Статті

Scientists from multiple organizations that monitor and assess the state of the Earth’s climate system warn the world is not on track to meet the target of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050.

The United in Science 2021 report warns greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are continuing at record levels, committing the planet to dangerous future warming. It notes the last five-year period has been the warmest since record-keeping began in 1850. 

Scientists say rising temperatures due to human activity are causing higher than average temperatures in the Arctic, Europe and Asia. That is increasing the frequency and intensity of floods, droughts, wildfires, storms, and other extreme weather events throughout the world. 

Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization Petteri Taalas says weather events that used to happen every 100 years now are happening every 20 years because of climate change. He warns they will occur with even greater frequency in the future if the world does not limit warming to well below two degrees Celsius by mid-century. 

“Now we are heading towards three degrees warming instead of 1.5 to two degrees,” he said.”And it has been shown clearly that it would be beneficial for the welfare of us human beings and the welfare of the biosphere and the planet to reach the lower limit of the Paris Agreement of 1.5 degrees.”

The report notes that COVID-19 has had no impact on climate change. It says pandemic lockdowns and economic slowdowns reduced air pollution for a time, but was only temporary. Now that societies are opening again, it says carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere are growing.

Taalas says mitigation measures can reduce the release of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere and reduce climate change, but for this to happen, people must change their daily behavior. 

“If we fail with climate mitigation, we would have a permanent problem for at least hundreds or even thousands of years and both economic and human wellbeing events would be much more dramatic than this COVID pandemic, which has been hitting us all in a dramatic way,” he said.

In a forward to the United in Science report, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns time is running out. He says all countries must commit to net-zero emissions by 2050, backed up by concrete long-term strategies to prevent further irreversible damage.

He says these pledges must be made now for November’s U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow to be a turning point in the fight for the survival of the planet. 

 
…

Canada Goose, the Canadian maker of parkas it claims are designed to keep wearers toasty warm in the “the coldest places on Earth,” is the latest foreign brand targeted by Chinese regulators.

China’s state-controlled CCTV revealed that authorities fined the company’s affiliated operation in Shanghai about $70,000 (450,000 RMB) for “falsely advertising goods or services, deceiving and misleading consumers.”

The Shanghai Huangpu District Market Supervision and Administration Department acted against the local outlet of Canada Goose Holdings Inc. of Toronto in June, a move CCTV made public on Sept. 2.

The National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (Shanghai) announced that Shanghai district regulators found that Canada Goose, which was marketing its products as filled with goose down, was using mostly duck to stuff its garments.

The regulators said the company advertised that it uses “Hutterite down,” claiming it is the warmest down available. The Hutterites, a religious group in Canada similar to the Amish and Mennonites in the United States, enjoy a reputation for raising high-quality geese and ducks.

And while the Canada Goose marketing stresses the warming quality of the down it uses, Shanghai regulators said the place of origin has nothing to do with down’s warmth.

On Sept. 8, other state-affiliated media outlets in China began criticizing the expensive parkas that as The New Yorker suggested, broadcast, “I earned the money, and then I spent the money. And now, here I am, warmer than you are.”

The Economic Daily published a commentary titled Catching the Lying Canada Goose on Sept. 8, suggesting that Canada Goose had violated China’s law regarding advertising standards. It continued to accuse the company of failing to credit Chinese buyers as savvy consumers who are capable of market research.

Calling on Chinese consumers to purchase goods from Chinese brands, the Economic Daily urged Chinese companies to seize the opportunity to expand market share.

The newspaper also said Xiji (Shanghai) Trading Co., operator of the Canada Goose Official Flagship Store on China’s online retailer Tmall, had sales of $25.9 million (167 million yuan) in 2020. On the company’s U.S. website, the most expensive Canada Goose parka, the Polar Bear International, costs $1,545. The same coat on the company’s Chinese website costs $1,616 (10,400 yuan).

Canada Goose told Canada’s CBC News on Sept. 8 that a technical error on a partner website caused confusion about the down.

“Earlier this year, a misalignment of text was found on a partner site, Tmall, in our (Asia-Pacific) region. The error was corrected immediately,” the email to CBC said.

The company told CBC that it uses both goose and duck down, depending on the garment. Although Canada Goose is best known for its parkas, it makes other down and non-down products.

VOA Mandarin contacted Canada Goose but did not receive a response.

Consumer nationalism

Canada Goose is not the only company targeted by China’s regulators. Earlier this month, Chinese regulators fined H&M, the Swedish multinational retailer, $51,000, claiming the company misrepresented that some of its products were sold exclusively in China.

This came after Chinese netizens attacked H&M in April for a statement expressing concern about allegations of Uyghur forced labor in cotton production in Xinjiang, a stronghold of the Muslim minority.

Major e-commerce websites removed H&M products, and dozens of Chinese celebrities ended their endorsement contracts with the company. Brands such as Nike and Adidas, which had expressed similar concerns about the situation in Xinjiang, saw China sales plummet.

Experts say that the surge in China’s nationalist sentiment since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with Beijing’s official policy of supporting domestic brands, could lead to consumer nationalism.

According to its official website, Canada Goose currently has 21 stores in China, making it one of the fastest expanding brands in the Chinese market. The company has nine stores in Canada.

“The campaign fits in with ‘equality’ themes recently emphasized by President Xi. Foreign brands are something like private schools — patronized by higher income Chinese households,” Gary Hufbauer, an economist at Peterson Institute for International Economics, told VOA in an email. ”Domestic brands are seen as the preference of ordinary people.”

Analysts believe that as tensions increase between China and the West, Chinese nationalists are equating the purchase of Western brands to approval of Western values. To reject foreign brands is to resist foreign influence, according to the nationalists.

Amid the nationalists’ push, Beijing is actively promoting domestic brands and promoting patriotism in the shopping decisions among Chinese consumers.

