are coming back online and we are not sparing any resources to fight this threat. We have cybersecurity plans in place to address these types of issues and we are successfully executing those plans,” Nogueira said in a statement.
 
JBS said its Canadian beef facility had already resumed production, and that the attack did not impact its operations in Mexico or Britain.
 
The company also said it was not aware of customer, supplier or employee data being compromised.
 
“I want to personally thank the White House, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Australian and Canadian governments for their assistance over the last two days,” Nogueira said.
 
Australian Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said plants in New South Wales and Victoria states were back operating on a limited basis Wednesday, and that JBS hoped to resume work in Queensland state on Thursday.
 
Littleproud also said Australian officials would be meeting Wednesday with U.S. officials to discuss the situation.
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson each expressed support Wednesday for a strong response against Belarus for its actions in arresting an opposition journalist. Speaking at a joint news conference at the prime minister’s residence, Stoltenberg said forcing the landing of a civilian aircraft and arresting a journalist on the plane, as Belarus did last month, was a violation of international norms and rules. He called for the immediate release of Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend. Stoltenberg said he welcomes sanctions imposed by Britain, the European Union and other allies. Johnson added that the important thing now is to see that those sanctions are fully implemented and perhaps stepped up even further. Johnson called the incident “appalling and outrageous,” adding that it was important the allies stand together in protest. NATO’s 30 allies released a two-paragraph statement on Wednesday but did not include any punitive steps that Baltic allies and Poland had urged. Stoltenberg said the issue is sure to be discussed during a NATO summit scheduled for June 14 in Brussels.  
 
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A massive and long-awaited new translation of Mein Kampf — peppered with scholarly commentary to explain Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s disjointed, hate-filled manifesto — has been released in France. The project has been controversial, but supporters say it could serve as a warning against rising acts of hate and antisemitism today.The book is a recast translation of Mein Kampf,  or My Struggle, Hitler’s 1925 manifesto detailing how he became antisemitic, his ideology and his plans for Germany. The recast is 1,000 pages and costs more than $120. Adolf Hitler’s name and face do not appear on its plain white cover. The new edition by French publisher Fayard — titled Putting Evil in Context: A Critical Edition of Mein Kampf — does not aim to be a bestseller. French bookstores cannot stock copies, which are available by order only. All proceeds will go to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.  Historian Christian Ingrao, part of the academic team involved in the Fayard edition, told French radio the book aims to desacralize Hitler’s work that has attracted a kind of fetishism. It aims to offer an unvarnished take on the Nazi leader’s writing, which Ingrao and others say is repetitive, rambling and riddled with mistakes. Translator Olivier Mannoni called Hitler’s manifesto an “incoherent soup.” The translation is accompanied by lengthy historians’ notes and annotations that make up most of the book.  Germany and Poland have published similar scholarly translations in recent years.  In France, the first edition of Mein Kampf came out in 1934, and attempted to improve on Hitler’s writing. By that time he was chancellor of Germany, where his book had become a bestseller. Hitler’s rule saw Europe plunged into World War II — and the Holocaust that killed roughly six million Jews, including more than 70,000 from France.  Today, antisemitism is again on the rise across Europe, watchdog groups say. So is the far right. While printed copies of Mein Kampf have stagnated worldwide, digital editions have surged in recent years, although publishers point to a mix of reasons. Last year, Amazon banned most editions of the book from its site. Ninety-six-year-old Holocaust survivor Ginette Kolinka speaks to French school groups about her memories. She told French radio she never read Mein Kampf — mostly, she says, because she had other books to read. But she says young people need to read everything — good and bad — to form opinions for themselves, and eventually understand tolerance.  The Fayard translation project has been controversial. A few years ago, far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon called it “morally unacceptable.” Since then, it has been endorsed by several prominent Jewish figures, including Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld.  France’s Grand Rabbi, Haim Korsia, told VOA that Klarsfeld’s support for the translation shaped his own views. His argument: You can’t reproach the world for not having read Hitler’s writings nearly a century ago — which forecast the horror the Nazi leader was preparing — and then tell people today not to read this new translation, which could help prevent hatred, prejudice and antisemitism from reappearing.  
 
