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Armenia’s political fate hangs in the balance ahead of a parliamentary election on Sunday, with opinion polls putting the party of acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and that of former President Robert Kocharyan neck-and-neck.The Armenian government called the snap election to try to end a political crisis that erupted after ethnic Armenian forces lost a bloody six-week war against Azerbaijan last year and ceded territory in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region.Pashinyan has been under pressure ever since, with regular street protests demanding he step down over the terms of the peace agreement that ended the conflict. Under the deal, which Russia brokered, Azerbaijan regained control of territory it had lost during a war in the early 1990s.Pashinyan himself called the agreement a disaster, but said he had been compelled to sign it in order to prevent greater human and territorial losses.According to a recent Gallup International poll conducted June 7-10, 24.1% of voters were ready to vote for Kocharyan’s Armenia Alliance and 23.8% for Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party.Russia, Turkey watchingArmenia, which hosts a Russian military base, is a close ally of Moscow, though Pashinyan, who came to power on the back of street protests and on an anti-corruption agenda in 2018, has had cooler relations with the Kremlin.”We wish a successful election to our close ally and partner,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.Turkey, which supported Azerbaijan in last year’s conflict, will also be watching closely.Pashinyan’s main rival is Kocharyan, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh, the region that was fought over last year. It is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but has long been claimed by ethnic Armenians, too.He was president of Armenia from 1998 to 2008 and was accused of acting unlawfully when he introduced a state of emergency in March 2008 following a disputed election. At least 10 people were killed in the clashes that followed between the police and protesters.In a recent interview with Russia’s RT TV channel, Kocharyan accused Armenian leaders of inaction during last year’s war and pledged to start negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh’s borders if he came to power.
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Parties negotiating a revival of the Iran nuclear deal will hold a formal meeting in Vienna on Sunday, the European Union said Saturday.Iran and six world powers have been negotiating in Vienna since April to work out steps for Washington and Tehran to take. The United States withdrew in 2018 from the pact, under which Iran accepted curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of many foreign sanctions against it.Sunday’s formal meeting comes more than a week after this round of talks resumed and is an indication that the talks are likely to be adjourned.Officials over the week have indicated that differences remain on key issues.”The Joint Commission of #JCPOA will meet on Sunday, June 20,” Mikhail Ulyanov Russia’s envoy to the talks said on Twitter.”It will decide on the way ahead at the #ViennaTalks. An agreement on restoration of the nuclear deal is within reach but is not finalized yet.”The remaining parties to the deal — Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union — meet in the basement of a luxury hotel.The U.S. delegation to the talks is based in a hotel across the street as Iran refuses face-to-face meetings, leaving the other delegations and EU to work as go-betweens.Since former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran, Tehran has embarked on counter measures, including rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, a potential pathway to nuclear bombs.
