The White House has laid out its plans for sharing 55 million COVID-19 vaccine doses abroad, with most of the allocations going to countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa.The Biden administration said Monday that most of the doses would be shared through the COVAX international vaccine-sharing program, fulfilling a commitment by President Joe Biden to share 80 million U.S.-made vaccines with countries around the world.The Associated Press reported Monday that the administration is likely to fall short of its pledge to share the vaccines by the end of June, because of regulatory and other hurdles. Officials cited by the news agency say the vaccine doses are ready but are being delayed due to legal, logistical and regulatory requirements in both the United States and the recipient countries.Biden laid out his plans for the first 25 million doses earlier this month. On Monday, the White House revealed plans for the 55 million remaining shots, including 14 million for Latin America and the Caribbean, 16 million for Asia, and about 10 million for Africa.Another 14 million doses are being shared with “regional priorities,” including Colombia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, South Africa, the West Bank and Gaza.The United States has already begun delivering vaccine doses to Taiwan, Mexico, Canada and South Korea.“We have plenty of supply to deliver on the 80 million doses,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday’s press briefing. “Our biggest challenge is logistics, is the fact that there is not a playbook for this and there are challenges as it relates to getting these doses out to every country.”FILE – A health worker holds a tray with vials of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 during a priority vaccination program at a community medical center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 6, 2021.In addition, President Biden announced earlier this month that the U.S. would purchase 500 million vaccine doses from drug manufacturer Pfizer and distribute them worldwide over the coming year.The United States has surplus vaccine doses after more than 177 million Americans have received at least one shot and demand for COVID vaccines has begun to fall.The White House said in a statement Monday that the United States “will not use its vaccines to secure favors from other countries.” It said the U.S. goals for the program include increasing global COVID-19 vaccination coverage, preparing for surges and helping “our neighbors and other countries in need.”
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Month: June 2021
India Hits New Daily Vaccination Record
After a deadly second wave spurred changes in India’s vaccine policy, the country announced it had given 7.5 million coronavirus vaccine doses Monday – a new single day record for inoculations.The previous high mark was 4.5 million on April 5, which was reportedly followed by a decline to below 3 million a day.The surge in vaccinations follows distribution changes announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month. Under the new plan, the government would buy 75% of the vaccines and give them to the states free of charge. India says it aims to inoculate 950 million adults by December, but experts say in order to do that, it will have to give 10 million shots a day. Less than 5% of adults are fully vaccinated, Reuters reported.India is using a locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine as well as Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, made by an Indian company.During the country’s second wave, which peaked in May, some 400,000 new cases were reported per day. Around 170,000 died between April and May.But over the past 24 hours, the infection rate has dropped below 55,000 new cases, according to Reuters.
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US Supreme Court Unanimously Rules Against NCAA
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday against the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s limits on education-related benefits that student athletes can receive.In a 9-0 ruling, the court upheld a previous ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California that expanded educational compensation for U.S. college athletes beyond athletic scholarships to perks such as free computers and graduate school tuition. The NCAA determines the rules and regulations of U.S. collegiate competitions at 1,268 schools across the country, a main feature of which are restrictions on the compensation of athletes. In court, the organization argued that such limits helped maintain the amateur aspect of college sports. The court’s ruling found that the NCAA’s regulations related to educational perks are anticompetitive and violate the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prevents organizations from holding a monopoly over a market. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who penned the opinion for the court, wrote that in most other U.S. industries, the NCAA’s business model would be illegal.“Price-fixing labor is ordinarily a textbook antitrust problem because it extinguishes the free market in which individuals can otherwise obtain fair compensation for their work,” Gorsuch wrote. The court did not address other issues that critics of the NCAA and previous lawsuits have raised, such as the organization’s rule that athletes cannot be paid for the use of their name, image and likeness.
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Tokyo Organizers Predict Safe Olympics, But Many in Japan Skeptical
Opinion polls have for months suggested most Japanese oppose holding the Olympics. Some medical experts warn the event could lead to coronavirus clusters or spread new variants.But with only a month to go until the Olympic cauldron is lit in Tokyo, organizers remain confident they can safely hold the Games, thanks in part to pandemic precautions that will ensure this Summer Olympics are like no other in history. International spectators have already been banned from the Olympics, which start July 23. On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said it is “definitely” possible the competition will be held in completely empty venues, depending on Japan’s COVID-19 situation. According to athlete guidelines issued last week, hugs, handshakes, and high-fives are forbidden. Off the field, virtually any degree of spontaneity has been outlawed, as athletes and staff must submit a detailed daily activity plan, including visits only to approved destinations. A machine to check body temperature and hand sanitizers are placed at the doping control station of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Village in Tokyo, Japan, June 20, 2021.“You must not walk around the city,” specifies one section of the guidelines. Violators may be subject to disqualification, fines, or even deportation, the rules stipulate. With such measures in place, public opposition toward the Games is softening. But it is still widespread, with many saying Japan should instead focus on its own tepid pandemic recovery.Only about a third of Japanese support holding the Olympics, according to a poll released Monday by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Though that figure may seem low, it is up from just 14% who supported the Games last month. About 86% of Japanese are concerned about a resurgence in COVID-19 cases because of the Games, suggested a Kyodo News survey published Sunday. Vaccine woes Japan has seen a small number of coronavirus cases compared to many other countries, but its vaccination effort has been sluggish. Only around 6% of Japan’s population has been fully vaccinated, one of the worst rates among wealthy countries. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike inspects a vaccination of COVID-19 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government office in Tokyo as Tokyo Metropolitan Government started vaccination for the persons involved in the Olympic Games, June 18, 2021.While vaccinations have picked up in recent weeks, that does little good for the tens of thousands of Tokyo 2020 volunteers still waiting to be inoculated.One Olympics volunteer told VOA that if he does not get vaccinated soon, he may join the approximately 10,000 Tokyo 2020 volunteers who have already dropped out. “I’m very impatient,” said the volunteer, who did not want his name published because he is not authorized to speak with the media. He says unvaccinated volunteers feel unprepared to work with crowds. “Masks, disinfectant sprays, and leaflets distributed by the organizers to volunteers will not be enough to prevent infection when an infected person appears,” said the volunteer, whose job is to work with visiting media. Japanese officials say they are considering vaccinating all 70,000 unpaid Olympics volunteers. But they are running out of time to do so. Even so, Japanese officials insist the danger will be minimal. They say an estimated 80% of the athletes and other Olympics visitors will be vaccinated. That may not be good enough, considering Japan’s low overall vaccination rate, according to some medical experts. “There is a big problem here,” Norio Sugaya, infectious disease expert and doctor at Keiyu Hospital in Yokohama, told VOA. “It is extremely difficult to completely regulate the behavior of a total of 100,000 people, including athletes, officers, and media personnel,” Sugaya said. “I don’t think we should do something as risky as the Olympics at this time,” he adds. A journalist looks at cardboard beds, for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Villages, which are shown in a display room the Village Plaza, June 20, 2021, in Tokyo.Pushing aheadBut Tokyo, which has spent billions of dollars in taxpayer money on the event, seems to believe moving ahead is the least bad option.The Games, which were already delayed a year because of the pandemic, This long exposure photo shows streaks of lights from cars passing by a Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics sign on the side of a building, June 11, 2021, in Tokyo.Political impact Japan’s government, whose approval ratings are only in the 30% range, also hopes to reap some political benefit from hosting a successful event. Prime Minister Suga’s government is planning to hold a lower house election once the Olympics finish, points out Wallace. “They will be hoping they get a little post-Olympics boost going into that election. But I think they will be unpleasantly surprised,” he predicts. Professor Kirsten Holmes of Australia’s Curtin University, who focuses on the sustainability of major international events like the Olympics, agrees that the pandemic has raised the cost for Tokyo in hosting the Games. “On the other hand, being able to deliver a safe Olympic Games at this time during the pandemic will be an enormous boost to both people living in Japan but also Japan’s future in terms of hosting other events going forward,” she said.
