RIYADMEDIA

European Union leaders on Thursday offered new incentives to Turkey to improve cooperation on migration and trade despite democratic backsliding in the country and lingering concerns about its energy ambitions in the Mediterranean Sea.Seizing on the recent conciliatory tone from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leaders said, should the relative calm continue, “the European Union is ready to engage with Turkey in a phased, proportionate and reversible manner to enhance cooperation in a number of areas of common interest.”This includes “a mandate for the modernization” of customs arrangements, the future launch of “high level dialogues” on issues like the pandemic, climate change, counterterrorism and regional issues, and strengthened cooperation “on people-to-people contacts and mobility.”The “customs union” agreement between the EU and Turkey removed duties on most Turkish goods and produce entering the 27-nation bloc but has not functioned as well as the government in Ankara would like.FILE – Migrants on a dinghy are approached by a Greek coast guard boat near the port of Thermi, as they crossed part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the island of Lesbos, Greece, March 1, 2020.The leaders also ordered the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, to build on the EU-Turkey migrant agreement from 2016 and explore ways to continue to help finance the estimated 4 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, as well as those in Jordan and Lebanon.That deal massively reduced migrant arrivals into the Greek islands, compared with 2015 when hundreds of thousands of people landed on European shores. Under it, the EU offered Ankara 6 billion euros ($7.1 billion) to help Syrian refugees and other incentives to prevent people from leaving Turkey to go to Europe.The EU believes the deal saved countless lives, stopped most people from trying to cross the Aegean Sea to Greek islands like Lesbos and Samos, and improved life for refugees in Turkey. It wants to use the agreement as a model for similar arrangements with countries in North Africa.But aid groups say the pact created open-air prisons where thousands have languished in squalid conditions on the Greek islands while others were blocked in Turkey.The agreement ground to a standstill a year ago as the coronavirus spread and after Turkey encouraged thousands of migrants to leave, sparking clashes at the Greek border. Still, the EU is desperate for Turkey’s help to keep migration in check, and in December extended two programs for Syrian refugees in Turkey worth almost half a billion euros (nearly $600 million) over a year.But amid the offers, the leaders did warn that provocations by Turkey will prompt the EU to “use the instruments and options at its disposal to defend its interests and those of its member states, as well as to uphold regional stability.”FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Charles Michel, center, participate in a video meeting with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, March 19, 2021The EU leaders said they will assess progress again on EU-Turkey ties when they meet in June.EU diplomats said before their videoconference summit that the leaders wanted to take advantage of a lull in tensions between Greece, Cyprus and Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean and to avoid any threats or sanctions that could undermine a new peace effort for divided Cyprus.Periods of calm in EU-Turkey relations have quickly come and gone, and worrying trends concerning human and political rights in Turkey have continued.Over the weekend, Erdogan ended his nation’s participation in the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention aimed at preventing violence against women. The move was a blow to Turkey’s women’s rights movement, which says domestic violence and femicide are on the rise.Last week, the EU criticized Turkish authorities for stripping a prominent pro-Kurdish legislator of his parliamentary seat and seeking to shut down his political party.
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Denmark health officials Thursday announced they were extending their suspension of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for another three weeks to allow for more time for safety tests in connection to a fatal blood clot in a vaccine recipient.
 
The ruling comes as Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the World Health Organization (WHO) each pronounced the vaccine safe and effective.  
 
Denmark suspended administering the vaccine March 11 after reports that a 60-year-old Danish woman died from blood clots after receiving the vaccine. Several other European nations followed suit.
 
At a news conference in Copenhagen, Tanja Lund Erichsen of the Danish Medicines Agency agreed with the decision.
 
“From a pharmacological perspective, the vaccine is still a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19.” But it cannot be ruled out that there is a connection between the vaccine and a very rare form of blood clotting.
 
Both the EMA and WHO made similar comments last week but felt the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks. Danish Health Authority Director General Soeren Brostroem told reporters they may decide to end the suspension sooner, depending on the ”ongoing assessment.”
 
Denmark’s decision comes as AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford released updated information about its effectiveness. The new information, based on its late-stage clinical trial involving more than 30,000 participants in the United States, shows the two-dose regimen is 76% effective in preventing symptomatic coronavirus.  
 
The latest release revises an announcement the British-Swedish company made Monday the vaccine was 79% effective against the virus. Those claims were questioned hours later by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Data and Safety Monitoring Board that AstraZeneca “may have included outdated information” from the late-stage clinical trial, “which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.”
 
Along with the European countries, South Africa stopped using the AstraZeneca shot due to concerns about its efficacy against a local variant of the virus. The country sold at least a million of its AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to the African Union.  
 
Canada’s federal health agency announced Wednesday that it is updating the label on vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine with information about  “very rare reports of blood clots,” but continued to stand by the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness against COVID-19.   
The AstraZeneca vaccine has been the leading choice in the developing world because of its low cost and simple storage requirements.
 
The latest twist in the AstraZeneca vaccine saga comes as the United States and Brazil reach new milestones in the yearlong pandemic.  According to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, the U.S. has now surpassed 30 million total cases, the most of any nation, while Brazil has gone beyond the 300,000 fatality mark.
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Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny is in poor health, according to one of his lawyers. The lawyer said Navalny is suffering back pain and has virtually lost the use of one of his legs.
Lawyer Olga Mikhailova said Navalny, 44, received an MRI scan but had not been given the results.
 
“In my opinion, he is in bad shape healthwise because he is experiencing severe pain in his back and in his right leg,” she said on TV Rain, according to Reuters. “One of his legs practically doesn’t work.”
 
She added that pleas for Navalny to be given necessary medicine were ignored for four weeks.
 
Russian authorities said Navalny was in “satisfactory” condition, according to the French news agency.
 
Navalny allies are asking for proof of his health after reports that his lawyers were denied access to him.
 
Navalny was sentenced to two-and-a half-years in prison in February on an embezzlement charge.
 
He is being held at the Pokrov correctional colony, which he described as “a real concentration camp.”  
 
Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany.  
 
