U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris says she will discuss Mexico’s role in the region as she meets with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City on Tuesday as part of her trip focused on addressing a rise in migration to the southern U.S. border.  Speaking to reporters late Monday, Harris mentioned the close partnership between the neighboring countries and said Tuesday’s agenda would also include economic engagement and cooperation regarding COVID-19 vaccines.  U.S. officials said Harris and López Obrador will witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding regarding cooperation on development programs in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Ricardo Zúñiga, U.S. special envoy for the Northern Triangle, told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s meetings the United States and Mexico “have not had this level of cooperation in Central America before.”  “The main thing is that it’s very important to show that the United States and Mexico are collaborating and trying to improve conditions on the ground among our neighbors because of the importance that the countries in Central America have for both of us,” Zúñiga said. “We’re both destination countries for migration from Central America, and we both have some of the same issues trying to ensure that we have legal paths for migration and temporary labor.”   While in Mexico City, Harris will hold talks with entrepreneurs and labor leaders as well.    She carried out a similar schedule Monday in Guatemala, where she emphasized “the power of hope” along with new efforts to fight corruption and persuade Latin Americans to stay home rather than attempt the dangerous migration north to the United States.   “I am here because the root causes are my highest priority in terms of addressing the issue, and we need to deal with it, both in terms of the poverty we are seeing, the hunger that we are seeing, the effects of the hurricanes and the extreme climate conditions, what we are seeing in terms of the pandemic,” Harris told reporters.    In her first foreign trip as the U.S. second in command, Harris said at a news conference in Guatemala City that Latin Americans “don’t want to leave the country where they grew up.”  But she said people in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, along with Mexico, need economic development that promises a better life than trying to move to the United States. Vice President Kamala Harris and Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei pose for an official photograph, June 7, 2021, at the National Palace in Guatemala City.Harris said that “help is on the way,” with Washington aid and private investments encouraged by the U.S. government in agriculture, housing and businesses. “We have reason to believe we can have an impact,” she said.       But Harris also sent a warning to Guatemalans: “Do not come” to the United States. “We’re not afraid to enforce our laws and borders,” she said.   Harris held what she described as “very frank, very candid” talks with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei about corruption in his country, pressing the need for “a strong court system” and civil governance.   Shortly after she met with the Guatemalan leader, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in Washington the creation of a law enforcement task force aimed at fighting human trafficking and smuggling groups in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries.       “We are creating this task force to address corruption, to address human smuggling —   doing the work to make sure certain progress be made if we are going to attract investment,” Harris said.   She said the task force would combine resources from the Justice, State and Treasury departments.   At the news conference, Giammattei blamed drug traffickers for corruption. He said the United States and Guatemala agreed to create a “very simple process” through visas to permit regular migration to the United States, and that the two countries would prioritize family reunifications.   He also announced a new processing center for migrants sent back from Mexico and the United States.   Besides meeting with Giammattei, Harris participated in a roundtable with Guatemalan community and civil society leaders and then met with young innovators and entrepreneurs, including several female entrepreneurs.   “This afternoon, I got to see what students in Guatemala are working on in the lab — and hear about how local entrepreneurs are growing their local economies. Around the world, innovators and entrepreneurs create economic opportunity. We must support them,” Harris tweeted late Monday.  Harris’ trip is fraught with U.S. political implications, with Republicans blaming President Joe Biden and Harris for the surge in migrants trying to cross the country’s southwestern border with Mexico. In the most recent count, U.S. border agents faced 178,000 migrants at the border in April, 44% of them from Central America.       At her news conference, Harris deflected a question about when she would visit the border, even though she has said she would at some point.       At a recent news conference, some Republicans displayed a milk carton depicting Harris with the headline: “MISSING AT THE BORDER.”        When asked about Republican criticism that she is not doing enough, Harris said Monday that she is focused on stemming migration as “opposed to grand gestures.”    Biden has tasked Harris with leading the effort to address the root causes behind the increase in the number of migrants traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border.       Ahead of her trip, Harris announced $310 million in U.S. aid to support refugees and deal with food shortages. She also recently won commitments from U.S. companies and organizations to invest in Central American countries to promote economic opportunity and job training.   The United States also said last week it would send 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine to Guatemala and 1 million to Mexico. 
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Two candidates vying for Peru’s presidency were still neck and neck Monday as vote counts trickled in for the runoff election. With over 95% of the vote counted, socialist Pedro Castillo led conservative rival Keiko Fujimori by less than one percentage point, according to a Reuters tally. Castillo, an outsider candidate, barely gained a lead against his rival overnight as votes came in from rural areas of the country. Lima’s stock market plunged, and the national currency dropped to a record low as uncertainty over the vote continued Monday. Peruvians are striving for political stability as seven of the country’s last 10 leaders have been either convicted of or investigated for corruption. Peru has had four presidents over the past three years. Both candidates have promised to respect the results of the poll. The country is also suffering a recession and one of the worst coronavirus fatality rates in the world, according to Agence France-Presse. Fujimori, a former congresswoman, was imprisoned as part of a corruption investigation. She is the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, a former president serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and the killing of 25 people. She has promised economic benefits to families with victims of COVID-19. Castillo was a schoolteacher in the country’s third-poorest district before entering politics. He has said that he is committed to rewriting the constitution, which was approved during the rule of Fujimori’s father. 
 
