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U.S. President Joe Biden meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House Thursday in what will probably be her last official visit.
 
After 16 years as chancellor, Merkel plans to leave the government following national elections in September.
 
“This visit will affirm the deep and enduring bilateral ties between the United States and Germany,” the White House said Wednesday.
 
Biden and Merkel will discuss a variety of issues that include “countering the threat of climate change, ending the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing security and regional challenges, and shoring up democracy around the world,” according to the White House.
 
The two leaders are also expected to discuss a Russian gas pipeline that Washington opposes. The Nord Stream 2 project transports natural gas from Russia to Germany.
 
The U.S. has argued that the project will put European energy security at risk by increasing Europe’s reliance on Russian gas and allowing the Kremlin to pressure vulnerable countries in Eastern and Central Europe.
 
Merkel’s spokesperson, Steffen Seibert, told reporters the leaders will also discuss China, which has strong trade relations with Germany. Some political observers say Merkel, who has criticized China’s human rights record, hopes to avoid having to choose between the U.S. and China.
 
Merkel’s agenda Thursday also includes dinner at the White House with President Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglass Emhoff.  
 
Merkel will also make remarks after receiving an honorary degree at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
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Five years ago this week, tanks rolled into the streets of Ankara and Istanbul, and soldiers ordered a news anchor at Turkey’s state broadcaster, TRT, to read a statement announcing the military had seized power.  The coup attempt was shut down quickly. But for the country’s media and voices of opposition, July 15, 2016, spurred an era of accusations and arrests, including the arrests of journalists who had covered events that night.One of those was Ilhan Tanir, then Washington correspondent for Turkey’s oldest newspaper, Cumhuriyet. Tanir recalls watching the coup unfold from the U.S., with TV stations interrupting regular programming to show military vehicles on Istanbul’s iconic Bosporus Bridge.Ilhan Tanir, pictured in July, is a Turkish journalist based in Washington, D.C. In 2016, he reported on the failed attempted July 15 coup for Turkey’s oldest newspaper, Cumhuriyet.”At the time, there were a lot of ISIS attacks in Turkey,” the journalist told VOA, referring to the Islamic State terror group. “The rumors and the tweets were talking about how it could be some kind of ISIS attack.”  But, Tanir said quickly, “we understood there was a coup.”  In the hours that followed, Tanir used Twitter to convey information from Turkish sources to his English-speaking audience.  Months later, Turkish prosecutors claimed his earlier social media posts and news reporting were evidence that Tanir belonged to the Gulen movement, the group accused of orchestrating the coup.  It was an accusation leveled at other journalists too. In the past five years, record numbers were arrested, often on accusations of supporting or producing propaganda for a terrorist organization. Authorities tightened control over digital and social media and forced some news outlets to close or come under new ownership.  At Tanir’s outlet alone, at least a dozen journalists, including former Editor-in-Chief Can Dundar, were accused of being part of the Gulen movement, a grassroots religious organization led by Fethullah Gulen.The 80-year-old cleric, who lives in self-imposed exile in the U.S., denies any involvement. Addressing his party’s provincial heads on July 8 of this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the failed coup as “one of the most treacherous attempts in our history.”  The attempt to thwart democracy left around 250 people dead and more than 2,000 injured. Erdogan said that it had been carried out by Gulenists but had “a much wider network behind it.” FILE – The names of civilians and police killed while resisting a failed coup attempt are displayed on a banner in Taksim Square, Istanbul, Turkey, July 20, 2016. The slogan reads: ‘Sovereignty belongs to the nation.’Turkey has also dismissed international criticism of the arrests of critics and reporters. In a 2017 BBC interview, FILE – Banners and flags are waved at a solidarity rally nearly two weeks after a failed attempted coup in Ankara, Turkey, July 27, 2016.”It wasn’t just members of the Gulen movement that were targeted at the stage,” said Merve Tahiroglu, the Turkey program coordinator at Project on Middle East Democracy, or POMED, a Washington-based research and advocacy group.  “It was also people who had nothing to do with this movement. Many Kurdish outlets were among the first media outlets that were shut down by decree in the state of emergency,” she said. “And we saw a lot of journalists, particularly Kurdish journalists but also liberal voices, progressive voices, get detained or sacked from their jobs.” For some, the accusations appeared to stem from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  On the day of the coup, Henri Barkey, a Middle East expert and professor of international relations at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania,  was on Istanbul’s Buyukada Island, speaking at a workshop on Iran’s relations with its neighbors.  But Ankara saw the American analyst’s presence in Istanbul differently. It issued an arrest warrant for Barkey, and pro-government newspapers described him as a CIA operative working inside the country to topple Erdogan. “It has been very costly to me, this Turkish accusation,” said Barkey, who denies the allegations. “I can’t go to Turkey, obviously, to do my research there. People avoid me. Friends of mine have stopped talking to me because they are afraid, because any association with me is problematic and can be used against them,” he told VOA.  FILE – An unidentified solider accused of attempting to assassinate Turkey’s president during the failed attempted coup is escorted to a court hearing, Oct. 4, 2017.Analysts say those numbers are higher today and include prominent politicians such as Selahattin Demirtas, the co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, who has been behind bars since November 2016.  Last month, the Turkish Constitutional Court ordered HDP to go on trial for alleged links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. If connections are proven, the HDP will shut down like all the other pro-Kurdish parties preceding it.  Ankara’s actions have resulted in media watchdogs labeling Turkey as the worst jailer of journalists. By the end of 2016, at least 86 journalists were jailed in Turkey, according to the New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which tracks arrests linked directly to working as a journalist.  CPJ’s annual prison census, which reflects the number of detained journalists, continued to show high figures in the years following the coup: 74 in 2017, 68 in 2018 and 37 at the last count, in late 2020. Alongside its snapshot of arrests, the press freedom organization flagged Turkey’s “revolving door” approach of detentions, releases, and rearrests.The European Union has also warned Turkey that its aspirations for membership hang on the country ending its authoritarian practices.  “Human rights, the rule of law, democracy, fundamental freedoms — including media freedom — are all basic imperative requirements for any progress towards the European Union,” Johannes Hahn, the EU’s membership commissioner, said after talks with Turkey in 2017.’Abusing Interpol’ Journalist Tanir says he considered himself lucky to be outside of Turkey in 2016 and therefore able to avoid arrest.  Court documents accused him and his colleagues of additional crimes: undermining the Turkish state and supporting the PKK. The armed Kurdish group, which is seeking autonomy, has been designated a terrorist organization by both Ankara and Washington.  Tanir denies any association with either the PKK or the Gulen movement. But he is still wanted internationally because of a “red notice” arrest warrant that a Turkish court issued to Interpol in 2018.”This has made my international travel impossible,” he said. Experts, including analyst and former lawmaker Aykan Erdemir, have said Veysel Ok, vice president of Turkey’s Media and Law Studies Association, works in Istanbul in July. The media rights lawyer estimates that over 400 journalists have been detained in Turkey since 2016.”These were always the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of journalists, intellectuals, and writers,” he told VOA, adding that before 2016, “in general, this pressure mainly was on Kurdish journalists, Armenian journalists, or journalists and media outlets with left or liberal views.”  But after July 15, 2016, “this pressure has begun to be applied to everyone,” Ok said.  “From the mainstream media to the (Gulen-affiliated) media, from the left media to the right media, everyone who thinks differently from the government, writes differently, and expresses an opinion other than the official view of the government has become a victim of the government,” he said.Reporting equipment lies on the ground outside the offices of Ankara’s government, and protesters hold a banner that reads “We can’t breathe. Journalism cannot be drowned” during a rally for journalists to be protected from police, June 29, 2021.Effect on Turkey’s media The arrests and harassment have had far-reaching impact on Turkey’s media scene.Media lawyer Ok said that prominent media outlets, including pro-Kurdish or those deemed close to the Gulen movement, had been closed and mainstream media put under new ownership.  Journalists looked to new avenues for independent reporting, including social media platforms. But changes to regulations regarding digital news and social media have led to further obstacles.  Ankara enacted social media regulations requiring that Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have offices in Turkey and respond to takedown requests quickly or risk fines.Erdogan Seeks to Tame Social Media, Again New Turkish legislation seeks to tighten controls on social media with novel approach that analysts say could succeed this time The Radio and Television Supreme Council, which provides licenses and serves as a watchdog for the country’s broadcasters, has been accused by Human Rights Watch of imposing “punitive and disproportionate sanctions against independent television and radio channels that broadcast commentary and news coverage critical of the Turkish government.”  Turkey more recently issued a directive banning police from being photographed at protests, a measure it said was to protect the officers’ privacy. Lawyer Ok described the ban as “unconstitutional.” Changes in the application process for the press cards that give journalists access to official briefings have also proved challenging, with several journalism organizations saying the Directorate of Communications no longer issues accreditation for those at independent or critical outlets. “When the process is not treating journalists equally, this hurts people’s right to be informed. Because if you separate certain journalists, critical journalists, critical outlets from others and make the fieldwork harder for them, this is censorship from whichever angle you look at it,” said Ozgur Ogret, the Turkish representative for CPJ.  With Cumhuriyet under different leadership, former Editor-in-Chief Dundar has started a new website from Germany, where he lives in exile.  The website, called Ozguruz, which means “we are free” in Turkish, covers events in Turkey and Germany, but access to the site is blocked in Dundar’s home country.  Last year, the veteran journalist was sentenced in absentia to more than 27 years in prison for espionage and aiding a terrorist organization.  Turkish Court Convicts Journalist Dundar on Terror Charges Dundar, the former editor-in-chief of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, was on trial for a 2015 story accusing Turkey’s intelligence service of illegally sending weapons to SyriaTanir also no longer works for Cumhuriyet.  But even his employer — Ahval, a news website that covers Turkish politics and economics — has faced accusations of Gulen links. Something that Tanir and the media outlet deny.Tanir said that while covering the U.S. State Department, he had been one of the first journalists to question the so-called Gulenists’ alleged involvement in human rights abuses and pressure on the media in the early 2000s.  “Anyone can go and look at the archives of the State Department and see who asked most questions about the human rights and press issues (in Turkey) when the Gulenists were powerful and ruling the country indirectly with their allies in the government,” he said. “The record is out there, but once the Turkish government wants to punish a critical journalist, they always find a way.” Umut Colak contributed to this report from Istanbul.  