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An Istanbul prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday it launched an investigation into the murder of a Turkish Cypriot journalist 25 years ago, after a mob leader said last month the killing was ordered by a former Turkish minister.
 
Convicted gang leader Sedat Peker’s uncorroborated allegations on YouTube of extrajudicial killings in the 1990s have placed the unsolved murders of hundreds of people during that decade back on the agenda in Turkey.
 
In a video viewed by 17 million Turks, Peker said he tasked his brother to kill journalist Kutlu Adali in 1996 upon the orders of a former minister.
 
Peker said his brother Atilla was not able to carry out the killing, although Adali was shot dead shortly afterwards in July 1996.
 
Atilla Peker was briefly detained nine days ago, a few hours after his brother’s video was released.
 
Istanbul Anadolu prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday that it had launched a new investigation into Adali’s murder based on an application for the probe by Atilla Peker that “included various claims”.
 
It said efforts were being made to obtain information and documents from Turkish Cypriot judicial authorities regarding the killing, in addition to collecting potential evidence in Turkey.
 
It said a detailed statement would be taken from Atilla Peker.
 
An initial investigation at the time of Adali’s murder did not uncover who was responsible. The European Court of Human Rights fined Turkey in 2005 for a failure to carry out an “adequate and effective investigation into the circumstances surrounding the killing”.
 
Sedat Peker, 49, rose to prominence in the 1990s as a gangland figure and was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2007 for crimes including forming and leading a criminal gang.
 
He has said he is now in Dubai, although Reuters has not been able to verify his whereabouts. The eight videos he has so far uploaded have been viewed more than 70 million times in total.
 
Peker’s accusations against current and former government officials also include rape, drug trafficking and covert arms deliveries.
 
President Tayyip Erdogan and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, one of the people Peker has targeted so far, have strongly rejected the accusations. Soylu said the accusations were a plot against the country. 
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On Tuesday, Italy lifted restrictions on indoor dining, Germany downgraded the coronavirus risk level from very high to high, and Israel lifted almost all pandemic restrictions. More from VOA’s Mariama Diallo.
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Greece, Germany and five other European Union nations introduced a vaccination certificate system for travelers on Tuesday, weeks ahead of the July 1 rollout of the program across the 27-nation bloc.The other countries starting early were Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Croatia and Poland, according to the European Commission.Greece, which depends heavily on tourism, has been pressing for the commonly recognized certificate that uses a QR code with advanced security features. The certificates are being issued to people who are fully vaccinated, as well as those who have already contracted the virus and developed antibodies, and others who have had a PCR test within the last 72 hours.The documents will have both digital and paper forms. They’ll be free of charge, distributed in the national language plus English and be valid in all the bloc’s countries.”EU citizens are looking forward to traveling again, and they want to do so safely. Having an EU certificate is a crucial step on the way,” EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said.Greece’s digital governance minister, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, said easier travel will open up within the EU as nations adopt the new verification standard.”What will happen is that countries will stop issuing certificates using their own convention and adopt the common convention. That will simplify things considerably, because you can imagine the number of bilateral agreements that would otherwise need to be worked out,” Pierrakakis told private Skai television.Kyriakides said in the next few weeks, all EU nations need to “fully finalize their national systems to issue, store and verify certificates so the system is functioning in time for the holiday season.”Countries will be allowed to add extra vaccines to their individual entry list, including those that have not been formally approved for use across the EU.The EU Commission believes that people who are vaccinated should no longer have to be tested or put into quarantines, regardless of where they are traveling to or from, starting 14 days after receiving their second shot. Member countries, however, have not yet endorsed that recommendation.
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On Tuesday, Italy lifted restrictions on indoor dining, Germany downgraded the coronavirus risk level from very high to high, and Israel lifted almost all pandemic restrictions. More from VOA’s Mariama Diallo.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Central American governments to do more to help contain illegal immigration and voiced concerns about the health of local democracy and human rights during a visit to the region on Tuesday. Speaking at a joint news conference with Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado, Blinken said the United States wanted to hear from its partners in the region about their shared commitment to managing migratory pressures. “Good governance is crucial for confronting the challenges and seizing the opportunities of this moment, and yet we meet at a moment when democracy and human rights are being undermined in many parts of the region,” Blinken told reporters. Blinken cited erosion of judicial independence, crackdowns on independent media and NGOs, as well as the suppression of anti-corruption efforts to illustrate his point, noting that the United States had also suffered its own setbacks. U.S. President Joe Biden has been under pressure to reduce a sharp increase in undocumented immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office in January. Regional cooperation to address the issue was now more important than ever, said Blinken, who traveled to Costa Rica to hold talks with leaders from Central America and Mexico. Many immigrants stopped at the U.S. border are from three violent and impoverished Central American countries, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, which Washington has pledged aid in return for commitments to improve local governance. That drive has been clouded by concern about graft, cronyism, signs of authoritarianism and efforts to block the appointment of judges with track records of tackling corruption. The United States has promised to help poorer countries in the fight against COVID-19 with vaccines, and Blinken said the government would in the next week or so set out plans for how millions of doses would be distributed. 
 
