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U.S. President Joe Biden meets virtually Tuesday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, marking Biden’s first bilateral meeting with a foreign leader since taking office last month.The two leaders are set to discuss China, climate change and other issues, according to a Biden administration official who spoke to reporters anonymously, as they try to reset relations that soured during Donald Trump’s four years as U.S. president.The official told reporters that Biden is eager to discuss security threats presented by climate change, the coronavirus, as well as threats posed by China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.In a move that “disappointed” Trudeau, Biden recently blocked the $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline project to pump oil from Canada to the United States by signing a “Buy American” executive order aimed at spending more U.S. funding to bolster domestic manufacturers.White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said “no changes are anticipated” in Biden’s position on the pipeline issue during the meeting.Trudeau plans to show that Canada is realigned with the U.S. on COVID-19, foreign policy, climate change and other issues, according to a Canadian government source who also spoke anonymously before the meeting.It is unclear if Trudeau would again propose that Canada be allowed to buy COVID vaccines from a Pfizer manufacturing facility in the U.S. Midwestern state of Michigan for its struggling vaccination program.Trudeau first raised the issue during a phone conversation last month, Biden’s first with a foreign leader as president. A senior Biden administration official said, however, that Biden is focused on vaccinating people first in the U.S.Canada has frequently been the first stop abroad for a newly elected U.S. president, but COVID-19 has turned the bilateral meeting into a virtual affair.Officials said Biden and Trudeau will deliver remarks to the media before and after their meeting.The Biden administration also said a shared document summarizing collaborations between the two countries on a wide range of issues would likely be disclosed after the meeting. 
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The wife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was arrested in the United States and accused of helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar cartel and plot his audacious escape from a Mexican prison in 2015.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, a 31-year-old former beauty queen, was arrested Monday at Dulles International Airport in Virginia and is expected to appear in federal court in Washington, by video, Tuesday afternoon. She is a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico.
Her arrest is the latest twist in the bloody, multinational saga involving Guzman, the longtime head of the Sinaloa drug cartel. Guzman, whose two dramatic prison escapes in Mexico fed into a legend that he and his family were all but untouchable, was extradited to the United States in 2017 and is serving life in prison.  
And now his wife, with whom he has two young daughters, has been charged with helping him run his criminal empire. In a single-count criminal complaint, Coronel was charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana in the U.S. The Justice Department also accused her of helping her husband escape from a Mexican prison in 2015 and participating in the planning of a second prison escape before Guzman was extradited to the U.S.
 
Coronel was moved to the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia late Monday night and is expected to appear by video conference for her initial court appearance on Tuesday. Her attorney Jeffrey Lichtman declined to comment Monday night.
As Mexico’s most powerful drug lord, Guzman ran a cartel responsible for smuggling mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States during his 25-year reign, prosecutors said in recent court papers. They also said his “army of sicarios,” or “hit men,” was under orders to kidnap, torture and kill anyone who got in his way.
His prison breaks became the stuff of legend and raised serious questions about whether Mexico’s justice system was capable of holding him accountable. In one case, he escaped through an entry under the shower in his cell to a milelong (1.6-kilometer-long) lighted tunnel with a motorcycle on rails. The planning for the escape was extensive, prosecutors say, with his wife playing a key role.
 
Court papers charge that Coronel worked with Guzman’s sons and a witness, who is now
cooperating with the U.S. government, to organize the construction of the underground tunnel that Guzman used to escape from the Altiplano prison to prevent his extradition to the U.S. The plot included purchasing a piece of land near the prison, firearms and an armored truck and smuggling him a GPS watch so they could “pinpoint his exact whereabouts so as to construct the tunnel with an entry point accessible to him,” the court papers say.
Guzman was sentenced to life behind bars in 2019.  
Coronel, who was a beauty queen in her teens, regularly attended Guzman’s trial, even when testimony implicated her in his prison breaks. The two, separated in age by more than 30 years, have been together since at least 2007, and their twin daughters were born in 2011.  
Her father, Ines Coronel Barreras, was arrested in 2013 with one of his sons and several other men in a warehouse with hundreds of pounds of marijuana across the border from Douglas, Arizona. Months earlier, the U.S. Treasury had announced financial sanctions against her father for his alleged drug trafficking.  
After Guzman was rearrested following his escape, Coronel lobbied the Mexican government to improve her husband’s prison conditions. And after he was convicted in 2019, she moved to launch a clothing line in his name.
Mike Vigil, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s former chief of international operations, said Coronel “has been involved in the drug trade since she was a little girl. She knows the inner workings of the Sinaloa cartel.”
He said she could be willing to cooperate.
“She has a huge motivation, and that is her twins,” Vigil said.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday he is very optimistic that all COVID-19 restrictions in England could end June 21.
 
Johnson made the comment as he toured a south London school to talk about his hope to open all schools by March 8, part of the “road map” to lifting restrictions and ending the lockdown he outlined Monday.  
 
Johnson told reporters nothing is guaranteed, and his government will continue to follow the guidance at each stage.
 
But he said because “science has given us this way of creating a whole shield around our population, we can really look at that June 21 date with some optimism.
 
Under the plan Johnson unveiled Monday, some businesses stay shuttered until the summer. Johnson said caution was necessary to ensure there was no reversal on a “one-way road to freedom.”  
 
Johnson said they are also carefully reviewing the idea of vaccine “certificates,” where those who have been fully vaccinated could be given documentation that would allow them to enter entertainment venues, nightclubs or events.  
