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Celal Baslangic was at his Cologne home on July 16 when two German police officers knocked on his door and warned the veteran Turkish journalist that his name was on an apparent “hit list” of those allegedly to be targeted for violence. 

The police provided Baslangic with contact details for an officer overseeing an investigation into a list of about 50 outspoken critics of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, some of whom live in Germany.  

Rumors of such a list already were circulating among the exile community. But as police investigate the veracity of the list, attention has turned to whether Ankara has the ability to reach dissidents who have left the country to avoid persecution.  

Journalists named on the list and experts say nationalist groups with links to violent crimes operate in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, and that exiles who fled persecution in Turkey no longer feel safe. 

Baslangic, a veteran journalist with 47 years’ experience, left Turkey in early 2017 as authorities arrested dozens of reporters and others accused of supporting or promoting a failed attempted coup the year before.  

The former Cumhuriyet and T24 journalist was charged with terrorist propaganda for taking part in a solidarity campaign with the pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem. 

Baslangic told VOA he believes the apparent hit list is an attempt to intimidate journalists and media outlets like Arti TV, the Turkish news network he founded when he moved to Cologne.  

“I do not think that this is only because of Erdogan. It is possible to view it as an effort of the coalition partners that will prevent Erdogan from getting closer to both the European Union and NATO,” Baslangic said. 

Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has a parliamentary alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).  

The Turkish Embassy in Berlin did not return VOA’s emailed requests for comment.  

Cologne police confirmed they have been aware of this apparent hit list since mid-July but declined to provide further information about the number of individuals and the identities of those on the list. 

“Those affected are journalists, writers, and artists close to the Turkish opposition,” a spokesperson told VOA.  

But Baslangic said he wants more transparency about the list. 

“We want to know the source of this list so that we can take it seriously, or [know if] it’s just to intimidate us, so that we can tell the difference,” Baslangic said. “No one can distinguish it better than us, because we know the Turkish state, and we know what this state can do.”

Physical attacks

For some journalists, like Erk Acarer, the warning he was on the list came as little surprise. 

On July 7, three assailants attacked the columnist for daily BirGun, in the courtyard of his Berlin apartment complex. The assailants — who spoke Turkish — warned Acarer to stop writing.  

Acarer needed hospital treatment for a head injury, and German police are investigating, the journalist told VOA. He added that police have provided protection for him and his family.  

On July 20, however, Berlin police found a threatening note wrapped around a hard-boiled egg in the courtyard to his home. 

Acarer says he thinks the Turkish government has a long reach in Europe and beyond.  

“Polarization and conflict in Turkey are being carried to Europe and other parts of the world by the AKP and MHP government. … So, I think the assailants are the gangs who have been consolidated by [the Turkish government] and live in Germany,” Acarer told VOA.  

Acarer didn’t specify a group, though networks that include the Grey Wolves and Osmanen Germania reportedly are operating outside of Turkey. 

In a 2020 report, Berlin estimated that in Germany, 11,000 people are affiliated with the ultra-nationalist movement of which the Grey Wolves are a part. The far-right Turkish group has been accused of politically motivated violence in Turkey and abroad.  

Separately, German media in 2017 alleged that Metin Kulunk, a high-ranking member of the AKP, had links the Turkish nationalist group Osmanen Germania.  

The group was outlawed in Germany in 2018 because of its links to violent crimes and extreme right-wing views.  

VOA was not able to find contact information for Kulunk. The media chair of the AKP did not respond to VOA’s email. 

Kulunk responded to the 2017 media reports at the time via social media, saying Germany supports the PKK and FETO group, and that its “deep state’s media operations are futilely trying to target me and Turkish civil society organizations.” 

Ankara says the FETO group was behind the failed attempted coup. The PKK is designated as a terror group by Turkey, U.S. and EU. 

No safety in exile

Hayko Bagdat, an exiled Turkish Armenian journalist, says Germany’s foreign policy priorities with Turkey, including the EU refugee deal and Turkey’s potential role in Afghanistan, prevent Berlin from addressing human rights issues with Ankara. 

Police also informed Bagdat his name is on the apparent list. 

“We are no longer a subject on their agenda at the negotiation table with the Erdogan regime. Democracy in Turkey, prisoners, imprisoned politicians, people in exile or their safety is not even an argument that is used against Erdogan anymore,” Bagdat told VOA.  

Because of that, Bagdat said, “Dissidents all over the world do not feel secure.”  

The journalist moved to Berlin from Istanbul in 2016 and Turkey later issued a warrant for his arrest on charges including terrorist propaganda and insult.   