In July, Chinese sports brand Erke became famous overnight after donating about $7.6 million (50 million RMB) to the flood-stricken central Henan province. Chinese netizens heralded the move, and Erke experienced its biggest single-day sales jump.

“Foreign companies are facing a less receptive environment in China,” Hufbauer added. ”Official statements are often hostile to the United States, with the result that buying foreign brands, especially U.S. brands, seems unpatriotic to ordinary Chinese.”

Caught in the middle

Canada Goose entered the Chinese market in 2018 when the relationship between Ottawa and Beijing began to fray. Canada detained Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition request for fraud in December 2018, and China subsequently took custody of two Canadians — Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — over espionage charges. Spavor was sentenced to 11 years in prison last month.

The Chinese Consulate General in Montreal said Sept. 11 that the current Canada Goose action is related only to market regulations and disputed any “political interpretation of the case.”

Wang Qing, a professor of marketing and innovation at Warwick Business School in London, told VOA via email that the Chinese government has emphasized the importance of building strong Chinese brands for several years. “We have seen real improvement of domestic brands in terms of quality and brand image,” she said.

Yet she argued that currently, the competitive edge between Chinese and Western brands are different.

“In the short term, there is no real threat to high-end foreign brands, as most Chinese brands are value for money. They do not compete directly with foreign brands,” she added.

Reuters contributed additional reporting. 
…

House Democrats this week have proposed a bill that would sharply raise taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations while slashing taxes paid by lower-income citizens. On balance, the proposal would raise an estimated $900 billion in additional revenue over 10 years to fund some of the Biden administration’s expansive social spending plans. 

The proposal, released by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Richard E. Neal, a Democrat from Massachusetts, would move policy in the same general direction as a plan released by the Biden administration earlier in the year. This constitutes the opening salvo in what is certain to be a hard-fought battle over future tax policy. But the plan does not go as far as Biden favors in raising taxes on businesses, capital gains from the sale of investments, and the treatment of inherited wealth. 

“I think the way to summarize it is, it’s enormous,” said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center in Washington. “It raises taxes by about $2.1 trillion, it cuts other taxes by about $1.2 trillion — that’s moving around almost three-and-a-half trillion dollars in taxes over 10 years. That’s huge.” 

“It’s a very big mix of raising taxes on high-income people and corporations, and cutting taxes on low and middle income households,” he added in an interview with VOA. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., and his panel work on the “Build Back Better” package, cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 15, 2021.

According to an analysis by the Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, the bill would raise the average tax rate on people earning $1 million or more a year to 37.3% from 30.2%. At the other end of the financial spectrum, it would assure that people earning less than $20,000 per year would have a negative tax liability — meaning that they would receive tax refund checks from the government, even if they had paid nothing in federal taxes in a given year. 

A more complex tax code 

The Democrats’ proposal continues the trend in U.S. policy of using the tax code as a substitute for direct legislation. The proposal contains tax credits for housing construction, union dues, green energy, local journalism, and more. 

“It seems like every aspect of the [Democrats’] agenda seems to need to have a tax credit component,” said Alex Muresianu, a federal policy analyst at the Tax Foundation in Washington. 

“And it doesn’t necessarily make sense to try to run your policymaking entirely through the tax code.” 

Child tax credit 

As a response to the coronavirus pandemic, earlier this year Congress authorized a tax credit for families with children under 18 years of age, and structured it in a way that delivered monthly payments of several hundred dollars per child directly to parents. The infusion of cash led to a sharp decline in childhood poverty rates in the United States, and the tax proposal would make that credit permanent. 

However, to avoid running afoul of budget rules, the Democrats have proposed having a number of related measures expire in 2025. At the same time, they strive to make sure that the proposal jibes with Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on Americans earning less than $400,000 per year. 

Personal income tax changes 

The House proposal would raise the top marginal income tax rate, which applies only to earnings above $400,000 per year for individuals or $450,000 for married couples, to 39.6%. A bill passed by Republicans and signed into law by former President Donald Trump had reduced the top rate to 37% for all income over $500,000. 

The House proposal includes an additional surtax of 3% on income over $5 million, creating what amounts to another tax bracket for exceptionally high-earning Americans. 

Many businesses in the U.S. are structured as pass-through entities, which means their profits are taxed as personal income to their owners. Current law allows a 20% pre-tax deduction of qualifying income. The bill would cap that deduction at $400,000 for an individual and $500,000 for a married couple. 

Capital gains tax changes 

The proposal’s change in the treatment of capital gains — the earnings an investor sees when selling an asset that has gone up in value — is far less dramatic than the Biden administration had requested. Instead of heeding the president’s request to raise the 20% top rate on capital gains to 39.6%, bringing it in line with normal income, the plan would raise the rate to 25%. 

Under current law, when someone dies with unrealized capital gains, those gains are wiped away when the assets are passed on to heirs. In some cases that allows the very wealthy to pass on large fortunes to their heirs tax-free. 

The Biden administration had wanted the U.S. to begin taxing unrealized capital gains at death, but the Democrats’ proposal does not contain a provision to do that. 

Business taxes 

The Republican-led tax changes in 2017 included a drastic reduction in the corporate income tax, from 35% to 21%. The Democrats’ proposal would raise the corporate rate to 26.5%. That’s not as much of an increase as the 28% the Biden administration had proposed, and is still far below the rate in force in 2017. 

The business tax increases, critics say, will make the United States a less appealing place to do business. 

“It’s lower than previous proposals, but still, when you factor in state level corporate taxes, that  would probably put us about third [highest] in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. So that is a major downside of the plan,” said Muresianu of the Tax Foundation. 

International business taxes 

At a time when the Biden administration is working with partners on the international stage to reform the way multinational businesses are taxed on their income, the House bill proposes a minimum tax on the foreign earnings of U.S. companies that is lower than the administration has requested. 