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The Belarusian democratic opposition and some Western governments are calling for harsher sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko’s regime following the forced diversion in late May of an international airliner to arrest a Belarusian dissident blogger on board. Analysts warn if there is not a strong response, other authoritarian governments around the world might resort to the same tactic to arrest dissidents. VOA’s Igor Tsikhanenka has more.Produced by: Ihar Tsikhanenka  
 
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday laid flowers at a makeshift memorial in front of parliament for 215 Indigenous students whose remains were discovered last week at a former boarding school.The grim find came last week at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, the largest of a network of boarding schools set up in the late 19th century to forcibly assimilate the country’s Indigenous peoples.Trudeau observed several minutes of silence and knelt before the heaps of children’s shoes and toys left at the Centennial Flame in Ottawa, before speaking briefly with an Indigenous passerby.’Every child matters’Among the tributes at the memorial were messages of condolence, along with one that read: “Every child matters.”Marking the start of National Indigenous History Month, Trudeau later tweeted: “This is a painful reminder of what took place at residential schools and the impacts still felt today. We cannot hide from this.”Residential schools were a reality — a tragedy that existed in our country — and we have to own up to it,” he wrote.”We all have a role to play in dismantling systemic inequalities and discrimination – it starts with acknowledging the truth about these past wrongs … and honoring the heritage, cultures, and traditions of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples.”Take-note debateA take-note debate was to be held in parliament later Tuesday, allowing the government to solicit lawmakers’ views on future Indigenous policies.The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc tribe in the western province of British Columbia announced last week it had used ground-penetrating radar to confirm the remains of the 215 students who attended the school near the city of Kamloops.It was operated by the Catholic Church on behalf of the Canadian government from 1890 to 1969, before Ottawa took over its administration and closed it a decade later.On Monday, Trudeau expressed Canada’s grievance while pledging “concrete actions” in support of Indigenous communities left traumatized by the news.Some 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis youngsters in total were forcibly enrolled in the boarding schools, where students were physically and sexually abused by headmasters and teachers who stripped them of their culture and language.At least 4,100 died, according to a truth and reconciliation commission, which estimated the actual toll was much higher. 
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European Union government and Parliament negotiators reached a deal Tuesday on rules that will force large multinational companies to disclose how much revenue and tax they pay in the 27-nation bloc and how much they pay in countries considered tax havens by the EU. The new law, proposed by the European Commission in 2016, is part of the EU’s efforts to fight tax avoidance by large international companies at a time when the EU badly needs cash to finance an economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the new law, multinational corporations with a turnover of more than $916 million annually in two consecutive years will have to declare profits, tax and number of employees in EU countries and in countries on the EU list of noncooperative jurisdictions. But data on tax paid in other countries outside the EU and not on the tax havens blacklist will only be given in aggregated form, as EU governments did not want to agree to a more detailed country-by-country breakdown. The Oxfam charity group criticized that, saying many of the world’s tax havens were not on the EU list of noncooperative jurisdictions and therefore would avoid scrutiny. “Transparency for only the 27 EU member states and the 21 currently blacklisted or greylisted jurisdictions means keeping corporate secrecy for over three out of four of the world’s nearly 200 countries,” the Oxfam charity group said. “EU legislators have granted multinational corporations plenty of opportunities to continue dodging taxes in secrecy by shifting their profits to tax havens outside the EU, like Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland,” Oxfam’s tax expert Chiara Putaturo said. She said the deal also offered companies a reporting exemption for commercially sensitive information for five years, providing a way to avoid disclosure, and noted the large turnover requirement would exclude up to 90% of multinationals. But some members of the European Parliament who negotiated the deal said it would still help make the tax system fairer. “These tax transparency measures will help to ensure that multinational companies pay their fair share and can bring some fairness to how they operate,” said Ernest Urtasun, Greens MEP of the Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee. According to the Tax Justice Network think tank, EU countries are responsible for 36% of tax lost globally to corporate tax abuse, costing countries worldwide over $154 billion every year as profits are shifted to low tax jurisdictions like Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The text of the agreement must now go through formal adoption in two European Parliament committees and the Parliament’s plenary, and in the Council of EU governments. 
 
