For Italy’s journalists, covering the mafia has always been dangerous. There have been attacks recently against some reporters and almost two dozen are currently under police protection because of threats. VOA’s Iacopo Luzi has more.   
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Afghan refugees in Turkey say they made the dangerous journey to escape living again under Taliban rule. VOA’s Arif Aslan reports from eastern Turkey, where some of the Afghans he spoke with arrived over the past few days as the Taliban were taking over the Afghan capital. Sirwan Kajjo narrates his report.Camera: Arif Aslan.
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Russia, once a thorn in China’s side, is backing Beijing in its disputes with third countries, including a maritime sovereignty flap in Southeast Asia, to counter Washington’s influence in Asia, scholars believe.With the world’s second strongest military, after the United States, Russia holds occasional military exercises with China – with at least four events publicized to date — sells arms to its giant neighbor to the south and joins it in criticizing the West.Officials in Moscow are trying now to boost Beijing’s claim to the contested South China Sea without overtly taking its side over five other Asian governments that vie with Chinese sovereignty in the same waterway, said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.China and Russia need each other to show the United States – former Cold War foe of both – along with its allies that neither is “alone,” he said.U.S. Navy ships regularly sail the South China Sea to keep Beijing in check. At least eight other Western-allied countries have indicated since late July plans to send navy vessels into the resource-rich South China Sea, which stretches from Hong Kong to Borneo Island, in support of keeping it open internationally rather than ceding it to Chinese control.“Basically, it’s more about a challenge to global U.S. power rather than Russia siding with China in the territorial disputes in the South China Sea,” Vuving said.FILE – A view shows a new S-400 “Triumph” surface-to-air missile system after its deployment at a military base outside the town of Gvardeysk near Kaliningrad, Russia, March 11, 2019.“The fact that they would actually share a joint portal for command and control actually means something,” Koh said. “They actually wanted to promote further interoperability.”In March, as both powers faced pressure from the West, they panned the United States in a joint statement after talks between their foreign ministers. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a March news conference that U.S. intentions had a “destructive nature” that were “relying on the military-political alliances of the Cold War era.”Scholars say Sino-Russian cooperation has its limits, however. As major powers, neither side wants the other to grow too powerful, said Wang Wei-chieh, South Korea-based politics analyst and co-founder of the FBC2E International Affairs Facebook page.“Russia and China, they are also worried about each other,” Wang said. “They don’t want any side to be the superior country.”Previously strong Sino-Russian relations faded in the 1960s when the two Communist parties split over ideology and border conflicts ensued. They call their military events today “interaction” rather than any kind of alliance, Koh noted.Russia maintains crucial political and economic ties with Vietnam, a rival to Beijing in the South China Sea dispute, and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute called Russia the top arms supplier to Southeast Asia between 2010 and 2017 with combined sales of $6.6 billion. China fumed in 2013 when Russian oil company Rosneft was drilling, on behalf of Vietnam, in waters claimed by Beijing. Russia officially advocates neutrality in Southeast Asia, Vuving said.Russia could tell Vietnam today, if pressed, that its ties with China are just “symbolic,” Koh said.Russia does not claim any part of the sea, which is prized for fisheries and undersea fossil fuel reserves. China disputes maritime sovereignty instead with Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines. China has irked the other claimants by landfilling islets for military installations and sending vessels into the exclusive economic zones of its rivals.China hopes Russia avoids sailing through the sea, where it Russia held a stronghold on the coast of Vietnam during the Cold War, at the risk of violating China’s claim to 90% of the waterway, Koh said.The latest joint military exercises may be aimed at deterring any threat from nearby Central Asia, Wang said. China has sought to clarify borders with Central Asian nations since the fall of the Soviet Union to promote peace in its own restive Xinjiang region, the Indian policy formulation group Observer Research Foundation said.Troops disembark from a Chinese military helicopter during joint war games held by Russia and China held in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwestern China, Aug. 13, 2021. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/Handout)Exercises last week, called Zapad/Interaction 2021, targeted terrorists by “seizing the high ground and trench[es] followed by “penetrating the enemy in depth,” the official Chinese Military Online website said August 5.The 2018 exercises sent “a message to the rest of the world and, in particular the United States” that the two countries were growing closer, the Swedish research and policy organization Institute for Security and Development wrote at the time.Future Sino-Russian military exercises will occur in places aimed at warning specific third countries with which China has disputes, Wang forecast. 