The United States and other countries have sanctioned Kremlin officials over the poisoning, and many are calling for Navalny’s release.
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Denmark is embarking on a program to move tens of thousands of immigrants out of ethnically-concentrated communities, in what the country’s media have dubbed “the biggest social experiment of this century.”  To encourage integration, the center-left government is planning mass housing evictions and a cap on the number of migrants allowed to live in 58 housing estates and neighborhoods deemed as troubled and designated as “special prevention areas” because of high crime.The strategy aims to prevent the continuation of what top officials have called self-isolating communities and the emergence of “parallel religious and cultural societies.”The plan is drawing fire from minority groups and civil libertarians, who accuse the government of stigmatizing migrants and of planning to evict public tenants to gentrify estates for the benefit of more affluent Danes.Critics say the measure is based on false premises. They say surveys show that migrants want to live in mixed neighborhoods, but that is hard to do because of a national housing crisis. One-third of migrants polled said they wanted also to live close to friends and family for practical assistance and emotional support.  Marie Northroup, a tenants’ activist in Copenhagen’s Mjolnerparken housing estate, has dismissed the government characterization of migrant communities as self-isolating and says the government is whipping up public panic “in order to discriminate.”The proposal by the center-left government is seen as a continuation of the approach of the previous center-right government, which started drawing up a list of neighborhoods designated as “ghettos.”    The largest migrant groups in the country comprise 64,000 Turks, 43,000 Syrians, 33,000 Iraqis, 27,000 Lebanese, 26,000 Pakistanis and 23,000 Bosnians.FILE – Young Muslim women in burqas chat on a playground in a park near Mjolnerparken, in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 3, 2018.Under the plan, some of these migrants would be relocated elsewhere, away from Copenhagen and some of the large cities, which have severe housing shortages.  Denmark’s government says the migrant dilution would help foster social cohesion, curb crime and give migrants better opportunities to assimilate and expose them more to “Danish values.”“There are a number of large residential areas with high rates of unemployment and crime, a low degree of education and with social and integration problems,” according to Kaare Dybvad Bek, the housing and interior minister.The goal is that by 2030, there will be no residential area in Denmark that has more than 30 percent of non-Western immigrants and their descendants.  “We have the next 10 years to strike a balance in our integration policies and in the way we live and work together. Otherwise, I think we end up with a two-part society where people withdraw from each other,” Bek told lawmakers earlier this month. “This whole effort is about fighting parallel societies and creating a positive development in residential areas, so that they are made attractive to a broad section of the population,” he added.  Under the initiative, which still needs parliamentary approval, municipalities would be prevented from allocating housing to specific groups in some areas, in order to prevent concentrations of low-income families or people who are not European Union citizens.  Municipalities would also be directed to pay attention to social and income mixes and to maintain a balance. Government ministers say the eviction and relocation of some poorer residents in order to bring in private renters opens up opportunities for “left-behind” residents.  FILE – Men pray at the Grand Mosque of Copenhagen, a Sunni house of worship popular with residents of nearby Mjolnerparken, in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 11, 2018.The main opposition group, the center-right Liberal Party, is supportive of the measure, but has raised concerns about the large number of people the government will have to relocate, questioning how the move will be achieved without using force.   Speaking this week in a meeting hosted by Facebook, Bek said, “We need to get better at spreading cultures so that not all perpetrators of violence live together and reinforce the norms they have been accustomed to.” Migrant representatives have pushed back against that characterization, saying crime rates in the so-called troubled neighborhoods are in line with rates elsewhere.Bek added, “We do not interfere in what people eat or do not eat, or how they arrange themselves, but we believe that people must adapt to the basic values and norms we have in Denmark.”   In a statement, the housing ministry said there is a better chance of that happening by breaking up large concentrations of migrants, creating the circumstances for them to mix more with native Danes.  “The objective is to give every child in Denmark the same life opportunities regardless of the neighborhood they grow up in or of their parents’ background. This means that they have to be exposed to the cultural norms of society as such and not grow up in closed and isolated communities,” the ministry said.  Public sentiment in recent years has turned distinctly against migrants. The far-right Danish People’s party recently proposed that any refugees denied resident permits, and who are deemed to be criminals, should be herded on to a remote island. Race- and religious-based hate crimes have become more frequent in recent years.  The Liberal Party proposed this month that foreign nationals applying to become citizens should face much tougher interviews designed to examine whether they have absorbed “Danish values.” The government has expressed support for the idea.  “Good behavior alone is not enough. If you want to be a Danish citizen, you should have taken Denmark in,” the Liberal Party spokesperson for citizenship, Morten Dahlin, told the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. 
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U.S. officials say Russian state media is citing false reports to undermine faith in Western COVID vaccines to promote Russia’s own Sputnik V vaccine.  Daria Dieguts has the story.Camera: Artyom Kokhan  
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George Kent, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, spoke with VOA’s Ukraine service Wednesday, discussing Ukraine as well as Russia and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.The following interview, held at the U.S. State Department, has been edited for clarity and brevity.VOA: In the last two months since President Joe Biden took office, the U.S. is demonstrating its commitment to have a strategic partnership with Ukraine. However, the administration is clearly stating its priorities, importance of the delivering on the reform agenda, anti-corruption effort, is President Volodymyr Zelensky delivering on those fronts?George Kent: Well first, welcome back to the State Department. I know it’s been a long time. I would say what’s most important is that President Zelensky delivers on his promises and the priorities of the Ukrainian people because they are the ones who elected him. And if you look back at 2019, with the presidential and Rada elections, President Zelensky … [was] elected on a mandate of reform and change. So I think first and foremost that is the answer that the current Ukrainian authorities have to answer. What the U.S. wants is clear. And U.S. Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken mentioned it in his testimony two months ago. We are ready to support Ukraine, defending against aggression from abroad primarily from Russia and from the challenges from within, and that’s the reform agenda. You mentioned this administration is putting authority on anti-corruption action and helping democracies thrive because we believe democracies are best placed to address the challenges of the 21st century, and this issue is something that is shared by Ukrainians and Americans.And so I think the needs are clear. The expectations of Ukrainians and Americans are clear. Reform efforts need to continue and deepen. The justice sector is absolutely essential. How Ukrainian authorities get out of the constitutional crisis created by the constitutional court undermining reversing changes that were made is a real challenge for Ukrainians. The U.S. as a partner is here to be supportive. But to be very clear, any legislation that rolls back the independence of organizations, whether it’s the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, NBU, or the central bank, does not help Ukraine and that will make it very difficult for international partners, whether it’s the IMF or the United States, to continue to be as supportive of efforts when they are not leading to reform the change that Ukraine needs.VOA: Since President Biden took office, he spoke to many world leaders, however he did not speak to President Zelensky yet. How important it is to establish the contact between leaders and is their trust issue between two leaders?Kent: So I think you’re right that trust is very important in any relationship. That’s again within a country as well as between countries. And I think President Biden established an excellent record when he was vice president of reaching out and trying to establish that trust with Ukrainian counterparts. Trust is a two-way street, obviously, and I anticipate that there will be a call between our leaders in the near future. But I believe it’s also important to understand that a call, while taken as a symbol, has to be backed up by actions and the issues that we were discussing, the issues that are on the U.S.-Ukraine agenda. We want Ukraine to succeed. That means we want the government and President Zelensky to succeed. But for that success, there needs to be the right actions and the right reforms.VOA: The phone call between the two presidents is a hot political topic since we all remember well the last call between President [Donald] Trump and President Zelensky, is this a factor in today’s decision about the call?Kent: The Biden administration will make the right decisions for the U.S. interests in this administration, so I would not put any link between those.VOA: The Nord Stream 2 pipeline has become a serious issue between the U.S. and its European partners. Secretary Blinken made it clear that the U.S. opposed the building of the Nord Stream. What is the U.S. prepared to do if Germany and others will decide to go ahead with their plan to complete the pipeline?Kent: Yesterday, Secretary Blinken was in Brussels and stood up next to the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and he reiterated what he had issued last week. President Biden and the Biden administration considers Nord Stream to be a bad deal. It’s bad for Europe, it’s bad for our allies. And we think it fundamentally contravenes the concept of European energy security. And we do have obligations under our law to take action when we have. I think that’s the intent of the Biden administration.VOA: So what is the United States prepared to do?Kent: Well, again there are requirements under legislation to sanction companies that are directly involved in the pipe preparation planning process. So we are gathering information and considering next steps.VOA: U.S.