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Northeast Nigeria Facing Acute, Life-Threatening Hunger
The United Nations is urgently appealing for $250 million to provide life-saving food assistance for millions of people in northeast Nigeria, many of whom risk starving to death.The U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, Edward Kallon, says he has come to Geneva to warn the international community that Nigeria is at a crossroads and in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. He says 4.4 million people in northeast Nigeria’s Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states are facing a looming catastrophic situation of food insecurity that eventually could result in a famine. “Of these 4.4 million people, 775,000 are in critical needs of food assistance and risk death, and also further dispossession, if necessary action is not taken now,” he said.Kallon says malnutrition rates are rising in all three states in northeast Nigeria, reaching a particularly dangerous high of 13.6% in Yobe State. The U.N. Children’s Fund reports severe acute malnutrition causes stunting, wasting, physical and mental impairment, and even death. U.N. coordinator Kallon says these children urgently need special nutritional feeding to save their lives. However, providing aid in this volatile region is dangerous, and in some cases, impossible. “Ongoing insecurity, which has resulted in further displacement of people and also compounded by the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19. And closely linked to the issues of insecurity [are] issues of access in areas that are controlled by the nonstate armed groups, where we have well over 800,000 people we cannot reach,” he said.Northeast Nigeria has been in almost constant turmoil since the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009, and the situation has grown worse in recent months with a wave of mass kidnappings for ransom. The United Nations reports 8.7 million people in northeast Nigeria need humanitarian aid. Earlier this year, the U.N. appealed for $1 billion to assist 6.4 million of the most vulnerable. To date, only 55% percent of the required funding has been received.
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Nearly 6,000 Displaced Return Home After Niger Jihadist Attacks
Nearly 6,000 people who fled jihadist violence in 2015 have returned home to the town of Baroua in southeast Niger’s troubled Diffa region, local authorities said Monday.They are the first group to go home as part of a operation to return people to 19 towns and villages in the region, which has been ravaged by jihadists from neighboring Nigeria.”It is a voluntary return of 1,187 households totaling 5,935 people” who returned on Sunday to Baroua, a town of some 15,000 near Lake Chad, said Yahaya Godi, a top official in the Diffa region.Between 8,000 and 10,000 people are expected to return to Baroua in total.State television showed images of around 20 trucks loaded with food, water, beds and building materials, with the returnees perched on top, arriving in Baroua.Diffa is home to 300,000 refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) who have fled attacks by the Nigeria-based jihadist group Boko Haram and its breakaway faction Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), according to the UN.Niger’s government gave the go-ahead for the return of IDPs “given positive changes in the (security) situation on the ground,” said Diffa regional governor Issa Lemine, who was in Baroua to welcome the returnees.Niger’s security forces are working to ramp up protection for returning residents, he added.Most of the IDPs had fled to other parts of the region, notably the city of Diffa itself.Some 120,000 refugees from jihadist attacks in northeastern Nigeria are housed in camps around the Diffa region. ISWAP has become a dominant threat in Nigeria, attacking soldiers and bases while killing and kidnapping civilians.Baroua “is in ruins and we will have to start from scratch,” a local elected official told AFP.Health clinics, drinking water distribution facilities, schools and mosques are “all run down”, he added.Godi said people who are still reluctant to return will be encouraged by the stepped-up security as well as rebuilt infrastructure.And the government will hire returnees to work on rebuilding projects in Baroua.Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum, elected in February, campaigned on a promise to return all refugees and displaced people to their homes by the end of 2021.The former French colony, which by the yardstick of the UN’s Human Development Index is the poorest country in the world, also houses nearly 60,000 people who fled after the jihadist insurgency erupted in neighboring Mali in 2012.
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In the Absence of In-Person Classes, Dentistry Courses Use Virtual Reality
While virtual reality-based simulation is commonly used in medical education, its use in dental education is still limited. Two university professors in the U.S. want to change that. They developed a VR dental clinic that offers the potential to revolutionize dental education. Vina Mubtadi reports.
