Greenland’s ice sheet has experienced a “massive melting event” during a heat wave that has seen temperatures more than 10 degrees above seasonal norms, according to Danish researchers.Since Wednesday, the ice sheet covering the vast Arctic territory has melted by about 8 billion tons a day, twice its normal average rate during summer, reported the Polar Portal website, which is run by Danish researchers.The Danish Meteorological Institute reported temperatures of more than 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit), more than twice the normal average summer temperature, in northern Greenland.And Nerlerit Inaat airport in the northeast of the territory recorded 23.4 degrees C (74.1 F) on Thursday — the highest recorded there since records began.With the heat wave affecting most of Greenland that day, the Polar Portal website reported a “massive melting event” involving enough water “to cover Florida with two inches of water” (five centimeters).The largest melt of the Greenland ice sheet still dates to the summer of 2019.The area where the melting took place this time, though, is larger than two years ago, the website added.The Greenland ice sheet is the second-largest mass of freshwater ice on the planet with nearly 1.8 million square kilometers (695,000 square miles), second only to Antarctica.The melting of the ice sheets started in 1990 and has accelerated since 2000. The mass loss in recent years is approximately four times greater than it was before 2000, according to the researchers at Polar Portal.One European study published in January said ocean levels would rise between 10 and 18 centimeters by 2100 — or 60 percent faster than previously estimated — at the rate at which the Greenland ice sheet was now melting.The Greenland ice sheet, if completely melted, would raise the ocean levels by six to seven meters.But with a relatively cool start to the Greenland summer, with snowfalls and rains, the retreat of the ice sheet so far for 2021 remains within the historical norm, according to Polar Portal. The melting period extends from June to early September.
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Panicked tourists in Turkey hurried to the seashore to wait for rescue boats Saturday after being told to evacuate some hotels in the Aegean resort of Bodrum because of the dangers posed by nearby wildfires, Turkish media reported.Coast guard units were leading the operation and authorities asked private boats and yachts to assist in evacuation efforts from the sea as new wildfires erupted. Video showed plumes of smoke and fire enveloping a hill close to the seashore.The death toll from wildfires raging in Turkey’s Mediterranean towns rose to six Saturday after two forest workers were killed, the country’s health minister said. Fires across Turkey since Wednesday have burned down forests and some settlements, encroaching on villages and tourist destinations and forcing people to evacuate.The minister of agriculture and forestry, Bekir Pakdemirli, said Saturday that 91 of the 101 fires that broke out amid strong winds and scorching heat had been brought under control. Neighborhoods affected by fire in five provinces were declared disaster zones by Turkey’s emergency and disaster authority.Government assistancePresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan inspected some damage Saturday from a helicopter.Speaking from the town of Manavgat, Erdogan announced that the Turkish government would cover the rents for people affected by fire and rebuild their homes. He said taxes, social security and credit payments would be postponed for those affected and small businesses would be offered credit with zero interest.”We cannot do anything beyond wishing the mercy of God for the lives we have lost, but we can replace everything that was burned,” he said.A man watches wildfires in Kacarlar village near the Mediterranean coastal town of Manavgat, Antalya, Turkey, July 31, 2021.Erdogan said the number of planes fighting the fires had been increased from six to 13, including planes from Ukraine, Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, and that thousands of Turkish personnel, as well as dozens of helicopters and drones, were assisting the firefighting efforts.At least five people have died from the fires in Manavgat and one died in Marmaris. Both towns are Mediterranean tourist destinations. Tourism is an important source of revenue for Turkey, and business owners were hoping this summer would be much better than last year, when pandemic travel restrictions caused tourism to plummet.Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 400 people affected by the fires in Manavgat were treated at hospitals and released, while 10 others were still hospitalized for fire injuries. In Marmaris, 159 people were treated at a hospital and one person was still undergoing treatment for burns.In southern Hatay province, flames jumped into populated areas but later apparently were brought under control.Common occurrencesWildfires are common in Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean regions during the arid summer months. Turkey has blamed some previous forest fires on arson or outlawed Kurdish militants. Erdogan said Saturday that authorities were investigating the possibility of “sabotage” causing fires.Meanwhile, a heat wave across southern Europe, fed by hot air from Africa, has led to wildfires across the Mediterranean.Firefighters on the Italian island of Sicily battled dozens of blazes Saturday fueled by high temperatures, prompting the region’s governor to request assistance from Rome. Some 150 people trapped in two seaside areas in the city of Catania were evacuated late Friday by sea, where they were picked up by rubber dinghies and transferred to Coast Guard boats.Temperatures in Greece and nearby countries in southeast Europe are expected to climb to 42 degrees Celsius (more than 107 Fahrenheit) Monday in many cities and towns.
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Thousands of people protested France’s special virus pass by marching through Paris and other French cities on Saturday. Most demonstrations were peaceful but some in Paris clashed with riot police, who fired tear gas.About 3,000 security forces deployed around the French capital for a third weekend of protests against the pass that will be needed soon to enter restaurants and other places. Paris police took up posts along the Champs-Elysees to guard the famed avenue.With virus infections spiking and hospitalizations rising, French lawmakers have passed a bill requiring the pass in most places as of August 9. Polls show a majority of French support the pass, but some are adamantly opposed. The pass requires a vaccination or a quick negative test or proof of a recent recovery from COVID-19 and mandates vaccine shots for all health care workers by mid-September.For anti-pass demonstrators, liberty was the slogan of the day.Hager Ameur, a 37-year-old nurse, said she resigned from her job, accusing the government of using a form of blackmail.”I think that we mustn’t be told what to do,” she told The Associated Press, adding that French medical workers during the first wave of COVID-19 were quite mistreated. “And now, suddenly we are told that if we don’t get vaccinated it is our fault that people are contaminated. I think it is sickening.”Tensions flared in front of the famed Moulin Rouge nightclub in northern Paris during what appeared to be the largest demonstration. Lines of police faced down protesters in up-close confrontations during the march. Police used their fists on several occasions.Protesters attend a demonstration called by the “yellow vest” movement against France’s restrictions, including a compulsory health pass, to fight the COVID-19 outbreak, in Paris, July 31, 2021.Tear gas, water cannon, injuriesAs marchers headed eastward and some pelted police with objects, police fired tear gas into the crowds, and plumes of smoke filled the sky. A male protester was seen with a bleeding head and a police officer was carried away by colleagues. Three officers were injured, the French press quoted police as saying. Police, again responding to rowdy crowds, also turned a water cannon on protesters as the march ended at the Bastille.A calmer march was led by the former top lieutenant of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who left to form his own small anti-EU party. But Florian Philippot’s new cause, against the virus pass, seems far more popular. His contingent of hundreds marched Saturday to the Health Ministry.Among those not present this week was Francois Asselineau, leader of another tiny anti-EU party, the Popular Republican Union, and an ardent campaigner against the health pass, who came down with COVID-19. In a video on his party’s website, Asselineau, who was not hospitalized, called on people to denounce the “absurd, unjust and totally liberty-killing” health pass.French authorities are implementing the health pass because the highly contagious delta variant is making strong inroads. More than 24,000 new daily cases were confirmed Friday night, compared with just a few thousand cases a day at the start of the month.The government announcement that the health pass would take effect August 9 has driven many unvaccinated French to sign up for inoculations so their social lives won’t be shut down during the summer holiday season. Vaccinations are now available at a wide variety of places, including some beaches. More than 52% of the French population has been vaccinated.About 112,000 people have died of the virus in France since the start of the pandemic.