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Thursday, the United States plans to ship 35,100 doses of Pfizer vaccine to Kosovo through COVAX, the United Nations vaccine-sharing mechanism, a White House official told VOA.The doses are part of the purchase of half a billion Pfizer doses secured by the Biden administration earlier this year.Kosovo is experiencing another spike in infection, largely due to the delta variant. There have been 120,862 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 2,295 deaths according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Fewer than 550,000 vaccine doses have been administered in the country.In addition to the $2 billion donated to COVAX, the Biden administration has pledged to purchase 500 million Pfizer vaccines and distribute them through the year to 92 low-income and lower middle-income countries that are members of COVAX and the African Union. It represents the largest purchase and donation of vaccines by a single country.Even with its large vaccine donation program, the U.S. is being criticized for announcing its plan to provide booster shots to all Americans beginning September 20 and starting eight months after an individual’s second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines.“The inequitable rollout of vaccines globally is not just a moral stain on wealthy nations, it’s prolonging the pandemic for the entire world. The longer it takes to share vaccines globally, the more variants we’ll see and the more booster shots we’ll need,” the ONE Campaign, which works against poverty and preventable disease, said in a statement to VOA.So far, only 1.3% of people in poorer countries have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.President Joe Biden dismissed criticism that U.S. is turning a blind eye to the fact that many around the world still have not received even a single dose.“I know there’s some world leaders who say America shouldn’t get a third shot until other countries get their first shot. I disagree,” Biden said during remarks at the White House Wednesday.“We can take care of America and help the world at the same time. In June and July America administered 50 million shots here in the United States. And we donated 100 million shots to other countries. That means that America has donated more vaccines to other countries than every other country in the world combined,” he said. 
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One of Malta’s wealthiest businessmen, Yorgen Fenech, has been indicted for the murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, prosecutors said in court documents filed on Wednesday. No date for the trial has yet been set. Fenech has been under arrest since November 2019, accused of complicity to murder. He has since been undergoing a pre-trial compilation of evidence where he pleaded not guilty. Caruana Galizia was blown up by a car bomb as she drove out of her residence on Oct. 16, 2017, in a killing that shocked Europe and raised questions about the rule of law in the European Union’s smallest member state. Fenech headed a business empire with a range of interests including property, imports and a car dealership. He also headed a consortium which was controversially awarded a government contract for the building of a power station. Caruana Galizia was investigating possible corruption in the contract when she was killed. Three men accused of actually planting and setting off the bomb were arrested in December 2017. One has since pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain and been jailed for 15 years. The other two are awaiting trial. The murder plot’s self-confessed middleman, Melvin Theuma, turned state evidence and was granted a pardon. He has pointed to Fenech as having tasked him with organizing the assassination. The prosecutors are pushing for a life sentence for Fenech, court officials said. Fenech was arrested on Nov. 20, 2019, when his yacht was just off Malta in what police say was an attempt to flee the island. Malta’s then-prime minister, Joseph Muscat, announced his resignation within days of Fenech’s arrest after close links were found between the businessman and senior government officials. Muscat himself has always denied wrongdoing. An independent inquiry into the murder of Caruana Galizia said last month that the state had to bear responsibility for the killing after creating a “culture of impunity.” 
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The interior ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, comprising the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, held a conference call Wednesday to discuss how to coordinate safe and legal migration routes for Afghans fleeing the Taliban.British officials said most of the focus was on the immediate security and logistical challenges of extracting Afghan officials and others, mainly civilians, who have worked with Western security forces during the 20 years of the NATO deployment in Afghanistan.The meeting came hours after French President Emmanuel Macron promised not to abandon Afghans who had served or partnered with French forces in Afghanistan. But he added Europe needs to “anticipate and protect itself from a wave of migrants.”“Europe alone cannot assume the consequences of the situation,” he said in a primetime televised address, which attracted criticism from rights groups and some French opposition leaders on the left. They said his remarks were at best inappropriate when juxtaposed with what is unfolding in Afghanistan, with desperate Afghans mobbing Kabul airport and clinging to the wheels of evacuation planes.Hundreds of people run alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the international airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug.16. 2021.Macron was accused of pandering to the far right ahead of next year’s presidential election, where he’s expected to face a strong challenge from Marine Le Pen, leader of the anti-migrant National Rally.“But why these words? Is this what politics has become, the tactical and icy at the same time, again and again, no matter what the distressing circumstances?” said Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a former French minister during François Hollande’s presidency, in a Twitter post.Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who also faces an election, has adopted a different tone from Macron. He has said he’s “absolutely horrified” by the heartbreaking scenes coming from Kabul and vowed Sunday to continue the evacuation alongside allies.Canada has said it will take in 20,000 Afghans, although that figure includes interpreters who worked alongside Canadian forces. Canada’s interior minister told the Five Eyes meeting that it is unlikely that the 20,000 would all be admitted in the next 12 months and the time span would be longer, British officials told VOA. Hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021.Since April, Australia has admitted 430 Afghans who worked with Australian forces, along with their families. But Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Wednesday his government expects to provide only around 3,000 visas for Afghan applicants this year. Morrison said Australia has “no clear plans” to operate a program comparable to Canada’s or Britain’s. “Australia is not going into that territory. What we’re focused on is right here and right now,” he said. Earlier in the week, Morrison admitted Australia would not be able to rescue all its former interpreters and staff that assisted in its 20-year mission in Afghanistan. New Zealand officials say they will try to evacuate Afghans who worked with New Zealand deployments and their families and have identified about 200 eligible people. But has made no public commitment about a dedicated program for other Afghan asylum-seekers.Greece has also made clear it is not prepared to accept an influx of Afghan asylum-seekers. Notis Mitarachi, Greece’s migration minister, said his country “will not and cannot be the gateway of Europe for the refugees and migrants who could try to come to the European Union.”“The solution needs to be common, and it needs to be a European solution,” he told state broadcaster ERT.Taliban fighters patrol in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 18, 2021.Germany and the Netherlands were among the group saying they wanted to continue with forced deportations, but then backtracked and announced they were suspending involuntary deportations of Afghans, joining Finland, Norway and Sweden, which announced they were halting any involuntary returns.Britain’s interior minister, Priti Patel, who led the Five Eyes conference call Wednesday, has urged European neighbors to offer sanctuary to Afghans fleeing the Taliban. She announced Britain would grant asylum to 20,000 Afghan refugees.Writing in the Telegraph newspaper, Patel said Britain would prioritize women and girls and religious and other minorities who face “tyranny and oppression” under Taliban rule. “The U.K. Government will always stand by those who have had the lights switched off on their liberties,” wrote Patel. She said Europe must help. “The U.K. is also doing all it can to encourage other countries to help. Not only do we want to lead by example, we cannot do this alone,” she added.But Patel came under fire from British opposition politicians and from some lawmakers from the ruling Conservative party Wednesday for the numbers the British government is planning to accept. The 20,000 will be spread over five years, with a maximum of 5,000 resettled this year.Demonstrators, including former interpreters for the British Army in Afghanistan, hold placards as they protest opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, Aug. 18, 2021.Patel said Britain “cannot accommodate 20,000 people all in one go.” However, critics say more Afghans should be admitted this year, otherwise they might not be alive by next year. David Davis, a former Conservative minister, said Britain has a “moral responsibility to do more” and said the British government should be thinking of welcoming “north of 50,000” refugees from Afghanistan.Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the British parliament’s defense committee, dubbed Patel’s plan “a woefully inadequate response given the scale of the refugee crisis we are about to face as a direct response to our withdrawal from Afghanistan.” Ellwood, a former British army captain who served in Afghanistan, told local media: “The Government really needs to see the bigger picture here and grasp the scale of the crisis we created.”The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has called on the Taliban to allow safe and unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to Afghan women, men and children in need, including hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people.“The EU calls on the Taliban to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law in all circumstances,” he said. But Borrell stopped short of making any migration pledges on behalf of the bloc. “The EU will also support Afghanistan’s neighbors in coping with negative spillovers, which are to be expected from an increasing flow of refugees and migrants,” he said.
 
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Pope Francis says people who get the coronavirus vaccine would be committing “an act of love” towards their fellow men and women. The pontiff made the personal appeal in a filmed public service message that was released Wednesday online and on television.  “Thanks to God’s grace and to the work of many, we now have vaccines to protect us from Covid-19,” Pope Francis said in the message, which he made on behalf of the U.S.-based nonprofit group the Ad Council. He said the vaccines “bring hope to end the pandemic, but only if they are available to all and if we collaborate with one another.” The pontiff added that getting vaccinated “is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable.”   Church officials in North and South America also appeared in the three-minute message, including Archbishop José Horacio Gómez of the United States, Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes of Mexico and Cardinal Carlos Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras.   New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed Wednesday that a 58-year-old man who became the first to test positive for COVID-19 since February was infected with the highly contagious delta variant. The news was announced on the first day of a strict three-day nationwide lockdown imposed by Ardern. Auckland, the country’s largest city, and the coastal town of Coromandel, where the infected man also visited, will be shut down for a full week. New Zealand has been praised for imposing a strict lockdown in the early days of the pandemic that has led to just 2,937 confirmed infections and just 26 deaths among its five million citizens. But only about 20% of all New Zealanders have been fully vaccinated, the lowest rate among all 38-member nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD. Ten people have now tested positive in this new outbreak, according to the New Zealand Herald, and Ardern warned that the numbers would continue to grow. She said genomic testing has linked the outbreak to the one that began in Australia’s New South Wales state and its capital, Sydney, which was first detected back in June.   New South Wales posted a new single-day record of 633 confirmed new COVID-19 infections Wednesday, breaking the previous record of 478 cases posted just on Monday. Three deaths were also confirmed Wednesday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 fatalities in this new outbreak to 60.   Like New Zealand, Australia had boasted of success in containing the spread of COVID-19 in the initial months of the pandemic, with just 40,774 total infections and 970 deaths, but with only 20% of its citizens fully vaccinated due to a sluggish vaccination campaign, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.   Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.  