 
He said senior minister Michael Gove would lead a review to thrash out the “scientific, moral, philosophical, ethical” question of vaccine certificates. He said there are complex “ethical issues about what the role is for government in mandating people to have such a thing,” as it could discriminate against people who, for whatever reason, are unable to get vaccinated.
 
Britain, in two months, has already managed to provide an initial vaccine dose to more than a quarter of the population, the fastest rollout of any big country, making it a worldwide test case for governments hoping to return to normal.
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Mexico received its first batch of Russia’s COVID-19 Sputnik V vaccine, with 200 thousand doses arriving late Monday night.  Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón expressed gratitude to Russian President Vladimir Putin after accepting the shipment at Mexico International Airport, alongside the Russian ambassador to Mexico, Viktor Koronelli, who praised the partnership between the two countries.Arrival of the first batch of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, in Mexico City, Feb. 23, 2021.Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador struck a deal with the Russian leader a few weeks ago to purchase 24 million doses of the Sputnik vaccine to immunize 12 million people.  Mexico joins other Latin American countries, including Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela, in approving the use of the Russian vaccine. Mexico is also expecting deliveries of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca. Authorities are hoping the vaccine can help slow the spread of COVID-19, which has tallied more than 2,043,000 infections and 180,536 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Covid Resource Center. 
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Georgian police raided the main opposition party’s headquarters Tuesday and arrested opposition leader Nika Melia. Authorities accuse Melia, head of the United National Movement party, of organizing “mass violence” during anti-government protests in 2019. Melia says the charges are politically motivated. The U.S. Embassy in Georgia expressed concern about Melia’s detention, saying in a statement Tuesday that Georgia “has moved backward on its path toward becoming a stronger democracy.” “We regret that the call of the United States and other international partners for restraint and dialogue was ignored,” the embassy said. “We are dismayed by the polarizing rhetoric from Georgia’s leadership at a time of crisis. Force and aggression are not the solution to resolving Georgia’s political differences.” The country has seen rounds of protests since parliamentary elections in October that the opposition says were rigged, an allegation the ruling Georgian Dream party denies. Last week, Prime Minister Giorgia Gakharia resigned and said his decision was linked to a disagreement about whether to detain Melia. 
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Brazil’s northwestern state of Acre is under a state of emergency after flooding caused by heavy rains prompted mass evacuations, impacting more than 120,000 people.   The Acre River in the state capital, Rio Branco, has been well above flood stage in recent days, with many streets underwater.  Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro visited the region Sunday and is expected to survey the capital of Acre on Wednesday, where thousands of residents were forced to leave their homes because of the flooding. Governor Gladson Cameli said the flooding in Acre is among the latest crisis facing the the impoverished state bordering Peru, where mostly Haitian migrants are being denied entry into the country from Peru because of COVID-19 restrictions.  Brazil has the highest COVID-19 tally in Latin America, with more than 1,168,000 infections and  246,504 deaths.  The flooding may also worsen the surge in dengue cases in the country.  
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The wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the imprisoned former leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, was arrested Monday over her alleged involvement in international drug trafficking, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Emma Coronel Aispuro, 31, a regular attendee at her husband’s trial two years ago, was arrested at Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia and is expected to appear in a federal court in Washington on Tuesday. A lawyer for Coronel could not immediately be identified. It was unclear why Coronel, a dual U.S.-Mexico citizen, was in the Washington area. Her arrest came two years after a celebrated trial in Brooklyn, New York, where Guzman, now 63, was convicted of trafficking tons of drugs into the United States as Sinaloa’s leader, where prosecutors said he amassed power through killings and wars with rival cartels. FILE – In this photo provided U.S. law enforcement, authorities escort Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at Long Island MacArthur Airport, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., Jan. 19, 2017.He was sentenced in July 2019 to life in prison plus 30 years, which the sentencing judge said reflected his “overwhelmingly evil” actions. He was sent to ADX Florence in Colorado, the nation’s most secure “Supermax” prison. Coronel was charged in a one-count complaint with conspiring to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines for unlawful importation into the United States. Prosecutors said Coronel also conspired to aid her husband in his July 2015 escape from the Altiplano prison in Mexico when he dug a mile-long tunnel from his cell and began plotting a second escape following his capture by Mexican authorities in January 2016. FILE – This photo shows the shower area where authorities claim drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman slipped into a tunnel to escape from his prison cell at the Altiplano maximum security prison, in Almoloya, west of Mexico City, July 15, 2015.U.S. and Mexican efforts to fight drug trafficking had become strained when the Justice Department brought drug charges in October against former Mexican Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos. The Justice Department unexpectedly dropped that case the following month and let Cienfuegos return to Mexico, in a bid to restore trust in the countries’ security ties. Cienfuegos was exonerated two months later when Mexico dropped its own case. Tomas Guevara, an investigator in security issues at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, said Coronel’s arrest might be part of a “pressure strategy” to prompt cooperation from Guzman. A Mexican official familiar with Coronel’s case who asked not to be identified said her arrest appeared to be solely a U.S. initiative and that Coronel was not wanted in Mexico. 
