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The Pentagon has sent several naval vessels and a marine expeditionary unit to the coast of Somalia to support an operation repositioning hundreds of U.S. troops to bases elsewhere in East Africa. The USS Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group and the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit reached Somali waters on Monday. It joined the USS Hershel Woody Williams, an expeditionary sea base that arrived on December 16, according to the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). FILE – A U.S. Marine gives the thumbs up as a truckload of troops arrive at the U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia, Dec. 10, 1992.The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group consists of three vessels, including the amphibious assault ship of the same name. Combined with the expeditionary sea base USS Williams, they have nearly 5,000 troops to conduct maritime security operations. The vessels have the combined “capability to boost firepower and protect and enable the repositioning of U.S. forces,” AFRICOM spokesperson Col. Christopher P. Karns told VOA Somali Service in an email Tuesday. “Also, if provoked, (they can) strike al-Shabab terrorists swiftly and with precision. “For this operation, a full range of military capability is available to project power from sea, land or air,” he wrote. “… The ability to bring forth robust capability quickly should reassure partners. Also, al-Shabab should take notice and recognize what awaits those seeking to do harm. U.S. forces are clear-eyed and focused on completing this mission. U.S. Africa Command has an ability to bring forth added capability as situations warrant.” Karns declined to provide details about AFRICOM’s strategy or timeline. But he insisted it would continue to develop Somali forces and conduct airstrikes against the militant group. Concerns over drawdown The U.S. troop drawdown in Somalia and its timing have sparked concerns.FILE – The Somalian army special commando unit known as Danab marches at army headquarters in Mogadishu, April 12, 2014.She said the Danab have benefited from their U.S. mentors’ capabilities, whether in military intelligence, air surveillance or superior weaponry. The presence of U.S. forces also has shielded Danab from being used to settle internal Somali political disputes, said another Somali official who was not authorized to speak to media and asked not to be named. The official suggested that with the drawdown, Danab members might be sent to address political disputes and would be vulnerable to al-Shabab attacks. Building capacity After its November announcement of the troop drawdown, AFRICOM resumed airstrikes to demonstrate its continued support. A December 10 strike killed eight militants, the Pentagon said, noting it was the 50th U.S.-led strike in Somalia this year. Most target al-Shabab, but a few have been directed at pro-Islamic State terrorists. U.S. airstrikes have killed roughly a thousand al-Shabab fighters since 2017, Karns said. The U.S. military carried out 35 strikes that year, 47 in 2018 and 63 in 2019, he said. AFRICOM said its airstrikes disrupt al-Shabab activities and restrict the group’s movements and ability to expand. The U.S. drawdown exposes Somalia’s unpreparedness to assume security responsibilities, analyst Gaid said, adding that its government must build a force capable of securing national land, air and sea borders and eliminating terrorist threats. She offered an optimistic prediction: “If we double up the efforts and refocus, in 10 years, we can have that force.” This story originated in VOA’s Somali Service.
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Even as new infections slip to the lowest levels in three months, on Saturday, India crossed the 10 million mark of total infections since the pandemic began, second behind the U.S. mark of 17 million, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.India’s falling infections, down from its record of about 100,000 new cases daily to about 25,000 cases reported Saturday, give health experts some reason to hope. India has suffered more than 145,000 deaths, Johns Hopkins says.”If we can sustain our declining trend for the next two to three months, we should be able to start the vaccination program and start moving away from the pandemic,” Dr. Randeep Guleria, a government health expert, told The Associated Press.Some of the world’s biggest vaccine makers are located in India, and there are five vaccines in clinical trials. Two vaccines, by Oxford University-AstraZeneca and India’s Bharat Biotech, are nearing authorization for emergency use. The South Asian nation with a population of 1.3 billion people hopes to vaccinate 250 million people by July.As India’s cases are waning, Canada was approaching 500,000 cases Saturday, an increase of 25% since two weeks ago, when the North American country surpassed 400,000 cases.”COVID-19 is spreading among people of all ages, with high infection rates across all age groups,” Canada’s chief medical officer Theresa Tam said.Cases surging in CanadaCanada is to receive 500,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in January, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. And about 168,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine should arrive soon. It is expected to receive emergency-use approval by Canadian health officials soon.However, Minister of Public Services and Procurement Anita Anand said there will not be enough shots for every Canadian who wants one until September.Santa ‘good to go’One person who won’t have to wait for his shot is Santa Claus, thanks to Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert.”I took care of that for you because I was worried that you’d all be upset,” he said Saturday during a CNN and “Sesame Street” coronavirus town hall for families, after worried youngsters asked whether Santa could safely enter homes on Dec. 25.”I took a trip up there to the North Pole; I went there, and I vaccinated Santa Claus myself. I measured his level of immunity, and he is good to go,” Fauci said.”He can come down the chimney, he can leave the presents … you have nothing to worry about,” he said.US general apologizesGen. Gustave Perna, the U.S. Army general in charge of distributing COVID-19 vaccine across the U.S., apologized Saturday to the governors of more than a dozen states that will be getting fewer doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine than they expected.”I want to take personal responsibility for the miscommunication,” he told reporters during a telephone briefing. “I know that’s not done much these days. But I am responsible. … This is a Herculean effort, and we are not perfect.”Perna said he mistakenly cited the number of doses he believed would be ready, not understanding the difference between manufactured doses and those ready to be released.Between the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna Inc. vaccine, Perna said the government is expecting to deliver 20 million doses to the states by the first week of January.Moderna and its partners have started distributing its vaccine, the second approved for emergency use in the country. Trucks will begin shipping the vaccine to more than 3,700 U.S. locations on Sunday, Perna said Saturday during the virtual news conference.Perna said the Moderna vaccine will reach health care workers as early as Monday, but that the delivery of some of the first 20 million doses of vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer Inc. could be delayed until the first week of January.Nearly 76 million people around the world contracted the coronavirus as of midday Saturday, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.The U.S. tops the list as the country with the most cases, with 17.6 million; India is second, with more than 10 million, followed by Brazil, with 7.1 million, according to Johns Hopkins.Zeng Yixin, vice minister of China’s National Health Commission, said Saturday the country would focus on vaccinating high-risk groups over the next several months before beginning to vaccinate the general public.”During the winter and spring seasons, carrying out novel coronavirus vaccination work among some key population groups is of great significance to epidemic prevention,” Zeng, who also is director of State Council’s vaccine R&D working group, said.The World Health Organization (WHO) said it has gained access to 2 billion doses of several coronavirus vaccines.WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said access to the vaccines ensures that some 190 countries will be able to inoculate their populations “during the first half of next year.”