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Turkey Pushes for Role in Afghanistan After US Pullout
Turkey is seeking to play a vital role in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US forces by offering to provide security to Kabul’s international airport. But Ankara faces formidable obstacles.FILE – Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speaks during a joint news conference with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens, Greece, May 31, 2021.Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says the operation and security of Afghanistan’s Kabul airport are vital not only to the country but also to the survival of all diplomatic missions, including Turkey’s. Cavusoglu made the comments Sunday at an international meeting at the Turkish sea resort of Antalya. Attending the Antalya meeting, Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar said he supports Turkey’s offer to provide security to Kabul’s airport. “We welcome it, and we will support it. We believe that this will be essential for the continuation of Turkish and NATO, as well as the international community’s support to Afghanistan,” he said.But Atmar played down any military role for Pakistan in the Turkish mission.Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — speaking at the NATO summit — said Hungarian and Pakistan forces would assist Turkey in providing security to the Kabul airport. FILE – U.S President Joe Biden (R) speaks with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prior to a plenary session of a NATO summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, June 14, 2021. (Photo by Olivier Matthys / Pool / AFP)The Taliban has said it opposes any foreign forces remaining in Afghanistan, but Ankara believes it can overcome such opposition. While the Turkish military is part of U.S.-led NATO operations in Afghanistan, it has avoided armed confrontations. Hikmet Cetin, who served as NATO’s senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, says Turkey has successfully maintained good relations with all sides in the conflict. “When I was there, of course, I [talked] sometimes with the young generation of the Taliban. They respect Turkey very much because the relation between Turkey and Afghanistan started during the 1920s. But [the] Taliban, they were disagreeing with Turkey being part of the foreign military forces, part of NATO,” he said.Turkey is looking to its close allies Pakistan and Qatar to use their influence over the Taliban to ease their opposition to the proposed Turkish role. FILE – Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in Islamabad, Pakistan, April 7, 2021.On Monday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Mehmood Qureshi said Erdogan had invited Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan for talks on Afghanistan. Qureshi warned the Afghanistan peace process was at a critical stage. The Taliban is stepping up its military operations across the country as American forces withdraw, a process that is due to be completed by September 11. Turkish officials are in talks with Washington for financial and logistical support. With Turkey’s relations with its many of its Western allies strained and in need of repair, the country’s airport initiative could provide crucial common ground, says Huseyin Bagci, head of the Foreign Policy Institute in Ankara. “It’s very risky, but nothing can be better for American-Turkish relations to put Turkish troops in Kabul airport. The key problem is [the] Taliban but they can make a deal,” he said.Analysts warn that with formidable obstacles remaining in the way of Turkey’s plans for the Kabul airport mission, time is running out before the September 11 deadline for U.S. withdrawal.
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Taiwan Welcomes Additional Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine from US
Taiwan has welcomed the arrival of about 2.5 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine from the United States, a gesture that was met angrily by China.The doses, which landed at the Taoyuan International Airport outside of the capital Taipei Sunday after a one-day flight, more than tripling an initial pledge of 750,000 doses made by the Biden administration to the self-governing island.In a post on Facebook, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen praised the arrival of the vaccines.“Whether it is for regional peace and stability or the virus that is a common human adversary, we will continue to uphold common ideas and work together,” President Tsai wrote.According to the Reuters news agency, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry urged the U.S. to avoid “political manipulation in the name of vaccine assistance and stop interfering in China’s domestic affairs.” China claims the self-governed island as part of its territory, and has offered Taiwan doses of its domestically produced vaccines, which Taipei has refused. The self-ruled island had been held up as one of the world’s few success stories in containing the spread of the coronavirus at the start of the pandemic, but it has been dealing with an sudden outbreak of new infections which authorities have connected to outbreaks among flight crews with state-owned China Airlines and a hotel at Taoyuan International Airport.Taiwan currently has 14,005 confirmed COVID-19 infections, including 549 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
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In Indonesian Banking, Rise in Religious Conservatism Ripples Across Sector
A rise in religious conservatism in Indonesia is drawing talent away from what some view as un-Islamic jobs in banking, industry professionals say, creating hiring woes for conventional banks but a boon for the country’s fledgling sharia finance sector.The trend comes amid broader societal change in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, driven by millions of young, ‘born-again’ Muslims embracing stricter interpretations of Islam.Reuters spoke to a dozen industry sources over how concern about Islamic law barring exploitative interest payments, known as “riba,” is reverberating through the world of Indonesian finance.Since 2018, hiring for banks and fintech companies in peer-to-peer lending, payments and investment platforms has been more challenging, said Rini Kusumawardhani, a finance sector recruiter at Robert Walters Indonesia.“Roughly speaking 15 out of 50 candidates” would refuse a job within conventional banking and peer-to-peer lending, she told Reuters. “Their reason was quite clear-cut. They wanted to avoid riba.”Islamic scholars do not all agree on what constitutes riba. Some say interest on a bank loan is an example, but others say that while such loans should be discouraged, they are not sinful.“It’s so common that the stigma is if one borrows it’s identical with riba,” Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told a webinar on the Islamic economy earlier this year. “But loans are allowed in the Koran as long as they’re taken carefully and they’re recorded correctly.”Islamic banking accounts for just over 6% of the roughly $634 billion assets in Indonesia’s banking industry — but has seen tremendous growth in recent years. Savings in Islamic banks jumped 80% from end-2018 to March 2021, outstripping the 18% growth in conventional counterparts, while financing also grew faster than conventional loan growth.Worse than adulteryExactly how many have left Indonesia’s conventional banking sector is unclear. Statistics show a gradual employment drop, but this may also reflect digitalization or coronavirus pandemic-related layoffs.As of February, there were 1.5 million people overall employed in finance and the sector offered Indonesia’s third-highest average salary, government data showed. The sector employed 1.7 million in 2018.For 36-year-old Syahril Luthfi, finding online articles labeling riba as “tens of times more sinful than committing adultery with your own mother” was enough to persuade him to quit his conventional bank job and move to an Islamic lender, he said.Concerns over the issue have helped create online support groups for former bankers, including XBank Indonesia, which claims nearly 25,000 active members on a messaging platform and has an Instagram account with half a million followers.Its chairman, El Chandra, said in an email the community was founded in 2017 to support those facing challenges quitting a financially supportive, but un-Islamic job.“To decide to quit a riba-ridden job is not easy, many things must be taken into consideration,” said Chandra, who said some branded those who quit as stupid or radical.XBank Indonesia advises people against taking out mortgages and other loans. But it is hard to measure the impact on demand for banking products among the so-called “hijrah” movement of more conservative young, middle-class Indonesians now embracing Islam many already did not use banks to the extent Western peers might.Business opportunitiesSunarso, president director of Indonesia’s biggest lender by assets, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), acknowledges people had left jobs at financial institutions he has worked at for religious reasons. However, he views the hijrah trend as an opportunity for sharia finance, explaining how it determined a decision to merge the Islamic banking units of BRI and two other state-controlled lenders in February to form the country’s biggest Islamic lender, Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI). BSI’s chief executive Hery Gunardi told Reuters it planned to cater to the growing community of more religious millennials in a bid to double its assets. In fintech, some startups have also been trying to align with Islam, to tap a bigger slice of Indonesia’s multi-billion-dollar internet economy. Dima Djani, founder of Islamic lending startup ALAMI, expects Islamic financial products to really take off in two to three years as the hijrah movement matures, impacting people’s “lifestyle, their looks, their food and their travel” as they learn more about their religion. “But in the end, as they continue to learn and shift their behavior … they will shift their finances,” added Dima, who previously worked at foreign banks. He said due to high demand, he planned to expand ALAMI into an Islamic digital bank later this year.