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Every year, Hollywood inevitably comes under criticism for its lack of racial diversity. But another lesser-known yet still pervasive problem also resurfaces: the lack of diversity in skin tone.It happened again with “In the Heights,” a big-budget film based on the musical created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, which was called out this week for its dearth of dark-skinned, Black Latinos in leading roles.  Colorism — or discrimination against darker-skinned people within their same ethnic group — lurks deep among pretty much all communities with varying levels of melanin. But it doesn’t get talked about, and that could be a setback for the racial justice efforts that intensified after the police killing of George Floyd last year.Avoiding the conversation will hinder the battle for racial justice because the two are “fully and inextricably linked,” said Ellis P. Monk, Jr., a sociology professor at Harvard University who has been researching colorism for years.  Monk says the issue is prevalent in all communities of color and has been taboo in part because it’s uncomfortable to talk about internal strife while also fighting against broader discrimination based on race and ethnicity.  “In a way, colorism and skin tone stratification is an even more difficult problem to fix because you could make the argument that everyone is involved in the system of colorism,” Monk said. “If we think about race and racial inequality without taking these skin tone differences seriously, then we’re actually missing how this system of racial inequality works.”Miranda, best known as the creator of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” and a longtime champion of including Latinos in the arts, recognized his own short-sightedness in addressing colorism and issued an apology.  “I can hear the hurt and frustration, of feeling still unseen in the feedback,” Miranda wrote. “I hear that without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the work feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy.”The legendary Rita Moreno likewise turned introspective on colorism after she faced backlash in her defense of Miranda when she implied that Latinos should be grateful they’re being represented in any fashion. She has since apologized.There is little data that tracks discrimination based on skin tone, and therefore it is hard to quantify just how pervasive colorism is. But the studies that do exist show that people with darker skin have higher incarceration rates, lower access to health care and education and live in poorer neighborhoods, several experts say.  Nayeli Chavez, a clinical psychologist and faculty at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, has spent a decade looking into racial differences between ethnic groups.  “We have been socialized from childhood to look down on darker skin, on indigenous features,” Chavez said.As a psychologist who has dedicated her career to helping people heal from racial trauma, Chavez sees how avoiding the topic of colorism is detrimental and says there is a false assumption in Latin America that because those places were colonized and its people are of mixed races, there is no racism.  The key to changing behavior is by teaching history accurately and admitting that those biases exist.  “Racial justice begins with our own community. It literally begins in our own families,” Chavez said. “This is an area that there’s so little about. We are barely like touching the tip of the iceberg.”Nancy López, a professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico, said one way Latinos and other communities of color can begin to address colorism is by asking themselves a simple question: what is your “street race?”  Street race refers to the race someone assumes you are when you’re walking down the street and they know nothing else about you. Take former President Barack Obama, who is half-white. Someone who saw him in the street would likely see him as Black — his street race.  López, who also directs and co-founded the Institute for the Study of “Race” and Social Justice at UNM, said the concept of street race affects family dynamics, too. Two siblings from the same parents may have different skin tones and therefore different experiences in how they’re perceived and treated, López said. “Reflecting on your street race is one way of practicing solidarity with those siblings, cousins, partners, relatives who may be racialized very differently than you, may be experiencing racializing in a very different way,” she said.While some may find calling attention to colorism divisive, López says it’s the opposite. If communities don’t talk about it, they’re not in total solidarity, she said.
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The Delta variant of the coronavirus, first detected in India, has been detected in neighboring Sri Lanka.  “It is the worst we could have imaged at such a time,” Dr. Chandima Jeewandara, director of the Allergy, Immunity and Cell Biology Unit at the Sri Jayewardenepura University, told The Hindu newspaper.  “We are already dealing with a spike in cases with the Alpha variant. Delta poses a greater risk because our vaccine coverage is low, and among those who are vaccinated a majority have got only one dose.”According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, Sri Lanka, a nation of about 22 million people, has more than 233,000 COVID cases.In South Korea, a delay in the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines has pushed the government to offer its residents mixed doses.   People who received the Astra Zeneca vaccine as a first dose will now be offered the Pfizer vaccine for the second.A panel of health care experts say they believe India will likely experience a third surge of coronavirus cases in October.  “It will be more controlled” than previous surges, said Dr. Randeep Guleria, director at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, because some people have been inoculated.On Friday, India reported more than 62,000 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24 period. The nation also reported 1,587 COVID-19 deaths, the country’s lowest death toll in 60 days.Johns Hopkins said early Friday it has recorded more than 177 million global COVID-19 cases.  The U.S. leads the world in the number of cases with 33.5 million, followed by India with 29.8 million and Brazil with 17.7 million.  Worldwide deaths from the disease have now topped 3.84 million.Johns Hopkins also said 2.5 billion vaccine doses have been administered.
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The man known as Zambia’s founding father has died at the age of 97. Kenneth Kaunda rose to power during Africa’s post-independence period, when dozens of former European colonies gained their freedom. Plus, the United States has a new federal holiday marking the end of slavery. And a look at DC’s cicadas… from tree to table. 
