German health officials Friday said coronavirus cases in the country are rising at “an exponential rate,” forcing the government to reconsider lifting COVID-19 restrictions. At a news conference in Berlin, Robert Koch Institute ((RKI)) for infectious Diseases Vice President Lars Schaade told reporters highly contagious virus variants were getting the upper hand in the nation, wiping out progress seen last month in containing the pandemic.Shaade, appearing with German Health Minister Jens Spahn, reported 17,482 new infections in the previous 24 hours and 226 deaths in Germany, with the seven-day incidence rate soaring to about 96 per 100,000 people, despite a months-long lockdown in much of the country.Shaade said increased infections were notably among younger people. “The incidence increases are clearly in the groups under 60 years old, especially in the group 15 to 49 years old.”Spahn told reporters the numbers mean plans to re-open the country will need to be put on hold. “On the contrary, we may even have to take steps backwards.”Earlier this month, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced plans to gradually lift COVID-19 restrictions, she said she and regional leaders agreed to impose new restrictions in areas where the seven-day incidence rate surpassed 100. At least two regions have already reached that threshold.Meanwhile, Spahn said he has been negotiating with Russia regarding its Sputnik V vaccine, and indicated he is very close to completing a deal. He said the government had been in close contact with the Russians, “and I can also well imagine that we [will] conclude contracts — and conclude them quickly.”He said, however, Germany needs more details on how many doses could be delivered and when. The vaccine has yet to be approved by German or European Union regulators.Germany resumed administering AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine Thursday after the EU regulator Europe Medincines Agency ((EMA)) concluded once again that it was safe and effective. The agency had conducted a study of the vaccine and cases of blood clots reported in several patients after receiving the vaccine.
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The European Medicines Agency has approved the continued use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the battle to contain the pandemic. The European regulator’s seal of approval comes after several European countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, stopped using the vaccine following reports that the shots caused blood clots in some vaccine recipients.The agency said in a statement Thursday “the benefits of the vaccine in combating the still widespread threat of COVID-19 (which itself results in clotting problems and may be fatal) continue to outweigh the risk of side effects.”The agency added, “A causal link with the vaccine is not proven but is possible and deserves further analysis.”Meanwhile, the White House announced Thursday that it is sending millions of stockpiled doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and Canada.The vaccine has not yet been approved for use by U.S. regulators, but it has been approved for use by Mexico and Canada.The announcement comes as the Biden administration wants Mexico’s help in stemming the tide of migrants who are attempting to come into the U.S.Mexico is slated to receive 2.5 million vaccines from the U.S., with Canada receiving 1.5 million.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the vaccines would be loans to the two U.S. neighbors, with the U.S. eventually being reimbursed with vaccines from the bordering countries.Beginning Friday, several French regions, including Paris, will be under new lockdown orders to contain increasing coronavirus cases.France had 40,000 new cases Wednesday.Prime Minister Jean Castex said Thursday the outbreak in France is “worsening,” adding, “Our responsibility now is that it not get out of control.”On Friday, India’s Union Health Ministry reported an increase in coronavirus infections for a ninth day in a row, with 40,000 new cases in the previous 24-hour period. India has 11.5 million COVID-19 cases.Only two countries have more infections than India — the U.S., with 29.6 million cases, and Brazil, with 11.7 million, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.Johns Hopkins reports there are 121.7 million global coronavirus infections.
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Fantom 509, a heavily armed group of disgruntled current and former police officers, pulled off another jailbreak in Haiti on Thursday, its second in as many days.The rebels broke into the jail of the Croix des Bouquets police station, about 13 kilometers northeast of Port-au-Prince.Video recorded by VOA Creole shows a former detainee leaving the jail, surrounded by masked and unmasked Fantom 509 police officers, some of whom are holding what appear to be automatic weapons. Clapping and cheers are heard in the background as the group quickly exits the main gate.Geffrard Guerby, who identified himself as a delegate of the national police union, SPNH17, spoke to VOA after the jailbreak. He said Fantom 509 was following through on a previous threat.Geffrard Guerby, a national police union delegate, talks to VOA about the jailbreak, March 18, 2021. (Matiado Vilme/VOA)”Yesterday, we said [that] until we get the policemen’s bodies back, we will make the country unlivable. It will not be able to function,” Guerby told VOA, acting as a spokesman for Fantom 509.Guerby was referring to the bodies of police officers who died March 12 in an anti-gang operation in Village de Dieu; gang members are still holding the bodies.The national police and Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) officers launched the March 12 operation in Village de Dieu, a Port-au-Prince slum and gang stronghold. Gangs there have been blamed for a surge in kidnappings that have targeted Haitians from all levels of society and terrorized the nation.The police operation was botched, resulting in the deaths of four officers. Gang members posted gruesome videos of the victims as well as photos of themselves standing in front of an armored police vehicle they had seized during the operation. Critics blamed faulty police intelligence for the failed operation.Guerby told VOA the officer they freed Thursday was in jail for a shooting that killed a gang member.”That bandit [he shot] was an ally of [Bob Anel,] the mayor of Croix des Bouquets,” Guerby alleged. “The mayor called [a city official] … and asked him to have the policeman arrested because he killed a gang member who was his [Anel’s] ally.” The mayor has not yet responded to the allegation.Alleged murder plotGuerby then alleged to VOA Creole that there was a plot by the government to kill Police Inspector General Carl Henry Boucher, who was arrested after the Village de Dieu operation and is being held in isolation at the national police academy.”I learned that the government made a deal with [Police Chief] Leon Charles to kill Carl Henry Boucher, who is in isolation, and then say he had a stroke so he will not tell the truth about the [Village de Dieu] operation. We dare the government and Leon Charles to try it. Carl Henry Boucher will not die — we need to hear what he has to say,” Guerby told VOA Creole.In a telephone Leon Charles, the director-general of Haiti’s National Police Force, holds a press conference in Port-au-Prince to respond to the initial Fantom 509 jailbreak and protest, March 17, 2021. (Matiado Vilme/VOA)Police chief responseOn Wednesday, Fantom 509 members freed four police officers from Delmas 33 jail and made the same allegation about Boucher. Later that night, in a press conference, Charles, the director-general of Haiti’s National Police Force, addressed the allegations.”With regards to decisions made after the events [of March 12] concerning IG Boucher, police officers must allow the inspector general’s office to do its job. No police officer should make the situation worse by taking to the streets to demand his freedom,” Charles said.”What we saw in the streets today is linked to the same personal interests that led to the failed operation last Friday. Now Fantom 509 is taking advantage of the situation to create chaos as the national police are coping with the pain and sorrow of having lost their colleagues,” Charles said.State of emergencyIn response to the jailbreak Wednesday, Haitian President Jovenel Moise declared a state of emergency, citing national security.”A new extraordinary session of the council of ministers was held today at the national palace during which a state of emergency was declared for national security reasons in all areas identified by the CSPN [Supreme Council of the National Police] including Village de Dieu. … We are determined to establish peace in this country,” Moise tweeted.Un nouveau Conseil des Ministres à l’extraordinaire s’est tenu aujourd’hui, au Palais National, où l’état d’urgence sécuritaire a été déclaré au niveau de toutes les zones identifiées par le CSPN dont Village de Dieu…Nous sommes déterminés à pacifier le pays.#Haïtipic.twitter.com/EsgdBPY3WW— Président Jovenel Moïse (@moisejovenel) March 16, 2021The decree allows the government to use extraordinary measures to establish security, including requesting the help of international forces.Haiti is under intense pressure from the U.S. and international community to curb violence so that elections can be held this year. A constitutional referendum is planned for June, followed by legislative and presidential elections in September and November.Gang-related crime is one of the biggest obstacles that election officials face in terms of creating a climate conducive to holding elections.Renan Toussaint in Port-au-Prince and Jacquelin Belizaire in Washington contributed to this report. 
