The National Hurricane Center said late Friday that a reconnaissance aircraft has determined that Hurricane Elsa has weakened “a little” but is expected to restrengthen by late Saturday.Elsa is slated to cross the central Caribbean Sea on Saturday and move near the southern coast of Hispaniola late Saturday or Saturday night, according to the hurricane center.   Elsa is predicted to be near Jamaica and portions of eastern Cuba by Sunday, and portions of central and western Cuba by Sunday night or Monday.Hurricane warnings are in effect Saturday for the southern coast of the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque to the border with Haiti; the southern portion of Haiti from Port Au Prince to the southern border with the Dominican Republic; and in Jamaica beginning Sunday.A hurricane watch is in effect for the Cuban provinces of Camaguey, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Las Tunas, and Santiago de Cuba.Meanwhile, a tropical storm warning is in effect for the coast of Haiti north of Port Au Prince and the south coast of the Dominican Republic, east of Punta Palenque to Cabo Engano.The hurricane center said the outer rain bands associated with Elsa will impact Puerto Rico with rainfall totals of 2.5-7.5 centimeters with amounts as much as 12.5 centimeters possible through Saturday. This rain could lead to isolated flash flooding and minor river flooding, along with the potential for mudslides, the center said.Across portions of southern Hispaniola and Jamaica, rainfall of 10-20 centimeters with isolated maximum amounts of 38 centimeters is possible Saturday into Sunday, possibly leading to scattered flash flooding and mudslides.The hurricane center said there is an increasing risk of storm surge, wind and rainfall beginning Monday in the Florida Keys. The impacts could be felt northward along the Florida peninsula through Tuesday.  However, the center emphasizes there is still significant uncertainty about the Florida portion of its forecast. 
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Venezuelan rights group Fundaredes said Friday authorities had arrested its director and two other activists who have lifted the lid on fighting near the border with Colombia.Director Javier Tarazona and two others were taken by Venezuelan intelligence services, the NGO said on Twitter.A fourth activist was arrested but released eight hours later, the group said, adding that the other three were transferred to Caracas.Fundaredes had reported on the presence of Colombian dissident guerrillas on Venezuelan territory and criticized the response of the government, which it accused of harboring the fighters.It reported on the fighting that broke out on March 21 before the government did. Clashes have since displaced thousands of civilians.Venezuela does not name the armed groups it blames for the unrest, apart from calling them “terrorists” or linking them to drug trafficking or to Colombian President Ivan Duque.However, security sources in Colombia say they are likely dissidents of the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group, an analysis Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro has conceded was possible.Bogota has long accused Venezuela of shielding members of the FARC and armed rebel group ELN on its soil — a charge Maduro denies.Some FARC fighters who refused to join Colombia’s peace process have continued their struggle, while also mixing with and battling drug traffickers.Venezuela and Colombia, which share a 2,200-kilometer border, severed diplomatic ties in January 2019, after Bogota recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the leader of Venezuela over Maduro following a disputed election.
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The U.S. government is aware of reports that Belarus has closed its border with neighboring Ukraine, a senior administration official said on Friday, vowing that Washington would continue to hold the government of President Alexander Lukashenko accountable for its actions.”It appears the Lukashenko regime is once again seeking to deflect attention away from its campaign of repression against its people,” the official said. “We will continue to stand with the Belarusan people and hold the regime accountable.”Lukashenko on Friday ordered the full closure of the country’s border with Ukraine, seeking to block what he called an inflow of weapons to coup-plotters detected by his security services, according to the BelTA state news agency.Washington this week banned ticket sales for air travel to and from Belarus, acting after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land and arrested a dissident journalist aboard.It was not immediately clear what further actions might be taken in response to Lukashenko’s harsh crackdown against months of pro-democracy protests over his alleged rigging of an August 2020 election. The longtime ruler denies election fraud.
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A fire on the ocean surface west of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula early Friday has been extinguished, state oil company Pemex said, blaming a gas leak from an underwater pipeline for sparking the blaze captured in videos that went viral.Bright orange flames jumping out of water resembling molten lava was dubbed an “eye of fire” on social media due to the blaze’s circular shape, as it raged a short distance from a Pemex oil platform.The fire took more than five hours to fully put out, according to Pemex.The fire began in an underwater pipeline that connects to a platform at Pemex’s flagship Ku Maloob Zaap oil development, the company’s most important, four sources told Reuters earlier.Ku Maloob Zaap is located just north of the southern rim of the Gulf of Mexico.Pemex said no injuries were reported, and production from the project was not affected after the gas leak ignited around 5:15 a.m. local time. It was completely extinguished by 10:30 a.m.The company added it would investigate the cause of the fire.Pemex, which has a long record of major industrial accidents at its facilities, added it also shut the valves of the 30-centimeter-diameter pipeline.Angel Carrizales, head of Mexico’s oil safety regulator ASEA, wrote on Twitter that the incident “did not generate any spill.” He did not explain what was burning on the water’s surface.Ku Maloob Zaap is Pemex’s biggest crude oil producer, accounting for more than 40% of its nearly 1.7 million barrels of daily output.”The turbomachinery of Ku Maloob Zaap’s active production facilities were affected by an electrical storm and heavy rains,” according to a Pemex incident report shared by one of Reuters’ sources.Company workers used nitrogen to control the fire, the report added.Details from the incident report were not mentioned in Pemex’s brief press statement and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
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The United Nations’ political chief urged Tigrayan forces in northern Ethiopia on Friday to “immediately and completely” endorse a cease-fire declared by the government so that food aid can reach a growing number of starving people in the embattled region.”The cease-fire announcement provides an opportunity that all parties to the conflict, including the TPLF, must seize and build upon,” Rosemary DiCarlo said, referring to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.”As of today, the TDF has yet to agree to the cease-fire,” she said, referring to the Tigray Defense Forces, the group’s fighters.The U.N. appealed for calm so aid workers could reach starving people, particularly in remote areas.Hunger crisis has worsenedActing humanitarian chief Ramesh Rajasingham said that in the two weeks since he had last briefed council members on the food crisis, it has “worsened dramatically.” During that briefing, he said 350,000 people were in faminelike conditions.”More than 400,000 people are estimated to have crossed the threshold into famine, and another 1.8 million people are on the brink of famine,” he said Friday. “Some are suggesting that the numbers are even higher.”Overall, of the 6 million people who live in Tigray, the U.N. says 5.2 million need some level of food assistance. In the past two months, it has reached about 3.7 million of them.Rajasingham said it is urgent to start reaching people as the rainy season takes hold, food supplies become depleted, and risks grow from flooding and waterborne diseases.”The lives of many of these people depend on our ability to reach them with food, medicine, nutrition supplies and other humanitarian assistance,” he said. “And we need to reach them now. Not next week. Now.”He appealed to armed actors to provide guarantees for safe passage along roads for aid workers and supplies in and out of Tigray, as well as to remote areas of the region, and for aid flights to resume.On Monday, the Ethiopian government announced an immediate unilateral humanitarian cease-fire after nearly eight months of fighting with Tigrayan forces. Tigrayan fighters reclaimed control of the regional capital Mekelle after Ethiopian government forces withdrew.”The government must now demonstrate that it truly intends to use the cease-fire to address the humanitarian catastrophe in Tigray,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.She and several other council members called for a permanent cease-fire, inclusive dialogue and reconciliation, unhindered and safe access for humanitarians, and accountability for atrocities committed by all sides in the conflict.Friday’s meeting was the Security Council’s first public discussion of the situation, following six closed-door meetings since hostilities erupted in November.Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said holding an open session could further destabilize the country and politically weaken the Ethiopian government.”The situation in Tigray must remain a domestic issue of Ethiopia, and we believe interference by the Security Council in solving it is counterproductive,” he said.But Ireland’s envoy, who has been active in bringing the issue to the council, disagreed, saying that “it is clear a catastrophe is unfolding” and council action is overdue.”The council’s voice matters on this issue,” Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason said. “Today, finally, we meet publicly, and all council members have an opportunity to send a clear message to the parties on the ground: This conflict must end. Humanitarian needs must be urgently addressed.”The three African members of the council — Kenya, Niger and Tunisia — along with the Caribbean nation St. Vincent and the Grenadines, called on the council to act responsibly and to listen to Africa when it comes to African issues.”In our view, dialogue is strength, and it is at the core of the African identity,” Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani said on behalf of the group. “Embrace it and save the precious lives of the people of Tigray to protect your national peace and once again be an anchor of regional security.”Ethiopia’s envoy Taye Atske-Selassie told the council his government had made a “difficult political decision” to suspend the military operation in favor of protecting the state. But now it believes it has created the conditions for unhindered humanitarian assistance and for farmers to plant this season.Fighting between the Ethiopian federal government and the TPLF broke out in November, leaving thousands of civilians dead and forcing more than 2 million people from their homes. Some 60,000 refugees crossed to neighboring Sudan.Troops from Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor to the north, and Amhara, a neighboring region to the south of Tigray, also entered the conflict in support of the Ethiopian government.  The U.N. said Friday that the Eritreans had withdrawn to the border and the Amhara regional force remained in place despite advances by the Tigrayan forces. 