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As the coronavirus pandemic roared to new record highs across the United States, it lit a fire in the U.S. Congress, where Republicans and Democrats were scrambling to pass a new round of aid after months of partisan finger-pointing and inaction. Even as they contemplated passing a third stopgap measure to give them a few more days to agree on final amounts, lawmakers from both parties said COVID-19’s worsening toll meant that failure to agree was no longer an option. Multiple lawmakers floated the possibility the federal government would run out of money early Saturday morning while the COVID-19 relief negotiations continue if Congress is unable to pass a temporary government funding bill before Friday at midnight. FILE – Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., answers reporters questions outside his office at the U.S. Capitol, Jan 29, 2020.The Senate’s No. 2 Republican, John Thune, said there could be an objection to passing such a stopgap measure from those who want to keep the pressure on for a deal on COVID-19 aid. “Government shutdowns are never good. If it’s for a very short amount of time on a weekend, hopefully it’s not going to be something that would be all that harmful. But that being said, the preferable route is to keep the government open and get this done and get it done quickly,” Thune said. But a House Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations said there was confidence that the Democrat-run House could meet the midnight Friday deadline for passing spending and coronavirus aid measures. Lawmakers said they were being spurred to action by hospitalizations and deaths caused by the pandemic rising at an alarming rate. The United States has registered more than 17 million COVID-19 cases and more than 310,000 deaths, by far the most in the world, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. FILE – Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, speaks during a Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, May 7, 2020.”Today, this week, we’re seeing more deaths due to COVID than ever. The fact that even with a vaccine coming in my state, we are at our highest rate ever for transmission of the virus, for hospitalizations,” said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. “That’s the difference … the calendar, the passage of time, and the passing of lives,” Murkowski said when asked by reporters why a coronavirus aid bill was gaining momentum among Senate Republicans. FILE – Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, speaking during a news conference in Washington, Oct. 26, 2020.Republican Senator Rob Portman pointed to growing lines of unemployed Americans at food banks.  “Something’s going on here, folks … people waiting five, six hours for a box of food,” he said. Republicans also have a wary eye on the impact inaction might have on a pair of January 5 U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia, which will decide whether their party maintains control of the Senate for the next two years or hands it over to Democrats. For months, the Republican-run Senate refused to take up a $3 trillion bill the Democrat-run House passed in May, pointing out that Congress had previously passed $3 trillion in aid in March and April. For a long time, leading Republicans argued for something closer to $500 billion (about twice the value of the gross domestic product of South Africa) more. Now, House and Senate leaders are negotiating a bill of about $900 billion that would be attached to a $1.4 trillion measure to fund federal programs through next September. The plan is to attach the bill to a massive government bill and pass both by midnight Friday to avoid a shutdown of much of the federal government. Lawmakers in both parties said they wanted to avoid a shutdown. The coronavirus legislation is expected to include stimulus checks of about $600, extended unemployment benefits, help for states distributing the vaccine and assistance for small businesses struggling through the pandemic as millions have been thrown out of work. Fed lending and other sticking points While congressional leaders reported progress in negotiations, there still were thorny problems to iron out. Republicans were trying to ensure that the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending program that was enacted earlier this year ended this month, a move that Democrats oppose. FILE – Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, listens during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Dec. 1, 2020.Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, a Republican, told reporters he was negotiating for a rental assistance program that would “avoid the need for an eviction moratorium.” Negotiators were in varying stages of debates over increased food aid for the poor and reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to local governments for expenses related to COVID-19, like personal protective equipment for schools. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that if a deal is not reached by midnight Friday, he would insist that lawmakers put off a Christmas break until one is reached. That would necessitate, he said, passage of a “very, very” short stopgap measure to keep the government running. FILE – In this image from video, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., takes his face covering off as he speaks on the floor of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, April 23, 2020. (House Television via AP)House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has talked about a temporary bill possibly running through next Tuesday. Two contentious issues appear to have been left by the wayside. The measure was not expected to include a dedicated funding stream for state and local governments, a Democratic priority, or new protections for companies from lawsuits related to the pandemic, something high on the Republican agenda. Lawmakers were discussing $300 weekly in federal unemployment benefits — which would also be half the amount passed last spring that expired in the summer — and about $330 billion to help small businesses, lawmakers said. 