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The U.S. government has stopped taking immigrant teenagers to a converted camp for oilfield workers in West Texas because of questions about the safety of emergency sites quickly being opened to hold children crossing the southern border.The Associated Press has learned that the converted camp has faced multiple issues in the four days since the Biden administration opened it amid a scramble to find space for immigrant children. More than 10% of the camp’s population has tested positive for COVID-19 and at least one child had to be hospitalized.An official working at the Midland, Texas, site said most of the Red Cross volunteers staffing the site do not speak Spanish, even though the teenagers they care for are overwhelmingly from Central America. When the facility opened, there were not enough new clothes to give to teenagers who had been wearing the same shirts and pants for several days, the official said. There were also no case managers on site to begin processing the minors’ release to family members elsewhere in the U.S.Bringing in teenagers while still setting up basic services “was kind of like building a plane as it’s taking off,” said the official, who declined to be named because of government restrictions.No plans for moreThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified local officials in Midland late Wednesday night that it had no plans to bring more teenagers to the site, according to an email seen by The Associated Press. There were still 485 youths at the site as of Wednesday, 53 of whom had tested positive for COVID-19.The government on Wednesday brought around 200 teenagers to another emergency site at the downtown Dallas convention center, which could hold up to 3,000 minors. HHS spokesman Mark Weber said taking more teenagers to Midland was on “pause for now.” HHS will also not open a facility for children at Moffett Federal Airfield near San Francisco, according to Democratic Representative Anna Eshoo.Migrants who were caught trying to sneak into the United States and were deported eat near the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge point of entry into the U.S., March 18, 2021, in Reynosa, Mexico.U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has been sharply criticized for its response to an increase in crossings of unaccompanied immigrant children. As roughly 4,500 children wait in Border Patrol facilities unequipped for long-term detention, with some sleeping on floors, HHS has rushed to open holding sites across the country and tried to expedite its processes for releasing children in custody. About 9,500 minors are in HHS custody.In addition, the U.S. has seen a sharp increase in Central American families arriving at the border who are fleeing violence, poverty and the effects of a destructive hurricane. Biden has kept intact an emergency measure enacted by the Trump administration during the pandemic that allows the government to quickly expel them to Mexico, though families with young children are generally allowed to enter through South Texas.The Biden administration is not expelling immigrant children unaccompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Several hundred a day are crossing the border, going first to often-packed Border Patrol stations while they await placement in the HHS system.Red Cross helpHHS has turned to the American Red Cross to care for teenagers in both Midland and Dallas, a departure from the standard practice of having paid, trained staff watch over youths. Red Cross volunteers sit outside portable trailers in Midland to monitor the teenagers staying inside. Staff from HHS and the U.S. Public Health Service are also at both sites.Neither HHS nor the Red Cross would say whether the volunteers had to pass FBI fingerprint checks, which are more exhaustive than a commercial background check. Both agencies have declined repeated requests for interviews.The waiver of those background checks at another HHS camp in Tornillo, Texas, in 2018 led to concerns that the government was endangering child welfare. HHS requires caregivers in its permanent facilities to pass an FBI fingerprint check, and the agency’s inspector general found in 2018 that waiving background checks and not having enough mental health clinicians resulted in “serious safety and health vulnerabilities.”The official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity said there was not sufficient mental health care at the Midland camp for minors who typically have fled their countries of origin and undergone a traumatic journey into the country.Dany Vargas Rodriguez, 10, of Honduras, plays with a toy car near the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge entry point into the U.S. after he and his family were caught trying to sneak into the U.S. and deported, March 18, 2021, in Reynosa, Mexico.In a statement earlier this week, HHS said it was rushing to get children out of Border Patrol custody and that emergency sites “will provide a safer and less overcrowded environment where children are cared for and processed as quickly as possible.”The Red Cross says its volunteers in Midland and Dallas “have received intensive training in sheltering operations and COVID-19 safety,” and that they had all undergone background checks. The agency declined to say how many hours of training each volunteer had received.Republican U.S. Representative August Pfluger, who represents Midland, was allowed to visit the site soon after it opened and saw the portable units that serve as rooms for each teenager.”It’s a professional facility that was intended for workers,” he said.But Pfluger and other Midland officials said the Biden administration was not answering their questions or giving them assurance that officials would keep the surrounding community safe. HHS opened the Midland site without notifying some top local officials, who said many of their questions were not being answered.Quick openingThe email HHS sent to local officials this week details the haste with which government officials opened the site. It says officials identified the camp on Friday and signed a contract Saturday. The first group of teenagers arrived Sunday night.Leecia Welch, an attorney for the National Center for Youth Law, interviewed children last week who were detained at the Border Patrol’s sprawling tent facility in Donna, Texas. Many of those children reported going days without a shower or being taken outside.Welch noted that Biden “inherited a dismantled immigration system and the impact on children, in particular, is becoming increasingly dire.”But, she added, “Building more and more holding centers without services or case management is just trading one set of problems for another.” 
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U.S. and Mexican officials deny Washington is attaching any strings to a likely shipment of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses to America’s southern neighbor at a time of heightened migration passing through Mexico en route to the United States.“[P]reventing the spread of a global pandemic is part of one of our diplomatic objectives. Another one of our diplomatic objectives is working to address the challenges at the border. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that those conversations are both ongoing and happening,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied when asked about a link between lending vaccine supplies and commitments from Mexico to tighten the flow of migrants heading north.White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House, March 18, 2021, in Washington.“These are two separate issues, as we look for a more humane migratory system and enhanced cooperation against COVID-19, for the benefit of our two countries and the region,” said a statement from Roberto Velasco, director general for the North America region at Mexico’s foreign ministry.Psaki confirmed Thursday that there are discussions to send 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada.“We are assessing how we can lend doses,” the press secretary said. “That is our aim. It’s not fully finalized yet.”President Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, right, speaks about COVID-19 vaccinations in the East Room of the White House, March 18, 2021, in Washington.In remarks Thursday afternoon, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the 100 millionth shot of a coronavirus vaccine of his presidency will be administered Friday.The president had previously set a goal of 100 million shots in 100 days. Friday marks the 58th day of his administration.“Scientists have made clear that things may get worse as new variants of this virus spread,” Biden warned. “Getting vaccinated is the best thing we can do to fight back against these variants. Millions of people are vaccinated, we need millions more to be vaccinated.”Biden, in his remarks from the White House East Room, made no mention of sending doses to other countries.Mexican officials say an agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico is to be announced Friday.Tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine are in U.S. manufacturing sites. That company’s vaccine has been authorized in numerous countries, but not yet in the United States.Medical workers prepare doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Antwerp, Belgium, March 18, 2021.The AstraZeneca vaccine has received some negative publicity and there is speculation some Americans will hesitate to take that vaccine when it receives expected approval in the United States.Several countries in Europe this week suspended use of the AstraZeneca doses after reports that a few people who received it later developed blot clots and severe bleeding.Europe’s drug regulator Thursday declared the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, adding that a review of the 17 million people who received it found they were actually less likely to develop dangerous clots than others who hadn’t received the vaccine.“It makes sense for the United States to loan its surplus of millions of doses to neighbors where it can be put to good use right away,” said Joshua Busby, assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Texas-Austin.The pending deals with Canada and Mexico, Busby told VOA, do not go far enough because “more countries in the Americas and beyond will need vaccines. But I’m confident that the Biden team is aware of this.”Busby, author of the book “Moral Movements and Foreign Policy,” said he expects in the coming months the Biden administration will make a major effort to increase global vaccine access “because the longer the epidemic persists globally, the greater the risk of variants that could emerge for which the current vaccines are ineffective.”Asked on Thursday about requests from other countries to make U.S. coronavirus vaccine stock available to them, Psaki replied: “Certainly we’ll have those conversations, and we are open to receiving those requests and obviously making considerations.”FILE – In this March 3, 2021, file photo, Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks on foreign policy at the State Department in Washington.”Various countries including China have been engaged in so called vaccine diplomacy,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Japanese reporters on Wednesday. “We shouldn’t tie the distribution or access to vaccines to politics or to geopolitics.”Concerns have been raised that the United States and the rest of the West are losing a public relations battle with China and Russia which, at minimum, are using such vaccine distribution to improve their influence and image in developing countries.“Even as nations understandably prioritize their own citizens for vaccines, including their own most vulnerable, we cannot forget that those with the means should also help other countries in need,” said Curtis Chin, former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank.Vaccine diplomacy competition between nations to help other countries can be a good thing, but “where it falls apart is when that competition overrides necessary cooperation and coordination,” Chin told VOA.Chin termed it disappointing that “some in China’s government and state-controlled media might seek to tear down the vaccine development efforts of other nations’ companies and institution as a response to a call for greater transparency and honesty in China when it comes to COVID-19.”Nearly all countries are participating in the COVAX initiative to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor countries.The administration of then-President Donald Trump last year declined to join the project because of its association with the World Health Organization, which had lost the his support.Since his inauguration in January, Biden has said the United States would join COVAX and play a more active role globally to fight COVID-19.
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The United States, Russia, China, and Pakistan have called on all parties in Afghanistan to reduce violence and the Taliban to forego their Spring offensive, the yearly renewal in attacks after a winter lull, in order to facilitate peace negotiations.
 