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A ransomware attack paralyzed the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies on Friday, according to a cybersecurity researcher whose company was responding to the incident. The REvil gang, a major Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate, appears to be behind the attack, said John Hammond of the security firm Huntress Labs. He said the criminals targeted a software supplier called Kaseya, using its network management package as a conduit to spread the ransomware through cloud service providers. Other researchers agreed with Hammond’s assessment. “Kaseya handles large enterprise all the way to small businesses globally, so ultimately, [this] has the potential to spread to any size or scale business,” Hammond said in a direct message on Twitter. “This is a colossal and devastating supply chain attack.” Such cyberattacks typically infiltrate widely used software and spread malware as it updates automatically. It was not immediately clear how many Kaseya customers might be affected or who they might be. Kaseya urged customers in a statement on its website to immediately shut down servers running the affected software. It said the attack was limited to a “small number” of its customers. Brett Callow, a ransomware expert at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said he was unaware of any previous ransomware supply-chain attack on this scale. There have been others, but they were fairly minor, he said. “This is SolarWinds with ransomware,” he said. He was referring to a Russian cyberespionage hacking campaign discovered in December that spread by infecting network management software to infiltrate U.S. federal agencies and scores of corporations. Cybersecurity researcher Jake Williams, president of Rendition Infosec, said he was already working with six companies hit by the ransomware. It’s no accident that this happened before the Fourth of July weekend, when IT staffing is generally thin, he added. “There’s zero doubt in my mind that the timing here was intentional,” he said. Hammond of Huntress said he was aware of four managed-services providers — companies that host IT infrastructure for multiple customers — being hit by the ransomware, which encrypts networks until the victims pay off attackers. He said thousand of computers were hit. “We currently have three Huntress partners who are impacted with roughly 200 businesses that have been encrypted,” Hammond said. Hammond wrote on Twitter: “Based on everything we are seeing right now, we strongly believe this [is] REvil/Sodinikibi.” The FBI linked the same ransomware provider to a May attack on JBS SA, a major global meat processor. The White House and the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency did not immediately return messages seeking comment. 
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Officials on Friday hunted for any missing residents of a British Columbia town destroyed by wildfire as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered federal assistance.The province’s Coroner’s Service said it had received reports of two deaths related to the fire but had not been able to send coroners in to confirm because “the area is still unsafe to attend.” It said it planned to send them in on Saturday.The roughly 1,000 residents of Lytton had to abandon their homes with just a few minutes’ notice Wednesday evening after suffering the previous day under a record high of 49.6 Celsius (121.2 Fahrenheit).Officials said it was unclear whether anyone remained in the village 150 kilometers (95 miles) northeast of Vancouver because cell service was out and it wasn’t safe to enter most of the area.”We do know there are some people who are unaccounted for,” said Mike Farnworth, the province’s public safety minister, though he said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Red Cross were working to locate people.The main wireless provider for the area, Telus Corp., said Friday that it had deployed emergency communications equipment to help authorities and emergency crews dealing with the wildfires.Meanwhile, a woman who escaped the fire said she didn’t even have time to put shoes on before fleeing.Fast flamesThe Canadian Press reported that Noeleen McQuary-Budde said her husband stepped out of the house and returned moments later, screaming that a fire was upon them and they had to leave.She said black smoke was pouring down the village’s main street and fire seemed to be coming from all directions as they drove out of town with 11 other people piled in the back of their pickup.”The whole village of Lytton went up in, I would say, 10 minutes,” she said. “We were watching it burn and just thanking Creator that we got out.”The couple spent the night on the field of a recreation center in nearby Lillooet with their dog, Daisy.In Ottawa, Trudeau pledged that the federal government would “help rebuild and help people come through this.”Trudeau said he had spoken with British Columbia Premier John Horgan and John Haugen, acting chief of the Lytton First Nation, and planned to convene an emergency response group.Another wildfire threat at Kamloops, 355 kilometers (220 miles) northeast of Vancouver, forced an evacuation of about 200 people Thursday night, but officials said they could return Friday.Kamloops recorded a record high temperature this week of 47.3 Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) but it had cooled to around 32 (90) on Friday.”I can’t imagine what the firefighters are going through working in these conditions,” said Noelle Kekula, a fire information officer for the British Columbia Wildfire Service. “We are up for a real battle.”The Wildfire Service said at least 106 fires were burning across the province, including dozens that started within just the past two days.
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The U.N. Security Council is set to hold its first public discussion of the situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on Friday, as humanitarian groups attempt to resume and expand aid deliveries to millions of people in dire need in the embattled area.The 15-nation Security Council will meet later Friday (7pm GMT) to be briefed on developments by the U.N.’s department of political and peacebuilding affairs and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Ethiopia’s envoy is also expected to participate in the meeting.On Monday, the Ethiopian government announced an immediate, unilateral cease-fire, after nearly eight months of fighting with Tigrayan forces. Tigrayan forces reclaimed control of Mekelle after Ethiopian government forces withdrew.The French ambassador to the United Nations Nicolas de Riviere talks to reporters before a Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters, Jan. 3, 2020.“It’s a significant change, so it may be the beginning of a different phase,” said France’s U.N. Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere, who is president of the council this month.The U.N. said following the truce that an unpredictable calm had taken hold in major towns including the regional capital Mekelle, as well as Adigrat, Adwa, Axum and Shire. There were unconfirmed reports of clashes in the southern and northwestern zones. “Electricity and telecommunications are still cut off throughout the region,” Eri Kaneko, a U.N. spokesperson, told reporters on Thursday. “There are no flights or road transportation in or out of the region.”Getting aid inMeanwhile, aid organizations trying to reach millions of people in dire need of food aid have had their operations blocked or halted by fighting and armed actors who have not allowed them to pass. The U.N. said two critical bridges over the Tekeze river connecting the Western Zone and the rest of Tigray were destroyed on Thursday and were unusable.In a situation report Friday, the U.N. humanitarian office said its partners “are currently assessing the implications of recent events with the view of resuming relief operations as soon as possible, particularly in hard-to-reach areas that would have become more accessible.”Some six million people live in the Tigray region. The United Nations says more than five million of them are in need of emergency food assistance, and another 350,000 are coping with faminelike conditions after of eight months of fighting.On Tuesday, USAID official Sarah Charles told U.S. lawmakers that the number of people in faminelike conditions is closer to one million, and warned that without scaled-up aid deliveries, “we will likely see widespread famine in Ethiopia this year.” Despite the continuing challenges, some limited assistance has gotten through.The U.N. said as of June 22 it had reached about 3.7 million people in Tigray with food aid, out of a targeted 5.2 million.   For its part, the World Food Program said Friday it has resumed operations in Tigray after suspending them due to fighting on June 24. On Thursday the food agency reached 13,000 displaced people in two areas, many of whom are suffering from malnutrition. WFP hopes to reach 30,000 more people in northwest Tigray in the coming two days.“We have the teams on ground, trucks loaded and ready to go to meet the catastrophic food needs in the region,” said Tommy Thompson, WFP’s Emergency Coordinator in Mekelle. “What we need now is free, unfettered access and secure passage guaranteed by all parties to the conflict so we can deliver food safely.”Overall, WFP says it is targeting 2.1 million people with emergency food assistance in the northwestern and southern zones of Tigray. So far aid has reached 1.7 million people in two rounds of deliveries.The United Nations has appealed for $854 million to assist 5.2 million people until the end of this year, with almost $200 million needed before the end of July.Fighting between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) broke out in November, leaving thousands of civilians dead and forcing more than 2 million people from their homes.Troops from Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor to the north, and Amhara, a neighboring region to the south of Tigray, also entered the conflict in support of the Ethiopian government.  