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France secured a comfortable win over Iran in Olympic men’s basketball on Saturday to qualify for the quarterfinals and remain undefeated in the preliminary round.Real Madrid’s Thomas Heurtel led with 16 points in France’s 79-62 victory at the Saitama Super Arena, north of Tokyo. They swept their opponents in Group A, including a shock defeat of Team USA on Sunday, the first Olympic loss for the Americans since 2004.”The focus really was more about us and trying things out,” Evan Fournier, who plays for the NBA’s Boston Celtics, said about France’s decisive win. Despite his team’s dominant showing so far, he wouldn’t speculate on medal odds.”Quarter-final first. Focus on that,” he said. “Too many times we’ve beaten very, very good teams and we lost in the semi-final, so no more of that.”The men’s quarterfinals are Tuesday.Iran finished 0-3 in the group stage. Arsalan Kazemi lamented that the travel restrictions imposed on Iran affected their performance.”We cannot really get out of Iran for any good friendly game,” he said at a press conference. “For Olympic preparation, we could have gone to a lot of different countries like other teams and played like 10, 11, 12 good games, and would have come here and would have competed differently.”The United States bounced back with a win over Iran earlier this week and will face the Czech Republic later on Saturday.Team USA has historically been the team to beat at basketball, with a 139-6 record and 15 gold medals since 1936. But as the sport has grown in popularity around the globe, many national teams can field teams with NBA experience, and the U.S.’s talent advantage has shrunk.Before losing to France at these Games, the United States dropped two straight exhibition games this month, including a defeat to world 22nd-ranked Nigeria. 
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Two lakes in a far-flung coastal region of Patagonia, in Argentina, have turned fluorescent pink, an as-of-yet unexplained phenomena that local environmentalists fear could be harmful and caused by industrial contamination.The lakes, located near an industrial park on the outskirts of the Argentine city of Trelew, sprawl across a dusty, desertlike plain and are largely undeveloped. Officials with the municipality of Trelew recently discovered a truck dumping waste in the watershed, according to posts made by the city on social media.Authorities gave conflicting views to local media, however, on whether the sudden change in color of the lakes was harmful. Environmentalists were more concerned.Local activist Pablo Lada, a member of Argentina’s National Ecological Network (RENACE), told Reuters in an interview that the pink color could potentially be the result of a dye typically used to give prawns raised nearby their typically rose-colored hue.”I think that the pink lagoon uncovered a … lack of treatment of this waste that has become a big problem,” Lada said.Local and regional environmental officials are investigating the cause and potential damage to the lakes but have yet to arrive at any conclusions. 
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The United States said Friday it has laid off nearly 200 local staffers working for its diplomatic missions in Russia ahead of an August 1 deadline set by the Kremlin for their dismissal. The move is the latest in a series of measures taken by both sides that have strained U.S.-Russia relations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the layoffs are regrettable and something the U.S. had hoped to avert, despite a sharp deterioration in ties between Moscow and Washington, which show few signs of improvement.  FILE – Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the State Department in Washington, July 12, 2021.”These unfortunate measures will severely impact the U.S. mission to Russia’s operations, potentially including the safety of our personnel as well as our ability to engage in diplomacy with the Russian government,” Blinken said in a statement. “Although we regret the actions of the Russian government forcing a reduction in our services and operations, the United States will follow through on our commitments while continuing to pursue a predictable and stable relationship with Russia,” he said.  The Russian Foreign Ministry was silent on the matter, and the Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a query. Russia earlier this year announced a ban on almost all non-American staff at the embassy in Moscow and consulates in Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok. That came in response to U.S. expulsions of Russian diplomats and tit-for-tat closures of numerous diplomatic facilities in each country. Those expulsions and closures came in the context of U.S. sanctions imposed over Russian interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, and the arrest of opposition figure Alexey Navalny and crackdown on his supporters, as well as involvement in the SolarWind hack of U.S. federal agencies. All are activities that Russia has denied. After the announcement of the ban, the embassy suspended routine consular services and since May has been processing immigrant visas only in the case of life-or-death emergencies.  The suspension of consular services has also left Russian businessmen, exchange students and romantic partners adrift because they are no longer able to obtain U.S. visas in Russia.  Still, the U.S. had been cautiously optimistic that the Russian decision might be reversed at last month’s meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin in Geneva. But those hopes evaporated even after the two sides resumed strategic arms control talks this week. FILE – U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meet at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021.Thus, Friday’s announcement sealed the employment fate of 182 locally employed staffers who worked as office and clerical staff, drivers and contractors at the U.S. facilities. Only security guards who work outside the gates of the compounds were exempted from the ban.  “The United States is immensely grateful for the tireless dedication and commitment of our locally employed staff and contractors at U.S. Mission Russia,” Blinken said. “We thank them for their contributions to the overall operations and their work to improve relations between our two countries. Their dedication, expertise and friendship have been a mainstay of Mission Russia for decades.”We value our deep connection to the Russian people,” Blinken added. “Our people-to-people relationships are the bedrock of our bilateral relations.” 
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The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on Cuba’s police force and two of its leaders following recent protests on the island against the communist government.U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday before meeting with Cuban American leaders at the White House that more sanctions were coming “unless there is some drastic change in Cuba, which I don’t anticipate.”Biden also said he had directed the Treasury and State departments to report to him within a month on how to allow Americans to send remittance payments to Cubans.U.S. officials said the administration was working to find ways to permit remittances that would not benefit the Cuban government.Earlier Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the latest sanctions on Cuba, saying they were a reaction to “actions to suppress peaceful, pro-democratic protests in Cuba that began on July 11.”Large demonstrationsThousands of Cubans took to the streets on that Sunday in the largest demonstrations against the Cuban government in decades. The demonstrators were protesting shortages of basic goods, power outages, restrictions on civil liberties and the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.