The demand was part of a joint statement after a conference on Afghanistan hosted by Russia in Moscow Thursday.
 
The one-day gathering was part of an intense diplomatic push to jumpstart a stalled peace process amid a looming deadline for withdrawal of foreign forces from the country. Some fear Afghanistan will descend into chaos if international forces depart without a negotiated political settlement in place.
 
Negotiations between a sanctioned Afghan government team and the Taliban started in Doha in September 2020 but have so far not yielded results.
 
An Afghan delegation led by the chair of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) Abdullah Abdullah, and a Taliban delegation led by the group’s political deputy Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, were also present.   
 
The statement called on both sides to conclude their peace negotiations and supported the formation of “an independent, sovereign, unified, peaceful, democratic, and self-sufficient Afghanistan,” free of terrorism and drugs. It also called for the protection of the rights of women, children, minorities, and others.
    
“[W]e do not support the restoration of the Islamic Emirate,” the statement said, using the Taliban’s name for their own government.
 
“It is only through diplomatic peace negotiations and compromise that peace can be achieved,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in his opening remarks. “And the agreements that are to be reached have to include the interests of all parties.”
 
Russia’s top diplomat also said his country was ready to facilitate but Afghans had to take the lead.
 
“Outside parties like Russia should create the conditions for forces inside Afghanistan to negotiate and move forward,” Lavrov said.
 
The newly elected administration of President Joe Biden had been pushing to involve regional powers and other countries to try and bring the warring Afghan sides to negotiate. As part of its efforts, the U.S. has also floated the idea, supported by Russia, of a transitional government that includes the Taliban.Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, and chair of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah leave the site of an Afghan peace conference in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2021.That idea is strongly opposed by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani who said elections are the only way to choose a government.
 
The push comes as the U.S. is reviewing an agreement the administration of former President Donald Trump made with the Taliban—a deal Biden called “not a very solidly negotiated deal,” in a recent interview with U.S. broadcast network ABC.
 
Under the deal, the U.S. is supposed to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan by May 1. However, an increase in violence, lack of progress in peace negotiations between Taliban and Afghan government, and a wave of targeted assassinations of human rights activists, journalists, and government officials have forced the U.S. to reevaluate its decision.
 
The Taliban, who have not directly attacked the U.S. or NATO forces since the February 2020 agreement, have warned that failure to stick to the withdrawal deadline would lead to a bloody response.
 
Some regional experts have suggested the U.S. negotiate a one-time extension in the deadline with the Taliban to salvage the deal.
 
Under this diplomatic push, two more international conferences are expected as early as next month, one hosted by the United Nations and the other by Turkey.
 
Moscow was also the venue for a February 2019 dialogue between senior Afghan opposition politicians and former top government officials, including former president Hamid Karzai, and the Taliban. That conference, which Ghani’s government criticized as “little more than a political drama,” paved the way for formal negotiations to start between Taliban and an Afghan government sanctioned delegation.
The idea for Thursday’s conference was first floated by Russian envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov in an interview with the country’s state-run Sputnik news agency last month.Russia’s special representative on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov, right, and U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad attend a news briefing following an Afghan peace conference in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2021.Kabulov said the U.S. supported the idea of gathering a small group of countries with the most influence on the Afghan peace process. The format, called an “expanded troika,” included Russia, the U.S., China, Pakistan, and Iran—although Iran was hesitant to sit at the table with the U.S.
 
Kabulov said he hopes Iran will change its mind once tensions with the U.S. decrease.
 
In a Sunday meeting with Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s special envoy on Afghanistan, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif “stressed the need to promote regional cooperation to help establish peace in Afghanistan and preserve achievements gained by Afghan people,” according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA.   
 
Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed a new personal envoy on Afghanistan and the region Wednesday.
 
Announcing the appointment, the U.N. said Jean Arnault of France was tasked with helping find a political solution to the Afghan conflict.
 
“The responsibilities of the Personal Envoy include to liaise, on behalf of the Secretary-General, with regional countries with the aim of supporting the negotiations between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban and implementation of any agreements which are reached,” U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said.
 
The appointment comes at a time when the U.S. is expected to ask the U.N to invite the foreign ministers of the U.S., Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, and India for a conference on Afghanistan.
 
“It is my belief that these countries share an abiding common interest in a stable Afghanistan and must work together if we are to succeed,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said to President Ghani in a letter leaked to the media earlier this month.
 
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a weekly press briefing on March 8 that his country had “not yet received any invitation for any session on Afghan Peace Talks at the United Nations,” adding that “Iran will review the invitation whenever it receives any.” His remarks were printed in Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency. 
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Following last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russia is deploying 2,000 military personnel as part of a peace mission for an initial period of five years.  In this report narrated by Jonathan Spier, Pablo Gonzalez in Stepanakert and Ricardo Marquina say the Russian deployment is seen as an important step in Moscow’s strategy to assert its political and military power in the Caucasus region and some are wondering how long the troops will stay.Ricardo Marquina contributed.Camera: Pablo GonzalezVideo editors: Ricardo Marquina, Jason Godman
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Leading United Nations agencies are calling for urgent action to combat ageism, which they say harms the well-being of older people and national economies. The World Health Organization, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs and U.N. Population Fund have released the first global report on ageism.A survey of more than 83,000 people in 57 countries finds 1 in every 2 people holds moderately or highly ageist attitudes. Those beliefs are based on stereotypical  ideas about older people drummed into them at an early age.Alana Officer is the World Health Organization’s unit head for demographic change and healthy aging. She says biases start early in life and are reinforced over time. She says ageism is pervasive — in health care systems, in workplaces and in the media.Why Aging of America Poses Huge Risk to US Economy

        Americans are getting older and family size is shrinking, which means the nation will have fewer working-age adults going forward."I think it is a cause for concern if we are calibrating our expectations of having a strongly growing population," says David Kelly, chief global strategist for JP Morgan Asset Management. "If you're investing in things like the housing industry or the auto industry and you need an ever-growing population, then you have to adjust to a world in which the U.S. population is…