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A driver plowed a pickup truck into a family of five, killing four of them and seriously injuring the fifth in an attack that targeted the victims because they were Muslims, Canadian police said Monday.Authorities said a young man was arrested in the parking lot of a nearby mall after the attack Sunday night in the Ontario city of London. Police said a black pickup truck mounted a curb and struck the victims at an intersection.”This was an act of mass murder perpetuated against Muslims,” London Mayor Ed Holder said. “It was rooted in unspeakable hatred. The magnitude of such hatred can make one question who we were as a city.”Police said the dead were a 74-year-old woman, a 46-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl. A 9-year-old boy was reported in serious condition. The family requested the names not be released, officials said.”In one act of murder some individual has wiped out three generations of family. It’s horrific,” Holder said in an interview with The Associated Press.Nathaniel Veltman, 20, was in custody facing four counts of first-degree murder. Police said Veltman, a resident of London, did not know the victims.Detective Supt. Paul Waight said Veltman was wearing a vest that appeared to be like body armor.Waight said police did not know at this point if the suspect was a member of any specific hate group. He said London police are working with federal police and prosecutors to see about potential terrorism charges. He declined to detail evidence pointing to a possible hate crime, but said the attack was planned.About a dozen police officers combed the area around the crash site looking for evidence Monday. Blue markers on the ground dotted the intersection.”We believe the victims were targeted because of their Islamic faith,” London Police Chief Stephen Williams said. “We understand that this event may cause fear and anxiety in the community, particularly in the Muslim community, in any community targeted by hate. … There is no tolerance in this community who are motivated by hate target others with violence.”Canada is generally welcoming toward immigrants and all religions, but in 2017 a French Canadian man known for far-right, nationalist views went on a shooting rampage at a Quebec City mosque and killed six people.One woman who witnessed the aftermath of the deadly crash said she couldn’t stop thinking about the victims. Paige Martin said she was stopped at a red light around 8:30 p.m. when the large pickup roared past her. She said her car shook from the force.”I was shaken up, thinking it was an erratic driver,” Martin said.Minutes later, she said, she came upon a gruesome, chaotic scene at an intersection near her home, with first responders running to help, a police officer performing chest compressions on one person and three other people lying on the ground. A few dozen people stood on the sidewalk and several drivers got out of their cars to help.”I can’t get the sound of the screams out of my head,” Martin said.From her apartment, Martin said she could see the scene and watched an official drape a sheet over one body about midnight.”My heart is just so broken for them,” she said.Zahid Khan, a family friend, said the three generations among the dead were a grandmother, father, mother and teenage daughter. The family had immigrated from Pakistan 14 years ago and were dedicated, decent and generous members of the London Muslim Mosque, he said.”They were just out for their walk that they would go out for every day,” Khan said through tears near the site of the crash. “I just wanted to see.”Qazi Khalil said he saw the family on Thursday when they were out for their nightly walk. The families lived close to each other and would get together on holidays, he said.”This has totally destroyed me from the inside,” Khalil said. “I can’t really come to the terms they were no longer here.”The National Council of Canadian Muslims said it was beyond horrified, saying Muslims in Canada have become all too familiar with the violence of Islamophobia.”This is a terrorist attack on Canadian soil, and should be treated as such,” council head Mustafa Farooq said. “We call on the government to prosecute the attacker to the fullest extent of the law, including considering terrorist charges.”The mayor said flags would be lowered for three days in London, which he said has 30,000 to 40,000 Muslims among its more than 400,000 residents.”To the Muslim community in London and to Muslims across the country, know that we stand with you. Islamophobia has no place in any of our communities. This hate is insidious and despicable — and it must stop,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted. 
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The German Defense Ministry said Monday it had been forced to deal with an unexpected problem regarding their troops in Afghanistan — a surplus of beer. At a news briefing in Berlin on Monday, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Christina Routsi explained that Germany’s troops in Afghanistan had been permitted to consume alcohol at times and in limited quantities. Soldiers were allowed two cans of beer — or the equivalent in other beverages — per day. But Germany’s commander of its armed forces in Afghanistan, citing a high enemy threat level, banned all consumption of alcohol. Routsi said this created a problem for the German military, as there was already a large quantity of alcohol in the country for the troops. She said under the stationing agreement between Germany and Afghanistan, the import of alcohol into the country is prohibited, with the exception of Camp Marmal, the German base in Afghanistan. Alcohol cannot be sold in Afghanistan, due to local religious restrictions, or destroyed for environmental reasons. Routsi said the military had to hire a civilian contractor to take the 22,600 liters of alcohol — including almost 60,000 cans of beer — out of the country ahead of the German troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan as the NATO mission in the country ends in the coming months. The German army said the contractor will sell the beer elsewhere, which should cover the cost of transporting it out of Afghanistan.  
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized “the power of hope” Monday, along with new efforts to fight corruption to persuade Latin Americans to stay home rather than attempt the dangerous migration north to the United States. In her first foreign trip as the U.S. second in command, Harris said at a news conference in Guatemala City that Latin Americans “don’t want to leave the country where they grew up.” But she said people in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, along with Mexico, need economic development that promises a better life than trying to move to the U.S. Harris said “help is on the way” with Washington aid and private investments encouraged by the U.S. government in agriculture, housing and businesses. “We have reason to believe we can have an impact,” she said. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei wave as they pose for a photo on a balcony at the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, June 7, 2021.But Harris warned Guatemalans, “Do not come” to the U.S. “We’re not afraid to enforce our laws and borders,” she declared. Harris held what she described as “very frank, very candid” talks with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei about corruption in his country, pressing the need for “a strong court system” and civil governance. Shortly after she met with the Guatemalan leader, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in Washington the creation of a law enforcement task force aimed at fighting human trafficking and smuggling groups in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries.  “We are creating this task force to address corruption, to address human smuggling — doing the work to make sure certain progress be made if we are going to attract investment,” Harris said. At the news conference, Giammattei blamed drug traffickers for corruption. He said the U.S. and Guatemala agreed to create a “very simple process” through visas to permit regular migration to the U.S., and that the two countries would prioritize family reunifications. Vice President Kamala Harris attends a meeting with community leaders, at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, in Guatemala City, June 7, 2021.Besides meeting with Giammattei, Harris participated in a roundtable with Guatemalan community and civil society leaders, and then met with young innovators and entrepreneurs, including several female entrepreneurs. On Tuesday, she is holding talks with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City and also meeting with entrepreneurs and labor leaders. Harris’ trip is fraught with U.S. political implications, with Republicans blaming President Joe Biden and Harris for the surge in migrants trying to cross the country’s southwestern border with Mexico. In the most recent count, U.S. border agents faced 178,000 migrants at the border in April, 44% of them from Central America. At her news conference, Harris deflected a question about when she would visit the border, even though she has said she would at some point. At a recent news conference, some Republicans displayed a milk carton depicting Harris with the headline: “MISSING AT THE BORDER.”  Biden has tasked Harris with leading the effort to address the root causes behind the increase in the number of migrants traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border. Administration officials highlighted corruption as a major factor behind the migration and private companies avoiding expanding their investments in Central America. “For us, it’s a direct correlation between corruption and people arriving on our southwest border,” one official said. Ahead of her trip, Harris announced $310 million in U.S. aid to support refugees and deal with food shortages. She also recently won commitments from U.S. companies and organizations to invest in Central American countries to promote economic opportunity and job training.  The U.S. also last week said it would send 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine to Guatemala and a million to Mexico.  
 
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, pleading to meet U.S. President Joe Biden prior to Biden’s talks in Geneva next week, was rebuffed by the White House on that request but was awarded a consolation phone call on Monday that included an invitation to Washington.”They had the opportunity to talk at some length about all of the issues in the U.S.-Ukraine relationship, and President Biden was able to tell President Zelenskiy that he will stand up firmly for Ukraine sovereignty, territorial integrity and its aspirations as we go forward,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told White House reporters.Sullivan also said Biden told the Ukrainian president that “he looks forward to welcoming him to the White House here in Washington this summer after he returns from Europe.”Following the phone call, Zelenskiy said the U.S. president invited him to visit in July.Thank you Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko shakes hands with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden before their meeting in Kyiv, Nov, 21, 2014.Asked about whether that subject was raised, Sullivan replied to a reporter in the White House briefing room: “In terms of the specifics of what they discussed, I’m going to let the two of them speak for themselves. I’m not going to read out that aspect of the meeting.”In the Axios interview, Zelenskiy, a professional comedian who was elected president in 2019, said he was surprised and disappointed that Biden had not done more to prevent development of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, which is seen by Kyiv as a Kremlin project to eliminate it from the European gas transit system.During the administration of former President Donald Trump, Zelenskiy was in the spotlight because of a phone call in 2019 in which Trump pressured him to investigate Biden and his son Hunter’s activities in Ukraine.Trump denied any wrongdoing concerning the call, which led to his first impeachment by the House of Representatives on charges of abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress. Trump was subsequently acquitted during the Senate trial. 
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Authorities on Greece’s most popular tourist island, Mykonos, will deploy more than a dozen drones to spot those who defy safety protocols aimed at preventing the spread and resurgence of COVID-19. 
 
The decision, known as “Operation Mykonos,” comes after a string of local so-called  “Corona-parties” organized by entrepreneurs at private villas and estates in recent weeks to bypass safety rules banning the operation of nightclubs. 
 
It also comes as the beleaguered government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis scrambles to revive its battered tourism sector, luring foreign travelers — mainly from the United States, Europe, Israel, and Russia —  with the promise of a safe summer holiday stay under the Greek sun. 
 
Foreign travelers are required to abide by local lockdowns, curfews, and safety protocols during their stays. 
 FILE – People gather as the sun sets at the windmills on the Aegean Sea island of Mykonos, Greece, Aug. 16, 2020.Under “Operation Mykonos,” authorities will deploy 15 drones to fly over private villas or establishments in Mykonos that in recent weeks were host to parties packed with hundreds of locals and foreigners. Ten-member strong teams of officers will also be formed to raid the establishments upon notice, arresting and fining the offenders, authorities told VOA. 
 
Fines range between $365 to over $6,000. 
 
Officials tell VOA the measures, coupled with heightened police controls, inspections and added surveillance cameras across Mykonos, will serve as a blueprint for other popular hotspots among foreign travelers. These include Rhodes, Santorini and Paros, according to authorities. 
 