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Russia recently sent a group of 600 military instructors to the Central African Republic to train the army, police, and national gendarmerie, Russia’s foreign ministry said Friday.Moscow is in the spotlight after a United Nations report, seen by Reuters Tuesday, said Russian military instructors and local troops had targeted civilians with excessive force, indiscriminate killings, occupation of schools and large-scale looting.The Kremlin has said it is a lie that Russian instructors had taken part in killings or robberies.Russia notified the United Nations Security Council of the deployment of the 600 instructors, Russia’s foreign ministry told Reuters in a statement Friday. It did not say when exactly they arrived.Moscow has been jockeying for influence in the troubled African nation with France, which has around 300 troops there. The gold and diamond-rich country of 4.7 million people is mired in violence.Moscow’s latest deployment of instructors comes after it said it had sent 175 instructors to CAR to train the army at the request of the local authorities in 2018, a number that subsequently grew to 235. Another batch of 300 were sent ahead of last December’s elections to train local troops, it said.”The Russian specialists will continue their work based on the needs of the official authorities of the CAR, taking into account CAR’s leadership as well as the ongoing clashes between regular CAR troops and militants,” the foreign ministry said.It said that the instructors would not themselves be involved in combat operations against illegal groups.”The goals of achieving a lasting settlement and ensuring security in the country cannot be met without effective support for the CAR authorities in enhancing the combat capabilities of the national armed forces and law enforcement agencies,” it said.
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Elsa strengthened into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season on Friday as it battered the eastern Caribbean, where officials closed schools, businesses and airports, and it appeared headed eventually for Florida or the U.S. Gulf Coast.Heavy rains and winds lashed Barbados as the Category 1 storm headed for islands including St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which are struggling to recover from recent massive volcanic eruptions.Elsa was located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of St. Vincent and was moving west-northwest at 28 mph (44 kph). It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.”That level of sustained wind can blow down a lot of buildings and cause a lot of damage,” said St. Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. “I am pleading with you. Let us not take this hurricane lightly. This is not the time to play the fool.”A hurricane warning was in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.The long-term track showed the storm rolling toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti as a hurricane before weakening back to tropical storm force and potentially heading in the direction of Florida by early Tuesday.  Authorities opened dozens of shelters in St. Vincent and urged people to evacuate if they lived near a valley, given the threat of flash flooding, mudslides and lahars, especially in the northern part of the island where La Soufrière volcano is located.”Do not wait until it’s too late to go to a shelter,” Gonsalves said.He said 94 shelters are open, a smaller number than in previous years because some 2,000 people remain in other shelters following massive volcanic eruptions that began in early April.A tropical storm warning was in effect for Martinique, the southern coast of Dominican Republic from Cabo Engano to the border with Haiti and the entire coast of Haiti. A tropical storm watch was in effect for Grenada, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Dominica and Jamaica, while a hurricane watch was in effect for Haiti’s southern region from the capital, Port-au-Prince, to the southern border with the Dominican Republic.Elsa is the earliest fifth-named storm on record, beating out last year’s Eduardo which formed on July 6, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.Elsa was expected to pass near the southern coast of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, on Saturday. The storm was then expected to move near Jamaica and portions of eastern Cuba on Sunday.The storm was forecast to bring 3 to 6 inches (7 to 15 centimeters) of rain with maximum totals of 10 inches (25 centimeters) inches on Friday across the Windward and southern Leeward Islands, including Barbados. The rain could unleash isolated flash flooding and mudslides.
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Many of the dead were found alone, in homes without air conditioning or fans. Some were elderly — one as old as 97. The body of an immigrant farm laborer was found in an Oregon nursery.As forecasters warned of a record-breaking heat wave in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada last weekend, officials set up cooling centers, distributed water to the homeless and took other steps. Still, hundreds of people are believed to have died from Friday to Tuesday.An excessive heat warning remained in effect for parts of the interior Northwest and western Canada Thursday.The death toll in Oregon alone reached 79, the Oregon state medical examiner said Thursday, with most occurring in Multnomah County, which encompasses Portland.  In Canada, British Columbia’s chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, said her office received reports of at least 486 “sudden and unexpected deaths” between Friday and Wednesday afternoon. Normally, she said about 165 people would die in the province over a five-day period.She said it was too soon to say with certainty how many deaths were heat related, but that it was likely the heat was behind most of them.More Than 100 Deaths May Be Tied to Heat Wave in NW North AmericaCanada recorded its all-time high temperature of 47.9 degrees MondayWashington state authorities have linked more than 20 deaths to the heat, but authorities said that number was likely to rise.In Oregon’s Multnomah County, the average victim’s age was 67 and the oldest was 97, according to county Health Officer Jennifer Vines.In a telephone interview Thursday, Vines said she had been worried about fatalities amid the weather forecasts. Authorities tried to prepare as best they could, turning nine air-conditioned county libraries into cooling centers.  Between Friday and Monday, 7,600 people cooled off amid the stacks of books. Others went to three more cooling centers. Nearly 60 teams sought out homeless people, offering water and electrolytes.“We scoured the county with outreach efforts, with calls to building managers of low-income housing to be checking on their residents,” Vines said.  But the efforts weren’t enough, she said: “It’s been really sobering to see these initial (fatality) numbers come out.”Oregon Office of Emergency Management Director Andrew Phelps agreed. “Learning of the tragic loss of life as a result of the recent heat wave is heartbreaking. As an emergency manager – and Oregonian – it is devastating that people were unable to access the help they needed during an emergency,” he said.Among the dead was a farm laborer who collapsed Saturday and was found by fellow workers at a nursery in rural St. Paul, Oregon. The workers had been moving irrigation lines, said Aaron Corvin, spokesman for the state’s worker safety agency, Oregon Occupational Safety and Health, or Oregon OSHA.Oregon OSHA, whose database listed the death as heat-related, is investigating labor contractor Andres Pablo Lucas and Ernst Nursery and Farms, which did not respond to a request for comment. Pablo Lucas declined to comment Thursday.Farm worker Pedro Lucas said the man who died was his uncle, Sebastian Francisco Perez, from Ixcan, Guatemala. He had turned 38 the day before he died.Lucas, who is cousins with the labor contractor, was summoned to the scene. But by the time he arrived, his uncle was unconscious and dying. An ambulance crew tried to revive him but failed. Lucas said Perez was used to working in the heat and that the family is awaiting an autopsy report.Reyna Lopez, executive director of a northwest farmworkers’ union, known by its Spanish-language initials, PCUN, called the death “shameful” and faulted both Oregon OSHA for not adopting emergency rules ahead of the heat wave, and the nursery.Corvin said Oregon OSHA is “exploring adopting emergency requirements, and we continue to engage in discussions with labor and employer stakeholders.”He added that employers are obligated to provide ample water, shade, additional breaks and training about heat hazards.An executive order issued in March 2020 by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown would formalize protecting workers from heat, but it is coming too late for the dead farmworker. Brown’s order focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and also tells the Oregon Health Authority and Oregon OSHA to jointly propose standards to protect workers from excessive heat and wildfire smoke.  They had until June 30 to submit the proposals, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the two agencies requested the deadline be pushed back to September.In Bend, Oregon, a scenic town next to the snowy Cascade Range, the bodies of two men were found Sunday on a road where dozens of homeless people stay in trailers and tents.  Volunteer Luke Richter said he stepped into the trailer where one of the men, Alonzo “Lonnie” Boardman, was found.“It was very obviously too late. It was basically a microwave in there,” Richter told Oregon Public Broadcasting.  Cooling stations had been set up at the campsite on Saturday, with water, sports drinks and ice available.  Weather experts say the number of heat waves are only likely to rise in the Pacific Northwest, a region normally known for cool, rainy weather, with a few hot, sunny days mixed in, and where many people don’t have air conditioning.“I think the community has to be realistic that we are going to be having this as a more usual occurrence and not a one-off, and that we need to be preparing as a community,” said Dr. Steven Mitchell of Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, which treated an unprecedented number of severe heat-related cases. “We need to be really augmenting our disaster response.”This week’s heat wave was caused by what meteorologists described as a dome of high pressure over the Northwest and worsened by human-caused climate change, which is making such extreme weather events more likely and more intense.  Seattle, Portland and many other cities broke all-time heat records, with temperatures in some places reaching above 46 Celsius. 