She says ageism leads to poorer physical and mental health and to a reduced quality of life for older people. Ageism, she says, determines who receives medical procedures and treatment and who does not. She says age discrimination denies older people jobs and job training.“Half of the world’s population are ageist against older people, which rates much higher in low- and lower middle-income countries …The report indicates that you are likely to be ageist against older people if you are younger, you are male, you are fearful of dying or you are less educated,” Officer said.The report finds women are more likely to be targets of ageism than men. It says younger people also suffer from ageism across many areas, such as employment, health, housing and politics.Vania de la Fuente-Nunez is technical officer in the WHO’s Demographic Change and Healthy Ageing Department. She says the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how prevalent ageism is against both the young and the old.“Older people have been systematically and homogenously framed as vulnerable and dependent and younger people have been stereotyped as invincible and selfish, which of course fails to recognize the great diversity that we see in both younger people and in older people,” Fuente-Nunez said.She says the stereotypical portrayal in the media is both inaccurate and harmful.The report finds the economic cost of ageism is huge. A 2020 study in the United States shows ageism led to excess annual costs of $63 billion for a broad range of health conditions.Another study in Australia suggests the national economy would be boosted by $37 billion annually if 5% more people aged 55 or older were employed.
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Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his ruling People’s Party for Freedom (VVD) will begin negotiations on a new ruling coalition government Thursday as voters sent them to victory for a fourth consecutive term.  Rutte’s VVD party was projected to take at least 35 of 150 seats in the lower house, a clear mandate, to form a new coalition government. Coming in second with 27 seats was the pro-European Union, center-left D-66, led by former U.N. diplomat Sigrid Kaag, with 27 seats, the best result in the party’s 55-year history.  A box with discarded red voting pencils is seen in the foreground as Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte enters to cast his vote in a general election in The Hague, Netherlands, March 17, 2021.The results and exit polling indicate that the far-right Freedom Party of anti-immigration, led by far-right anti-immigration lawmaker Geert Wilders, slipped to third place, dropping three seats to 17.  Rutte’s victory comes two months after he resigned following a scandal in which tax officials in his government falsely accused thousands of families of trying to scam childcare services. He is currently serving in a caretaker capacity.EU Critics on Course to Dominate Dutch ElectionsFirebrand populist Gert Wilders seems to be on the brink of pulling off a strong electoral showing with his party likely to place second in Wednesday’s parliamentary elections, according to opinion pollsLike last year’s U.S. election, the Netherlands vote made special allowances for the COVID-19 pandemic, with early and mail-in voting for seniors and others with special circumstances. Despite the pandemic, early indications show turnout at about 83%, about as high as four years ago.Official returns are expected to be released throughout Thursday with final results to be announced on March 26.The initial numbers from the poll indicated that Rutte would need to form a coalition with at least two other parties to get a majority of 76 seats in parliament.  Rutte has said he would not form a coalition with the Freedom party, leaving second place D-66, and current coalition member the Christian Democrats, which appears to have finished fourth, winning 14 seats, five fewer than it won in 2017.Rutte has said he would like to finish the coalition process as quickly as possible. But in recent years, government formations have taken months, as parties negotiated over detailed policy plans.With a record 37 parties taking part in the election, and 17 expected to garner enough votes to win at least one seat in parliament’s 150-seat lower house, forming coalitions in the government will be a tough and lengthy process. After the 2017 elections, coalition talks took seven months.
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The European Union’s medications watchdog is due to release initial results Thursday of its investigation into whether there is a connection between the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and cases of recipients developing blood clots.The European Medicines Agency has been examining 30 reported blood coagulation disorders among the 5 million people in the EU who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Among the considerations is whether that rate is more common than the incidence found in the general population.The World Health Organization said Wednesday it is conducting its own assessment of the latest available safety data for the vaccine, but that at this time the agency considers the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks.“In extensive vaccination campaigns, it is routine for countries to signal potential adverse events following immunization,” the WHO said in a statement.  “This does not necessarily mean that the events are linked to vaccination itself, but it is good practice to investigate them.”India said Wednesday it would continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine.Concerns about the vaccine prompted a number of EU countries to suspend its use, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed confidence in AstraZeneca on Wednesday, but continued criticism of the company’s pace of vaccine deliveries.“AstraZeneca has unfortunately under-produced and under-delivered, and this painfully, of course, reduced the speed of the vaccination campaign,” she told reporters.Von der Leyen said the EU is targeting vaccinating 70% of all adults by September.
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Tensions are rising between the United States and Russia following sharp statements from President Joe Biden on Vladimir Putin over the Russian president’s attempt to undermine the 2020 U.S. election. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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Protesters freed four police officers from behind bars in Haiti’s capital on Wednesday, local media reported, as demonstrations over a botched police raid on a gang stronghold and anger at state authorities roiled the city for a fifth day.A deepening economic and political crisis in the poorest country in the Americas has led to a surge in kidnappings and murders as gangs have gained power, turning ever more areas of the capital and other cities into no-go areas.Masked, heavily armed members of the Fantom 509 group, who describe themselves as disaffected police officers and ex-officers, told local media they believed their colleagues had been unjustly detained in a Port-au-Prince police station.The police had no immediate comment on the incident or why the officers had been detained. Lawyers for the officers said in a statement they were victims of the politicization of Haiti’s police force and the failures of its justice system.The Fantom 509 members said they were also protesting the fact authorities had not recovered the bodies of four policemen who died last Friday in a botched attack on a gang stronghold where kidnapping victims are often held.Trainee police officers joined in the jail break while citizens took to the street for a fifth day to block roads with vehicles, debris and burning tires, also vandalizing a car dealership.President Jovenel Moise declared on Wednesday a state of emergency in the worst gang-controlled areas for one month in order to allow state security forces to regain control of the situation.Critics accuse the government of not sufficiently equipping the police to confront gangs, even if it has slightly raised its budget for the police this year.They also accuse it of fostering gang activity either by design, to intimidate opponents, or simply by inaction. Gang leaders or even former government officials implicated in massacres in opposition strongholds have not been arrested.
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Officials in Washington are reacting calmly to Moscow summoning home its ambassador to the United States for consultations about the deteriorated bilateral relationship.  
 
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, in explaining Anatoly Antonov’s temporary return home, stated: “The most important thing for us is to identify ways of rectifying Russia-U.S. relations, which have been going through hard times as Washington has, as a matter of fact, brought them to a blind alley. We are interested in preventing an irreversible deterioration in relations, if the Americans become aware of the risks associated with this.”  
 
The announcement from Moscow came shortly after a taped ABC television interview aired Wednesday morning in which U.S. President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin “will pay a price” for his malevolent actions.  
 
Biden also recounted in the interview that he had told Putin, “I don’t think you have a soul.” He said Russian leader replied, “We understand each other.”  
 
Asked by the ABC interviewer if he believes Putin is a killer, Biden replied, “I do.”FILE – U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, March 11, 2021.According to a RAND Corporation adjunct senior fellow, William Courtney, “It is rare for a U.S. president to refer to the leader of a major adversarial power as a killer.”  
 
Courtney, who was a negotiator in U.S. defense talks with the Soviet Union, told VOA that “sometimes ambassadors are withdrawn after insults.”
 
“And, of course, the Biden administration is talking about more sanctions with regard to the SolarWinds cyberattack. So, both of those could be factors” in the move by Moscow, he said.
 
At Wednesday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to specify whether the president believes the Russian president, literally or metaphorically, is a killer.  
 
“He’s not going to hold back in his direction communications [with Russia]. He’s not going to hold back publicly,” Psaki said.   
 