-Russia relations are a hot topic as well, specifically after the security report about Russian interference in the U.S. election. There was an announcement about special sanctions or serious response to Russia. What should we expect?Kent: Well, we have not yet announced the package of response measures but as President Biden indicated last week. Russian actions do demand a response. So stay tuned.VOA: In Ukraine there’s a lot of fear that Russia will take on Ukraine in response to the United States and even possible escalation on Donbas, what is the United States prepared to do to ease the tension?Kent: Well we’re very concerned. You can see it in open-source reporting, different actions along the line of contact. New trenches near the old Donbas airport. I think the key thing is our expectation for Russia, the same as Ukraine is that President Vladimir Putin and Russia need to live up to the obligations and commitments that Putin made in February of 2015, six years ago. There would be a total cease-fire, foreign forces, by which mean Russian forces, are recalled from Russia and that Ukraine recovers the control of its sovereign border.And today seven years later, Russia has not lived up to its obligations.VOA: Is the United States prepared to be more active in negotiations with Russia in Normandy Format or other formats?Kent: I think you will see as we fill out our team at the State Department, we still don’t have a confirmed deputy secretary nominated or confirmed undersecretary or new assistant secretaries. As we all get vaccinated and are able to resume travel, you will see more active U.S. diplomacy in this area.VOA: The United States hasn’t had an ambassador in Ukraine for a long period of time and there’s a lot of questions about that. The United States is not represented well in Ukraine. When can Ukraine expect to have a U.S. ambassador on the ground?Kent: First of all, the State Department has full faith and confidence in our charge, we understand that all countries expect having fully accredited ambassadors and we expect the Biden administration to nominate a fully qualified person. And then it will be up to the Senate to confirm and look forward to having a U.S. ambassador.VOA: Do you have an idea about the timeline?Kent: Nope. And in that sense, ambassadors are the prerogative of the president and the White House with a role in the Senate to advise and consent. So no timeline yet.VOA: Could you comment on why Ukraine is important for the region since you were responsible for the whole region in the last three years. So what is the United States looking at in terms of Ukraine and its effect on the region?Kent: Ukraine is an important country in its own right. It’s an important country for the region. It’s an important country symbolically. It is the linchpin of, if you will, the eastern Slavic world. And I think the importance of Ukraine has never been understated, even by outsiders who may not follow the details on a daily basis.My former professor [Zbigniew] Brzezinski once said that if Ukraine succeeds, that gives the real impulse for Russia to have the possibility of reform in the long term. And so we treat Ukraine on its own merits and that’s why it is such a focus of our assistance that’s provided by Congress. It’s the focus of our diplomacy.We understand the great human potential of Ukrainians, whether it’s in information technology, whether it’s in agribusiness, whether it’s the dynamism of civil society. And we want to support that for Ukraine to succeed in its own right. And because we also understand that if Ukraine succeeds, then other countries farther to the east will understand that many of the false narratives and claims by Russia are simply not true.
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FIFA, the world football (soccer) governing body, will allow the Haiti-Belize World Cup qualifier to be held in Port-au-Prince on Thursday.“Moments ago we received confirmation that the game scheduled for tomorrow against Haiti is on,” a statement posted on the Football Federation of Belize Facebook page said.FIFA dispatched a security expert to Haiti on Tuesday to assess the situation after armed men on motorcycles held up the Belize team bus at gunpoint shortly after they arrived in the country Monday. The incident happened as they made their way from the airport to their hotel, despite having a police escort. No one was hurt. Video recorded by a team member and later posted on social media has gone viral.Upon Belize’s ?? arrival to Haiti ?? for their World Cup Qualifier, their police escort was stopped by armed “insurgents”This is the video going around on social media.Match is set for March 25. Belize has put out an official statement. pic.twitter.com/B3Z0gTfW16— Nico Cantor (@Nicocantor1) March 23, 2021Ian “Yellow” Gaynair, who plays defense, described the experience in an interview with a Belize television station.“All of us were really traumatized, fearing we didn’t know what would happen,” Gaynair said.Belize team official Marlon Kuylen immediately reported the incident to FIFA and CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football.“We’ve told them in no uncertain terms that we want to get our players out of the country,” he said.Haiti national team practice. (FHF Facebook)Haitian Soccer Federation communications director Tessier Jeanty told VOA the security expert toured the capital shortly after arriving in the country and later met with team officials. Jeanty said the official planned to send a recommendation to FIFA and CONCACAF, which would make the decision about whether to relocate the match.According to FFB, the FIFA security expert held multiple meetings with Haitian national police officials and security forces as well as officials of both countries’ soccer federations.“No tensions were palpable any longer and the reported incident was clarified with additional security measures being agreed [to] and undertaken to prevent any repetition,” a message sent by FIFA to Earl Jones, general secretary of the FFB said, adding that “a reported case of miscommunication” had led to the bus being driven to “a wrong area.”“The safety and security of the visiting team’s delegations, of FIFA’s match officials as well as of all actors of this match are guaranteed at all times during the period of stay in Haiti,” the FIFA statement said.Some Belize fans reacted with skepticism, asking if the players are insured.“Well Belize, we wish you well and praying nothing happens to the players apart from being traumatized,” commented fan Eliceo Ken.In a message to Jaguar fans, player Norman Anderson said, “It’s a lot of sacrifice but we made up our minds to be here to represent our country.”The Football Federation of Belize expressed full support for its players.“We continue sending love and best wishes to our Jaguars as they go into this game. Belize is with the Jaguars!” the organization said.Earlier Wednesday, the Haitian Football Federation said on its Facebook page that the customary media event allowing reporters to watch teams practice at the stadium had been canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions. The federation also canceled a press conference.Later, photos of the Haitian national team practice at the Sylvio Cator National Stadium were posted.The Haiti-Belize match is scheduled for 5 p.m. EST Thursday.
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George Kent, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, spoke with VOA’s Ukraine service Wednesday, discussing Ukraine as well as Russia and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.The following interview, held at the U.S. State Department, has been edited for clarity and brevity.VOA: In the last two months since President Joe Biden took office, the U.S. is demonstrating its commitment to have a strategic partnership with Ukraine. However, the administration is clearly stating its priorities, importance of the delivering on the reform agenda, anti-corruption effort, is President Volodymyr Zelensky delivering on those fronts?George Kent: Well first, welcome back to the State Department. I know it’s been a long time. I would say what’s most important is that President Zelensky delivers on his promises and the priorities of the Ukrainian people because they are the ones who elected him. And if you look back at 2019, with the presidential and Rada elections, President Zelensky … [was] elected on a mandate of reform and change. So I think first and foremost that is the answer that the current Ukrainian authorities have to answer. What the U.S. wants is clear. And U.S. Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken mentioned it in his testimony two months ago. We are ready to support Ukraine, defending against aggression from abroad primarily from Russia and from the challenges from within, and that’s the reform agenda. You mentioned this administration is putting authority on anti-corruption action and helping democracies thrive because we believe democracies are best placed to address the challenges of the 21st century, and this issue is something that is shared by Ukrainians and Americans.And so I think the needs are clear. The expectations of Ukrainians and Americans are clear. Reform efforts need to continue and deepen. The justice sector is absolutely essential. How Ukrainian authorities get out of the constitutional crisis created by the constitutional court undermining reversing changes that were made is a real challenge for Ukrainians. The U.S. as a partner is here to be supportive. But to be very clear, any legislation that rolls back the independence of organizations, whether it’s the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, NBU, or the central bank, does not help Ukraine and that will make it very difficult for international partners, whether it’s the IMF or the United States, to continue to be as supportive of efforts when they are not leading to reform the change that Ukraine needs.VOA: Since President Biden took office, he spoke to many world leaders, however he did not speak to President Zelensky yet. How important it is to establish the contact between leaders and is their trust issue between two leaders?Kent: So I think you’re right that trust is very important in any relationship. That’s again within a country as well as between countries. And I think President Biden established an excellent record when he was vice president of reaching out and trying to establish that trust with Ukrainian counterparts. Trust is a two-way street, obviously, and I anticipate that there will be a call between our leaders in the near future. But I believe it’s also important to understand that a call, while taken as a symbol, has to be backed up by actions and the issues that we were discussing, the issues that are on the U.S.