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Hurricane-force winds and torrential rain have destroyed scores of houses and flattened crops in Fiji’s northern regions, aid agencies said Friday, though early assessments suggest minimal casualties. Cyclone Yasa, a Category 5 storm, made landfall over Bua province on the northern island of Vanua Levu on Thursday evening, bringing heavy rain, widespread flooding and winds of up to 285 kph (177 mph) across the archipelago. Fiji declared a state of natural disaster Thursday, ordered its entire population of nearly 1 million people to seek shelter and implemented a nightly curfew. A house is shuttered in the preparation for Cyclone Yasa in the Tamavua neighborhood of Suva, Fiji, Dec. 17, 2020.The alarm was largely heeded, and as a result, humanitarian groups said it appeared the initial impact of Cyclone Yasa was less than originally feared, though still extensive. “Villages in Vanua Levu have lost a lot of houses. The wind has flattened many community buildings, and crops have been flattened,” Fiji Red Cross Society Director-General Ilisapeci Rokotunidau told Reuters by phone from Suva, the country’s capital. “So far there is just one fatality that has been reported.”Images shared on social media showed roads blocked by landslides, floodwaters and fallen trees. All roads in Rakiraki, a district on the main island with about 30,000 residents, were flooded, Fiji’s Road Authority said. Authorities remain concerned about heavy rains bought by Cyclone Yasa, though the storm has weakened in strength and is now a Category 2 as it moves south across the island chain. Still, the adverse weather has hampered efforts by aid groups to dispatch assistance, with waves of more than 3 meters (10 feet) preventing ships from leaving Suva. Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said with treacherous conditions, the country’s citizens must remain vigilant. “#TeamFiji, we are not out of the woods yet, keep safe and adhere to weather warnings!!” Bainimarama tweeted on Friday.  
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Ten states on Wednesday brought a lawsuit against Google, accusing the search giant of “anti-competitive conduct” in the online advertising industry, including a deal to manipulate sales with rival Facebook.Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the suit, which was filed in a federal court in Texas, saying Google is using its “monopolistic power” to control pricing of online advertisements, fixing the market in its favor and eliminating competition.”This Goliath of a company is using its power to manipulate the market, destroy competition, and harm you, the consumer,” Paxton said in the video posted on Twitter.Google, which is based in Mountain View, California, called Paxton’s claims “meritless” and said the price of online advertising has fallen over the past decade.”These are the hallmarks of a highly competitive industry,” the company said in a statement. “We will strongly defend ourselves from (Paxton’s) baseless claims in court.”Paxton led a bipartisan coalition of 50 U.S. states and territories that announced in September 2019 they were investigating Google’s business practices, citing “potential monopolistic behavior.”Now Texas is bringing the suit along with other Republican attorneys general from Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah.The complaint targets the heart of Google’s business – the digital ads that generate nearly all of its revenue, as well as all the money that its corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., depends on to help finance a range of far-flung technology projects.As more marketers have increased their spending online, those digital ads have turned Google into a moneymaking machine. Through the first nine months of this year, Google’s ad sales totaled nearly $101 billion, accounting for 86% of its total revenue.And now the states contend Google intends to use its alleged stranglehold on digital ads to choke off other avenues of potential competition and innovation. The company struck an illegal deal with Facebook, a major competitor for ads, to manipulate advertising auction, according to the complaint. Facebook declined to comment.”Google has an appetite for total dominance, and its latest ambition is to transform the free and open architecture of the internet,” the suit alleges.’Ad tech’ marketplaceIn the “ad tech” marketplace that brings together Google and a huge universe of online advertisers and publishers, the company controls access to the advertisers that put ads on its dominant search platform. Google also runs the auction process for advertisers to get ads onto a publisher’s site. Nine of Google’s products in search, video, mobile, email, mapping and other areas are estimated to have over a billion users each, providing the company a trove of users’ data that it can deploy in the advertising process.Google officials say the company shares the majority of its “ad tech” revenue with publishers, such as newspaper websites. An official recently rejected even the assertion that Google is dominant, saying that market dominance suggests abuse, which is foreign to the company.The state’s suit comes after the U.S. Justice Department sued Google in October for abusing its dominance in online search and advertising – the government’s most significant attempt to buttress competition since its historic case against Microsoft two decades ago.Separately, the FBI is investigating whether Paxton, a close ally of President Donald Trump, broke the law in using his office to help a wealthy donor who is also under federal investigation. This fall, eight of the attorney general’s top deputies accused him of bribery, abuse of office and other crimes in the service of an Austin real estate developer who employs a woman with whom Paxton is said to have had an extramarital affair.All eight of Paxton’s accusers have since been fired or resigned, including the deputy attorney general who had been leading the office’s probe of Google. The court complaint list attorneys with private firms in Houston, Chicago and Washington, D.C., as the lead lawyers on the case.Paxton announced the lawsuit the week after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his legal push to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, a case that prompted widespread speculation that the attorney general is angling for a preemptive pardon from Trump.  
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The number of journalists jailed for their work hit a record high in 2020, with 274 imprisoned globally. The annual survey by press freedom organization Committee to Protect Journalists lists China, Turkey and Egypt as the worst jailers. Unrest in Belarus and Ethiopia led to a surge in arrests, and protests in the U.S. resulted in unprecedented numbers of arrests. VOA’s Press Freedom Editor Jessica Jerreat has more.