The Biden administration has advocated for a 21% tax on the overseas earnings of U.S. businesses, but the House plan sets the levy at 16.6%. 

In talks with other developed countries, the Biden administration has been pushing for the worldwide adoption of a 15% minimum tax on the domestic earnings of corporations. The idea is to make it less attractive for companies to transfer their operations to low- or no-tax jurisdictions. 

Experts said it was difficult to tell what impact the House proposal might have on the Biden administration’s efforts, in large part because the talks with foreign governments are considering an entirely different system that would tax companies based on where their goods and services are sold rather than where they are headquartered. 

 
…

As Ameruddin Pora’s relatives gathered in his living room, shouting at the final of the Olympics badminton women’s doubles, he locked himself in his room to watch his daughter win Indonesia’s historic gold medal. Apriyani Rahayu, 23, and her veteran partner Greysia Polii picked up the badminton-mad country’s first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo on Monday, and its first-ever Olympic medal in the women’s doubles. “Everyone was screaming with joy outside, I decided to lock myself up in my room so that I can focus (on) praying while watching the game alone, and Allah heard my prayers. She won the gold medal,” 63-year-old Pora told AFP on Tuesday a day after his daughter’s win. Her fellow Indonesians were also celebrating, taking to social media on Monday to hail the gold medal win, while President Joko Widodo said the victory was a gift for the country’s independence day that is slated for August 17. Pora said his daughter used the death of her mother, Siti Jauhar in 2015, as fuel for the momentous victory, a gift to the woman who inspired her rise to become a professional badminton player. One day before flying to Tokyo, Rahayu flew home to Konawe city in southeast Sulawesi island to visit her mother’s grave and to ask for a blessing from her father.  The badminton star’s relatives also came to Pora’s house to pray for her during the short home visit. “She has this tradition whenever she wants to attend a competition, she always returns home to meet her parents, asking me for a prayer,” he said. “Our prayers are finally answered by God.” As soon as Rahayu arrived in Tokyo, she called her dad on a daily basis to ask him to continue his prayers for her. He said his daughter’s success is thanks to a combination of those prayers and her own hard work. “Whenever she leaves the hotel heading to the venue, she always called me asking for prayers. I always tell her to be calm and leave everything to Allah,” he said. He had some advice for his daughter about securing more golds after her Olympic win: listen to your coaches and don’t become arrogant. “She is always a very motivated person. She never gets tired practicing,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t only pray for Rahayu, but also for Greysia. I pray for both. They made us proud.” 
…

Calling it a major milestone, U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that the country has shipped President Joe Biden speaks about the coronavirus pandemic in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Aug. 3, 2021.In response to a question from VOA on whether other high-income countries should follow the lead of the United States, the president replied: “I think those countries that have been able to cover their population and have the ability to provide either dollars and/or vaccines for the 100 or so net-poor nations that need help should do so.”  Biden added that some Group of 7 countries, which made such pledges at their recent summit in England, have followed through.”We’ve kept the commitment that we would do what we said, which is more than all the rest of the countries combined this far,” the president noted.  Tom Hart, acting chief executive officer of the ONE campaign, a global organization fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease, agreed with Biden’s call for other prosperous countries to do more.  “The U.S. is leading the global COVID-19 fight, but the rest of the world must step up to the plate and match the Biden administration’s ambition and action. With COVID-19 raging globally and new variants emerging constantly, wealthy countries face a clear choice: Share more doses and shorten the pandemic or continue to hoard doses and prolong COVID-19 indefinitely,” Hart said in a statement.  A September summit that the U.S. president plans to host “must be a turning point, with new, additional commitments to get vaccines to everyone and address the devastating economic impact of COVID-19. Everyone is on the hook to deliver,” Hart added.  “The Biden administration’s efforts to share excess vaccine doses with other countries will save lives and help end the pandemic faster in the U.S. and around the world,” Sean Simons, press secretary for the ONE Campaign, told VOA. “We won’t end this pandemic anywhere unless we beat it everywhere.” FILE – Members of the Armed Forces queue at the CCK Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires to be inoculated against COVID-19 with the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine obtained through the COVAX scheme, on June 15, 2021.Most of the U.S. vaccine doses have been shipped through the World Health Organization-managed COVAX cooperative, as well as through regional partnerships such as the African Union and Caribbean Community.  Biden said that his administration has fulfilled its pledge to give at least 80 million vaccine doses to other nations around the globe and that they are a down payment on hundreds of millions of more doses that the United States will deliver in the coming weeks. “Starting at the end of this month, the administration will begin shipping a half a billion Pfizer doses that the United States has pledged to purchase and donate to 100 low-income countries in need,” according to a White House statement.  The president’s announcement comes amid an increase in infections in the United States and around the world, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.  During the past month, average daily new cases of COVID-19 in the United States have surged above 85,000. That is higher than the peak seen last summer and is at a level not seen since mid-February of this year.  Biden, in his Tuesday remarks, criticized moves by some U.S. states to forbid mask mandates.  “As of now, seven states not only ban mask mandates but also ban them in their school districts, even for young children who cannot get vaccinated,” the president noted. “Some states have even banned businesses and universities from requiring workers and students to be masked or vaccinated.”  Biden called such edicts disappointing and said if governors “aren’t willing to do the right thing to beat this pandemic, then they should allow businesses and universities who want to do the right thing to be able to do it.”  The president repeated his appeal for governors to help, “but if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way. The people are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives.”  Governors opposing mask mandates say it should be a matter of individual choice. They also claim such mandates are not enforceable nor do they encourage more people to be vaccinated. 
 