 
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Canada’s parliament passed a nonbinding motion on Monday saying China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region constitutes genocide, putting pressure on Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to follow suit. Canada’s House of Commons voted 266-0 for the motion brought by the opposition Conservative Party. Trudeau and his Cabinet abstained from the vote, although Liberal backbenchers widely backed it. The motion was also amended just before the vote to call on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing if the treatment continues. FILE – Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou exits the court registry following the bail hearing at British Columbia Superior Courts in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dec. 11, 2018.Trudeau’s Conservative rivals have been pressuring him to get tougher on China. After Canada arrested Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in 2018 on a U.S. warrant, China detained two Canadians on spying charges, igniting lingering diplomatic tensions between the two countries. China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in Xinjiang that it describes as “vocational training centers” to stamp out extremism and give people new skills, and which others have called concentration camps. Beijing denies accusations of abuses in Xinjiang. Citing testimony, documents and media reports of human rights abuses against Uighurs, Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong said: “We can no longer ignore this. We must call it for what it is — a genocide.” Trudeau has been reluctant to use the word genocide, suggesting that seeking broad consensus among Western allies on Chinese human rights issues would be the best approach. FILE – Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends a news conference at Rideau Cottage, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Jan. 22, 2021.”Moving forward multilaterally will be the best way to demonstrate the solidarity of Western democracies … that are extremely concerned and dismayed by reports of what’s going on in Xinjiang,” Trudeau said on Friday after speaking to fellow G-7 leaders. Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden will hold a virtual bilateral meeting on Tuesday afternoon, and relations with China are likely to be discussed, a government source said. Former U.S. President Donald Trump, on his last full day in office last month, said China had committed “genocide and crimes against humanity” by repressing Uighur Muslims. The Biden administration is trying to ensure that the genocide declaration is upheld, according to his choice to be ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Cong Peiwu, the Chinese ambassador to Ottawa, denied accusations of genocide. “Western countries are in no position to say what the human rights situation in China looks like,” Cong said in an interview before the vote. “There is no so-called genocide in Xinjiang at all.”  
 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans Monday to begin easing coronavirus lockdown measures, crediting the country’s rapid vaccination program for allowing Britain to begin reopening March 8. “Two weeks from today, students and pupils from all schools and further education settings can safely return to face-to-face teaching. From the 8th of March, people will also be able to meet one person from outside their household for outdoor recreation,” Johnson told lawmakers in Westminster. Since early January, Britain has been subject to one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, with schools and universities closed, social mixing banned, and all nonessential shops and services forced to close. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Goats cross a street during COVID-19 lockdowns, as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues, in Llandudno, Wales, Britain, Feb. 22, 2021.He announced a review of restrictions on international travel in April and suggested the government was looking into providing so-called “vaccine passports.” As the prime minister announced the changes Monday, a raft of scientific data appeared to bolster hopes that coronavirus vaccines will provide the key to bringing the global pandemic under control. A review of early evidence from Scotland’s vaccination program led by Edinburgh University suggested both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are highly effective in preventing hospitalization through COVID-19. A single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine led to an 85% drop in the risk of being hospitalized by COVID-19 after four weeks. For the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine, there was a 94% decline in the risk of hospital admission.  Even among people over 80 years old, there was an overall 80% fall in hospitalization among those who had received their first dose. Scientists have called the results “spectacular.” “Getting over 80% protection from severe disease is very impressive,” Professor Lawrence Young, an expert in infectious diseases at Britain’s University of Warwick, said in an interview with VOA. “The best that we get usually from the annual flu jab is 60%.” AstraZeneca vaccine The AstraZeneca drug is a key pillar of Britain’s vaccination program and is seen as vital in the global rollout of vaccines, as it can be stored at regular refrigerator temperatures, eliminating the need for cold-chain transport and storage. However, some European states have cast doubt on its effectiveness. France, Germany and South Korea are among the countries recommending against giving the AstraZeneca vaccine to people over 65. FILE – An employee at the Dunkirk Hospital Center sets up signs to guide patients arriving for the COVID-19 vaccine, in Dunkirk, France, Feb. 17, 2021.There is anecdotal evidence that some patients are refusing the AstraZeneca dose. “I think there’s no reason now for other countries in Europe and beyond to be in any way concerned about the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine in the elderly population,” said Young. However, early data suggests the AstraZeneca vaccine may not be as effective against the South Africa variant of the coronavirus in preventing mild to moderate disease. Scientists say it may still prevent severe cases. There was further encouraging data Monday from Israel, which has given a first vaccine dose to half its population. Research suggests the Pfizer vaccine not only prevents illness but also stops transmission of the virus, which is seen as vital in bringing the pandemic under control. 
 
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Among those seeing an opportunity for change in Venezuela under the new U.S. administration is Leopoldo López, one of the leaders of the Venezuelan opposition who fled the country in 2020. López now lives in Madrid and sat down for an interview with VOA. Alfonso Beato has more on his interview, in this report narrated by Roderick James. 
Camera: Alfonso Beato, Miguel Angel Trejo
 
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British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says Boeing 777 aircraft with engines like the one that caught fire on a U.S. jet over the weekend will be temporarily banned from Britain.After issues this weekend, Boeing B777s with Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 series engines will be temporarily banned from entering the UK airspace. I will continue to work closely with the @UK_CAA to monitor the situation.— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) February 22, 2021The announcement Monday comes two days after United Airlines Flight 328 suffered the engine failure shortly after leaving Denver International Airport, in Colorado, en route to Honolulu, Hawaii. Large chunks of debris rained onto the neighboring town of Broomfield, Colorado, falling into yards, fields and onto homes. No injuries were reported on the ground or on the flight, which had about 240 people on board. The pilot was able to return safely to Denver.The aircraft was powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engines. United Will Temporarily Stop Flying Some Boeing 777 Planes After Engine FailureThe announcement came after the Federal Aviation Administration said it would require stepped-up inspections of 777 aircraft with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 series engines after the right engine failure on United Flight 328According to the British Civil Aviation Authority, British airlines do not operate aircraft with such engines. Foreign airlines that do operate such aircraft will not be allowed to enter British airspace for the time being.“After the Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engine incident on a Boeing 777 aircraft, we have suspended this configuration’s use in U.K. airspace,” the CAA said in a statement. “It is not used by any U.K. airlines. It is operated by airlines in the USA, Japan and South Korea where authorities have also stopped its use.”United also announced it is “voluntarily and temporarily” grounding 24 Boeing 777 aircraft. “We will continue to work closely with regulators to determine any additional steps,” the airline said on Twitter.The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said, “The initial examination of the airplane indicated most of the damage was confined to the number 2 engine; the airplane sustained minor damage. The examination and documentation of the airplane is ongoing.” The NTSB also says the cockpit voice and flight data recorders have been taken to its laboratory in Washington for analysis.The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, also called for “stepped-up inspections” of Boeing 777 airplanes equipped with certain Pratt & Whitney engines.