“The Treasury Department will continue to designate and call out by name those who facilitate the Cuban regime’s involvement in serious human rights abuse,” Andrea Gacki, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in a statement. “Today’s action serves to further hold accountable those responsible for suppressing the Cuban people’s calls for freedom and respect for human rights.”U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Cuban American leaders in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, July 30, 2021.The sanctions target the Cuban interior ministry’s national police force as well as the force’s director, Oscar Callejas Valcarce, and deputy director, Eddy Sierra Arias.Cuban American leaders have been urging the Biden administration to do more to support to the Cuban protesters.Among those who were at the meeting Friday with Biden were Yotuel Romero, one of the authors of “Patria y Vida,” a song that has become the anthem for the protesters. Also present were L. Felice Gorordo, the CEO of eMerge Americas; Ana Sofia Pelaez, the founder of the Miami Freedom Project; and former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.Internet accessU.S. officials say the Biden administration is also looking into ways to provide internet access to the Cuban people. Internet service was cut off at one point during the July 11 protest.Last week, the Treasury Department announced sanctions on Cuba’s defense minister, Álvaro López Miera, and an interior ministry special forces unit.In addition to the sanctions imposed Friday, the Office of Foreign Assets Control continues to enforce the Cuba sanctions program, which is the most comprehensive sanctions program administered by the office, the office’s statement said.Some information for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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The United Nations warns global hunger is increasing and urgent action is needed to stave off famine and death over coming months in nearly two dozen unstable, violence-prone countries.A report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program said more than a half-million people are experiencing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity and 41 million are at risk of famine.The report from the WFP and FAO focuses on the particularly serious situation in 23 so-called hunger hot spots.  Most of those countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, with others in Central America, Asia and the Middle East.Patrick Jacqueson, FAO officer in charge of the Geneva office, said acute hunger is set to increase in those countries over the next four months without urgent, scaled-up humanitarian assistance.“Conflict continues to be the primary driver for the largest share of people facing acute food insecurity,” Jacqueson said. “Closely associated with conflict are humanitarian access constraints, which remain significant, compounding food insecurity. Weather extremes and climate variability are likely to affect several parts of the world during the outlook period.”The report said dry conditions are likely to affect Haiti, Nigeria’s Middle Belt and the “Dry Corridor” in Guatemala, while above-average rainfall and flooding are forecast in South Sudan, central and eastern Sahel, and Gulf of Guinea countries.400,000 face starvation in TigrayThe report highlighted the perilous situation in Ethiopia and Madagascar, the world’s newest highest-alert hunger hot spots.Annalisa Conte, WFP Geneva Office director, said the aggravation of conflict in recent months is having a catastrophic impact on the food security of the Tigrayan population in Ethiopia.  She warned that more than 400,000 people would face starvation if they did not receive sufficient humanitarian aid.“If we move to Madagascar, Madagascar is experiencing the worst drought in 40 years,” Conte said. “On top of that, economic decline largely caused by COVID. As a result, 1.3 million people are currently facing the acute food insecurity.”The FAO and WFP said fighting, blockades that cut off lifesaving aid to families on the verge of famine, and a lack of funding were hampering efforts to provide emergency food aid to millions of desperate people.The agencies said families who rely on humanitarian aid to survive were hanging by a thread. They noted that most of those on the verge of famine in the 23 hot spots were farmers and must receive help to resume food production.  That, they said, will allow them to feed themselves and become self-sufficient.
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Firefighters continued to battle raging wildfires in southern Turkey Friday that have killed at least four people and forced the evacuation of villages and hotels.More than 70 wildfires broke out this week in Turkey’s Mediterranean and southern Aegean region and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that crews were still trying to contain them in 14 locations after bringing 57 other wildfires under control since Wednesday. Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said the uncontained wildfires were in six provinces and vowed to hold accountable anyone found to be responsible for starting them. Authorities said Thursday that investigations into the fires had begun.The mayor of the Turkish resort town of Marmaris said he could not dismiss the possibility of “sabotage” as the cause of a mountainside fire that threatened holiday homes and hotels on Thursday.Erdogan said a plane from Azerbaijan would join planes from Russia and Ukraine to battle the fires, adding “with the arrival of the planes, we are turning in a positive direction.”In addition to at least five planes, the Turkish president said 45 helicopters, drones and nearly 1,100 firefighting vehicles are involved in the effort.Wildfires are common in Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean regions during the dry summer season, but arson or Kurdish militants have been blamed for some previous forest fires.
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The Association of Journalists of El Salvador is warning about increased assaults on the press. For VOA, Claudia Zaldaña reports from San Salvador. 
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Amazon.com Inc has been hit with a record $886.6 million (746 million euros) European Union fine for processing personal data in violation of the bloc’s GDPR rules, as privacy regulators take a more aggressive position on enforcement.The Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) imposed the fine on Amazon in a July 16 decision, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing on Friday.Amazon will appeal the fine, according to a company spokesperson. The e-commerce giant said in the filing it believed CNPD’s decision was without merit.CNPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, requires companies to seek people’s consent before using their personal data or face steep fines.Globally, regulatory scrutiny of tech giants has been increasing following a string of scandals over privacy and misinformation, as well as complaints from some businesses that they abuse their market power.Alphabet’s Google, Facebook Inc, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp have drawn heightened scrutiny in Europe.In December, France’s data privacy watchdog handed out its biggest ever fine of 100 million euros ($118.82 million) to Google for breaching the nation’s rules on online advertising trackers.
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Britain’s transportation minister Friday defended the country’s decision to continue quarantine requirements on fully vaccinated French visitors, saying they do not want to take chances on thwarting their COVID-19 vaccination program.In an interview, Transport Minister Grant Shapps said Britain does not want to take chances with the progress of its vaccination program. He said the presence of the beta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which was originally identified in South Africa, and now in France has prompted Britain to exercise caution.Shapps was responding to comments made Thursday by French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune, who called Britain’s policy “discriminatory and incomprehensible.”  Britain, on Wednesday, had announced it was lifting the quarantine requirement on fully vaccinated travelers from the United States and the European Union, except for France.Beaune argued the beta strain accounted for fewer than 5% of COVID-19 cases in France, and mostly occurred in overseas territories from where relatively few people travelled to Britain.In his interview Friday, Shapp insisted the beta variant has not just been limited to far away French island territories but has also been an issue in northern France. But he added that he has been in discussions with his French counterpart, Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari.  They agree that every country must look at the data and follow the science.  
Shapp said that is what they are doing right now – looking at the latest data on where the beta variant is going. He said the plan right now is to review the decision on France next week. 