-Ukraine agenda. We want Ukraine to succeed. That means we want the government and President Zelensky to succeed. But for that success, there needs to be the right actions and the right reforms.VOA: The phone call between the two presidents is a hot political topic since we all remember well the last call between President [Donald] Trump and President Zelensky, is this a factor in today’s decision about the call?Kent: The Biden administration will make the right decisions for the U.S. interests in this administration, so I would not put any link between those.VOA: The Nord Stream 2 pipeline has become a serious issue between the U.S. and its European partners. Secretary Blinken made it clear that the U.S. opposed the building of the Nord Stream. What is the U.S. prepared to do if Germany and others will decide to go ahead with their plan to complete the pipeline?Kent: Yesterday, Secretary Blinken was in Brussels and stood up next to the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and he reiterated what he had issued last week. President Biden and the Biden administration considers Nord Stream to be a bad deal. It’s bad for Europe, it’s bad for our allies. And we think it fundamentally contravenes the concept of European energy security. And we do have obligations under our law to take action when we have. I think that’s the intent of the Biden administration.VOA: So what is the United States prepared to do?Kent: Well, again there are requirements under legislation to sanction companies that are directly involved in the pipe preparation planning process. So we are gathering information and considering next steps.VOA: U.S.-Russia relations are a hot topic as well, specifically after the security report about Russian interference in the U.S. election. There was an announcement about special sanctions or serious response to Russia. What should we expect?Kent: Well, we have not yet announced the package of response measures but as President Biden indicated last week. Russian actions do demand a response. So stay tuned.VOA: In Ukraine there’s a lot of fear that Russia will take on Ukraine in response to the United States and even possible escalation on Donbas, what is the United States prepared to do to ease the tension?Kent: Well we’re very concerned. You can see it in open-source reporting, different actions along the line of contact. New trenches near the old Donbas airport. I think the key thing is our expectation for Russia, the same as Ukraine is that President Vladimir Putin and Russia need to live up to the obligations and commitments that Putin made in February of 2015, six years ago. There would be a total cease-fire, foreign forces, by which mean Russian forces, are recalled from Russia and that Ukraine recovers the control of its sovereign border.And today seven years later, Russia has not lived up to its obligations.VOA: Is the United States prepared to be more active in negotiations with Russia in Normandy Format or other formats?Kent: I think you will see as we fill out our team at the State Department, we still don’t have a confirmed deputy secretary nominated or confirmed undersecretary or new assistant secretaries. As we all get vaccinated and are able to resume travel, you will see more active U.S. diplomacy in this area.VOA: The United States hasn’t had an ambassador in Ukraine for a long period of time and there’s a lot of questions about that. The United States is not represented well in Ukraine. When can Ukraine expect to have a U.S. ambassador on the ground?Kent: First of all, the State Department has full faith and confidence in our charge, we understand that all countries expect having fully accredited ambassadors and we expect the Biden administration to nominate a fully qualified person. And then it will be up to the Senate to confirm and look forward to having a U.S. ambassador.VOA: Do you have an idea about the timeline?Kent: Nope. And in that sense, ambassadors are the prerogative of the president and the White House with a role in the Senate to advise and consent. So no timeline yet.VOA: Could you comment on why Ukraine is important for the region since you were responsible for the whole region in the last three years. So what is the United States looking at in terms of Ukraine and its effect on the region?Kent: Ukraine is an important country in its own right. It’s an important country for the region. It’s an important country symbolically. It is the linchpin of, if you will, the eastern Slavic world. And I think the importance of Ukraine has never been understated, even by outsiders who may not follow the details on a daily basis.My former professor [Zbigniew] Brzezinski once said that if Ukraine succeeds, that gives the real impulse for Russia to have the possibility of reform in the long term. And so we treat Ukraine on its own merits and that’s why it is such a focus of our assistance that’s provided by Congress. It’s the focus of our diplomacy.We understand the great human potential of Ukrainians, whether it’s in information technology, whether it’s in agribusiness, whether it’s the dynamism of civil society. And we want to support that for Ukraine to succeed in its own right. And because we also understand that if Ukraine succeeds, then other countries farther to the east will understand that many of the false narratives and claims by Russia are simply not true.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to NATO as he sought to strengthen the transatlantic relationship in a two-day summit this week in Brussels, which wrapped up Wednesday.”You have our unshakeable vow: America is fully committed to NATO,” Blinken said in a speech at NATO headquarters in the Belgian capital.He promised a new relationship with European allies.”Trust has been shaken to some degree over the past few years. So, let me be clear about what the United States can promise to our allies and partners. When our allies shoulder their fair share of the burden, they’ll reasonably expect to have a fair say in making decisions,” Blinken said.He outlined the military threats facing the alliance, warning that NATO must evolve to defend democracy and the rules-based international system.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is seen on the second day of a NATO foreign ministers meeting at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2021.”Our shared values of democracy and human rights are being challenged — not only from outside our countries, but from within. And new threats are outpacing our efforts to build the capabilities we need to defend against them,” he said.  “Beijing’s military ambitions are growing by the year. Coupled with the realities of modern technology, the challenges that once seemed half a world away are no longer remote. We also see this in the new military capabilities and strategies Russia has developed to challenge our alliances and undermine the rules-based order that ensures our collective security,” Blinken said.   He added that NATO must evolve to counter emerging threats, including disinformation, cyberattacks, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.  NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the U.S. commitment and gave further warnings of the dangers facing the alliance.  “Russia undermines and destabilizes its neighbors, including Ukraine, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova. It supports the crackdown on Belarus and tries to interfere in the Western Balkans region,” Stoltenberg told reporters Wednesday. “We see that Russia continues to deploy new and destabilizing nuclear weapons. We need agreements that cover more weapons and more nations like China.” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gives a press briefing at the end of a NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2021.China’s rise poses a relatively new challenge for NATO, analyst Simona Soare of the European Union Institute for Security Studies said.  “It’s not about NATO moving into the Indo-Pacific but rather being more aware and more prepared to tackle the potential negative consequences of Chinese presence in Europe. And what this means is, of course, more awareness of foreign direct investment that could target potentially strategic technologies or critical infrastructure,” Soare told VOA.  The U.S. secretary of state said Washington still expects European allies to meet the NATO defense spending target of 2% of GDP by 2024, which was a key demand of the Trump administration.  U.S. President Joe Biden is pursuing a different strategy, Soare said.   “He has also put forward a proposal that allies spend more together through NATO’s common budget, and that common expenditure should go towards funding, at least in part, some of NATO’s missions and operations. And this has been framed as being key to solidarity.”  NATO’s mission in Afghanistan also was high on the agenda, with U.S. troops set to withdraw by May 1 under a peace deal signed by the Trump administration and the Taliban in 2020. Blinken said the situation was under review, and that the U.S. would consult with NATO allies.  FILE – U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army (ANA) Base in Logar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 7, 2018.”We went in together, we adjusted together, and when the time is right, we will leave together,” Blinken told reporters.  Despite the harmonious words from the U.S. delegation, tensions within NATO resurfaced during the summit. In a sideline meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Blinken urged Ankara to drop its purchase of a Russian S-400 air defense system. Turkey said Wednesday that the “deal is done.”  FILE – First parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system are unloaded from a Russian plane near Ankara, Turkey, July 12, 2019.Blinken also made clear U.S. opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would bring Russian gas directly to Germany and warned that companies involved in its construction could face U.S. sanctions.  “The pipeline divides Europe. It exposes Ukraine and central Europe to Russian manipulation and coercion. It goes against Europe’s own stated energy security goals,” Blinken told reporters.  Following the NATO summit, Blinken also met with European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Foreign Policy Minister Josep Borrell. Despite the hawkish tone against China within NATO, the EU is finalizing a trade agreement with Beijing.  Blinken said Europe and the U.S. should work together on shared goals.  “We know that our allies have complex relationships with China that won’t always align perfectly. But we need to navigate these challenges together. That means working with our allies to close the gaps in areas like technology and infrastructure, where Beijing is exploiting to exert coercive pressure,” he said.  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is welcomed by European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell ahead of meeting in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2021.Borrell said Europe sees China “as a partner, as a competitor and a systemic rival.”  “We agreed to launch the European Union-United States dialogue on China as a forum to discuss the full range of related challenges and opportunities. We decided to continue meetings at the senior official and expert levels on topics such as reciprocity, economic issues, resilience, human rights, security, multilateral, and areas for constructive engagement with China, such as climate change,” Borrell said at a news conference Wednesday evening.  Blinken said the EU was the United States’ “partner of first resort.” His words have been warmly welcomed in Europe, but analysts say the true test of the new transatlantic relationship is yet to come as the alliance faces threats on multiple fronts. 