When asked about Moscow recalling its ambassador, the press secretary said Biden’s administration “is going to take a different approach in our relationship to Russia than the prior administration. …We are going to be straightforward and we are going to be direct in areas where we have concerns.”FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with government members via a video conference call at Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Feb. 10, 2021.State Department Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters “even as we work to work with Russia to advance U.S. interests, we’ll be able to hold Russia accountable for any of their malign actions.”  
 
The Biden administration has expressed interest in working with Moscow on areas of mutual concern, such as a new nuclear arms pact and mitigating the effects of climate change.  
 
Biden earlier ordered the release of a declassified version of an intelligence assessment that “Russian state media, trolls, and online proxies, including those directed by Russian intelligence, published disparaging content about President Biden, his family, and the Democratic Party, and heavily amplified related content circulating in U.S. media, including stories centered on his son.”
 
Russia, as well as Iran, according to the report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, engaged in broader efforts to undermine U.S. public confidence in the election.  
 
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday the U.S. intelligence report was “wrong and has absolutely no foundation and evidence.”
 
The U.S. government on Wednesday also announced additional sanctions on Russia for using chemical weapons against dissidents.
 
The Commerce Department said it is blocking export of items controlled for national security reasons that are destined for Russia. It is also suspending licenses that granted specific exceptions for exports to Russia, targeting replacement parts and equipment, technology and software and “additional permissive re-exports.”Putin enjoyed a more amicable relationship during the past four years with Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump. During his presidency, Trump frequently praised Putin and rejected intelligence community conclusions that Moscow meddled in the 2016 presidential election in which the property investor with no political experience defeated former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to counter what he called the “systemic challenge” posed by China as he set out the government’s 10-year defense strategy Tuesday.Some ruling Conservative Party lawmakers, however, have accused Johnson of “going soft” on Beijing.Britain is seeking to carve out a new role on the world stage outside the European Union. The government’s “Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy” says Russia remains the most acute threat facing the country but warns that China poses a “systemic challenge to our security, prosperity and values.”Uyghurs, Hong Kongers“The U.K. … has led the international community in expressing our deep concern over China’s mass detention of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province, and in giving nearly 3 million of Hong Kong’s people a route to British citizenship,” Johnson told lawmakers.“There is no question that China will pose a great challenge for an open society such as ours, but we will also work with China where that is consistent with our values and interests, including in building a stronger and positive economic relationship and in addressing climate change,” he said.He added that changing defense priorities would enable the country to fulfil his post-Brexit pledge of a “global Britain.”FILE – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a news conference on Downing Street in London, Dec. 24, 2020.“Britain will remain unswervingly committed to NATO and preserving peace and security in Europe. From this secure basis, we will seek out friends and partners wherever they can be found, building a coalition for openness and innovation, and engaging more deeply in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.“I have invited the leaders of Australia, South Korea and India to attend the G-7 summit in Carbis Bay in June, and I am delighted to announce that I will visit India next month to strengthen our friendship with the world’s biggest democracy. Our approach will place diplomacy first. The U.K. has applied to become a dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and we will seek to join the trans-Pacific free trade agreement,” Johnson said.Carrier’s voyageTo demonstrate that engagement, Britain’s new aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, will make its maiden voyage to the Indo-Pacific later this year.However, several ruling Conservative Party lawmakers accused Johnson of “going soft” on China for seeking deeper trade links.Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chairman of Parliament’s Defense Select Committee, wrote on Twitter that China was “still not seen as a geo-strategic threat but a competitive trading partner.”FILE – Britain’s opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer speaks in the House of Commons in London, Dec. 2, 2020.Opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer also criticized the government’s approach.“We welcome the deepening of engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, but that comes on the back of an inconsistent policy towards China for a decade. Conservative governments have spent 10 years turning a blind eye to human rights abuses while inviting China to help build our infrastructure,” Starmer told MPs.Johnson said those seeking a “new Cold War” with Beijing were mistaken.Britain’s Ministry of Defense is set to detail later this month how the new strategy outlined in the “Integrated Review” would be implemented. Countering China’s assertiveness will require a broad response, said analyst Veerle Nouwens of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.“This won’t just be about sending ships to the region or planes to the region. It will really be about equally investing in new technologies, be that quantum, A.I., cyber, space, you name it. So, it really is a broader challenge than just the immediate visible military things that we know of when we speak about China’s rise and assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific itself,” Nouwens told VOA.Focusing on strengths“It would be very difficult to compete with China match for match, point for point, but I think that’s the situation that most countries are heading to,” Nouwens said. “We do have limited resources, and so, it is really about finding those angles that the U.K. already has real strength in and working with partners and allies or others to try and shore up capability, shore up knowledge, and come out with products and technologies that allies can share alike.”Johnson added that the United States would remain Britain’s closest ally.“In all our endeavours, the United States will be our greatest ally and a uniquely close partner in defense, intelligence and security,” he told lawmakers. “Britain’s commitment to the security of our European home will remain unconditional and immovable.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is pictured upon his arrival at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, March 17, 2021.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are visiting Japan and South Korea this week, with China at the top of the agenda. Speaking Wednesday in Seoul, Blinken underlined the threat posed by Beijing.“China is using coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undercut democracy in Taiwan, abuse the human rights situation in Tibet and assert maritime claims in the South China Sea that violate international law,” Blinken said at a news conference.China accused the U.S. of disrupting regional peace and stability. Beijing has yet to respond to Britain’s plans for greater engagement in the Indo-Pacific.Meanwhile, Britain also announced it would raise the cap on its nuclear arsenal to 260 warheads from 180. Critics said that would breach Britain’s commitment under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The government said the figure was a cap, not a target.Johnson confirmed a $33 billion multiyear boost to military spending. He said Britain’s total defense budget stood at 2.2% of GDP, above the NATO spending commitment of 2%. Part of the new investment will fund a new counterterrorism operations center and a new National Cyber Force. 
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Britain pledged to counter what it called the strategic threat posed by China as it set out its new t10-year defense strategy this week. Britain is seeking to carve out a new role on the world stage outside the European Union, according to the policy review, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Producer: Jason Godman. Camera: Henry Ridgwell. 
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U.S. homeland security officials are pushing back against claims that known and suspected terrorists are trying to sneak into the country from Mexico, calling such incidents “very uncommon.” Republican lawmakers have been sounding alarms about what they say is a growing immigration crisis along the U.S southern border. And in an interview Monday with Fox News, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy alleged terrorists were using the situation to infiltrate the country. “It’s not just people from Mexico or Honduras or El Salvador,” McCarthy said. “They’re now finding people from Yemen, Iran, Turkey – people on the terrorist watch list.”  FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks to the press during a tour for a delegation of Republican lawmakers of the U.S.-Mexico border, in El Paso, Texas, March 15, 2021.But in a statement late Tuesday to VOA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection rejected the notion of a major security breach.  “Encounters of known and suspected terrorists at our borders are very uncommon,” a CBP spokesperson said. “Our border security efforts are layered and include multiple levels of rigorous screening that allow us to detect and prevent people who pose national security or public safety risks from entering the United States.” CBP and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, did not provide any data on the number of suspected terrorists who have been caught trying to enter the U.S. at the border.
The U.S.-based news site Axios, citing a congressional aide briefed on correspondence from CBP, reported late Tuesday that, since October 2020, four people on the FBI’s terror watchlist were caught trying to enter the U.S. from the southern border — including three people from Yemen and one from Serbia.
 
“I am concerned if one tries to come,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told lawmakers during a hearing Wednesday.
 