“Illegal parties spell a greater risk of seeing the virus spread, infecting more and more people,” warned Nikos Hardalias, the head of Greece’s Civil Protection Agency, on Sunday. “It spells a spike in COVID cases that can lead to fresh restrictions, leading businesses to shut down, causing major damage to tourist areas.” 
 
“It is high time,” he warned, “for everyone to size up to the challenge and take on full responsibility of their actions.” 
 
On Monday, government spokesman Aristotelia Peloni also criticized the mushrooming “corona-parties” gripping the country, saying she wished “Greece’s youth showed similar zeal and enthusiasm in the state’s nationwide vaccination drive.” 
 
“The country’s freedom,” she said, “can only come through comprehensive immunization.” 
 
Effectively in lockdown since last November, Greece started easing some of its sweeping restrictions, including curfews and travel bans, in mid-May when it re-launched international travel. 
 
The latest crackdown, however, underscores the paradox of what critics call a hasty and ill-thought-out strategy.  FILE – A waiter serves a group of people in a restaurant of Plaka district, as restaurants and cafes in Greece open after six months of lockdown, amid the coronavirus outbreak, in Athens, Greece, May 3, 2021.“You can’t say ‘restaurants and bars can open but no music playing in the background to block crowds from gathering,’” said Heracles Zissimopoulos, a leading entrepreneur on the island of Mykonos. “It’s absurd.” 
 
“The government should seriously rethink its policy, and provide locals and tourists with an outlet, instead. Otherwise, these types of parties will be difficult to stop,” he added. 
 
Greece recorded less than 3,000 cases during the country’s first bout with the pandemic. But as tourists streamed in last summer, infections and deaths sky-rocketed, making Greeks apprehensive to foreign travelers. 
 
But with 20 percent of the nation’s domestic output reliant on tourism, Greeks now know they can ill afford to lose a second summer tourism season in a row. 
 FILE – People wait at the reception hall of a COVID-19 vaccination mega center in Athens, Feb. 15, 2021.Under a campaign called “Blue Freedom,” the government wants to vaccinate all 700,000 or so adult residents of Greece’s islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas by the end of June, hoping Greece can be included in Britain’s revised green-list of travel nations. All islanders are being offered the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to boost immunization. 
 
As of early June, Mykonos had vaccinated about four in ten of its residents, and Santorini over 50% — among the highest in the country. 
…

Spain jumpstarted its summer tourism season on Monday by welcoming vaccinated visitors from most countries as well as European visitors who can prove they are not infected with coronavirus. It also reopened its ports to cruise ship stops.
The move opened borders for the first vacationers from the United States and other countries outside of the European Union that had been banned since March last year, when the pandemic hit global travel.
Matthew Eisenberg, a 22-year-old student, stepped out of Madrid airport’s arrivals lounge in excitment, ready to enjoy the Spanish capital along with two more American friends.  
“We came to Spain the first day we could, because we are very excited to travel here,” Eisenberg said, showing the certificate for the two Moderna jabs he received in February and March.  
The official certificates need to show that visitors were vaccinated at least 14 days before the trip or that they overcame a COVID-19 infection in the past six months, according to a Spanish government order published Saturday.
The certificates can be in Spanish, English, French or German — or their equivalent translations in Spanish, the order said. The vaccines accepted are those approved by Europe’s drug regulator — Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson — as well as two Chinese vaccines authorized by the World Health Organization, Sinopharm and Sinovac.
The same documents will be valid for visitors from the European Union until the bloc gets together its “Digital Green Certificate” that some have dubbed a vaccine passport for traveling.  
Non-vaccinated travelers from the EU’s 27 countries can also enter Spain now with the negative results of recent antigen tests, which are cheaper and faster than PCR tests for coronavirus.
But Spain is still banning nonessential travelers from Brazil, India and South Africa, where virus variants have been been a major source of concern.
The Spanish government has set a goal of receiving between 14.5 million to 15.5 million visitors between July and September. That’s about 40% of the tourists in the same period of 2019 but twice as many as last summer, when only EU visitors could enter Spain.
Tourism is a major industry that in 2019 accounted for over 12% of Spain’s GDP.
In a setback, many of the British tourists who love Southern Europe’s beaches and are the top spenders among foreign visitors in Spain, aren’t expected in mass yet because they are required to quarantine by British authorities on their return to the U.K.
Manchester resident Randolph Sweeting said that despite the mandatory isolation, his holiday in Mallorca, one of the Mediterranean islands favored by many European tourists, was worth the mandatory self-isolation.
“I was here twice last year and when I went home I had to quarantine on my own for two weeks. So it’s not a problem for me, I’ve done it before,” the 68-year-old said at the Palma de Mallorca airport.
Belén Sanmartín, director of the Melià Calvià Beach Hotel in Mallorca, said that the U.K. government’s decision to keep Spain in its list of high-risk territories was hard to understand in the Balearic Islands, where the infection rate is lower than in Britain.
“It has been a big disappointment because we were ready to receive visitors from the British market, we had done our homework,” Sanmartín said, adding that bookings in her hotel were slowly picking up mostly because of Spanish mainlanders, and German and French tourists.
In another move to boost tourism, Spanish ports opened to cruise ships on Monday, nearly 15 months after they were banned as the first coronavirus outbreaks were detected.
After peaking in late January at nearly 900 new cases per 100,000 residents in 14-days, the coronavirus contagion indicator in Spain has dropped to 117 per 100,000. Still, its descent has stalled in the past days as new infections are spreading among unvaccinated groups.
Spain has counted over 80,000 COVID-19 deaths in the pandemic. 
…

Authorities on Greece’s most popular tourist island, Mykonos, will deploy more than a dozen drones to spot those who defy safety protocols aimed at preventing the spread and resurgence of COVID-19. 
 
The decision, known as “Operation Mykonos,” comes after a string of local so-called  “Corona-parties” organized by entrepreneurs at private villas and estates in recent weeks to bypass safety rules banning the operation of nightclubs. 
 
It also comes as the beleaguered government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis scrambles to revive its battered tourism sector, luring foreign travelers — mainly from the United States, Europe, Israel, and Russia —  with the promise of a safe summer holiday stay under the Greek sun. 
 
Foreign travelers are required to abide by local lockdowns, curfews, and safety protocols during their stays. 
 FILE – People gather as the sun sets at the windmills on the Aegean Sea island of Mykonos, Greece, Aug. 16, 2020.Under “Operation Mykonos,” authorities will deploy 15 drones to fly over private villas or establishments in Mykonos that in recent weeks were host to parties packed with hundreds of locals and foreigners. Ten-member strong teams of officers will also be formed to raid the establishments upon notice, arresting and fining the offenders, authorities told VOA. 
 
Fines range between $365 to over $6,000. 
 
Officials tell VOA the measures, coupled with heightened police controls, inspections and added surveillance cameras across Mykonos, will serve as a blueprint for other popular hotspots among foreign travelers. These include Rhodes, Santorini and Paros, according to authorities. 
 
“Illegal parties spell a greater risk of seeing the virus spread, infecting more and more people,” warned Nikos Hardalias, the head of Greece’s Civil Protection Agency, on Sunday. “It spells a spike in COVID cases that can lead to fresh restrictions, leading businesses to shut down, causing major damage to tourist areas.” 
 
“It is high time,” he warned, “for everyone to size up to the challenge and take on full responsibility of their actions.” 
 
On Monday, government spokesman Aristotelia Peloni also criticized the mushrooming “corona-parties” gripping the country, saying she wished “Greece’s youth showed similar zeal and enthusiasm in the state’s nationwide vaccination drive.” 
 
“The country’s freedom,” she said, “can only come through comprehensive immunization.” 
 
Effectively in lockdown since last November, Greece started easing some of its sweeping restrictions, including curfews and travel bans, in mid-May when it re-launched international travel. 
 