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Trials held in secrecy for two Canadians imprisoned more than two years ago in China have concluded, with official verdicts to be announced “at a chosen time,” according to official Chinese statements. Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were detained in December 2018 in apparent retaliation for the arrest in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who is fighting a request for her extradition to the United States. The fate of the “Two Michaels,” as the prisoners have become known, has shaped Canadians’ understanding of what China is and isn’t, one of Ottawa’s former ambassadors to Beijing and a former senior law enforcement official told VOA. FILE – Protesters hold photos of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who are being detained by China, outside British Columbia Supreme Court, in Vancouver, March 6, 2019.The trial for Spavor took place last Friday in northeastern Dandong. The only news Chinese authorities released was that the trial did take place and that a verdict was pending. Kovrig’s trial took place on Monday in Beijing, but no one knew “how and when Mr. Kovrig was brought to court, what evidence was brought against him and what opportunities he had to speak in his own defense,” FILE – Policemen wearing face masks patrol at the compound of No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing on March 22, 2021, the day the trial of Canadian Michael Kovrig took place.No doubt Canada will have to continue to engage with China, Saint-Jacques said, but “the mood has turned around, the government will want to be a lot more prudent in its relations with China.” Part of that prudence, the former ambassador to Beijing said, lies in knowing that China isn’t the only country that holds leverage. “Back in 2018 [after the two Michaels were detained by Chinese authorities], I suggested that we kick out all of the Chinese athletes training in Canada for the Beijing Winter Olympics, to show our displeasure.” That wasn’t done, he said, because the Canadian government believed playing nice would soften the Chinese official position and get their citizens released. “That clearly didn’t work,” he said. Canada also needs to understand it has leverage through its trading relationship with China, Saint-Jacques said. “China is our second [largest] trade partner, but in terms of our exports, we export just about over 4% of our total exports to China,” he said. FILE – Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou returns to court following a lunch break in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, March 22, 2021.”In 2019, we paid a heavy price after the arrest Meng incident. We lost billions of dollars of trade,” Saint-Jacques said. “But if you look at our trade last year [in 2020], our exports to China increased by 8%. … I would say that China will always need our commodities. This should give us a bit more leeway to deal with China.” Saint-Jacques said the Canadian government could also look more closely at China’s investments in Canada, taking into account their security and strategic implications. He said he would like to see Ottawa deal more firmly with Chinese interference in Canadian society, including rampant espionage activities. Calvin Chrustie, a former senior operations officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and currently managing partner at Interventis Global, has followed relations between Canada and China closely. He said he’s encouraged by recent public statements made by senior officials from the Canadian intelligence and security community. “The director of [the Canadian Security Intelligence Service], the commissioner of the RCMP and other national security experts have, in an unprecedented way, come forward and clearly articulated the concern that they have for China for the first time in decades,” he said. FILE – Diplomats from various countries wait outside of the Dandong Intermediate People’s Court, where the trial of Canadian businessman Michael Spavor is being held, in Dandong in China’s northeast Liaoning province, March 19, 2021.Inasmuch as “this tragic incident of state-facilitated kidnapping of Canadians has had devastating impact on the families and loved ones, it has awoken Canada in terms of the serious threat China poses and has refreshed Canadian strategic thinking,” Chrustie told VOA in a phone interview from Vancouver. Chrustie and Saint-Jacques both believe Washington now holds the key to resolving the issue of the two Michaels in conjunction with the Meng extradition request. U.S. officials have told Canadian media that the Biden administration is reviewing U.S.-China relations, and decisions regarding the cases are unlikely before that review concludes in a matter of months. In the meantime, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced that he had met with Canadian officials on the eve of the high-level meeting he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken held with top Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, a week ago.  Very pleased to meet today in Washington with our close friends, partners, and neighbors, Canadian NSA Vincent Rigby and FP Advisor to PM David Morrison. We affirmed our unwavering friendship and alliance and discussed the full range of our shared priorities and challenges.— Jake Sullivan (@JakeSullivan46) March 17, 2021   
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Becoming a “free French woman” hasn’t been easy for Claire Koç, a 37-year-old French TV presenter and daughter of Turkish immigrant parents.  And it may prove dangerous.  To finish her university education and marry the man she loved she had to break with her family. She suffered hostility from them, too, when she decided in 2008 to become a French citizen.  And now her account of what she calls her “journey toward emancipation” detailed in a book, Claire, le Prénom de la Honte (Claire, the Name of Shame), is earning her death threats and the offer of police protection.  Supporters of French President Emmanuel Macron have praised Koç’s book, arguing it shows why he is right to explore ways the government can encourage assimilation and stop minority and immigrant communities from isolating themselves and living apart from the French Republic.  Last year, Macron warned against religious sectarianism, which he said “often results in the creation of a counter-society.” Cultural and religious separatism is leading to kids being kept out of school, and sports, cultural and other community activities being used as a “pretext to teach principles that do not conform to the laws of the republic,” he said.Claire Koç is seen on the cover of her book Claire, le Prénom de la Honte or Claire, the Name of Shame (Social media)Koç has received favorable book reviews. “Her book … is a rare plea for freedom and integration, against communitarianism and all obscurantism,” wrote reviewer Carine Azzopardi.But some of France’s 6 million Muslims, especially Turkish ultranationalists, have voiced outrage. On social media sites, they accuse her of insulting Turkey. Some Muslim radicals say the book risks fueling Islamophobia.The book is both an angry denunciation of the Turkish migrant community for its resistance to assimilation and a very personal tale of one woman’s emotionally painful struggle to make her own choices in life.Koç told VOA she decided to use her family as an example of the resistance to assimilation. She was one year old when her parents immigrated to France in 1984 and grew up in Brittany and Strasbourg in public housing projects. In her book, she explains that as a child she was sent to Turkish lessons, where in the morning she would join her classmates in chanting the mantra, “Let my existence be a gift to Turkey.”  But she felt French, and increasingly so, and found herself at odds with her classmates. Her refusal as a youngster to attend mosque also marked her out.  The battles at home grew worse as she became a teenager.  “I wanted to work, I wanted to decide whom to marry and I wanted to go to university,” she told VOA. “My family told me that it wasn’t for an Anatolian woman to decide these things.” Her parents wanted her to marry a boy from Turkey, preferably from their home village.She says satellite television helped her family maintain cultural separateness from the French — they would watch only Turkish channels all day and followed Turkish politics, Turkish sports. Her family was uninterested in France and made no effort to adjust or to adopt French values, she says.Nor did they learn to speak French.  “How is it possible,” she writes in her book, “to live for 40 years in a country without mastering the language and to think … that a boss will take you on if you have made no effort to integrate?” Her father, she says, just mirrored what many others in the Turkish community do — complain about racism, accept welfare payments and make little effort to get work.  “I had one wish — to escape and to leave a family I found archaic,” she told VOA. Her godsend, she says, was the cinema: movies helped her to understand the country she lived in and to learn things she wasn’t learning at home.  Defying her family, she attended a university, and there met by chance a young Turkish man from a family of Alawites, a sect of Shia Islam. When her family found out she was seeing him, they insisted they marry. She was 22 years old, but soon after they were together, her new husband told her she had to stop studying.
 
