Discovery of a rare freshwater reserve under one of its land holdings in a widely disputed sea gives China a boost in occupying the islet and offers it a new defense for its sovereignty claims if they land in international court.A freshwater lens is forming under Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea, Chinese researchers said in the peer-reviewed publication Hydrology Journal. The lens created by tidal activity will take 20 years to become “stable” at 15 meters thick, the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology researchers in Guangzhou said in the May 2020 study.“Having this freshwater access evidently will change the quality of life and change their ability to station people on the artificial island,” said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Stimson Center research organization in Washington.Most among the hundreds of islets in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea are semi-submerged or too small to support freshwater supplies. China used reclaimed land to build up Fiery Cross Reef to its current 274 hectares and now operates an airbase there with several hundred personnel.The presence of water could mildly help China in any international court case to argue that Fiery Cross deserves a 370-kilometer-wide ocean exclusive economic zone, analysts say. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam contest all or parts of China’s claims to the sea. They prize the waterway for its fisheries plus undersea reserves of oil and gas.The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea considers an islet’s ability to sustain life or economic activity when deciding whether a country can draw up an exclusive economic zone, but in 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected that right for Taiping Island, a Taiwanese-controlled Spratly feature with its own water supply.China leads the other claimants in firepower, technology and scientific research. It may have explored other South China Sea holdings for freshwater as well but found some only on Fiery Cross Reef, Sun said. Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines claim sovereignty over the same reef.Finding water will at least boost Chinese morale, said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan.“These are somewhat psychological building blocks,” Huang said. They imply, he said, that the Chinese “are making progress, they are moving on, but I don’t think in real terms they can actually use the limited freshwater to do anything so strategically.”A local freshwater source will cut the costs of shipping water to Fiery Cross Reef or desalinating it, analysts note. That advantage would make it easier to station troops there. Woody Island, a Chinese-held South China Sea feature with about 1,000 long-term residents, collects rainwater and gets additional water shipped in.But the freshwater lens won’t give China enough water to support a “sizable” fighting force on the ground, Huang said.“It doesn’t change the balance of power in the region,” said Carl Thayer, Southeast Asia-specialized emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. “It doesn’t give China a stronger leg up in any aspect. You could catch rainwater and store it and treat it and drink it, if you have the space.” 
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China has imposed sanctions on three U.S. lawmakers in retaliation for Trump administration’s sanctions imposed over Beijing’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province.Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman Hua Chunying announced sanctions Monday against Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and Republican Representative Chris Smith.Hua also said sanctions have been imposed against Sam Brownback, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, and the Congressional-Executive Committee on China, a joint congressional-White House panel created to “monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law” in China.  Rubio is the Republican co-chair of the panel, and Smith is the ranking member and a former co-chair of the committee.The “corresponding sanctions” were announced days after the Trump administration imposed financial sanctions against several high-ranking Chinese officials, including Chen Quanguo, the Chinese Communist Party chief in Xinjiang.President Donald Trump signed legislation last month that allowed for sanctions to be imposed over the mass incarceration of as many as 1 million ethnic Uighur Muslims and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province.Ties between the world’s biggest economies have deteriorated in recent months over a host of issues, including trade and human rights concerns involving Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Xinjiang. 
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Washington’s NFL team will get rid of the name ‘Redskins’ on Monday, according to multiple reports.It’s unclear when a new name will be revealed for one of the league’s oldest franchises.USA Today, ESPN, The Washington Post, Washington Times and Sports Business Journal reported Sunday night that owner Dan Snyder is set to “retire” the name. Yahoo, on Saturday, reported a name change was imminent.The team launched a ‘thorough review’ of the name July 3 that the NFL supported. That came in the aftermath of prominent sponsors FedEx, Nike, PepsiCo and Bank of America asking the team to change the name.FedEx is the title sponsor of the team’s stadium in Landover, Maryland, and CEO Frederick Smith is a minority owner. Nike and other companies pulled team gear from their online stores.Over a dozen Native American leaders and organizations wrote to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell last week demanding an immediate end to Washington’s use of the name.In the letter that was obtained by The Associated Press, they said they “expect the NFL to engage in a robust, meaningful reconciliation process with Native American movement leaders, tribes, and organizations to repair the decades of emotional violence and other serious harms this racist team name has caused to Native Peoples.”  
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So far, the coronavirus pandemic has caused more than half a million deaths in its sweep around the world. What isn’t included is the impact on the health of mothers, newborns, young children and adolescents. Because of the pandemic, health care for women and children has been cut by 20 percent, and the result is rising death rates and poorer health in these groups. VOA’s Carol Pearson has more.
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Kurdish officials in northeast Syria are expressing disappointment following a vote by the United Nations Security Council that failed to address “the deteriorating humanitarian situation” in that part of the war-torn country.  
 