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The U.S. House of Representatives voted 268-161 Thursday to repeal a nearly two-decades-old bill giving American presidents sweeping powers to conduct the war on terror. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson explains why many  U.S. lawmakers believe curbing these powers was long overdue.  Produced by: Katherine Gypson, Bakhtiyar Zamanov 
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A string of notable American women will appear on the U.S. quarter under a four-year program that begins in 2022. The U.S. Mint says its American Women Quarters Program will celebrate women’s accomplishments and contributions to U.S. history. Under the program, the mint will issue up to five new designs each year from 2022 to 2025. Honorees will be from a variety of fields and from ethnically, racially and geographically diverse backgrounds, the mint says. Honorees chosen for the first year are Maya Angelou, poet and author; Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space; Wilma Mankiller, the Cherokee Nation’s first female principal chief; Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American Hollywood film star; and Adelina Otero-Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement.  Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Mankiller’s husband, Charlie Soap, expressed gratitude for Mankiller’s inclusion in the program, saying her influence and leadership made her a fitting choice.  Mankiller became one of the United States’ most visible Native American leaders during her 10 years as chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, from 1985 to 1995. She died in 2010. “We thank the U.S. Mint for recognizing Wilma and the other recipients for such an honor,” Soap told Indian Country Today. “Wilma was a humble, spiritual, great leader whose leadership was not only for Cherokee people but for all women and races. The real value of this coin is the inspiration it brings to Indian people and women everywhere.” 
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U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have begun their highly anticipated summit in Geneva, the Swiss capital chosen as a location for the summit for its history of political neutrality.   Both sides have been underscoring opportunities for cooperation but are downplaying expectations for any improvement in tense relations between Moscow and Washington. The meeting is expected to be more of an airing of grievances than a platform to reach significant agreements.“We’re not expecting a big set of deliverables out of this meeting,” said a senior administration official, briefing VOA and other reporters on board Air Force One during Biden’s flight to Switzerland.  Russian President Vladimir Putin, third left, arrives for the US – Russia summit with US President Joe Biden in Switzerland, June 16, 2021.Putin landed in Geneva shortly before his arrival at Villa La Grange, the summit location, around 1 pm local time. Biden arrived at the venue shortly afterward – a diplomatic dance the White House choreographed to avoid a repeat of the Helsinki Summit in 2018 where Putin’s late arrival kept then President Donald Trump waiting for over 30 minutes.  The two shook hands before going into talks.P+1 followed by P+5 After the initial greeting and meeting with the host, President of the Swiss Confederation Guy Parmelin, the two leaders conduct their first session in a “P+1” format. Biden is accompanied by Secretary of State Antony Blinken while Putin has Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at his side. There is an interpreter for each side. Following the smaller format, the American and Russian delegations hold a wider “P+5” meeting. That meeting is expected to last at least four hours according to the senior administration official. The official said the U.S. and Russians agreed to build in flexibility to allow the leaders to “make determinations about the best way to conduct their business,” but added there will be “no breaking of bread” between the leaders.  The official said Biden’s goals include seeking areas where the United States and Russia can work together while clearly stating U.S. vital national interests and making it clear that “Russian activities that run counter to those interests will be met with a response.” He also aims to lay out his “vision for American values and our national priorities.”    One possible outcome from the summit is the reversal of the recall of each country’s ambassador. U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan and Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov returned home earlier this year amid worsening U.S.-Russia relations. Both are in Geneva and will participate in the P+5 part of the summit. The meeting concludes Biden’s first trip abroad as president. During the past week, he has attended the G-7 summit and held talks with NATO and European Union leaders, seeking to boost relations with allies and consult with them about the U.S.-Russia talks.  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, left, U.S. President Joe Biden, center and European Council President Charles Michel arrive for the EU-US summit at the European Council building in Brussels, June 15, 2021.In an interview with NBC News, Putin said U.S.-Russia ties had deteriorated to their “lowest point in recent years.”   Asked by a reporter shortly after his arrival Tuesday in Geneva if he was ready for his meeting with Putin, the U.S. leader said, “I’m always ready.”  The administration official told reporters Tuesday that cybersecurity, in particular ransomware attacks, “will be a significant topic of conversation” between Biden and Putin.In April, Biden expelled 10 Russian diplomats and imposed new sanctions on six Russian technology companies that provide support to the cyber program run by Putin’s intelligence services linked to the hacking of the SolarWinds information technology company.    In May, two key U.S. businesses — Colonial Pipeline, which transports fuel in the southeastern United States, and the JBS meat production company — were targeted in cyberattacks believed to have originated in Russia. Both Colonial and JBS paid millions of dollars in ransom to restore their business operations, although U.S. law enforcement officials have recovered most of the money Colonial paid.   Putin has rejected U.S. claims that Moscow and Russian hackers are carrying out debilitating cyberattacks on American companies and government agencies.  