“He wanted me to live a similar life to my mother’s,” she says. Within a year they were divorced and she returned to the Université de Strasbourg, to the frustration of her parents and the disdain of Turkish neighbors. “They would cross the road when they saw me: they looked at me as though I were a whore,” she explains.Her family rejected her completely when she married a Frenchman following the divorce.The wounds of her struggle with her family have not healed.That became clear during VOA’s interview with Koç. She choked up as she explained how she learned of her father’s death two months ago from COVID-19. “I found out from a text message,” she says.His death precluded any opportunity for a reconciliation, one she still harbored hopes might take place one day, given time. “It is very difficult,” she said, shedding tears. “I had hoped my father one day would meet my son.”For her naturalization procedure, Koç changed her given name from Cigdem to Claire.“Claire? Are you serious? What a disgrace!” her brother said when she told him of the switch, she writes in the book. Her two brothers have shown no interest in communicating with her since their father’s death.Koç is unsparing in criticism, taking aim not only at religious and cultural obscurantism but also at some anti-racist politicians and groups for feeding, she says, an attitude that immigrants are always victims of racism. And she criticizes French mosques, funded by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, for encouraging Turkish immigrants to maintain themselves apart from mainstream French society.“I am not denying my origins,” she tells VOA. “But I am proclaiming my love for France, which has allowed me to be free.”Koç has filed a criminal complaint after facing a torrent of abuse and insults on social media sites. One post, accusing her of being a traitor, displayed a Turkish flag and a gray wolf’s head, the emblem of Turkish ultranationalists.  Her lawyer, William Goldnadel, says the threats are alarming. “Those people don’t mess around: When they describe you either as a traitor to your country or as a terrorist and try to find your address with determination, it’s very worrying.”French politicians have rallied to her side. Rachid Temal, a Socialist Party senator, tweeted this week: “All my support to Claire Koç who like everyone has the right to choose their life, their loves and their life course. No one should be harassed for their choices.”Senator Valerie Boyer, a member of the liberal-conservative Republican Party, tweeted it is “intolerable that she has been harassed because she loves France too much. How long are these threats going to continue?” 
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With 79,000 new COVID cases reported daily over the last few days, Brazil is emerging as the world’s worst hit country as scientists warn that a fast-spreading variant called P.1 — that first appeared in the Amazon rainforest — may be one of the world’s most dangerous.  For VOA, Edgar Maciel in Sao Paulo reports hospitals in most of the country’s 27 federative entities are beyond capacity and people are dying without ever being treated. Camera: Edgar Maciel
Producer: Henry Hernandez  
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U.S. President Joe Biden is meeting Wednesday with immigration advisers and top Cabinet officials to try to figure out how to cope with the surge of mostly Central American migrants crossing the country’s southwestern border with Mexico into the United States.Biden has come under increasing pressure in recent days from both Republican critics and his Democratic colleagues in Congress to respond to the stream of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador walking north through Mexico to the U.S.Biden has urged migrants to stay home but thousands have been walking hundreds of kilometers to reach the border.  Biden said Tuesday he would have more to say soon on the issue and is certain to face tough migration questions at the first formal news conference of his presidency on Thursday.  Biden to Migrants Heading for US-Mexico Border: Stay Home Republicans, Democrats blame each other for latest immigration crisis When he took office two months ago, Biden blocked further construction of the border wall championed by former President Donald Trump and embraced what he said would be more humane treatment of migrants. Biden has told migrants to not make the treacherous trek to the U.S., but many migrants have viewed his policy shift as an invitation to make the journey on the assumption that if they make it into the U.S., they will be allowed to stay.The U.S. policy currently is to expel single adults and families back to Mexico, but to care for the more than 500 unaccompanied children arriving daily. After processing them at crowded facilities, they are being sent them to be with relatives already living in the United States or placed with vetted people who have agreed to care for them.Biden on Wednesday dispatched White House officials to accompany a congressional delegation to visit a refugee resettlement center in Carrizo Springs, Texas, and plans to allow limited media coverage of the visit.  Previously, the Biden administration refused to let news reporters into the migrant holding centers. Photos taken by Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, at one facility last weekend showed crowded conditions and children sleeping on the floor on thin cushions with only a thin blanket covering them.  Trump drew sharp criticism over similar scenes. He responded by ordering children sent back to Mexico rather than allowing them to stay in the United States.  At the White House, Biden is meeting with the heads of the Homeland Security and Health and Human Services agencies, both of which are tasked with managing the migrants who have streamed across the southwestern U.S. border with Mexico.Biden administration officials have blamed much of the chaos on the Trump administration, saying it dismantled the asylum system under which migrants petitioned to enter the United States and stay permanently.Vice President Kamala Harris told the “CBS This Morning” show, “We do what we need to do to actually reconstruct the systems. … We’re dealing with it. But it’s going to take some time. And are we frustrated? Are you frustrated? Yes. We are.””It’s a huge problem,” she said.She said there is a need to address the root causes driving migrants north, chiefly poverty, crime and the destruction of housing by hurricanes in recent years.The migrant children are arriving in the United States in such numbers that they often are being housed at border holding centers for days longer than the 72 hours allowed under U.S. law before they are turned over to Health and Human Services officials for eventual reunification with relatives or being sent to other caregivers.The government has turned to convention centers in Texas to house some of the unaccompanied children and on Tuesday sheltered some at military bases in Texas.
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Brazil’s single day COVID-19 death tally rose above 3,000 for the first time as citizens of the South American nation staged protests demanding President Jair Bolsonaro take action to curtail the spread of the virus. The lion share of Tuesday’s record 3,251 deaths occurred in its most populous state of Sao Paulo, with 1,021 new deaths. During a national address Tuesday, protesters across the nation banged pots to express anger at the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Speaking to the nation, Bolsonaro expressed condolences for the lives lost, but once again said the virus will soon pass.  Bolsonaro, who has rejected restrictions imposed by local leaders said that by the end of the year, Brazil will have more than 500 million doses to inoculate all the population, saying 2021 will be the year of Brazilians’ vaccination.Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro celebrates his 66th birthday with supporters at the Alvorada Palace, the official presidential residence, in Brasilia, Brazil, March 21, 2021.He also predicted the people of the South American country will soon return to a normal life.  However, Bolsonaro’s history in dealing with the more than year old pandemic doesn’t appear to have generated much confidence among citizens. Bolsonaro, who became infected with the virus last year, has consistently downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19, saying restrictions in the business sector to curtail the spread of the virus has been bad for the economy. Brazil continues to lead Latin America with more than 12,000,000 infections and 295,425 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Covid Resource Center. 
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The European Commission’s proposal to create a health passport to facilitate safe, free movement inside the EU during the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic could be a solution to save the tourism industry in parts of southern Europe this summer.  But with the vaccine rollout off to a slow start and the infection rates going up across Europe, few are hoping for a recovery soon. Jonathan Spier narrates this report by Alfonso Beato in Barcelona.
Camera: Alfonso Beato, Filip Huygens   
Producer:   Jon Spier 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to outline in a speech Wednesday in Brussels a commitment by the Biden administration to rebuild and revitalize U.S. alliances. That has been part of his message during his first visit to the region as the top U.S. diplomat this week, showing a departure from four years of foreign policy under former President Donald Trump that focused on prioritizing U.S. interests. The address comes on the final day of a two-day NATO ministerial meeting, during which Blinken is holding a number of sideline talks with his counterparts. Wednesday’s schedule includes separate talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, a session with the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as meetings with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Blinken told reporters Tuesday the United States wants to rebuild its partnerships, “first and foremost with our NATO allies.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, rear center, waits for the start of a round table meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, March 23, 2021.The White House said U.S. President Joe Biden plans to discuss boosting U.S.-EU relations during a videoconference with EU leaders on Thursday. Biden’s stance is a marked contrast to that of former President Donald Trump, who frequently assailed other NATO countries for not meeting the alliance’s goal that each country spend the equivalent of 2% of the size of its national economy on defense.    “The last thing we can afford to do is take this alliance for granted,” Blinken, a longtime Biden confidant, said. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian welcomed Blinken’s favorable comments about NATO, which was founded in 1949 to contain a military threat from the then-Soviet Union.    One of the major topics for discussion during two days of meetings in Brussels is the NATO mission in Afghanistan, as a May 1 deadline approaches for the full withdrawal of all U.S. troops under a peace agreement made last year between Afghanistan’s Taliban and the Trump administration.  Blinken said the situation is under review, and that part of his work in Brussels would be conferring with NATO allies, both to listen and to share U.S. thinking. He said whatever the United States decides to do, its actions will be with the consultation of other member countries that have been a part of the military mission.    “We went in together, we have adjusted together, and when the time is right, we’ll leave together,” Blinken said.  NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he welcomes the peace effort, stressing it is the “only path to a lasting political solution in Afghanistan.” But the NATO chief said that in order to achieve peace, all parties must negotiate in good faith, there needs to be a reduction of violence, and the Taliban must stop supporting international terrorists such as al-Qaida.  German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned against a premature pullout that would undercut security gains.  “We want a conditions-based withdrawal of all forces from Afghanistan,” Maas said. 
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Brazil’s single day COVID-19 death tally rose above 3,000 for the first time as citizens of the South American nation staged protests demanding President Jair Bolsonaro take action to curtail the spread of the virus. The lion share of Tuesday’s record 3,251 deaths occurred in its most populous state of Sao Paulo, with 1,021 new deaths. During a national address Tuesday, protesters across the nation banged pots to express anger at the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Speaking to the nation, Bolsonaro expressed condolences for the lives lost, but once again said the virus will soon pass.  Bolsonaro, who has rejected restrictions imposed by local leaders said that by the end of the year, Brazil will have more than 500 million doses to inoculate all the population, saying 2021 will be the year of Brazilians’ vaccination.Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro celebrates his 66th birthday with supporters at the Alvorada Palace, the official presidential residence, in Brasilia, Brazil, March 21, 2021.He also predicted the people of the South American country will soon return to a normal life.  However, Bolsonaro’s history in dealing with the more than year old pandemic doesn’t appear to have generated much confidence among citizens. Bolsonaro, who became infected with the virus last year, has consistently downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19, saying restrictions in the business sector to curtail the spread of the virus has been bad for the economy. Brazil continues to lead Latin America with more than 12,000,000 infections and 295,425 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Covid Resource Center. 