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The head of security at the Haitian presidential palace has been taken into custody as part of the investigation of July 7 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise.A close associate of Dimitri Herard said Herard was detained Wednesday. CNN said Martin failed to appear before a court inquiry ordered by the public prosecutor of Port-au-Prince because he had been summoned by police for questioning.Moise was killed during a predawn attack on his private residence in a wealthy suburb of the Haitian capital that also left his wife, Martine, seriously wounded. National Police Chief Leon Charles said 18 Colombians and three Haitians have been arrested in connection with the attack, including 63-year-old Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-born man based in the U.S. state of Florida who police believe is the mastermind behind the plot to kill Moise. Charles said Sanon arrived in Haiti on a private plane in early June with some of the Colombians.An official with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration told VOA in an emailed statement that one of the suspects in custody was a confidential source to the agency.A manhunt continues for several more suspects, including a man identified by The Associated Press as John Joel Joseph, a former senator in opposition to Moise’s Tet Kale party.U.S. President Joe Biden has dispatched a special delegation to Haiti to assist with the investigation.Moise’s killing has created a leadership vacuum in the troubled Caribbean nation. He had named neurosurgeon Ariel Henry to the post of prime minister to replace Claude Joseph, who was serving in the post on an interim basis while also serving as foreign minister. But Henry was not sworn in before the assassination, and Joseph has declared himself acting prime minister.A commission made up of representatives of all sectors of Haitian civil society plans to meet Thursday to sign a political accord that will name a new president.Joseph, as acting prime minister, had requested the United States deploy troops to Haiti to protect key infrastructure.Meanwhile, Haiti received 500,000 doses of the two-shot Moderna COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday. The doses were donated by the U.S. through the United Nations-led COVAX global vaccine sharing initiative. Through the initiative, vaccines are distributed to low- and middle-income countries.Haiti has reported 19,374 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 487 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.Some information for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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At least seven people have died and several people are missing in Germany after heavy flooding turned streams and streets into raging torrents, sweeping away cars and causing some buildings to collapse.Police in the western city of Koblenz said Thursday that four people had died in Ahrweiler county, and about 50 were trapped on the roofs of their houses awaiting rescue.Six houses had collapsed overnight in the village of Schuld. “Many people have been reported missing to us,” police said.Schuld is located in the Eifel, a volcanic region of rolling hills and small valleys southwest of Cologne.The full extent of the damage in the region was still unclear after many villages were cut off by floodwater and landslides that made roads impassable. Videos posted on social media showed cars floating down streets and houses partly collapsed in some places.Authorities have declared an emergency in the region after days of heavy rainfall that also affected large parts of western and central Germany, as well as neighboring countries, causing widespread damage.Police said an 82-year-old man died after a fall in his flooded basement in the western city of Wuppertal, which was among the hardest-hit.A fireman drowned Wednesday during rescue work in the western German town of Altena and another collapsed during rescue operations at a power plant in Werdohl-Elverlingsen. One man was missing in the eastern town of Joehstadt after disappearing while trying to secure his property from rising waters, authorities said.Rail connections were suspended in large parts of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state. Governor Armin Laschet, who is running to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in this fall’s German election, was expected to visit the flood-hit city of Hagen later Thursday.A photo taken with a drone shows the devastation caused by the flooding of the Ahr River in the Eifel village of Schuld, western Germany, July 15, 2021.German weather service DWD predicted the rainfall would ease Thursday.Relentless rains through the night worsened the flooding conditions in eastern Belgium, where one person was reported drowned and at least another was missing.Some towns saw water levels rise to unprecedented levels and had their centers turned into gushing rivers.Major highways were inundated and in the south and east of the nation, the railway service said all traffic was stopped, adding that “alternative transport is highly unlikely.”In eastern Eupen, on the German border, one man was reported dead after he was swept away by a torrent, a local governor told RTBf network.In Liege, the main city in eastern Belgium, the Meuse River could break its banks by early afternoon and spill into the heart of the city. Police warned the citizens to take precautionary measures.Authorities in the southern Dutch town of Valkenburg, close to the German and Belgian borders, evacuated a care home and a hospice overnight amid flooding that turned the tourist town’s main street into a river, Dutch media reported.The Dutch government sent some 70 troops to the southern province of Limburg late Wednesday to help with tasks including transporting evacuees and filling sandbags as rivers burst their banks. There were no reports of injuries linked to flooding in the Netherlands.Unusually intense rains have also inundated a swath of northeast France this week, downing trees and forcing the closure of dozens of roads. A train route to Luxembourg was disrupted, and firefighters evacuated dozens of people from homes near the Luxembourg and German border and in the Marne region, according to local broadcaster France Bleu.The equivalent of two months of rain has fallen on some areas in the last one or two days, according to the French national weather service. With the ground already saturated, the service forecast more downpours Thursday and issued flood warnings for 10 regions. 
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Cuba announced on Wednesday it was temporarily lifting restrictions on the amount of food and medicine travelers could bring into the country in an apparent small concession to demands by protesters who took to the street last weekend.Thousands joined a wave of nationwide protests over shortages of basic goods, curbs on civil liberties and the government’s handling of a surge in COVID-19 infections on Sunday, in the most significant unrest in decades in the Communist-run country.The government blamed the unrest on U.S.-financed “counter-revolutionaries” exploiting hardship caused by the decades-old U.S. trade embargo that Washington tightened in the midst of the pandemic, pushing the Cuban economy to the brink.Several countries and the United Nations have called on the government to respect citizens’ right to express themselves. Others like Mexico have said A demonstrator holds up a bead necklace in the colors of the Cuban flag, July 14, 2021, in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, as people rallied in support of antigovernment demonstrations in Cuba.And Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said on Wednesday the government would do precisely that from next Monday, lifting restrictions until the year-end.“It was a demand made by many travelers and it was necessary to take this decision,” he said on a roundtable on state television, alongside President Miguel Diaz-Canel.It was not immediately clear how much difference the move would make given that there are very few flights at the moment into the Caribbean island nation which is going through its worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic.Government critic Yoani Sanchez, who runs news website 14ymedio, was quick to tweet that such concessions would not be enough to appease those who had protested on Sunday.“We do not want crumbs, we want freedom, and we want it nowwwww,” she wrote. “The streets have spoken: we are not afraid.”Cubans say they have been frustrated by outages in mobile internet and restricted access to social media and messaging platforms since Sunday.“It’s been a bunch of days that no one has been able to connect,” said Havana resident Andrea Lopez. “My husband is in Mexico and I haven’t been able to speak with him.”More than 200 people were detained during or following the protests, according to exiled rights group Cubalex, and only a handful have been released so far.Diaz-Canel said there were three kinds of protesters; counterrevolutionaries, criminals and those with legitimate frustrations. State-run television showed images of a crowd looting a store and another attacking an empty police car.Interior ministry officials said in a program televised later that some of the detained would be pursued for crimes like incitement to violence, contempt, robbery and damage to public property, which carry lengthy prison sentences.  
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The United States will support an inclusive, credible Haitian government, Laura Lochman, the State Department’s acting deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told VOA on Wednesday.Lochman was part of a U.S. delegation President Joe Biden dispatched to Haiti on July 11 in response to a request from the government of Haiti for assistance after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise last week.The U.S. delegation met with Haitian acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph, Prime Minister-designate Ariel Henry and Senator Joseph Lambert.The senator posted a message on Twitter, saying he had met with the U.S. delegation and that they “appreciate” the Haitian Senate resolution naming him as provisional president of Haiti.“It’s up to the Haitians to come up with the solution to this political process at this point so we rely on them and give them all the support that we can to work conclusively, to work together to form a consensus government. And the United States will definitely, along with our international partners, support an inclusive, credible government,” Lochman told VOA in response to a question about who the United States will support as Haiti’s leader.Haitian politicians float their own plansIn Port-au-Prince, a commission comprised of representatives of all sectors of Haitian civil society plans to meet Thursday to sign a political accord that will name a new president.Ted Saint Dic, one of the organizers of the upcoming meeting, told reporters the group plans to meet with the 10 Haitian senators whose terms have not expired.“We will present a plan based on discussions we have already had, that we will make public during the meeting. With regards to the proposal to name Senator Lambert president of the republic, we believe that before making such a decision, there must be consultations. That’s where we are right now,” Saint Dic said.He described the effort as a “society effort” that would not be rushed.“We’re not in a hurry. We want to allow the country to find a way to enter into dialogue and agree on solutions that fundamentally address the biggest preoccupations of the Haitian people,” Saint Dic said. “The people have what it takes to decide who their leader will be.”Elsewhere in the capital, several political leaders held press conferences Tuesday to discuss their efforts to solve the current political void.Former Senator Steven Benoit discussed his plan during a press conference.“I told Senator Lambert that we need to organize as soon as possible a national dialogue with representatives of all sectors of society, including the religious sector, to decide what we are going to do,” Benoit said. “The constitution has been ignored (by President Moise) since January 2020, so today we need a political accord. And I’ve asked Senator Lambert to meet with the different political parties, which he has begun to do, as well as members of civil society, to discuss the issues and come up with a Haitian solution.”Political leader Dieudonne Lherisson of the PLANSPA (Platfom Nasyonal Sekte Popile Ayisyen) Party also held a press conference Tuesday to call for a national dialogue.“Everyone knows there were (only) 11 elected officials in the country — President Moise and the 10 senators. President Moise is dead now, so 10 elected officials remain, who were elected by the people. It is time for them to take responsibility and organize a national dialogue — not to mess around — but rather to find the best formula to reestablish order, fight insecurity and organize elections to allow the people to choose their leader in a democratic fashion,” Lherisson said.“We’re very happy to hear that they’re moving in that direction,” said Lochman told VOA.ElectionsFormer Senator Benoit is pushing for an 18-month transition period, ending with presidential and legislative elections in September or October 2022. But Lochman said the United States would like to see elections held this year.“We have always believed and in fact continue to believe very strongly, that it’s imperative to hold elections for both president and the legislature this year and that is because there has been a vacuum in democratic governance in Haiti that is not serving the needs of the Haitian people,” Lochman said.In fact, the parliament has been out of session since January 2020 when the terms of most of the legislature expired. Elections have not been held to elect new members due to mass protests, the coronavirus pandemic and uncontrolled gang violence.Lochman stressed the need for Haiti’s executive, legislative and judicial branches of government to be fully operational.“You need to have all branches of government in place and working together and working in the pursuit of providing services to the Haitian people that they deserve. And we the U.S. government as well as our international partners have been working with them and will continue to stand with them to improve their democratic governance and institutions,” she told VOA.Troop requestThe question of whether the U.S. will send troops to Haiti has been a hot topic both inside Haiti and in the U.S. since President Moise’s assassination.“The Haitian acting prime minister did send a letter both to the United Nations and the United States prior to last weekend, asking for asking for assistance in maintaining some of their critical infrastructure as well as helping in election security and with the investigation of the assassination,” Lochman told VOA.Pressed about whether the U.S. has decided to send troops to Haiti, she said the conversation is ongoing.“To be clear we are working with them now to get a very clear idea of exactly what their needs are and how we can best respond to those. And while nothing is being taken off the table at this point, we are trying to understand better the fundamental issues they are grappling with,” Lochman said.Renan Toussaint and Matiado Vilme in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed to this story. 
