Issues in the News moderator Kim Lewis talks with VOA senior diplomatic correspondent, Cindy Saine, and senior reporter for Marketplace, Nancy Marshall-Genzer, about growing congressional challenges on infrastructure, police reform, COVID-19 and the economy facing the Biden administration, the ramifications of a widespread cyber-attack on Microsoft allegedly conducted by China, controversial Israeli phone surveillance software allegedly misused amid a global hacking scandal, the Tokyo Olympics and global concern over the spreading of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
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Month: July 2021
UN Experts: Africa Became Hardest Hit by Terrorism This Year
Africa became the region hardest hit by terrorism in the first half of 2021 as the Islamic State and al-Qaida extremist groups and their affiliates spread their influence, boasting gains in supporters and territory and inflicting the greatest casualties, U.N. experts said in a new report.
The panel of experts said in a report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Friday that this is “especially true” in parts of West and East Africa where affiliates of both groups can also boast growing capabilities in fundraising and weapons, including the use of drones.
Several of the most successful affiliates of the Islamic State are in its central and west Africa province, and several of al-Qaida’s are in Somalia and the Sahel region, they said.
The experts said it’s “concerning” that these terrorist affiliates are spreading their influence and activities including across borders from Mali into Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Niger and Senegal as well as incursions from Nigeria into Cameroon, Chad and Niger in West Africa. In the east, the affiliates’ activities have spread from Somalia into Kenya and from Mozambique into Tanzania, they said.
One of “the most troubling events” of early 2021 was the local Islamic State affiliate’s storming and brief holding of Mozambique’s strategic port of Mocimboa da Praia in Cabo Delgado province near the border with Tanzania “before withdrawing with spoils, positioning it for future raids in the area,” the panel said.
Overall, the experts said, COVID-19 continued to affect terrorist activity and both the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, and al-Qaida “continued to gloat over the harm done by the coronavirus disease pandemic to their enemies, but were unable to develop a more persuasive narrative.”
“While ISIL contemplated weaponizing the virus, member states detected no concrete plans to implement the idea,” the panel said.
In Europe and other non-conflict zones, lockdowns and border closures brought on by COVID-19 slowed the movement and gathering of people “while increasing the risk of online radicalization,” it said.
The experts warned that attacks “may have been planned in various locations” during the pandemic “that will be executed when restrictions ease.”
The panel said that in Iraq and Syria, “the core conflict zone for ISIL,” the extremist group’s activities have evolved into “an entrenched insurgency, exploiting weaknesses in local security to find safe havens, and targeting forces engaged in counter-ISIL operations.”
Despite heavy counter-terrorism pressures from Iraqi forces, the experts said Islamic State attacks in Baghdad in January and April “underscored the group’s resilience.”
In Syria’s rebel-held northwest Idlib province, the experts said groups aligned with al-Qaida continue to dominate the area, with “terrorist fighters” numbering more than 10,000.
“Although there has been only limited relocation of foreign fighters from the region to other conflict zones, member states are concerned about the possibility of such movement, in particular to Afghanistan, should the environment there become more hospitable to ISIL or groups aligned with al-Qaida,” the panel said.
In central, south and southeast Asia, the experts said Islamic State and al-Qaida affiliates continue to operate “notwithstanding key leadership losses in some cases and sustained pressure from security forces.”
The experts said the status of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri “is unknown,” and if he is alive several unnamed member states “assess that he is ailing, leading to an acute leadership challenge for al-Qaida.”
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US Buys 200 Million More COVID-19 Vaccine Doses
The United States says it is buying 200 million more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to anticipate future needs, including the possibility of booster shots as well as doses for children under 12 if regulators approve its use.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday the additional doses would be delivered between this fall and spring of next year.She said the Biden administration is “going to prepare for every contingency” and wants to have “maximum flexibility” to deal with future possibilities.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve any COVID-19 vaccine for children under 12, but drugmakers have been testing their vaccines’ efficacy and safety in that age group.Health officials have begun to discuss the possibility of booster shots, but so far have said that Americans who are fully vaccinated do not need them at this time.In Europe, regulators Friday recommended approval of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for 12- to 17-year-olds. The European Medicines Agency has already approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use by teens.The approval paves the way for the European Commission and individual European governments to follow suit and allow the vaccine for teens.In another development Friday, the World Health Organization called for all countries to work together to investigate the origins of COVID-19, a day after China rejected plans by the WHO for another investigation.WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said another investigation is not about “politics” or a “blame game.” He said it is “about basically a requirement we all have to try to understand how the pathogen came into the human population.”The top Republican on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, called Friday for a congressional investigation into the origins of COVID-19, saying he has more evidence that the virus was leaked from a Chinese laboratory.China has repeatedly rejected that theory.Commuters crowd a bus promoting the use of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 23, 2021.The vice minister of the Chinese National Health Commission, Zeng Yixin, said Thursday the WHO’s proposal to reopen its investigation into a Chinese lab leak as the source of the global outbreak lacked “respect for common sense and an arrogant attitude toward science.” He said China “can’t possibly accept such a plan.”An investigation China and the WHO conducted earlier this year concluded it was “extremely unlikely” that a Wuhan lab leak was the source of the virus. Some international experts say, however, that Chinese scientists wielded too much influence in determining the results of the investigation.In Japan on Friday, after a one-year pandemic delay, the Tokyo Olympics formally opened.The event is being held amid tens of thousands of empty seats in Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, with only about 900 dignitaries and other officials attending because of COVID-19 precautions.The Japanese public is broadly opposed to holding the Games, fearing they will worsen Japan’s already deteriorating pandemic situation.In New Zealand, officials announced the suspension of the country’s quarantine-free travel arrangement with Australia, as that country struggles to bring an outbreak of the highly contagious delta variant under control.“This is not a decision we have taken lightly, but it is the right decision to keep New Zealanders safe,” the country’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said Friday.India’s health ministry said Friday it had recorded more than 35,000 new COVID-19 cases and 483 deaths in the previous 24-hour period.In the United States, some local health officials recommended reinstituting mask mandates because of the spread of the delta variant. Washington state’s top epidemiologist, Dr. Scott Lindquist, recommended that everyone wear a mask in crowded indoor places regardless of whether they have been vaccinated.Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards on Friday cited increasing hospitalizations across the state in encouraging people to wear masks indoors if they could not socially distance.According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, worldwide cases of COVID-19 have reached nearly 193.2 million. Global deaths stand at 4.14 million.