…

The British government’s scientific advisers have raised the prospect of fighting a forever war against the coronavirus saying the eradication of the virus “will be unlikely.” And they warn “there will always be variants.”They hold out the hope that the virus may evolve in such a way that it causes “much less severe disease,” but they caution that is unlikely to happen for some time. Preventive measures and restrictions will be needed in the meantime as there’s a “realistic possibility” that vaccine-resistant variants will emerge.And, chillingly, in a report released last week by Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, otherwise known as SAGE, the scientists do not discount the chance of a new variant arising with the deadliness of MERS, another coronavirus which has a case fatality rate of 35%.FILE – Critical care staff look after a COVID-19 patient on the Christine Brown ward at King’s College Hospital in London, Jan. 27, 2021.Report quietly releasedThe report on the possible long-term evolution of the virus was released late Friday, and opposition politicians in Britain have complained it was sneaked out without little fanfare by the government to try to avoid publicity so as not to undermine public confidence in the easing of British pandemic restrictions and the opening of the country’s borders to travelers from the United States and European Union.”This report should have sent shock waves through the UK Government,” Philippa Whitford, a Scottish Nationalist lawmaker and the vice-chair of an all-party parliamentary group on the pandemic, told local reporters.”It was instead quietly snuck out among a glut of reports during parliamentary recess. Recommendations and comments made by SAGE bring home the simple reality — that we have not yet ‘defeated’ this virus,” Whitford, a qualified surgeon, added.In the paper, the scientists outline the chances that a new variant will evade current vaccines, saying that is “almost certain” to happen. SAGE’s biggest fear is of “antigenic drift,” small changes in the genes of a virus that can lead to changes in its surface proteins. Most of the vaccines in current use target the surface proteins of the coronavirus. The scientists also worry about the possibility of variants recombining to become more infectious.Clinical epidemiologist Deepti Gurdasani  says the SAGE report “makes clear that the virus becoming less virulent is unlikely in the short term.”  She tweeted: “So for all those who suggest that we should live with it, and it’ll become like seasonal coronaviruses and benign, doesn’t look like that’s likely to happen anytime soon.”The report has caught the attention of governments in Europe, and officials in Berlin say it played into the decision announced Monday by the German government to offer vaccine booster jabs to people considered potentially vulnerable to developing COVID-19, the disease the coronavirus can trigger.After Another COVID Spike, Israel Launches Third Vaccine DoseHealth officials say decision to offer third dose follows evidence that effectiveness of two doses wanes over timeThird shotsStarting next month, Germany will start administering a booster of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine to people aged over 60, care-home residents and people with compromised immune systems. Also, a booster shot will be offered to Germans who received AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, whose efficacy against the Delta variant is thought to be weak. “We will be prepared for the fall,” said Klaus Holetschek, Bavarian health minister. “I am convinced that a booster shot is important and right based on prevention alone,” he added, speaking on behalf of the country’s 18 state health ministers.Israel, France and Hungary are already offering booster shots to some people, and Britain will offer booster jabs next month, too. British health officials say they want to maximize protection for the elderly and vulnerable ahead of the country’s winter season, when other seasonal respiratory viruses surge. Italy and Spain will also likely make additional jabs available later in the year, officials in Rome and Madrid have said. Britain to Offer COVID-19 Booster Shots This Fall The nation is also offering incentives to persuade younger adults to get vaccinatedIn the United States, officials are considering a request by vaccine-maker Pfizer for booster shots to be authorized, but so far has withheld permission. But the Biden administration has ordered 200 million more Pfizer vaccines, a move seen by observers as preparation for a regimen of booster shots.Speaking to broadcaster CNCB, Scott Gottlieb, a former head of the US Federal Drug Administration, said he believes vaccine booster shots will start to be given in the US by next month to older people and those with compromised immune systems. “I just think we’re on a slower path here,” he said.But some are criticizing the move by rich nations to start offering booster shots, saying the priority should be getting vaccines to poorer countries, who are lagging with inoculations because of scarce supplies. They say not only is this a moral issue but a practical one: vaccine-resistant variants are more likely to emerge as a result of widespread infections in poorer and developing nations, they say.”Vaccine resources need to be shared with the world to help end this COVID-19 pandemic,” the NGO Doctors Without Borders, tweeted Monday.
…

Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said Tuesday she is focused on her safety and seeking refuge in Europe after facing threats from officials at home.“They made it clear that upon return home I would definitely face some form of punishment,” she told The Associated Press in a videocall interview. “There were also thinly disguised hints that more would await me.”The 24-year-old said she wants to continue her career as an athlete, with plans to compete in at least two future Olympics.“For now, I just want to safely arrive in Europe … meet with people who have been helping me and make a decision what to do next,” Tsimanouskaya said.Polish authorities granted her a humanitarian visa to seek political asylum on Monday after she alleged her team’s officials were trying to force her to fly home to Belarus against her wishes.Poland Grants Humanitarian Visa to Belarusian OlympianKrystsina Tsimanouskaya told officials she did not feel safe under autocratic Lukashenko government after she criticized management of Belarusian team Tsimanouskaya told officials in Tokyo she feared she would not be safe in Belarus from the autocratic government of President Alexander Lukashenko.An activist group said it had bought Tsimanouskaya a plane ticket for a Wednesday flight to Warsaw.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted late Monday that the Lukashenko government was trying to “commit another act of transnational repression” by forcing Tsimanouskaya to leave “simply for exercising free speech.”The Lukashenka regime sought to commit another act of transnational repression: attempting to force Olympian Krystsyna Tsimanouskaya to leave simply for exercising free speech. Such actions violate the Olympic spirit, are an affront to basic rights, and cannot be tolerated.— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) August 3, 2021“Such actions violate the Olympic spirit, are an affront to basic rights, and cannot be tolerated,” Blinken wrote.The political drama unfolded after Tsimanouskaya criticized how officials were managing the Belarusian Olympians, provoking a backlash in state-run media back home, where the government often cracks down on critics.The Belarus National Olympic Committee has been led for more than 25 years by Lukashenko and his son, Viktor.On her Instagram account, Tsimanouskaya said she was put on the country’s 4×400 relay team even though she has never raced in the event.Belarusian officials apparently took Tsimanouskaya to the Tokyo airport, but she refused to board a flight for Istanbul and instead approached police for help.“I was put under pressure, and they are trying to forcibly take me out of the country without my consent,” the 24-year-old runner said in a video message posted on social media.Later, late Monday afternoon local time, she was taken to the Polish embassy in an unmarked silver van and stepped out with her official team luggage. Two women, one carrying the red and white flag considered the symbol of opposition in Belarus, came to the gates to support her.Tsimanouskaya told a Reuters reporter via Telegram the Belarusian head coach showed up at her room Sunday at the athletes’ village and told her she had to return home.“The head coach came over to me and said there had been an order from above to remove me,” she wrote in the message. “At 5 [p.m.] they came my room and told me to pack, and they took me to the airport.”But Tsimanouskaya refused to board and sought the protection of Japanese police at the airport.Belarus was widely condemned by Western governments in May when it diverted a passenger jet carrying an opposition activist and his girlfriend that was flying over the country and forced it to land. Given the reports in the Belarusian media about Tsimanouskaya’s complaints about the management of the country’s team, she said she feared for her safety if she returned home.“The campaign was quite serious and that was a clear signal that her life would be in danger in Belarus,” Alexander Opeikin, a spokesman for the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, told the Associated Press.Through the years, athletes from authoritarian nations have often sought political asylum in other countries while they were competing at the quadrennial summer Olympics or other global sporting events. It happened frequently during the Cold War but also at Olympic Games since then. Some information in this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
…

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Monday that the “abrupt” U.S. withdrawal of all its remaining forces from Afghanistan was the reason for the deteriorating security situation in the country. He added that his government has a plan to bring the security situation under control within six months. VOA’s Sayed Hasib Maududi filed this report, narrated by Roshan Noorzai.Camera: Sayed Hasib Maududi 
 
…

Iran will respond promptly to any threat against its security, the Foreign Ministry said Monday, after the United States, Israel and Britain blamed Tehran for an attack on an Israeli-managed tanker off the coast of Oman. Tehran has denied any involvement in the suspected drone attack on Thursday in which two crew members, a Briton and a Romanian, were killed. The United States and Britain said Sunday they would work with their allies to respond to the attack on the Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned petroleum product tanker managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime. FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks in the Downing Street Briefing Room in London, July 5, 2021.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the incident as “clearly an unacceptable and outrageous attack on commercial shipping.” “Iran should face up to the consequences of what they’ve done,” he said Monday. Britain summoned the Iranian ambassador on Monday. Later, Iran summoned the British charge d’affaires and Romania’s top envoy in Tehran over their countries’ “accusations against the Islamic Republic,” Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported. “Iran has no hesitation in protecting its security and national interests and will respond promptly and strongly to any possible adventure,” Iranian state television quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying. FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks in Jerusalem, June 20, 2021.Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had accused Tehran of “trying to shirk responsibility” for the attack and called its denial cowardly.  Israel Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the attack was an intensification of what he called Iran’s escalation and accused Tehran of intending to hurt and kill civilians. “Israel has a variety of tools and options to defend its citizens, and we will settle the score with anyone who tries to harm us at the time and place and in the way that suits us and our security,” Gantz told the Israeli Parliament. An unidentified Iranian official told Iran’s Nournews news agency earlier that Tehran considered “the threats of Western officials and the Zionist regime (Israel) to be more of a propaganda gesture.” “And Washington and London will be directly responsible for the consequences,” the official told Nournews, which is close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. FILE – Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the State Department in Washington, July 12, 2021.In Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken predicted a “collective response” and said he did not think the incident necessarily signaled anything about Iran’s incoming President Ebrahim Raisi, who takes office on Thursday. Iran and Israel have exchanged accusations of carrying out attacks on each other’s vessels in recent months. Tensions have increased between Iran and Israel since 2018, when then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. Israel has voiced concerns about efforts by Iran and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to revive the nuclear pact under which Iran curbed its sensitive nuclear work in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.  “In any agreement, should there be one, with Iran, it must also be based on the removal of its threat on the region,” Gantz said. 
 