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Brazil has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and tens of thousands of people are listed as missing – many of them at the hands of drug traffickers and other armed groups.  Families say they often get little help from police, and many are turning to the Internet and social media apps to find their loved ones. For VOA, Edgar Maciel reports from Sao Paulo.Camera: Edgar Maciel
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Can Europe’s former central banker Mario Draghi, and now Italy’s new prime minister, do whatever it takes to save the country? Last week, the former European Central Bank governor Draghi was sworn in as Italy’s new prime minister as head of a unity government following the collapse of the previous governing coalition last month.Draghi, who has the backing of all of Italy’s main parties, except for a far-right one, managed to guide Europe through a sovereign debt and bond crisis ten years ago by buying up sovereign debit and reassuring the markets with a pledge to do whatever it took to save the embattled euro.But Draghi, who the Italian press nickname “Super Mario,” will need all his famed political savvy and diplomatic skill to accomplish what his predecessors failed to pull off — shake the country out of a dangerous economic malaise, say analysts.He has entered office in a position of strength: he has the support of a broad coalition that should be able to maneuver legislation through Italy’s notoriously fractious parliament with ease. He has high approval ratings in the opinion polls and he has an estimated $242 billion in grants and loans from the European Commission to spend on post-pandemic economic recovery. Divisions over how to spend that money was the immediate cause of the collapse of the previous squabbling government. Italian stocks soared with Draghi’s arrival into power and Italy’s borrowing costs on the open bond market have fallen with investors much happier to lend to a country with “Super Mario” at the helm. And the 73-year-old Draghi made a well-received emotional appeal in his maiden speech as prime minister last week, saying, “Unity is not an option, unity is a duty. But it is a duty guided by what I am sure unites us all: love for Italy.”His cabinet, too, which features a sprinkling of respected technocrats among the politicians, including Daniele Franco from Italy’s central bank as the new finance minister, has also been praised. Matteo Renzi, a former center-left prime minister who triggered the political crisis that led to Draghi’s appointment, says the cabinet is “of a high level.”But Draghi inherits an economy in collapse.  Italy’s Draghi Urges Unity, Sacrifice in Fighting the Virus Draghi vowed an environmentally conscious and digitally reformed government program in a 50-minute speech before the Senate, which came ahead of a mandatory confidence vote later in the dayTroubles predate COVIDWhen the pandemic struck last year Italy still had not recovered from the 2008 global financial crash. In 2019, economic output grew by an anemic 0.3% over the previous year. Unemployment — especially among the young — has remained stubbornly high, the country’s bureaucracy is hidebound and layers of regulations discourage the opening of new businesses, say analysts and economists. Firing is difficult in Italy, deterring employers from taking on new staff, encouraging them to rely instead on short-term contracted workers, who enjoy few, if any, benefits.But before Draghi can grapple with the economic challenges the country faces, his government still has to suppress the coronavirus pandemic and to get a sluggish inoculation campaign moving much faster. It was exactly a year ago that two of Italy’s most productive and wealthiest regions started to lock down and one of Draghi’s first duties this week was to announce the government needed to extend a ban on people traveling between regions until late March because coronavirus cases in Italy are rising again. The surge in cases is in large part due to the rapid transmission of the more infectious British variant, which is likely to become the dominant strain in the country, say epidemiologists. Despite the jump in cases, frustrated Italians ignored official appeals to stay home and went out Sunday to enjoy the emergence of mild weather with crowds milling in streets and parks and gathering at seafronts in several cities. As of Sunday, Italy had registered 95,718 coronavirus deaths from 2.9 million cases. “I’m worried,” Massimo Galli, a specialist at the Sacco de Milan hospital, told Il Messaggero newspaper. “To be honest, all the data is going in the direction of a rise in new cases,” he said.The longer the pandemic lasts, the more economic damage piles up, making Draghi’s job even more daunting. The question, say analysts, is whether Italians will remain patient, not only with pandemic curbs and restrictions but with “Super Mario.” Marco Valli, an economist at Italy’s Unicredit Bank, says politicians know what reforms are needed to boost productivity and economic growth. “The question is, Will Draghi be able to fast-track the badly needed ones?” he asks.Draghi is not the first technocrat asked to dig Italy out of its economic hole — nor is he the first to be feted on arrival. In 2011, the respected economist and former EU commissioner Mario Monti was picked to head a largely technocratic government as yields on Italian government bonds soared and the country’s borrowing costs sky-rocketed, prompting fears Italy would join Greece in economic collapse. Monti managed to steady the country and introduced reforms, cutting public sector costs and slashing pensions. But his government lasted 18 months and many of the reforms he introduced were subsequently reversed. Draghi has promised to overhaul Italy’s byzantine tax system, to help boost female employment and to reform public administration. And much of his focus, he says, will be on structural reform  and making Italy’s economy much greener and more sustainable — that has earned praise in Brussels. But how long political unity lasts is open to questions, say analysts. An ominous sign came last week when a fifth of the lawmakers of Italy’s hybrid anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which is part of the new governing coalition, withheld approving his appointment.