The latest crackdown, however, underscores the paradox of what critics call a hasty and ill-thought-out strategy.  FILE – A waiter serves a group of people in a restaurant of Plaka district, as restaurants and cafes in Greece open after six months of lockdown, amid the coronavirus outbreak, in Athens, Greece, May 3, 2021.“You can’t say ‘restaurants and bars can open but no music playing in the background to block crowds from gathering,’” said Heracles Zissimopoulos, a leading entrepreneur on the island of Mykonos. “It’s absurd.” 
 
“The government should seriously rethink its policy, and provide locals and tourists with an outlet, instead. Otherwise, these types of parties will be difficult to stop,” he added. 
 
Greece recorded less than 3,000 cases during the country’s first bout with the pandemic. But as tourists streamed in last summer, infections and deaths sky-rocketed, making Greeks apprehensive to foreign travelers. 
 
But with 20 percent of the nation’s domestic output reliant on tourism, Greeks now know they can ill afford to lose a second summer tourism season in a row. 
 FILE – People wait at the reception hall of a COVID-19 vaccination mega center in Athens, Feb. 15, 2021.Under a campaign called “Blue Freedom,” the government wants to vaccinate all 700,000 or so adult residents of Greece’s islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas by the end of June, hoping Greece can be included in Britain’s revised green-list of travel nations. All islanders are being offered the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to boost immunization. 
 
As of early June, Mykonos had vaccinated about four in ten of its residents, and Santorini over 50% — among the highest in the country. 
…