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COVID-19 Slashes Immigration into Australia
New figures show that migration to Australia plummeted last year to the lowest level in more than 100 years.Modern Australia has been built on immigration. Thirty percent of the population was born overseas. Migrants from England are the biggest group, followed by India and China. Australia has relied on new settlers for much of its economic growth in recent decades. But COVID-19 has applied the brakes to immigration. The government in Canberra closed the country’s borders to most foreign nationals in March 2020 to curb the spread of COVID-19, and those restrictions are likely to remain for another year. In 2020, just 3,300 migrants moved to Australia — a small fraction of the 244,000 arrivals the previous year. The collapse in numbers has affected many businesses unable to recruit skilled workers from overseas, as well as universities which have relied on large numbers of international students. Mark McCrindle, founder of the McCrindle Research agency, says the turnaround has been significant. “It is phenomenal. We were growing through migration. In fact, prior to the pandemic 60% of our population growth was because of arrivals from overseas. Last year that was just 2%. So, 98% of our growth is natural increase at the moment and even the births are not doing very well. So, we just have not seen such low numbers, such small growth in Australia for a century,” McCrindle said.Canberra has set a limit of 13,750 places on its annual Refugee and Humanitarian Program, although border closures have made it almost impossible for successful applicants to travel to Australia. The pandemic has also reshaped internal migration in Australia. Regional areas that are outside of major cities have had their largest net inflow of people since the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) started measuring domestic migration in 2001. The ABS said 43,000 Australians moved to regional areas from major cities in 2020, more than double the number in 2019. Experts have estimated that it could take Australia as much as a decade for its immigration intake to return to pre-pandemic levels.
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UN Refugee Chief Encouraged by Changes in US Resettlement Program
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi says the asylum system in the United States has become “unmanageable” and that his agency supports “a gradual improvement towards a more effective and humane migration system.” In an interview with VOA, Grandi said such reform is a complex operation that will take years to achieve, but that he is encouraged by what he has seen from the Biden administration after a big cut in resettlements during the Trump administration. “We support that because that is the indispensable piece in a broader exercise to handle human mobility in Central America, which includes the movement of people that are refugees because they flee from violence, from persecution, from discrimination,” he said. “That work has to be done at every level, has to be done in the countries of origin — mostly Honduras, El Salvador, to an extent Guatemala — has to be done in the countries of transit, including Guatemala itself and Mexico, and has to be done at the border.” The maximum number of refugees allowed into the United States fell from 85,000 in 2016 to 18,000 in 2020. The Biden administration has boosted the cap to 62,500 refugee admissions this year, with plans to boost it further to 125,000. Grandi said in addition to the decline in U.S. capacity, the coronavirus pandemic also helped to drastically affect refugee resettlement throughout the world during 2020. He said the total number of resettlements fell from about 100,000 in 2019 to 34,000 last year.Asylum-seeking migrants from Venezuela board a U.S. Border Patrol’s bus to be transported after crossing the Rio Grande River into the United States from Mexico in Del Rio, Texas, May 27, 2021.“We had to suspend resettlement travel simply because there were no more flights,” he told VOA. “We couldn’t use the routes because they were not operating. These are realities that are now being slowly overcome, but it will take some time.” Grandi said the coronavirus pandemic has made it clear that countries “can’t cope alone” and that governments sometimes need help explaining to their citizens the value of programs to help refugees. “They need international support, especially when they embark on policies that may be difficult, even controversial, for their own domestic audiences,” Grandi said. “International support helps explain to their populations the importance of these very good policies.” He highlighted progress in Colombia, which in February announced 10-year protective status for 1.7 million displaced Venezuelans. “Already more than one million Venezuelans have entered the first phase of the registration. This is amazing,” Grandi said. “And also, in a situation in which Colombia itself has difficult challenges — the pandemic, the social and political unrest, residual displacement from the conflict, the peace process. So, in the middle of all this, I think that for Colombia to embrace a very forward-looking inclusive refugee and migration policy is very important.” However, Grandi said Colombia’s action represents “one of the bright spots in this very negative picture.” He cited the continuing challenge of spike in the number of people being forced to leave their homes, a number that rose by 3 million people last year to reach 82.4 million at the end of 2020, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency UNHCR. “It means that wars, discrimination, bad governance, often combined with other factors like climate change, inequality and poverty, demographic imbalances, all of this has not stopped human mobility, especially the forced aspects of human mobility,” Grandi said. “The secretary general issued many calls for a global cease-fire. Frankly, it was not really heeded.” Despite the ongoing challenges, when asked what message he has for refugees, Grandi said, “Don’t lose courage.” “We draw ourselves encouragement from your resilience. Don’t give up and we will be there with you to help you move on,” he said. VOA Spanish service’s Celia Mendoza contributed to this report from Columbia.
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AP Interview: Former President Says US Failed in Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s former president said Sunday the United States came to his country to fight extremism and bring stability to his war-tortured nation and is leaving nearly 20 years later having failed at both. In an interview with The Associated Press just weeks before the last U.S. and NATO troops leave Afghanistan, ending their ‘forever war,’ Hamid Karzai said extremism is at its “highest point” and the departing troops are leaving behind a disaster. “The international community came here 20 years ago with this clear objective of fighting extremism and bringing stability … but extremism is at the highest point today. So they have failed,” he said. Their legacy is a war-ravaged nation in “total disgrace and disaster.” “We recognize as Afghans all our failures, but what about the bigger forces and powers who came here for exactly that purpose? Where are they leaving us now?” he asked and answered: “In total disgrace and disaster.” Still, Karzai, who had a conflicted relationship with the United States during his 13-year rule, wanted the troops to leave, saying Afghans were united behind an overwhelming desire for peace and needed now to take responsibility for their future. “We will be better off without their military presence,” he said. “I think we should defend our own country and look after our own lives. … Their presence (has given us) what we have now. … We don’t want to continue with this misery and indignity that we are facing. It is better for Afghanistan that they leave.” Karzai’s rule followed the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition that launched its invasion to hunt down and destroy the al-Qaida network and its leader, Osama bin Laden, blamed for the 9/11 attacks on America. During Karzai’s rule, women re-emerged, girls again attended school, a vibrant, young civil society emerged, new high-rises went up in the capital Kabul and roads and infrastructure were built. But his rule was also characterized by allegations of widespread corruption, a flourishing drug trade and in the final years relentless quarrels with Washington that continue even until today.Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai leaves after an interview with the Associated Press at his house, in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 20, 2021.