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Two South African medics are swapping their medical gear for oars as they train for a risky 4,000-kilometer (2,500-mile) journey by rowboat through the Arctic Northwest Passage.  If the 14-member team finishes the trip, across the north of Canada to Alaska, they will make history as all attempts to row the icy waters have failed. Franco Puglisi reports from Johannesburg. Camera: Franco Puglisi 
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European markets were in a slump Monday as impatience appeared to be growing among investors with the slow introduction of new COVID-19 vaccines and the slow pace of economic stimulus legislation in the United States.Britain’s benchmark FTSE index was down 0.7% at midday. The CAC 40 in France was 0.4% lower, and Germany’s DAX index was down 0.6%.  Markets in Australia and Asia ended mostly lower earlier Monday. Australia’s S&P/ASX index dropped 0.1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell just over one percent, while Shanghai’s Composite index plunged 1.4%. South Korea’s KOSPI lost 0.9%, and Mumbai’s Sensex sank 2.2%.  Asian Markets Mixed Amid Uncertainty Over Direction of Global Economy  Gold, oil trading higher, US markets trading lower in futures markets   Japan’s benchmark Nikkei and Taiwan’s TSEC index both closed up 0.4%.In commodities trading, gold wa selling at $1,792.40, up 0.8%. U.S. crude oil was selling at $59.86 per barrel, up just over one percent, and Brent crude was selling at $63.38, up 0.7%.   All three U.S. indices were trending negatively in futures trading ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street.  
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has denounced the military coup in Myanmar and demanded an immediate return to democratic rule.  Guterres condemned Myanmar’s repressive actions in his opening address to the 46th session of the UN Human rights Council. Guterres departed from his lengthy speech on COVID-19 related violations to blast Myanmar’s military for its takeover of the country’s democratically elected government.  “We see the undermining of democracy, the use of brutal force, arbitrary arrests, repression in all its manifestations,” Guterres said. “Restrictions of civic space.  Attacks on civil society.  Serious violations against minorities with no accountability, including what has rightly been called ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya population.  The list goes on.”EU to Impose Sanctions on Myanmar   US Secretary of State to join foreign ministers meeting in Brussels via videoconference   Guterres said coups have no place in our modern world.  He praised the Human Rights Council for its recent and timely focus on this critical situation. The council held an emergency session on the Myanmar crisis on February 12 and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all detained people, including the country’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.Over the coming month, the council will examine the human rights records of Myanmar and many other countries accused of gross violations of human rights.   The council will focus on ways in which COVID-19 has accelerated inequalities, setback progress on poverty reduction and deepened discrimination and racism.Guterres said the pandemic has triggered a vicious circle of violations.  He said unscrupulous leaders are using COVID-19 as a pretext to entrench their power and criminalize fundamental freedoms.  He said the virus has spurred resurgent neo-Nazism and white supremacist movements, as well as racially and ethnically motivated terrorism.”The danger of these hate-driven movements is growing by the day.  Let us call them what they are,” Guterres said. “White supremacy and neo-Nazi movements are more than domestic terror threats.  They are becoming a transnational threat.  These and other groups have exploited the pandemic to boost their ranks through social polarization and political and cultural manipulation.”   UN Chief Guterres warned these extremist movements represented the number one internal security threat in several countries.  He said global coordinated action was needed to defeat this grave and growing danger.He noted similar global coordinated action was needed to defeat the pandemic, which has killed millions of people and ruined many more lives.
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Leaders as far away as Canada and Western Europe are sending navy ships to the contested South China Sea this year as pushback against Beijing, which they feel has gone too far and begun alarming their citizens, analysts in the region say. French Defense Minister Florence Parly said in early February that France had dispatched an attack submarine to the sea this month. A British defense official said last month the U.K.’s flagship aircraft carrier strike group was ready to enter the waterway. A Royal Canadian Navy warship sailed near the sea in January with a passage through the Taiwan Strait on its way to join exercises nearby with Australian, Japanese and U.S. navies.The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) transits the Taiwan Strait, Nov. 12, 2019, in this photo made available by U.S. Navy.These Western countries claim no sovereignty over the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea, which lies more than a continent away from their own territorial waters. But they want to support the United States in resisting unilateral expansion by China, which has sparred with former European colonies and alarmed people in Western countries, scholars say. “I think there’s pretty much unanimity in terms of the French, the Dutch, the U.K. and other countries that what we’re seeing from China is an attempt to revise the order so that power, not a rules-based approach to the region, is the way the region will be governed or managed going forward,” said Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo.  Western countries would resent that management of the sea if it goes against their former colonies or current economic interests in Asia such as access to the sea’s busy cargo shipping lanes, analysts add.  The U.K., for example, is bound by its 1971 Five Power Defense Arrangements to help defend former protectorate Malaysia. Malaysia disputes part of the Chinese claim to about 90% of the South China Sea. The sea stretches from Hong Kong south to the island of Borneo.   