Adrián is trying to settle in to his third new city since 2016, when his wife was raped and mother was killed in Haiti. He will go anywhere but home.
“Why do they send us back to Haiti?” he said outside a cheap Mexican hotel blocks from the border with El Paso, Texas, where he was living with his wife and about 20 other Haitians last month. “We don’t have anything there. There’s no security. … I need a solution to not be sent back to my country.”
Haitians rejoiced when U.S. Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced last month an 18-month extension of protections for Haitians living in the United States, citing “serious security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty, and lack of basic resources, which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.” 
The reprieve benefits an estimated 100,000 people who came after a devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti and are eligible for Temporary Protected Status, which gives a temporary haven to people fleeing countries struggling with civil strife or natural disasters.
Mayorkas noted that it doesn’t apply to Haitians outside the U.S. and said those who enter the country may be flown home. To qualify, Haitians must have been in the United States on May 21.
The Biden administration has dismayed some pro-immigration allies by sharply increasing repatriation flights to Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The government chartered 14 flights in February and 10 in March, more than any other destination, before tapering off to six flights in April, according to Witness at the Border,  an advocacy group that tracks U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flights.  
Removals have continued despite Haiti’s political and humanitarian crises cited by U.S. officials in their decision to extend Temporary Protected Status. Kidnappings have become commonplace. UNICEF expects child malnutrition to double this year as an indirect consequence of the pandemic in a country where 1.1 million are already going hungry.
Adrián, who spoke on condition that his last name not be published to protect his wife’s identity, is among legions of Haitians who fled the Caribbean nation sometime after the 2010 earthquake. Many initially escaped to South America. He went to Chile, while others went to Brazil.
As construction jobs for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro ended and Brazil descended into political turmoil, many Haitians crossed 10 countries by plane, boat, bus and foot to get to San Diego, where U.S. authorities let them in on humanitarian grounds. But then-President Barack Obama shifted course and began deporting Haitian arrivals in 2016. Many then started calling Mexico home.
Haitian restaurants opened in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, serving mangoes and mashed plantains. Factories that export to the U.S. recruited Haitians, who also wait tables and worship at congregations that have added services in Creole.
In recent months, some Haitians have moved from Tijuana to Ciudad Juarez, another large border city with jobs at export-driven factories. They’re driven by job prospects, hopes of less racial discrimination and a temptation to cross what they perceive to be less-guarded stretches of border.  
The shift was evident Feb. 3 when U.S. authorities expelled dozens of Haitians to Ciudad Juarez, an apparent violation of pandemic-related powers that deny a right to seek asylum. Under the public health rules, only people from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador can quickly be sent back to Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has acknowledged the Haitian expulsions but not explained why they were done.
“They are in transit,” said Nicole Phillips, legal director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, an advocacy group. “It’s very much a transitory population. They may start out in Tijuana and shift eastward. Other times they start east and shift to Tijuana.”
Adrián, 34, said he saw racial discrimination in Chile and Tijuana, where he worked in data entry for a company that assembled neck braces and other medical devices. He said he saw Mexicans getting paid more than twice as much for the same work.  
He lost his job when his temporary work visa expired and heard that Ciudad Juarez had work. A straight shot by bus, he decided to take another chance on a new life.  
During his first week in Ciudad Juarez last month, Adrián asked downtown merchants to let him sell items on the streets, which are still half-empty amid COVID-19. No one let him. Factories are known to hire foreigners, but he no longer had a work permit.
Adrián wants to settle in Ciudad Juarez and save money, saying he may try to get to the U.S. one day. For now, he fears being sent back to Haiti too much to risk applying for asylum or enter the country illegally.  
A scar on the back of his head is from being pistol-whipped by an attacker in 2016, he says, and one on his left hand is from being tied up. He said his mother was targeted at her home and killed because she refused to participate in rallies for the Tet Kale party, whose presidential candidate, Jovenel Moïse, won the 2016 election.
Adrián believes the men who killed her and assaulted his wife worked for party bosses. He recognized one and went to the police, but nothing came of it.
Haiti has long been wracked by poverty and violence. In April, then-Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe resigned amid a spike in killings.
Other Haitians staying at the hotel with Adrián also had left Tijuana. Some said they would stay and try to find work; others said they wanted to go to the United States.
Some people who have been sent back to Haiti simply save for another attempt to cross into the U.S.
“I’ve been back in Haiti over nine months now. I’m struggling to stay alive,” said a mechanic in Port-au-Prince who was caught by border agents in South Texas. “Soon as I crossed into the U.S., police picked us up, and the guide was nowhere to be found.”
The 27-year-old man spoke on the condition of anonymity because he plans on crossing the border again. He said his training as a mechanic hasn’t gotten him work in Haiti, though he plied his trade from Chile to Guatemala on his journey to the U.S.
Jean-Piere, another Haitian migrant who was trained as a mechanical engineer and spoke on condition that his last name not be published for safety reasons, spent two years in Tijuana. After moving to Ciudad Juarez and failing to find a job, he said he wants to go to the United States. He carries a folder with documents for an eventual asylum case.
He said his father died due to “political problems” stemming from his work for Haiti’s governing party.
“I can’t go back to my country,” Jean-Piere said.
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The daughter of an imprisoned former president was leading the race for Peru’s presidency late Sunday, hours after polls closed in a runoff election held as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter the Andean country. With 42% of votes tallied, conservative Keiko Fujimori had 52.9% of the vote, while rural teacher-turned-political novice Pedro Castillo had 47%, according to official results. This is Fujimori’s third run for president, a role her father held in the 1990s. The polarizing populist candidates have promised coronavirus vaccines for all and other strategies to alleviate the health emergency that has killed more than 180,000 people in Peru and pushed millions into poverty. The election followed a statistical revision from Peru’s government that more than doubled the COVID-19 death toll previously acknowledged by officials.      “Never was a second round so clearly divided as the present election,” Peruvian political analyst Fernando Tuesta said on his Twitter account. In 2016, now-former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski defeated Fujimori by just 42,597 votes.     Voters across Peru, where voting is mandatory, headed to the polls throughout Sunday under a set schedule meant to minimize long lines. No disturbances were reported at voting sites, which even opened in San Miguel del Ene, a remote village in a cocaine-producing area where two weeks ago a massacre ended with 16 people dead.  Pre-election polls indicated the candidates were virtually tied heading into the runoff. In the first round of voting, featuring 18 candidates, neither received more than 20% support and both were strongly opposed by sectors of Peruvian society.     “Well, the truth is that I believe that Peruvians are used to this type of decision – of being left with two options that leave much to be desired, but what do we do?” one voter, Paul Perez, said at a school in the capital of Lima where he was voting. “We are in a social, cultural situation that limits us to anticipating all of this.”     The pandemic not only has collapsed Peru’s medical and cemetery infrastructure, left millions unemployed and highlighted longstanding inequalities in the country, it has also deepened people’s mistrust of government as it mismanaged the COVID-19 response and a secret vaccination drive for the well-connected erupted into a national scandal.  Amid protests and corruption allegations, the South American country cycled through three presidents in November. Now, analysts warn this election could be another tipping point for people’s simmering frustrations and bring more political instability. Supporters of presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori cheer as they listen to the results of an unofficial exit poll on the runoff election, in Lima, Peru, June 6, 2021.“I think in both situations the risk of social unrest is high. It’s a time bomb,” said Claudia Navas, an analyst with the global firm Control Risks. “I think if Castillo wins, people who support Fujimori or support the continuation to some extent of the economic model may protest.” But Navas said “a more complex scenario will evolve if Fujimori wins because Castillo has been able to create a discourse that has played well in some rural communities with regards to the social divide and saying that political and economic elites have orchestrated things to remain in power and maintain the social inequalities”  The fears of more political instability were evident Sunday.  President Francisco Sagasti after voting said the candidates should respect the results and ask their followers to refrain from staging protests over the outcome. Meanwhile, leftist Castillo asked his supporters before results were released to remain calm.      “Let’s wait for the official data, and we will come out to pronounce ourselves at that moment,” he said, using a bullhorn in the remote northern district of Tacabamba.      Dozens of Castillo’s followers marched in support of the candidate through the streets of Huancayo, the most important city in central Peru. Fujimori remained at her campaign headquarters in Lima, where she received a visit from a locally known Brazilian seer.     For Lima resident Felipa Yanacris, Peru’s presidential politics “desperately” need a shake-up. “We want change, we have been waiting for 30 years of change,” Yanacris said. Fujimori voted in the wealthy neighborhood of the capital of Lima where she lives, urging people to vote “without fear,” while Castillo appealed for calm while casting his ballot alongside his parents in the rural Anguia area.     The former congresswoman, has promised various bonuses to people, including a $2,500 one-time payment to each family with at least one COVID-19 victim. She has also proposed distributing 40% of a tax for the extraction of minerals, oil or gas among families who live near those areas. Her supporters include the wealthy players of the national soccer team and Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru’s foremost author and the winner of a Nobel Prize in literature. Vargas, who lost a presidential election three decades ago to the candidate’s father, Alberto Fujimori, has moved from calling her the daughter of the dictator'' in 2016 to considering her to be the representative offreedom and progress.”      Keiko Fujimori herself has been imprisoned as part of a graft investigation though she was later released. Her father governed between 1990 and 2000 and is serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and the killings of 25 people. She has promised to free him should she win. Castillo until recently was a rural schoolteacher in the country’s third-poorest district, deep in the Andes. The son of illiterate peasants entered politics by leading a teachers’ strike. While his stance on nationalizing key sectors of the economy has softened, he remains committed to rewriting the constitution that was approved under the regime of Fujimori’s father. Among Castillo’s supporters are former Bolivia President Evo Morales and former Uruguay President Jose Mujica, who in a conversation via Facebook told Castillo on Thursday to “not fall into authoritarianism.”  Peru is the second largest copper exporter in the world and mining accounts for almost 10% of its GDP and 60% of its exports, so Castillo’s initial proposal to nationalize the nation’s mining industry set off alarm bells among business leaders. But regardless of who gets picked to succeed Sagasti on July 28, investors will remain skittish.      “A victory for left-wing populist Pedro Castillo in Peru’s presidential election on Sunday would probably send local financial markets into a tailspin, but we doubt that investors would have much to cheer about even if his rival Keiko Fujimori wins,” Nikhil Sanghani, emerging markets economist with Capital Economics, wrote in an investors note Friday.     “Fujimori is a controversial figure who is under investigation for corruption charges. Given Peru’s recent history, it’s not hard to imagine that this could spark impeachment proceedings,” he said.  
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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s party lost its absolute majority in the lower house in elections Sunday, initial results indicated, in a setback to his promised “transformation” of the country. Lopez Obrador’s Morena party was set to take between 190 and 203 of the 500 seats, the National Electoral Institute said, though it could still secure an absolute majority with its allies. The polls were seen as a referendum on his more than two years in office overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic and cartel-related violence.   Dozens of politicians have been murdered in the months leading up to the midterm elections for the lower house of Congress, 15 of 32 state governors and thousands of local politicians. On the eve of the election, gunmen killed five people helping to organize voting in southern Mexico, while two human heads were left at polling stations in the border city of Tijuana. Lopez Obrador was elected in 2018 for a term of six years, vowing to overhaul Mexico’s “neoliberal” economic model, root out corruption and end profligacy by a privileged elite. The future of the left-wing populist’s reform agenda — such as seeking greater energy independence — hinged on whether voters would punish him for issues such as the pandemic.   “They never had a plan and they still don’t,” said Claudia Cervantes, a hospital worker. But some other voters such as Tania Calderon were willing to give the ruling party more time.   “Without the pandemic, the government would have done better,” the 37-year-old said. High approval ratingsMexico’s economy, the second largest in Latin America, plunged by 8.5 percent in 2020 in the worst slump in decades, although the government predicts a rebound this year.   Despite more than a quarter of a million coronavirus deaths — one of the world’s highest tolls — the 67-year-old president continues to enjoy public approval ratings above 60 percent.   Deaths and infections from Covid-19 have fallen steadily for several months, helped by a vaccination campaign. Lopez Obrador owes much of his popularity to his social welfare programs aimed at helping the elderly and disadvantaged Mexicans. His supporters say he is their first president to put the interests of the Mexican majority, many of whom live in poverty, before those of the wealthy elite.   The president’s critics accuse him of a dangerous tilt towards authoritarianism with attacks on the judiciary and the National Electoral Institute. “Long live democracy,” Lopez Obrador declared Sunday after voting. Political violenceThe ruling coalition has had a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house of Congress that enabled Lopez Obrador to amend the constitution without negotiating with his opponents.   Without it, he faces a tougher time pushing through his reforms.   Sunday’s vote has been overshadowed by a wave of political bloodshed that has seen more than 90 politicians murdered since the electoral process began in September. In the southern state of Chiapas, gunmen killed five people on Saturday in an attack that coincided with the delivery of ballot boxes and other voting materials.   A manhunt was launched for the perpetrators, whose motives were not immediately known. In Guerrero, one of the country’s most violent regions, also located in southern Mexico, members of a community police force kept watch over voting. “Members of organized crime come to divide the people. They don’t let them vote freely,” said community police leader Isaias Posotema. 
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Guatemala and Mexico this week on a trip that spotlights migration issues at the southern U.S. border. Michelle Quinn reports.
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Peruvian voters chose between two polarizing populist candidates Sunday in a presidential runoff held as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter the Andean country and festering anger has led to fears of more political instability.  Political novice Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori, making her third run for the presidency, both promised coronavirus vaccines for all and other strategies to alleviate the health emergency that has killed more than 180,000 people in Peru and pushed millions into poverty. The election follows a statistical revision from Peru’s government that more than doubled the death toll previously acknowledged by officials.  The pandemic not only has collapsed Peru’s medical and cemetery infrastructure, left millions unemployed and highlighted longstanding inequalities in the country, it has also deepened people’s mistrust of government as it mismanaged the COVID-19 response and a secret vaccination drive for the well-connected erupted into a national scandal.  Amid protests and corruption allegations, the South American country cycled through three presidents in November. Now, analysts warn this election could be another tipping point for people’s simmering frustrations and bring more political instability.”I think in both situations the risk of social unrest is high. It’s a time bomb,” said Claudia Navas, an analyst with the global firm Control Risks. “I think if Castillo wins, people who support Fujimori or support the continuation to some extent of the economic model may protest.”But Navas said “a more complex scenario will evolve if Fujimori wins because Castillo has been able to create a discourse that has played well in some rural communities with regards to the social divide and saying that political and economic elites have orchestrated things to remain in power and maintain the social inequalities.”  Pre-election polls indicated the candidates were virtually tied heading into the runoff. In the first round of voting, featuring 18 candidates, neither received more than 20% support and both were strongly opposed by sectors of Peruvian society.”Well, the truth is that I believe that Peruvians are used to this type of decision — of being left with two options that leave much to be desired, but what do we do?” one voter, Paul Perez, said at a school in Lima where he was voting. “We are in a social, cultural situation that limits us to anticipating all of this.”For Lima resident Felipa Yanacris, Peru’s presidential politics desperately need a shake-up.  “We want change, we have been waiting for 30 years of change,” Yanacris said.Fujimori voted in the wealthy neighborhood of the capital of Lima where she lives, urging people to vote ”without fear,” while Castillo appealed for calm while casting his ballot alongside his parents in the rural Anguia area.President Francisco Sagasti also voted, saying both candidates should respect the results and ask their followers to refrain from staging protests over the outcome.  Fujimori, a conservative former congresswoman, has promised various bonuses to people, including a $2,500 one-time payment to each family with at least one COVID-19 victim. She has also proposed distributing 40% of a tax for the extraction of minerals, oil or gas among families who live near those areas.Her supporters include the wealthy players of the national soccer team and Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru’s foremost author and the winner of a Nobel Prize in literature. Vargas, who lost a presidential election three decades ago to the candidate’s father, Alberto Fujimori, called her the “daughter of the dictator” in 2016 but now considers her to be the representative of “freedom and progress.”  Keiko Fujimori herself has been imprisoned as part of a graft investigation though she was later released. Her father governed between 1990 and 2000 and is serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and the killings of 25 people. She has promised to free him should she win.Castillo until recently was a rural schoolteacher in the country’s third-poorest district, deep in the Andes. The son of illiterate peasants entered politics by leading a teachers’ strike. While his stance on nationalizing key sectors of the economy has softened, he remains committed to rewriting the constitution that was approved under the regime of Fujimori’s father.Among Castillo’s supporters are former Bolivia President Evo Morales and former Uruguay President José Mujica, who in a conversation via Facebook told Castillo on Thursday to “not fall into authoritarianism.”  Peru is the second largest copper exporter in the world and mining accounts for almost 10% of its GDP and 60% of its exports, so Castillo’s initial proposal to nationalize the nation’s mining industry set off alarm bells among business leaders. But regardless of who gets picked to succeed Sagasti on July 28, investors will remain skittish.  “A victory for left-wing populist Pedro Castillo in Peru’s presidential election on Sunday would probably send local financial markets into a tailspin, but we doubt that investors would have much to cheer about even if his rival Keiko Fujimori wins,” Nikhil Sanghani, emerging markets economist with Capital Economics, wrote in an investors note Friday.”Fujimori is a controversial figure who is under investigation for corruption charges. Given Peru’s recent history, it’s not hard to imagine that this could spark impeachment proceedings,” he said. 
 