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The three women were enjoying their time together, having lunch near the beach at Capalbio on the Southern Tuscan coast just over an hour’s drive from Rome. A long winter and spring of lockdowns and restrictions in their northern alpine town of Bolzano had kept grandmother, mother and daughter apart for months on end.“Can I tell them how you are the brightest in your class, the most beautiful and the kindest?” the grandmother asked her 17-year-old granddaughter.“The lockdowns were hard — I didn’t see them for months on end. At least I have a beautiful view of the mountains from my apartment, but it was hard. I live alone,” she added. Now reunited, the three generations of women were delighted to be sharing each other’s company once again on a vacation they hope will exorcise the ghost of the pandemic past.Italy’s coastal beaches are now packed again — so too are the lake shores — with vacationers breathing a sigh of relief at their escape from pandemic confinement.There is a sense of normality now, boosted by the Italian government’s decision last month to drop most coronavirus-related rules and to lift rules on mask-wearing outside, although masks are still required on public transport and indoors in stores. A nighttime curfew has been phased out; and al fresco dining is allowed with few restrictions at restaurants.With more than 30% of Italians fully vaccinated, confidence has returned. The seven-day average of new cases is below 700 a day. Twenty-four Italians died Thursday because of COVID-19, the illness triggered by the coronavirus.That is a far cry from the daily death toll at the height of the pandemic, when Italy became the first Western country to be hit with the full impact of the coronavirus.Youngsters are partying again — possibly too much. Across the country, from small towns to large, complaints have risen about the after-dark carousing by young and drunk post-pandemic revelers. Newspapers have nicknamed the phenomena malamovida, or bad nightlife.“Old people complain, but they don’t understand, we have been locked up for months and now we want coming-out parties,” Ricardo, a 19-year-old, from Viterbo, a town on the outskirts of Rome, told VOA. Older people say they do understand, but that they need undisturbed sleep.Two women take a selfie at the Spanish Steps in Rome, June 28, 2021.Behind the vacationing and partying, though, there are fears that the feel-good narrative could be undermined by the delta variant, a coronavirus strain first identified in India.Speaking in Rome on Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi issued the latest in a string of cautions, saying, “After months of isolation and separation, we have resumed much of our social interactions. The economy and education have restarted. We must be realistic, however. The pandemic is not over.”Like his counterparts in neighboring European countries Draghi, is watching a ‘delta’ wave of infections, fearful that numbers will rise exponentially, much as they have in Britain, which has seen a remorseless increase in new cases. The number of daily and weekly cases in England has hit its highest level since January, and Thursday saw another 27,989 new coronavirus cases across Britain, according to health authorities.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson still plans to drop most remaining pandemic restrictions on July 19, having delayed a planned full reopening by more than two weeks. Because so many Britons have been vaccinated, the relationship, ministers say, between cases and worse-case outcomes and deaths has improved dramatically. So far, more than 44.8 million Britons have had a first vaccine dose — about 85% of the adult population — and more than 33 million have had both doses.While infections in the U.K. now match the tally of January, deaths do not. COVID-19-related deaths in January were running at more than 1,000 daily, but in Britain on Thursday there were just 22 deaths. Nonetheless, there remains nervousness, and the government’s scientific advisers are urging caution.Visitors ride a roller coaster at Cinecitta World amusement park in the outskirts of Rome in the day of its reopening, June 17, 2021.Johnson said Thursday he was still aiming to remove nearly all lockdown restrictions. On July 19, “we’ll be wanting to go back to a world that is as close to the status quo, ante-COVID, as possible. Try to get back to life as close to it was before COVID,” he said. “But there may be some things we have to do, extra precautions that we have to take.”The government is likely next week to announce more countries Britons will be allowed to travel to without having to quarantine on their return. However, several of the countries already on Britain’s green list of “safe” countries to visit aren’t enthusiastic about admitting British travelers, with even some tourist-dependent southern European countries insisting only those double-vaccinated will be allowed in.German Chancellor Angela Merkel Merkel has been calling for European Union member states, which are far behind Britain in terms of their vaccination campaigns, to agree to a ban on travelers from Britain entering the bloc regardless of their vaccination status. Merkel has blamed British tourists for the jump in delta variant infections in Portugal.The World Health Organization has also highlighted the danger of a delta wave engulfing Europe.On Thursday, Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, warned in a press briefing that a decline in the number of infections in the region is coming to an end.“A 10-week decline in the number of COVID-19 cases in the 53 countries in the WHO European region has come to an end. Last week the number of cases rose by 10%, driven by increased mixing, travel, gatherings and an easing of social restrictions,” he said.Kluge warned that millions of unvaccinated Europeans remain highly vulnerable to the delta variant, which data suggests is far more transmissible than other strains. He said by August the delta variant will be the dominant strain in Europe, where 63% of people are still waiting for their first shot.