The U.N. Security Council on Saturday approved a resolution authorizing an international program that will deliver aid to the rebel-held northwest Syrian province of Idlib through one border crossing.
 
However, the majority of the council, including the U.S., wanted to reopen another border crossing with Turkey and a third on Syria’s northeast border with Iraq in order to get aid to an estimated 1.3 million Syrians in need of medical supplies.
 
The Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Turkey and Idlib province will remain open to humanitarian aid for one year. The other two crossings, Bab al-Salama between Turkey and Syria’s Aleppo province, and al-Yaroubia, between northeast Syria and Iraq, will not be reopened.   
 
The Security Council vote Saturday came after previous efforts to reauthorize the opening of Bab al-Hawa and al-Yaroubia failed by vetoes from Russia and China.
 ‘Unfolding catastrophe’
 
Local officials in northeast Syria say blocking aid through al-Yaroubia crossing would throw the already-volatile region into further uncertainty.  
 
“With this decision, we are literally left alone to deal with an unfolding catastrophe,” said Luqman Ehmi, spokesman for the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North and East of Syria.
 
“The Security Council failed to address what our region has been experiencing for a long time, and this is a very negative move against us,” he told VOA.FILE – Members of a displaced Kurdish family sit at a public school they use as a temporary shelter, in Hasakah, Syria, Oct. 22, 2019.The semiautonomous region is under the control of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a major U.S. partner in the fight against the Islamic State terror group. The partnership was key to liberate much of eastern Syria from IS militants.  
 
Kelly Craft, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., said the U.S. “cannot disguise our disappointment at the loss of the Bab al-Salama and al-Yaroubia border crossings, which puts millions of Syrian women, children and men at risk.”
 
“To them, I say we will never back down. We will always have hope for your future and will continue to stand with you,” she said in a tweet after the Saturday vote.
 Monopolizing aid
 
Russia, a major backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, has insisted that all international aid go through Damascus.  
 
Humanitarian groups and officials, however, say the Syrian government monopolizes aid for political purposes.  
 
They add that the decade-long conflict in Syria and the recent outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic have created a major humanitarian crisis in the country, including the northeast.     
 
“The Syrian regime continues to impose high tariffs on anything that enters our region, including medical supplies,” said Kurdish spokesman Ehmi.FILE – A displaced Syrian Kurdish woman, who fled violence with her family after a Turkish offensive in northeastern Syria, gives one of her children a shower at a public school they use as a temporary shelter, in Hasakah, Syria, Oct. 22, 2019.Kemal Derbas of the Kurdish Red Crescent, one of the largest humanitarian groups that provides medical care to refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDP) in northeast Syria, says relying on Damascus for receiving international aid has proved futile.
 
“The Syrian regime doesn’t recognize most of the humanitarian groups that operate in northern Syria,” Derbas told VOA.
 
“This forces the World Health Organization (WHO), for example, to redirect its support to regime-held areas. The WHO used to deliver some aid and funding to us through al-Yaroubia border crossing, but after this Security Council voting it is no longer an option,” he said.   
 