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Serena Williams turns 40 in September. Roger Federer hits that milestone the month before. No one knows how many more French Open appearances each will make, and this year’s tournament ended for both on Sunday.Williams fell way behind and could not put together a comeback against a much younger and less-experienced opponent in the fourth round at Roland Garros, losing 6-3, 7-5 to Elena Rybakina, who wasn’t even born when the American made her tournament debut in 1998.Asked whether that might have been her last match at the clay-court major, Williams replied: “Yeah, I’m definitely not thinking about it at all. I’m definitely thinking just about other things, but not about that.”Her defeat came hours after Federer withdrew, saying he needed to let his body recover ahead of Wimbledon after a long third-round victory that ended at nearly 1 a.m. on Sunday.Wimbledon, which Federer has won eight times and Williams seven, begins June 28.”I’m kind of excited to switch surfaces,” Williams said. “Historically I have done pretty well on grass.”She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles; Federer has won 20. They are two of the sport’s greatest and most popular players, so it was quite a blow to the tournament, its TV partners and tennis fans to see both gone from the French Open field one after the other — and a week after Naomi Osaka pulled out, citing a need for a mental health break.Switzerland’s Roger Federer returns a shot to Germany’s Dominik Koepfer during their match on day seven of the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, June 5, 2021.Williams has won the French Open three times. But the American hasn’t been past the fourth round in Paris since she was the runner-up in 2016.Rybakina is a 21-year-old from Kazakhstan who is ranked 22nd. This was just the seventh Grand Slam appearance for Rybakina — and the first time she ever made it past the second round.”When I was small, of course, I was watching her matches on TV. So many Grand Slams,” Rybakina said of Williams.Against Williams, whose right thigh was heavily taped, Rybakina hit big, flat serves. She dealt with, but managed to steady, her nerves. She even produced the occasional return winner off Williams’ speedy serve, breaking her five times, including in the next-to-last game.”I knew that the serve was going to be difficult for me to return. She’s powerful, but I was ready,” Rybakina said. “Then, after few points, I felt … comfortable.”Rybakina said she followed her coach’s strategy of sending shots to Williams’ backhand side and trying to stay away from her forehand.Every time Williams appeared as if she might turn things around, she could not quite get the momentum fully in her favor.Repeatedly one sort of mistake or another undid Williams. She ended up with 19 unforced errors and only 15 winners.  “I’m so close. There is literally a point here, a point there, that could change the whole course of the match,” Williams said. “I’m not winning those points. That, like, literally could just change everything.”Since winning the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant for her most recent major singles title — No. 23 set a record for the professional era — Williams has come close to tying Margaret Court’s all-time mark of 24. That includes four runner-up finishes at Grand Slam tournaments, most recently against Bianca Andreescu at the 2019 U.S. Open.But since then, Williams has been beaten twice in semifinals, and once each in the third and fourth rounds. Last year at the French Open, she withdrew before the second round, citing an injured left Achilles.Federer, meanwhile, never had pulled out of a Grand Slam tournament once he had started competing in it until now.
 
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Kamala Harris left Sunday on her first trip as U.S. vice president, visiting Guatemala and Mexico on a mission to try to figure out how to keep the people there and in Honduras and El Salvador from migrating north to the United States.As thousands of migrants try to cross the southwestern U.S. border with Mexico, Harris is looking to reach agreements for more cooperation on border security and economic development to keep people in their home countries even as corruption in the region complicates already difficult issues.Harris, who has little foreign policy experience, was tasked by President Joe Biden to resolve the migration dilemma for the U.S., searching for a way to stem the flow of migrants in a humane way and not allow unfettered access into the U.S.She is meeting with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday and Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday. In addition, Harris is meeting community leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs in Guatemala, and while in Mexico, she is participating in a conversation with female entrepreneurs and holding a roundtable with labor workers.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 21 MB720p | 42 MB1080p | 86 MBOriginal | 606 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioWatch: ‘Kamala Harris Heads to Mexico, Guatemala’ by VOA’s Patsy WidakuswaraAhead of her visits to the two countries, she has emphasized the need for increased employment opportunities and better living conditions. She announced $310 million in U.S. aid to support refugees and deal with food shortages. She also recently won commitments from U.S. companies and organizations to invest in Central American countries to promote economic opportunity and job training.The U.S. also last week said it would send a combined 1.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to Guatemala and Mexico.Harris’s diplomatic outreach has touched off political mockery at home because she has yet to visit the U.S.-Mexico border even though she said she would at some point.At a news conference, some Republicans displayed a milk carton showing Harris with the headline: “MISSING AT THE BORDER.”Over recent years, the U.S. has sent billions of dollars in assistance to Central American countries in hopes of curbing the motivation for residents there to migrate north to the U.S. But so far, the aid has not stemmed the tide of migration as people look to escape crime and poverty in search of a better life in the U.S.Former President Donald Trump adopted get-tough policies at the border to turn back migrants. Biden also is turning back migrants but has allowed unaccompanied children to enter the U.S., unlike Trump. The policy shift combined with a predictable rise in spring migration and the easing of pandemic restrictions at the border, contributed to the arrival of thousands of migrants in recent months, increasing pressure on the Biden administration to resolve the issue.”We have to give people a sense of hope, a sense of hope that help is on the way, a sense of hope that if they stay, things will get better,” Harris said after Biden named her to lead diplomatic efforts in Latin America.The Harris trip got off to a tentative start when her plane leaving Washington was forced to return after 30 minutes by what was described as a “technical issue.” She boarded another plane and left about an hour and a half later.
 