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The United States and Britain are sounding another alarm about Russian activity in cyberspace, accusing the Kremlin of repeatedly trying to smash its way into the critical systems of government agencies, defense contractors, universities, and even political parties.A joint advisory Thursday from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain’s National Cyber Security Center said Russian military intelligence has been carrying out a “brute force” campaign since 2019 – getting a hold of credentials, like email logins, and then guessing passwords to gain entry. “After gaining remote access, many well-known tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) are combined to move laterally, evade defenses, and collect additional information within target networks,” the advisory said.The advisory noted that Russia’s GRU has successfully targeted hundreds of U.S. and foreign organizations, as well as various U.S. government agencies, such as the Department of Defense.Russia “directed a significant amount of this activity at organizations using Microsoft Office 365 cloud services; however, they also targeted other service providers & on-premises email servers,” according to the advisory. “These efforts are almost certainly still ongoing.”Elements of the campaign have previously been attributed to Russian cyber actors known as Fancy Bear, APT28 or Strontium, it said.U.S. officials urged agencies and organizations to take basic precautions as a first step in fighting back.“You can counter it by using strong authentication measures,” NSA Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce tweeted Thursday. “Adding multi-factor authentication will go a long way in remediating the threat.”The new advisory follows a string of high-profile hacks and ransomware attacks, including last December’s hack of SolarWinds, a U.S.-based software management company, which exposed as many as 18,000 customers to Russian hackers, and the ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline operator in the U.S.U.S. intelligence agencies have said the SolarWinds hack was part of a Russian operation, although cybersecurity experts say it was carried out by Russia’s foreign intelligence service and not the GRU.U.S. officials have previously blamed the GRU for targeting the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 elections and for targeting pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines against the coronavirus.“This is a good reminder that the GRU remains a looming threat,” John Hultquist, the vice president of analysis at the cyber security firm Mandiant Threat Intelligence, said in a statement Thursday.Hultquist added the advisory was “especially important given the coming Olympics, an event they may well attempt to disrupt.” But he also warned that, “Despite our best efforts we are very unlikely to ever stop Moscow from spying.”Some U.S. lawmakers have called for mandatory reporting requirements for companies hit by major hacks, ransomware attacks and other types of breaches, saying it will help the government respond more effectively to cyber intrusions.The nation’s new national cyber director, Chris Inglis, has also warned that while too many malign actors are operating with impunity in cyberspace, many private sector companies have likewise failed to take the necessary precautions.“It may well be we need to step in and we need to regulate or mandate in the same way we’ve done that for the aviation industry or the automobile industry,” Inglis told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing last month.  
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Britain’s Prince William and Prince Harry unveiled a statue to their late mother Princess Diana in a ceremony Thursday at London’s Kensington Palace, on what would have been her 60th birthday. It’s the first time the brothers have met each other since the funeral of their grandfather, Prince Philip, in April.Prince Harry flew to London last week from the United States, where he moved with his American wife, Meghan Markle, and their son Archie, after quitting royal duties last year. Meghan gave birth to a daughter, Lilibet Diana, last month.William, who is 39, and Harry, 36, unveiled the statue in a ceremony in the sunken gardens of Kensington Palace, Princess Diana’s London home. They were joined by a small group of guests, including Diana’s brother Charles Spencer and the sculptor, Ian Rank-Broadley.The two brothers did not speak publicly at the ceremony. In a statement they said, “Today, on what would have been our mother’s 60th birthday, we remember her love, strength and character — qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better.”“Every day, we wish she were still with us, and our hope is that this statue will be seen forever as a symbol of her life and her legacy.”A view of a statue commissioned by Britain’s Prince William and Prince Harry of their mother Princess Diana, on what woud have been her 60th birthday, London, July 1, 2021.The statue depicts Diana surrounded by three children, which Kensington Palace said represented “the universality and generational impact” of her work.The location of the statue in the sunken gardens of Kensington Palace is poignant, says royal author Richard Fitzwilliams. “She found it a particularly peaceful spot, so this particular place has been chosen as one that she would have approved of.”Britain took Princess Diana into their hearts after her marriage to Prince Charles in 1981, says Penny Junor, a biographer of the royal family.“Diana was the fairy tale princess, you know, when she married Charles, the whole country bought into the fairy tale. She was this beautiful young girl marrying her prince and she was an extraordinary woman. She was vulnerable in a way that members of the royal family never had been vulnerable before. We hadn’t seen it. She touched people’s hearts,” Junor told Reuters.“She went about her royal work in a very different way. She would sit on a hospital bed and take people’s hands in hers, whereas the traditional way of visiting a hospital would be, you know, probably gloved hands and certainly not sitting down on a bed but standing and talking. She just brought a very personal touch and people loved that,” Junor added.The unconditional love and affection she showed for her sons broke royal traditions – but touched the hearts of millions around the world. She combined motherhood with glamour, traditional royal duties with a dedication to charity.“I do think it’s important that there be a proper tribute to Princess Diana,” royal author Fitzwilliams told VOA. “She had a truly extraordinary life, and indeed her reaching out to AIDS sufferers and also her campaign against landmines are titanic achievements. If you consider the way also that the British people took her so much to their hearts and the outpouring of grief when she tragically died.”“I mean there was no question that she was someone who was deeply personally unhappy and a very complex individual but achieved so much in a very, very short life,” said Fitzwilliams.Diana and Prince Charles divorced in 1996. She died in a Paris car crash a year later, which also killed her fiancé, Dodi Al Fayed.Britain’s Prince William, right, and Prince Harry speak with garden designer Pip Morrison during the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales, July 1, 2021.Britain, a nation once famed for its reserve and restraint, saw an outpouring of public emotion. At the funeral, William and Harry were made to walk behind the coffin in royal tradition – an experience that Harry says left deep mental scars, says Fitzwilliams.“I think it was devastating for both of them but there’s no doubt that Harry was affected — as he’s spoken so publicly to help others as well who suffered with their mental health — for some 20 years.”Speaking in May to U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey on the Apple TV+ series The Me You Can’t See, Prince Harry described the royal family’s unwillingness to talk about his mother’s death and how he had been willing to turn to alcohol and drugs to cope with the pain of losing her.Twenty-four years on from Diana’s death, the royal family is engulfed in a new crisis. William and Harry and their wives, Kate and Meghan, once dubbed the fab four and seen as the youthful future of the institution, have fallen out very publicly.In a separate interview with Winfrey, broadcast in March, Harry and Meghan — whose mother is Black — said a member of the royal family had questioned the color of their son’s skin. They spoke of their deep unhappiness in the royal household.There have been numerous claims that Meghan was accused of bullying her staff, which she has denied.Diana’s two sons now rarely speak to each other, said biographer Junor.“I think it’s incredibly sad that this statue was a joint project to celebrate the life of their mother that they both adored and they both miss and it’s turning instead into — the eyes of the world will be looking at those two boys to see what the state of their relationship is,” she told Reuters.Outside Kensington Palace Thursday, royal fans expressed their hopes for the family.“I’m so excited about seeing the statue,” said Anne Daley, a royal fan who had travelled from Wales. “And I do hope that William and Harry can put (aside) their differences … I squabble with my sister, but, you know, whatever you say, you’re still flesh and blood.”Royal analysts say William and Harry are now on very different paths.For a brief moment Thursday, in the grounds of their childhood home, they were able to reflect together on an upbringing filled with a mother’s love for her boys; childhoods transformed through tragedy, played out in the public eye.This report includes information from Reuters.
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German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Thursday the Union of European Football Associations’ (UEFA) decision to hold its tournament in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic was “absolutely irresponsible.”German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer gestures at a joint news conference with the health minister on the COVID-19 situation and entry regulation for Germany’s borders, in Berlin, July 1, 2021.The Euro Cup 2020 tournament has been underway for about two weeks, with games held throughout Europe. The semifinal and championship rounds are scheduled to be played in Britain’s Wembley Stadium next week with at least 60,000 spectators expected. With COVID-19 restrictions varying from nation-to-nation, crowd sizes for the tournament have ranged from completely full — 60,000 in Budapest — to 25-45% capacity in other venues where there have often been around 10,000-15,000 spectators, Reuters reports.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 3 MB480p | 4 MB540p | 5 MB720p | 14 MB1080p | 22 MBOriginal | 103 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThousands of Soccer Fans March to Hungary’s Euro 2020 Clash Against FranceDuring Thursday’s COVID-19 briefing in Berlin, along with German Health Minister Jens Spahn, Seehofer said living during the pandemic, especially in Britain where the highly contagious delta variant has caused surges in new cases, taking precautions against contact and maintaining hygiene regulations are “indispensable.” Spahn said nations like Britain, where a high number of people have received only the first of two vaccinations, the delta variant has led to an increase in infections. He said he expects the variant to be the dominant strain Germany by the end of July, accounting for as much as 80% of all new infections.Seehofer said he suspects the decision to hold the tournament was more about commerce than protection and urged the UEFA “not to push off” the decision to limit crowd sizes at their matches on local hosts and instead make the decision themselves. Earlier this week the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, called on the UEFA to “carefully analyze” its decision regarding next week’s finals at Wembley. Some information is from The Associated Press, Reuters.