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Britain and the United States say they will work with other nations to develop a coordinated strategy for Afghanistan, and that when it comes to the Taliban’s pledges for how it will operate, the group’s actions are ultimately what matter”We will judge this regime based on the choices it makes, and by its actions rather than by its words, on its attitude to terrorism, to crime and narcotics, as well as humanitarian access, and the rights of girls to receive an education,” Johnson told members of parliament Wednesday.FILE – Schoolgirls attend class in Herat on Aug. 17, 2021, following the Taliban stunning takeover of the country.Johnson spoke by phone with U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday. A White House statement said the leaders “discussed the need for continued close coordination among allies and democratic partners on Afghanistan policy going forward, including ways the global community can provide further humanitarian assistance and support for refugees and other vulnerable Afghans.”  They agreed to hold a meeting of G-7 leaders next week to discuss the situation. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Tuesday that the international community expects the Taliban to “meet their obligations to the basic human rights and human dignity of people.”  He said the Biden administration would directly communicate to the Taliban “both what the costs and disincentives are for certain types of action and what our expectations are.” Hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021.A White House official said as of Tuesday night, the U.S. had evacuated more than 3,200 people. Germany is conducting its own evacuation campaign, including its nationals, human rights activists and Afghans who worked with foreign forces.  The first of Germany’s flights landed early Wednesday in Frankfurt, airline Lufthansa said. Both Germany and the United States were sending more troops to the airport to help with the evacuation effort. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Wednesday a flight carrying 25 French nationals and 184 Afghans landed in Abu Dhabi. Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag tweeted that the first two flights carrying people back to her country had left Kabul, and that officials were working with allies to coordinate future evacuations. Ayesha Tanzeem contributed to this story from in Kabul.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, AFP and Reuters, 
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America’s NATO allies are scrambling to evacuate their citizens from Afghanistan amid the U.S. military withdrawal from the country and the collapse of the Afghan government. Many European officials have voiced fears that the Taliban takeover will increase the risk of terrorism and renew an influx of refugees into Europe.  Britain and other NATO allies began evacuating their citizens from Afghanistan on Sunday, along with hundreds of Afghan citizens who worked alongside them. France, Germany, Spain and Italy are also operating evacuation flights after U.S. troops reasserted control of the airport Monday, following chaotic scenes over the weekend. Several European states are to outline soon their emergency asylum programs for interpreters and other Afghan nationals who worked alongside NATO troops and civilians over the past two decades. They are now seen as particularly at risk of Taliban reprisals.  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference at a NATO summit in Brussels, June 14, 2021.In a press conference Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg blamed the country’s political leadership for the capitulation to the Taliban.  “What we have seen in the last few weeks was a military and political collapse at a speed which had not been anticipated. Part of the Afghan security forces fought bravely, but they were unable to secure the country because ultimately, the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban and to achieve the peaceful solution that Afghans desperately wanted. This failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today,” Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The failure to build a democratic state in Afghanistan could have wider implications for NATO, said Natasha Lindstaedt, a U.S. foreign policy analyst at Britain’s University of Essex. “I think NATO might return to more limited aims, of just trying to maintain stability and deter rather than to engage in these grand interventions,” she told VOA. Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace blamed the collapse of the Afghan government on the 2020 deal struck with the Taliban by former U.S. President Donald Trump. FILE – Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain, Feb. 3, 2021.”It was done directly to the Taliban. It didn’t involve the Afghan government — so (it) fatally potentially undermined the government of that day. We, as international partners, found it uncomfortable because we had deployed through a U.S. framework. We hadn’t deployed in a unilateral manner. So, when they pulled that framework, we had to leave,” Wallace told the BBC. However, many European officials have also criticized the manner of the U.S. withdrawal. “It was very abrupt, and it wasn’t coordinated, and there wasn’t much consultation at all from Biden and his administration with its NATO allies,” Lindstaedt said. “(NATO allies) couldn’t really stay there because they were dependent upon the U.S. military power providing that type of support.” Meanwhile, European leaders are also wary of the longer-term consequences of the Taliban takeover. French President Emmanuel Macron gave a televised address Monday evening. “An historic turning point is underway in Afghanistan, far from our borders, but with major consequences for the entire international community, for Europe and for France,” Macron said. “Afghanistan’s destabilization risks causing irregular migration to Europe. France, as I’ve said, has and will continue to do its duty for those who are most threatened. … Europe cannot be the only ones to take on consequences of the current situation,” he added. French President Emmanuel Macron speaks in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France, August 17, 2021.Macron also warned of the increased terror threat. “Terrorist groups are present in Afghanistan and seek to profit from the destabilization. The United Nations’ Security Council will have to come up with a common and united answer,” the French president said. That threat extends beyond the region and has implications for the global fight against terrorism, said analyst Raffaello Pantucci of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “I think there’s going to be an undoubted sense of wind of victory blowing through the sails of jihadists around the world as they say, ‘Look, victory is attainable. This isn’t a hopeless struggle. Keep to the fight, stick to your beliefs, and 20 years later, you can end up winning this war.’ And I think that narrative will carry them forward for some time into the future,” Pantucci told Agence France-Presse. “I think it remains to be seen the degree to which Afghanistan will become a base once again for international terrorist groups to launch attacks outside. I think certainly al-Qaida will be rejuvenated by this and will strengthen itself,” he added. Afghan migrants demonstrate against the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, August 16, 2021.Several thousand Afghan asylum-seekers remain stranded on the Greek island of Lesbos, having fled to Europe in recent years. Several hundred staged a protest Monday against the Taliban takeover. Among them was Elena, who did not wish to give her full name, fearing reprisals for family members in Afghanistan. “What will happen now in Afghanistan for (the) young generation? For children? For women’s rights? Everything is destroyed by the Taliban,” she told Reuters. Those questions remain unanswered, as Western nations rush to leave Afghanistan, and the Taliban retakes the reins of power. Some material from this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.  