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A Belarusian opposition activist stabbed himself in the throat with a pen during a court hearing in Minsk on Tuesday to protest what he claimed were threats from authorities to arrest his family members and friends if he did not plead guilty to organizing protests against the country’s authoritarian ruler, President Alexander Lukashenko.Footage from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty showed Stsiapan Latypau lying limp on a bench in the defendant’s cage after his self-inflicted wounding as guards tended to him.The video showed him being carried unconscious from the courthouse on a stretcher, his neck wrapped in a white cloth, and put into an ambulance.The Viasna human rights center in Belarus said Latypau was put into an induced coma. His lawyer declined to comment on his condition.Before he stabbed himself, Latypau climbed on the bench in the cage and claimed investigators had told him, “If I don’t plead guilty, they will open criminal cases against my family and neighbors.”Latypau has been held since September 2020 on various charges, including accusations that he staged actions violating the public order in last summer’s vast protests against Lukashenko. The street demonstrations occurred after the strongman claimed a sixth presidential election victory with 80% of the vote.If convicted, Latypau faces up to 10 years in prison.Latypau’s apparent attempted suicide is the latest incident with links to protests against Lukashenko. Last week, an opposition politician died in prison under unclear circumstances, while a teenager under investigation for protesting committed suicide by throwing himself from a 16-story building. “This is the result of state terror, repressions, torture in Belarus,” wrote Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, an opposition leader. “We must stop it immediately!” Many governments, except Russia, a close ally of Belarus, condemned Lukashenko last month after he diverted a Ryanair jetliner flying over Belarus and carrying Raman Pratasevich, a Belarusian activist who had fled the country in 2019 and had since lived in exile.Pratasevich and his companion, Sofia Sapega, were arrested when the flight landed in Minsk on the purported claim of a bomb aboard the aircraft, although no explosive was found.In response, European countries stopped flying over Belarus, depriving Minsk of overflight revenue, and blocked flights by Belavia, the Belarusian state air carrier, from landing in European cities.Lukashenko met with Russian President Vladimir Putin late last week to shore up support with his government’s key foreign ally. On Tuesday, Lukashenko announced Belarus would soon open direct flights with Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Russia annexed in 2014, although Western governments do not recognize Moscow’s claim to the territory. 
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The World Health Organization has granted emergency approval for the use of a Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine for adults 18 and older.
 
The U.N. health agency approved a vaccine Tuesday made by Sinovac Biotech, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company. It was the second time the WHO approved a vaccine made by a Chinese company on an emergency basis.  
 
The WHO said data submitted by Sinovac indicated that two doses of the vaccine prevented symptoms from developing in just over half of those who received vaccinations. The agency also said it could not estimate the efficacy of the vaccine in people over 60 because few people in that age group participated in trials.
 
The WHO’s decision makes another vaccine available for use in poorer countries through COVAX, an international program that distributes vaccines to developing nations, many of them impoverished.
 
But COVAX’s distribution efforts have been slowed after its largest vaccine supplier in India said it was forced to stop supplying vaccines until the end of the year because of sharp rises in infections in the country.
 