British Prime Minister Boris Johnson eventually wants his country to take a stronger role in Asia due to economic and trade links in the region, University of New South Wales Emeritus Professor Carl Thayer said in an e-mailed briefing on Monday. Former French colony Vietnam contests China’s maritime claim including the sea’s Paracel Islands. China controls the Paracel chain today. France still maintains “cultural” and “economic” ties with its former Southeast Asian colonies, Nagy said.FILE – A Vietnamese sinking boat (L) which was rammed and then sunk by Chinese vessels near disputed Paracels Islands, is seen near a Marine Guard ship (R) at Ly Son island of Vietnam’s central Quang Ngai province.A Chinese survey vessel entered into standoffs in April 2020 with Malaysia and Vietnam. All three countries drill aggressively for oil and value the sea’s 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves estimated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.   French armed forces Minister Florence Parly tweeted on February 9 that the submarine made its voyage to “enrich our knowledge of this area and affirm that international law is the only rule that is valid, regardless of the sea where we sail.”  It further showed “striking proof of the capacity of our French Navy to deploy far away and for a long time in connection with our Australian, American and Japanese strategic partners,” she said.   Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan dispute parts of the sea too. Asian governments prize the waterway for its fisheries and undersea fossil fuel reserves. China has taken a lead in the dispute over the past decade by landfilling some of the tiny islets for military infrastructure. Western countries with no claims in the sea have passed ships through as far back as the 1970s as the sovereignty dispute first came into focus. China cites historic usage records to back its activity in the sea despite a 2016 world arbitration court ruling that negated a legal basis for its claims.   Canada, Australia and Western European countries send ships as well to show support for the United States, which has dispatched destroyers to the sea twice this month following regular sailings in 2020, experts believe.  In France’s case, “they just might have notified the U.S. side, and that would be equal to using the submarine passage to indicate indirect support for the United States,” said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei.  Citizens of countries far from Asia would support their missions in the Asian sea because they began paying more attention last year to China as the source of COVID-19, Nagy said. They’re noticing Chinese pressure on India and Taiwan as well as the militarily weaker South China Sea claimants, he said.   Western leaders hope to “create leverage” against China, said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.    “One way of reading leverage is to ensure that Beijing takes European values and principles of sustaining free and open transit through international waters seriously,” Chong said.   
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Conservationists in Cyprus are urging authorities to expand a hunting ban throughout a coastal salt lake network amid concerns that migrating flamingos could potentially swallow lethal quantities of lead shotgun pellets.Martin Hellicar, director of Birdlife Cyprus, said flamingos are at risk of ingesting the tiny pellets lying on the lakebed as they feed. Like other birds, flamingos swallow small pebbles to aid digestion, but can’t distinguish between pebbles and the lead pellets.”Last year, we had tens of losses of flamingos,” Hellicar said.  Cyprus is a key stop on the migration path for many types of birds flying from Africa to Europe. The Larnaca Salt Lake, a wetlands network of four lakes, typically welcomes as many as 15,000 flamingos from colder climates to the southern coast of the island nation in the eastern Mediterranean. They stay through the winter and leave in March. Other waterfowl frequenting the lake include ducks, waders and seagulls.Hunting is banned around most of the salt lake, but hunters are still allowed to shoot ducks in the network’s southern tip.The government’s Game and Fauna Service says in the first two months of last year, 96 flamingos were found dead in the Larnaca Salt Lake wetlands as a result of lead poisoning. Cyprus Veterinary Services official Panayiotis Constantinou, who has conducted autopsies on flamingos, said lead from the pellets poisoned the birds.  The high number of deaths is mainly attributed to heavy winter rain two years ago that stirred up the lake sediment and dislodged embedded lead shot.  A sport shooting range near the lake’s northern tip closed nearly 18 years ago and authorities organized a cleanup of lead pellets in the lakebed there.But Hellicar says the cleanup was apparently incomplete. A European Union-funded study is under way to identify where significant amounts of lead pellets remain so they can be removed. Preliminary results of the study showed very high lead levels in the wetland’s southern tip and continued duck hunting there could compound the problem, Hellicar said.  “The problem is pronounced,” he said. “The danger is real for the flamingos and other birds that use the area.”  Cyprus Hunting Federation official Alexandros Loizides disagrees, saying that hunting in a 200-meter northern swath is not a problem because of the limited number of hunters. He said he’s unaware of any flamingo deaths in the area and faults pesticide and fertilizer runoff from nearby farms for creating any pollution problems hurting wildlife.  “I think the effect of hunting there is very small on the specific part of the lake,” Loizides said. “It’d be a shame for hunters to lose the only area where hunting is permitted near wetlands.”  A ban on the use of lead pellets near wetlands has been in force in Cyprus for several years. A similar, EU-wide ban took effect last month, but conservationists believe the laws are not being enforced enough.Pantelis Hadjiyerou, head of the Game and Fauna Service, said it’s less important to ban hunting in the area than to persuade hunters to stop using shells with lead pellets.  “It should be drummed into people that the use of lead pellets is prohibited near wetlands and that only steel pellets are permitted,” Hadjiyerou told The Associated Press.
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Britain’s departure from the European Union, following months of negotiations, has affected trade in many industries; but fishing has been hit particularly hard by the break known as “Brexit.” VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports that some in the business fear for their futures due to an EU ban on the export of live shellfish from Britain.