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The protests that shook Cuba earlier this month started spontaneously and spread rapidly on social media, providing a clear demonstration of the challenges the new technologies pose to authoritarian governments.On July 11, that the midday calm was broken by the appearance of the first images showing hundreds of people demanding freedom, vaccines, medicines and food. In almost real time, they spread from profile to profile, on Facebook and Instagram.“There was a group of people, Cubans, gathered in a park in San Antonio de los Baños, everything was very confusing,” says Norges Rodríguez, co-founder of the YucaByte project, which works to promote the development of information-sharing technologies in Cuba.Rodríguez tells VOA that he quickly began to share the videos with his more than 15,000 followers.Within hours, journalists José Ignacio Martínez and Daniel González Oliva – collaborators in the creation of the Diario de Cuba digital portal – had sent VOA videos of some of the demonstrations, which had quickly spread to the streets of Havana.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 4 MB480p | 6 MB540p | 8 MB720p | 23 MB1080p | 36 MBOriginal | 63 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioVideo of anti-government protestors in San Antonio de los Baños (José Ignacio Martínez / Daniel González Oliva “Diario de Cuba”) 
Videos began to emerge of other protests: one in Arroyo Naranjo, a municipality in the Southern part of Havana;Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 2 MB480p | 2 MB540p | 3 MB720p | 9 MB1080p | 13 MBOriginal | 25 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioProtestor on foot and on motor scooters protesting in Arroyo Naranja, a southern Municipality of Havana. (José Ignacio Martínez / Daniel González Oliva “Diario de Cuba”) 
and another from Central Havana.   Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 4 MB480p | 5 MB540p | 8 MB720p | 22 MB720p | 34 MBOriginal | 33 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioMasked demonstrators in Central Havana protesting poor economic conditions and the government’s slow response to the COVID Crisis. (José Ignacio Martínez / Daniel González Oliva “Diario de Cuba”)Those videos and others like them went viral, prompting the Cuban government to cut internet access a day after the protests began.The official version of events broadcast in Cuba showed the arrival of President Miguel Díaz-Canel to San Antonio de los Baños in Artemias province. The president called the protesters “confused,” blamed the worsening of the crisis on the U.S. government embargo, and said discordant voices had no place in the state media.Some of the online profiles of people who initially uploaded video from the protests have disappeared, says Rodríguez. The original video with the first Facebook Live from San Antonio is no longer on social media. He says he is unable to find some of the first videos that were published by Yoan de la Cruz and Samantha Regalado.Sources contacted by VOA report there is pressure from Cuban authorities to remove any mention of support for the protesters from social media platforms, and some pressure to persuade residents’ relatives abroad to do the same.”There was something contained in the Cubans after so many years of deprivation, of all kinds: economic and also freedom in general, and that day it exploded,” says Rodríguez. “It came at a time when the country has one of the most critical situations, probably in its most recent history.”A challenge and an alternativeSeven years after it was founded, the independent newspaper 14ymedio saw the opportunity to cover an unprecedented event in the history of Cuba – a massive protest that ran from one end of the island to the other.Yoani Sánchez, author of the Generación Y blog and today’s news director of 14ymedio, told VOA that the hashtag #11J popped up on Twitter and was “… a mixture of informative enthusiasm, adrenaline, but also with many difficulties and pressure.”As the Internet outages spread, the unauthorized journalists trying to report what they were seeing began turning to older technologies, by dictating over phone lines and transcribing what they were learning about protests, complaints and arrests.Sánchez says his reporters are feeling the heat from the Cuban government. Luz Escobar, one of his regular reporters, has been under police siege for two weeks, Sánchez told VOA. She says state security forces surround the vicinity of her home and do not allow her to go out.Right now, Sánchez says, “police operations continue, where, for example, taking a photo or a small video in the streets can get you a fine, an arrest and even a physical attack against our reporters.”Citizen reportersThe Cuban entrepreneur Saily González, or Saily de Amarillo as she is known to some, is the owner of the Amarillo B&B hostel in Santa Clara. Since the protests began, she has published daily videos on her social media discussing the Cuban situation and inviting her followers to debate.“Seeing that San Antonio de los Baños was on the street was one of the most exciting moments of my life,” recalls González. That Sunday, she exchanged messages with her employees and friends on WhatsApp and Telegram encouraging them to join the protests.She tells VOA that she has received numerous messages of support. In the week after the protests started, she gained more than 2,000 followers on her Instagram account, she said with some amazement.She does not trust the official media, controlled by the Communist Party of Cuba, and says many Cubans agree with her. “Cuba is not blind. We have access to all the true information,” she says, referring to independent Cuban news outlets, such as El Toque, 14yMedio and Periodismo de Barrio.For the work team at the independent publication El Toque, the days after #11J marked “a complicated moment in time.” The first week was spent “trying to make sense of it and understand the magnitude,” explains its director, José Jasan Nieves.One of his efforts was “to maintain the narrative of the importance, the scope, the legitimacy of these protests, countering a government narrative that wants to minimize them, label them as vandalism and downplay their importance and value,” he told VOA.Official reactionsBoth the official media and senior state officials, including the president, have described the protests as riots and many of the protesters as “confused revolutionaries.”But in an unusual move, the president did offer some self-criticism. For the first time, he acknowledged the shortcomings in the country, the neglect of vulnerable sectors and the lack of opportunities for young people.Driven by the speed with which news spreads on social media, the independent media, citizen journalists and Internet users created a unique moment on July 11.Journalist Boris González Arenas, a Havana resident and contributor to the Diario de Cuba portal, told VOA that this moment has allowed the independent press to be seen as “a magnificently organized phenomenon in Cuba” and one which “has had the ability to reflect what is happening, which is very big.”For Arenas, this opportunity showed that there is a population that has “accepted the challenge of making themselves visible by reflecting what was happening.” 
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France’s European Affairs Minister on Thursday called Britain’s decision to lift quarantine requirements for all fully vaccinated travelers arriving from Europe except France “discriminatory and incomprehensible” and said he hopes it is reviewed as soon as possible. Clement Beaune made the comments during an interview on French television a day after Britain announced it was dropping the quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated visitors from the European Union and the United States but that it would review rules for travelers from France only at the end of next week. FILE – French minister for European affairs Clement Beaune arrives at a General Affairs meeting in Luxembourg, June 22, 2021.The British government has said it is keeping quarantine rules for travelers from France because of the presence of the beta variant there. But Beaune told French broadcaster LCI the beta strain accounted for fewer than 5% of COVID-19 cases in France, and mostly occurred in overseas territories from where relatively few people traveled to Britain.  “We are saying to the British that, on the scientific and health levels, there are no explanations for this decision,” he said. In a Wednesday interview, British Transportation Minister Grant Shapps said the government will not be able to review the decision until the end of next week because they need to see the data. Beaune said he will continue pressuring Britain to review the requirement, but said, for now, he is not planning to impose similar measures on British travelers to France.  Some information in this report came from Associated Press, Reuters and AFP. 
 