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When Tunisia’s embattled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali delivered a last-ditch speech promising new freedoms to a country in revolt, Nadia Khiari sketched her cat delivering the same address to a group of mice. The next day, January 14, 2011, Ben Ali fled into exile, forced out by weeks of unprecedented mass protests against his rule. Ten years later, her cat remains in rude health, and his cartoon alter-ego Willis from Tunis has become an icon of the revolution. “I decided to use this character to tell the story of what was happening in my country,” said Khiari, a painter and lecturer in fine arts. Pouncing on Tunisia’s unprecedented new freedoms, she began posting bitter and witty political cartoons on Facebook, all featuring cats. “For me as an artist, it was a true revolution, because from one day to the next I was able to express myself freely,” she said. Her audience, initially just family and friends, has grown to more than 55,000 followers today. Tunisian cartoonist Nadia Khiari, creator of the “Willis from Tunis” cartoon cat series, poses with her latest Willis book, in Tunis on Dec. 12, 2020.In November she published her latest Willis from Tunis book, a selection of her best work over the decade since the uprising.  Tunisia’s revolution, with its demands for “work, freedom and national dignity,” sparked a string of revolts across the Arab world.  The North African country has since been praised for its democratic transition.  But many Tunisians, disillusioned by economic woes, official corruption and pitiful public services, say they have gained little — apart from to right to say what they think. In one of Khiari’s cartoons from 2018, Willis lies silently on the floor, a boot stamped on his face.  “Before the revolution,” reads the caption. The next frame shows the same cat under the same boot but letting out a scream: “AAAAIIIE!” The caption reads: “Today, happily we have freedom of expression.” Growing corruptionKhiari says she has always enjoyed drawing, but Ben Ali’s fall let her creativity out of the bag. Before the protests against his rule, she had hinted at political subjects in the titles of her paintings, but “a satirical picture as such, a political cartoon — no, never,” she said. Today, she no longer pussyfoots around tough subjects. Instead, she takes regular swipes at Tunisia’s post-revolt political class, seen by many as just as corrupt as Ben Ali’s regime. “Hide your wallet,” one of her cartoon cats tells another as they walk toward the government’s headquarters in Tunis. “There are lots of robberies in this area.” This Thursday will mark 10 years since Tunisian fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi, 26, set fire to himself, sparking the uprising.  Ahead of the anniversary, Tunisia has seen protests demanding jobs and investment in long-marginalized regions, amid an economic crisis amplified by the coronavirus pandemic. Thousands of medics from crumbling public hospitals protested last week to demand the health minister’s resignation, after a young doctor plunged to his death in a hospital lift shaft. The tragedy was widely blamed on official corruption and indifference. In this environment, Khiari’s cartoons have struck a chord.  “The government fights corruption,” reads the title of another of her cartoons, showing a cat in suit and tie sitting behind a desk. “If you want to speed up the process,” the cat purrs with a wide grin, “that can be arranged.” Taboos swept away Khiari says that while the media describes Tunisia as a “laboratory of democracy,” the messy reality is closer to that of a building site.  But she told AFP at a chic art and craft boutique she runs with her husband, the revolution did sweep away “lots of taboos.” “We talk about religious questions. We talk about sexual questions, homosexuals, women’s bodies, power,” she said. She regularly tackles themes of women’s rights and gender inequality in her work. In one cartoon, a female kitten asks why her brother gets more pocket money than herself. “It’s to prepare you for later on,” her mother replies. Khiari is on the board of Cartooning for Peace, set up by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and French cartoonist Plantu to “fight with humor for the respect of cultures and freedoms.” That is an ongoing battle in Tunisia, where press freedom watchdog RSF says the climate for the media and journalists has worsened since the election of a new president, Kais Saied, in October 2019.   For Khiari, that means the fight that began a decade ago is far from over.  “The attempts to silence us again have never ended, never, because freedom of expression bothers (some people),” she said. “So unfortunately, it’s a struggle every day to preserve that freedom of expression.”
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A radio station run by women for women in Kandahar, Afghanistan, has been awarded the 2020 Reporters Without Borders Prize for Impact. VOA’s Azizullah Popal reports from Kandahar.