An official source in Germany’s Foreign Ministry told VOA via email that Germany has “repeatedly campaigned for journalists and the respect for their rights in Turkey.” 

“For all people living in Germany, it must be guaranteed that they are not imperiled by any violence, regardless of underlying motivations,” the source said, adding that any “deficits in the respect for freedom of speech and the media are addressed consistently.” 

Laurens Hueting, an advocacy officer for the Leipzig-based European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), finds the attack on Acarer and list of alleged targets disturbing.  

“Going to live in exile is not enough for Turkish journalists to escape the persecution they face inside their own country, which is quite a frightening development in and of its own,” Hueting told VOA, describing Germany as a “safer haven.” 

“What we’ve been advocating for and saying is that there should not be this half-hearted approach and that human rights should be always at the center and the forefront of this relationship consistently, and not be made subordinate to other geopolitical considerations,” Hueting said. 

For all the debates on politics and attention to the apparent hit list, for those directly affected, it is one more threat they must contend with just because of their profession.  

When asked if he was taking steps to protect his safety, Baslangic responded, “What can we do? Are we supposed to get guns? We’re journalists and we’re doing our jobs.” 

This report originated in VOA’s Turkish service.  
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Warning: This TV package includes a soundbite from Tuesday’s congressional hearing that contains profane and racist language.

U.S. lawmakers heard emotional testimony from four members of law enforcement Tuesday as a special panel met for the first time to investigate the events of the January 6 attempt by Trump supporters to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports the panel will probe former President Donald Trump’s role in the riot.

Produced by: Katherine Gypson
 
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to recommend that vaccinated people in parts of the country wear masks while indoors, reversing a decision it made two months ago.

Federal officials with knowledge of the decision told news agencies the CDC is expected to make the announcement later Tuesday, based on surging numbers of new cases in regions with low vaccination rates.   

The rising caseload is driven by the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.  

There has also been a rise in cases of so-called breakthrough infections among fully vaccinated people, suggesting the delta variant may be able to cause such infections more often than previous strains of the virus.  

Health officials say vaccines remain effective against the worst outcomes of infection with the virus, including those involving the delta variant.

In televised interviews Sunday, White House medical advisor and top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said the mask guidelines were under review, as new infections in areas with low vaccination rates have been surging. The CDC says 30 states have less than half their residents fully vaccinated.

In May, the CDC said fully vaccinated people no longer would be required to wear masks or maintain social distancing of six feet from other people.  The agency still suggested people remain masked on public transportation and at crowded outdoor events.  

For months, COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations in the U.S. fell steadily, but those trends reversed over the past two months as the delta variant of the coronavirus began to spread.

The New York Times reports several cities and towns have restored indoor masking rules in recent weeks, including St. Louis, Missouri, Savannah, Georgia and Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and the French News agency, AFP.
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The UN refugee agency warns about 24,000 Eritrean refugees trapped in two camps in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray province are in great danger as fighting among armed groups escalates. 

Concerns are growing for the safety and wellbeing of thousands of Eritrean refugees in Mai Aini and Adi Harush camps as fighting intensifies in Tigray’s Mai Tsebri area.  

The UN refugee agency reports aid agencies have been unable to access the camps since July 14.  It says conditions for the refugees have become increasingly dire and worrisome since then. 

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch says members of armed groups have infiltrated the camps.  He says the Eritreans are living in constant fear.  He says they are facing intimidation and harassment and are cut off from humanitarian assistance.

“We have received disturbing and credible reports in recent days from Mai Aini camp that at least one refugee was killed by armed elements operating inside the camp,” Baloch said. “The latest death is in addition to the killing of another refugee on 14 July.”   

Baloch says he does not know which of the armed groups is responsible for the killings.  However, his agency, he says, has received credible reports that people with guns are operating inside the two refugee camps.

He says the UNHCR has been appealing to the local authorities and the Ethiopian refugee agency to provide safety for the refugees and to grant aid agencies access to the camps.  He notes the Eritrean refugees have been without humanitarian assistance for the last two weeks.

“Trapped refugees need urgent life-saving assistance,” Baloch said. “Clean drinking water is running out, no healthcare services are available, and hunger is a real danger.  The last food distribution to both refugee camps was done in late June, which provided them rations for just one month.  

Baloch says recent armed clashes in Afar region to the east of Tigray have displaced thousands of people, among them about 55,000 Eritrean refugees.  He says concerns for their safety also are growing as armed confrontations are taking place near where the refugees live.
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Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused the Israeli military of carrying out attacks that “apparently amount to war crimes” during an 11-day war against the Hamas militant group in May.