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The United States is encouraging Haitian political leaders, civil society and the private sector to find a political solution that will lead to presidential and legislative elections in the Caribbean island nation later this year, following last week’s assassination of President Jovenel Moise.A commission made up of representatives of all sectors of Haitian civil society plans to meet Thursday to sign a political accord that will name a new president.“We’re very happy to hear that they’re moving in that direction,” said Laura Lochman, the State Department’s acting deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.Lochman on Wednesday sat down with VOA to discuss the crisis in Haiti and how the United States is planning to help with the investigation of Moise’s assassination, gang violence, and COVID-19 cases.Lochman was a member of the U.S. delegation that traveled to Port-au-Prince on Sunday in response to a Haitian government request for security and investigative assistance following the July 7 killing.The following are excerpts from the interview, which has been edited for brevity and clarity.VOA: Various groups of Haitian political leaders plan to meet this week to discuss a solution for the political crisis and name a new leader. Will the U.S. recognize their decision?Lochman: The United States, in conjunction with our international partners, have been in constant contact with Haitian political leaders, encouraging them to come together and have an inclusive, open process and form a unity government that includes the private sector, civil society, as well as the various political parties. So, we’re very happy to hear that they’re moving in that direction.VOA: Haitian Senator Joseph Lambert posted a message on Twitter, saying he had met with the U.S. delegation and that they “appreciate” the Haitian Senate resolution naming him as provisional president of Haiti. Can you confirm or deny that statement?Lochman: We did, in fact — when we were on the ground in Port-au-Prince on Sunday — we did meet with Senator Lambert. We also met with the acting prime minister, Claude Joseph, and Prime Minister-Designate Dr. Ariel Henry. And we have the exact same message to all three gentlemen, which is to encourage them to work together, to take their time, have an inclusive process, draw in other political parties and the civil society actors to come up with a consensus government that could help restore stability to Haiti and lead them to presidential and legislative elections this year.VOA: Would the U.S. recognize Lambert as a leader if that’s the conclusion?Lochman: Again, it’s up to the Haitians to come up with the solution to this political process at this point. So, we rely on them and give them all of the support that we can to work conclusively, to work together, to form a consensus government. And the United States will definitely, along with our international partners, support an inclusive, credible government.VOA: Will the U.S. continue pushing for elections in 2021?Lochman: We have always believed … and continue to believe very strongly that it’s imperative to hold elections for both the president and the legislature this year, and that is because there has been, really, a vacuum in democratic governance in Haiti that is not serving the needs of the Haitian people. There are many significant problems — on the economic front, security front, political front, health front — that need to be dealt with in Haiti, and you need three functioning, fully staffed branches of government responsible to the Haitian people to take on those challenges.VOA: If I may ask, elections have never solved Haiti’s problems. What is the U.S. thinking these elections will settle?Lochman: Well certainly, again, a power vacuum or a lack of democratic governance would never be the solution in our minds. You need to have all branches of government in place and working together in the pursuit of providing services to the Haitian people that they deserve. And the U.S. government, as well as other international partners, have been working with them and will continue to stand with them to improve their democratic governance and institutions.VOA: When does the U.S. expect to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to Haiti?Lochman: The delivery of vaccines is quite imminent — at least the first tranche of vaccines should be arriving very soon. And then, there will be provision of more as conditions allow, in terms of cold storage, etc., but we are committed to providing them as soon as possible.VOA: Has there been consular access to the three Americans who have been accused in the assassination? Is there a determination whether they are culpable?Lochman: We have been informed that there are three American citizens detained by the Haitian National Police (HNP) in connection with the horrible assassination. Our embassy in Port-au-Prince is providing the normal and appropriate consular services to those U.S. citizens.VOA: Has the U.S. said no to any request from Haiti for assistance?Lochman: We have not. We are, again, working very closely — it’s on a constant basis — with Haitian officials to determine what their needs are, to kind of drill down on the specifics and determine how we can best support them from the U.S. government perspective.VOA: Has the U.S. received a request from the Haitian government for U.S. troops to protect infrastructure sites like its ports and the airport?Lochman: Prior to last weekend, Haiti’s acting prime minister did send a letter, both to the United Nations and the United States, asking for assistance in maintaining the safety of some of their critical infrastructure, as well as helping on election security, and with the investigation of the assassination. So again, we’re working internally within the U.S. government, as well as with our international partners, to coordinate with the Haitians on how best to respond to their requests.VOA: The U.S. is saying yes to the request to send U.S. troops to protect Haiti’s infrastructure sites?Lochman: To reiterate, we are working with them now to get a very clear idea of exactly what their needs are and how we can best respond to those needs. And while nothing is being taken off the table at this point, we are trying to understand better the fundamental issues they’re grappling with. And one of the things that we may ramp up, for instance, is our provision of advisers to the HNP to help them combat the gangs that are such a problem there right now. But again, this conversation is going on daily.VOA: Ambassador Michele Sison has been named to a new post at the State Department. When can we expect this administration to name her replacement?Lochman: Ambassador Sison remains the ambassador to Haiti. At this point, she is awaiting Senate confirmation for her new role, and she is on the ground in Port-au-Prince working way too many hours per day and putting her full experience into helping solve the issues on the ground in Haiti.VOA: Is there anything else you would like to add?Lochman: Just that, again, the United States has had a long relationship with the Haitian people, and we are fully committed to doing everything that we can to assist them in this very difficult time that they are experiencing. 
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European Union leaders on Wednesday introduced the bloc’s most comprehensive plans yet to combat climate change, with a new goal of reducing carbon emissions to 55% below 1990 levels by 2030.Unveiled by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, the legislation would make the bloc’s goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050 legally binding and completely overhaul its energy system.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a press conference that the “Fit for 55” plan would act as a road map of concrete actions necessary to achieve the bloc’s climate goals.“Our package aims to combine the reduction of emissions with measures to preserve nature, and to put jobs and social balance at the heart of this transformation,” von der Leyen said.The sweeping proposal would involve every sector of the EU’s economy in its Emissions Trading System, which incentivizes companies to lower their emissions by taxing the carbon they produce.New taxes on previously exempt sectors are proposed for aviation and shipping fuels. The plan also calls for increasing existing carbon taxes to the transportation, manufacturing and power sectors.FILE – Cars sit at a standstill during morning rush hour on a main artery in the European Quarter of Brussels, Dec. 12, 2019. The European Union on July 14, 2021, unveiled new legislation to help meet its pledge to cut climate-changing emissions.Border taxOne of the package’s most noteworthy aspects is a first-of-its-kind tax on the carbon produced by foreign imports, which in turn likely would raise prices for consumers.This border tax — known officially as the carbon border adjustment mechanism — would ensure the EU is reducing emissions across the board, and it would protect domestic companies against price competition from foreign companies without the same environmental restrictions.In April, environmental leaders from China, India, South Africa and Brazil spoke out against such a tax, asserting that a carbon border adjustment would be discriminatory against developing countries that lack the resources to focus on cutting emissions.The commission also is planning to completely phase out the sale of combustion-engine cars by 2035, effectively bringing new car emissions to zero.Other proposals include shifting millions of buildings in the EU toward renewable energy by 2030 via renovation and implementation of a carbon tax on road transport.“Emission of CO2 must have a price, and we know that carbon pricing works,” von der Leyen said. “Our existing emission trading system has already helped significantly to reduce emissions in industry and in power generation.”European Commissioner for the European Green Deal Frans Timmermans speaks during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels, July 14, 2021.Fairness, accessibilityThe commission emphasized a focus on making the transition to renewable energy fair and accessible to everyone, particularly low-income individuals and member states whose economies are more reliant on polluting industries.Environmental taxes that target the individual have caused controversy in the past, as seen with the massive yellow vest movement in opposition to the French government’s raising fuel taxes.Since energy prices are expected to rise, the commission proposed creating a $85.2 billion fund that citizens of member states could access to help mitigate the costs of switching to energy-efficient housing and transportation.The commission’s plan comes six years after the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement signaled a worldwide commitment to mitigating the impact of climate change and keeping global temperatures from increasing significantly.Additionally, since the EU produces only 8% of the world’s carbon emissions, the plan is intended to push other world powers to follow suit and produce more concrete plans for reaching climate neutrality.In coming years, the commission’s plan will be the subject of scrutiny and negotiation as the leaders from the 27 member states convene in the European Parliament and Council to implement the laws across the EU.
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was being evaluated Wednesday for possible emergency surgery for an intestinal obstruction, his office said. Bolsonaro, 66, was admitted to the Armed Forces Hospital in Brasilia early in the morning and was “feeling well,” according to an initial statement that said doctors were examining his persistent hiccups. But hours later, the president’s office said Dr. Antonio Luiz Macedo, the surgeon who operated on Bolsonaro after he was stabbed in the abdomen during the 2018 presidential campaign, decided to transfer him to Sao Paulo, where he will undergo additional tests to evaluate the need for an emergency surgery. FILE – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro reacts during a ceremony in Brasilia, Brazil, March 10, 2021.The stabbing caused intestinal damage and serious internal bleeding and the president has gone through several surgeries since, some unrelated to the attack. In recent weeks, Bolsonaro has appeared to struggle with speaking on various occasions and said that he suffers from recurring hiccups. “I apologize to everyone who is listening to me, because I’ve been hiccuping for five days now,” Bolsonaro said in an interview with Radio Guaiba on July 7. He suggested that some medications prescribed after dental surgery might be the cause. “I have the hiccups 24 hours a day.” The following day, during his weekly Facebook Live session, Bolsonaro apologized again for not being able to express himself well due to weeklong hiccups. Bolsonaro has been under growing pressure from a congressional inquiry into his administration’s handling of the pandemic and alleged corruption in the acquisition of vaccines against COVID-19, and recent polls have indicated that he could lose in the next 2022 election. On Tuesday night, in a 20-minute encounter with the president in Brasilia, supporters repeatedly asked him to look after his health. 
 