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Turkey’s environment minister pledged on Sunday to defeat a plague of “sea snot” threatening the Sea of Marmara, using a disaster management plan he said would secure its future.A thick, slimy layer of the organic matter, known as marine mucilage, has spread through the sea south of Istanbul, posing a threat to marine life and the fishing industry.Harbors, shorelines and swathes of seawater have been blanketed by the viscous, greyish substance, some of which has sunk below the waves, suffocating life on the seabed.Environment Minister Murat Kurum said Turkey planned to designate the entire Sea of Marmara a protected area, reduce pollution and improve treatment of wastewater from coastal cities and ships, which has helped the sea snot to spread.He also called on local residents, artists and nongovernmental organizations to join what he said would be Turkey’s biggest maritime cleanup operation, starting Tuesday.”Hopefully, together we will protect our Marmara within the framework of a disaster management plan,” Kurum said, speaking from a marine research vessel that has been taking samples of the slimy substance.”We will take all the necessary steps within three years and realize the projects that will save not only the present but also the future together,” he added.Kurum said the measures Turkey planned would reduce nitrogen levels in the sea by 40%, a move he said scientists believed would help restore the waters to their previous state.Scientists say climate change and pollution have contributed to the proliferation of the organic matter, which contains a wide variety of microorganisms and can flourish when nutrient-rich sewage flows into seawater.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the outbreak on untreated water from cities, including Istanbul, home to 16 million people, and vowed to “clear our seas from the mucilage scourge.”   
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Sunday marked the 77th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces landed on the beaches of France’s Normandy region. Historians say the months-long battles that followed liberated Europe from Nazi Germany and gave the Allies the upper hand in World War II. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports how survivors marked the day.
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Pope Francis on Sunday expressed his pain over the discovery in Canada of the remains of 215 Indigenous students of church-run boarding schools and pressed religious and political authorities to shed light on “this sad affair.” But he didn’t offer the apology sought by the Canadian prime minister.Francis, in remarks to faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, also called on the authorities to foster healing but made no reference to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s insistence, two days earlier, that the Vatican apologize and take responsibility.From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools, the majority of them run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, in a campaign to assimilate them into Canadian society.The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.Ground-penetrating radar was used to confirm the remains of the children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia, last month. The school was Canada’s largest such facility and was operated by the Catholic Church between 1890 and 1969.”I am following with pain the news that arrives from Canada about the upsetting discovery of the remains of 215 children,” Francis said in his customary Sunday noon remarks to the public.”I join with the Canadian bishops and the entire Catholic Church in Canada in expressing my closeness to the Canadian people traumatized by the shocking news,” Francis said.”This sad discovery adds to the awareness of the sorrows and sufferings of the past,” he added.Trudeau on Friday blasted the church for being “silent” and “not stepping up,” and called on it to formally apologize and to make amends for its prominent role in his nation’s former system of church-run Indigenous boarding schools.He noted that when he met with Francis at the Vatican in 2017, he had asked him to “move forward on apologizing” and on making records available. But, Trudeau said, “we’re still seeing resistance from the church, possibly from the church in Canada.”Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia has said her nation wants a public apology from the Catholic Church. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which ran nearly half of Canada’s residential schools, has yet to release any records about the Kamloops school, she also said.Francis’ comments spoke of healing but not of apology.”May the political and religious authorities continue to collaborate with determination to shed light on this sad affair and to commit humbly to a path of reconciliation and healing,” Francis said.”These difficult moments represent a strong call to distance ourselves from the colonial model and from today’s ideological colonizing and to walk side by side in dialogue, in mutual respect and in recognizing rights and cultural values of all the daughters and sons of Canada,” the pope said.”Let’s entrust to the Lord the souls of all those children, deceased in the residential schools of Canada,” the pontiff added. “Let us pray for the families and for the indigenous Canadian communities overcome by sorrow.” Francis then asked the public in the square below his window to join him in silent prayer.Last week, the Vatican spokesman didn’t respond to requests for comment about the demands for a formal apology from the pope.On Wednesday, Vancouver Archbishop Michael Miller tweeted his “deep apology and profound condolences to the families and communities that have been devastated by this horrific news.” The churchman, who leads Catholics in that British Columbia archdiocese, added that the church was “unquestionably wrong in implementing a government colonialist policy which resulted in devastation for children, families and communities.”The United, Presbyterian and Anglican churches have apologized for their roles in the abuse, as has the Canadian government, which has offered compensation.Among the many recommendations of a government-established Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a papal apology.In 2009, then Pope Benedict XVI met with former students and survivors and told them of his “personal anguish” over their suffering. But his words weren’t described as an apology. 
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Mexicans headed to the polls on Sunday to vote for a new lower house of Congress, state governors and local lawmakers, in a race seen as a referendum on President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s policies and efforts to shake up Mexico’s institutions.All 500 seats in the lower house, 15 state governorships and thousands of local leadership positions are up for grabs, with some 93.5 million Mexicans eligible to vote. 
The elections have been tinged by the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine rollout, as well as record criminal violence, with security consultancy Etellekt saying 91 politicians have been killed in this election cycle. Since taking office in 2018 after a landslide victory, Lopez Obrador has expanded the role of the state in the energy industry and radically cut back on the cost of government to channel resources to the poor and his priority infrastructure projects. In the process, he has eroded institutional checks and balances and frequently criticized autonomous bodies, including the Bank of Mexico, prompting critics to sound the alarm about a dangerous centralization of power. Though voters tend to criticize his government’s record on job creation and fighting crime, they are more skeptical of Mexico’s former rulers, now in opposition. Lopez Obrador has also benefited from the vaccine rollout. Recent polls suggest his National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) may lose some of its current 253 seats in the lower house, but is still likely to retain a majority with the help of the allied Green and Labor parties. The Senate is not up for election. That support partly reflects discontent with older parties. To stay on top in the long term, MORENA must improve its record on the economy, officials, lawmakers and voters say. At least one survey pointed to a tight race with the three opposition parties, the center-right National Action Party (PAN), centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), that have forged an electoral alliance nipping at the heels of the MORENA-led coalition.Though the president’s name is not on the ballot, a big win “may embolden Lopez Obrador to pursue more interventionist policies and could open the door to constitutional changes,” said Nikhil Sanghani, Latin America economist at Capital Economics. Sanghani said the president would likely deepen his state-centric policies, especially in the energy sector, in his remaining three years in office. Lopez Obrador has made reversing his predecessor’s opening of the energy sector a top priority and has bolstered state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and national power utility the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), often to the detriment of private enterprise. Duncan Wood of the Washington-based Wilson Center said that Lopez Obrador, who describes his administration as the “Fourth Transformation,” wants to leave a lasting imprint on Mexico’s political landscape. “To leave a lasting legacy means changing the constitution, because if you change the constitution, it’s much more difficult for governments who follow you to change it back,” said Wood, adding the president would likely want to further centralize power in the hands of the executive and federal government over the states. Lopez Obrador has signaled that he has already carried out the core of his legislative agenda, however, and says that only a few major issues are pending for the second half of his administration. By law Lopez Obrador can only serve one term, so keeping or expanding a majority in the lower house is needed to accelerate the “structural economic and social transformation the president has been advocating, and pave the way for a friendly political succession in 2024,” said Goldman Sachs economist Alberto Ramos. In the campaign leading up to Sunday’s election, former President Felipe Calderon, a longstanding adversary of Lopez Obrador, said Mexicans were choosing between “democracy and dictatorship.” Lopez Obrador has repeatedly rejected suggestions that he could turn Mexico into a dictatorship. Calderon, who ruled Mexico for the center-right PAN from 2006 to 2012, said the leftist government of Lopez Obrador had little regard for the constitution or the law. “If we don’t stop this, we’re going directly to where Venezuela is,” he said in an online discussion in May. For his part, Lopez Obrador has accused Calderon of robbing him of the presidency in 2006 and often pillories him as part of a corrupt political system. A loss at the ballot box for MORENA and its allies, though unlikely, could help moderate Lopez Obrador by creating a new check on his power. But it could also prompt a backlash. “It could also bring out Lopez Obrador’s combativeness, and lead to legal challenges against results, more anti-business rhetoric, and increased political polarization,” said Nicholas Watson, managing director of consultancy Teneo. 
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Turkey’s environment minister pledged on Sunday to defeat a plague of “sea snot” threatening the Sea of Marmara with a disaster management plan he said would secure its future.A thick slimy layer of the organic matter, known as marine mucilage, has spread through the sea south of Istanbul, posing a threat to marine life and the fishing industry.Harbors, shorelines and swathes of seawater have been blanketed by the viscous, greyish substance, some of which has also sunk below the waves, suffocating life on the seabed.”Hopefully, together we will protect our Marmara within the framework of a disaster management plan,” Environment Minister Murat Kurum said, speaking from a marine research vessel which has been taking samples of the slimy substance.”We will take all the necessary steps within 3 years and realize the projects that will save not only the present but also the future together,” Kurum said, adding that he would soon give details of the action plan.Scientists say climate change and pollution have contributed to the proliferation of the organic matter, which contains a wide variety of microorganisms and can flourish when nutrient-rich sewage flows into seawater.President Tayyip Erdogan blamed the outbreak on untreated water from cities including Istanbul, home to 16 million people, and vowed to “clear our seas from the mucilage scourge.” 
 