Some medical aid groups have shut down their operations because of a lack of funding, Derbas said, noting that about 300,000 IDP and refugees in northeast Syria will have no adequate access to medical services.
 ‘De facto embargo’ 
 
Some observers say the recent U.N. decision represents a de facto embargo on those Syrian regions that don’t have access to aid.  
 
“People in SDF-held areas in northeast Syria will be deprived from much needed international aid” at a critical time, said Siruan Hadsch Hossein, a journalist at the local radio station Arta FM.  
 
He told VOA that millions of civilians in northeast Syria, including hundreds of thousands in refugee camps, will immediately suffer the consequences of the U.N. move.  
 
“This voting proves that the international community is not ready to find a resolution for the Syrian conflict,” Hossein said. “It is disgraceful that certain members of the Security Council such as Russia use humanitarian aid to score political points.” 
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With more than 3 million cases and over 137,000 deaths, COVID-19 is taking a heavy toll on the United States as the number of new infections continues to rise. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, encouraging people to wear masks is becoming a widespread effort throughout the country that could help control the spread of the virus. 
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Demonstrators around the U.S. have been calling in recent weeks for the removal of confederate monuments honoring slaveowners who fought against Union troops in the American Civil War.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports of a similar movement south of the mainland in Puerto Rico, where activists call for the removal of statues honoring Spanish colonizers.
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Dozens of press freedom watchdogs are calling on Azerbaijan and Tajikistan to cease efforts to block reappointment of the OSCE’s (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) top media rights official.
 
French diplomat Harlem Desir, who was appointed the inter-governmental body’s press freedom representative in 2017—one of OSCE’s top four positions—has been lauded by international rights groups as a staunch advocate for press freedom in the OSCE region.
 
In late June, the foreign ministry of OSCE member state Azerbaijan blocked a package of preliminary renewal mandates for all top OSCE officials and issued a letter of protest over Desir’s pending reappointment in particular.
 
On Friday, some 29 international press freedom groups led by London-based Article19 issued an open letter to Azerbaijani and Tajik officials—who, the letter states, made a similar threat—condemning their efforts to “weaken the essential watchdog function of the [OSCE] mandate.”
 
“As the COVID-19 pandemic showed, ensuring media freedom is more important now than ever,” said the dozens of signatories, which include Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Committee to Protect Journalists, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, Freedom House, PEN International, and the European Federation of Journalists. “We urge the Governments of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan and all OSCE participating States to uphold their international commitments and to support the renewal of the mandate of Mr. Désir before it expires on 19 July.”
 
The OSCE’s consensus-based structure means even a single detracting vote can scuttle any reappointment. Although OSCE members can vote to renew the top four leadership appointments individually, the threat of abstention could leave Desir’s role vacant until OSCE reconvenes in September.
 
“Azerbaijan and Tajikistan—the countries with the worst press freedom records in the OSCE region (apart from Turkmenistan)—have succeeded in blocking the reappointment of @harlemdesir as @OSCE_RFoM,” Tweeted RSF’s Rebecca Vincent on Friday. “Shameful.”
 
“They can now effectively evade OSCE scrutiny,” Vincent told Malta-based digital news outlet The Shift.
 
In its 2020 annual World Press Freedom Index, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders ranked Azerbaijan 168 out of 180 countries. It ranked Tajikistan 161.
 
In January, Desir called on Tajikistan to grant accreditations to RFE/RL’s entire Tajik Service, “saying journalists must be able to work ‘freely without undue restrictions.'” RFE/RL, one of VOA’s congressionally funded sister networks, has been locked in a longstanding accreditation battle with Dushanbe.
 
In February, he called on Tajik officials to release jailed independent journalist Daler Sharipov, who often reported on the country’s human rights and religious freedom violations.I wrote to the authorities of #Tajikistan calling for the immediate release of journalist Daler Sharipov. Media must be able to investigate and to publish, including on the Internet, without fear of reprisal. #Journosafe— OSCE media freedom (@OSCE_RFoM) February 3, 2020Desir has issued at least a dozen officials statements criticizing Azerbaijan’s stifling press restrictions since assuming his OSCE post in 2017, most recently condemning the Supreme Court’s (( https://bit.ly/30f73Kz )) decision to block access to Akhbor.com for an April 5 report on the country’s first alleged death from the coronavirus pandemic.
 