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More than 100 deaths in the Pacific Northwest of North America may have been caused by hyperthermia, authorities in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia said, as the region experienced record-shattering high temperatures this week.Oregon officials said Wednesday that at least 63 people throughout the state — 45 of them in Multnomah County — died in connection to the high temperatures.According to the county’s health officer, Multnomah County, which includes Portland, the state’s largest city, recorded only 12 deaths from hyperthermia between 2017 and 2019.Portland and Seattle both recorded temperatures as high as 46 degrees Celsius since Friday.In Vancouver, Canada, police said they had responded to at least 65 sudden deaths since Friday. Authorities across the region have warned that death tolls could rise as investigations continue into the causes.On Sunday, Lytton, British Columbia, set Canada’s all-time high temperature, 46.6 degrees Celsius, only to see it broken less than 24 hours later, hitting 47.9 C Monday.Though temperatures in larger coastal cities had cooled Wednesday, residents inland were seeing less of a decline.The U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization said the extreme heat was caused by “an atmospheric blocking pattern,” which had led to a “heat dome” — a large area of high pressure trapped by low pressure on either side. The organization had said the temperatures would likely peak early this week on the coast and by the middle of the week in the interior of British Columbia. Afterward, the baking heat was expected to move east toward Alberta.By late Wednesday afternoon, Vancouver, B.C., was at a much cooler 24 C.As extreme temperatures have increased fears of wildfires this week, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that western U.S. states suffering from drought will receive more help from the federal government.This article contains information from The Associated Press.  
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A Canadian Indigenous group said Wednesday a search using ground-penetrating radar has found 182 human remains in unmarked graves at a site near a former Catholic Church-run residential school that housed Indigenous children taken from their families.The latest discovery of graves near Cranbrook, British Columbia, follows reports of similar findings at two other such church-run schools, one of more than 600 unmarked graves and another of 215 bodies. Cranbrook is 843 kilometers east of Vancouver.The Lower Kootenay Band said in a news release that it began using the technology last year to search the site close to the former St. Eugene’s Mission School, which was operated by the Catholic Church from 1912 until the early 1970s. It said the search found the remains in unmarked graves, some about a meter deep.It’s believed the remains are those of people from the bands of the Ktunaxa nation, which includes the Lower Kootenay Band, and other neighboring First Nation communities.Chief Jason Louie of the Lower Kootenay Band, which is also a member of the Ktunaxa Nation, called the discovery “deeply personal” since he had relatives attend the school.”Let’s call this for what it is,” Louie told CBC radio in an interview. “It’s a mass murder of Indigenous people.””The Nazis were held accountable for their war crimes. I see no difference in locating the priests and nuns and the brothers who are responsible for this mass murder to be held accountable for their part in this attempt of genocide of an Indigenous people.”From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Thousands of children died there of disease and other causes, with many never returned to their families.Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, with others operated by the Presbyterian, Anglican and the United Church of Canada, which today is the largest Protestant denomination in the country.A vigil takes place where ground-penetrating radar recorded hits of what are believed to be 751 unmarked graves near the grounds of the former Marieval Indian Residential School on the Cowessess First Nation, Saskatchewan, June 26, 2021.The Canadian government has acknowledged that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.Last week the Cowessess First Nation, located about 135 kilometers east of the Saskatchewan capital of Regina, said investigators found “at least 600” unmarked graves at the site of a former Marieval Indian Residential School.Last month, the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, were found buried on the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school near Kamloops, British Columbia.Prior to news of the most recent finding, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he has asked that the national flag on the Peace Tower remain at half-mast for Canada Day on Thursday to honor the Indigenous children who died in residential schools.On Tuesday, it was announced that a group of Indigenous leaders will visit the Vatican later this year to press for a papal apology for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in residential schools.The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said Indigenous leaders will visit the Vatican from Dec. 17-20 to meet with Pope Francis and “foster meaningful encounters of dialogue and healing.”After the graves were found in Kamloops, the pope expressed his pain over the discovery and pressed religious and political authorities to shed light on “this sad affair.” But he didn’t offer the apology sought by First Nations and the Canadian government.The leader of one of Canada’s largest Indigenous groups says there are no guarantees an Indigenous delegation travelling to the Vatican will lead to Pope Francis apologizing in Canada.FILE – In this June 6, 2021, photo, Pope Francis speaks from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican to a crowd of faithful and pilgrims gathered for the Sunday Angelus noon prayer.Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde confirmed that assembly representatives will join Metis and Inuit leaders making the trip to the Vatican in late December.”There are no guarantees of any kind of apology” from the pope, said Bellegarde.”The Anglican Church has apologized,” he told a virtual news conference. “The Presbyterian Church has apologized. United Church has apologized.””This is really part of truth and part of the healing and reconciliation process for survivors to hear the apology from the highest position within the Roman Catholic Church, which is the pope.”Louie said he wants more concrete action than apologies.”I’m really done with the government and churches saying they are sorry,” he said. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”A papal apology was one of 94 recommendations from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but the Canadian bishops conference said in 2018 that the pope could not personally apologize for the residential schools.Since the discovery of unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools, there have been several fires at churches across Canada. There has also been some vandalism targeting churches and statues in cities.Four small Catholic churches on Indigenous lands in rural southern British Columbia have been destroyed by suspicious fires and a vacant former Anglican church in northwestern B.C. was recently damaged in what RCMP said could be arson.On Wednesday, Alberta’s premier condemned what he calls “arson attacks at Christian churches” after a historic parish was destroyed in a fire.”Today in Morinville, l’église de Saint-Jean-Baptiste was destroyed in what appears to have been a criminal act of arson,” Kenney said in a statement.RCMP said officers were called to the suspicious blaze at St. John Baptiste Parish in Morinville, about 40 kilometers north of Edmonton, in the early hours of Wednesday. 
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Several countries have imposed restrictions on travelers from Britain amid rising cases of the delta variant of the coronavirus. Scientists say the delta mutation is more infectious and now makes up around 95 percent of new cases in Britain. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Chef José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen were awarded a prestigious Spanish prize Wednesday for their international relief work promoting healthy food.The jury that decides the Princess of Asturias Awards gave Andrés, 51, and the nonprofit group he founded the Award of Concord for “offering extraordinarily fast and efficient on-the-ground response to social and nutritional emergencies.”Born in northern Spain in 1969, Andrés moved to the U.S. in 1991 and was later naturalized as an American citizen. He helped popularize Spanish cuisine, especially the tapa, in the U.S. before he also became heavily involved in humanitarian work.Andrés founded the World Central Kitchen in 2010 following a trip to Haiti to do aid work. Since then, it has been active in deploying field kitchens to respond to food crises both in the United States and abroad. The organization served over 3.6 million meals in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017. Last year, Andrés dedicated some of his own restaurants in the U.S. to help feed people in need during the coronavirus pandemic.A recipient of many honors, Andrés was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama in 2015.The 50,000-euro ($56,700) Princess of Asturias Award of Concord is one of eight prizes, including for the arts, social sciences and sports, handed out annually by a foundation named for Spanish Crown Princess Leonor.