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Somali-American Designer Debuts Hijabs at Nordstrom
A Somali-American fashion designer is launching a line of headscarves with a major North American retailer to give Muslim women more options and to make hijabs more visible to U.S. shoppers. VOA Somali’s Maxamud Mascadde has our story from the Midwest state of Minnesota, narrated by Radhia Adam.
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Cleveland’s Major League Baseball Team Goes from Indians to Guardians
Known as the Indians since 1915, Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team will be called Guardians.The ballclub announced the name change Friday — effective at the end of the 2021 season — with a video on Twitter narrated by actor and team fan Tom Hanks. The decision ends months of internal discussions triggered by a national reckoning by institutions and teams to drop logos and names considered racist.The choice of Guardians will undoubtedly be criticized by many of the club’s die-hard fans, some of whom quickly went on social media to vent.The organization spent most of the past year whittling down a list of potential names that was at nearly 1,200 just over a month ago. But the process, which the club said included 140 hours of interviews with fans, community leaders, front office personnel and a survey of 40,000 fans.Owner Paul Dolan said last summer’s social unrest, touched off by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, spurred his intention to change the name.Dolan is expected to provide more details on the choice and background on the change at a news conference at Progressive Field before the Indians host the Tampa Bay Rays.Dolan said the new name mirrors the city and its people.”Cleveland has and always will be the most important part of our identity,” he said in a statement. “Therefore, we wanted a name that strongly represents the pride, resiliency and loyalty of Clevelanders. ‘Guardians’ reflects those attributes that define us.””It brings to life the pride Clevelanders take in our city and the way we fight together for all who choose to be part of the Cleveland baseball family. While ‘Indians’ will always be a part of our history, our new name will help unify our fans and city as we are all Cleveland Guardians.”The change comes as the Washington Football Team continues to work toward a similar makeover. The franchise dropped its Redskins name before the 2020 season. Washington recently said it will reveal a new name and logo in 2022.Cleveland’s new name was inspired by two large landmark stone edifices near the downtown ballpark — referred to as traffic guardians — on the Hope Memorial Bridge over the Cuyahoga River.The team’s colors will remain the same, and the new Guardians’ new logos will incorporate some of the architectural features of the bridge.In 2018, the Indians stopped wearing the contentious Chief Wahoo logo on their jerseys and caps. However, the team continues to sell merchandise bearing the smiling, red-faced caricature that was protested for decades by Native American groups.FILE – In this Jan. 29, 2018 file photo, foam images of the MLB baseball Cleveland Indians’ mascot Chief Wahoo are displayed for sale at the Indians’ team shop in Cleveland.Numerous Native American groups have protested Cleveland’s use of the Wahoo logo and Indians name for years, so the latest development brought some comfort.”It is a major step towards righting the wrongs committed against Native peoples, and is one step towards justice,” said Crystal Echo Hawk, executive director and founder of IllumiNative, a group dedicated to fighting misrepresentations of Native Americans.The name change has sparked lively debate among the city’s passionate sports fans. Other names, including the Spiders, which is what the team was called before 1900, were pushed by supporters on social media platforms.But Guardians does seem to fit the team’s objective to find a name that embodies Cleveland’s hard-working, loyal, Midwestern-valued ethos while preserving the team’s history and uniting the community.
The rebranding comes as the Indians, who have one of baseball’s lowest payrolls, try to stay in contention despite a slew of injuries as the July 30 trading deadline approaches.”This is a historic moment for our franchise, and we are excited for our players and staff to debut our new team name and look in 2022,” said Chris Antonetti, the club’s president of baseball operations. “We look forward to our team proudly representing the city of Cleveland as the Guardians.”Guardians is the fifth name in franchise history joining the Blues (1901), Bronchos (1902), Naps (1903-1914) and Indians (1915-2021).
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Myanmar Faces COVID-19 Surge Amid Political Crisis
Myanmar, already on the brink of widespread civil war after February’s coup, is facing another crisis as COVID-19 cases surge.
Cases have spiked, leaving infected patients desperate for medical assistance. Since the pandemic began, Myanmar has suffered over 246,000 COVID-19 cases and over 5,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
In recent weeks, virus cases have risen extensively, infecting thousands and leaving the country’s medical system on the brink of collapse. In southern Yangon, images have circulated online of patients lining up to refill oxygen cylinders.
A physiotherapist caring for patients in Yangon, told VOA the shortage of medical assistance is forcing patients to stay home and rely on doctors’ online advice.
“All people are desperately looking for oxygen,” she told VOA.
The opposition Civil Disobedience Movement has attracted a number of health care professionals several doctors who joined the CDM movement spoke with VOA in February.
Thousands of protesters have been arrested and killed, including health care workers. Meanwhile, as the military continues to grapple for control over the country’s health care systems, widespread distrust from the population remains. Those opposing the coup are refusing to seek military-help, leaving some left with a possible life-or-death decision.
Hein Lay, the founder of Modern Youth Charity Organization, aimed at assisting people with health issues and food shortages, told VOA the oxygen shortage is due to the military’s decision to close oxygen factories.
Patients are dying for no reason due to shortness of oxygen of breath,” he claimed.
But the organization says it hopes to set up its own factory that can produce oxygen for patients.