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The United Nations humanitarian chief warned Tuesday that the 1984 famine that killed more than 1 million Ethiopians could occur again if aid access to that country’s northern Tigray region is not quickly improved, scaled up and properly funded. “There is now famine in Tigray,” aid chief Mark Lowcock told a private, informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, according to a copy of his written remarks seen by VOA. He said the Tigray administration has reported deaths from starvation. “The situation is set to get worse in the coming months, not only in Tigray, but in Afar and Amhara, as well.” Last week, urgent calls went out from the U.N. and partner aid agencies for a humanitarian cease-fire. It came on the heels of a report warning that 350,000 people were already in famine conditions in Tigray and that 2 million more were just a step away. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC as it is known, reported that more than 5.5 million people overall were in crisis levels of food insecurity in Tigray and the neighboring zones of Amhara and Afar. The U.N. children’s agency UNICEF has also warned that 33,000 severely malnourished children in currently unreachable areas of Tigray are also at high risk of death. The scope of the problem is massive. Lowcock said there were 123 humanitarian agencies operating in the area and 10 times as many aid workers in Tigray today than at the start of the crisis in November. “But substantial further scale-up is urgently required if we are to make a significant impact on growing needs,” Lowcock said. FILE – U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec. 4, 2018.The United Nations has appealed for $853 million to assist 5.2 million people until the end of the year, with almost $200 million needed before the end of July. Access to people in remote and hard-to-reach areas has been an ongoing problem since the conflict erupted in November between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Ethiopia’s U.N. ambassador, Taye Atske Selassie Amde, said the situation did not warrant security council attention. He added that his government “vehemently disagreed” with the humanitarian assessment, saying data was collected in a “very botched” way. “Having said that, using humanitarian issues, particularly famine and starvation, in order to exert undue pressure on Ethiopia is completely unacceptable,” he told reporters after the meeting. “It’s not a drought or locusts that are causing this hunger, but the decisions of those in power,” British Ambassador Barbara Woodward said. “That means those in power could also end the suffering.” She added that Eritrean forces need to leave Ethiopia. “We were told in March that Eritrean forces would be withdrawing. It’s now June. There can be no further delay,” she told reporters. The Ethiopian envoy said the delay was due to “sorting some technical and procedural issues.” “Our expectation is that they will definitely leave soon,” he said.  U.S. envoy Jeffrey DeLaurentis told council members that “we have to act now” to prevent a famine, according to a diplomat familiar with the council’s discussion. DeLaurentis also called for an urgent end to hostilities, unhindered aid access and a political dialogue to resolve the crisis, as well as accountability for those responsible for human rights abuses.  The U.N. Security Council has held a handful of private meetings on the growing crisis but has failed to take any serious action to pressure the parties to stop the fighting, allow aid workers safely in and get Eritrea’s troops to leave. In April, the council issued a statement calling for better humanitarian access, but it has taken no action to pressure spoilers to comply. 