The international human rights organization issued its conclusions after investigating three Israeli airstrikes that it said killed 62 Palestinian civilians. It said “there were no evident military targets in the vicinity” of the attacks.

The report also accused Palestinian militants of apparent war crimes by launching more than 4,000 unguided rockets and mortars at Israeli population centers. Such attacks, it said, violate “the prohibition against deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians.”

The report, however, focused on Israeli actions during the fighting, and the group said it would issue a separate report on the actions of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in August.

“Israeli forces carried out attacks in Gaza in May that devastated entire families without any apparent military target nearby,” said Gerry Simpson, associated crisis and conflict director at HRW. He said Israel’s “consistent unwillingness to seriously investigate alleged war crimes,” coupled with Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilian areas, underscored the importance of an ongoing investigation into both sides by the International Criminal Court.

There was no immediate reaction to the report by the Israeli military, which has repeatedly said its attacks were aimed at military targets in Gaza. It says it takes numerous precautions to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for civilian casualties by launching rocket attacks and other military operations inside residential areas.

The war erupted on May 10 after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets toward Jerusalem in support of Palestinian protests against Israel’s heavy-handed policing of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and because of the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers in a nearby neighborhood. In all, Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets and mortars toward Israel, while Israel has said it struck more than 1,000 targets linked to Gaza militants.

In all, some 254 people were killed in Gaza, including at least 67 children and 39 women, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas has acknowledged the deaths of 80 militants, while Israel has claimed the number is much higher. Twelve civilians, including two children, were killed in Israel, along with one soldier.

The HRW report looked into Israeli airstrikes. The most serious, on May 16, involved a series of strikes on Al-Wahda Street, a central thoroughfare in downtown Gaza City. The airstrikes destroyed three apartment buildings and killed a total of 44 civilians, HRW said, including 18 children and 14 women. Twenty-two of the dead were members of a single family, the al-Kawlaks.

Israel has said the attacks were aimed at tunnels used by Hamas militants in the area and suggested the damage to the homes was unintentional. 

In its investigation, HRW concluded that Israel had used U.S.-made GBU-31 precision-guided bombs, and that Israel had not warned any of the residents to evacuate the area ahead of time. It also found no evidence of military targets in the area.

“An attack that is not directed at a specific military objective is unlawful,” it wrote.

The investigation also looked at a May 10 explosion that killed eight people, including six children, near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. It said the two adults were civilians.

Israel has suggested the explosion was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket. But based on an analysis of munition remnants and witness accounts, HRW said evidence indicated the weapon had been “a type of guided missile.”

“Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target at or near the site of the strike,” it said.

The third attack it investigated occurred on May 15, in which an Israeli airstrike destroyed a three-story building in Gaza’s Shati refugee camp. The strike killed 10 people, including two women and eight children.

HRW investigators determined the building was hit by a U.S.-made guided missile. It said Israel has said that senior Hamas officials were hiding in the building. But the group found no evidence of a military target at or near the site and called for an investigation into whether there was a legitimate military objective and “all feasible precautions” were taken to avoid civilian casualties.

The May conflict was the fourth war between Israel and Hamas since the Islamic militant group, which opposes Israel’s existence, seized control of Gaza in 2007. Human Rights Watch, other rights groups and U.N. officials have accused both sides of committing war crimes in all of the conflicts.

Early this year, HRW accused Israel of being guilty of international crimes of apartheid and persecution because of discriminatory policies toward Palestinians, both inside Israel as well as in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel rejected the accusations.

In Tuesday’s report, it called on the United States to condition security assistance to Israel on it taking “concrete and verifiable actions” to comply with international human rights law and to investigate past abuses. 

It also called on the ICC to include the recent Gaza war in its ongoing investigation into possible war crimes by Israel and Palestinian militant groups. Israel does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction and says it is capable of investigating any potential wrongdoing by its army and that the ICC probe is unfair and politically motivated.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will likely discuss deterring Chinese aggression in Southeast Asia through his stated pursuit of “integrated deterrence” as he delivers an address Tuesday during a visit to Singapore. 

Austin is the first top official from the Biden administration to visit the region.

After talks Tuesday with Singapore’s Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen, the two countries said in a joint statement they discussed regional security issues and “the importance of sustaining a rules-based order,” a major tenet of U.S. foreign policy since Biden took office.

The statement said the defense ministers also talked about potential areas of further cooperation, including cyber defense, humanitarian aid and disaster relief. 