“We believe in we can save many lives and it will help those in need and save lives that should not die. People should cooperate with civil society organizations even if they hate the military council. Only then can this battle be won,” Hein Lay added.
Myanmar’s hospitals have overflowed with patients, and with limited staff are forced to turn patients away, leaving them without health care, with Yangon particularly affected.
Armed forces spokesperson General Zaw Min Tun responded to questions about the closure of oxygen suppliers, insisting the supply of oxygen is for hospitals and not private purchase. He added the military is adding new medical facilities to treat infected patients.
Nyan Win, a former adviser to ousted de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, died Tuesday from COVID-19. Nyan Win was a Myanmar politician that had been jailed in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison following the coup.
The physiotherapist said that that the military coup “ruined” the progress that had been made against COVID-19, and that the current third wave could have been prevented.
“In the second wave [November 2020], the civilian government [the now-removed National League for Democracy party] is leading and care for all patients and patients with COVID 19 confirmed case, everything is running smoothly.”
“Myanmar has already paid for the vaccines. Health workers have also been vaccinated first dose and are waiting for the second dose. If there had been no political change at that time, almost all citizens would have been vaccinated. And the public may not have to face the third wave of COVID 19,” she said.
Myanmar has been using the AstraZeneca vaccine, donated by India, and prior to the coup, had planned to vaccinate all 54 million of its population this year.
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As Olympics Open, Tokyo Residents Yearn for Olympic Crowds, Cheering and Celebrations Nixed by Pandemic
No free-spending foreign spectators. Lots of COVID-19 worries. And as the delayed Olympics begin on Friday, some Tokyo residents are finding it hard to find their game spirit.
“There’s no feeling of lively celebration in the city,” Hiroyuki Nakayama, a member of the Tokyo Citizens First Party, told VOA Mandarin before the Games opened.
“All in all, it’s not very satisfying,” said the member of Tokyo’s governing metropolitan assembly. “There’re no tourists, so there’s no real hope of the Games revitalizing the economy. Although many people opposed the event,” once the government gave the go-ahead, “people knew it was useless to object, so now they hope the Olympics can proceed smoothly and end safely.”
Nakayama is not a rare naysayer. According to a poll released July 13 by Ipsos, a global market research firm, 78% of respondents in Japan believe Tokyo should not host the Olympics during the pandemic. Since then, Tokyo added 1,832 confirmed cases of the coronavirus on July 21, and that was after adding nearly a thousand new cases a day for seven consecutive days in the past week. Only 29% of Japan’s residents have been vaccinated.
As of July 21, there were confirmed cases among the athletes including a Czech table tennis player, a U.S. beach volleyball player, a Dutch skateboarder, a Chilean taekwondo team member, an alternate U.S. women’s gymnast and a U.S. women’s tennis player. Although a full vaccination is not required for the athletes, testing is constant and began before they left their home countries, where many tested positive. Some never made it to Japan, which cancelled the Games last year due to the pandemic.
Ryoko Fujita, a member of the Japanese Communist Party and a local Tokyo lawmaker told VOA Mandarin that according to recent expert simulations, “even if the Olympics are not held, the diagnosis rate in Tokyo will exceed 2,000 a day in August.”
On July 16, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the government was taking measures to control the pandemic and ensure the “safety and peace of mind” of the Tokyo Olympics.
“The government insists on hosting the Olympics and continuously promotes the slogan of ‘safe and secure Olympics’ on various platforms but ignores the surge in public gatherings and has no actual countermeasures or actions,” said Fujita, who was a nurse for two decades.
On July 20, Shigeru Omi, an infectious disease expert who heads a subcommittee on the coronavirus in the Tokyo government said on television that by the first week of August, new confirmed cases in Tokyo could reach a new peak of about 3,000 a day, most likely straining medical resources.
Takashi Sato, an office worker, told VOA Mandarin before the Games began, that with Tokyo under its fourth emergency declaration, residents are so numb to the warnings, they “actually do not abide by the regulations.”
Seiichi Murakami, who owns a patisserie in Tokyo, told VOA Mandarin that he at one time thought the Olympic Games would boost business, which has been in a slump. But as the pandemic worsens, and tourists aren’t coming to town for the Games, he’s now wondering if he should close the patisserie.
“Even if the vaccination rate increases substantially, there is still a long way to go before the economy really recovers,” Murakami told VOA Mandarin.
Takayuki Kojima, who runs a Tokyo cram school, told VOA Mandarin that his students aren’t interested in the Games and he rarely hears anyone discuss them. Mostly he’s concerned with surviving financially now that classes are online. “I hope this will be the last emergency declaration. The government must implement the vaccination coverage rate and control the epidemic, otherwise everyone’s lives will reach a critical point.”
Ikue Furukawa lives near the National Stadium, which was the main stadium for the 1964 Olympic Games and was rebuilt for the 2020 Games. She told VOA Mandarin there are so many restrictions she can’t even get near her neighborhood’s fixture.
“Because of the pandemic, … it really doesn’t feel like we’re the host country. This is completely an online competition, so it’s like it’s all happening in a foreign country,” she said. “People just can’t get excited.”
Takako Koyama, a Tokyo housewife, told VOA, “The Japanese are actually more concerned about foreign players coming from afar and not having spectators to cheer for them. But due to the restrictions, foreign players cannot … feel the enthusiasm of the audience. I’m so sorry for the players.”
Kojima agreed, adding “Major leagues in the United States and European football matches can allow spectators. The Olympics should open up some popular events to at least let the Japanese cheer for all the players.”
Koyama pointed out that after repeated emergency declarations, people had been looking forward to the Games before the declaration of yet another pandemic emergency.
“School activities and trips have been cancelled, but the Olympics are still going to be held,” she said. “The Olympic torch relay has been cancelled and there will be no spectators in the competition. What is the meaning of such an Olympics? What kind of message is conveyed to the future? I can’t explain it to the children either.”
Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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UN Chief Calls on Warring Parties to Observe Olympic Truce
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all warring parties to observe the traditional Olympic truce during the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in Japan, and to pursue cease-fires and lasting peace after the competitions end.The U.N. chief said in a video message Thursday that athletes from around the world have had to overcome “enormous obstacles” to participate in the games in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.”We need to show the same strength and solidarity in our efforts to bring peace to our world,” he said.”Seeking peace and uniting around common goals is even more important this year,” Guterres said, “as we strive to end the pandemic and build a strong, sustainable and inclusive global recovery.”The Olympic truce began in ancient Greece to allow free passage of athletes and spectators from often-warring city-states to the original games every four years. But even that tradition was broken when the Greek city of Elis attacked the neighboring town of Pisa while it was hosting the Festival of Zeus and the Olympic Games.This summer’s Olympic Games will be held from July 23 to Aug. 8, followed by the Paralympic Games from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5.Guterres recalled “the traditional call to silence the guns while the games proceed,” and expressed hope that it can lead to an end to conflicts.
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Unvaccinated US Swimmer Sparks Debate as Olympics Start
A debate is brewing between former gold medalist Maya DiRado and some American swimmers over U.S. medal threat Michael Andrew’s decision not to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus as he prepares to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.DiRado sparked the discourse this week with a lengthy thread on Twitter in which she wrote that she’s “disappointed” in Andrew’s decision to compete unvaccinated and his reasoning behind it.
Andrew revealed earlier this month that he isn’t vaccinated after being asked about his status by a reporter.“My reason behind it is, for one, it was kind of a last moment, I didn’t want to put anything in my body that I didn’t know how I would potentially react to,” he said.“As an athlete on the elite level, everything we do is very calculated and understood. For me, in the training cycle, especially leading up to trials, I didn’t want to risk any days out. There were periods where you take a vaccine, you have to deal with some days off.”Andrew said he has no plans to be vaccinated in the future.“We feel very safe and protected knowing that we’re minimizing risk as much as possible,” he said, citing daily testing during the Olympics.Tokyo Olympic organizers and the International Olympic Committee didn’t make it mandatory for athletes to be vaccinated to compete. Just over 20% of the Japanese population is fully vaccinated. The IOC has reported 13 positive cases among all athletes in Japan.About 100 of the 613 U.S. athletes in Tokyo are unvaccinated, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s medical chief said Friday. Andrew is the only member of the U.S. swim team to publicly reveal that he is not vaccinated.“That Michael would make a decision that puts even a bit of risk on his teammates for his own perceived well-being frustrates me,” DiRado wrote. She is one of three athlete representatives on USA Swimming’s board of directors, having retired after the 2016 Rio Games, where she won four medals, including two golds.The top Americans — Caeleb Dressel, Katie Ledecky, Lilly King and Simone Manuel — have all said they are fully vaccinated.Former gold medalist Anthony Ervin tweeted to DiRado that Andrew had COVID-19 in December, “and thus has a natural immunity.”Andrew’s teammate, Tom Shields, criticized DiRado’s stance.“What part of that responsibility involves shaming one of our Olympian’s (sic) on the eve of competition?” Shields tweeted.Andrew dominated at the U.S. trials last month with impressive times in qualifying for the 100-meter breaststroke, 200 individual medley and 50 freestyle to earn his first Olympic berth.The 22-year-old swimmer who lives in Encinitas, California, first created waves in the sport when he turned pro at age 14. He is trained by his father, Peter, using a non-traditional method known as Ultra Short Race Pace Training. It involves only swimming at your goal race pace or faster in practice. It eliminates drills, kicking or any technique-based work. His mother, Tina, is his agent.“We chose a path. We’ve prided ourselves on that,” Andrew said. “It is cool to finally be at this point and for people to see that all those years of hard work and the fact that we can do it differently makes sense.”The online back-and-forth was surprising, as the American swimmers typically present a positive and united front at the Games while emphasizing team success over individual accomplishment.
“Michael is allowed to make his own decisions and I can guarantee you that none of us here are holding any decision like that against him,” teammate Patrick Callan tweeted. “He is still doing everything in the best interest of this team.”