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Leftist economist Andres Arauz will face conservative Guillermo Lasso in the upcoming second round of Ecuador’s presidential election, officials said Sunday, in a vote marred by fraud allegations and taking place amid a worsening economic crisis.Thirty-six-year-old Arauz won the first round with 32.72 percent of the vote — not enough to win outright.His opponent in the second round will be ex-banker Lasso, who took 19.74 percent to beat left-wing indigenous leader Yaku Perez’ 19.39 percent, according to the final results of the February 7 poll.The runoff will take place on April 11, after the first round results were approved by four out of the five members of the National Electoral Council (CNE) at a meeting that lasted into the early hours of Sunday morning.Perez, a 51-year-old environmental lawyer, had formally submitted a request for a recount in 17 of the country’s 24 provinces, which was suspended on Wednesday.He has alleged there was fraud to keep him out of the run-off after he was narrowly displaced by Lasso from second to third place in the middle of the count.Perez could still mount a legal challenge against the official results.”Today democracy has triumphed, we are going with courage and optimism to this second round,” Lasso said in a statement following the announcement.Incumbent President Lenin Moreno, whose term in office ends on May 24, did not seek reelection.Ideological battleArauz is the protégé of Rafael Correa, a leftist two-time former president currently living in Belgium to evade a conviction for corruption and who remains an influential force in the country.Esteban Nichols, a political scientist at Quito’s Simon Bolivar Andean University, told AFP that Arauz had retained his mentor’s electoral base.”He himself is not the one generating the votes,” he said. “People voted for Correa.”The first round result, he added, sets the scene not just for a battle between left and right, but for a “fight between Correism and anti-Correism.”To win, Lasso will have to “seek alliances with antagonists” — such as supporters of Perez.Running in his third presidential race, free market advocate Lasso has promised to create a million jobs in a year.He would likely stick to the austerity policies adopted by Moreno, who had to rein in spending in exchange for International Monetary Fund loans to bolster the oil-producing country’s faltering dollar-based economy.Ecuador has been mired in debt since the profits of an oil boom during Correa’s presidency dried up under Moreno as the global price of crude crashed.National debt rose from 26 percent of GDP to 44 percent during Moreno’s term.The coronavirus pandemic has increased the pressure on the economy, with some $6.4 billion in losses attributed directly to the health crisis, according to government data. 
 
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Britain’s royal family is bracing for a March 7 airing of an American television interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, widely referred to as Harry and Meghan, amid reports that the content is explosive and will make for uncomfortable viewing for the British monarch and senior royals.   The interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey was taped in California, a day before Buckingham Palace announced that the couple have decided not to return to the royal fold. They will continue to live independently in the United States, where they have struck lucrative deals to produce programming for both Netflix and Spotify and launched their own non-profit foundation.   CBS television insiders say the interview will likely widen the gulf between the couple and the royal household. And they warn it will likely go down as the most notorious interview featuring a member of Britain’s storied royal family since Harry’s mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, gave her side of the story in 1995 about the collapse of her marriage to Prince Charles.  It was during the 1995 interview that Diana explained that her husband had maintained an affair with a previous paramour soon after their wedding. “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” she said. She also admitted to having affairs herself because of loneliness and the betrayal.   FILE – Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are pictured in this undated handout photo supplied to Reuters, following an announcement that they are expecting their second child.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who is pregnant with their second child, decided a year ago to walk away from their roles as working members of the royal family for a trial period, saying they wanted freedom to pursue their own projects and were aiming to become financially independent, something they have accomplished rapidly.  The pair, who chafed at the strictures of royal life, said they did not desire a complete severing of ties but were hoping for a bespoke half-in-half-out arrangement with Harry maintaining royal patronages and keeping his honorary military titles, including as captain-general of Britain’s Royal Marines. The titles are bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II. FILE – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, pose for a picture at in London, Britain, June 26, 2018. (John Stillwell/Pool via Reuters)Last week, the couple and Buckingham Palace, which was never happy with the bespoke arrangement, reviewed the trial separation and confirmed Friday that Harry and Meghan won’t be returning to royal duties, a decision that makes final the couple’s split from the royal family.  It was also announced that Harry will be giving up his honorary military titles, which friends of the couple say has infuriated him. The statements about finalizing what has become known as Megxit were official in tone, but they also indicated the couple and Buckingham Palace are far apart and that the rift is likely to grow.  “Some will say the Sussexes have just stamped their feet again after they didn’t get what they wanted,” according to the royal correspondent of Britain’s Sky News, Rhiannon Mills. “Others will criticize the royal firm for being too traditional, too old-fashioned and unwilling to work on a compromise with the couple. One thing it has done, which neither side would want, is ramp up the stories of a rift, which will potentially be stoked further by their interview with Oprah,” she added. According to royal reporters, Harry and Meghan did not inform Buckingham Palace that they were taping a television interview while negotiations between the couple and the royal household were ongoing — an omission that has added to alarm. Britain’s “red-top” tabloid newspapers lost no time pivoting Sunday from the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit to Megxit. “Have they no respect?” screamed the front page of Saturday’s Daily Mail. The paper made much of the fact that the final break between the couple and Buckingham Palace coincided with the ill health of Prince Philip, who was admitted to the hospital last week.  FILE – Britain’s Prince Harry (L) and Meghan (2nd R) follow Prince William (C), and Catherine (R) as they depart Westminster Abbey after attending the annual Commonwealth Service in London, March 9, 2020.The Sun reported that Harry’s brother, Prince William, was left “really sad and genuinely shocked” over his brother Harry and Meghan’s “petulant” response to the queen as they officially quit the royal family. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Buckingham Palace lightly dueled in their statements about the meaning of public service. But it is the timing of the Sussexes’ interview with Oprah Winfrey that is prompting worry in Buckingham Palace with courtiers fearful about what the couple will say and how that will rebound on Britain’s 94-year-old monarch. “We don’t need to hear any more from them now,” a palace official told Britain’s The Sunday Times. Harry is sixth in line to Britain’s throne. FILE – Guardsmen escort the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales draped in the Royal Standard, as the cortege passes through crowds gathered along Whitehall.The collapse of his parents’ marriage became ensnared in a media frenzy with the tabloids adding insult to injury as much as they could. Both Charles and Diana, and their staffs, were drawn in, leaking against each other to try to manipulate the press coverage of their tumultuous separation and bitter divorce, say royal commentators.  And that appears to be happening again with households and staffs briefing against each other.  Some of the couple’s friends are worried that the interview with Oprah Winfrey may end up damaging Harry and Meghan. Royal interviews have often backfired. In 2019, the Duke of York, commonly known as Prince Andrew, gave an interview explaining his friendship with the late pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. He thought the encounter had gone well but it resulted in him having to withdraw from public life.  Diana also later said she “deeply regretted” her 1995 interview. The couple’s bid to define a celebrity role for themselves sits badly with the royal family. Palace insiders fear an unleashed “brand Sussex” could eclipse Prince Charles and Prince William. One of the royal family’s uppermost fears is that Harry and Meghan will become increasingly outspoken now they are unmoored from the royal household risking blowback on the British monarchy, “Royals have to act differently from celebrities in order to ensure the standing and longevity of the institution, which relies on public goodwill to survive,” a palace official told VOA recently.  