“That’s not a new phenomenon,” he added. “Individuals who match that profile have tried to cross the border, the land border, [and] have tried to travel by air into the United States, not only this year, but last year.””It is because of our multi-layered security apparatus, the architecture that we have built since the commencement of the Dept of Homeland Security, that we are in fact able to identify & apprehend them & ensure that they do not remain in the United States” per @SecMayorkas— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) March 17, 2021Other officials, though, have warned that the situation bears watching. “I have seen intelligence that gives me reason to be concerned about what comes across the border,” General Glen VanHerck, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday in response to a question from VOA. “We need to know exactly who is coming across that border and what their intent is,” he said. “How we get there is a policy decision but it has homeland, defense and national security implications.” This is not the first time lawmakers or officials have raised concerns about terrorists trying to get into the United States by posing as migrants or refugees. In January 2019, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen issued a series of tweets, alleging “the number of terror-watchlisted (people) encountered at our Southern Border has increased over the last two years,” and that “Thousands of terror-watchlisted individuals transit our hemisphere each year.”The threat is real. The number of terror-watchlisted encountered at our Southern Border has increased over the last two years. The exact number is sensitive and details about these cases are extremely sensitive.— Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen (@SecNielsen) January 8, 2019But U.S. counterterrorism officials took issue with the DHS assessment, telling VOA at the time, “We do not see any evidence that ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups are trying to infiltrate the southern U.S. border.”  US Counterterror Officials See No Signs of IS, al-Qaida on Southern Border

        U.S. counterterrorism officials are sticking by their assessment that terror groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida are not actively trying to sneak operatives into the country from Mexico, despite claims by the White House and Homeland Security officials that "the threat is real.""We do not see any evidence that ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups are trying to infiltrate the southern U.S. 