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US Ships Moderna Vaccine to Pakistan Amid Delta Variant Surge
As Pakistan deals with a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the delta variant, the Biden administration is sending 3 million doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine Friday, set to arrive in the country Sunday.The doses, sent through COVAX, the United Nations vaccine-sharing mechanism, are in addition to the 2.5 million doses of Moderna already donated to Pakistan, a White House official told VOA.Pakistan’s national vaccination campaign has largely relied on Chinese vaccines, but the U.S. donations are helping officials overcome critical shortages of Western-developed anti-coronavirus shots.Pakistani expatriate workers are required to receive European or U.S. vaccines so they can resume working abroad, where governments have not yet approved Chinese vaccines.White House officials said the administration is “proud to be able to deliver these safe and effective vaccines” to Pakistanis.“We are sharing these doses not to secure favors or extract concessions. Our vaccines do not come with strings attached. We are doing this with the singular objective of saving lives,” the officials stressed.Pakistan hailed the White House announcement, saying it “deeply appreciates” the shipment of 3 million doses of Moderna.“These vaccines will give boost to ongoing vaccination drive in Pakistan,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri told VOA.“This considerate gesture is part of the continued assistance that the U.S. has provided to Pakistan to support our COVID relief and prevention efforts. We look forward to our continued cooperation with the U.S. in our fight against the pandemic,” Chaudhri said.Washington already has delivered nearly $50 million in COVID assistance to Islamabad to help the country combat the disease.The coronavirus situation in Pakistan, a country of about 220 million, remains largely under control.Pakistan government data show the country currently has more than a million cases, more than 53,600 of them active. The country has had almost 23,000 COVID-19-related deaths and is dealing with rampant infections from the delta variant.Wednesday, Karachi University’s National Institute of Virology said the delta variant – first discovered in neighboring India — now accounts for 100% of cases in the country’s largest city, Karachi.According to Pakistan’s Health Ministry, 24.5 million doses of the vaccine have been administered. The government plans to inoculate 70% of about 100 million Pakistanis deemed eligible for COVID-19 vaccine.Pakistan: Daily update on #vaccine doses administeredTotal doses administered till now: 24 millionDoses administered in last 24 hours: 6.07 lakh pic.twitter.com/EGioSIvqzN— Ministry of National Health Services, Pakistan (@nhsrcofficial) July 20, 2021COVAX strugglingThe White House official said that the administration has so far distributed close to 80 million doses to countries in need.Aside from Pakistan, countries that have received vaccine donations from the Biden administration include South Korea, Mexico, Canada, Taiwan, Brazil, Honduras, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Malaysia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, Indonesia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bhutan, Moldova, Nepal, Costa Rica, Haiti, Fiji, Laos, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.In addition to a $2 billion donation to COVAX, the administration has pledged to purchase 500 million Pfizer vaccines and distribute them through the year to the African Union and 92 low- and lower middle-income countries that are members of COVAX.Still, COVAX is struggling to get enough doses to reach its vaccination goals. According to July 15 calculations by Doctors Without Borders — also known as MSF, the abbreviation of its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres — Pfizer has allocated only 11% of its vaccine deliveries to date to low- and middle-income countries directly or through COVAX, and Moderna has allocated only 0.3%.The organization is urging the Biden administration to pressure Pfizer and Moderna to share mRNA vaccine technology with producers in low- and middle-income countries so more vaccines can be made in more places across the world.“The longer people everywhere remain completely unvaccinated, the more chances there will be for new variants to take hold and set back the global response,” Dr. Carrie Teicher, MSF-USA director of programs, said in a statement.Ayaz Gul contributed to this report.
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Italy Extends Its COVID-19 State of Emergency to Dec. 31
Italy on Thursday announced new anti-COVID 19 measures as infections have started rising again, mainly due to the highly contagious delta variant. The number of new coronavirus infections has doubled in the past week, with the country now recording more than 5,000 new cases daily. With fears that the number will continue to grow, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday evening outlined new rules that will go into effect Aug. 6 and continue through Dec. 31.Draghi said the so-called Green Pass will be required in Italy for many services, including entertainment and leisure. The Green Pass certifies that an individual has received at least one vaccine dose, has tested negative in the last 48 hours or has recently recovered from the virus.The rules make the Green Pass a requirement to eat in restaurants and bars and for outdoor sports events and museums, movie theaters, gyms, fairs and meetings.Draghi said Italy’s economy is doing well and even growing more than other European countries. He said the Green Pass is essential to “to keep economic activity open” so people can enjoy entertainment “with the assurance they won’t be next to contagious people.”Health minister Roberto Speranza said 40 million Italians already have their Green Pass, adding that vaccination is the way to “put behind us the most difficult season that we have had to face.”Draghi also appealed to Italians who have not yet received the vaccine to do so immediately to protect themselves and their families.Further government discussions will be held beginning next week to decide whether Green Pass measures will be required for public transport, at school and in workplaces.In the meantime, new parameters were adopted for how Italy’s regions will change color to indicate their level of COVID-19 risk. Their status will no longer be based on the number of infections but on the number of people in hospitals and intensive care units being treated for COVID-19.
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CDC Director: Delta Variant ‘One of the Most Infectious Respiratory Viruses’
The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, said Thursday the delta variant of the coronavirus that results in COVID-19 “is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of and that I have seen in my 20-year career.”Officials in Washington on Thursday urged people to get COVID vaccinations to protect themselves from the variant and to curb the spread of the coronavirus.China is not happy that the World Health Organization wants to continue to investigate whether the coronavirus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, resulting in the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.The vice minister of the Chinese National Health Commission, Zeng Yixin, said Thursday WHO’s proposal to reopen its investigation into a Chinese lab leak as the source of the global outbreak lacked “respect for common sense and an arrogant attitude toward science.” He said China “can’t possibly accept such a plan.”An investigation China and WHO conducted earlier this year concluded that it was “extremely unlikely” that a Wuhan lab leak was the source of the virus. International experts say, however, that Chinese scientists wielded too much influence in determining the results of the investigation.After a one-year pandemic delay, the Tokyo Olympics formally opens Friday.The event will be held amid tens of thousands of empty seats in Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, with only about 900 dignitaries and other officials attending because of COVID-19 precautions.The Japanese public is broadly opposed to holding the Games, fearing they will worsen Japan’s already deteriorating pandemic situation.Tokyo on Thursday reported nearly 2,000 new COVID-19 infections – a six-month high for a city that is already under a state of emergency due to COVID pandemic.India’s health ministry said Friday it had recorded more than 35,000 new COVID cases and 483 deaths in the previous 24-hour period.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported a total of 192.5 million global COVID cases Friday.