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Thursday marks the second and final day of the Global Education Summit in London, hosted by Kenya and the United Kingdom. International governments and corporations pledged to donate $4 billion for the Global Partnership for Education, which provides fair access to public education in 90 countries and territories that account for 80% of children out of school. The summit emphasized the importance of equitable access to education amid warnings that COVID-19 has exacerbated already under-resourced public education programs in less economically developed countries. Experts alerted the organization that it was unlikely for those forced out of schools due to the pandemic to return. Australia’s former prime minister Julia Gillard gestures as she speaks during the closing ceremony on the second day of the Global Education Summit in London, Britain, July 29, 2021.Julia Gillard, former Australian prime minister and chair of the partnership, noted that the pandemic affected access to education in all nations but poorer countries where families may lack internet connection or electricity were devastated. Gillard said that this pledge puts the partnership on track for completing the goal of raising $5 billion over five years. Ambassador Raychelle Omamo, Kenyan Cabinet secretary for foreign affairs, warned of the pandemic’s devastating impact on global education, saying “education is the pathway, the way forward.” Malala Yousafzai, a Nobel Peace Prize winner from Pakistan and activist for female education, spoke to the summit leaders and stressed the significance of accessible education for young girls who are often discriminated against. She warned that 130 million girls were unable to attend school because of the pandemic and said that “their futures are worth fighting for.” Addressing the conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his government’s commitment to girls’ education and its goal of enrolling 40 million more girls in school by 2026. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson applaud during the closing ceremony on the second day of the Global Education Summit in London, Britain, July 29, 2021.”Enabling them to learn and reach their full potential is the single greatest thing we can do to recover from this crisis,” Johnson said. Johnson faced criticism for advocating for girls’ education while simultaneously cutting the U.K.’s overseas aid budget. The prime minister pledged $602 million to the Global Partnership for Education, while slashing $5.6 billion from the U.K.’s international development allowance. British officials said that the budget cut is temporary and was a necessary action due to the economic strain from pandemic recovery. The Global Partnership for Education also received criticism for continuing funding to partner countries that openly discriminate against students. Investigations by Human Rights Watch uncovered open exclusion of pregnant students in Tanzania and Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh.  Some information for this report came from the Associated Press. 
 