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Haiti Soccer Federation officials are awaiting the decision of FIFA, the international governing body for football, on whether a Haiti-Belize World Cup qualifier will be held Thursday in Port-au-Prince.   Tessier Jeanty, communications director for the Haitian Soccer Federation (Federation Haitienne de Futbol, FHF), told VOA a FIFA security expert met with Haitian and Belize team officials Tuesday afternoon. The FIFA security expert arrived in Haiti Tuesday morning and toured the capital to evaluate the security situation after Belize’s team bus was held up at gunpoint on Monday. The incident happened as the team made its way from the Toussaint Louverture international airport to their hotel.Upon Belize’s ?? arrival to Haiti ?? for their World Cup Qualifier, their police escort was stopped by armed “insurgents”This is the video going around on social media.Match is set for March 25. Belize has put out an official statement. pic.twitter.com/B3Z0gTfW16— Nico Cantor (@Nicocantor1) March 23, 2021The athletes, who were not harmed in the incident, described the harrowing scene during an interview with a Belize television station. They said high-powered rifles were aimed at their bus.   “Suddenly, we saw so many motorcycles with a lot of men and they were armed. You know, they stopped the bus and all we see, they were talking to the police. After that, we wanted to know what was happening. The next, they wanted us to turn back, pointing their guns at the police. So we don’t know what to do,” recalled Ian “Yellow” Gaynair, who plays defense for the Belize national team. “Some of us were doing some video and they pointed on the bus and said cut out the video, so we had to cut the video, pull the curtain,” Gaynair said. “All of us were really traumatized, fearing we didn’t know what would happen. Next thing we thought they would even want to come on the bus.”   The armed men on motorbikes were members of a renegade group called Fantom 509, comprising disgruntled current and former police officers. The U.S. State Department described them as criminals on Twitter.#PortAuPrince#Haiti: The criminal organization known as Fantom 509 is currently active in Delmas and Petionville. The group is known for violence and the ability to relocate quickly. Avoid travel to these areas. Do not attempt to drive through roadblocks. https://t.co/NpUjSlG2zRpic.twitter.com/sD2yTib70O— Travel – State Dept (@TravelGov) March 22, 2021“The criminal organization known as Fantom 509 is currently active in Delmas and Petionville. The group is known for violence and the ability to relocate quickly. Avoid travel to these areas. Do not attempt to drive through roadblocks,” the U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Consular Affairs tweeted. Belize team official Marlon Kuylen immediately reported the incident to FIFA and CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football).“We’ve told them in no uncertain terms that we want to get our players out of the country. However, the match commissioner is arriving tomorrow to assess the situation and decide what happens from there,” Kuylen told the Belize television station. The Belize Football Federation later issued a statement expressing “disappointment and disgust.“Football Federation of Belize registers its anger & disappointment after its delegation was attacked by armed men in #Haiti en route from airport to hotel today. pic.twitter.com/2UUaSaawjP— Jacqueline Charles (@Jacquiecharles) March 23, 2021Kuylen said his players are having a hard time concentrating on the upcoming match. “The players, they are frazzled. They cannot focus on playing. We were supposed to go training … and they don’t want to leave the hotel,” he said. “Our security is not guaranteed and what if we win and the crowd gets out of control again, who’s to say that we will be safe?” Two officials from FHF went to check on the Belize players in the evening, according to a statement posted in French on its Facebook page. “Jacques Letang … and Yvon Sevère paid a visit of solidarity to team Belize to assure its members of that the FHF supports them,” the statement said. FIFA has not yet responded to VOA’s request for comment on the incident. The spike in violence in Haiti has alarmed both Haitian and international officials. Last week, Fantom 509 staged two jailbreaks, looted a car dealership and set fire to tires, blocking streets. Jeanty of FHF told VOA it is unfortunate that insecurity in the country, which has become a part of daily life for most Haitians, now risks jeopardizing the national team’s ability to play at home.   “Haiti already has some factors working against it and now this complicates things even further,” Jeanty said. As for Haiti’s beloved national team, most of the players, such as goalie Johny Placide, only began arriving in Port-au-Prince Tuesday morning. The majority currently play for European league teams. “They weren’t even aware of what happened yesterday,” Jeanty told VOA. “We have six players who arrived this morning. And we have three players arriving [Wednesday] — because they are traveling from Armenia. I’m talking about Donald Guerrier, Soni Mustivar and Alex Junior Christian. They are ready to win for Haiti, but it’s shocking for them to see the images of what happened [on Monday].” Jeanty told VOA the FIFA security expert, a former military official from Barbados, would send his report to FIFA and CONCACAF Tuesday night. “After the meeting, we will not know immediately whether or not the match will go on in Haiti. He will send a report to CONCACAF and FIFA and those officials will issue a statement based on what the report advises,” Jeanty said. In the meantime, Haiti’s soccer federation is appealing to the public to refrain from violence.   “Haitians must understand: if there is any kind of attack against this match, we can kiss Haiti soccer goodbye,” FHF secretary general Carlo Marcelin said in an interview with Haitian radio station Magik 9 Tuesday.   The World Cup is scheduled to be held in Qatar from November 21 to December 18, 2022. 
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Benjamin Briere is a French tourist who was arrested last May while visiting Iran with his drone and minivan. Still detained, he was charged with espionage and “spreading propaganda against the system.” His lawyers deny the charges.If found guilty, he could be sentenced to death.Briere’s case is the latest in a series against foreigners at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Iran’s nuclear activities.Bernard Hourcade is a geographer and Iran specialist.  He thinks that the cases against this French tourist and the 2019 arrest of the French Iranian academic, Fariba Adelkhah, are separate issues which would have no impact on the JCPOA talks or other negotiations between the two countries.France, along with Britain, Germany and the European Union, are trying to bring the United States and Iran to the table for informal talks as a first step toward reviving Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal — also known as JCPOA — which lifted international sanctions on the Islamic Republic in exchange for curbs to its nuclear program.Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 29, 2016, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria.However, tensions are growing over Teheran’s nuclear activities, and U.S Secretary of State Anthony Blinken last month said Iran is “heading in the wrong direction.” Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s Foreign minister, echoed those concerns.Le Drian recently told a French Senate hearing that Iran’s nuclear activities were developing in violation of the Vienna agreement. The minister also added that Iran conducted attacks in Iraq and Saudi Arabia to destabilize those countries. So, it is crucial to start de-escalation to ease tensions, he added.A source with the French Foreign ministry told VOA the French government has been in regular contact with Briere. But French officials have stuck to their regular strategy of maintaining discretion when dealing with Iran in order to increase the chances of obtaining the release of their citizens.Analysts point to Iranian leaders’ history of using hostages to get what they want.Mohammad Reza Djalili is an honorary professor of international relations at the Geneva Graduate Institute.He describes the hostage situation in the U.S Embassy in Teheran in 1979 as the founding act for Iranian Islamic diplomacy. Djalili presents an Iranian policy to take Western hostages as a diplomatic weapon to release their own pro-regime citizens sentenced in France, Belgium and other countries. Iran seems very interested in dual citizens to gain leverage, according to Djalili.In this image released by the US State Department US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook welcomes Princeton graduate student Xiyue Wang on arrival in Switzerland after his release from Iran on Dec. 7, 2019. (Ho /US State Department/AFP)The most recent high-profile releases of foreign prisoners in Iran — of American Xiyue Wang in December 2019, American Michael White in March 2020 and Frenchman Roland Marchal, also in March — were all accompanied by the release of Iranians held abroad on sanctions-busting charges.The case highlights for Western countries the complexity of dealing with Iran. Analysts say European countries appear to have less leverage than the United States does.Hourcade said France has tried several times to bring together Iran and the United States and resume talks, but overall France and Europe are weak partners if neither Washington nor Teheran has the political will to act. Therefore, Europeans are waiting to see how the situation will evolve.The presidential election is scheduled for June 18 in Iran and many observers believe that no major negotiations could resume before the poll.  
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The United States has expressed concern about the way the Chinese government is conducting the trial of two Canadians charged with espionage, according to a State Department spokesperson.“We remain deeply troubled by the lack of transparency surrounding the legal proceedings of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig,” Ned Price tweeted Tuesday. Entrepreneur Spavor and former diplomat Kovrig were both arrested on different occasions in December 2018 following the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, in Vancouver on a U.S. warrant.Meng remains under house arrest in Vancouver as she fights extradition. As a chief financial officer of Huawei — one of the world’s largest manufacturers of smartphones — Meng is accused of lying to U.S. officials about Huawei’s business in Iran, which is under U.S. sanctions.The arrests plunged relations between Ottawa and Beijing to their lowest levels in decades.FILE – A protester holds a sign calling for China to release Canadian detainees Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig outside a court hearing for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, March 6, 2019.The espionage trial of Kovrig began Monday behind closed doors in Beijing, three days after Spavor was put on trial behind closed doors in the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong.Diplomats from several nations, including Canada and the United States, gathered Monday outside the Beijing courthouse where Kovrig’s trial was held after they were barred from attending it for what China says are national security reasons.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denounced China’s action as “completely unacceptable, as is the lack of transparency around these court proceedings.”The United States joined the call for “continued consular access in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,” Price’s tweet read in support of the Canadian government. 
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Press freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is suing Facebook in France, saying the social media platform spreads misinformation. The suit was filed Monday with the Paris public prosecutor.  “Reporters Without Borders accuses Facebook of ‘deceptive commercial practices’ on the grounds that the social media company’s promises to provide a ‘safe’ and ‘error-free’ online environment are contradicted by the large-scale proliferation of hate speech and false information on its networks,” the group said in a press release. Specifically, the group says Facebook allows “hate speech” against the media, as well as misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic. The group said Facebook allowed posts that were insulting and threatening against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, as well as targeting the TV program “Quotidien” and a regional newspaper, L’Union. Facebook said in a statement that it “has zero tolerance for any harmful content on our platforms,” Bloomberg reported. “Over the last few years, we’ve tripled the size of our safety and security team to 35,000 and built artificial intelligence technology to proactively find and remove harmful content,” the statement continued, according to Bloomberg. “While nobody can eliminate misinformation and hate speech from the internet entirely, we continue using research, experts and technologies to tackle them in the most comprehensive and effective way possible.” Should RSF win its case, the decision could have global repercussions for Facebook, as its terms of service are similar worldwide. Any change in France could trigger changes elsewhere. Facebook and other Big Tech companies have been under intense pressure to stop what some call misinformation. In December, the EU proposed new regulations that could hit companies with fines of up to 6% of their global revenue for not complying with orders to remove content deemed violent hate speech, according to Bloomberg. 
 