…

Analysts and activists alike are demanding that rampant corruption that has eroded Lebanon’s governing system be uprooted. Supported by the United States, the European Union’s recent adoption of a new sanctions regime on Lebanon’s corrupt players is seen by observers as one way forward to tackling the endemic problem while pressing for the formation of a new government. The U.S. secretaries of state and Treasury, Antony Blinken and Janet Yellen, welcomed the E.U.’s new sanctions targeting corrupt figures in Lebanon. A joint statement on July 30 said the United States “looks forward to future cooperation with the EU in our shared efforts.”Mona Yacoubian of the United States Institute of Peace told London’s Chatham House research group that targeted sanctions are important as is government formation and systemic reform in Lebanon. She notes that power broker Hezbollah and other actors are able to exploit weak institutions.“Sanctions that seek to address those particular members of the political class who are most corrupt and who are obstructing the need to form a new government include things like travel bans, asset freezes, and so forth,” said Yacoubian. “If done in a concerted effort by the U.S., France, EU and even Gulf countries that might yield what Lebanon desperately needs right now. Any policies that assist the Lebanese with building strong, accountable, transparent institutions, those policies are the most potent antidote to corruption and also allow a significant counterweight to Hezbollah.”Besides being a militant group, Hezbollah is a political party with lawmakers in parliament.Yacoubian warns that Lebanon is undergoing “a slow-motion implosion” and urges the West to ramp up support to the Lebanese armed forces. She said it remains the “one state institution standing between where we are today and total chaos.”Recently, telecoms tycoon Najib Mikati was designated as prime minister and tasked with forming a Cabinet of specialists to carry out reforms required by the international community to unlock badly needed funds for the crisis-wracked country—something that dogged his predecessor for nearly a year. Questions remains as to whether he will be successful in forming a Cabinet.   Meanwhile, anti-corruption activist Badri Meouchi told Chatham House that Lebanon’s civil society is working together to press for laws combating corruption in several key sectors, with a draft law on public procurement on the table. But he stresses that ultimately a change in how Lebanon is governed is needed.“Whatever laws we look at in the anti-corruption arsenal of reforms, you cannot expect those who benefit from the system to change the system. It’s time to wake up. This ties to one of the key recommendations in that we need new leadership in this country. This leadership is corrupt to the core,” said Meouchi.Writing in the Saudi Arab News daily, political commentator Baria Alamuddin warned that “if we allow Lebanon to continue fragmenting, it opens the door to catastrophes of an infinitely greater magnitude than the port explosion. This disaster must be our wake-up call for inaugurating a new Lebanon.”Alamuddin calls for “collectively banishing” those she describes as having “colluded in Lebanon’s downfall and who remain wedded to a medieval and inherently corrupt sectarian system.” She says citizens should unite “to rebuild a secular, sovereign nation rooted in the rule of law and justice for all.” 
…

The death toll from last month’s floods in the central Chinese province of Henan rose to 302 as of Monday, officials said, triple the figure of 99 that was reported last week, with most of the fatalities reported in the provincial capital Zhengzhou.   In Zhengzhou, a city of 12 million that lies along the Yellow River, the death toll was 292, including 14 who perished when a subway line was flooded. In total, 39 people died in underground areas in Zhengzhou including garages and tunnels.   Over three days last month, 617.1 mm (24.3 inches) of rain fell in Zhengzhou, nearly equivalent to its annual average of 640.8 mm, causing widespread damage and disruption in a city that is a major transport and industrial hub.   FILE – An aerial view shows cars sitting in floodwaters at the entrance of a tunnel after heavy rains hit the city of Zhengzhou in China’s central Henan province.Of the 50 people still missing in Henan province, 47 were from Zhengzhou, local officials told a briefing on Monday.   Direct economic losses in Henan reached 114.27 billion yuan ($18 billion), with more than 580,000 hectares of farmland affected.   China’s State Council said it will set up a team to investigate the disaster in Zhengzhou and will hold officials accountable if found to have derelicted their duty, the official Xinhua news agency reported. 
…

Eight Egyptian army soldiers have been killed in anti-terrorism operations, the armed forces said Sunday. According to an armed forces statement, most of the fighting took place in the northern Sinai, where militants loyal to the Islamic State group operate, “during the last period.” It was not clear whether all the soldiers were killed there or in various other regions. Eighty-nine “very dangerous Takfiris” were killed during the fighting in northern Sinai, the statement said, using a term it normally employs to refer to suspected militants. The army confiscated different types of arms and ammunition during the operations and destroyed hundreds of explosive devices and some explosive belts. It also destroyed 13 tunnel entrances used to infiltrate the North Sinai region, which has borders with the Gaza strip and Israel. It didn’t say exactly when the operations took place. Air forces, in coordination with border guards, also attacked and destroyed 200 vehicles, some of them loaded with arms and ammunition, while trying to penetrate the western and southern borders of the country, the statement said. Libya borders Egypt from the west and Sudan borders it from the south. Attacks by Islamic militants began spreading in Northern Sinai after the military overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. Hundreds of policemen and soldiers and more than 1,000 civilians have died in the attacks, according to official statements. 
…

Rescue ships picked up more than 700 people trying to cross the Mediterranean in makeshift vessels this weekend, mainly off the coasts of Libya and Malta, a migrant aid group said Sunday.The latest figures came as United Nations migration officials repeated their calls for a fairer mechanism to share the responsibility of caring for them, rather than leaving it to the Mediterranean countries.SOS Mediterranee said that its vessel, the Ocean Viking, had carried out six operations in international waters since Saturday.  In the last intervention, it rescued 106 people off the Maltese coast after being alerted by German aid group Sea Watch, said the Marseille-based organization.”The youngest survivor rescued in this operation is just 3 months old,” SOS Mediterranee tweeted.Overnight Saturday to Sunday, the Ocean Viking joined vessels from Sea Watch and ResQship, another German group, to help 400 people in difficulty in the central Mediterranean, said the group.They were rescued from a vessel that was taking on water, in what a spokesman for the organization told AFP was a particularly perilous operation.Those who were rescued were shared out between the Ocean Viking and Sea-Watch3.Ocean Viking alone has 555 passengers on board from this weekend’s operations, including at least 28 women, two of whom are pregnant. The organization has yet to determine at which safe port they will be able to leave them.Libya remains one of the main departure points for tens of thousands of migrants hoping to attempt the dangerous Mediterranean crossing, despite the continuing insecurity in the country. Most of them try to reach the Italian coast, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) away.Celine Schmitt, the spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ French operation, said last month there was an urgent need for an automatic system to share the new arrivals between countries, to ensure them a better reception, and not leave it to Mediterranean countries to assume sole responsibility.”If we look at the central Mediterranean, last year, there were fewer than 50,000 people who arrived,” she said.”It is totally manageable for the European population,” when you consider there are 82 million people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes, Schmitt said.International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Paul Dillon took a similar position last week.”By advocating for better migration management practices, better migration governance and greater solidarity from EU member states, we can come up with a clear, safe and humane approach to this issue that begins with saving lives at sea,” he said.The central Mediterranean crossing, between Libya and Italy or Malta, is by far the deadliest in the world, according to figures from the IOM.Of the 1,113 deaths recorded in the Mediterranean in the first half of this year, 930 of them were recorded there.Nevertheless, according to the latest IOM figures, increasing numbers of migrants have attempted the crossing this year.
 