Austin’s trip includes further stops in Vietnam and the Philippines.

 
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Britain enjoyed a one-two finish on Tuesday in the men’s 200-meter freestyle, while Russian swimmers ended U.S. dominance in the 100-meter backstroke and Kaylee McKeown gave Australia’s women more Olympic gold to celebrate at the Tokyo pool. 

Tom Dean won gold and teammate Duncan Scott took the silver in the 200-meter freestyle as the two British swimmers left their rivals in their wake, Brazil’s Fernando Scheffer won the bronze. 

It was Britain’s second swimming gold following Adam Peaty’s victory in the 100-meter breaststroke on Monday. 

“It’s amazing,” said Dean, reflecting on his journey to becoming Olympic champion. “It’s a dream come true having a gold around my neck. … I contracted COVID twice in the last 12 months … sitting in my flat in isolation, an Olympic gold was a million miles away.” 

It was the first time since 1908 that two male British swimmers have finished on the Olympic podium together. 

Scott had gone into the race as the slightly faster swimmer and narrowly favored for gold, but the blow of missing out was softened by his teammate’s joy. 

“Just a massive credit to Tom Dean. That was unbelievable. Olympic champion,” he said. “To come along so far in the last 18 months, it’s a pleasure to watch him. It’s great to be able to say he’s a good mate out of the pool.” 

In the men’s 100 backstroke, an event won by U.S. swimmers at the last six Games, Evgeny Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov took top spots on the podium with Rio champion Ryan Murphy of the United States coming in third. 

Russian men had not won a swimming gold since 1996 when Alexander Popov and Denis Pankratov both topped the podium twice. 

Rylov and Kolesnikov were competing under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee as part of sanctions imposed for several doping scandals. 

Women’s events 

Australia’s McKeown delivered a stunning victory in the women’s 100 backstroke as well as the team took gold in the 4×100 freestyle relay. 

The 20-year-old McKeown’s time was just two hundredths of a second shy of the world record she set in the Australian trials in June. 

McKeown would almost certainly not have been able to compete at Tokyo if the Games had been held on schedule last year with her father struggling with brain cancer. He died in August. 

McKeown forms part of an impressive generation of Australian women swimmers and the latest to see her golden goal come true. 

“I’m just thankful I have a good support team. A few people before the race came up and said to just have all the faith in the world that you have got this.” 

In another race that went down to the wire, Lydia Jacoby of the United States won gold in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke, the 17-year-old Alaskan finishing in 1:04.95, 0.27 seconds ahead of Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa. 

Jacoby’s teammate Lilly King, who won the event in Rio in 2016, took the bronze. 

Jacoby is the first Alaskan to represent the U.S. swim team and said she was stunned when she saw the scoreboard. 

“I was definitely racing for a medal. I knew I had it in me. I wasn’t really expecting a gold medal,” she said. “When I looked up and saw that scoreboard, it was insane.”  
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The U.S. Senate has confirmed Frank Kendall’s nomination to lead the Air Force. 

The approval of President Joe Biden’s choice came in a voice vote late Monday. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that Kendall brings decades of expertise and is “an unmatched asset for the challenges we face today.” 

“Throughout his career, Frank has led the department’s acquisition efforts to equip our warfighters with the latest capabilities and cutting-edge weaponry for the battlefield, educated our next generation of leaders at West Point, and served as a human rights lawyer,” Austin said. 

Kendall served as undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics during the administration of former President Barack Obama. 

He earlier worked as a vice president for defense contractor Raytheon. 

Carla Babb contributed to this report.
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Hearings begin Tuesday in the House of Representatives for a select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. VOA’s Steve Redisch explains the committee’s work and the political controversy surrounding it.

Camera:  Mary Cieslak  
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Some Haitian officials are expressing doubt and criticism about U.S. Special Envoy Daniel Foote’s mission in Haiti after he had meetings over the weekend with National Police Chief Leon Charles and Senate President Joseph Lambert.  

“(This is just) one more American official. But to do what?” Senator Patrice Dumont, one of 10 Haitian senators whose parliament terms have not expired, told VOA. “Haiti is an adult and should resolve its own problems.”  

Asked by VOA if Haiti should accept American assistance in resolving its political crisis, Dumont responded, “Absolutely not.”  

A State Department statement emailed to VOA said Foote will lead “U.S. diplomatic efforts and coordinate the effort of U.S. federal agencies in Haiti from Washington, advise the secretary and acting assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, and coordinate closely with the National Security Council staff on the administration’s efforts to support the Haitian people and Haiti’s democratic institutions in the aftermath of the tragic assassination of (President) Jovenel Moise.”  