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Supporters of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise gathered Wednesday near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince to honor him, placing multiple floral wreaths near the palace gates.  
 
“We will never forget you,” a man said as he placed a wreath on the ground.  
 
“I have no strength left. I can’t deal anymore. When I think about how he was killed, I just start crying. They massacred the father of the nation,” a female supporter who did not wish to give her name, told VOA.  
 
Another female supporter said she believes the president’s assassination was political.  
 
“Everyone knows why he was killed. He was assassinated just like the emperor (Jean-Jacques Dessalines). For over 50 years, we have dealt with these types of actions — that’s why this country is in such a sorry state. If we don’t change the system, we will never make any progress,” she told VOA.
 
Mackenson Cange, spokesman for the Alliance Democratique Contre la Transition en Haiti Party, said supporters want to send a clear signal to everyone who is watching events unfold in Haiti.  
 
“The president’s blood will not be shed in vain,” he told VOA. “We need to know in what context the president was killed. We need to know the motive behind the killing. We are asking for justice for President Moise, and we are ready to risk our lives to ensure that happens.”
 
Cange appealed to anyone involved in the assassination to surrender to police.  
 
“Don’t let the people be the ones to find you,” Cange said.People place a portrait of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise with a quote from him that reads in Creole “I try, you don’t give up. Continue fighting,” at a memorial outside the National Palace, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 14, 2021.Former Moise campaign colleague Pierre Garry Bernadotte, who is the Haitian delegate for the West Department, said he felt compelled to participate in Wednesday’s event.
“I spent six years and five months with Jovenel Moise. I started out with him on the first day of his campaign, and we stayed with him until his last day. In fact, we continue to serve him (in the government),” Pierre told VOA.
 
“All Haitians must reflect on what happened — regardless of whether you liked Jovenel or not. We must admit that things must change in this country. We need to learn the lesson of this tragedy so that the president does not die in vain,” he said.
 UN tribute  
 
At the United Nations, countries paid tribute Wednesday to the slain president and expressed solidarity and support for the Haitian people.  
 
Flanked by a portrait of Moise and a bouquet of white lilies and hydrangeas, Deputy U.N. Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said the U.N. was joining the people of Haiti in their mourning.  
 
“We say goodbye not only to a head of state, but to a friend, a father and a husband,” she said.
 
“Nothing can justify this act of inhumanity that took place on Haitian soil against President Moise,” the St. Kitts and Nevis’s envoy said, on behalf of the Caribbean Community of states (CARICOM). “It must, therefore, be condemned, and its perpetrators must be brought to justice if we are going to avoid the collapse of civilization in Haiti.”
 
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., expressed support for the people of Haiti. 
“We urge all political parties, civil society groups, and other stakeholders to work together to prioritize calm and stability,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “At this challenging and most difficult time, I want to assure the Haitian people that our partnership with you will continue.”A picture of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise hangs on a wall before a news conference by acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 13, 2021.Funeral planning committee  
 
Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph said Tuesday funeral planning was being handled in consultation with first lady Martine Moise and the Moise family. An official government announcement was issued ahead of a press conference to introduce members of the official planning committee.
 