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They were once so close.Princes William and Harry grew up together, supported each other after their mother’s untimely death and worked side by side as they began their royal duties — two brothers seemingly bonded for life by blood, tradition and tragedy.But those links are now painfully strained as William sits in London defending the royal family from allegations of racism and insensitivity made by Harry and his wife, Meghan, from their new home in Southern California.Royal watchers will be looking closely for any signs of a truce — or deepening rift — on Thursday when William and Harry unveil a statue of their mother, Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday. The event in the Sunken Garden at London’s Kensington Palace will be their second public meeting since Harry and Meghan stepped away from royal duties over a year ago.A display to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Britain’s Diana, Princess of Wales, a recreation of the desk where Princess Diana worked in her Sitting room at Kensington Palace, on display at Buckingham Palace in London, July 20, 2017.People shouldn’t expect a quick resolution of the conflict because the two men are fighting over core beliefs, says Robert Lacey, a historian and author of “Battle of Brothers: William, Harry and the Inside Story of a Family in Tumult.” William is defending the monarchy, and Harry is defending his wife.  “It’s a matter of love versus duty, with William standing for duty and the concept of the monarchy as he sees it,” Lacey said. “And then from Harry’s point of view, love, loyalty to his wife. He is standing by her. These are very deeply rooted differences, so it would be facile to think that there can just be a click of the fingers.”But finding some sort of rapprochement between the princes is crucial to the monarchy as Britain’s royal family seeks to appeal to a younger generation and a more diverse population.BBC Under Mounting Pressure Over Princess Diana InterviewThe public broadcaster has been plunged into a major crisis of trust after an inquiry found her participation was secured through deception, fraud and forgeryWhen Harry married Meghan just over three years ago, it seemed as if they would be central figures in that next chapter of the royal story.  The Fab Four — William and his wife, Kate, together with Harry and Meghan — were seen as a cadre of youth and vigor that would take the monarchy forward after the tumultuous 1990s and early 2000s, when divorce, Princess Diana’s death, and Prince Charles’ controversial second marriage to Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, cast doubt on the future of the institution.Meghan, a biracial former TV star from Los Angeles, was expected to be an important part of that effort, with Black and Asian commentators saying that for the first time there was a member of the royal family who looked like them.But the words “Fab Four” were quickly replaced in tabloid headlines by “Royal Rift.”  First, their joint royal office was dissolved. Then, Harry stepped away from royal duties and moved his family to North America in search of a more peaceful life. William pressed on with royal tasks, including goodwill events like accompanying his grandmother to Scotland this week to tour a soft drink factory.The relationship was further strained in March when Harry and Meghan gave an interview to U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey.  Harry confirmed rumors that he and his brother had been growing apart, saying “the relationship is ‘space’ at the moment” — though he added that “time heals all things, hopefully.” Harry also told Winfrey that his father, Prince Charles, didn’t accept his calls for a time.And then came the real shocker. The couple revealed that before the birth of their first child, an unidentified member of the royal family had expressed concern about how dark his skin might be. Days after the broadcast, William responded, telling reporters that his was “very much not a racist family.”But whatever their disagreements, out of respect for their mother, William and Harry won’t put their differences on display during the statue ceremony, said historian Ed Owens, author of “The Family Firm: Monarchy, Mass Media and the British Public 1932-1953,” which examines the royal family’s public relations strategy.”We’re not going to see any acrimony or animosity between the brothers on Thursday,” Owens said. “I think reconciliation is a long way off, but nevertheless these are expert performers. Harry and William have been doing this job for long enough now that they know that they’ve got to put, if you like, occasional private grievances … aside for the sake of getting on with the job.”Lacey believes William and Harry will ultimately reconcile because it is in both of their interests to do so.Harry and Meghan need to repair relations to protect the aura of royalty that has allowed them to sign the lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify that are funding their life in California, Lacey said. If they don’t, they risk becoming irrelevant like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, who were shunned by the royal family after the duke gave up the throne in the 1930s to marry an American divorcee. His brother, Queen Elizabeth II’s father, then became king.”It’s very appealing, particularly in America, the idea that they rebelled against this stuffy old British institution,” Lacey said. “But there’s a point they can’t go too far, and they’re approaching that point.””On William’s side, it is impossible to go on ostracizing, boycotting the only members of the royal family who are of mixed race in a multiracial world of diversity,” he added.The critical moment may be next year, when the queen celebrates her platinum jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne.Under normal circumstances for these big occasions, the queen would want the whole family together on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, where the royals have traditionally gathered to wave to the public.”Who’s going to be on the balcony at Buckingham Palace?” Lacey asked. “That family grouping has surely got to include Meghan and Harry and their two children, Archie and Lili, alongside their cousins, the children of William and Kate.”
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Germany has removed its last remaining soldiers from Afghanistan, ending almost two decades of deployment to the war-torn country alongside U.S. and other coalition troops.The United States and NATO plan to fully withdraw their militaries from the South Asian nation by September 11 in line with orders by U.S. President Joe Biden. The drawdown process formally started on May 1.Germany announced its military withdrawal without much fanfare shortly after the last 250 German soldiers were airlifted Tuesday night out of their base in northern Afghanistan.“After nearly 20 years of deployment, the last soldiers of our Bundeswehr have left Afghanistan this evening,” German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said in a statement she tweeted.“They are on their way home. A historic chapter comes to an end, an intensive deployment that challenged and shaped the Bundeswehr, in which the Bundeswehr proved itself in combat,” she wrote.The minister thanked the 150,000 German men and women who had been part of the mission in Afghanistan since 2001, saying they could be proud of their achievements.Germany has lost 59 troops, 39 of them in battles or insurgent attacks, during the course of their service, according to the German army. “You will not be forgotten,” said the German defense minister while paying tribute to those killed and wounded in service in Afghanistan.Germany still had about 1,100 soldiers in the country when Biden announced his withdrawal plans in mid-April. They were part of a non-combatant NATO-led military mission tasked to train, advise and assist Afghan soldiers battling the Taliban insurgency.A spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Security Council said while NATO countries are winding down their military missions, that does not mean bilateral state-to-state ties are also ending.“Afghanistan maintains close ties and cooperation with Germany. They have conducted extensive training of our police forces and that collaboration will continue,” said Rahmatullah Andar in a video statement.NATO’s senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, Stefano Pontecorvo, reassured Afghans of the alliance’s continued engagement as it completes the withdrawal of the military forces. “This is not the end of our partnership. Together, we are entering a new phase in our relationship,” Pontecorvo said in a vide message his official released. “The military may be leaving but my civilian office and myself will be staying and we are committed to supporting the Afghan security forces through financial assistance and through training.” Fighting has surged across Afghanistan since U.S.-led international forces began leaving. Taliban insurgents claim to have captured more than 100 of the country’s 419 districts within the past two months.Afghan commando forces are seen at the site of a battlefield where they clashed with Taliban insurgents in Kunduz province, Afghanistan, June 22, 2021.A spokesman for NATO’s Resolute Support mission told AFP the withdrawal of their forces is proceeding in an “orderly and coordinated manner.”The Taliban advances have raised fears they aim to regain control of Afghanistan by force once all international forces exit the country.The U.S.-led international coalition invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, just days after the terror strikes on American cities that killed nearly 3,000 people.The military invasion ousted the Islamist Taliban from power for sheltering al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his aides, whom the United States says plotted the carnage. The Taliban later launched a deadly insurgency against Afghan and foreign troops. Now, they currently control or hotly contest nearly half of Afghan territory.Armed men who are against Taliban uprising guard their check post, at the Ghorband District, Parwan Province, Afghanistan, June 29, 2021.The foreign military drawdown stems from a February 2020 deal Washington negotiated with the Taliban to end what has been the longest war in U.S. history. In return, the insurgents stopped attacks on international forces and pledged to prevent terrorists from using Afghan soil for foreign attacks. The Taliban also opened peace talks in Qatar last September with representatives of the U.S.-backed Afghan government. But the dialogue has since stalled without making any significant progress, nor has the process eased hostilities between the two Afghan rivals.The U.S. commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan said Tuesday he was deeply concerned about the deteriorating security situation.Gen. Austin Scott Miller, who is overseeing the troop exit, told reporters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, that the overall security situation “is not good,” saying recent insurgent territorial gains were concerning.Brown University’s Costs of War Project estimated in April this year that the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan had killed 241,000 people, including more than 2,400 American soldiers, and cost the United States $2.26 trillion to date. Some Information from Agence France-Presse was used in this report. 