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The United States will stand with its European allies against Russia, President Joe Biden has promised ahead of the first face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin of his administration.   Biden will head to Europe Wednesday and is set to attend both the G-7 and NATO summits as well as holding a high-stakes meeting with the Russian leader in Geneva on June 16.   The summit comes amid the biggest crisis in ties between the two countries in years, with tensions high over a litany of issues including hacking allegations, human rights and claims of election meddling.   In an op-ed for The Washington Post published Saturday, the U.S. president promised to shore up Washington’s “democratic alliances” in the face of multiple crises and mounting threats from Moscow and Beijing.   “We are standing united to address Russia’s challenges to European security, starting with its aggression in Ukraine, and there will be no doubt about the resolve of the United States to defend our democratic values, which we cannot separate from our interests,” he wrote.    “President Putin knows that I will not hesitate to respond to future harmful activities,” he said. “When we meet, I will again underscore the commitment of the United States, Europe and like-minded democracies to stand up for human rights and dignity.”    Since taking office in January, Biden has ramped up pressure on the Kremlin, and his comments likening Putin to a “killer” were met with fierce criticism in Moscow.    But both leaders have expressed hopes that relations can improve, with the Russian president saying Friday he expected a “positive” result from the talks.   Biden in his weekend op-ed also stressed that Washington “does not seek conflict” — pointing to his recent extension of the New START arms reduction treaty as proof of his desire to reduce tensions.   “We want a stable and predictable relationship where we can work with Russia on issues like strategic stability and arms control,” he wrote.    
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When the sun rises over Omaha Beach, revealing vast stretches of wet sand extending toward distant cliffs, one starts to grasp the immensity of the task faced by Allied soldiers on June 6, 1944, landing on the Nazi-occupied Normandy shore.Several ceremonies are scheduled Sunday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the decisive assault that led to the liberation of France and western Europe from Nazi control, and honor those who fell.On D-Day, more than 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches code-named Omaha, Utah, Juno, Sword and Gold, carried by 7,000 boats. This year on June 6, the beaches stood vast and empty as the sun rose, exactly 77 years since the dawn invasion.For the second year in a row, anniversary commemorations are marked by virus travel restrictions that have prevented veterans or families of fallen soldiers from the U.S., Britain, Canada and other Allied countries making the trip to France. Only a few officials were allowed exceptions.Most public events have been canceled, and the official ceremonies are limited to a small number of selected guests and dignitaries.Denis van den Brink, a WWII expert working for the town of Carentan, site of a strategic battle near Utah Beach, acknowledged the “big loss, the big absence is all the veterans who couldn’t travel.”“That really hurts us very much because they are all around 95, 100 years old, and we hope they’re going to last forever. But, you know…” he said.A picture of an unknown soldier is seen on the shore of Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer, Normandy, June 6, 2021 on the eve of 77th anniversary of the assault that helped bring an end to World War II.“At least we remain in a certain spirit of commemoration, which is the most important,” he told The Associated Press.Over the anniversary weekend, many local residents have come out to visit the monuments marking the key moments of the fight and show their gratitude to the soldiers. Dozens of French World War II history enthusiasts, and a few travelers from neighboring European countries, could also be seen in jeeps and military vehicles on the small roads of Normandy.Some reenactors came to Omaha Beach in the early hours of the day to pay tribute to those who fell that day, bringing flowers and American flags.On D-Day, 4,414 Allied troops lost their lives, 2,501 of them Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded. On the German side, several thousand were killed or wounded.A few kilometers away from Omaha Beach, the British Normandy Memorial is to be inaugurated on Sunday outside the village of Ver-sur-Mer. Visitors stand in awe at the solemnity and serenity of the place providing a spectacular view over Gold Beach and the English Channel.The monument, built under a project launched in 2016, pays tribute to those under British command who died on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy. The names of more than 22,000 men and women, mostly British soldiers, are written on its stone columns.Later Sunday, another ceremony will take place at the American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, on a bluff overseeing Omaha Beach. Charles Shay, 96, a Penobscot Native American who now lives in Normandy, is expected to be the only veteran present in person.Some other veterans, and families of soldiers, will be able to watch the broadcast on social media.The cemetery contains 9,380 graves, most of them for servicemen who lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. Another 1,557 names are inscribed on the Walls of the Missing.Normandy has more than 20 military cemeteries holding mostly Americans, Germans, French, British, Canadians and Polish troops who took part in the historic battle.  
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Voters in Saxony-Anhalt went to the polls Sunday to elect a new state assembly in what is seen as the last big test for Germany’s political parties before a national election in September.Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union won the last election in the sparsely populated state of 2.2 million five years ago. Recent opinion polls show it faces a strong challenge from the far-right Alternative for Germany, which came second in Saxony-Anhalt in 2016.Incumbent governor Reiner Haseloff, a member of Merkel’s CDU, is popular with voters in the state. A strong win would also be seen as a sign that the party’s new leader, Armin Laschet, can hope for support from both conservatives and centrists in this fall’s national election.Alternative for Germany has benefited from anti-government sentiment in the state, which until 1990 was part of communist East Germany. The party has lately campaigned strongly against pandemic restrictions, and its election posters urged voters to demonstrate their “resistance” at the ballot box.The environmentalist Greens, who have been riding high in national polls, aim to reach 10% in Saxony-Anhalt, while the center-left Social Democrats are hoping to stay above that mark. Both have been part of Haseloff’s governing coalition for the past five years.Haseloff has ruled out any cooperation with Alternative for Germany or the ex-communist Left party.Polls indicate the pro-business Free Democrats may enter the state assembly again after missing out five years ago.
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