More recently, the State Department’s 2019 Country Reports on Terrorism, released in June 2020, also rejected the idea that terrorists are trying to get into the U.S. via Mexico. “There was no credible evidence indicating international terrorist groups established bases in Mexico, worked directly with Mexican drug cartels, or sent operatives via Mexico into the United States,” the report found. NEW: @StateDept report finds “no credible evidence” terrorists using #Mexico to enter US”There was no credible evidence indicating int’l terrorist groups established bases in #Mexico, worked directly w/Mexican drug cartels, or sent operatives via Mexico into the #UnitedStates” pic.twitter.com/zdvQ8j1nYh— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 24, 2020A September 2020 whistleblower complaint, released by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, alleged DHS officials, under then-President Donald Trump, made false statements to Congress about the terror threat along the southern border. The complaint charged the false claims were part of an effort to “politicize, manipulate and censor intelligence in order to benefit President Trump.”  Per @RepAdamSchiff, the complaint alleges @DHSgov & administration officials also made false statements to Congress about terror threats on the southern border & minimizing the threat posed by white supremacists— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) September 9, 2020
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Pope Francis Wednesday appealed for peace in Myanmar, where clashes between police and coup protesters have left around 200 people dead.
At the end of his weekly audience at the Vatican, the pope said with great sorrow, he felt the urgent need to mention the situation in Myanmar, where, he added, “Many people, especially the young, are losing their lives to offer hope to their country.”  
Daily nationwide protests have continued in Myanmar since the February 1 military coup pushed out the government of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
In his comments, Francis said, “Even I kneel on the streets of Myanmar and say, ‘stop the violence.’ Even I open my arms and say, ‘Let dialogue prevail.'”
The pope referenced a dramatic scene captured in pictures and video last week when a Catholic nun, Sister Ann Roza Nu Tawng, during a rally in the streets of the city of Myitkyina, dropped to her knees in front of armed police in riot gear and pleaded with them not to shoot the protesters. At least two of the officers dropped to their knees with her.
The nun later described to reporters how she told the police the demonstrators were merely shouting slogans and urged them not to beat or arrest them. The nun said when they told her they must stop the protesters, she told them they must go through her.
Despite her efforts, the police fired tear gas into the crowd and gunshots could be heard a short time later.  
In his concluding comments Wednesday, the pope urged “that a path of sincere dialogue may be found” to end the clashes. “Let us remember that violence is always self-destructive. Nothing is gained through it, but much is lost, sometimes everything,” he said. The pope visited Myanmar in 2017.
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Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday a U.S. intelligence report indicating Russia meddled in 2020 U.S. elections was “wrong and has absolutely no foundation and evidence.”Peskov was reacting to a report released Tuesday by the Office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) saying Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations aimed at denigrating U.S. President Joe Biden, boosting former President Donald Trump, undermining confidence in the election and exacerbating social divisions in the United States.The report said they did not see – as in 2016 – a persistent effort on the part of Russia to gain access to U.S. election infrastructure.In a telephone briefing with reporters, Peskov said Russia did not interfere with U.S. elections in 2016 or 2020 as mentioned in the report.  “Russia has nothing to do with any campaigns against any candidates,” the Russian presidential spokesman said.  He added he expects the U.S. government to use the report to impose additional sanctions against Russia, which he said, “harms painful Russian-American relations.”  The DNI report also found that Iran carried out a “multi-pronged covert influence campaign” designed undercut former president Trump’s chances in last year’s election, though without boosting his rival. The report says Iran also attempted to undercut public confidence in the U.S. election process. The assessment also concludes that, despite repeated warnings by several top U.S. officials, China ultimately decided to sit the election out and “did not deploy interference efforts.”The report goes on to say that Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Venezuela and Cuba all made efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. election, but were on a smaller scale.
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Haiti is under enormous pressure from the United States, United Nations, Organization of American States and members of the international community to organize elections as soon as possible. President Jovenel Moise has ruled by decree since January 2020 when the terms of two-thirds of the parliament expired. Elections planned for 2020 were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic and a series of mass protests that paralyzed the country. Complicating matters, a spike in kidnappings and violent crimes targeting Haitians from all sectors of society has raised security concerns.In January 2021, President Moise named millionaire entrepreneur Mathias Pierre as minister-designate in charge of overseeing elections. Pierre has a unique insight into the electoral process as a former candidate who opposed Moise in the 2016 election. He spoke to VOA via Skype about the upcoming elections.  VOA: Good Morning Minister Pierre. What do you see as the biggest obstacle to holding these elections? MINISTER PIERRE: I think the election challenge today is to get the political leaders to understand that democracy is the power of the people to elect their leaders. We understand that a lot of the political leaders from the opposition are afraid of elections and what we as a government are doing is, we are trying to show everyone that we are working toward free and fair elections. We’ll work with BINUH ([the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti), which is the U.N. on the ground, through UNDP (United Nations Development Program) and UNOPS (United Nations Office for Project Services) through a contract to provide logistical support and assistance … to make sure that the electoral process will go technically well and that we’ll be supporting the electoral council.VOA: Are people willing to sign up for voter cards? We’ve heard that people are afraid due to lack of security, kidnappings, crime.  MINISTER PIERRE: Historically, every time elections are going to happen you have a tendency of [people saying] “if I don’t control power, then I’m afraid of the election.” So then, when there is a transition of power, it’s easier for me to [participate in] elections. Why? Because I need to be in power in order to find more resources to participate in elections. That’s something we need to overcome as political leaders. We understand there is a major security issue. At the same time, the president has been doing everything he can to address [that]. A cell has been put in place with the head of the police — we call it an anti-kidnapping cell — the purpose is to work toward addressing the kidnapping issue and putting every resource that the country can do addressing that issue. Very soon there will be measures taken to make sure that we control insecurity and also neutralize the gangs that are creating unrest around the country. But again, democracy is about elections.  Inclusivity  VOA: Is there a way to be more inclusive at this late date and encourage the opposition to participate so that these elections will be more credible in their eyes? This is something the U.S., the UN, OAS have all asked for. MINISTER PIERRE: Well, I think by choosing myself … a fierce former opponent of the president, he sent the right signal that he wants an inclusive election. I’m engaged in that process because I believe there should be a fair, transparent and inclusive election.But the president is … doing everything he can to invite his opponents and the political leaders into a dialogue, a dialogue that will get us together and do whatever is necessary… in terms of looking at the electoral council and in terms of the new constitution. That is ongoing.  VOA: The opposition doesn’t seem willing to change their position on not participating in the process and they seem to not want dialogue. As a former presidential candidate, is there a unique role you can play?MINISTER PIERRE: I think there are two parts to my job. One is to facilitate and talk to all the partners that are in the electoral process to make sure that the process is streamlined. The second aspect of my job is a relationship with the political parties.Since my arrival I’ve been actively … talking to political parties, to political leaders to see what can be done. At my first event, more than 100 political parties were invited to sit and discuss the constitution. We are preparing other events. I am pretty confident that major political leaders will join the election when they see signs that we are doing everything we can to alleviate issues that we have, but at the same time create conditions for fair, transparent elections that are also inclusive.  Election security VOA: A lot of people question whether the Haitian National Police force is capable of getting security under control after what happened in Village de Dieu on March 12 when at least eight police were killed in an anti-gang operation. We hear Haiti is going to get some help from the international community on security. What can you tell us about that? MINISTER PIERRE: We have confidence in the national police, and we will keep having confidence in the national police. We also understand we have weak structures. We also understand their lack of resources and that is why I think during the meeting with the president and [Luis Almagro, head of the Organization of American States] yesterday, international support was requested to assist the police. We have the manpower; we have the expertise we have a lot of officers that are experienced. They have been trained for the past 25 years.  They know what to do. Certainly, we understand gangs are well equipped in some parts [of the country]. The police failed [on March 12]. Why? Because they were avoiding [civilian casualties] — don’t forget these gangs are using poor people as shields. I think in the days to come there [will be] strong measures announced. There are strong decisions being taken to address that issue and provide the adequate response to what happened in Village de Dieu on Friday. VOA: Let’s talk about logistics. You said there’s a lot to do. Will the constitutional referendum happen in June? MINISTER PIERRE: For sure. Everything is underway. UNOPS which will assist the electoral council on logistics — the technicians from UNOPS are already in Haiti and certainly this is the first time we are going have an election without the logistical support of [the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti] but what we’ve done, there is [an electoral security] cell that has been created inside the BINUH that is specifically in charge of the logistics and security for the election. The army also is mobilizing their soldiers and all of the equipment from Port-au-Prince to the different departments. We have 1,700 [electoral council] poll centers that will be [working with] 11,000 poll offices, so I think everything will be done… we have the expertise on the ground. VOA: Does Haiti have enough money to organize these elections? MINISTER PIERRE: For now, the budget is $125 million — which is under revision. The agreement signed with UNDP is $72 million. I know the U.S. government has been pushing the U.N. to reduce that. Haiti already disbursed $20 million to the [U.N.] basket fund. That’s why materials have been ordered. And another $3 million was disbursed to the CEP (Provisional Electoral Council) to start renting space, pay people, etc… I think as a sovereign country, we have a responsibility to organize elections — with or without international support. Certainly, we encourage our international partners to contribute to the basket fund.  VOA: Haiti has been under a lot of pressure to organize these elections. Give us some insight on how that pressure feels for you. MINISTER PIERRE: I believe that we and the international community have the same goal. The president has been clear — elections this year is the number one priority. The president understands the challenge. Everything he has done for the past year, any legacy that he has — organizing elections and handing power over to a new elected president is key to his success. We understand the concerns of the international community, our partners — particularly the United States. We are communicating to our partners regularly … [we are addressing] issues along the way and respond adequately so that we provide the Haitian people with one of the things most important for them — leaders that are elected.Voter fraud VOA: What steps are you taking to counter potential fraud?MINISTER PIERRE: When I was an opponent to President Jovenel Moise one of my major concerns was electoral fraud. I [looked] everywhere in the system to understand whatever could create fraud and one of them was the national identification card. [With] the new system, you have your picture, fingerprint, all the biometric information is included in your card. There is one unique number for every Haitian that has their card. [If you] lose your card [you can] get a replacement card but you will always have one unique identification number. And that unique number — will be transferred into the electoral registry. As of today, we have over 4.2 million people registered in the system and [they] will be able to vote. And I encourage them to go out there to vote. No one will be able to vote twice or three times as happened in the past. We will make sure this cannot happen in the system this time. VOA: How many people are you aiming to have registered by the time the referendum rolls around? MINISTER PIERRE: We have one constraint with the CEP and the UN who have requested that the registry be closed 60 days before the vote. If that happens, we’re trying to see how we can reduce two months into either one month or 1 1/2 months. I just had a meeting with a technician to see how we can address that in order to give more people the possibility to register.According to the UN people working with the CEP, those registries that would provide the list of people able to vote have to be printed outside of Haiti. At the same time, the secretary general of the UN is telling us don’t leave 2.5 million people out. VOA: What is your message to Haitians and to the opposition about this election? Why should they trust you to organize it?MINISTER PIERRE: If we’re looking to have stability … to have peace in the country, if we have to come together and fight poverty, there is no way in a democracy for leaders to get to the top [unless it’s] by the people. The power of the people to cast a ballot and decide who their next leader [will be].I know there might be a lack of confidence in the government, but the president [is committed] to holding fair elections.  
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Brazil’s fourth health minister in a year is promising a continuation of the anti-COVID restriction policies of President Jair Bolsonaro, ahead of his formal appointment on Wednesday. Cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga assumes his post, a day after Brazil logged a record one-day total of 2,841 COVID-19 deaths. Following the spike in deaths, Queiroga urged people to continue wearing masks and washing their hands but did not propose restrictions such as lockdowns, which are not favored by Bolsonaro, who has downplayed the virus even after he became infected. Queiroga has reportedly been working with outgoing Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, who also backed Bolsonaro, but it is unclear when he will take over as the fourth health minister since the pandemic began one year ago. Brazil has one of the highest COVID-19 infections rates in Latin America, with more than 11,519,000 infections and 279,286 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Covid Resource Center. 
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A just-released assessment by U.S. intelligence officials finds Russia and Iran, joined by a handful of other countries and groups, did seek to influence the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election. But the assessment also concludes that, despite repeated warnings by a number of top officials, China ultimately decided to sit it out. The declassified report, issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is the U.S. intelligence community’s final take on foreign meddling in the hotly contested race, in which then-presidential candidate Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump. FILE – A newspaper with a front picture of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is seen at a newsstand in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 8, 2020.Initially completed and shared with the Trump administration in a classified form in January, the unclassified version, required by law, seeks to give U.S. voters an overview of the threats and of their impact on American democracy.  While the assessment concludes no adversary managed to infiltrate critical systems or change how votes were cast, the conclusions on China could lead to new questions about how the intelligence was initially presented to the public. “We assess that China did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election,” the newly released ODNI report said, adding it had “high confidence” in its finding. “China sought stability in its relationship with the United States, did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling, and assessed its traditional influence tools — primarily targeted economic measures and lobbying — would be sufficient to meet its goal of shaping U.S. China policy regardless of the winner,” the report stated. Earlier warnings Those findings contrast with earlier warnings from intelligence officials who spent months warning voters of the potential threats, specifically calling out efforts by China along with Russia and Iran. “China is expanding its influence efforts to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and counter criticism of China,” then National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director FILE – Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe waits on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Dec. 12, 2020.In August, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe grouped China with Russia and Iran in an interview with Fox Business News. “I don’t want to say this is only about China,” Ratcliffe said at the time. “China, Russia, Iran, other actors, are all trying to interfere or influence our elections for their own gain.” He added, however, that Beijing’s efforts stood apart. “China’s using a massive and sophisticated influence campaign that dwarfs anything that any other country is doing,” Ratcliffe said.  Another top Trump official, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, echoed those thoughts less than a month later. “The intelligence community has made very clear, first you have China, which has the most massive program to influence the United States politically,” O’Brien told reporters at the time. White House Defends Trump’s Concerns About Mail-In Voting National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien defended the president’s warning of fraud while dismissing an intel bulletin that suggested Russia is using mail-in voting to sow confusion ahead of the November electionTrump, himself, also played up the notion China was seeking his defeat. “China would love us to have an election where Donald Trump lost to sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump said during a news conference last August. “They would own our country.” Declassified report In the newly declassified report, however, U.S. intelligence officials concluded Beijing did not use its well-developed influence machine to alter the results. “We did not identify China attempting to interfere with election infrastructure or provide funding to any candidates or parties,” the report said. It said Beijing had previously sought to influence U.S. politics, including in the 2018 U.S. elections. “We did not, however, see these capabilities deployed for the purpose of shaping the electoral outcome,” the report said. Report Puts Russia, China and Iran in Line for Sanctions for Election Meddling