 
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America’s NATO allies are scrambling to evacuate their citizens from Afghanistan following the U.S military withdrawal from the country, and the collapse of the Afghan government. Many European officials have voiced fears that the Taliban takeover will increase the risk of terrorism and cause a renewed influx of refugees. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell    
 
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Afghanistan’s leadership was responsible for the rapid collapse of the Afghan military but noted the alliance should learns lessons on how it conducts military training. “This failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today,” Stoltenberg said after a NATO meeting to discuss the security effects of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.The speed with which Afghan troops weakened during the Taliban’s offensive  “was a surprise,” said Stoltenberg, who also admitted “there are lessons that need to be learned” at NATO.In its reaction to the Taliban’s victory, Russia, which declared the Taliban a terrorist group in 2003, said it would not immediately recognize the new government.Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow was “in no rush to recognize” the Taliban government and called for an “inclusive national dialogue with the involvement of all political … forces in Afghanistan.”Taliban officials arrange a Taliban flag, before a press conference by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, at the Government Media Information Center, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021.For its part, Turkey is negotiating with the Taliban and all other parties in Afghanistan and has favorable views of Taliban messages that were conveyed since taking control, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday.“We are keeping up dialogue with all sides, including the Taliban,” Cavusoglu said at a news conference in Jordan. “We view positively the messages that the Taliban has given so far, whether to foreigners, to diplomatic individuals or its own people. We hope to see these in action as well.”China encouraged the Taliban Tuesday to pursue “moderate and steady” religious policies and to establish an “open and inclusive” political structure involving all parties in the country.At a televised news conference, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, also criticized the U.S. for its role in the South Asian country. “In Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, we have seen that wherever the U.S. military went, turmoil, division, and destruction of homes and deaths have been left behind,” she said.At the White House on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden said televised scenes of Afghan civilians trapped in the embattled country were “gut-wrenching” and acknowledged the Taliban had seized control of the country much more quickly than his administration had expected.Some information for this report came from Associated Press and Reuters.
 
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Like many countries, France is seeing its COVID-19 cases rise — and nowhere as sharply as its overseas territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Low vaccination rates, fueled by suspicion of Paris, help explain the exploding pandemic in the Caribbean islands.Health workers from mainland France are arriving to the two Caribbean islands to help their overwhelmed colleagues deal with record COVID-19 cases. Hardest hit is Guadeloupe, where one in four people now tests positive for the disease caused by coronavirus—a number that doubled in a week. The situation is also alarming in Martinique. Hospitals are overflowing. Doctors say some basic medical equipment — like instruments to measure oxygen levels — are in short supply. The two islands are now under strict lockdown, with all but essential services open. But that hasn’t stopped some residents from heading to beaches—although they’re not supposed to. “People respect distancing and the beach isn’t crowded,” this beachgoer told French TV explaining her presence. Islanders are joining protests like those taking place in mainland France against COVID-19 vaccines and a new health pass required to access places like restaurants and movie theaters. FILE – Demonstrators hold up banners and placards, one of which reads as ‘freedom’, during a national day of protest in Capesterre-Belle-Eau, on the French Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe, on Aug, 7, 2021.As nurse protesting in Martinique told French radio that she will never get vaccinated — there are other ways, she said, to prevent COVID-19.  But those sentiments are not shared by the majority of French, especially on the mainland. Polls show most support the health pass. More than half are fully vaccinate — compared to about one in five in Guadeloupe and Martinique.  FILE – French Health Minister Olivier Veran (L) and French Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu (2nd L) talk with military medical staff during a visit at the CHU hospital in Fort-de-France, Martinique, on Aug. 12, 2021.Visiting Martinique last week, Health Minister Olivier Veran urged residents to get vaccinated. Coming out of a hospital there, he noted many of the patients in intensive care were very young and were previously healthy. Now, they’re hooked up to ventilators.  
But it’s a hard sell.  Suspicion of the French state is high — partly experts say, because of France’s colonial past and old health scandals… like a hazardous pesticide used on the islands’ banana plantations long after it was banned elsewhere. Critics also fault Paris for neglecting the islands’ health infrastructure. So multiple misgivings are surfacing now…along with COVID-19.   