“The council of ministers will oversee the committee’s work. The institutions and public administration will provide all necessary resources in completing this mission. The government should provide members of the committee with everything they need while being respectful of the task at hand,” Joseph said.
 
In addition to himself, Joseph said the committee members include the ministers of defense, culture and communication, and interior; the director of the cabinet (chief of staff); the secretary-general of the presidency; and the director-general of the MUPANAH (Musée du Panthéon National Haitien).
 
According to a Moise family member, the president wanted to be laid to rest in the north, where his father is buried.
 
The prime minister called on Haitian citizens to participate in the funeral ceremony and events honoring Moise’s life.
 
“We must bid him farewell with honor and dignity,” Joseph said.
 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed Wednesday to enact measures to protect British professional soccer players from online abuse. Punishment for someone found guilty of such abuse could include banishment from games. The move comes after online abuse, some of it racist, was directed at three Black players for the English national team who missed their penalty shots in the Euro 2020 final shootout on Sunday, leading to an Italian win. According to the Guardian newspaper, an analysis of 585,000 social media posts directed at the English team during the entire Euro 2020 tournament found that 44 messages were explicitly racist. More than 2,000 were “abusive.” “I do think that racism is a problem in the United Kingdom, and I believe it needs to be tackled. And it needs to be stamped out with some of the means that I’ve described this morning,” Johnson told Parliament as he announced his plan. “I repeat that I utterly condemn and abhor the racist outpourings that we saw on Sunday night. And so, what we’re doing today is taking practical steps to ensure that the football banning order regime is changed, so that if you are guilty of racist abuse online of footballers, then you will not be going to the match — no ifs, no buts, no exemptions and no excuses,” he added. But it’s unclear how much of the online abuse actually comes from the U.K. The Daily Mail reported that the Premier League, the top division of professional soccer in England, found that roughly 70% of online abuse directed at British professional soccer players comes from outside the U.K. According to Yahoo News, the Greater Manchester Police said they had arrested a man Wednesday for social media posts directed at players for England’s national team. Johnson added that in addition to going after internet trolls, his government would potentially fine social media companies if they failed to quickly remove offensive content. “Last night, I met representatives of Facebook, of Twitter, of TikTok, of Snapchat, of Instagram, and I made it absolutely clear to them that we will legislate to address this problem in the Online Harms Bill. And unless they get hate and racism off their platforms, they will face fines amounting to 10% of their global revenues,” Johnson said. Some information in this report comes from Reuters. 
 
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The International Organization for Migration said Wednesday that deaths among maritime migration routes to Europe have more than doubled in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2020.The organization said Wednesday that at least 1,146 people died attempting to reach Europe in the first six months of 2021. Most of those who died were attempting to cross the Mediterranean.The total number of attempted crossings is also on the rise. More than 31,500 people were intercepted or rescued by North African authorities in the first half of 2021, compared to just over 23,000 in the same period last year.  FILE – Migrants queue to embark on a ferry to the mainland, in the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, Italy, June 23, 2021.Many of the migrants departed from Tunisia, headed for Italy. Italy’s interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, said on Italian national television that arrivals from Tunisia multiplied in July due to that country’s deep economic crisis. Because they are economic migrants, she added, they cannot stay in Italy and will be repatriated, likely in early August.Lamorgese added that areas have been identified where the migrants can be tested for COVID-19 and placed in quarantine, including on a large ship.The IOM data shows that the migrant deaths occurred because of insufficient search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic Route to the Canary Islands, even though interceptions off the North African coast have increased for the second consecutive year. IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino called on countries to take urgent measures to prevent loss of life, such as increasing search and rescue efforts and ensuring access to safe and legal migration pathways.The IOM also said over 15,300 people were returned to Libya in the first six months of 2021, almost three times higher than the same period last year. However, the organization said, migrants who are returned to Libya are subjected to arbitrary detention, extortion, disappearance and torture. 
 
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Pope Francis returned to the Vatican Wednesday, after more than 11 days in the hospital where he underwent intestinal surgery.
 
The Pope Francis arrived at the Vatican via automobile and stepped out slowly but unassisted. He shook hands and chatted with military personnel and police officers before entering the Vatican gates.
 
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, in a statement, said Francis stopped to pray at the Rome Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore before returning to the Vatican. Francis normally does this at the end of each foreign trip to give thanks to the Madonna.
 
From his Twitter account Wednesday, Pope Francis wrote to thank “all those who have been close to me with prayer and affection during my hospital stay. Let us not forget to pray for the sick and for those who assist them.”
 I thank all those who have been close to me with prayer and affection during my hospital stay. Let us not forget to pray for the sick and for those who assist them.— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) July 14, 2021Francis underwent three hours of planned surgery July 4 to treat “severe diverticular stenosis with signs of sclerosing diverticulitis,” or a hardening of the sacs that can sometimes form in the lining of the intestine. The surgery required the removal of a large section of the pope’s colon.  
 
Francis had been considered healthy overall, and this is the first time he has been admitted to the hospital since he became pope in 2013, though he lost the upper part of one lung in his youth because of an infection. He also suffers from sciatica, or nerve pain, that makes him walk with a pronounced limp.
 