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The nation’s largest veterans organization and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday joined the growing calls for the ouster of President Donald Trump’s Veterans Affairs chief, under fire after a government audit found he acted unprofessionally, if not unethically, in the handling of a congressional aide’s allegation of sexual assault at a VA hospital.”It is unfair to expect accountability from the nearly 400,000 VA employees and not demand the same from its top executive. It is clear that Secretary Robert Wilkie failed to meet the standard that the veteran who came forward with the complaint deserved,” the American Legion’s national commander, James W. “Bill” Oxford, said in a statement. He urged Wilkie and several other top VA officials cited in the report to resign because of their “violation of trust” of the agency’s commitment to not “tolerate harassment of any kind.”Pelosi, D-Calif., said Wilkie “has lost the trust and confidence to serve, and he must immediately resign.” She said Wilkie “has not only been derelict in his duty to combat sexual harassment but has been complicit in the continuation of a VA culture that tolerates this epidemic.”On Saturday, the VA said Wilkie, who has denied wrongdoing, doesn’t intend to resign.”He will continue to lead the department,” said spokesperson Christina Noel.The demands for Wilkie’s resignation came a day after numerous veterans groups expressed similar outrage and sought Wilkie’s dismissal in the final weeks of the Trump administration. Those organizations include Veterans of Foreign Wars, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans, AMVETS, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Modern Military Association of America, and they said they had lost confidence that Wilkie could effectively lead the department, which is responsible for the care of 9 million veterans.Concerns about leadershipAn investigation by the Veterans Affairs’ inspector general on Thursday concluded that Wilkie repeatedly sought to discredit Andrea Goldstein, a senior policy adviser to Democratic Rep. Mark Takano, chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, after she alleged in September 2019 that a man at the VA medical center in Washington had physically assaulted her.The inspector general found that Wilkie’s disparaging comments about Goldstein, a Navy veteran, as a repeat complainer as well as the overall tone he set influenced his staff to spread negative information about her while ignoring known problems of harassment at the facility.Wilkie and other senior officials had declined to fully cooperate with the investigation by VA Inspector General Michael Missal. For that reason, Missal said he could not conclude whether Wilkie had violated government policies or laws, allegedly by personally digging into the woman’s past. Wilkie has denied that he improperly investigated Goldstein.”We’ve had our concerns about Wilkie’s leadership throughout the pandemic and this IG report really cements the fact that the VA is not being led with integrity,” said Jeremy Butler, chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “That calls for an immediate change.”The report on Thursday drew widespread concern from lawmakers from both parties about VA’s leadership, with Takano the first to call for Wilkie’s resignation. Concerned Veterans for America, a conservative group who supported Wilkie when he became VA secretary in 2018, chided Wilkie and his team, stressing that “VA leaders should always put the veteran and the integrity of the institution ahead of themselves.”AMVETS national commander Jan Brown said she found it unacceptable that VA would dismiss known problems facing women who receive care at its facilities.”Women veterans already hesitate to use VA services for a number of reasons and we need a secretary who will make our community feel welcomed,” she said. “We strongly disapprove of any VA official that took part in the scheme to wreck the credibility of a victim.”The case of Goldstein, who agreed to be publicly identified, was ultimately closed by the inspector general’s office and Justice Department earlier this year because of a lack of enough evidence to bring charges.Wilkie is Trump’s second VA secretary after David Shulkin was fired in 2018. A former Pentagon undersecretary, he presided over the nation’s largest hospital system that has seen continuing improvement and veterans’ satisfaction since a 2014 scandal involving lengthy waiting times for medical appointments.President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to rebuild trust in the VA when he takes office on Jan. 20. He has selected Denis McDonough, who served as President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff, to be VA secretary.
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Jimmy Lai, the 73-year-old Hong Kong media tycoon and advocate for democracy, was denied bail Saturday after being charged the previous day under the semi-autonomous Chinese territory’s new national security law.Lai faces a charge of collusion with foreign elements to endanger national security, apparently for tweets he made and interviews or commentaries he did with foreign media.The Apple Daily, a feisty pro-democracy tabloid owned by Lai, said he is accused of asking a foreign country, organization or individual to impose sanctions or engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.His case was adjourned to April 16 at the request of prosecutors, who said police needed time to review more than 1,000 tweets and comments made on his Twitter account, Relatives of a dozen Hong Kong citizens who have been detained in mainland China, wearing caps or hoods, attend a press conference in Hong Kong, Dec. 12, 2020.Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong earlier this year after stormy protests in 2019 that started over an extradition bill and expanded to include demands for greater democracy in the former British colony.The new law outlaws secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces to intervene in Hong Kong’s affairs. It has constricted free speech in the city, and democracy activists see it as a way to suppress dissent.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted Saturday morning Asia time that the security law “makes a mockery of justice.” He called for Lai’s release, saying his only crime is speaking the truth about China’s authoritarian Communist Party government.Hong Kong’s National Security Law makes a mockery of justice. @JimmyLaiApple’s only “crime” is speaking the truth about the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarianism and fear of freedom. Charges should be dropped and he should be released immediately.— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) December 12, 2020Lai, the highest-profile person charged under the security law, has also been arrested for other alleged offenses this year. He has been charged with taking part in unauthorized protests and with fraud over alleged violations of office lease terms.He has advocated for other countries to take a harsher stance on China, and met with Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence in the U.S. last year to discuss the extradition bill, which the Hong Kong government eventually withdrew.Pence also tweeted about Lai, saying the charges against him are “an affront to freedom loving people around everywhere.”