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Officials in Turkey said Monday the death toll from flooding in the country’s northwestern Black Sea provinces rose to 77 as rescue crews continued to search for dozens of people still reported missing.The flooding began last week after torrential rains, demolishing buildings and bridges and damaging roads and electricity infrastructure.Disaster and emergency officials said more than 30 villages remained without power on Monday.The dead included 62 people in Kastamonu province, 14 in Sinop and one in Bartin, according to the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate.AFAD said since the flooding began, more than 2,000 people have been evacuated from those areas.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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European leaders said Monday they will press for a unified international approach to dealing with a Taliban government in Afghanistan, as they looked on with dismay at the rapid collapse of two decades of a U.S.-led Western campaign in the country. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke Monday to French President Emmanuel Macron, stressing the need for a common stand on recognizing any future Afghan government and preventing a humanitarian and refugee crisis.  FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks at the Downing Street Briefing Room in London, July 5, 2021.Both leaders agreed to cooperate at the U.N. Security Council, and Johnson also said he will host a virtual meeting of the Group of Seven leaders on Afghanistan in the next few days. Johnson said on Sunday, “We don’t want anybody to bilaterally recognize the Taliban.”  German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman echoed that sentiment Monday, saying the question of whether there can be a dialogue with the Taliban needs to be discussed internationally.  “We do not have any illusions about the Taliban and the essence of their movement,” said spokesman Steffen Seibert. The French leader said in a speech to the nation Monday night that the fight against “Islamist terrorism in all its forms” would not end.  FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference at the Elysee Presidential Palace, in Paris, July 9, 2021.”Afghanistan cannot again become the sanctuary for terrorism that it was,” Macron said. He stressed that the U.N. Security Council is the forum for a coordinated response, and added, “We will do everything so that Russia, the United States and Europe can cooperate efficiently because our interests are the same.”  Macron also raised fears of uncontrolled migration to Europe by Afghans, saying that France, Germany and other European countries would work to swiftly develop a “robust, coordinated and united response.” FILE – Afghans flee fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces, on the outskirts of Herat, 640 kilometers (397 miles) west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 8, 2021.As far as the crisis inside Afghanistan, European leaders’ hands are tied in many ways: They have little leverage over the Taliban, and they are deeply reluctant to publicly criticize the withdrawal decision by the United States, their powerful NATO ally — or comment on their own role in the failed intervention.  NATO countries were left with little choice but to pull out the roughly 7,000 non-American forces in Afghanistan after President Joe Biden announced in April that he was ending the U.S. involvement in the war by September, 20 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.  Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of London’s Royal United Services Institute, said that Britain — which for much for the war contributed the second-largest number of troops to the mission — “was especially upset that the Biden administration didn’t consult it more fully about the decision to withdraw this summer.” “That is water under the bridge, but the fact that there wasn’t a coordinated alliance approach to the withdrawal makes it even more important now to coordinate a Western response — starting with the question of recognition” of a Taliban government, he said. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last week that theFILE – European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a news conference in Brussels, May 10, 2021.Taliban “need to understand that they will not be recognized by the international community if they take the country by force.” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has also warned that the militant group would face “isolation” and “lack of international support.”  Borrell is expected to chair an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers to discuss Afghanistan on Tuesday, while NATO envoys will also hold talks.  Meanwhile, Russia’s envoy on Afghanistan said that Moscow will decide whether to recognize the new Taliban government based on its conduct. Chalmers said “Western influence on the Taliban is very limited” compared with that of Pakistan, Iran and China. And Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said that warning the Taliban that they face international isolation is a threat “unmoored from reality.” “It is part of the Taliban’s ideology to reject modernism and the international community — and the reputation won by forcing the U.S. to leave is worth far more than aid budgets,” he wrote for the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank.  “Indeed, having earned a reputation for abandoning its mission, its friends, and its allies, it is the United States that may actually feel more isolated,” Volker added. The U.K. has repeatedly alluded to how it had been put in a “very difficult position” to continue the mission once the United States announced its decision to pull out, and British leaders have spoken with a tone of resignation as the situation deteriorated rapidly after NATO’s exit.  “I think it’s fair to say that the U.S. decision to pull out has accelerated things, but this has been in many ways something that has been a chronicle of an event foretold,” Johnson said Sunday.  Other European allies have made veiled criticisms of NATO’s most powerful member country.  Taliban fighters stand guard in a vehicle along the roadside in Kabul on August 16, 2021.Asked Monday whether France and the U.S. were responsible for the collapse of the armed forces and the unfolding humanitarian crisis, Defense Minister Florence Parly said, “France hasn’t been in Afghanistan since 2014. There’s no parallel to make with the U.S. involvement.” Briefing reporters last week about the crisis in Afghanistan, a senior EU official said that “the decisions which were made in this respect were made in NATO.” He did not single out the alliance’s most influential member, but the criticism was implicit. Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni was much more direct, saying, “Let’s give a welcome back to the cynical Obama-Clinton-Biden doctrine: ‘If you can’t win, create chaos.'” Western governments have also appeared to be caught off guard by the stunning speed of the Taliban’s advance on Kabul. For months, European ambassadors at NATO and the EU have been unable to answer questions from reporters about what security arrangements might be in place in Afghanistan should the situation deteriorate. Questions about how to protect embassies and the Kabul airport, where chaos reigned Monday as scores sought to flee the country, were never unanswered. In the past few days, U.S., British and other Western governments have scrambled to evacuate their embassies, their citizens and Afghans who have helped with their military mission as the Taliban seized power.  “All of us, the government, the intelligence services, the international community, all of us misjudged the situation,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas admitted Monday. “Neither we nor our partners and experts did foresee the speed with which the Afghan security forces withdrew and capitulated.” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace choked up during an interview as he expressed deep regret that some of those people will be left behind.  “It’s sad, and the West has done what it’s done,” he acknowledged. “We have to do our very best to get people out and stand by our obligations and 20 years of sacrifice. … It is what it is.” 