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Canada’s decision to reopen its borders to international visitors is encouraging tourism operators in tiny Prince Edward Island, who are hoping the Asian visitors who have become a mainstay of the province’s economy will soon be back.
Best known in Asia as the setting for the “Anne of Green Gables” novels, this province in Atlantic Canada has long been a magnet for visitors — especially from Japan and more recently China — who come to visit the house where the century-old children’s stories are set.A Charlottetown street is of interest to a couple looking at the crowded bar patios. (Jay Heisler/VOA)But travel restrictions imposed by the federal government last year in response to the coronavirus pandemic brought all of that screeching to a halt, reducing overall visits to the island by 70% compared with pre-pandemic levels, according to provincial officials.Prospects brightened this month when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that fully vaccinated Americans would be able to enter Canada for nonessential travel beginning on August 9, and that visitors from other countries would be admitted as of September 7.The downtown Charlottetown waterfront on a normal Sunday. (Jay Heisler/VOA)That is good news to George Campbell, who operates a museum in the real-life house where author L.M. Montgomery set the early 20th-century stories that have more recently been made into a movie and a Netflix series. Fans of “Green Gables” from China are an important part of his clientele.
“We are eager to have Chinese tourists visit our province and my museum,” Campbell told VOA ahead of a reporter’s visit to the white clapboard house with its iconic green gables. “It is wonderful that they will travel so far to come and visit.”An authentic Chinese hotpot at Noodle House in Charlottetown. (Jay Heisler/VOA)
While it was Green Gables that put Prince Edward Island on the map for many Asians, enterprising islanders have been quick to offer the visitors other ways to spend their money.
According to the federally funded Canadian Broadcasting Corp., bus tours have been established that cater to Chinese tourists, and golf courses have begun offering Motion Pay, a payment system favored by many Chinese.
Wang Shoutao, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa, told VOA that visitors from his country have been attracted to other parts of Canada as well.
“In recent years, tourism exchanges between China and Canada have been developing, and Canada has become a very important destination for Chinese tourists,” he said without addressing recent friction between the two countries over the detention of two Canadian citizens in China.Latin American soft drinks in a corner store that caters to migrant labor flown in to work the fields during the pandemic. (Jay Heisler/VOA)
A formal statement provided by Wang said, “Friendship between the peoples holds the key to sound state-to-state relations, and heart-to-heart communication contributes to deeper friendship.”
For Prince Edward Island, the personal connections forged by tourism have led to more permanent links. Until it was supplanted by India in 2017, China had been the largest source of new immigrants settling in the province for a decade.The National Post newspaper reports that 2,400 Chinese newcomers arrived in 2006-09, making a visible impact in a province of 160,000 people whose main industries are tourism, potato farming and fishing.
The province, located at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, is also looking for new business opportunities with China, according to Peter McKenna, a professor at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI).
“I would say that the province is interested in examining possibilities and the potential for greater linkages with China,” McKenna told VOA. “One of those areas would be in the fishing or the seafood sector. I think there are opportunities there for companies in PEI and Atlantic Canada in general to develop a market in China.”Locals enjoy the view along the Charlottetown waterfront. (Jay Heisler/VOA)Jeffrey Collins, another UPEI professor who works on trade policy for the provincial government, agreed that trade with China is important to the island but said it is still far overshadowed by the exchange of goods and services with the United States.
“PEI’s export growth to China, as impressive as it has been in recent years, is very much based on a handful of products, chiefly lobster,” he said. While that trade remains “robust despite larger geopolitical tensions,” he noted, “key limitations are in transportation access and need to develop deep business cultural ties with Chinese buyers/consumers.”
While the Asian influx has been a boost to the island’s economy, not everyone in the province’s tightly knit community has been happy to see the growing numbers of what are often described by longtime Atlantic Canadians as the “come-from-away.”“If anyone in PEI tells you that there is no racism, they’re lying or not aware of what’s going around,” said Satyajit Sen, a policy adviser at the Federation of Prince Edward Island Municipalities. “It exists and you can sense it, especially during the COVID times.”
 Popular PEI musical group Vishten plays with family as an afterparty to the Route 11 music festival in PEI, which has largely been spared by the pandemic. (Jay Heisler/VOA)Sen, who spoke to VOA in a Vietnamese-run coffee shop, said the island’s enviable standard of living, which he also enjoys, cuts both ways when it comes to the small-town mindset.
“It could be a sense of insularity, a sense of island-ness, which is largely a positive, but which can also be a negative if people come from away, which is not a good term to be honest with you.”Anxiety about outsiders has been heightened during the pandemic, which has infected relatively few people here. Sen said this has led to people vandalizing cars with license plates from outside Prince Edward Island.
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Alan Reyes Picado fled Nicaragua by bus in the middle of the night, haunted by memories of government officials harassing him, throwing him in jail and then leaving him half naked in a dumpster.After crossing the Mexican-U.S. border in February and being detained for two months, the 20-year-old immigrant lives in San Francisco and hopes to receive a work permit soon.”I lived in fear and decided to seek help in this country,” said Reyes Picado, who left his partner and an 8-month-old baby in his home country.Reyes Picado is one of the thousands of Nicaraguans the U.S. government has encountered at the border in recent months. Customs and Border Protection data shows a big jump in arrivals from the Central American country, which is the focus of international criticism over arbitrary arrests and the restriction of fundamental rights.U.S. authorities stopped Nicaraguans 7,425 times in June compared to 534 times in January. So far in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, U.S. officials have stopped Nicaraguans more than 19,300 times at the southern border. That’s the highest number of encounters registered in recent years, surpassing record figures from fiscal year 2019, when authorities stopped Nicaraguans more than 13,000 times.At that moment, Nicaragua was immersed in a political crisis after the government announced a plan to cut social security benefits. Widespread protests caused the government to back down, but demonstrations grew into a movement demanding that President Daniel Ortega step down after more than a decade in power. At least 328 people died during repression of the demonstrations, said the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.Now, Ortega is seeking a fourth consecutive term as president in elections in November and has been systematically clearing his path of potential challengers through arrests for alleged crimes against the state.According to the rights commission, more than 20 people have been detained, including presidential candidates Cristina Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Miguel Mora, Medardo Mairena and Noel Vidaurre.Ortega’s government did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.Hundreds of thousands of migrants from other countries have also arrived at the U.S. border this year, as the new administration of President Joe Biden has eased some restrictions on immigration imposed under former President Donald Trump.Other nationalities have also shown large increases, including Ecuadorians and Venezuelans. In June, more than one of four people stopped by CBP were from countries other than Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.Nicaraguans have usually been a small number of the Central Americans trying to migrate to the U.S. However, Nicaragua’s government migration offices are now full of people trying to obtain passports, a scenario that also occurred during the 2018 crisis.Managua’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese has noticed the exodus.”It is with sadness that we see again the migration of Nicaraguans, mostly young people fleeing because of political persecution”, the Archdiocese said recently.Reyes Picado, the 20-year-old who recently fled Nicaragua, participated in the 2018 protests with his brother. Recently, he said in a telephone interview, local officials in Tipitapa, a city in western Nicaragua, would show up at the family’s truck depot asking to use the six trucks the family had. He said the government wanted the trucks to move its supporters around.Reyes Picado’s family said no to the request and that’s how their problems started, he said.”They would look for me at home; we couldn’t live in peace,” he said. “They would threaten us because we did not want to join them; they told us they would kill us, they would kidnap us.”White House officials did not respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press regarding the increase in arrivals of Nicaraguans. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, told the AP that the arrests of political rivals in Nicaragua and violence against the opposition “must be stopped”.”These actions are destabilizing Nicaragua and forcing Nicaraguans who are fearful for their lives to flee their country,” he said.Anita Wells, an activist who helps fellow Nicaraguans on their way to the U.S. and recent arrivals, said she is “overwhelmed” with work.”We have tons of people, of young men, in detention centers. Some are hurt, some are former political prisoners, and still, some of them are not allowed in (the U.S.),” she said from her home in Virginia.Wells is one of the founders of Abuelas Unidas por Nicaragua (Grandmothers United for Nicaragua), a group that raises and sends money to Nicaraguans in need. She is also one of the founders of the Nicaraguan American Human Rights Alliance, which has increasing work because it assists with asylum applications and tries to avoid the expulsion of Nicaraguans at the border.Like Reyes Picado, José Olivera also fled Nicaragua, leaving behind a wife and two children.A sales executive in an appliances company based in the north of Nicaragua, Olivera took buses and walked towards the U.S. border in May after being fired for not accepting an ID card indicating support for the official political party, the Frente Sandinista.Government officials would knock on his door insisting he accept the card, and soon the threats started, he said.”I never accepted the offer of being one of their supporters,” said the 38-year-old from his small apartment in Miami. “Honestly I’m scared, they would have killed me.”He fled to Honduras and then Guatemala by bus. Afterwards he walked, following train tracks until blisters hurt his feet. In Mexico, he said he was kidnapped by drug traffickers. Relatives put together $6,500 and Olivera was released three days after, he said.He crossed the border in June and told Customs and Border Protection officials he wanted to ask for asylum. After being in a detention center for two days, he was released with an ankle bracelet.The number of Nicaraguans entering the U.S. legally also is increasing: It went from 3,692 in January to 7,375 in June, according to CBP data. Immigration attorneys and activists say that many of those Nicaraguans decide later whether to ask for asylum in the U.S. or return home before their visa expires.Nicaraguan asylum-seekers seem to fare well in U.S. immigration courts compared to people from neighboring countries. The grant rate for Nicaraguan asylum-seekers was 36% in the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, compared to 26% for all nationalities, 17% for El Salvadorans, 13% for Guatemalans, 12% for Mexicans and 11% for Hondurans, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.Reyes Picado dreams of being among these lucky ones.His brother, who also participated in the student protests and was kidnapped by paramilitary groups in the 2018 upheaval, won asylum in the U.S.For Reyes Picado, life in Nicaragua meant moving in with his aunt to avoid putting his immediate family in danger.In December 2020, a paramilitary group, their faces covered in black ski masks, took Reyes Picado and handed him over to police. He was detained for three days, he said. He then was handcuffed, sprayed with gas in the eyes and left half naked in a dumpster in a rural area.”I feel better now because I know I can be safe,” he said. “I miss my family but I know they will be here with me one day.”
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Weeks after the discovery of more than 1,000 probable unmarked graves at now-closed schools for indigenous people, leaders of Canada’s First Nations are torn over whether to press for further forensic investigation and the repatriation of remains, or to let the sites be preserved undisturbed.Indigenous communities have had two months to absorb the shock since the discovery of what appear to be hundreds of unmarked student graves near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School was announced in May.   Scientists used ground penetrating radar to explore the site on the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation’s traditional territory in the western province of British Columbia, where the closed school building still sits. They found 200 anomalies that remain “targets of interest” and probable burials under a present day apple orchard. Using similar detection methods, hundreds of other probable unmarked graves of students have since been found on property of other closed residential schools across Canada, bringing the total to about 1,300.   Indigenous residential schools were paid by the Canadian government and run by various Christian churches starting in 1828. The last one closed in 1996. For most of their existence, Native children were taken by force from their families and placed into these institutions to be assimilated into Western culture. Reports abound that sexual, physical and verbal abuse were common.A suspected grave site cannot be confirmed until it is excavated, and some First Nation leaders are demanding a thorough investigation of the sites and an effort to repatriate the remains.FILE – Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Chief Rosanne Casimir speaks ahead of the release of findings on 215 unmarked graves discovered at Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, July 15, 2021.Tk’emlups te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir is calling the site in Kamloops a crime scene and says what happens next has to be done carefully and in consultation with the community and survivors.”We do know that our membership has been grappling with the information that has been shared. And we do know that every step that we do take moving forward, we’re going to be having the community consultation with our membership,” she said during a press conference in Kamloops. But many of the survivors, like Evelyn Camille, want the sites to be left undisturbed.”Yes, they may have to be some studies to be done,” she said at the same press conference. “What good are those studies going to do for us, for an individual, for me? It’s good to tell me that yes, they were murdered. Is that going to make me feel better? I don’t think so.  Those remains should be left undisturbed.”  FILE – Residential school survivor Evelyn Camille speaks at a presentation of the findings on 215 unmarked graves discovered at Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, July 15, 2021.Other Canadians are telling pollsters they are shocked by the revelations and want to see something done to acknowledge the mistreatment of indigenous children. A survey by Toronto-based Ipsos Public Affairs found that 77 percent of the public thinks there should be a national day of remembrance for the victims.”It’s about people who were truly victims, in this instance, and Canadians do have a lot of sympathy for what happened here,” Ipsos Public Affairs CEO Darrell Bricker told VOA. “They’re feeling badly about it, they want to see something done about it.”     The Kamloops Indian Residential School was one of the largest of the 139 that existed across Canada.It is expected that many more potential unmarked graves around other schools are yet to be discovered.  
 