“The (US/NATO military) campaign was not against extremism or terrorism, the campaign was more against Afghan villages and hopes; putting Afghan people in prisons, creating prisons in our own country … and bombing all villages. That was very wrong.” In April, when President Joe Biden announced the final withdrawal of the remaining 2,500-3,500 troops, he said America was leaving having achieved its goals. Al-Qaida had been greatly diminished and bin Laden was dead. America no longer needed boots on the ground to fight the terrorist threats that might emanate from Afghanistan, he said. Still, the U.S.’s attempts to bring about a political end to the decades of war have been elusive. It signed a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 to withdraw its troops in exchange for a Taliban promise to denounce terrorist groups and keep Afghanistan from again being a staging arena for attacks on America. There is little evidence the Taliban are fulfilling their part of the bargain. The United Nations claims the Taliban and al-Qaida are still linked. The architect of the U.S. deal and current U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad says some progress has been made but without offering any details. Karzai has had harsh words and uncompromising criticism of U.S. war tactics over the past two decades in Afghanistan. Yet he has become a linchpin of sorts in a joint effort being launched by the United States and Britain to get a quarrelsome Afghan leadership in Kabul united enough to talk peace with the Taliban. The insurgent group has shown little interest in negotiating and instead has stepped up its assaults on government positions. The Taliban have made considerable strides since the May 1 start of the U.S. and NATO withdrawal. They have overrun dozens of districts, often negotiating their surrender from Afghan national security forces. But in many instances the fighting has been intense. Just last week a brutal assault by the Taliban in northern Faryab province killed 22 of Afghanistan’s elite commandos, led by a local hero Col. Sohrab Azimi, who was also killed and widely mourned. “The desire of the Afghan people, overwhelmingly, all over the country is for peace,” said Karzai, who despite being out of power since 2014 has lost little of his political influence and is most often at the center of the country’s political machinations. Diplomats, Western officials, generals, tribal elders and politicians on all ends of Afghanistan’s political spectrum regularly beat a path to Karzai’s door in the heart of the Afghan capital. As the final military withdrawal is already more than 50% complete, the need for a political settlement or even a visible path to an eventual settlement would seem to be taking on greater urgency even as Afghans by the thousands are seeking an exit. They say they are frustrated by relentless corruption, marauding criminal gangs — some linked to the powerful warlords in Kabul —and worsening insecurity. Few see a future that is not violent. Karzai had a message for both sides in the conflict: “The two Afghan sides, none of them should be fighting.” While accusing both Pakistan, where the Taliban leadership is headquartered, and the United States of stoking the fighting, Karzai said it is up to Afghans to end decades of war. To Pakistan’s military and civilian leadership, Karzai said Afghanistan wants “a civilized relationship… if Pakistan adopts an attitude away from the use of extremism against Afghanistan, this relationship can grow into a beautiful relationship, into a very fruitful relationship for both sides.” To the warring sides in Afghanistan, Karzai said: “I’m very emphatic and clear about this, both sides should think of the lives of the Afghan people and the property… fighting is destruction.” “The only answer is Afghans getting together. … We must recognize that this is our country and we must stop killing each other.”
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Poll: Support Rising in Japan for Tokyo Olympics this Summer
Around a third of Japanese now back holding the Olympics, up from just 14 percent last month, a new poll showed Monday, though a majority still prefer cancellation or postponement because of the pandemic. The poll reinforces other recent surveys that suggest opposition to Tokyo 2020 is softening slightly, just over a month before the July 23 opening ceremony. Support for holding the virus-postponed Games rose to 34 percent, according to the poll by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper published on Monday. However, 32 percent still want the Games to be cancelled altogether and 30 percent want the games to be delayed again, down from 43 percent and 40 percent in last month’s survey, respectively. Organizers have ruled out postponing the Games again, and the first Olympic athletes have already arrived in Japan. The Asahi survey was conducted on June 19 and 20, with 1,469 responses from people contacted on home and mobile phones. It comes after several recent surveys that offered respondents the choice between cancelling the Games or holding it — with no postponement option — found that more back holding the event than scrapping it. The shift in sentiment will be welcome news for organizers, who are expected to announce later Monday how many local fans, if any, will be in the stands for the Games. After a coronavirus state of emergency ended in Tokyo on Sunday, new restrictions limit audiences at large events to 5,000 people or 50 percent capacity, whichever is smallest. That rule is scheduled to be in place until July 11, after which the cap will expand to 10,000 people or 50 percent capacity. Local media reports suggest Olympic organizers will set a 10,000 spectator cap, but that the audience for the opening ceremony could swell to 20,000 including dignitaries and sponsors. Japan has seen a comparatively small virus outbreak, with around 14,500 deaths despite avoiding harsh lockdowns. But its vaccine rollout started slowly, only picking up pace in recent weeks. Around 6.5 percent of the population is currently fully vaccinated.
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NZ Weightlifter to Become First Transgender Athlete to Compete at Olympics
Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard will become the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics after being selected by New Zealand for the women’s event at the Tokyo Games, a decision set to test the ideal of fair competition in sport.Hubbard will compete in the super-heavyweight 87-kg category, her selection made possible by updated qualifying requirements.The 43-year-old had competed in men’s weightlifting competitions before transitioning in 2013.”I am grateful and humbled by the kindness and support that has been given to me by so many New Zealanders,” Hubbard said in a statement issued by the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) on Monday.Hubbard has been eligible to compete at Olympics since 2015, when the International Olympic Committee issued guidelines allowing any transgender athlete to compete as a woman provided their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months before their first competition.Some scientists have said the guidelines do little to mitigate the biological advantages of those who have gone through puberty as males, including bone and muscle density.Advocates for transgender inclusion argue the process of transition decreases that advantage considerably and that physical differences between athletes mean there is never a truly level playing field.NZOC CEO Kereyn Smith said Hubbard met IOC and the International Weightlifting Federation’s selection criteria.”We acknowledge that gender identity in sport is a highly sensitive and complex issue requiring a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play,” Smith said.”As the New Zealand Team, we have a strong culture of …. inclusion and respect for all.”Save Women’s Sport Australasia, an advocacy group for women athletes, criticized Hubbard’s selection.”It is flawed policy from the IOC that has allowed the selection of a 43-year-old biological male who identifies as a woman to compete in the female category,” the group said in a statement.Weightlifting has been at the center of the debate over the fairness of transgender athletes competing against women, and Hubbard’s presence in Tokyo could prove divisive.Her gold medal wins at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa, where she topped the podium ahead of Samoa’s Commonwealth Games champion Feagaiga Stowers, triggered outrage in the host nation.Samoa’s weightlifting boss said Hubbard’s selection for Tokyo would be like letting athletes “dope” and feared it could cost the small Pacific nation a medal.Belgian weightlifter Anna Vanbellinghen said last month allowing Hubbard to compete at Tokyo was unfair for women and “like a bad joke.”Australia’s weightlifting federation sought to block Hubbard from competing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast but organizers rejected the move.Hubbard was forced to withdraw after injuring herself during competition, and thought her career was over.”When I broke my arm at the Commonwealth Games three years ago, I was advised that my sporting career had likely reached its end,” said Hubbard on Monday, thanking New Zealanders.”But your support, your encouragement, and your aroha (love) carried me through the darkness.”Olympic Weightlifting New Zealand President Richie Patterson said Hubbard had “grit and perseverance” to return from injury and rebuild her confidence.”We look forward to supporting her in her final preparations towards Tokyo,” he said.