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Trial data from Pfizer Inc with partner BioNTech SE, Moderna Inc and AstraZeneca Plc has shown their experimental vaccines are effective in preventing novel coronavirus infection.While regulatory processes are underway, few Asian countries expect to receive significant amounts of the vaccines initially. Here are estimated distribution time lines, supply deals announced and clinical trials being held in the region.AustraliaThe country has secured around 140 million doses: 53.8 million from AstraZeneca, 51 million from Novavax Inc, 10 million from Pfizer, and 25.5 million from distribution program COVAX.It expects delivery of 3.8 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in January and February next year and plans to begin inoculations in March.ChinaChina has not announced supply deals with Western drug makers, which instead have partnered with private companies in the country.AstraZeneca’s vaccine may be approved in China by mid-2021 and its Chinese partner Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co Ltd plans annual production capacity of at least 100 million doses by the end of this year.For the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, a unit of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd plans a Phase II trial.Tibet Rhodiola Pharmaceutical Holding Co is bringing in Russian vaccine candidate Sputnik V and plans early and mid-stage trials in China.China has also approved three vaccine candidates developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd and state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) for emergency use, and Sinopharm hopes its two candidates will get conditional approval for general use this year.JapanJapan has deals to buy 120 million doses from Pfizer/BioNTech in the first half of next year and 120 million from AstraZeneca – the first 30 million of which will be shipped by March 2021 – and 250 million from Novavax.It is also in talks with Johnson & Johnson and has a deal with Shionogi & Co Ltd.Experts said vaccine makers would need to conduct at least Phase I and II trials in Japan before seeking approval for use.South KoreaThe country has deals to buy 20 million doses each from AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna and another 4 million doses from Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen, enough to cover up to 34 million people.It will procure additional doses for 10 million people through COVAX.Inoculation is likely to start in the second quarter of next year to allow time to observe possible side effects.IndiaThe head of the Serum Institute of India, which makes the AstraZeneca vaccine, said on Nov. 23 the positive late-state trial result of the candidate will allow it to seek emergency use approval by year-end, before securing approval for full introduction by February or March.India also expects a government-backed vaccine to be launched as early as February. It is also conducting a late-stage trial of Sputnik V.TaiwanTaiwan aims to secure around 15 million doses initially, both via the COVAX scheme and by direct purchases from manufacturers, and may buy an additional 15 million doses.The government has said it hopes to begin vaccinations in the first quarter next year.MalaysiaThe Southeast Asian nation has agreed to buy 12.8 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, becoming the first country in the region to announce a deal with the U.S. drug maker after some expressed reservations over the need for the ultra-cold storage that the vaccine requires.Pfizer will deliver the first batch of 1 million doses in the first quarter of next year.The PhilippinesThe archipelago announced a deal on Nov. 27 for 2.6 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and is discussing a possible 1 million more, covering about 1% of a population of 108 million people.It is also seeking 20 million to 50 million doses from Sinovac and is in talks with others, including Pfizer.Vaccine makers can seek approval from Philippine regulators even if no clinical trial is conducted in the country.IndonesiaSoutheast Asia’s most populous country has secured 125.5 million doses from Sinovac, 30 million from Novavax, is in talks with AstraZeneca and Pfizer to buy 50 million doses each, and expects to get 16 million from COVAX.Indonesia is testing Sinovac’s vaccine and preparing mass vaccination for medical staff and other frontline workers to start as soon as late January.VietnamA government official said COVAX vaccines would cover only 20% of the population and the country is likely to have a chance to secure separate deals soon, as demand is very high.BangladeshBangladesh signed a deal with India’s Serum Institute to buy 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.It also expects to receive 68 million doses from global vaccine alliance GAVI at a subsidized rate, a senior health ministry official said.
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The outgoing U.S. point man on North Korea admitted Thursday that the Trump administration had not achieved what it sought with Kim Jong Un, but blamed Pyongyang for squandering the opportunity for progress.Talks over the North’s nuclear arsenal have been stalled since early last year when a summit in Hanoi between President Donald Trump and leader Kim collapsed over what the North would be willing to give up in exchange for a loosening of sanctions.Trump’s extraordinary and headline-grabbing engagement with Kim had been “ambitious and bold,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, who has led denuclearization talks with Pyongyang, but had “yet to deliver the success we hoped for.””You might wonder if I am disappointed that we did not accomplish more over the past two years. I am,” he added on his official last visit to Seoul.But he blamed Pyongyang for the failure, saying that “much opportunity has been squandered by our North Korean counterparts over the past two years,” he told the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a South Korean think tank.They “too often have devoted themselves to the search for obstacles to negotiations instead of seizing opportunities for engagement,” he added.FILE – North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un walks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore, in this picture taken June 12, 2018, and released from North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency.The historic first meeting between Trump and Kim in Singapore in June 2018 produced only a vaguely worded pledge about denuclearization, and their second summit in Vietnam eight months later was intended to put flesh on those bones but broke up without agreement.The U.S. insisted from the beginning that Pyongyang must be “ready to make progress on denuclearization” for economic sanctions relief and security guarantees, Biegun said.Washington did not expect the isolated North to “do everything before we do anything,” he continued, but he insisted Pyongyang had to agree to “lay out a road map for action” and “where that road map ultimately leads” in denuclearization.The outgoing negotiator, who is respected across the political aisle in divided Washington, offered to share his “experience, recommendations and perhaps a little hard-earned wisdom” with his successor under the incoming administration of Joe Biden.”The war is over; the time for conflict has ended,” he added. “If we are to succeed, we must work together.”
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Nigeria may be on the verge of a second wave of COVID-19 infections, the health minister warned Thursday, as another official said the country expects to roll out a vaccine by April next year.Osagie Ehanire, speaking at a news conference in the capital, Abuja, said 1,843 cases were recorded last week compared with 1,235 two weeks before that.”We may just be on the verge of a second wave of this pandemic,” he said. His comments came a day after South Africa said it had officially entered a second wave.Ehanire, in a weekly briefing by Nigeria’s COVID-19 task force, said the rise in cases was mostly driven by an increase in infections within communities and, to a lesser extent, by travelers entering Nigeria.He said he had ordered the reopening of all isolation and treatment centers that had been closed because of falling patient numbers.Nigeria, with a population of about 200 million people, has had more than 71,000 confirmed cases and nearly 1,200 deaths as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University data.Looking ahead to a vaccine, Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said Nigeria planned to access one through the COVAX initiative backed by the World Health Organization.”We are on course to access safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccines in the first quarter of 2021,” he said.The health minister later in the briefing said Nigeria hoped to start with at least 20 million doses from the COVAX facility, initially covering health care workers and vulnerable people who would be most at risk if infected, such as the elderly.On Thursday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged rich countries that have ordered more COVID-19 vaccines than they need to consider distributing excess doses to Africa.