The Vatican has continued normal operations in his absence, though July is traditionally a month when the pope cancels public and private audiences.
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When widespread protests broke out in Cuba Sunday, hundreds of Cuban Americans in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood took to the streets in support. Those street demonstrations in Miami have continued.  Liliya Anisimova has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.Camera: Liliya Anisimova  
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Pope Francis was seen leaving the hospital Wednesday, 10 days after undergoing planned surgery to remove half of his colon. Witnesses said a car carrying Francis, 84, was seen leaving Rome’s Gemelli Polytechnic hospital Wednesday morning. Doctors removed half of the pontiff’s colon on July 4 because of a severe narrowing of his large intestine, his first major surgery since he became pope in 2013. It was a planned procedure, scheduled for early July when the pope’s audiences are suspended anyway and Francis would normally take some time off. Francis will have several more weeks to recover before beginning to travel again in September. There are plans for him to visit Hungary and Slovakia in a September 12-15 trip, and then make a quick stop in Glasgow, Scotland, in November to participate in the COP26 climate conference. Other possible trips are also under review. The Vatican had originally said Francis could be discharged last weekend, but later said he would stay a few more days for further recovery and rehabilitation therapy. The pope appeared Sunday for the first time in public since the surgery, looking in good form as he delivered his weekly prayer from the 10th floor hospital balcony, surrounded by young cancer patients. He used the occasion to call for free health care for all.  On Tuesday afternoon, the eve of his release, he visited the pediatric cancer ward, which is on the same floor as the papal hospital suite. The Argentine pope had part of one lung removed when he was a young man but has otherwise enjoyed relatively robust health. 
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Spain called on Cuba Tuesday to release a journalist who was detained in Havana while covering the biggest demonstrations in the communist country for decades. Camila Acosta, 28, who works for the right-leaning Spanish daily ABC, was held by police Monday night.  Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares implored Cuba to immediately release Acosta and respect the rights of demonstrators. “Spain defends the right to demonstrate freely and peacefully and asks the Cuban authorities to respect it,” Albares tweeted. “We demand the immediate release of Camila Acosta.”  Cuba’s government cracked down on activists Monday night after mass protests drew thousands over the weekend. Acosta, who describes herself on Twitter as an independent Cuban journalist, has reported for ABC for six months. She was uploading photos of the unrest to social media when she was detained. Her arrest prompted international condemnation among politicians and media organizations, as her newspaper said she played no part in the protests and was only documenting them.Demonstrators clash during protests against and in support of the government, in Havana, July 12, 2021.ABC learned that Acosta had been arrested around 8 p.m. Spanish time (2 p.m. in Cuba) on Monday. “She had gone to report on, not to join in, the demonstrations,” Alexis Rodriguez, ABC’s foreign editor, told VOA on Tuesday. “We were told that she has been arrested for crimes against state security.” Cuban authorities later changed the charges to contempt and public disorder, which can carry a jail sentence of three to six years. Rodriguez said the newspaper was “highly concerned” that one of its journalists had been detained and called on the Spanish government to do all it can to help with Acosta’s release. Acosta’s father, Orlando Acosta, lives in Florida and was visiting his daughter in Cuba when she was arrested. “We went out to do a PCR (COVID-19) test so that I could return to the U.S. this Friday when the unrest happened,” Orlando Acosta told ABC Tuesday night.  “I have been told by the Cuban authorities that they are going to charge her with contempt and public disorder,” he added. “They are going to leave her at the police station for another 72 hours before she comes before a prosecutor. I have not been able to see my daughter. They say it is because of the risk of COVID-19.”Orlando Acosta said about 15 police officers raided his daughter’s rented flat with dogs and seized her work computers. He was told she must vacate the premises immediately. Camila Acosta previously had been forced to leave other rented accommodations because she has criticized the Cuban government when she was abroad, her father said. Orlando Acosta said he was told by the Cuban government that his daughter should leave the island forever. “But that would stop her from doing her job as a journalist, which she is content with, and I am not going to interfere in that,” he told ABC. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a socialist who in 2018 paid the first official visit by a Spanish leader to Cuba in three decades, said the country was “not a democracy.” “Without interference, the country has to find its own way,” Sanchez told broadcaster Telecinco on Tuesday. The Spanish prime minister demanded Acosta’s release, adding that Cubans should be able to protest freely and enjoy the “same rights and freedoms as in Spain.” Media associations in Spain called for her swift release. In a statement, the Spanish Federation of Journalists Associations demanded the removal of “all charges against Acosta” and called on the Spanish government to “do everything necessary so she is released without charges.” The organization condemned all arrests and attacks on journalists in Cuba over the weekend, including against Ramón Espinosa, a photographer for The Associated Press. About 100 protesters, activists and independent journalists have been detained nationwide since Sunday, according to exiled rights group, Cubalex. VOA contacted the Cuban Embassy in Madrid for comment Tuesday but did not receive a reply.  
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Cuba’s government said Tuesday one person has died after anti-government protests, while rights groups said authorities have arrested more than 100 people. The government said a 36-year-old man died Monday during a clash between protesters and police in Arroyo Naranjo, on the outskirts of Havana. The Cuban capital had a heavy police presence Tuesday, two days after demonstrators there and in other parts of the country conducted the largest anti-government protests in decades. Protesters expressed their frustration with food shortages, high prices, electricity outages and the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Cuban state media said Tuesday that former leader Raul Castro had met Sunday with President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the rest of the ruling Communist Party’s leadership to discuss the protests. Díaz-Canel and other officials have blamed the unrest on the Cuban Americans on social media and the United States government’s decades-long embargo on Cuba.  Sanctions and restrictions imposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump and a drop in tourism related to the pandemic have put extra pressure on the Cuban economy in recent years.People gather in Martyrs Park where wifi connections are working in Havana, Cuba, July 13, 2021. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel is accusing Cuban Americans of using social media to spur Sunday’s nationwide antigovernment protests.U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a briefing Tuesday that the protesters are “standing up to Cuba’s authoritarian regime.” “Their basic needs are not being met and they are understandably exhausted,” Price said. Internet monitoring firm NetBlocks said Tuesday that the Cuban government had restricted access to a number of mobile messaging and social media services, including Facebook and WhatsApp. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denied the government was shutting off access. “We have had electricity problems. We have communication problems; connectivity problems,” Rodriguez said Tuesday. “And it is true that we are in a complex situation, and it is true that there has been a lack of electricity these days, which also affects the functioning of the networks of the telecommunications server nodes.” Price said the United States is calling on Cuba to open “all means of communication.” “Shutting down technology, shutting down information pathways, that does nothing to address the legitimate needs and aspirations of the Cuban people,” he said. The United States is also discouraging any potential attempts by people in Cuba to try to leave the island nation by boat and reach U.S. shores. “Any migrant intercepted at sea, regardless of their nationality, will not be permitted to enter the United States,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters Tuesday. “This risk is not worth taking.” Mayorkas said at this point there has been no indication of an increase in migration attempts by sea. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, AFP and Reuters. 
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China’s bid to expand its influence in Eastern Europe could hit a snag if Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orban is defeated in what is shaping up to be an unexpectedly close election next year.Hungary under Orban has fostered ever-closer ties with China, which sees the country as a linchpin of its efforts to reach deep into Europe with elements of its global Belt and Road initiative involving infrastructure and cultural projects on several continents.Among those projects is a new railroad running from the Hungarian capital, Budapest, to Belgrade, Serbia. Hungary is also the proposed site of the first overseas campus of Fudan University, one of China’s top educational institutions.FILE – Demonstrators protest against the planned Chinese Fudan University campus in Budapest, Hungary, June 5, 2021.In a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping late last month which has since been made public, the mayor of Budapest and several other prominent Hungarian politicians pledged to terminate both projects if a new opposition coalition comes to power in next year’s parliamentary election.Until recently, that prospect would have seemed remote, given that Orban has retained power in three successive landslide elections and has steadily increased his control over the nation’s media.FILE – On June 11, 2021, leaders of six opposition parties in Hungary — DK, Jobbik, LMP, Momentum, MSZP, and Dialogue — announce the coalition has established common ground and will lay out a governing program in the fall.(Photo courtesy Dialogue for Hungary)But six opposition parties joined forces in an anti-Orban coalition late last year and have been running neck and neck with the prime minister’s Fidesz party FILE – Budapest’s mayor candidate of the center left opposition party Gergely Karacsony addresses the audience after his victory on Oct. 13, 2019.Gergely Karacsony, who defeated a Fidesz-backed candidate to become mayor of Budapest in 2019, was already an outspoken critic of Orban’s outreach to China, which has included a move to block the European Union from criticizing Beijing’s crackdown on individual rights in Hong Kong.”EU cohesion on foreign policy is key to protecting our values and sustaining the EU as a global player. Time and again Viktor Orban sabotages that unity and protects in our Union the interest of autocracies,” Karacsony said in a statement. Hungary’s “next government will break with all that!”Karacsony has already named streets in Budapest after the democracy movement in Hong Kong and in solidarity with victims of the Chinese Communist Party’s oppression in Tibet and Xinjiang.The Budapest mayor has also taken aim at plans for a Fudan University campus in his city, saying it “would put in doubt many of the values that Hungary committed itself to 30 years ago” after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe.Since Orban took office in 2010, Hungary has been widely accused of moving away from democratic principles. Even so, its membership in Western alliances, including the European Union and NATO, and the efforts of opposition parties have kept the Beijing-backed railroad and university project from advancing unchallenged.During a conversation with Orban in April, Xi described the Budapest-Belgrade railroad as the “leading force” for closer ties between the two countries. But critics say the project, first proposed in 2013, is nowhere near completion.The plan for a Fudan campus has also sparked public protests in Budapest, prompting the Orban government to suggest there could be a referendum on the project in the future. Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and an expert on China’s effort to influence foreign governments, told VOA that an opposition victory in Hungary next year would present a setback for Beijing at the EU.”The Hungarian government has been the Chinese government’s most reliable country to draw on repeatedly to prevent statements at the EU level, most recently a criticism of the National Security Law in Hong Kong,” she said in a written interview.Ohlberg added: “Even if the opposition does not do a 180-degree turn on China policy, it will probably be a less ready ally of Beijing’s in Brussels.”
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Plans are under way for Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s funeral.Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph said planning was being done in consultation with first lady Martine Moise and the Moise family. An official government announcement was issued ahead of the press conference to introduce members of the official planning committee.”The council of ministers will oversee the committee’s work. The institutions and public administration will provide all necessary resources in completing this mission. The government should provide members of the committee with everything they need while being respectful of the task at hand,” Joseph said.In addition to himself, Joseph said the committee members include the ministers of defense, culture and communication, and interior; the director of the cabinet (chief of staff); the secretary-general of the presidency; and the director-general of the MUPANAH (Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien).The prime minister called on Haitian citizens to participate in the funeral ceremony and events honoring Moise’s life.”We must bid him farewell with honor and dignity,” Joseph said.He did not specify when the funeral would be held but announced that further details would be forthcoming.FILE – Secretary of State Antony Blinken addresses the press July 1, 2021, in Washington.Political voidMeanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti tweeted a video message from Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the situation in Haiti and the assistance the U.S. is providing in the aftermath of the assassination. The message was posted with both Creole and French translations.”The United States is in close consultations with our Haitian and international partners to support the Haitian people in the aftermath of the assassination of President Moise. We urge the country’s political leaders to bring the country together around a more peaceful and inclusive, peaceful and secure vision and pave the road toward free and fair elections this year,” Blinken said in the video message..FILE – State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks during a media briefing at the State Department, July 7, 2021.State Department spokesman Ned Price told VOA the administration is concerned about Haiti’s institutions and the path to elections.”It’s about Haiti’s institutions. We continue to support the Haitian people and their constitution, knowing that the constitution needs to be an enduring framework for what happens next,” Price said. “And so yes, in our view there needs to be free and fair elections. They need to happen this year — legislative elections, presidential elections — pursuant to the Haitian constitution. And that is precisely why we have continued to support them.”Assassination investigationHaiti’s National police issued three arrest warrants Tuesday for individuals connected to Moise’s assassination. Copies of the documents sent to VOA name the suspects as: Joseph Felix Badio, Rodolf Jaar (aka Dodof) and John Joel Joseph. They are wanted for murder, attempted murder, armed burglary and are described as “armed and dangerous.” The police are seeking the public’s help in locating the individuals.Head of Haitian National Police, Leon Charles, pauses during a news conference in Port-au-Prince, July 12, 2021.Police Chief Leon Charles said police have arrested 18 Colombians and three Haitians in connection with the attack, and that at least five other people were believed to be at large.Police said a Haitian man with ties to the U.S., Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, is believed to be the mastermind behind the assassination plot. Haitian Americans James Solages, 35, and Joseph G. Vincent, 55, are in police custody.State Department spokesman Price said officials are aware that Haitian Americans are in police custody.”We continue to monitor the situation closely. As in all cases, we will provide appropriate consular services to detained U.S. citizens,” Price said. “Obviously, privacy considerations preclude us from saying much more, but I do suspect that once we have had access to all three American citizens who are detained, we’ll be in a position to confirm that.”State Department correspondent Nike Ching and White House bureau chief Steve Herman contributed to this report. 