…

…

The mountain kingdom of Bhutan has scripted a rare success story in the South Asian region devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting just two deaths, about 2,500 cases and inoculating 90% of its adult population in one of the world’s fastest inoculation campaigns.Experts say mobilizing the community, meticulous planning by authorities and international donations of vaccines paved the way for the tiny country with limited resources to get a grip on the pandemic and emerge ahead of most nations.When the coronavirus began ravaging countries last year, Bhutan offered financial incentives to people to augment its small pool of health workers and simultaneously called for volunteers.Thousands stepped forward.“Within a very short period of time the volunteer system crashed because there were so many people wanting to volunteer. And it was an amazing experience to see that instead of the incentives people were registering to volunteer, wanting to give something back to the community,” Dechen Wangmo, the country’s health minister, told VOA.The country now has a roughly 30,000-strong force of citizens volunteers. Dressed in bright orange and known as “desuups,” they have boosted the efforts of some 350 doctors and 3,000 health workers.  They have helped reinforce public health messages such as encouragement of wearing masks, and assisted in testing, surveillance and contact tracing among Bhutan’s approximately 750,000 people.The first half a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, donated by India, were administered in March during a 16-day campaign that was timed to coincide with auspicious dates suggested by Buddhist monks. Choosing the right time to roll out the vaccines helped build faith in the shot — Bhutan is a Buddhist country and is sometimes called the world’s last Shangri-la.  When New Delhi halted exports due to domestic shortages, Bhutan turned elsewhere. A batch of Moderna vaccines arrived in July from the COVAX program, an initiative to give vaccines to underdeveloped countries. Several other countries have also donated vaccines.While some questions were raised on social media about inoculating people with two different vaccines, those issues were quickly laid to rest in a country known for its implicit faith in its Oxford-educated, 41-year-old constitutional monarch, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk. Although he has turned the country from an absolute monarchy into a democratic, constitutional monarchy, he is still hugely popular.The medical background of its leadership helped — Bhutan’s prime minister and foreign minister are doctors and health minister Wangmo is a Yale-educated epidemiologist.FILE – Bhutanese people wash their hands before entering their office as a precaution against the COVID-19 in Thimpu, April 12, 2021.Unlike many countries, vaccine hesitancy did not pose a problem — although Bhutan has few doctors, it has a strong primary health care system.“There is a lot of trust and confidence in the health system and people do understand the benefits of vaccine, that vaccines prevent diseases and they have seen it for generations,” Wangmo said.The second doses were administered to 90% of the adult population in a weeklong campaign that began July 20, the health ministry said. UNICEF officials called it the fastest vaccination campaign during the pandemic. While Bhutan’s small population made the task easier, it faced the challenge of reaching far-flung mountain areas, often across difficult terrain.“If Bhutan can succeed in a monsoon with so few health workers to get almost the entire population vaccinated and then move to the children, maybe Bhutan can be a beacon of hope in a region that is on fire,” said Will Parks, UNICEF Representative in Bhutan.Even as many countries scramble for vaccines for adults, Bhutan now plans to inoculate 12- to 17-year-olds. The goal, officials said, is to reach herd immunity or at least avert serious infections in a country with only one doctor trained in critical care.This photograph provided by UNICEF shows airport personnel in protective suit handle unloaded 500,000 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine gifted from the United States arrived at Paro International Airport in Bhutan, July 12, 2021.Inoculations are not the only achievement. Unlike many countries, Bhutan opened schools earlier this year.UNICEF’s Park and domestic media credit the leadership with astutely navigating the pandemic.King Wangchuck has traveled to remote hamlets to alert people about the pandemic – by car, foot or horseback.  When the transmissible delta variant tore through India earlier this year, he visited areas in the east and south that adjoin India, with which the country has a porous border.Bhutanese officials say those visits reinforced the message of solidarity and were more effective than public health guidelines.“The visits conveyed that it is time for everyone to fight the common enemy. He would give that moral confidence to people and assurance that we are in it together and we are all going to follow the same rules,” Wangmo said.The king would follow the country’s strict quarantine rules after each trip. Bhutan has shown that the COVID pandemic is not just about the virus, but also about leadership, according to Parks.“If there are lessons to be learnt from Bhutan, it is about compassionate leadership that has to come from the top,” Parks said. “By compassionate leadership I mean having deep empathy, really walking in the shoes of others, and then actively making efforts to support people throughout this terrible, terrible pandemic.” 
…