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Over 600,000 Notified to Quarantine in British ‘Pingdemic’
Over 600,000 users of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service’s (NHS) COVID-19 test and trace app were “pinged” alerts recommending self-isolation earlier this month.In what has been dubbed the “pingdemic,” the app told users to begin a 10-day quarantine if they tested positive for the coronavirus or had been in close contact with someone who did.The mass alerts have had significant repercussions for supermarkets and other businesses in the U.K. Stores warn that products are running low, and staff shortages have affected restock abilities. Some shops are altering their hours of operation in response to the challenge.Grocery store chain Lidl indicated a worker shortage was “starting to have an impact on our operations.”People walk past a sign, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in St Albans, Britain, July 21, 2021.Supermarkets are hiring large numbers of temporary employees to overcome staffing challenges. After 1,000 staff members were unable to return to work, the Iceland grocery chain is hiring 2,000 interim workers.Photographs of empty shelves were widely shared on social media, but supermarkets downplayed the shortages, with Iceland declaring them “isolated incidents.”Driver shortages and a rising number of workers required to self-isolate have also led to fuel supply issues.BP announced that a “vast majority” of the shortages were going to be resolved “within the day,” but a “handful” of their gas stations will be temporarily closed.According to the BBC, isolation is only legally required when instructed by the NHS test and trace program. A ping from the NHS COVID-19 app is only an advised self-isolation.Some business owners are trying to circumvent this regulation by allowing ‘pinged’ employees who have received a negative PCR test to return to work.Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng cautioned those attempting to avoid isolation, stating that “the rules are clear, and I think they should be followed.”The British government announced that it is necessary to maintain these guidelines until August 16, when further restrictions are scheduled to be lifted.
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Interior Secretary: Drought Demands Investment, Conservation
Confronting the historic drought that has a firm grip on the American West requires a heavy federal infrastructure investment to protect existing water supplies but also will depend on efforts at all levels of government to reduce demand by promoting water efficiency and recycling, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said Thursday.Haaland told reporters in Denver that the Biden administration’s proposed fiscal 2022 budget includes a $1.5 billion investment in the Bureau of Reclamation, which manages water and power in the Western states, and more than $54 million for states, tribes and communities to upgrade infrastructure and water planning projects.”Drought doesn’t just impact one community. It affects all of us — from farmers and ranchers to city dwellers and Indian tribes. We all have a role to use water wisely,” Haaland said at the start of a three-day visit to Colorado to address the U.S. response to the increasing scarcity of water and the massive wildfires burning throughout the region.The American West, including most of western Colorado, is gripped by the worst drought in modern history. The northern part of the state is experiencing deadly flash flooding and mudslides after rain fell in areas scarred by massive wildfires last year. Fires are burning across the West, most severely in Oregon and California, while the drought stresses major waterways like the Colorado River and reservoirs that sustain millions of people.FILE – In this July 28, 2014, photo, lightning strikes over Lake Mead near Hoover Dam that impounds Colorado River water at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Arizona.The drought and recent heat waves in the region that are tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight. Climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires larger and more destructive.Haaland spoke after meeting with Democratic Representative Diana DeGette, Governor Jared Polis and Jim Lochhead, chief executive of Denver Water, Colorado’s largest water agency, for a discussion on the drought and possible federal solutions.Among other initiatives, she said, the Bureau of Reclamation is working to identify and dispense “immediate technical and financial assistance for impacted irrigators and Indian tribes.”Tanya Trujillo, the department’s assistant secretary for water and science, cited a recent decision to release water from several Upper Colorado River basin reservoirs to supply Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the two manmade reservoirs that store Colorado River water.FILE – This Aug. 21, 2019, image shows Lake Powell near Page, Ariz.The reservoirs are shrinking faster than expected, spreading panic throughout a region that relies on the river to sustain 40 million people. Federal officials expect to make the first-ever water shortage declaration in the Colorado River basin next month, prompting cuts in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.”We have seen hydrologic projections that are worse than anticipated,” Trujillo said.Haaland’s three-day stay in Colorado includes her first trip Friday to the Bureau of Land Management’s new headquarters in Grand Junction, established by the Trump administration in 2019. The agency’s move from Washington, D.C., produced an outcry from critics who said it gutted the office. Haaland opposed the move as a member of Congress.The agency overseen by the Interior Department manages nearly 250 million acres of public lands, most of which are in the West. Polis and Colorado’s congressional delegation have urged Haaland to keep the office in Grand Junction.Haaland is visiting as severe dry periods sweeping areas of the West over the last several years have resulted in more intense and dangerous wildfires, parched croplands and a lack of vegetation for livestock and wildlife, according to government scientists.They also found that the problem is accelerating — rainstorms are becoming increasingly unpredictable and more regions are seeing longer intervals between storms since the turn of the century.
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Bezos, Mars Rover, Wildfires Headline Week in Space
Space tourism notches another win after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos follows fellow billionaire Richard Branson in rocketing to weightlessness. Plus, the hunt for ancient life on Mars is about to begin, and wildfires rage out of control in the U.S. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space
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China Rejects Second Probe Into Coronavirus Origin
China has rejected the World Health Organization’s proposal for a second phase of its investigation into the origin of the novel coronavirus pandemic.Zeng Yixin, the vice minister of the Chinese National Health Commission, told reporters in Beijing Thursday that he was extremely surprised when he read the proposal offered by the U.N. health agency includes audits of laboratories in the city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in late 2019 that led to more than 192 million infections around the globe, including 4.1 million deaths. Zeng said the WHO’s origin-tracing proposal lacks “common sense” and displays a disrespect toward science that makes it “impossible” for Beijing to accept. A team of WHO researchers visited Wuhan earlier this year to research the initial cause of the virus. The team concluded the virus likely jumped from animals to humans and that it was “extremely unlikely” that it leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology as some experts have speculated. But WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has criticized China for not fully cooperating with investigators by not sharing raw data, and has called for a continued probe of all theories, including a lab accident.Chinese officials and news outlets have begun speculating that the virus may have escaped from a U.S. military laboratory, a theory that has been widely dismissed by the scientific community.Meanwhile, a new study says that two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are effective against the highly contagious delta variant of the disease. In a study published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at Public Health England found that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are 88% effective at preventing symptomatic disease caused by the delta variant, compared to 93% against the alpha variant. The researchers also say two doses of AstraZeneca vaccine are 67% effective against delta, compared to 74% against the alpha variant.A single dose of Pfizer is just 36% effective against delta, the researchers say, while one shot of AstraZeneca was just 30% effective. A study posted online Tuesday suggests that Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot COVID-19 vaccine may be less effective against the emerging variants of the coronavirus, compared to either of the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and AFP.