        Voters who went to the polls last month in the United States' midterm elections can rest assured that their votes were registered and counted properly.However, a new report by the U.S. 

While stating it had high confidence in its findings regarding China, the ODNI report admitted there was some disagreement. “The National Intelligence Officer [NIO] for Cyber assesses that China took at least some steps to undermine former President Trump’s reelection chances, primarily through social media and official public statements and media,” it said, explaining the NIO gave more weight to indications that Beijing preferred Biden, seeing him as more predictable than Trump. The NIO also argued, with moderate confidence, that evidence suggested China increased its influence operations from June to August 2020, while calibrating its effort so as to “avoid blowback.” Still, several former intelligence officials who spoke to VOA about the ODNI report said its prevailing view in regard to China was not surprising. “[Former Director of National Intelligence] John Ratcliffe had the political mission of downplaying the whole Russian influence issue, with one way of doing that being to play up the idea that Chinese influence was at least as likely and significant as anything the Russians did,” said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer who has been critical of Trump. Pillar, now with Georgetown University, said, in his view, the more notable conclusion from the ODNI report was how Russia sought to push Trump’s candidacy. FILE – Then-nominee for national intelligence director Avril Haines speaks during a confirmation hearing in Washington, Jan. 19, 2021. (Joe Raedle/Pool via AP)”Foreign malign influence is an enduring challenge facing our country,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in a statement Tuesday.   “Addressing this ongoing challenge requires a whole-of-government approach grounded in an accurate understanding of the problem, which the Intelligence Community, through assessments such as this one, endeavors to provide,” she added. A separate report Tuesday, from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, reaffirmed earlier findings that foreign adversaries failed to impact the tallying of ballots. “We … have no evidence that any foreign government-affiliated actor prevented voting, changed votes, or disrupted the ability to tally votes or to transmit election results in a timely manner; altered any technical aspect of the voting process; or otherwise compromised the integrity of voter registration information of any ballots cast during 2020 federal elections,” the report said. The second report also rejected claims made after the November 2020 U.S. election that foreign governments, including Venezuela, Cuba and China, were in any way in control of critical election infrastructure to manipulate the election’s outcome. Such claims “are not credible,” the Justice Department and DHS concluded. Some key lawmakers, though, reacted to the reports by warning it is more critical than ever for the U.S. to maintain its guard. “The problem of foreign actors trying to influence the American electorate is not going away,” Democratic Senator John Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. “Given the current partisan divides in this country, [it] may find fertile ground in which to grow.” 
 
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Just as top U.S. defense and diplomatic officials are meeting with allies in Asia to find ways to counter the threat from a rising, more aggressive China, a key military commander is warning the front line in the competition for global dominance between Washington and Beijing is much closer to home. The commander of U.S. forces in Central and South America, Southern Command’s Admiral Craig Faller, told lawmakers Tuesday that China has become the leading threat in the region, taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic and increased lawlessness to impose its will on a growing number of countries.  FILE – U.S. Navy Adm. Craig Faller listens during a briefing at U.S. Southern Command, in Doral, Fla., July 10, 2020.”I look at this hemisphere as the front line of competition,” Faller told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, further describing Beijing’s efforts as a “full-court press.” “I feel a sense of urgency,” he added. “Our influence is eroding.”  Region “is sinking in the violence & it is sinking in FILE – U.S. Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck speaks during a news conference on the campus of California State University of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, Feb. 16, 2021.”They are absolutely in the NOTHCOM AOR [area of responsibility] attempting to influence in the Bahamas, working through 5G for example,” VanHerck said. “The same thing in Mexico.” U.S. military officials likewise expressed concern about the growing relationship between Chinese operations in Central and South America and transnational crime, described by SOUTHCOM’s Faller as the second biggest threat to the U.S. in the Americas. “They market in drugs, and people and guns and illegal mining,” Faller said of the various crime organizations that have secured a foothold across the region. “And one of the prime sources that underwrites their efforts is Chinese money laundering.” To counter China, Faller urged lawmakers to help ensure a continued U.S. presence and partnership. “It’s important that we remain engaged in this hemisphere,” he said. “It’s our neighborhood, That proximity matters.” “What I hear from my partners is … ‘We want to partner with you, but when you’re drowning, you need a life ring — you’re going to take the life ring from whoever throws it,” Faller said. 
 
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It’s been two months (Jan. 18), since Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny returned home following a lengthy recovery abroad from a near fatal poisoning attack.  Navalny — and western governments — blame the Russian government for the attempt on his life — a charge the Kremlin denies.  Yet a Russian court has since sentenced Navalny to just over two and a-half years in prison for alleged past parole violations.  The question now: can Russia’s opposition thrive — or even survive — without its leading figure?  From Moscow for VOA, Charles Maynes reports.Camera: Ricardo Marquina, Agencies,  Produced by: Ricardo Marquina/Rob Raffaele   
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The independent Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta has called on Moscow authorities to investigate a “chemical attack” against its premises after a security camera recorded a person spraying its office entrance with an unknown liquid.The media outlet, which shares the premises with several other companies in the Russian capital, demanded the investigation on March 16, a day after a strong chemical odor swept through the building. Late on March 15, a video allegedly taken by a CCTV camera  at the building circulated on the Internet showing a man in a Yandex.Food delivery uniform spraying an unknown liquid near the building’s entrance from a device on the back wheel of the bike he was riding.”Look, it is now a device for terrorist acts — a false courier sprays a poisonous gas that is in a container installed on a bicycle. The idea is clear: the employees step in the poison and then distribute it to all of the floors in the building,” Novaya Gazeta said in a statement.A spokeswoman at Yandex.Food told the website Mediazona that the company did not receive any orders from the address where Novaya Gazeta is located.Novaya Gazeta’s staff members have said the odor in the building was very similar to one that was present when the home and car of correspondent Yulia Latynina was sprinkled with an unknown chemical in 2017.That same year the newspaper received a letter with an unknown white powder inside, which later was shown to be harmless.In October 2018, unknown people brought three cages with sheep wearing vests with the inscription PRESS on them.Several days before that, unknown individuals threw a funeral wreath in front of the periodical’s building with notes threatening Denis Korotkov, a correspondent for the newspaper. Days later a sheep’s head was found near the office with a note threatening all reporters at Novaya Gazeta.Six Novaya Gazeta journalists, including well-known reporters Yury Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, and Anastasia Baburova, have been killed since 2001. 
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