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The Biden administration’s suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal land and water was blocked Tuesday by a federal judge in Louisiana, who ordered plans be resumed for lease sales that were delayed for the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed in March by Louisiana’s Republican attorney general Jeff Landry and officials in 12 other states. Doughty’s ruling granting a preliminary injunction to those states said his order applies nationwide.The 13 states said the administration bypassed comment periods and other bureaucratic steps required before such delays can be undertaken. Doughty heard arguments in the case last week in Lafayette.The moratorium was imposed after Democratic President Joe Biden on January 27 signed executive orders to fight climate change. The suit was filed in March. The states opposing the suspension said it was undertaken without the required comment periods and other bureaucratic steps.Federal lawyers also argued that the public notice and comment period doesn’t apply to the suspension, that the lease sales aren’t required by law and that the secretary of the Interior has broad discretion in leasing decisions.Although Landry and the lawsuit’s supporters said the moratorium has already driven up prices and endangered energy jobs, Biden’s suspension didn’t stop companies from drilling on existing leases.”No existing lease has been canceled as a result of any of the actions challenged here, and development activity from exploration through drilling and production has continued at similar levels as the preceding four years,” lawyers for the administration argued in briefs.A long-term halt to oil and gas sales would curb future production and could hurt states like Louisiana that are heavily dependent on the industry that has contributed to global warming.The lawsuit notes that coastal states receive significant revenue from onshore and offshore oil and gas activity. Stopping leases, the lawsuit argues, would diminish revenue that pays for Louisiana efforts to restore coastal wetlands, raise energy costs and lead to major job losses in oil-producing states.
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U.S. President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described their first face-to-face talks as heads of state as “productive” but did not announce any major breakthroughs in the relationship between the two countries. Biden told reporters after the meeting Monday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels that the talks were “positive and productive” and he was “confident we’ll make real progress with Turkey.”  Erdogan characterized the talks as “productive and sincere.” “We think that there are no issues between U.S. and Turkey relationship that are unsolvable and that areas of cooperation for us are richer and larger than problems,” he said. The talks come at a time when the two NATO allies are at odds over a number of issues including Syria, Libya and the sale of Russian weapons to Turkey.  FILE – First parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system are unloaded from a Russian plane near Ankara, Turkey, July 12, 2019.The United States sanctioned Turkey in December over its purchase of a Russian weapons system and recently criticized human rights abuses in Turkey. Turkey has called for the United States to end its support for Syrian Kurdish fighters, which Turkey says are linked to the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. In April, Biden angered Turkey by recognizing the Ottoman Empire’s massacre of 1.5 million Armenians from roughly 1915 to 1917 as genocide. Turkey denies the killings amounted to genocide. Erdogan said the Armenian issue was not discussed during Monday’s 45-minute meeting. On the topic of Turkey’s purchase of a Russian S-400 missile defense system, Erdogan indicated no progress had been made.  “On the issue of S-400s, I told (Biden) the same thing I had in the past,” Erdogan said. Erdogan said he and Biden also discussed Afghanistan following reports that Turkey could take on a role to secure the international airport in Kabul after the United States withdraws its troops from the country.  He said Turkey would need “diplomatic, logistic and financial assistance” from the United States if it were to maintain troops in Afghanistan.  Henri Barkey, with the Council on Foreign Relations, told VOA that Turkey was using the Afghanistan offer to win favor from the United States and NATO and hoping to cash in on the goodwill later. He noted that the meeting did not give the leaders much time “given the complexities of the issues.” Other meetingsAlso on Monday, Erdogan met separately with French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.  Turkey and Greece have been at odds over boundary disputes and rights to natural resources.  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the sidelines of the NATO summit, in Brussels, Belgium, June 14, 2021. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters)Erdogan said he and Mitsotakis agreed to call each other over a “direct line” when future problems arise. Macron said after his meeting with Erdogan that the two countries agreed to work on preserving the cease-fire in Libya and the departure of foreign fighters in the country.  Macron tweeted after the meeting that he wants to “move forward” with Turkey. Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. 