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COVID-19’s impact on efforts to combat gross human rights violations will be a major focus of the 46th regular session of the U.N. Human Rights Council. The four-week session, which starts Monday in Geneva, will be held virtually because of the pandemic.  It will kick off with a three-day high-level segment when nine heads of state and other dignitaries from more than 130 countries will address the U.N. Human Rights Council by video.     U.N. officials say the vast majority of their statements are expected to focus on COVID-19.  The pandemic also will be the theme of a special panel discussion Monday on the fight against racism and discrimination and its exacerbating effects on these efforts.   Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth says the council should examine how various governments have used the pandemic as a pretext to entrench their power by cracking down on the opposition.   He cites the example of Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who seized power for a while to rule by decree without parliamentary legislation. ”Another example was the recent elections in Uganda, where President [Yoweri] Musevani used the pandemic as a pretext to preclude campaigning by his main opponent, Bobi Wine,” he said. “The repeated use of deadly violence, the arrest of people, the repeated arrest, the national beating of Bobi Wine.  You know, many of this just using the pandemic as pretext.”   Special panel discussions will be devoted to issues such as the death penalty, children’s rights, and the rights of people with disabilities.  The human rights records of numerous countries will come under council scrutiny.   A scathing report by U.N. Human Rights chief Michele Bachelet on Sri Lanka’s failure to address past violations and impunity for grave human rights violations will be reviewed.   Other highlights include the examination of Myanmar’s military coup, and continuing violations in countries such as Belarus, Venezuela, Iran, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and North Korea.  The list is long.   U.N. and human rights activists welcome U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to rejoin the council, nearly three years after former President Donald Trump’s administration quit the body.    They say they hope the U.S. will use its muscle on the world stage to promote universal fundamental freedoms and the rule of law. 
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A 95-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard was deported from the United States and arrived Saturday in his native Germany, where he was being held by police for questioning, authorities said.The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said in a statement that Friedrich Karl Berger, a German citizen, was sent back to Germany for serving as a guard of a Neuengamme concentration camp subcamp in 1945. The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice.German authorities confirmed Berger arrived Saturday at Frankfurt and was handed over to Hesse state investigators for questioning, the dpa news agency reported.Berger was ordered expelled by a Memphis, Tennessee, court in February 2020.German prosecutors in the city of Celle investigated the possibility of bringing charges against him, but said in December that they had shelved the probe because they had been unable to refute his own account of his service at Neuengamme.Berger admitted to U.S. authorities that he served as a guard at a camp in northwestern Germany, which was a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, for a few weeks near the end of the war but said he did not observe any abuse or killings, Celle prosecutors said.Celle prosecutors asked for him to be questioned again upon his return to Germany, however, to determine whether accessory to murder charges could be brought, police said.In recent years, German prosecutors have successfully argued that by helping a death camp or concentration camp function, guards can be found guilty of accessory to murder even if there is no evidence of them participating in a specific killing.According to an ICE statement, Berger served at the subcamp near Meppen, Germany, where prisoners — Russian, Polish, Dutch, Jewish and others — were held in “atrocious” conditions and were worked “to the point of exhaustion and death.”Berger admitted that he guarded prisoners to prevent them from escaping. He also accompanied prisoners on the forced evacuation of the camp that resulted in the deaths of 70 prisoners.Berger has been living in the U.S. since 1959.
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Feeling frustrated and stressed out? Brazilians now have a place to vent their anger and fury in the newly opened “Rage Room.”Inside a warehouse on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, people are able to swing giant hammers at old televisions, computers and printers, demolishing the machines and shattering the glass into tiny pieces.Vanderlei Rodrigues, 42, who opened the business a month ago in Cidade Tiradentes, said he had received a fair number of customers wanting to vent, especially during the pandemic.”I think it was the best moment to be able to set this up here in Cidade Tiradentes, related to everything that people are going through, a lot of anxiety, stress,” he said. The “Rage Room” experience costs $4.64.Wearing protective suits and helmets, participants write issues that bother them on the walls — “ex-girlfriends,” “ex-husbands,” “corruption” and “work.” These words become the targets of their anger.Alexandre de Carvalho, 40, who works in advertising and drives two hours back and forth to work, said with worries about health because of the pandemic, “it’s great to come here and release some adrenaline and pent-up feelings.”Luciana Holanda walks in front of the Rage Room, a place where people can vent their anger on everyday items, such as bottles, broken TV sets and other electronic devices, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Feb. 19, 2021. Sign reads: “Come break everything.”Luciana Holanda, 35, an unemployed mother of two daughters, said that “with all this accumulated stress, being a mother, having children and not being able to work … it is very good to be able to release some stress and vent. “I am not going to vent my frustrations on my daughters or on anyone, so I really prefer to break things. I love it.”  
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