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Iran Elects Hardliner as Biden Pins Hopes on Nuclear Talks
Iran has elected a new hardline president at a time of uncertainty surrounding international negotiations to curb its nuclear program. The issue came up recently at a meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Mary Cieslak
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3 Students Dead After Nigeria School Kidnapping, Principal Says
Three children have died following a school kidnapping of 94 students and eight staff in northwest Nigeria last week, the establishment’s principal said on Sunday.The army said in a statement it had rescued three teachers and eight students so far, killing one of the kidnappers.There has been a series of kidnappings for ransom in northern Nigeria, with a sharp rise in abductions since late 2020 as the government struggles to maintain law and order amid a flagging economy.Two girls and a boy were found dead, two with gunshot wounds in their legs, said Mustapha Yusuf, principal of the federal government college in the remote town of Birnin Yauri in northwest Nigeria’s Kebbi state.The kidnappers “have been taking cover under the students … They are in the bush,” he said, adding that bandits had used students’ phones to call parents and demand a 60 million naira ($146,341) ransom.
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Suspect Arraigned in Killing of American Student in Russia
A court in central Russia on Sunday arraigned a suspect on murder charges in the death of an American woman who was studying at a local university.The body of 34-year-old Catherine Serou was found Saturday in a wooded area near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Moscow. She had been missing since Tuesday.Her mother, Beccy Serou, of Vicksburg, Mississippi, told U.S. National Public Radio that her daughter had last texted her: “In a car with a stranger. I hope I’m not being abducted.”State news agency RIA-Novosti cited the local court as saying the suspect gave her a ride in his car, then took her to the wooden area and beat her and stabbed her “in the course of a dispute.” Russian news reports have identified the suspect as Alexander Popov and said he had a record of violent crimes.He faces up to life in prison if convicted of murder.Serou moved from California to Russia in 2019 to study law at Lobachevsky University in Nizhny Novgorod, news reports said.Beccy Serou told NPR that her daughter was in a hurry to get to a clinic Tuesday and may have gotten into a passing car.“I think that when she saw that the person wasn’t driving to the clinic, but instead was driving into a forest, she panicked,” Beccy Serou said.
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Biden to Host Afghan Leaders Amid US Troop Pullout
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his chief peacemaker, Abdullah Abdullah, will travel to the United States for a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday.
The first face-to-face interaction comes ahead of the withdrawal of the remaining U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan by September 11 in line with Biden’s direction to close what he has described as the “forever war.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday Biden “looks forward to welcoming” the Afghan leaders and will reassure them of U.S. diplomatic, economic and humanitarian support for the turmoil-hit country as the drawdown continues.
“The visit by President Ghani and Dr. Abdullah will highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Afghanistan as the military drawdown continues,” she said.
Psaki emphasized that Washington “continues to fully support the ongoing peace process and encourages all Afghan parties to participate meaningfully in negotiations to bring an end to the conflict.”
Ghani’s office did not immediately comment on the visit.
The foreign military drawdown, which formally started on May 1, has led to an unprecedented escalation in fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents, dealing fresh blows to slow-moving U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between the Afghan adversaries.
The insurgents have in recent weeks captured dozens of new districts and both sides are said to have suffered heavy casualties, with Afghan civilians continuing to bear the brunt of the country’s long war.Chief Taliban Negotiator Renews Commitment to Afghan Peace, Women’s Rights In the 1990’s, the Taliban had imposed a harsh version of Islamic laws that barred girls from school and women from stepping out of their homes without a male relative The battlefield setbacks prompted Ghani on Saturday to replace his security chiefs, including the head of the national army, amid criticism a lack of coordination at the top level has been behind rising casualties among government forces and the Taliban advances.
The presidential move did not deter insurgents from overrunning new territory Sunday and inflicting more casualties on Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
Tamim Asey, executive chairman of the Kabul-based Institute of War and Peace Studies, said Ghani’s visit to the White House would be a “critical morale and political boost” for the Afghan government.
“The visit announcement comes at a critical time when the Afghan political and military theaters feel abandoned by the United States,” Asey told VOA. “The agenda would be of course the new chapter of relations between the two countries and U.S. enduring support to the Afghan security forces and peace process.”
The U.S.-led military exit stems from the February 2020 agreement Washington signed with the Taliban in return for counterterrorism guarantees and pledges the group would negotiate a political settlement to the war with the Afghan government.
Psaki said that Washington will remain “deeply engaged” with the Afghan government “to ensure the country never again becomes a safe haven for terrorist groups” that pose a threat to the U.S.
The insurgents, however, have rejected domestic and international calls for easing their violent campaign and engaging with Afghan rivals in a productive dialogue, which is being hosted by Qatar where the U.S.-Taliban deal was also inked.
Asey said “poor leadership and bad management” in the Afghan security sector were to blame for recent Taliban battlefield gains. Moreover, he added, the withdrawal of years of crucial American intelligence cover and air support also exacerbated the challenges for Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
“The hasty withdrawal of the American forces has had detrimental effects on the morale, resources and intelligence support infrastructure for ANDSF,” Asey said. “This shock has led to defections and desertions, but it is a temporary shock that will help the indigenization of war making and war waging in Afghanistan. The Afghans feel they are abandoned and left to the wolves.”
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US: Iran Nuclear Decisions Will Rest With Khamenei, Despite Leadership Change
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Sunday downplayed the importance of the election of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi as the new Iranian president, saying that whether the United States ultimately rejoins the international pact to restrain Tehran’s nuclear program will depend on decisions made by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Raisi will replace more moderate Hassan Rouhani in six weeks, but Sullivan told ABC News’s “This Week” show that no matter who the Iranian president is, “It is less relevant than whether their entire system is prepared to make verifiable commitments” to abandon the possibility of Iranian development of a nuclear weapon. FILE – Supporters of Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi celebrate after he won the presidential election in Tehran, Iran, June 19, 2021.Along with five other world powers, the United States is engaged in talks with Iran to rejoin the 2015 international agreement to restrain Tehran’s nuclear program that former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from, saying it was not tough enough. Trump reimposed economic sanctions against Tehran that had been dropped. The pact was negotiated under Trump’s immediate predecessor, President Barack Obama, with U.S. President Joe Biden, who was Obama’s vice president, now looking to rejoin the agreement. Negotiators for Iran and the other six countries were set Sunday to adjourn the talks to return to their respective capitals for further consultations on difficult remaining considerations.