Israel’s prime minister Sunday directly blamed Iran for a drone attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman that killed two people, making a veiled threat to retaliate as Tehran denied being involved in the assault.  The comments by Premier Naftali Bennett and Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh come after the strike Thursday night on the oil tanker Mercer Street. The attack marked the first-known fatal attack after years of assaults on commercial shipping in the region linked to tensions with Iran over its tattered nuclear deal.  While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Iran and its militia allies have used so-called “suicide” drones in attacks previously.  “The Iranians who attacked with unmanned aircraft the Mercer Street intended to harm an Israeli target,” Bennett said at the start of Israel’s weekly Cabinet meeting. “Instead, their piratical act caused the deaths of a British citizen and a Romanian citizen.” He warned: “We know, at any rate, know how to convey the message to Iran in our own way.” On Sunday, Khatibzadeh described the allegation Iran carried out the attack as “baseless” during his last news conference as the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman. “It’s not the first time that the Zionist regime occupying Jerusalem has made such empty accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Khatibzadeh said. “Wherever this regime has gone, it has taken instability, terror and violence with it.”  He added: “Whoever sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind.” Khatibzadeh spoke around an hour after Iran’s outgoing president acknowledged that his government at times “did not tell part of the truth” to the public during his term. The American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the guided missile destroyer USS Mitscher were escorting the Mercer Street as it headed to a safe port, the U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet said in a statement early Saturday. It said Navy explosive experts believe a drone attacked the vessel.  The drone attack blasted a hole through the top of the oil tanker’s bridge, where the captain and crew command the vessel, a U.S. official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as an investigation into the attack still was ongoing. The Mercer Street is managed by London-based Zodiac Maritime, part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group. The firm said the attack killed two crew members, one from the United Kingdom and the other from Romania. It did not name them, nor did it describe what happened in the assault. It said it believed no other crew members on board were harmed. British maritime security firm Ambrey said the attack on the Mercer Street had killed one of its team members on board the vessel. From Jerusalem, Bennett offered condolences to both the United Kingdom and Romania for the killing of their citizens. He said Israeli intelligence had evidence linking Iran to the attack, but did not offer it.  “Iran is the one who carried out the attack against the ship,” he said. “Iran’s aggressive behavior is dangerous not only for Israel, but harms global interests in the freedom of navigation and international trade.” Bennett took over as premier in June after a coalition deal unseated Israel’s long-serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is suspected of launching a series of attacks targeting Iran, including explosions at the country’s main enrichment site and the killing of a prominent military nuclear scientist. However, Bennett as well has made hawkish comments in the past about needing to attack “the head of the octopus” in Tehran as opposed to Iran’s regional militias like Hezbollah in Lebanon. The attack on the Mercer Street marks the first during his time as prime minister and analysts suggest he could seek a major attack in retaliation. “Israel may wish to deliver a resounding blow; that’s the spirit of political sources’ comments in Jerusalem,” wrote Amos Harel, a longtime military analyst for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “This blow will be aimed at ending things without a tit-for-tat that could escalate. But as usual, events also depend on the other side.” Associated Press writers Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed to this report. 
…

Florida reported a record 21,683 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, making the Southeastern U.S. state the national epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.The state’s previous record was 19,334 cases reported on January 7, before vaccinations had become widely available, according to federal health data, The Associated Press reported.Florida, with a population of nearly 21.5 million people, now accounts for about one-fifth of all new COVID-19 cases in the U.S., the CDC said. The state had reported about 17,000 new cases on Friday, the same day state Governor Ron DeSantis barred schools from requiring that students wear masks when they return to in-person classes in August.AdventHealth, one of the state’s largest health care systems, said on Friday that its Central Florida Division would not perform nonemergency surgeries in an effort to conserve resources because of the increase in COVID-19 patients in the region.Since the start of the pandemic, Florida has recorded 2.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 39,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.Cruises returnThe cruise ship industry, which is a big part of Florida’s tourism industry, was hit hard when the pandemic began in early 2020. On Saturday, the Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras ship was to set sail from Port Canaveral, Florida, the first ship since March 2020.The ship, planning a seven-day voyage to the Caribbean, was running at just 70% of its normal 5,282-passenger capacity.The pandemic forced cruise lines to suspend trips leaving from U.S. ports. Carnival Cruise Line is requiring — at least for its July and August voyages — that 95% of its passengers and crew be vaccinated, according to the AP.A day earlier, Royal Caribbean announced that six passengers — four fully vaccinated adults and two unvaccinated minors — had tested positive for COVID-19. All six were Americans, Royal Caribbean spokesperson Lyan Sierra-Caro told the AP. She said the six, who were not all traveling together, had disembarked in Nassau, the Bahamas, after a seven-day cruise. Royal Caribbean planned to fly the six back to the U.S. on private transportation, Sierra-Caro said, according to the AP.FILE – Guests cool off with a water mist under the globe at Universal Studios City Walk in Orlando, Fla., Oct. 22, 2015.Florida also is home to several major theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld. On Saturday, Universal and SeaWorld began asking guests to wear masks indoors. Universal also is requiring employees to wear masks while indoors and to practice social distancing protocols.“The health and safety of our guests and team members is always our top priority,” Universal said in a statement.On Friday, the Walt Disney Co. started requiring employees and guests older than 2 to wear masks indoors and on Disney transportation and said it would be requiring all salaried and nonunion employees who work at its properties in the U.S. to be fully vaccinated. As of now, face coverings are not required outdoors at the park.Raquel Heres gets a COVID-19 test to be able to travel overseas, July 31, 2021, in North Miami, Fla. Federal health officials say Florida has reported 21,683 new cases of COVID-19, the state’s highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic.Those Disney employees who are unvaccinated will have 60 days to receive the shots.Across the country, the state of Arizona, in the U.S. Southwest, is dealing with a worsening outbreak caused by the delta variant of the coronavirus, as well as low vaccination rates in the state, health officials said.”Unlike last summer when we were headed into school w/ declining rates, the match has been lit and the kindling is aflame this time,” Dr. Joe K. Gerald, a University of Arizona researcher who tracks COVID-19 data, said on Twitter, according to AP.The state reported more than 2,000 new daily COVID-19 cases for the first time in nearly five months, according to an AP report. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients topped 1,000 for a third straight day as well, according to officials.Arizona, with a population of 7.2 million, has reported 925,169 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 18,224 deaths since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins.Vaccine distributionThe CDC also reported that as of Saturday, the U.S. had distributed 400.6 million vaccine doses and had administered 345.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which include the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna and the one-dose Johnson & Johnson.More than 190.8 million people had received at least one dose of the vaccine, while more than 164.4 million had been fully vaccinated as of Saturday.Also of Saturday, 197.7 million cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 4.2 million deaths had been recorded globally, according to Johns Hopkins. The U.S. led the world in number of COVID-19 cases, with nearly 35 million, and related deaths, 613,113, according to the university.Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…