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Turkey has dropped plans to take over the Kabul airport after NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan but is ready to provide support if the Taliban request it, two Turkish sources said Monday. Turkey, which has 600 troops in Afghanistan, had offered to keep them in Kabul to guard and operate the airport after other NATO members pulled out, and was discussing details with Washington and the government of President Ashraf Ghani. The plans were thrown into disarray in the past two days after Ghani fled the country on Sunday as the Taliban swept into Kabul and thousands of Afghans, also hoping to escape, thronged the airport on Monday. The Taliban had also warned Turkey against keeping soldiers in Afghanistan to run the airport, warnings that Ankara had dismissed before the Islamist militants surged toward the capital. “At the point reached, there is total chaos at Kabul airport. Order has been completely disrupted,” said one of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity. “At this stage, the process of Turkish soldiers taking up control of the airport has automatically been dropped,” the person added. “However, in the event that the Taliban asks for technical support, Turkey can provide security and technical support at the airport.” Opposition parties in Turkey had criticized the government’s plans, saying such a mission would put Turkish soldiers at risk and calling for their immediate withdrawal amid the uptick in violence. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has called for calm in Afghanistan and criticized the Taliban’s advance, said last week he could meet with the Taliban as part of efforts to end the fighting in Afghanistan. Ankara had viewed the airport mission as a potential area of cooperation that could help heal frayed ties with Washington and other NATO allies, which have been strained over several issues. 
 
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With the Taliban seizing control of Afghanistan, Turkey seeks to avert a refugee exodus, with the country already hosting over four million refugees, with about 120,000 of them from Afghanistan, according the United Nations.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pledging to step up diplomatic and security efforts to prevent an Afghan refugee exodus into Turkey. Erdogan, speaking Sunday, warned that the Taliban’s victories in Afghanistan inevitably opens the door to more refugees heading to his country.Erdogan said “Turkey is facing a growing migration wave of Afghans transiting through Iran.” He said, “we will continue to make efforts to bring stability to the region, starting with Afghanistan.”Erdogan spoke with Pakistani President Arif Alvi at his side, who was visiting Istanbul. The Turkish president said Pakistan, a close Turkish ally, was key to restoring stability in Afghanistan.Earlier this month, Erdogan said he was ready for talks with the Taliban leadership. The Taliban said last week they consider Turkey an ally of Afghanistan. Ankara has also held diplomatic talks with Tehran over the refugee crisis. Turkish officials have accused Iran of sending some Afghan refugees to the Turkish border, which Tehran has denied.FILE – A group of Afghan migrants rest on a main road after crossing the Turkey-Iran border near Dogubayazit, Agri province, eastern Turkey, April 11, 2018.Ali Hekmat, head of the Turkish-based Afghan Refugee Solidarity Association, said many Afghan refugees in Iran are desperate to leave.“I am expecting that more refugees will be moving to Turkey from Iran because lots of Afghan army and authorities escaped into Iran. Yesterday, the Iranian government sent them back to Afghanistan. So, most of the refugees are afraid [of] Iran pushing them back to Afghanistan. So, it’s the best choice to arrive in Turkey, and maybe they will be near Europe,” said Hekmat.Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, right, and top army commanders check the Turkey-Iran border in Van, eastern Turkey, Aug. 15, 2021.Erdogan has declared a frontier wall with Iran will soon be completed to prevent new arrivals. With Turkey already hosting over four million refugees, mainly from the Syrian civil war, analysts warn of rising social tensions in the country.Last week, hundreds of people attacked Syrian refugees’ homes and shops in a suburb in the capital, Ankara. Recent opinion polls indicate a majority of people want many of the refugees to leave, a stance backed by the main opposition party.Analyst Asli Aydintasbas said the prospect of a new wave of Afghan refugees poses a major problem for Erdogan.“It’s a huge challenge and an increasingly divisive issue in Turkish public opinion. There is an overwhelming anxiety in Turkish society about refugees, in general, including some 4 million Syrians. The issue is so explosive in Turkey right now; that would be huge political blow to him (Erdogan) if it were to come out that Turkey was formerly accepting Afghan refugees,” said Aydintasbas.Ankara is expected to continue to step up its efforts to control its borders. But with another significant refugee exodus being widely predicted, time is not on the government’s side. 
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Flooding caused by heavy rains in regions around the Black Sea have left dozens of people dead in Turkey and forced the evacuation of hundreds in southern Russia.The Turkish provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu and Sinop along the Black Sea suffered torrential rains midweek that led to flooding.Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) said the flooding destroyed dozens of homes and several roads and bridges and cut off electricity to hundreds of villages.The death toll from flooding in Turkey rose to at least 57 people, AFAD said Saturday. At least eight people were hospitalized, agency officials said.Speaking late Saturday in Kastamonu, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 15 of the dead had not been identified yet.Across the Black Sea, heavy rains also triggered widespread flooding in southern Russia, forcing the evacuation of more than 1,500 people in the Krasnodar region, including nearly 1,000 children from summer camps, officials there said Saturday.More than 1,400 houses had been flooded following storms and heavy rains that swept the area this week. About 108,000 residents of 11 settlements were left without power, the regional Russian emergency headquarters reported.The Black Sea resort city of Anapa was among the worst affected, officials said. Heavy rain in the region was expected for another two days.Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty contributed to this report. Some material also came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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The death toll from flooding in Turkey has climbed to at least 44 people, the country’s disaster agency said Saturday.Torrential rains Wednesday triggered flooding in the northern Black Sea region, destroying homes, closing roads, and cutting off electricity to hundreds of villages, according to the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD).Fires Rage in Turkey as Anger Grows over Grounded Firefighting AircraftSome blame government political score-settling for stalling firefighting efforts parts of country burn Authorities said more than 2,200 people had been evacuated and that the search continued for missing residents.The floods are the second natural disaster to strike Turkey this month. Over the past two weeks, emergency crews battled wildfires in southern coastal regions that had been bought under control by the time the flooding began.Scientists blame climate change sparked by the burning of fossil fuels for extreme weather disasters that are expected to occur more frequently as the planet warms.Experts in Turkey maintain, though, that meddling with rivers and faulty construction also has contributed to the heavy damage caused by the floods.The Associated Press and Reuters provided some information for this report.