On Saturday, the national police posted three photos on its official Twitter account showing Charles meeting with Foote, U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison and a police official.  

The message did not provide any details about what was discussed during the meeting. It said only that it was in response to a request for assistance made by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph shortly after Moise’s assassination.

Lambert also posted on Twitter a photo of his meeting on Sunday with Foote and Sison.

“I was invited by Ambassadors Sison and Foote. Our conversation was intense. Our exchanges took into consideration Haiti’s situation, which is currently at an impasse, as well as the urgent need to restore the country’s institutions,” Lambert tweeted.  

Foote is a Foreign Service officer whose experience as a diplomat includes serving twice as the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. He also served as U.S. ambassador to Zambia during the Trump administration.  

The envoy arrived in Haiti on Friday with a delegation of American officials named by President Joe Biden to represent the United States at the national funeral of Moise. The delegation was evacuated from Haiti after gunfire erupted and angry protesters approached a private compound serving as the site of the funeral.  

Pastor Edouard Paultre, who heads the civil society organization National Council of Non-State Actors, said Foote should follow the will of the Haitian people.  

“This is a period of extreme distress for our nation, as well as institutional bankruptcy. None of our institutions are able to function properly. It’s in this context that Daniel Foote is arriving in Haiti. But he is also arriving at a time when civil society is collaborating with other sectors of Haiti to search for a solution to the crisis,” Paultre told VOA. “I don’t know what he’s looking for, but he should not be making any unilateral decisions.”  

The pastor said he thinks Foote should work with Haitians toward an “inter-Haitian” consensus.  

Foote has not yet commented on his meetings with Haitian officials. But two U.S. representatives who traveled with him from Washington to Haiti for the funeral on Friday issued statements about their brief time in the country.  

New York Democrat Gregory Meeks, chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. wants to support the Haitian people as they work toward security and a stable government.  

“Now is the time for the international community to listen to the voices of the Haitian people and stand shoulder to shoulder with them as they navigate these turbulent times, helping bring about a better future for all of Haiti,” Meeks said in a statement emailed to VOA.  

U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican, posted a video message on Twitter that he had recorded on the tarmac at the Cap-Haitien airport. He expressed regret about having to leave so abruptly.  

“I regret that, because it’s a bit undignified, the way we had to leave,” Fortenberry said. “This is an important country, in proximity to America. It’s on our doorstep as we’ve tried to help significantly over the years, and we want to stand in solidarity with the Haitian people as they mourn and suffer.”  

Fortenberry expressed hope that the tragedy of Moise’s assassination would lead to redevelopment and hope for Haiti’s people in the future.  

Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
 
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Wanini Kireri is changing the leadership landscape in the Kenya’s prison system. Kireri oversees both men’s and women’s prisons across the country, where her leadership style has been hailed as firm but humane.

Kireri is the first woman in Kenya’s Prison Service to hold the position of senior assistant commissioner of prisons, and the first to lead the Prison Staff Training College, based in Ruiru, central Kenya, as its commandant.

She joined the Kenya Prisons in 1982 and has been steadily rising through the ranks at the various institutions she has served. 

Kireri says her second stint at Langata Women’s Prison, situated in the capital, Nairobi, was the turning point in her career and the beginning of her legacy in the prison system.

“I have seen my journey, what I have done, my impact in Kenya prisons, because I became a change agent, and it takes a lot of boldness,” she said.

Kireri was the first officer in charge of Langata Women’s prison, where she allowed media cameras into the correctional facility that showed for the first time how female inmates and their babies were being treated. Then, the inmates were sleeping on the floor, with limited basic supplies like sanitary towels and diapers for the babies. 

She says the desire to change the institutions was also borne out of what she had witnessed as a junior officer.

“I didn’t like a lot that was going on. I could see the mistreatment, but now as a very young officer and junior, because there’s an officer in charge, there’s little you could do about it. And if you become a little kind to prisoners, it’s like there is something that is not right with you,” Kireri said.

That kindness, she says, is what has helped her to successfully navigate administration duties, even in Shimo la Tewa, a maximum-security prison for men located in the coastal city of Mombasa.

“I did not go with that character of ‘I’m the boss.’ I went with that character of like a mother, as much as I’m an administrator, I went with the character of a mother. I remember within one month, they were all very comfortable, and I would listen and I realized, it’s just about listening,” Kireri said.