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The U.S. State Department Tuesday called for “calm” in Cuba after the biggest protests in decades against the island’s communist government roiled the country Sunday. “We call for calm and we condemn any violence against those protesting peacefully, and we equally call on the Cuban government to release anyone detained for peaceful protest,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters during a news briefing. Some 150 protesters have been arrested and, according to Reuters, only 12 have been released. FILE – State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks during a media briefing at the State Department, July 7, 2021.Price added that the U.S. government was considering what it could do to help the thousands of protesters who’ve taken to the country’s streets to protest an economic crisis plaguing the island and the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by its once vaunted health care system. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday that “we’re pulling for the people of Cuba. This has been an outrageous, thuggish regime for some 70 years now.” He added that he didn’t know if the protests were strong enough to “overcome the thugs.” Meanwhile, access to social media platforms remained at least partially restricted Tuesday after the government reportedly shut them down Monday. NetBlocks, a London-based organization, said Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram were among those restricted. Officials in Cuba have not commented on access to platforms on the island. FILE – Cuban President Raul Castro waves at the Gran Teatro in Havana, Cuba, March 22, 2016.In a sign that the Cuban government is concerned about the protests, former head of the Cuban Communist Party Raul Castro attended a meeting of the political bureau to discuss the “provocations,” according to state-run media. Castro stepped down from the position in April and was replaced by Miguel Díaz-Canel. Protests are rare in Cuba, where internal security forces tightly control the population, but economic conditions are causing many to demand changes. “What we want is change,” Yamila Monte, a Cuban domestic worker told AFP. “I have had enough.”  People “are angry because there is no food, because there are problems,” Yudeiky Valverde, a 39-year-old primary school employee, told AFP.  A protester who spoke to the Associated Press but declined to identify himself out of fear of possible arrest said: “We are fed up with the queues, the shortages. That’s why I’m here.”  Maykel, a Havana resident who spoke to Reuters and declined to give his surname, described the situation in Cuba by saying, “It’s becoming impossible to live here.” Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, AFP and Reuters. 
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The Taliban warned Tuesday that if Turkey extends its military presence in Afghanistan the Islamist group will view Turkish troops as “occupiers” and wage “jihad” against them.The warning came amid fresh battlefield moves that critics say show the Taliban are planning a military takeover of Afghanistan in defiance of their peace pledges, raising the prospects of a full-blown civil war.The United States has asked Turkey to secure Kabul’s airport after all American and NATO allied troops withdraw from the country by the end of next month.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday without elaborating that he had agreed with Washington on the “scope” of how to secure and manage the airport.The Taliban condemned the deal as “reprehensible” and demanded Turkey review its decision.“We consider stay of foreign forces in our homeland by any country under whatever pretext as occupation,” the group said in a media release. “The extension of occupation will arouse emotions of resentment and hostility inside our country towards Turkish officials and will damage bilateral ties.”The security and smooth running of the Hamid Karzai international airport in the Afghan capital is crucial for preserving diplomatic missions and foreign organizations operating out of Kabul, where a bomb explosion Tuesday killed at least four people. Hostilities elsewhere in Afghanistan also have escalated to record levels.A blood-stained man rests after he helped people who were injured in a deadly bomb explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 13, 2021.Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Monday evening that Turkey agreed to some points with U.S. counterparts on running the airport.  He said work towards a deal continues.“If the airport does not operate, the countries will have to withdraw their diplomatic missions there,” Akar said.Hundreds of American troops are expected to stay in the Afghan capital, guarding the sprawling U.S. embassy compound there.Taliban forces have dramatically extended their territorial control across Afghanistan by overrunning scores of districts without any resistance since U.S. troops formally started withdrawing from the country in early May.In most cases, government forces either retreated to safety or surrendered to the advancing insurgents.A convoy of Afghan Special Forces is seen during the rescue mission of a police officer besieged at a check post surrounded by Taliban, in Kandahar province, July 13, 2021.The battlefield gains have enabled the Taliban to effectively encircle major Afghan cities, including provincial capitals.In Washington, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby on Monday also voiced concern that the Taliban are planning to militarily take control of the country.“It is clear from what they are doing that they have governance designs certainly of a national scale. It is clear from what they are doing that they believe there is a military solution to the end of this conflict,” Kirby told reporters.“We continue to believe that the most sustainable and the most responsible end and solution to this war is a political one, one through negotiated diplomacy,” Kirby stressed.Afghan authorities have vowed to defend and keep the Taliban from major cities, saying security forces have killed hundreds of insurgents in recent days.Kabul has also protested and criticized regional countries for stepping up their diplomatic engagements with the Taliban in pursuit of a peaceful settlement to the war.“The Taliban delegation is traveling to the regional countries at a time when its brutal attacks have killed more than 3,500 people, displaced more than 200,000 of our compatriots, disrupted public order and life, and economic activities in tens of districts,” ministry said.The Taliban took control of Afghanistan after emerging victorious in the civil war of the 1990s and introduced harsh Islamic laws to govern the conflict-torn country before they were ousted by the U.S.-led foreign invasion in late 2001.The Islamist movement has since been waging a violent insurgency against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.Washington negotiated and signed a troop withdrawal deal with the Taliban in February 2020 in return for security assurances and pledges the insurgents would negotiate a peace arrangement with Afghan rivals for a sustainable peace in the country.However, the slow-moving U.S.-brokered intra-Afghan negotiations, which started in Qatar last September, have failed to produce a peace deal and remain deadlocked. Some information in this report was provided by Reuters.  
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One of the suspects implicated in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise was a DEA informant, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official told VOA in an emailed statement.”At times, one of the suspects in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was a confidential source to the DEA,” the official confirmed. “Following the assassination of President Moïse, the suspect reached out to his contacts at the DEA. A DEA official assigned to Haiti urged the suspect to surrender to local authorities and, along with a U.S. State Department official, provided information to the Haitian government that assisted in the surrender and arrest of the suspect and one other individual.”The DEA official did not identify the suspect.Bocchit Edmond, Haiti’s ambassador to the United States. (Twitter)Haitian Ambassador to the U.S. Bocchit Edmond told reporters last week he had seen video footage obtained by the national police and deemed credible, in which the assassins, whom he described as “mercenaries,” posed as agents of the DEA.”They [were] speaking Spanish and presented themselves as DEA agents. As we well know, this is not the way the DEA operates. I believe they are fake DEA agents. Experts who saw the video said those are professional killers,” Edmond told reporters.”DEA is aware of reports that President Moïse’s assassins yelled ‘DEA’ at the time of their attack,” the Drug Enforcement Agency official said. “These individuals were not acting on behalf of DEA.”Moïse was shot to death at his private residence in a wealthy suburb of Port-au-Prince in the early morning hours of July 7. His wife, Martine Moïse, was seriously wounded in the attack and is in good condition after undergoing surgery in Miami, Florida.Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who took charge shortly after the president’s death, told reporters Sunday he has spoken with the first lady several times.The DEA declined to specify how many of its agents are currently working in Haiti, citing “security” concerns. According to a U.S. Justice Department Inspector General report, the DEA established an office in Haiti in 1987, a year after the coup that removed dictator Jean Claude Duvalier from power.Haiti’s Police General Director Leon Charles speaks during a press conference in Port-au Prince on July 11, 2021.Arrests so farHaitian National Police Chief Leon Charles said police have arrested 18 Colombians and three Haitians in connection with the attack, and that at least five other people were believed to be at large.The three Haitian Americans currently in police custody have been identified as Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, believed to be the assassination plot mastermind, James Solages, 35, and Joseph G. Vincent, 55.Charles said Sanon arrived in Haiti on a private plane in early June with some of the Colombians. He said some of the assailants contacted him by phone shortly after the assassination. Police seized weapons, munitions, a Dominican Republic vehicle registration, two vehicles and documents addressed to various sectors of the population, Charles told reporters.State Department spokesman Ned Price said officials are aware that Haitian Americans are in police custody.”We continue to monitor the situation closely. As in all cases, we will provide appropriate consular services to detained U.S. citizens,” Price said. “Obviously, privacy considerations preclude us from saying much more, but I do suspect that once we have had access to all three American citizens who are detained, we’ll be in a position to confirm that.”FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, meets with Colombia’s Vice President and Foreign Minister, Marta Lucia Ramirez, at the State Department in Washington on May 28, 2021.In New York, Colombia’s Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marta Lucia Ramirez denounced the involvement of Colombian nationals in the Moise assassination after a United Nations Security Council meeting Tuesday.”Let me say that the Colombian government, but also the judiciary system is working with the Judiciary and intelligence from other countries in order to help the Haitian state to identify all the responsibilities in this crime — in this major crime,” Ramirez told reporters, adding that her country is also working with the International Criminal Police Organization, Interpol.”And of course, we are helping Interpol in order to have all the information, the track record about the time when they lived in Colombia, all the information about their communications, everything in order to clarify this horrible crime,” Ramirez said. “Everybody who is involved, everybody who was a physical or intellectual actor of this crime must be punished, and must be punished with an extreme and very high capacity of international justice and the Colombian justice and others.”US delegation in HaitiU.S. President Joe Biden said Monday he dispatched a team to Haiti help with the investigation. The decision was in response to a request from Haiti for help.The delegation consists of officials from the Justice, Homeland Security and State departments and the National Security Council arrived Sunday in Haiti, the White House announced.The FBI told VOA in an emailed statement that it “is currently engaging with the U.S. Embassy in Haiti and our law enforcement partners to determine how we can best support this effort.”In addition to assisting Haitian law enforcement with their own investigation, FBI agents must determine any connections between the plot and Haitian Americans living in the United States, and whether any U.S. laws were violated, said David Gomez, a former FBI special agent and national security expert.The arrests in Haiti of two Haitian Americans, as well as a Haitian-born doctor with ties to the U.S., in connection with the assassination plot gives U.S. prosecutors jurisdiction to investigate the case, Gomez said.He added that investigators will likely look into a possible violation of the Neutrality Act, which prohibits Americans from getting involved in foreign affairs such as trying to overthrow a foreign government.”The United States government wants to determine whether there are any other co-conspirators or people of Haitian American background or any background still in the Miami area who may be party to this conspiracy,” Gomez said.The initial FBI team in Haiti is likely to be made up of a top headquarters official, as well as agents from the Miami Field Office, which maintains liaison offices for South America and the Caribbean, and the legal attaché in charge of Haiti.A spokesperson for the Miami Field Office declined to provide details about the investigative team.Moto-taxi drivers wait their turn to fill their tanks at a gas station, in Port-au-Prince, July 13, 2021, almost a week after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home.Leadership vacuumIn Port-au-Prince, although the interim prime minister has taken charge of Haiti’s political affairs, a leadership vacuum remains. A day before his murder, President Moise named Ariel Henry as the country’s new prime minister. Joseph, who was serving as both prime minister and foreign minister, was to stay on as foreign minister.U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement the U.S. delegation had met with Joseph, Henry and Senate President Joseph Lambert.”The delegation also met with Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph and Prime Minister-Designate Ariel Henry in a joint meeting, as well as Senate President Joseph Lambert, to encourage open and constructive dialogue to reach a political accord that can enable the country to hold free and fair elections,” the statement said.Senator Lambert denounced Joseph on Twitter Monday, for criticizing Henry during the meeting. Je suis indigné. Le Premier Ministre nommé #ArielHenry avoue que le ministre @ClaudeJoseph03 l’a dénoncé devant la délégation américaine. Injures graves, invectives, calomnies et atteinte ont fait le menu. Ah! ces imberbes…— Sénateur Joseph Lambert (@josephlambertHT) July 12, 2021 “I feel insulted. Prime Minister designate #ArielHenry admits that minister @ClaudeJoseph03 denounced him in front of the American delegation,” he tweeted.Joseph has not yet responded to Lambert’s tweet.Asked by VOA who the United States considers to be the leader of Haiti, the State Department and White House declined to comment.State Department spokesman Price told VOA the administration is concerned about Haiti’s institutions and the path to elections.”It’s about Haiti’s institutions. We continue to support the Haitian people and their constitution, knowing that the constitution needs to be an enduring framework for what happens next,” Price said. “And so yes, in our view there need to be free and fair elections. They need to happen this year — legislative elections, presidential elections — pursuant to the Haitian constitution. And that is precisely why we have continued to support them.”Masood Farivar, State Department Correspondent Nike Ching, United Nations Correspondent Margaret Besheer, White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman and , Matiado Vilme, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed to this report.
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Pope Francis has been steadily recovering from the scheduled intestinal surgery he underwent on July 4. The Vatican has not yet provided a date for his release from the Rome hospital where his surgery was performed. His stay has now been extended for a few more days.The Vatican said Tuesday that Pope Francis would leave the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, where he is recovering, “as soon as possible.”
 