 
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Leaders of the G-7 ended their three-day summit Sunday, committing to a series of actions to end the coronavirus pandemic, mitigate climate change and rebuild the global economy. The group named China and Russia as sources of global security and economic threats. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report from Brussels, the next leg of U.S. President Joe Biden’s European tour.
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British foreign minister Dominic Raab criticized the European Union on Sunday for treating Northern Ireland as if it were a separate country rather than part of the United Kingdom, and said that approach was causing damage to the British province.”Various EU figures here in Carbis Bay, but frankly for months now and years, have characterized Northern Ireland as somehow a separate country and that is wrong. It is a failure to understand the facts,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr program.Raab made his comments amid a dispute between Britain and the European Union over the interpretation of the Northern Ireland protocol, the element of the Brexit divorce deal that relates to trade in the province.Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reported that French President Emmanuel Macron had suggested Northern Ireland was not part of the United Kingdom during his meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Group of Seven summit in Carbis Bay in southwest England.”It is a failure to understand the facts. It is a failure to appreciate what speaking around Northern Ireland in those terms and approaching the issue of the Northern Ireland protocol in those terms does, causes damage to businesses from both communities and that creates deep consternation,” Raab said.”We wouldn’t talk about Catalonia and Barcelona or Corsica in France, in those ways,” he added.Asked if Britain and the EU were heading for a trade war, Raab said the bloc needed to allow the free flow of trade between Britain and Northern Ireland. “If the Commission and the EU stick to that, indeed mark the words of President Macron, we can find a pragmatic way through,” he said.”What we cannot have is a lopsided approach, built on some of the flawed assumptions … and which have very real effects for the communities on all sides in Northern Ireland.” 
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An auction for a ride into space next month alongside Jeff Bezos and his brother ended Saturday with a winning $28 million bid.The Amazon founder’s rocket company, Blue Origin, did not disclose the winner’s name following the live online auction. The identity will be revealed in a couple weeks — closer to the brief up-and-down flight from West Texas on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing.It will be the first launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket with people on board, kicking off the company’s space tourism business. Fifteen previous test flights of the reusable rocket and capsule since 2015 — short hops lasting about 10 minutes — were all successful.Saturday’s auction followed more than a month of online bidding that had reached $4.8 million by Friday. More than 7,500 people from 159 countries registered to bid, according to Blue Origin. More than 20 bidders — the high rollers — took part in Saturday’s auction.Bezos announced Monday that he and his younger brother, Mark, would be on board New Shepard’s first crew flight; the news quickly boosted bidding. The winning amount is being donated to Blue Origin’s Club for the Future, an educational effort to promote science and tech among young people.The completely automated capsule can carry up to six passengers, each of whom gets a big window. Blue Origin’s top sales director, Ariane Cornell, said following the auction that the fourth and final seat on the debut crew flight would be announced soon.Blue Origin has yet to open ticket sales to the public or divulge prices.