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Kim Kardashian on Wednesday called on U.S. President Donald Trump to commute the death sentence of a U.S. man scheduled to be executed Thursday for his participation in a double murder when he was 18 years old.The reality television star, who is studying to be a lawyer in California, has used her influence to try to sway criminal justice matters before.”I’m calling on @realDonaldTrump to grant Brandon (Bernard) a commutation and allow him to live out his sentence in prison,” Kardashian tweeted.Kardashian has previously pushed for the release of incarcerated people whose guilt is sometimes in doubt, though this time she does not dispute Bernard’s involvement in the 1999 murder of two pastors.”While Brandon did participate in this crime, his role was minor compared to that of the other teens involved, two of whom are home from prison now,” Kardashian said, adding that “at just a few months past 18 his brain was still developing.”In 1999, Bernard and several other teenagers kidnapped Todd and Stacey Bagley to force them withdraw cash, before eventually shooting and burning them in their car.Some of Bernard’s fellow attackers were under 17 and avoided the death penalty.Because the assault took place on a military base, the shooter, then-19-year-old Christopher Vialva, and Bernard, who lit the car on fire, were both sentenced to death by a federal court in 2000.Vialva was executed by lethal injection in September in Terre Haute, Indiana.As the execution approached, tens of thousands of people — including jurors who sentenced him and a former prosecutor who was in charge of the case — have called on the president to commute Bernard’s sentence, citing his good behavior in prison and his youth at the time of the crime.”Brandon Bernard, a 40-year-old father is going to be executed tomorrow by our federal government. Having gotten to know Brandon, I am heartbroken about this execution,” Kardashian tweeted.His lawyers have unsuccessfully requested a review of the original trial, claiming they have new documents that prove Bernard’s participation was not central to the murders.Unless there is a last-minute reversal, Bernard will become the eighth person executed by the U.S. government since the resumption of the death penalty in federal cases in July following a 17-year pause.While the coronavirus pandemic has prompted states to suspend nearly all scheduled executions, the Trump administration has at least four other executions planned before the defeated president leaves the White House on Jan. 20.
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In a meeting with leaders of some of the nation’s top civil rights organizations, President-elect Joe Biden reaffirmed that his administration will prioritize racial justice and assemble a diverse Cabinet that can tackle pressing equity issues.Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, who will join the Biden administration as a senior adviser, also participated in the nearly two-hour virtual meeting Tuesday with seven civil rights leaders. The talk touched on how racial justice will be a common thread as the Biden administration works to address policing and criminal justice reform, COVID-19, the nation’s racial wealth gap, voting rights and more.The meeting, which was closed to the news media, follows increasing pressure Biden has received to ensure that his Cabinet is diverse and representative of the nation. Black voters were a driving national force pushing the former vice president to victory over President Donald Trump. Other voters of color have also been credited with helping secure Biden’s win in battleground states including Arizona and Nevada.”You cannot move the needle when it comes to racial justice in this country unless you have people at the table at the highest levels who have had lived experiences … and there are Black people qualified for every single position in the government,” National Urban League CEO Marc Morial told reporters after the meeting. “We saw today a passionate Joe Biden and a passionate Kamala Harris. We will judge this administration by the actions it takes and by its results.”‘We must repair the damage’The civil rights leaders said they made clear that Biden’s supporters expect him to deliver on his promises. They said Biden agreed to meet with them regularly to discuss progress on key issues.”I said to him he must not take lightly that he is succeeding the most racist, bigoted administration in memory,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, president and founder of the National Action Network. “It is not even just about going forward. We must repair this damage that has been done by this administration.”Biden has said he wants a diverse Cabinet, and some Black leaders have said he needs to do more to achieve that. Biden announced earlier Tuesday that he had selected retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to be the nation’s first Black defense secretary. The Associated Press reported later Tuesday that Biden had also selected Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, as his housing and urban development secretary.Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said they also discussed voting and the importance of support for legislation that will restore the protections of the Voting Rights Act, selecting an attorney general who has a strong civil rights background and diverse judge appointments.”He was very assertive in assuring us that he intends to address issues of racial equity,” Ifill said. “He believes that we will be satisfied by his appointments in terms of racial diversity to the Cabinet, and he expressed his desire to have a robust partnership going forward.”While representation matters, some Black leaders are urging Biden to ensure that all his Cabinet selections can deliver on policies to help Black Americans and people of color.”When we talk to people, I do not think that we have heard from anyone that their primary focus is whether or not Joe Biden is appointing enough Black people in this administration,” said Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of the BlackPAC. “People want relief. People are still suffering, and the election night victory did not change that for them.”‘We want to bring impacted people to the table’Although Tuesday’s meeting with the Biden transition team seemed reserved for leaders of historic civil rights groups, other leaders are also in line for opportunities to lobby the incoming administration.The Rev. William Barber II, who is a co-leader of the Poor People’s Campaign, an effort that centers poverty in the fight for racial justice, said he has been in touch with Biden’s campaign. He was not among the seven leaders in Tuesday’s meeting.Barber told the AP that he wants to hold Biden to a promise the former vice president made this summer about election protection and issues of racial and economic inequality.”It’s not about meeting with me,” Barber said in an interview on Tuesday. “It’s about meeting with us — we want to bring impacted people to the table.” 