Last month, the agency approved for emergency use a vaccine made by Sinopharm, a Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company. Other vaccines approved on an emergency basis by the WHO were manufactured by AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer-BioNTech.
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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warns the United States and countries in the Caribbean and Central America to be prepared for what is expected to be another above-normal Atlantic hurricane season.The outlook for this year’s hurricane season, which began Tuesday, is grim. Last year’s record-breaking season had 30 named tropical storms, including 19 hurricanes, six of them major.The WMO says the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season is likely to be less active, with between 13 and 20 named storms, of which six to 10 could become hurricanes.WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis says the coming season is likely to be particularly difficult for countries, such as those in Central America, that are still recovering from last year’s devastating storms.“Emergency managers are obviously very concerned that if another tropical storm or hurricane does impact, this will have serious consequences. It only takes one hurricane to make landfall in a season to wipe out years of social and economic development.” she said.Nullis says climate change has an influence on seasonal storms, which are increasing in intensity and frequency. She says carbon dioxide concentrations remain at record high levels and will continue to drive global warming.“All naturally occurring climate events now take place in the context of climate change, which is increasing global temperatures. As we know, it is exacerbating extreme weather and it is impacting seasonal rainfall patterns,” Nullis said.While 2021 got off to a relatively cool start, Nullis cautioned against believing that there is a pause in climate change. She noted that the WMO predicts a 90% likelihood of at least one year between 2021-2025 becoming the warmest on record, dislodging 2016 from its top ranking. Globally averaged temperatures in 2016 were 0.99 degrees Celsius warmer than the mid-20th century mean.The Atlantic hurricane season ends November 30. 
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday his government is on board with hosting the Copa America soccer tournament later this month, in a last-minute switch after planned host Argentina pulled out due to the coronavirus.
Speaking to supporters in Brasilia, Bolsonaro said he consulted with Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga and they had agreed the four-week long tournament played by 10 South American nations could take place.
“As far as it is up to me, and all the ministers, including the health minister, it is all decided,” Bolsonaro said.
Brazil was chosen as host nation on Monday in a surprise decision made jointly with the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) after Argentina withdrew as host.
The tournament is set to feature some of the greatest names in world football, with Argentines Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero, Neymar from Brazil, and Uruguayans Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani among those expected to participate. CONMEBOL has promised all players will be vaccinated before the tournament begins.
The opening match is scheduled for June 13 and the final is slated for July 10, but the host cities have not been named and organizers are scrambling to put together a plan for the 10 teams that will fly to Brazil to take part.
No fans are expected to attend the games and Bolsonaro said the same health protocols will be followed that have been in place for other soccer tournaments.
Brazil has hosted teams this year from across the continent in the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, South America’s equivalent of the Champions League and Europa League, respectively.
“Are you watching the Libertadores? Are you watching the Copa Sudamericana? There will be a World Cup qualifier here on Friday. And no one says anything, there’s no problem,” Bolsonaro said.
“The protocols are the same.”
This year’s edition of the Copa America, the oldest international tournament in the world, was held over from 2020 because of the pandemic.
It was supposed to be the first to be held jointly by two nations but Colombia and then Argentina pulled out.
It comes as Brazil struggles to cope with the ravages of a virus that has killed 462,791 people, according to government figures.
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Pope Francis on Tuesday issued revisions to the Catholic Church’s criminal code, including punishments for priests and others who use “force, threats or abuse of his authority” to engage in sexual acts.
 
Priests who commit such offenses against minors or adults can be defrocked, while laypeople face losing their jobs or paying fines.
 
The revisions state that bishops and other superiors can be held responsible for failing to properly investigate and sanction priests.
 
A new provision also criminalizes the act of priests “grooming” or inducing a minor to engage in pornography.
 
The changes come after 14 years of study and as the Catholic Church continues to reckon with reports of decades of sexual assault and abuse by priests. 
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Violent confrontations continue between armed groups on the Colombia-Venezuela border, displacing thousands of people.  One Venezuelan nurse is crossing into Colombia to help those in need. For VOA, Jair Diaz has the story from Arauquita, Colombia, in this report narrated by Cristina Smit.
Camera: David Hernandez, Oscar Cavadia
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