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SALEM, OREGON — Kip Kinkel, who killed his parents before going on a shooting rampage at his Oregon high school in 1998, killing two classmates and injuring 25 more, has given his first news interview, telling HuffPost he feels “tremendous, tremendous shame and guilt.”Kinkel, now 38, is serving a de facto life sentence at the Oregon State Correctional Institution. He spoke with the news site by phone for about 20 hours over 10 months.He said he felt guilty not just for what he did as a 15-year-old suffering from then-undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, but the effect his crime has had on other juvenile offenders sentenced to life terms: His case has been held up by some of his victims and by others as a reason to oppose juvenile justice reform in the state.While he has not previously given interviews because he did not want to further traumatize his victims, he said, he also began to feel that his silence was preventing those offenders from getting a second chance.“I have responsibility for the harm that I caused when I was 15,” Kinkel said. “But I also have responsibility for the harm that I am causing now as I’m 38 because of what I did at 15.”FILE – This undated file photo provided by the Oregon Department of Corrections shows Kipland Kinkel.Kinkel described how he had been hearing voices since age 12 and how he became obsessed with knives, guns and explosives, believing China was going to invade the U.S. and that the government and the Walt Disney Co. had implanted a microchip in his head.When he was caught at Thurston High School in Springfield with a stolen handgun he bought from another student on May 19, 1998, “My whole world blew up,” he said. “All the feelings of safety and security — of being able to take control over a threat — disappeared.”Facing expulsion, a possible felony charge and an enormous sense of shame, he said, the voices in his head made him believe he had to kill his parents and then return to school to “kill everybody.”He killed his parents the next day, and the day after that he opened fire in the school cafeteria, killing 16-year-old Ben Walker and 17-year-old Mikael Nickolauson and injuring 25 before being subdued by other students.He pleaded guilty — at the time, he did not want to accept his diagnosis and felt community pressure to resolve the case rather than plead not guilty by reason of insanity. He was sentenced to nearly 112 years after apologizing profusely.“I feel tremendous, tremendous shame and guilt for what I did,” he told HuffPost. “I hate the violence that I’m guilty of.”Kinkel shot Betina Lynn in the back and foot. She told HuffPost the idea of him ever getting out is “literally terrifying.” She has permanent nerve damage, a constant reminder of what happened.“Even now, more than 23 years later, I and many other survivors are still dealing with the fallout,” Lynn said. “We are all serving life sentences right alongside him.”Kinkel described how he underwent mental health treatment at the youth prison where he began his sentence and recognized he harmed innocent people, including his parents, whom he loved. He also said he cried when he learned about the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, afraid that he had inspired it.Fighting his sentenceKinkel, who has obtained a college degree behind bars, continues to challenge his sentence, which was upheld by the state Supreme Court. In March, his attorneys filed a petition in federal court, arguing that his plea was not voluntary — he had been off his meds for several weeks beforehand — and that his sentence was unconstitutional.“Sentencing a juvenile to die in prison because they suffer from a mental illness is a violation of the Eighth Amendment,” his lawyers wrote.In 2019, as part of a national effort to reevaluate tough-on-crime sentences for juveniles, the Oregon Legislature passed a measure to stop automatically referring 15- to 17-year-olds to adult court for certain offenses and to ensure that they weren’t sentenced to life in prison without a chance to seek parole. At the time, there were about a dozen people serving life or life-equivalent terms for crimes committed as juveniles.But critics warned that that the measure could lead to Kinkel’s release, and a month later, lawmakers passed another bill to make clear that the measure was not retroactive.“It doesn’t matter if he was 15,” Adam Walker, the brother of Kinkel’s victim Ben Walker, said in a video released at the time. “The victims don’t get second chances. Why should the offenders?”Kinkel said he watched the debate in the prison library.“It was like, there was hope,” Kinkel said. “And then the Legislature … came back and said, ‘No, we are specifically, intentionally, purposely with everything that we have, going to take this away from the kids already in the system.’”He said he doesn’t often consider the possibility of ever being released: “I don’t allow myself to spend too much time thinking about that because I think that can actually bring more suffering.”