Iran delegation chief Abbas Araqchi said, “We are now closer than ever to an agreement but the distance that exists between us and an agreement remains and bridging it is not an easy job,” a position echoed by Sullivan. FILE – Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, attends a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission in Vienna, Austria, Sept. 1, 2020. (EEAS/Handout via Reuters)“There is still a fair distance to travel on some of the key issues,” such as sanctions on Iran and the commitments Tehran is willing to make, Sullivan said. “But the arrow has been pointed in the right direction,” he said. “We’ll see if Iran will make the hard choices they have to make.” “The ultimate decision lies with the supreme leader, whether he follows the path of diplomacy or faces mounting pressure not just from the U.S. but from the international community,” Sullivan said. “We believe diplomacy is the best way achieve that,” he said. Sullivan said the U.S. is “clear-eyed and firm” in its effort that “puts their nuclear program in a box.” In a separate interview, Sullivan told “Fox News Sunday” that any new agreement could last for a longer time than the original 2030 expiration. It is not clear, however, when formal international negotiations might resume.
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Tigray Families Displaced by War, Economic and Social Crisis
Hundreds of displaced families trampled down the stairs carrying stained mattresses, logs and kindling for cooking and sacks of clothing and food. The families, more than 5,000 people in all, had fled battles in the northern Tigray region to Shire, a historical commercial center. Now they were being forced to move again. In Pictures: World Refugee Day: No Safe Haven in Tigray Shire, Ethiopia, historical commercial city in northern Tigray region has been overwhelmed with displaced families since war broke out last NovemberWhen they arrived in Shire after the war broke out last November, schools and universities were closed because of the coronavirus pandemic so it made sense to use the buildings as temporary shelters. But now, the government wants students back in school, and one week ago, Axum University was evacuated. “Authorities told us a month ago we had to leave,” said Kidan Weldemariam, a 47-year-old mother of eight on the day of the evacuation. “Since then, they have come every few days. The only difference is — now they are using force.” As families packed, officials from the United Nations also briefly visited the camp. Scores of people crowded around as one official spoke to a soldier in uniform. She said that the new camp is not ready and the move is unjust. But when reminded her office helped coordinate this move, the official quickly conceded and told people to follow the soldiers’ orders. Outside the building, three-wheeled vehicles known as “Bejajes” in Ethiopia lined up to transport the families to a location where the new camp was being set up. It is the cheapest way to travel in this part of Tigray and young men tied mattresses to the roofs of the blue cabs. As droves of people continued to hustle up and down the stairs, Haben Tariq, 12, watched the action. “What do I do?” he asked. Families were leaving as units, but he was alone. Like thousands of other children, he and his parents were separated as they fled the war last year. “How can I find my mother?” he said. “Maybe if I tell my story she will find me?” Refugee day Worldwide, more than 80 million people are living outside their homes, forced to flee war or persecution, according to United Nations statistics. Nearly 60% remain in their home countries, sometimes forced to flee the same conflict over and over. On June 20, the U.N. recognizes World Refugee Day, but there is not much to celebrate. In the past 10 years, the global population of forcibly displaced people has more than doubled. In Tigray, many displaced families were split up in the chaos, with about 2 million people fleeing within Ethiopia and more than 60,000 others crossing the border to take refuge in Sudan. At another camp in Shire, families crowd into tents propped up in the dirt surrounding classrooms, where as many as 35 people sleep in a room. With a newborn baby strapped to her back, Alem Belay, 26, said she hadn’t spoken to many of her family members since the war began last November. Her family fled to Sudan, but she was pregnant at the time, so she couldn’t go with them. Alem fled to the nearest “safe” town, where her farm animals were confiscated and her husband was arrested. “They said to him, ‘We know you are a fighter; where is your gun?’” Alem said. “He didn’t have a gun, but they took him, and our cattle.” Long crisis War in Tigray first broke out last November after months of heightened tensions. Then, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front attacked northern federal bases and the Ethiopian National Defense Force swept through the region. Eritrean forces are now fighting alongside the federal government and both the Eritrean and Ethiopian sides have associated militias.Civilians in Tigray have reported widespread looting, beatings and mass killings. Hundreds of women and girls have reported being raped by soldiers and many more assaults are believed to have gone unreported. The U.N. warns famine is occurring in some places. And on top of these horrors, the economy has been crushed. Cities are packed with displaced families, while farms go untended and food is not grown. “I was a farmer with good lands and I grew sorghum,” said Belay Abera, 67, as he packed his few things to move out of an Axum University dorm room. “But I was displaced just before the harvest and arrived here with nothing.”
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Violators to Come Under Scrutiny at UN Human Rights Council
Countries accused of abusing their peoples’ human rights will come under the lens of the U.N. Human Rights Council over the next three weeks. Dozens of thematic issues and country reports on topics including the COVID-19 pandemic will be addressed during the session, which begins Monday.
The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, will present an oral update on the human rights crisis unfolding in Myanmar since the military coup there on February 1. Her report is likely to reflect condemnation of the military leaders’ violent crackdown on the civilian population and, what she sees as a looming threat of civil war in the country. The council also will hear updates on the human rights situation in other countries, including Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, South Sudan, and Syria. Separately, observers view events in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region as one of the most serious human rights issues around. The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, says reports of imminent famine, summary executions, rape and other atrocities perpetrated in Tigray warrant action by the Human Rights Council. He is calling for the adoption of a resolution condemning these practices at this session. “A resolution should clearly name the governments,” he said. “We know that Ethiopian government forces have been major perpetrators of these crimes along with, as you mentioned, the Eritrean forces. It is important to recognize the Eritrean forces did not invade Tigray. They were invited in by the Ethiopian government.” Violence erupted in Tigray in November when forces of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation front attacked federal military bases in the region. The Ethiopian government responded with the use of military force. High Commissioner Bachelet also will present a report on police violence and systemic racism against people of African descent. The death of African American George Floyd while in police custody in the United States last year triggered a special council session one year ago. Roth says he believes the report should have a strong focus on the United States. He adds, however, that systemic racism is a global problem and should be treated as such. “Our concern is really that the council creates some kind of mechanism to continue this. It is not just a one-off report, but there is a more systematic effort to address root causes and to push for accountability…I do not say that at all to try to minimize the situation in the U.S. The U.S. should be a critical focus of those efforts,” he said. The council’s last session in February focused on efforts to combat COVID-19-related violations. Bachelet will present a report on how states are responding to the pandemic. COVID-19 also will feature as a sub-theme into reports and panel discussions this session.