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As the U.S economic recovery continues, many Americans want to buy new cars and trucks. But finding them is hard amid a global semiconductor shortage. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more on how COVID-19 continues to affect supply and demand in the automotive industry.

Producers: Kane Farabaugh, Adam Greenbaum. Videographer: Kane Farabaugh.
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Face mask requirements are returning to the United States in some communities and workplaces, along with directives for mandatory coronavirus vaccinations, in a new push to curb the easily transmissible delta variant of the infection that has already killed more than 611,000 Americans.

On the Independence Day holiday earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden heralded the strides the country had made in combating the coronavirus. But now he said he was seriously considering requiring that the more than 2.1 million federal workers be vaccinated, and that he would adhere to face mask rules when he visited parts of the country where the virus was surging.

The U.S. is now recording more than 60,000 new coronavirus cases each day, the government said, up from fewer than 12,000 a day in late June.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, has reimposed a mask requirement in the chamber.

The western state of Nevada, where the popular Las Vegas gambling mecca is located, is reimposing mask rules for indoor gatherings, as is the Midwestern city of Kansas City, Missouri. A major newspaper, The Washington Post, said it would require that all its journalists be vaccinated before returning to the office in mid-September.

The requirements follow new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said Tuesday that new data suggested even vaccinated people could pass on the virus if they became infected. The CDC said masks should be worn inside public places in communities that have seen a dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.

“I know this is not a message America wants to hear,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told CNN on Wednesday. “With prior variants, when people had these rare breakthrough infections, we didn’t see the capacity of them to spread the virus to others, but with the delta variant, we now see that you can actually now pass it to somebody else.”

She stressed that vaccines against the coronavirus were preventing greater levels of hospitalization and death. But millions of Americans remain skeptical of the vaccines and are refusing to get inoculated, or are saying  they are unlikely to do so.

Walensky said unvaccinated people were accounting for “a vast majority” of new infections. Two-thirds of the vaccine-eligible population of people 12 years and older in the U.S. have received at least one dose. Still, the government said slightly less than half of the U.S. population of more than 328 million people had been fully vaccinated.

“We can halt the chain of transmission,” Walensky said Wednesday on “CBS This Morning.” “We can do something if we unify together, if we get people vaccinated who are not yet vaccinated. If we mask in the interim, we can halt this in just a matter of a couple of weeks.”

With the new federal guidance, numerous state and municipal governments across the U.S. are reconsidering or rescinding their earlier easing of mask rules.

The CDC also called on school systems across the country to require masks for students, teachers and visitors as they start the new school year in August and September. But some states in the South have passed laws banning masks in schools, leaving it unclear as to how they may react to the new CDC guidance.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
 
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In just under six months Myanmar has become one of the worst jailers of journalists in the world, with at least 32 currently detained, a media freedom watchdog said Wednesday. 

The targeting of media since the February 1 coup marks a “drastic reversal” of positive inroads made by the Southeast Asian country toward greater freedom of expression since the end of its last period of military rule, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a special report. 

Since Myanmar’s army toppled the elected civilian government and arrested its de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, over 900 people have been killed and 5,400 arrested, charged or detained including dozens of journalists, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). 

As well as arrests, authorities have periodically imposed internet blackouts, revoked media licenses and issued warrants for reporters, a move that CPJ says is driving critical reporters underground or into self-imposed exile.

“As of July 1 at least 32 journalists were being held behind bars either on false news related charges or uncharged altogether,” Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative, told VOA. “This is repression unlike I think probably we’ve seen anywhere in the world over the last six months. This is a worse situation than China. This is a worse situation than in Turkey.”

Those two countries usually account for the highest numbers of imprisoned journalists, according to CPJ’s census carried out each December. But Crispin said the data on those currently held in Myanmar make the country a close third. For comparison, last December Myanmar had only one journalist in jail.

At the height of the repression in June, CPJ documented at least 45 journalists behind bars. Myanmar later freed some of those. But for those still detained, conditions are dire with reports of torture and overcrowding. 

The CPJ said the full number being held may be higher, with many media organizations reluctant to identify their contributors for fear of reprisals.

“It seems pretty clear that the junta regime is aiming to eliminate free press altogether,” Crispin said, describing the current environment as an “humanitarian crisis for journalists.”