Peter Ouko, a former inmate and now founder of a non-governmental organization that focuses on social justice, says a combination of respecting human rights laws in prison settings and Kireri’s personal qualities serve her well.

“You could see Wanini doing this, but she depended on the people below her. So, she’s a people person, she’s a servant leader, and the leadership was not only amongst her staff, [but] it was also amongst the inmates. So, it was a holistic approach and that’s why the changes were effected very fast,” Ouko said.

Vincent Mapesa, a long-serving prison officer, echoes his sentiments. He worked under seven male prison bosses before working with Kireri and says the prison is doing much better now.

“It is the conducive environment that she has created amongst our officers. No discrimination, it depends on your ability and your passion to work and she values every officer under her and that is the biggest difference, which is different from the former men that we were working under,” Mapesa said.

Kireri says she is hopeful that she will continue to climb the leadership ladder and maybe one day lead the entire Kenya Prisons Service, as she urges other women not to shy away from taking up leadership positions and challenging themselves.

 
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On the Olympic podium stood three teenage girls — 13, 13 and 16 — with weighty gold, silver and bronze medals around their young necks, rewards for having landed tricks on their skateboards that most kids their age only get to see on Instagram.

After decades in the shadows of men’s skateboarding, the future for the sport’s daring, trailblazing women suddenly looked brighter than ever at the Tokyo Games on Monday.

It’s anyone’s guess how many young girls tuned in to watch Momiji Nishiya of Japan win the debut Olympic skateboarding event for women, giving the host nation a sweep of golds in the street event after Yuto Horigome won the men’s event.

But around the world, girls trying to convince their parents that they, too, should be allowed to skate can now point to the 13-year-old from Osaka as an Olympic-sized example of skateboarding’s possibilities.

A champion of few words — “Simply delighted,” is how she described herself — Nishiya let her board do the talking, riding it down rails taller than she is. She said she’d celebrate by asking her mother to treat her to a dinner of Japanese yakiniku barbecue.

The silver went to Rayssa Leal, also 13 — Brazil’s second silver in skateboarding after Kelvin Hoefler finished in second place on Sunday in the men’s event.

Both Nishiya and Leal became their countries’ youngest-ever medalists. The bronze went to 16-year-old Funa Nakayama of Japan.

“Now I can convince all my friends to skateboard everywhere with me,” Leal said.

She first caught the skateboarding world’s attention as a 7-year-old with a video on Instagram of her attempting, and landing, a jump with a flip down three stairs while wearing a dress with angel wings.

“Skateboarding is for everyone,” she said.

But that hasn’t always been true for young girls, even among the 20 female pioneers who rode the rails, ramps and ledges at the Ariake Urban Sports Park.

The field included Leticia Bufoni of Brazil, whose board was snapped in two by her dad when she was a kid to try to stop her from skating.

She was 10.

“I cried for hours,” she recalled. “He thought girls shouldn’t skate because he had never seen a woman skate before.”

Bufoni added, half-joking, that getting him to relent had been harder than qualifying for the Tokyo Games.

“So I want be that girl that the little girls can show their parents and be like, ‘She can skate. I want to be like her,'” Bufoni said.

Annie Guglia of Canada said she didn’t see any other girls skate during her first two years on her board. The first contest she entered, at the age of 13, had no women’s category, so organizers had to create one for her.

“And I won, because I was the only one,” the 30-year-old Guglia said. “We have come a long way.”

Skaters predicted that by time the next Olympics roll around, in Paris in 2024, the women’s field will have a greater depth of talent and tricks, built on the foundations they laid in Tokyo.

“It’s going to change the whole game,” U.S. skater Mariah Duran said. “This is like opening at least one door to, you know, many skaters who are having the conversations with their parents, who want to start skating.

“I’m not surprised if there’s probably already like 500 girls getting a board today.”
Nishiya is going places with hers. She said she aims to be at the Paris Games “and win.”

“I want to be famous,” she said.

But first — barbecue. Her delighted mom didn’t take much convincing.

“I’ll definitely take her,” she said.
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The head of a South Korean television channel apologized Monday after the broadcaster used stereotypical images to represent various countries during the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony, including a picture of Count Dracula for the Romanian team and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to represent Team Ukraine.

At a press conference Monday, Park Sung-je, the president of Munwha Broadcasting Corp (MBC) bowed deeply and promised a “major makeover,” including installing an ethics committee and better screening system. The station also apologized to the embassies of Ukraine and Romania in Seoul, Park added.