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Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen was taken to a hospital Saturday after collapsing on the field during a match at the European Championship, leading to the game being suspended for more than 90 minutes. The governing body of European soccer said Eriksen has been stabilized and the Danish soccer federation said he was awake. “Christian Eriksen is awake and is undergoing further examinations at Rigshospitalet,” the Danish federation wrote on Twitter. The Euro 2020 match between Denmark and Finland had been halted in the 43rd minute with the score 0-0 but was to resume at 8:30 p.m. local time. UEFA said both teams had held an emergency meeting before deciding to continue playing. The players came back out onto the field at around 7:15 p.m. to a huge ovation as they started warming up for a second time. Eriksen was given urgent medical attention on the field for about 10 minutes after collapsing near the end of the first half. He was then carried off on a stretcher. UEFA then announced the game had been suspended “due to a medical emergency.” Eriksen had just played a short pass when he fell face-forward onto the ground. His teammates immediately gestured for help and medics rushed onto the field. Eriksen was given chest compressions as his Denmark teammates stood around him in a shielding wall for privacy. Eriksen’s partner, Sabrina Kvist Jensen, went onto the field and was comforted by Denmark captain Simon Kjaer and goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. The Finland players huddled by their bench and eventually walked off the field while the Inter Milan midfielder was still getting treatment, as did the referees. Eriksen was eventually carried off to a loud ovation, with his teammates walking next to the stretcher. Inter Milan team physician Piero Volpi told The Associated Press that the Italian club was in contact with the Danish soccer federation. “We’re in contact with the Danish federation, the team manager, the team physician. But we still don’t know anything yet,” Volpi said. “We heard what UEFA said and we’re all happy that he’s been stabilized. But that’s all we know.” Volpi added that Eriksen never contracted COVID-19, has no medical conditions that he’s aware of and has passed every medical exam without problem since joining Inter in January 2020 from Tottenham. “But we’ll talk about that when the time is right,” Volpi added of Eriksen’s medical history. “Right now, the important thing is that he recovers.” Eriksen is one of Denmark’s biggest stars and the incident brought an instant sense of shock to the Parken Stadium, where about 15,000 fans fell into hushed silence. Some supporters could be seen crying and hugging in the stands. As the fans in the stadium were waiting for updates, Finland supporters started chanting “Christian,” which was then answered by the Danish fans shouting “Eriksen.” A huge roar then went up from all supporters when the stadium announcer said Eriksen was “stable and awake.” 
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Malawi’s government said Saturday that it had received news of its diplomats’ alleged misconduct in South Africa with regret and that it would punish those involved when they returned home.South Africa on Friday declared all Malawian diplomats persona non grata for abusing diplomatic privileges and gave them 72 hours to leave the country. South Africa’s Ministry of International Relations said in a statement that the action followed an investigation that found the diplomats had been buying duty-free alcohol with cash and then reselling it to retailers.A Malawi government spokesperson, Gospel Kazako, told local media Saturday that the government had already talked with some of its South Africa-based diplomats.“What they are saying is that they are being accused of abusing the tax privileges that they had,” Kazako said. “You know, according to the Vienna Convention of 1961, diplomats have certain privileges, and one of the privileges is that of not paying tax in the hosting country on certain items and certain services. Alcohol is one of those items, so there was abuse, according to South African government.”The South African Revenue Service said the scandal, which also involved diplomats from other countries including Rwanda, Burundi and Lesotho, had led to the estimated loss of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes every month. It has not yet been determined how long the illegal enterprise was operating.Not ‘normal consumption’John Chikago, Malawi’s former high commissioner to South Africa, told VOA the matter was strange and surprising.“We buy with the diplomatic card, and you can’t just buy any amount, unless you have a party at your house or there is national day [celebration] for your country,” he said. “But if it is normal consumption, you should buy only one bottle or two bottles. But they were buying cartons. How? So, it appears there was a syndicate.”Chikago said the issue could tarnish the image of Malawian diplomats in other embassies.“That is the image we are giving to South Africa — that we are corrupt people, because embassies are the image of Malawi — so it must stop,” he said.Sheriff Kaisi, a political science lecturer at Blantyre International University, dismissed fears that the incident would affect diplomatic relations between Malawi and South Africa. But he said the image of ordinary Malawians living in South Africa could be affected.“We have quite a number of citizens living in South Africa,” he said. “They will be seen as people who are not trustworthy, people who cannot follow rules of the game.”However, Malawi’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Friday evening that the Malawi government had conveyed regret to the South African government about the conduct of the diplomats involved, and that it would take appropriate action when the diplomats returned to Malawi.
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