Local media have borne the brunt of repression but international news outlets have been restricted and at least four foreign journalists detained. Three of those—American reporter Nathan Maung, and correspondents from Poland and Japan—were later released. 

But Danny Fenster, the American managing editor for English-language local publication Frontier Myanmar, has been in custody for over 65 days.

Fenster, who is being held in Yangon’s Insein prison, told his lawyer he has the coronavirus but has not been provided with medical assistance. A court hearing scheduled for Wednesday was pushed back and his family have limited contact or updates on his wellbeing. 

The journalist, originally from metro Detroit, had been working in Myanmar for a couple of years. He was arrested on May 24 at Yangon airport, when he tried to fly home for a family visit.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday the Myanmar military’s refusal to respect rights is “flatly unacceptable” and called for the release of those detained.

Shaky record

Media freedom record under Suu Kyi’s elected government was far from flawless. Two Reuters reporters who reported on abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority were imprisoned for over 500 days. 

But under the junta, CPJ’s Crispin says, Myanmar has used expanded laws around false news and incitement to target journalists as it seeks to “black out the news” of the deadly crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners.

“We found that many news outlets that were free to operate under Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government are now effectively operated underground. That means they have to close the bureaus,” he said, adding that many report from safe houses or while on the run. 

American journalist Maung told VOA his team at Kamayut Media knew they could face danger at any time. 

On March 9 around 40 armed soldiers raided their news outlet, and arrested Maung and his colleagues. 

“They interrogated me for the first four days, they didn’t give me water for three days,” Maung told VOA. 

The journalist said his captors kept him handcuffed, blindfolded and in stress positions.

“The first few days when I was being tortured I thought I could be killed anytime,” Maung said.  

His colleague Hanthar Nyien suffered too. CPJ’s report says Nyien was forced to kneel on an ice block, burned with cigarettes, and threatened with rape to force the journalist to hand over the code to unlock his smartphone.

The prison guards later learned that Maung was American, and he was released after 98 days. Nyien remains in custody.

“My body is in the United States but my mind everyday stays with my friends in the prison,” Maung said.

Myanmar’s military council has not directly responded to VOA’s queries on the treatment of detainees, but a spokesperson said the questioning of suspects is “in accordance with the rule and regulations.”

In a seemingly unrelenting crackdown “it’s hard to find positive strength in what’s happening right now in Myanmar for free press,” Crispin said. “They really are trying to erase the opening that allows the free press to take hold.”

But print outlets have pivoted to news shared over Facebook, and citizen journalists are risking arrest, bullets and tear gas to record the actions of the security forces.

A number of journalists have sought sanctuary in neighboring countries including Thailand and India.

“The junta can’t stop the internet, they can’t shut down Facebook…they can’t shut down information,” said one Myanmar reporter. 

The journalist, who is in hiding outside the country, asked for their identity and location to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.

“We don’t want to settle here. We want to keep working and reporting for Burma. We’re illegal here. We don’t have any document, so they [the authorities here] can arrest us and deport us back to Burma any day. We have to be low profile and very cautious,” the journalist said.

Crispin urged neighboring countries to provide a safe haven for journalists in hiding.

“It’s our hope that they will be allowed sanctuary in neighboring countries that would make it a little safer for them to report the news,” he said.
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The Taliban will lose the international legitimacy they gained through their negotiations in Doha if the group does not fulfill its obligation to negotiate with the Afghan government for a political settlement to the conflict, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said Wednesday in Kabul. 

“If there is no movement at the negotiating table, and instead human rights abuses and, worse still, atrocities occur in districts they control, the Taliban will not be seen as a viable partner for the international community,” Deborrah Lyons said while addressing a meeting of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB), created in 2006 for coordination between the Afghan government and the international community. 

The Taliban have been officially talking to a team of Afghans that includes government representatives since September last year but there has been little movement in that discussion. 

Earlier this month, a high-level delegation of Afghans led by Abdullah Abdullah, the head of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), went to Doha to meet the Taliban negotiation team in an effort to boost the process, with little success. 

The Taliban promised to negotiate with an Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (IRoA) team, as the Afghan team is called, in a deal it signed with the United States in February 2020 that paved the way for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan. 

However, only parts of that deal were met. Other parts that included meaningful intra-Afghan negotiations for a political settlement, and a permanent and comprehensive cease-fire as a result of that settlement, are yet to materialize. 

On the contrary, the level of violence in Afghanistan has surged since the announcement that foreign troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan. In the last several months, the Taliban have made swift territorial gains and surrounded several cities, even if they have not captured a city yet.   

Lyons said the Taliban had “inherited responsibility” for the areas they have taken over. 

“The world is watching closely how they are acting, especially towards civilian populations, women and minorities,” she said. 

At the meeting attended by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah, Lyons also pointed to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the wake of the increased violence. 

“Eighteen million Afghans today are facing dire humanitarian needs. That is twice the number of the same category last year. It represents half the country,” she said. 

The crisis, which includes millions of people internally displaced due to violence, has been exacerbated by waves of COVID-19 and a persistent drought. 

According to the U.N., civilian casualties this year are 50% higher, compared to the same period last year. Half of all those killed or wounded are women and children. 
 
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Haitians displaced by gang incursions into swaths of the capital now live on the sharpest edge of insecurity in the Caribbean country, which is reeling from the assassination of President Jovenel Moise earlier this month. Officials say thousands of people have lost their homes to encroachment by violent gangs into central and southern parts of the city, where urban sprawl envelops more than 2.5 million people.   “I’ve got no future in this country as a young man. I’m in an unstable situation, I can’t build a home, the situation is really critical,” said one youth, staying at a shelter in the Delmas 5 neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Like others who spoke to Reuters at the center, which gives refuge to about 1,800 people, he declined to give his name for fear of reprisals from gangs. Gang violence in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, increasingly marred Moise’s rule before he was shot dead in his official residence on July 7. The government says the attack was carried out by a group of largely Colombian mercenaries, though many questions about who was behind his killing remain. Ariel Henry was formally appointed as prime minister of Haiti last week, calling for unity, stability, and international support. But the gangs are powerful and security institutions are weak. Georges Michel, a Haitian historian, said the gangs can muster a firepower superior to official security forces and are highly mobile, used to deploying guerrillalike tactics to prey on the population and do battle with rival outfits.   “I hope that (the government) finds a way to destroy them because they create terror in all the neighborhood,” he said. Gangs have threatened to occupy the streets to protest the assassination of Moise. One of the most prominent bosses, Jimmy Cherizier, a former cop known as Barbecue, on Monday led hundreds of followers to a commemoration of the dead president.   “We never knew this situation before,” said another youth at the shelter. “This stems from the political crisis.” 
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