MBC’s coverage of the Friday opening ceremony quickly went viral on the Internet, with some users expressing outrage and others laughter at the simplistic, offensive images used. For Norway, MBC used a picture of fresh salmon. For Italy: pizza. For Mongolia: Genghis Khan.

In an English statement posted online, MBC said the images and captions were intended to “make it easier for the viewers to understand the entering countries quickly” during the ceremony.

“However, we admit that there was a lack of consideration for the countries concerned, and inspection was not thorough enough,” the statement read. “It is an inexcusable mistake.”

MBC has been rebuked before for such behavior. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it referred to Chad as the “dead heart of Africa” and spoke of “murderous inflation” in Zimbabwe.
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U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky lost for the first time in her Olympic career Sunday when Ariarne Titmus of Australia narrowly won the gold medal in the women’s 400-meter freestyle race at the Tokyo Summer Games.   

Ledecky was leading for most of the race when 20-year-old Titmus — known in her home country as the “Terminator,” the name of the popular big-screen cyborg killing machine portrayed by Arnold Schwarzeneggar — caught Ledecky in the final lap to win the race by just 0.67 seconds, dethroning 2016 Olympic champion and dashing her hopes of winning four gold medals in Tokyo. Ledecky’s world record still stands.   

Titmus’s victory triggered an emotional celebration by her coach Dean Boxall, whose screaming, fist-bumping dance in the stands immediately went viral.

Ledecky took home the silver medal for her second place finish, while China’s Li Bingjie won the bronze.  

Meanwhile, the U.S. men’s team won the 4×100 meter freestyle relay Sunday, led by star Caeleb Dressel, who is hoping to win six gold medals at Tokyo. Italy came in second, with the Australians taking home the bronze medal.  

In the men’s 100-meter breaststroke, Britain’s Adam Peaty won his second consecutive Olympic gold medal, repeating his victory at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands finished in second place, while Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi finished in third place.

Canada’s Maggie MacNeil won the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter butterfly event, dethroning defending champion and world-record holder Sarah Sjöström of Sweden, who finished in seventh place. China’s Zhang Yufei and Emma McKeon of Australia won silver and bronze, respectively.

Another major upset Sunday occurred on the basketball court, when France defeated the United States 83-76 in the first round of tournament play. Evan Fournier scored 28 points as France handed the U.S. its first Olympic loss since 2004. The Americans, led by such NBA stars as Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Jrue Holiday, had already lost two exhibition games in the runup to the Olympics, including a shocking 90-87 loss to Nigeria.

Monday’s competition began with a historic contest in skateboarding, when Japan’s Momiji Nishiya and Rayssa Leal of Brazil, both of them 13 years old, took home the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the women’s street event. Nishiya’s compatriot, 16-year-old Funa Nakayama, won the bronze in the sport’s Olympic debut.

Back at the pool, the British pair of Tom Daley and Matty Lee outpointed Chen Aisen and Cao Yuan of China to win gold in the men’s synchronized 10-meter platform diving event.  Alexsandr Bondar and Viktor Minibaev of the Russian Olympic Committee won the bronze.

As of Monday, China leads with 15 total medals, one more than the United States, while the host Japan has nine. The U.S. leads the gold medal count with seven gold medals, with China and Japan tied with six.
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U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi at the White House Monday, with the future of U.S. troops in Iraq expected to be a focus of their discussion. 

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told VOA’s Kurdish Service last week he expected the two sides to agree on an end to the U.S. combat mission in Iraq.

The United States has about 2,500 troops in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition effort to battle the Islamic State group that began in 2014. 

The two countries agreed in April to change the American troops’ mission, focusing on training and advisory roles assisting Iraqi security forces, but there was no timeline for completing the transition. 

Iraq declared victory against the Islamic State militants in 2017. However, the group has maintained a presence in the region, including carrying out a suicide bombing at a market in Iraq last week that killed at least 30 people.

Monday’s meeting also comes amid continued attacks against U.S. military positions in Iraq that the United States blames on Iran-linked militias. On July 24, a pro-Iranian militia commander issued a statement threatening to attack U.S. forces inside the country and calling for withdrawal of troops. A drone attack Saturday hit a military base in Iraqi Kurdistan that hosts American troops.

The presence of U.S. troops is a polarizing subject in Iraq, with some citing the need for U.S. military support for Iraq’s security forces and others, including Iran-linked political factions, calling for the American troops to leave. 

In addition to the military, Biden and al-Kadhimi are also expected to discuss topics looking at future cooperation on political, economic, health, education and cultural matters. 
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Robert Parris Moses, a civil rights activist who endured beatings and jail while leading black voter registration drives in the American South during the 1960s and later helped improve minority education in math, has died. He was 86.  
 