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Flagbearers to Send Messages of Equality and Justice at Olympic Opening Ceremony
Many Olympic nations are expected to demonstrate their support for gender equality and racial justice on Friday night with their selections of athletes to carry flags at the opening ceremony.The International Olympic Committee changed it rules and asked each nation to select two flagbearers in an effort to increase gender equality at the Tokyo Games.Gold-medal rower Mohamed Sbihi will be the first Muslim to carry the British flag at the Games, alongside sailor Hannah Mills.”It is such an honor to be invited to be the flagbearer for Team GB,” Sbihi said. “It is an iconic moment within the Olympic movement – people remember those images.”Aussies Cate Campbell and Patty Mills are both attending their fourth Olympics. Mills, a basketballer who plays for the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA, will be the first indigenous Australian selected to carry the flag for the Opening Ceremony.”It’s identity, it’s being able to showcase who you are throughout the world,” Mills said. “It’s one of those things that makes you proud of who you are. We have definitely come a long way for Australian sport and it’s special.”Team USA will be represented by 40-year-old basketballer Sue Bird and Cuban-American baseballer Eddy Alvarez. Alvarez, who also won a silver medal for speedskating in the 2014 Winter Olympics, has expressed support for those in Cuba who have joined recent protests over the country’s economic crisis.”We feel for the people of Cuba right now. We’re so proud of them because they are going out there to protest with stones, forks and broomsticks,” he said.For the Netherlands, it will be 36-year-old Dutch sprinter and Black athlete Churandy Martina, from Curaçao, and skateboarder Keet Oldenbeuving, 16. They are the oldest and youngest members of the Dutch Olympic team.In Belgium’s case, the two will also represent the country’s linguistic divide – heptathlete Nafi Thiam, a French speaker, and hockey player Felix Denayer, a Dutch speaker.”What an honor!” posted Black sprinter Mujinga Kambundji with an emoji of the Swiss flag on Instagram after she was selected alongside Max Heinzer.”When I started athletics as a child, going to the Olympics never sounded really realistic. Today, I’m preparing for my third Olympic Games, and this honor makes the experience even more special.”
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Why COVID-19 Is Rising Around Asia This Year After a Mild 2020
Asian countries are reporting record COVID-19 waves this year compared to 2020, as vaccination drives fall short and governments lose hope that mass closures and border controls can keep the coronavirus away, observers in the region say.Spread of the delta variant from India, infections among airline personnel and citizens who brought back the virus from trips spread COVID-19 in parts of Asia with recent outbreaks. Containment measures had relaxed in some spots after months of low caseloads while domestic travel picked up.Officials from Bangkok to Taipei sidelined vaccine procurement last year while Western countries were preparing to make shots so widespread that England is now 87% vaccinated and in the United States just about any adult can get shots from a local drugstore.Many Asian countries held back the respiratory disease in 2020 by barring foreign tourists and shutting down places where people gather. Manufacturing-reliant Asian economies held up economically last year for lack of long-term work stoppages.“I call this a complacency curse,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.“Thailand did so well during virus stage last year that it sat on its laurels and got behind the curve on vaccine procurement,” he told VOA.Thailand has fully vaccinated just 5% of its population, with Vietnam at around 1%, according to the Our World in Data research website. Vietnam hit a one-day coronavirus infection record of 5,926 on July 18, while Thailand posted its own record of 11,397 the same day.In Taiwan, which reported its first major COVID-19 wave in May, just 0.5% of people Residents wait on line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at the Central Vaccination Center in Bangkok, Thailand, July 22, 2021.Asian countries are fighting now to get vaccines because Western pharmaceutical companies are busy filling orders in other parts of the world, governments in Asia are slow to grant permits for domestic drug firms, and their citizens worry about side effects, news reports say. Cold storage has run short in some spots.Many have turned to donations or rush orders from China, Japan and the United States. Taiwan and Vietnam aim to release domestically produced vaccines to augment supplies. Japan offered Vietnam $1.8 million as well for vaccine cold storage, the Vietnam Insider news website said in May.“I think slowly [Vietnam] will recover as people are doing in Europe and in the U.S.,” said Phuong Hong, 40, a travel sector worker in Ho Chi Minh City who spends 95% of her time at home with four family members as they all await text messages from the government telling them when they qualify for vaccines.“It should be faster, but I think the distribution channel — they also need to understand how to store the vaccine,” she said.In Indonesia, the government has accepted vaccines from China and other sources, but the country’s full vaccination rate is just 6%. On July 15, Indonesia hit a record daily caseload of 56,757.Citizens have a list of misgivings, said Paramita Supamijoto, an international relations lecturer at Bina Nusantara University in Jakarta. They might believe vaccines are not halal, according to Islamic rules about what a person should ingest, or that COVID-19 itself is a “hoax,” she said. Indonesians with possible symptoms tend to avoid hospitals, she added, in part because they’re full.“It’s really complicated here in Indonesia, in general,” Supamijoto said. “You don’t know whether the people who stand next to you or sit next to you [are] healthy or not.”A health worker administers the COVID-19 vaccine at the Central Vaccination Center in Bangkok, Thailand, July 22, 2021.Much of 660 million-population Southeast Asia now faces new rounds of economic inactivity triggered by business closures and stay-home orders to contain the virus. The Asian Development Bank said this month it had downgraded Southeast Asia’s 2021 economic growth forecast to 4.0% from 4.4% “as some countries reimpose pandemic restrictions.”“Countries have been significantly impacted quite a lot in terms of their economies and the impact is increasing, so that’s I would say quite a contrast to what’s happening say in the U.S. and Europe, where things have improved quite a lot,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit.A surge in delta variant cases brought from India by frequent travel has added to Southeast Asia’s woes, Biswas added. He said, though, that most Asian countries are shunning the “total lockdowns” of last year because of the economic impacts.Asian governments say vaccine supplies should surge in the second half of the year. Thai officials said in June they would fill an earlier pledge for doses by the end of this month, while Taiwan’s president set a target of vaccinating 25% of the island’s population by July 31.Vietnam anticipates providing 110 million doses by December, though still short of its goal of 150 million doses for 75% of the population, Vietnam Insider reports.Economic slowdowns are “not permanent,” said Song Seng Wun, an economist in the private banking unit of Malaysian bank CIMB, adding, “we will get back once the vaccine rollout comes.”