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The Trump administration is aiming to instill public confidence as well as claim major credit for the forthcoming coronavirus vaccines with a White House summit Tuesday featuring experts who will outline distribution plans in detail. Officials from President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team are not invited, even though they will oversee the continuation of the largest vaccination program in the nation’s history once he takes office January 20. President Donald Trump is trying to frame vaccine development as a key component of his legacy. The Operation Warp Speed summit will feature Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and a host of government experts, state leaders and business executives, as the White House looks to explain that the vaccine is safe and lay out the administration’s plans to bring it to the American people. Senior administration officials provided details on the summit on Monday. An official with the Biden transition confirmed no invitation was extended.FILE – Vials with a sticker reading, “COVID-19 / Coronavirus vaccine / Injection only” and a medical syringe are seen in front of a displayed Pfizer logo, October 31, 2020.Officials from the pharmaceutical companies developing the vaccines also were not expected to attend, despite receiving invitations, according to people familiar with the matter. Some expressed concerns about the event contributing to the politicization of the vaccine development process and potentially further inhibiting public confidence in the drugs. Trump is set to kick off the event with remarks aiming to celebrate vaccine development, according to an official who previewed the event.  Trump also will sign an executive order to prioritize Americans for coronavirus vaccines procured by the federal government. A second official said the order would restrict the U.S. government from donating doses to other nations until there is excess supply to meet domestic demand. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans for the summit. It was not immediately clear what, if any, impact the order would have on other nations’ abilities to access the vaccines. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday he expects his country to receive about 250,000 doses of a vaccine from Pfizer by the end of the year.  The Food and Drug Administration is to meet Thursday to conduct a final review of the Pfizer drug, and it will meet later this month on a vaccine developed by Moderna. Both have been determined to be 95% effective against the virus that causes COVID-19.  FILE – A man receives a trial COVID-19 vaccine at the Research Centers of America, in Hollywood, Florida, August 13, 2020.Plans call for distributing and then administering about 40 million doses of the two companies’ vaccines by the end of the year — with the first doses shipping within hours of FDA clearance. But Biden said Friday that “there’s no detailed plan that we’ve seen” for how to get the vaccines out of containers, into syringes and then into people’s arms.  Trump administration officials insist that such plans have been developed, with the bulk of the work falling to states and municipal governments to ensure their most vulnerable populations are vaccinated first. The administration says it has leveraged partnerships with manufacturers, distributers and health care providers, so that outside of settings like veterans’ hospitals, “it is highly unlikely that a single federal employee will touch a dose of vaccine before it goes into your arm.” In all, about 50,000 vaccination sites are enrolled in the government’s distribution system, the officials said. Each of the forthcoming vaccines has unique logistical challenges related to distribution and administration.  The Pfizer vaccine must be transported at super-cooled temperatures and comes in batches of 975 doses. Each vial contains five doses, requiring careful planning. The administration has prepared detailed videos for providers on how to safely prepare and administer doses, to be posted after the FDA issues its emergency use authorization. One such plan is to be announced Tuesday: Pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens have stood up a “mobile vaccination service” ready to vaccinate people in every nursing home and long-term care facility in the country. The roughly 3 million residents of those facilities are among the most vulnerable for COVID-19 and have been placed at the front of the line to access the vaccine. So far, 80%-85% of the facilities have signed on to the service, the officials said. 
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The United States on Monday placed Nigeria on a religious freedom blacklist, paving the way for potential sanctions if it does not improve its record. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated the U.S. ally — for the first time — as a “Country of Particular Concern” for religious freedom, alongside nations that include China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Pompeo did not elaborate on the reasons for including Nigeria, which has a delicate balance between Muslims and Christians. FILE – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the media at the State Department, in Washington, Nov. 24, 2020.But U.S. law requires such designations for nations that either engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.” Pompeo notably did not include India, which has a growing relationship with Washington, and was infuriated by a recommendation from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to include the secular but Hindu-majority nation over what it called a sharp downward turn under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other nations on the blacklist are Eritrea, Myanmar, North Korea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Areas of concern Pompeo removed from a second tier watchlist both Uzbekistan and Sudan, whose relations with the United States have rapidly warmed after the ousting of dictator Omar al-Bashir and its recent agreement to recognize Israel. On Nigeria, an annual State Department report published earlier this year took note of concerns both at the federal and state levels. It pointed to the mass detention of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, a Shi’ite Muslim group that has been at loggerheads with the government for decades and was banned by a court. FILE – Nigerian police officers patrol in the streets of Abuja during clashes with members of the Shi’ite Islamic Movement of Nigeria, July 22, 2019.The group has taken inspiration from Iran, ordinarily a major target of President Donald Trump’s administration.  However, Nigeria has been widely criticized for its treatment of the movement, including in a 2015 clash in which hundreds were said to have died. The State Department report highlighted the arrests of Muslims for eating in public in Kano state during Ramadan, when Muslims are supposed to fast during daylight hours. It also took note of the approval of a bill in Kaduna state to regulate religious preaching. Improve or face sanctions While the designations relate to government actions, the State Department has already listed Nigeria’s Boko Haram as a terrorist group. The militants began an insurgency in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria that has since spread to neighboring countries, killing more than 36,000 people and forcing 3 million to flee their homes, according to the United Nations. Under U.S. law, nations on the blacklist must make improvements or face sanctions, including losses of U.S. government assistance, although the administration can waive actions. 
 
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