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Chief Taliban Negotiator Renews Commitment to Afghan Peace, Women’s Rights
The Taliban attempted Sunday to convince the global community a “genuine Islamic system” that the hardline insurgent group is seeking in a post-conflict Afghanistan would allow women to work and seek education “with confidence.”
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, deputy chief for Taliban political affairs, outlined the assurance in a statement his office released to media, renewing a commitment to finding a negotiated settlement to the Afghan war.
The statement came amid an unprecedented increase in fighting between Afghan government forces and the Taliban as U.S.-brokered slow-moving peace negotiations between the two adversaries failed to make any headway.
Meanwhile, the United States and NATO allies are withdrawing their last remaining troops from Afghanistan by a September 11 deadline, raising fears of more bloodshed and chaos that could encourage the Islamist Taliban to regain power through military means. The insurgents have overrun dozens of Afghan districts since the foreign troop drawdown formally began on May 1.
“A genuine Islamic system is the best means for solution of all issues of the Afghans,” Baradar maintained. “Our very participation in the negotiations and its support on our part indicates openly that we believe in resolving issues through [mutual] understanding.”
The Taliban are largely blamed for the deadlock in what are known as the intra-Afghan negotiations being hosted by Doha, the capital of Qatar.
Critics say the insurgents have not yet submitted a peace plan as to what type of governance system they would want and whether the dialogue process would eventually lead to safeguarding rights of all Afghans, particularly women.
“We understand that the world and Afghans have queries and questions about the form of the system to be established following withdrawal of foreign troops,” said Baradar, who also heads the Taliban’s political office in Doha.
Baradar said his group would ensure protection of rights of all minorities and facilitate the work of diplomats as well as global non-governmental organizations operating out of the poverty-stricken country.
“We take it on ourselves as a commitment to accommodate all rights of citizens of our country, whether they are male or female, in the light of the rules of the glorious religion of Islam and the noble traditions of the Afghan society,” he said.
He did not elaborate on whether the Taliban would allow women to carry out public roles and whether workplaces as well as schools would be segregated by gender as was the case after the Islamic group swept to power in 1996 and went on to rule the country for five years.
Mohammad Naeem, who speaks for the Taliban’s Doha office, told VOA when contacted for clarification that his group has always supported and “respected” all those rights of women that are “granted by Islam to them and that are in line with Afghan cultural traditions.” He dismissed as “misplaced propaganda” anything that counters the group’s stated policy.
“However, the details and the contours will be determined once we have the system in place and our prominent religious scholars work out those details through consensus,” Naeem said when asked whether the Taliban would allow women to participate in politics and carry out other public roles.
The Taliban had imposed a harsh version of Islamic law that barred girls from school and women from stepping out of their homes without a male relative, among other controversial measures.
The U.S.-led military invasion of Afghanistan nearly 20 years ago ousted the Taliban from power for harboring al-Qaida leaders who plotted the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
There are growing concerns that if the Taliban return to power in a dominant way, they will roll back the progress made in Afghan women’s rights with the help and massive U.S. financial assistance over the past two decades.
Afghan women activists have vowed to defend those gains.
Sahraa Karimi, an artist and independent filmmaker, said both negotiating teams must be willing to make compromises to move the peace process forward.
“But there is a difference between a compromise and forcing something on the other side. If they [Taliban] want to ignore Afghan women, there wouldn’t be peace,” Karimi told VOA. “The new generation of Afghan women are very well aware about their rights. They are not the women of 1990s. So, they [Taliban] should accept us. They cannot force us to go backward.”
Fatima Gailani is one of the four women who are part of Kabul’s 21-member team negotiating peace with the Taliban. She says her delegation has made it clear to insurgent interlocutors that the space Afghan women have acquired over the years must be preserved in any eventual arrangement.
“They [Taliban] do say that what happened [to women] during that situation [when Taliban ruled Kabul], was a mistake and it was something which happened in a hurry,” Gailani told a seminar in Islamabad last week. She had been asked whether, in their talks, they had raised concerns stemming from the Taliban’s treatment of women previously.
Gailani spoke from Doha via video phone to the participants of the unofficial dialogue between Afghan and Pakistani lawmakers, officials and activists on peace prospects in Afghanistan.
The Taliban defend the policies of the ousted government, saying the country was in the grip of a deadly civil war at the time and lawlessness required emergency measures to ensure protection of women.
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US Sending 2.5 Million COVID-19 Vaccines to Taiwan
The United States says it is sending 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan, substantially increasing its initial promise of 750,000 doses.Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said the increased doses from the U.S. are a “moving gesture of friendship.” U.S. President Joe Biden has said his administration will distribute 80 million vaccines to countries around the world. The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday more than 178 million global COVID-19 infections and almost 4 million global deaths. More than 2 billion vaccines have been administered around the world. India’s Health Ministry said Sunday that it had recorded more than 58,000 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24-hour period. India has recorded close to 30 million COVID-19 cases. Only the U.S. has more, with 33.5 million.A Ugandan athlete has tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving in Japan ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, according to an Associated Press report. The athlete was not named and has been placed in quarantine in a government facility. The other eight members of the team tested negative in Japan. The Ugandan team was fully vaccinated and tested before their flight to Japan, AP said.Brazil became the second country, behind the United States, to record more than half a million COVID-19 deaths, a Health Ministry official said Saturday.Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga tweeted “500,000 lives lost due to the pandemic that affects our Brazil and the world,” according to an Agence France-Presse report.Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist from Espirito Santo University, told AFP, “The third wave is arriving, there’s already in a change in the case and death curves. … Our vaccination [program], which could make a difference, is slow and there are no signs of restrictive measures, quite the contrary.”Britain held its first full music festival since all mass events were canceled in March of last year, the start of the pandemic.About 10,000 fans attended a three-day Download Festival held at Donington Park in central England. The event featured 40 U.K.-based bands. The event ends Sunday.All of those who attended, which was only about a tenth of the festival’s prepandemic audience, were required to take COVID-19 tests before the event. Neither masks nor social distancing protocols were required, event organizers said.Britain has recorded nearly 128,000 COVID-19-related deaths, the fourth most in the world and the worst in Europe. It also ranks seventh in the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 4.6 million.Earlier last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed by four weeks a planned lifting of coronavirus-related restrictions on June 21. Britain is battling the highly contagious delta variant of the virus, which was first identified in India.
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