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A young man who killed five people, including his mother, and then took his own life in Britain’s first mass shooting in more than a decade had complained online about difficulties meeting women and being “beaten down” by life.Police said Friday that the motive for the shootings was unclear but that there were no immediate signs the crime was an act of terrorism or the gunman had connections to extremist groups.They identified the shooter as Jake Davison, 22, and said he had a gun license, but revealed few other details. Witnesses reported that he used a pump-action shotgun, police said, though they wouldn’t confirm what type of weapon it was and whether it was the one Davison was licensed to use.Gun crimes are rare in Britain, which has strict firearm control rules.Police responded to multiple emergency calls made at 6:11 p.m. Thursday, arriving six minutes later at an address in the Keyham neighborhood of Plymouth, England, where Davison had shot and killed his mother, Maxine Davison, 51, also known as Maxine Chapman.According to police accounts, Davison left the house and immediately shot and killed a 3-year-old girl, Sophie Martyn, and her father, Lee Martyn, 43. He then shot and wounded two other people down the street whom police haven’t identified.Police said Davison moved on to a park where he shot Stephen Washington, 59, who died at the scene, and then to a nearby street, where he shot Kate Shepherd, 66. She died later in a hospital.Eyewitnesses reported that Davison shot himself before police arrived. He was licensed last year to use a gun, and police are checking whether he had the license before then.Still collecting informationShaun Sawyer, chief constable for Devon and Cornwall police, told reporters that investigators weren’t sure what Davison’s motive was but did not think extremist ideology prompted the attack.A woman embraces two children during a vigil for the victims of the Keyham mass shooting in Plymouth, England, Aug. 13, 2021.“Let’s see what’s on his hard drive, let’s see what’s on his computer, let’s see what’s on social media,” Sawyer said.“We believe we have an incident that is domestically related that has spilled into the street and seen several people of Plymouth lose their lives in an extraordinarily tragic circumstance,” he added.Davison appeared to post on YouTube under the name Professor Waffle in an account that has now been taken down, replaced by a notice saying it violated the site’s community guidelines. In a final 11-minute clip posted before the killings, “Professor Waffle” talks about how he was “beaten down and defeated by … life.”He talks about struggling to stay motivated at working out and losing weight, working as a scaffolder when he was 17-18, and hinted at his lack of a love life by referring to “people who are incels” — shorthand for “involuntarily celibate.”The “incel” movement justifies violence against women as revenge for men who are rejected as sexual partners, and believes society unjustly denies men sexual or romantic attention. The online subculture has been linked to deadly attacks in California, Florida, and Toronto, Ontario. Davison said that while he wouldn’t describe himself as an “incel,” they are “people similar to me, they’ve had nothing but themselves, and then they’ve socially had it tough.”He compared himself to a businessman struggling to break even despite working long hours but who has a wife and kids supporting him.”Does an incel virgin get that? No,” he said.Britain’s last mass shooting was in 2010, when a taxi driver killed 12 people in Cumbria in northwest England before taking his own life.
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Book distributors and publishers in Hungary have raised concerns that a decree restricting the sale of LGBTQ-themed books could lead to self-censorship and make such items harder to obtain in smaller towns.The government has ordered shops to sell sealed and wrapped all books aimed at under-18s that are viewed as promoting homosexuality or gender change, or which contain “explicit” depictions of sexuality.It also bans the sale of all such books, whether intended for children or adults, within 200 meters (220 yards) of a school or a church.The decree is part of an anti-LGBTQ drive that has set nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban at loggerheads with rights groups and the European Union.Katalin Gal, head of the Association of Hungarian Book Publishers and Distributors, said more than 100 Hungarian bookshops were within 200 meters of a church or a school, many in small towns.”This is covertly pushing publishers towards self-censorship. If they make it very hard to sell these books, why would they print them at all?” she said on Friday.”It is clear that from now on if I write a book with LGBTQ characters, it will reach a much smaller audience,” said Tibor Racz-Stefan, an author of young adult novels, some of which feature same-sex couples.The order is the first directive spelling out implications of a law passed in June banning materials seen as promoting homosexuality and gender reassignment at schools.Orban, on a pre-election crusade to safeguard what he calls traditional Christian values, says the law is meant to protect children and that their parents should educate them about sexuality.
The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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