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Biden Vows to Continue Encounter with China Over Opioids
U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday he will continue “this encounter with China” to attempt to stem the flow of deadly drugs being smuggled into the United States via Mexico.Biden, during an appearance on a CNN “town hall”-style program from Cincinnati, said his administration is “dealing with the whole opioid issue” by significantly increasing the number of people in the Justice Department working on it.Fentanyl is considered 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin. The health crisis in America caused by synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, was frequently raised by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.The former president repeatedly criticized China, the primary exporter of fentanyl or its precursor chemicals to Mexico, where cartels smuggle it into the United States, for not cracking down on the drug trafficking.A 1,500-word background memo issued ahead of Biden’s third visit to Ohio during his 6-month-old presidency, covered key concerns in the state ranging from repairing highway bridges to combating childhood obesity. It did not mention the opioid crisis, although Ohio has one of the highest per capita rates of overdose deaths, which have been the leading cause of fatal injuries in the state for more than a decade.Asked by VOA on the Air Force One flight Wednesday to the event whether — in view of this — the issue remains a priority for the Biden administration, White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded: “Absolutely, it’s a top priority, and there’s no question it is an issue that has impacted people across Ohio and continues to. Any health expert will tell you that the most important thing we could do is make sure people have access to health care coverage. ”Some U.S. objectives set during the Trump administration with respect to China remain unmet.China has not taken action to control additional fentanyl precursors, following Beijing’s crackdown on two such substance in 2018.Chinese traffickers shifted to sending not yet controlled chemicals to Mexico and Chinese nationals indicted in the United States on fentanyl trafficking charges remain at large, noted a January report from the Congressional Research Service.“I don’t believe there’s much we can do to slow these countries’ export of these drugs,” said Ben Westhoff, author of Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Created the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic.“All we can do is implement harm reduction measures at home, like supervised injection facilities, while also providing greater access to fentanyl testing strips, medication assisted treatment, and needle exchange programs,” he said.Westhoff, described himself as an advocate for harm reduction, the philosophy that accepts people cannot be stopped from using drugs and that instead users should be taught about their dangers and helped to use them more safely.“In this framework, the Biden administration has been only marginally better than Trump’s. Mostly they have simply maintained the status quo,” Westhoff told VOA. “In the midst of the worst drug crisis in American history, we need much bolder action.”Projections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that Ohio last year likely saw its largest-ever number of drug overdoses — more than 14 per day for a total of 5,215, breaking the recorded high from 2017.That puts the midwestern state with the fourth-largest total among the 50 U.S. states.Overall, there was a dramatic spike in U.S. drug deaths, up about 27% in the first six months of the coronavirus pandemic.A total of 88,000 Americans died in the 12-month period ending in August 2020, according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.”Illicitly manufactured fentanyl and synthetic opioids are the primary drivers of this increase,” with people between the age of 35 and 44 most at risk, the acting head of the office, Regina LaBelle, told reporters in early April.“The Biden administration is not doing enough to address this issue with either China or Mexico,” according to Paul Larkin, a senior legal research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.Larkin said the question for the president is how many people must die from smuggled fentanyl before he closes the southwest border to drug smugglers.“Hundreds of people are dying every day in this country while we wait for the answer to that question,” Larkin told VOA.Tom Synan, police chief of the village of Newton, in Hamilton County, Ohio, who testified before the U.S. Senate in 2017 about the fentanyl crisis, said most of the emergency calls his officers respond to are drug-related, be they overdoses or gun crimes.Throughout Hamilton County there are 50 to 70 overdoses each week and more than 400 people dying every year.While the numbers have stabilized in the county, Synan told VOA those statistics are “a person, a mother, father, brother, sister, son or daughter, I just had a mother reach out today asking for help. Every single day we’re dealing with an addiction epidemic.”Synan said he wrote Trump asking whether 70,000 to 100,000 Americans needed to die before action is taken.“I thought I was being overdramatic. But now I realize that not only was I not dramatic, but the number was pretty close,” said the police chief, adding he has a similar question for Biden.“I wholeheartedly believe that when a president of the United States stands up and says that we as Americans need to change the way we view and deal with addiction. It’ll shift the stigma. It’ll shift funding research out of the criminal justice system and into the mental medical health care system. And that would be my question to him — is what will it take for us to shift?” said Synan.The White House, nearly four months ago, after the start of the Biden administration, introduced a seven-part plan intended to decrease the number of deaths. It is to be implemented over the next year.One goal is to shift the government response from a focus on arrests toward treatment.“What really is the biggest enabler of addiction is our own ideologies and policies that hold us back from changing addiction from being punished to actually treating it as the mental medical health condition it is,” said the Newtown police chief.Biden has expressed understanding of that approach.“We shouldn’t be sending people to jail for [drug] use. We should be sending them to mandatory rehabilitation,” the president said on Wednesday night’s television program.
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Delta Variant Doubles US COVID-19 Cases Since Last Month
The U.S. has averaged more than 26,000 new COVID-19 cases per day over the past week — more than double the number it was a month ago — with the more contagious delta variant making up over 80% of cases. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara looks at the Biden administration’s strategy for dealing with the surge, as misinformation continues to drive anti-vaccination sentiments in certain groups.
Producer: Kimberlyn Weeks
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