Moses worked to dismantle segregation as the Mississippi field director of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement and was central to the 1964 “Freedom Summer” in which hundreds of students went to the South to register voters.
 
Moses started his “second chapter in civil rights work” by founding in 1982 the Algebra Project thanks to a MacArthur Fellowship. The project included a curriculum Moses developed to help poor students succeed in math.
 
Ben Moynihan, the director of operations for the Algebra Project, said he spoke with Moses’ wife, Dr. Janet Moses, who said her husband had died Sunday morning in Hollywood, Florida. Information was not given as to the cause of death.
 
Moses was born in Harlem, New York, on January 23, 1935, two months after a race riot left three dead and injured 60 in the neighborhood. His grandfather, William Henry Moses, had been a prominent Southern Baptist preacher and a supporter of Marcus Garvey, a Black nationalist leader at the turn of the century.  
 
But like many black families, the Moses family moved north from the South during the Great Migration. Once in Harlem, his family sold milk from a Black-owned cooperative to help supplement the household income, according to “Robert Parris Moses: A Life in Civil Rights and Leadership at the Grassroots,” by Laura Visser-Maessen.
 
While attending Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, he became a Rhodes Scholar and was deeply influenced by the work of French philosopher Albert Camus and his ideas of rationality and moral purity for social change. Moses then took part in a Quaker-sponsored trip to Europe and solidified his beliefs that change came from the bottom up before earning a master’s in philosophy at Harvard University.
 
Moses didn’t spend much time in the Deep South until he went on a recruiting trip in 1960 to “see the movement for myself.” He sought out the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta but found little activity in the office and soon turned his attention to SNCC.
 
“I was taught about the denial of the right to vote behind the Iron Curtain in Europe,” Moses later said. “I never knew that there was (the) denial of the right to vote behind a Cotton Curtain here in the United States.”  
 
The young civil rights advocate tried to register Blacks to vote in Mississippi’s rural Amite County where he was beaten and arrested. When he tried to file charges against a white assailant, an all-white jury acquitted the man and a judge provided protection to Moses to the county line so he could leave.
 
He later helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which sought to challenge the all-white Democratic delegation from Mississippi. But President Lyndon Johnson prevented the group of rebel Democrats from voting in the convention and instead let Jim Crow southerners remain, drawing national attention.
 
Disillusioned with white liberal reaction to the civil rights movement, Moses soon began taking part in demonstrations against the Vietnam War then cut off all relationships with whites, even former SNCC members.
 
Moses worked as a teacher in Tanzania, Africa, returned to Harvard to earn a doctorate in philosophy and taught high school math in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  
 
Later in life, the press-shy Moses started his “second chapter in civil rights work” by founding in 1982 the Algebra Project.  
Historian Taylor Branch, whose “Parting the Waters” won the Pulitzer Prize, said Moses’ leadership embodied a paradox.  

“Aside from having attracted the same sort of adoration among young people in the movement that Martin Luther King did in adults,” Branch said, “Moses represented a separate conception of leadership” as arising from and being carried on by “ordinary people.”

 
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Madrid’s tree-lined Paseo del Prado boulevard and the adjoining Retiro park have been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, holding an online meeting from Fuzhou, China, backed the candidacy on Sunday that highlighted the green area’s introduction of nature into Spain’s capital. The influence the properties have had on the designs of other cities in Latin America was also applauded by committee members.

“Collectively, they illustrate the aspiration for a utopian society during the height of the Spanish Empire,” UNESCO said.

The Retiro park occupies 1.2 square kilometers in the center of Madrid. Next to it runs the Paseo del Prado, which includes a promenade for pedestrians. The boulevard connects the heart of Spain’s art world, bringing together the Prado Museum with the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Reina Sofía Art Center.

The boulevard dates to the 16th century while the park was originally for royal use in the 17th century before it was fully opened to the public in 1848.

“Today, in these times of pandemic, in a city that has suffered enormously for the past 15 months, we have a reason to celebrate with the first world heritage site in Spain’s capital,” said Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida.

The site is No. 49 for Spain on the UNESCO list.

Also on Sunday, the committee added China’s Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan, India’s Kakatiya Rudreshwara Temple, and the Trans-Iranian railway to the World Heritage list.

World Heritage sites can be examples of outstanding natural beauty or manmade buildings. The sites can be important geologically or ecologically, or they can be key for human culture and tradition.

 
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