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They are called Adam or Nastashia, they are Europeans and live in the United Kingdom where they have been placed in homes or foster families, victims of chaotic journeys. Some of these children are now at risk of becoming undocumented as a result of Brexit.”This means that they will not have the right to live in the United Kingdom,” warns Marianne Lagrue, an official of the association Coram Children’s Legal Center which helps them. “They will not be able to access free health care, work, receive benefits, rent housing, learn to drive and have a bank account,” she told AFP.At 18, they also risk deportation from a country where they have often resided for a long time. Because since the United Kingdom definitively left the orbit of the European Union on January 1, it is no longer possible to settle there freely or to continue to reside there without special procedures, as was the case. before. While migration rules have been tightened for new arrivals from the EU, those who were already on British soil on December 31, 2020 can retain their rights provided they register, by June 30 at the latest, via the ” settlement scheme.”The program is considered a “success” by the government, with some 5 million temporary or permanent residence permits granted – far more than the number of EU nationals previously estimated at over 3 million. But it also has its drop-outs. “It’s simple if you have a job, if you are doing well with digital technologies (the requests being made mainly online, Editor’s note) and if you have all your documents,” notes Azmina Siddique, from the association The Children’s Society, interviewed by AFP. It is much more complex for children in care or young adults who have been placed: some find it difficult to prove their identity, provide the required residence documents or obtain the necessary support for their procedures, which are the responsibility of their legal guardian or the authorities. The Coram association cites the example of Adam, a 4-year-old Romanian boy born in London and separated from his mother. He cannot obtain a passport from his embassy – his father, whose consent is required, is unknown – and social workers are struggling to prove his place of residence before his placement.  There is also Nastashia (assumed name), 17, broken with her family. Born in the UK, she does not have a passport and has encountered great difficulties in registering. “Many do not even realize that they are not British,” says Azmina Siddique. The impact can be “very traumatic” and “hold them back in life.”Difficult to know their exact number, the nationalities of the children placed not being collected in the United Kingdom, where the identity card does not exist. According to the Interior Ministry, 3,660 vulnerable young people (up to 25 years old) have been identified as eligible for residency status, 67% of whom had submitted an application at the end of April. A figure largely underestimated according to associations which evoke up to 9,000 of them. The ministry assured to work “closely” with these and the local authorities with in particular a support of 22 million pounds (25.6 million euros). He also promised to accept late requests if there are “reasonable grounds.”This is insufficient, regrets Azmina Siddique: from July 1, children who have missed the deadline will be “without protection” until a request for regularization has been submitted and then accepted. An interval which can extend over years, she emphasizes, and which exposes them to the hostile environment policy towards immigrants deployed by the executive.  “These children could become the next Windrush generation,” she warns, referring to the scandal over the treatment of thousands of Caribbean immigrants who legally arrived in the UK between 1948 and 1971, but denied rights for lack of necessary documentation. The3Million, an association defending European citizens in the UK, urges the government to provide physical proof of residence status, which the government does not consider necessary.More broadly, according to the U.K. think tank in a Changing Europe, up to hundreds of thousands of people could find themselves without status, including the elderly, the homeless, victims of domestic violence or children wrongly considered by their parents as being covered by theirs.  “If the government is not able to regularize the children for which it is responsible, what about children in vulnerable families (…) or vulnerable adults?” Asks Marianne Lagrue. 
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European borders and economies are opening up this summer, thanks to falling coronavirus cases and rising vaccination numbers. But experts warn the pandemic’s scars could be long term and profound—especially for young people, a generation Europe cannot afford to lose.
Things are looking up for young Parisians. Bars and restaurants have reopened, also schools and universities, for the last weeks before summer vacations.  Young people having coffee in Paris. France reopened bars and restaurants mid-may as coronavirus cases dropped. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)At a community room with other students, Sorbonne University student Katarzyna Mac is studying for final exams. She is grateful that months of coronavirus confinement are over.  At a community room with other students, Sorbonne University student Katarzyna Mac is studying for final exams. She is grateful that months of coronavirus confinement are over.  With France’s rolling lockdowns, Mac says, it was difficult and stressful to be alone all day in front of the computer. Like other students in France, she spent most of her academic year taking online classes from home. Katazyna Mac studies for final exams at her student housing outside Paris. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Experts point to multiple ways the crisis has and continues to hit Europe’s youth — causing economic, social and mental distress. Many, like Mac, already live on the edge.  Shuttered businesses, especially in sectors like hospitality, wiped out job opportunities on which many depend.  European Union statistics estimate more than 17% of people under 25 are out of work — more than twice the regional average. Youth poverty and homelessness are on the rise. So is depression.  Abbe Pierre Foundation’s European Studies head, Sarah Coupechoux, says many European youth are living on the edge. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Sarah Coupechoux is Europe studies head for French nonprofit the Abbe Pierre Foundation. She says there is a segment of Europeans today, including young people, who are merely surviving. With the pandemic and job losses, huge lines of young people have been seeking food, and are hungry. A recent report by the charity also explores the growing difficulties Europe’s youth face in finding housing.  Like many other young Europeans, Mac was too poor to leave home. But she recently managed to find subsidized housing, at a building for young students and workers on the edge of Paris.  Her apartment has just enough room for a bed, desk and small kitchen. Dirty dishes are piled high in the sink. The refrigerator is mostly empty.  She gets student aid and a small government stipend. But it’s not enough live on. Her parents don’t always have enough to help her out.  Days of studying alone have also taken a psychological toll.  Even before COVID, the disease caused by the coronavirus, she said, she had problems with stress and suicidal thoughts. It got worse with the pandemic. It was especially stressful not to be able to go to class normally.  COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. The pandemic has compounded hardships for other young people — especially, studies find — those from disadvantaged neighborhoods.  In the working-class Paris suburb of Bobigny, youth activist Stanley Camille says students had a hard time accessing the internet, which they needed to follow online classes during lockdown. Families are poor in his town, he says. Often there’s only one computer for four or five children.  Last year, France rolled out a multi-billion-dollar initiative to help its youth get the jobs, training and education they need. Student canteens offer lunches for just over a dollar. European leaders vow to fight against poverty. But experts like Coupechoux say much more is needed.   Coupechoux says on national and local levels in Europe, institutions must be alerted on the importance of supporting this young generation.  Mac agrees. She is getting psychological help — but says demand is high and state services are understaffed. She and her neighbors have started a support group — and share basics like milk to get by. Long walks in parks like this one, also help.  Mac also landed a summer job doing civic service. Mac says she hopes life will finally get back to normal. But with threats of new variants spreading, nothing could be less certain.  
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European borders and economies are opening up this summer, thanks to falling coronavirus cases and rising vaccination numbers. But experts warn the pandemic’s scars could be long term and profound — especially for young people, a generation Europe cannot afford to lose. For VOA, Lisa Bryant has the story from Paris.Camera:  Lisa Bryant
Produced by: Jon Spier  
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