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Results of an independent inquiry announced Monday cleared Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, of breaking a ministerial code of conduct, but she is likely to face an opposition-led vote of no confidence in parliament Tuesday.  Sturgeon has been under intense scrutiny over what she did and did not do when she learned of complaints by several women against Alex Salmond – her predecessor as first minister and, once a close friend and ally in the cause of Scottish independence.  Salmond was charged in 2019 with sexual assault and attempted rape after allegations by nine women who had worked with him as first minister or for the party.He was acquitted by a criminal court in 2020, and claims the allegations made by several women were part of a conspiracy to wreck his political career.James Hamilton, a widely respected Irish lawyer appointed to conduct an independent inquiry into Sturgeon’s conduct, found that she had not breached the ministerial code. Had he reached the opposite conclusion, she would have been expected to resign.Hamilton rejected suggestions that she had broken the rules by failing to record meetings with Salmond in 2018, that she tried to influence an investigation into his behavior or that she misled the Scottish parliament.A second inquiry, by a committee of Scottish lawmakers, is due to publish a report on Tuesday. British media have reported that the committee voted 5-4 in favor of finding that Sturgeon gave an inaccurate account to Scotland’s Edinburgh-based parliament about when she learned of allegations against Salmond.The Conservatives, who are in power in the United Kingdom as a whole but in opposition in Scotland, are planning a vote of no confidence in Sturgeon on Tuesday.  With an election coming in May, Sturgeon called the vote a “political stunt” and said she was confident of winning.
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After aviation, Europe’s cultural and creative sector has been hit hardest by the coronavirus crisis, losing nearly $240 billion, according to a recent study by an accounting firm. Now as France weathers its third lockdown in a year, the creative arts industry is pushing back, with a growing protest movement now occupying dozens of theaters nationwide.It’s been months since the Odeon theater was last open. But these days, Parisians can listen to a bit of live jazz at this Paris Left Bank landmark. Some were dancing on a recent afternoon, despite a chilly rain.A jazz band previews Odeon theatre’s afternoon assembly by occupation protesters. (VOA/Lisa Bryant)This was just a preview to the main act. The Odeon has been holding daily public assemblies— ever since a group of protesters took over the theater earlier this month.  They listed the latest tally of other occupied theaters across France—now about 70 and growing. The occupation movement began with demands the government reopen cultural venues—shuttered for months under coronavirus restrictions.  They also want benefits extended for out-of-work artists and the repeal of an unpopular unemployment reform.  Opera singer Aurelie Magnier, who attended the assembly, says she has been out of work for months. Luckily, she says, her partner has a steady job. Otherwise she wouldn’t be able to make ends meet.  Also here is Monique Pedron, a member of the yellow vest protest movement that sparked a political crisis in France a couple years back. Its presence at the Odeon shows how this latest protest movement is spreading to include students and others hard hit by the pandemic’s fallout.  Pedron says she misses culture, and she’s had it with COVID-19 restrictions. It’s more dangerous to take the metro, she says, than to attend a play. She hopes other French will join the occupation movement.  Europe-wide, revenues from the cultural and creative industries dropped nearly a third last year from 2019, accounting firm EY reported recently. Banners at the Odeon proclaim “Culture Sacrificed” and “Power to the People.”Protesters gather at the Odean theater, which started the nationwide theater protest movement. (VOA/Lisa Byrant)That was also the message at France’s Cesar film awards ceremony, where actress Corinne Masiero stripped naked to demand more government support. She’d written “no culture, no future” on her torso.   Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot visited the Odeon. She says she understands the artists’ concerns but calls the occupations of the theaters useless and dangerous. It’s not clear, however, whether anyone here or elsewhere is listening.  
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is holding talks Tuesday with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels, then attending meetings with NATO foreign ministers and a separate session with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany. Stoltenberg said ahead of the start of the two-day NATO session that ministers would look toward strengthening the alliance for the future and specifically consult about the situation in Afghanistan as well as what NATO can do to build stability in the Middle East and North Africa. For Blinken, the State Department said his trip to Belgium is aimed at boosting ties with NATO allies and partnering on issues such as climate change, counterterrorism and ongoing efforts in combating the coronavirus pandemic.  FILE – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Feb. 15, 2021.”It’ll be an opportunity for the secretary and the foreign ministers to discuss the NATO 2030 initiative,” Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, told reporters ahead of Blinken’s trip. “Proposals under that (2030 initiative) for alliance adaptation, concerns over China and Russia, as well as climate change, cybersecurity, hybrid threats, combating terrorism, energy security — clearly the global pandemic enters into this, and other common challenges that we face together.”   After four years of foreign policy under former President Donald Trump that focused only on prioritizing U.S. interests, Reeker said Blinken will deliver a speech in Brussels outlining a commitment to “rebuilding and revitalizing alliances,” while highlighting the importance of NATO.   “We know we’re stronger and better able to overcome challenges when we face them together, and we’re going to modernize our alliances, mend them as needed, and deal with the world as we face it,” Reeker said.  Blinken’s arrival in Europe on Monday came as the United States issued coordinated sanctions with the European Union on both China and Myanmar. The Myanmar sanctions targeted top officials who are linked to last month’s military coup, while the China sanctions were aimed at several Chinese officials accused of human rights abuses against the Muslim Uyghur minority in China’s Xinjiang province. FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell hold a joint news conference, in Brussels, Belgium, Jan. 8, 2020.Regarding Iran, Reeker said the top U.S. diplomat will consult with EU colleagues about the prospects of the United States and Iran mutually returning to the agreement signed in 2015 that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.  Both the United States, which left the deal under Trump in 2018, and Iran, which responded by taking steps away from its commitments, have expressed a willingness to observe the agreement once again, but each has signaled the other side should start first.  The final part of Blinken’s trip agenda is bilateral talks with Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sophie Wilmès. 
 
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