In its daily medical update, the Vatican did not provide a date for the pope’s discharge. The statement said that the pope is continuing his planned course of treatment and rehabilitation.
 
The Vatican had originally said Pope Francis would likely be kept in the hospital for a week but has since said he would stay in the hospital for a few more days, thus extending his treatment there.
 
In its statement Tuesday, the Vatican said that among the many patients that Pope Francis has met during these days, he offered special thoughts to those who are bedridden and cannot go home. “May they live this time as an opportunity, even if experienced in pain, to open themselves with tenderness to their sick brother or sister in the next bed, with whom they share the same human frailty,” the statement said.
 
The 84-year-old pontiff was admitted to the hospital on July 4 for what the Vatican said was a planned surgery on his colon needed to treat a form of diverticulitis. The operation is said to have removed half of the pope’s colon.
 
Following the surgery, the Vatican said the pope was recovering well, had gotten out of bed, was walking, greeting other patients and hospital staff and was working. Although he briefly ran a brief fever last week, the Vatican said all scans and tests were normal.
 
On Sunday Pope Francis appeared in good form when he appeared to the public for the first time since his surgery to deliver his weekly address from the balcony of the 10th floor of the hospital.
 
The pontiff said that during his days at the hospital he experienced the importance of having a good health system that is accessible to everyone, such as the one that exists in Italy and in other countries. The pope made a call for free health care for all.
 
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday urged all German residents to get vaccinated if they want to enjoy more freedom.
Merkel made the comments following a visit to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases (RKI) along with RKI President Lothar Wieler and Health Minister Jens Spahn.  
The visit comes as the country has seen an uptick in its COVID-19 infection rate in the past week, from 4.9 people per 100,000 to 6.4. Germany also reported 646 new cases Tuesday, up from 440 a week ago.
At the same time, as of Tuesday, officials say 42.6 percent of German adults have been fully vaccinated and nearly 59 percent have received at least one shot.  However, the vaccination rate has slowed over the past two weeks.  
Merkel said she wants more people to get vaccinated in order to lift remaining COVID-19- related restrictions and avoid the possibility of future lockdowns. She said the more people are vaccinated, “the more freely we will be able to live again.”
She said, “We are at the beginning of the phase in which we are still promoting (vaccination), where we have more vaccines than we have people who want to be vaccinated.”
Germany has relaxed many restrictions on social gatherings in recent months, but people are still required to show negative test results or vaccine certificates to dine indoors and attend indoor events where capacity is limited. Masks are still required in stores.
With the highly contagious delta variant of the virus now the dominant strain in Germany, RKI official say the country will need at least 85 percent of the adult population fully vaccinated.  
Unlike France, which announced Monday plans to make vaccinations mandatory for health care workers and others, Merkel said Germany will not go that route to reach its goals. Recent polls show about 90 percent of the population say they are willing to get vaccinated and the chancellor said encouraging voluntary vaccinations builds more confidence in the process.
Merkel stressed it is also important to maintain social distancing and other measures to prevent infections from spreading, even as more people are vaccinated, and to prevent further restrictions to be imposed.
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