On July 6, a news outlet run by the Baku-based Trend News Agency published an editorial entitled “People like Harlem Désir made OSCE turn into instrument for political orders.”
 
“Azerbaijan considers Désir’s activities to be biased, non-objective and non-independent, … [which] is a gross violation of the representative’s mandate,” the editorial states. “Désir speaks from an anti-Azerbaijani and pro-Armenian position.”
 
A team of OSCE negotiators have been leading conflict resolution talks since 2016 when the long-frozen Nagorno-Karabakh border dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia began flaring up again.
 
Azerbaijani and Tajik officials did not respond to VOA’s requests for comment at the time of publication.
 
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Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents turned up over the weekend to vote in an unofficial primary election held by the city’s pro-democracy camp as it gears up to field candidates for an upcoming legislative poll. The primaries were held two weeks after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the semi-autonomous territory in a move widely seen as chipping away at the “one country, two systems” framework under which Britain handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997. It was passed in response to last year’s massive protests calling for greater democracy and more police accountability. Throngs of people lined up at polling booths in the summer heat to vote despite a warning last week by Hong Kong’s constitutional affairs minister, Eric Tsang, that the primaries could be in breach of the new national security law because it outlaws interference and disruption of duties by the local government. Organizers dismissed the comments, saying they just want to hold the government accountable by gaining a majority in the legislature. The new law prohibits what Beijing views as secessionist, subversive or terrorist activities or as foreign intervention in Hong Kong affairs. Under the law, police now have sweeping powers to conduct searches without warrants and order internet service providers and platforms to remove messages deemed to be in violation of the legislation. On Friday, police raided the office of the Public Opinion Research Institute, a co-organizer of the primaries. The computer system was suspected of being hacked, causing a data leak, police said in a statement, and an investigation is ongoing. Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp, which includes multiple parties, is attempting to join forces and use the primaries as a guide to field the best candidates in the official legislative election in September. Its goal is to win a majority in the legislature, which is typically skewed toward the pro-Beijing camp. To hold the primaries, pro-democracy activists had raised money via crowd funding. They pledged to veto the government’s budget if they clinch a majority in the legislature. Under Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, the city’s leader must resign if an important bill such as the budget is vetoed twice. Organizers said Sunday that nearly 600,000 people voted at polling booths set up across the city, exceeding organizers’ estimates of a turnout of 170,000. “Despite the threat of the national security law, there are still nearly 600,000 people coming out to vote, “ said Au Nok-hin, one of the organizers of the primaries. ”We can see Hong Kongers are really brave.”  
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Mali’s opposition on Sunday rejected concessions by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita aimed at resolving an escalating political crisis that has sparked deadly protests, saying it would be satisfied only if he resigns.   FILE – Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita poses for a picture during the G5 Sahel summit in Nouakchott,Keita announced in a speech late on Saturday he was dissolving the Constitutional Court and would move to implement recommendations made last month by regional bloc ECOWAS, which included re-running some of March’s contested legislative elections.   A spokesman for M5-RFP, a coalition of political, religious and civil society leaders that launched protests over a month ago calling for Keita to resign, rejected his proposal.   “We are not going to accept this nonsense,” the spokesman, Nouhoum Togo, told Reuters. “We demand his resignation plain and simple.”   Keita, who won a second term in 2018, has faced mounting public discontent over a perceived failure to address the country’s security and economic problems. The wave of protests was sparked by a dispute over the elections. The court that Keita proposed dissolving reversed several provisional results, handing additional seats in parliament to the president’s party.   Four people died in the capital Bamako on Friday during a demonstration where protesters occupied the parliament and national broadcaster, the government said. It was the third major protest organized by the M5-RFP since June 5.   Togo said the police shot and killed eight opposition supporters on Saturday.   It was not immediately possible to corroborate that. Police officials could not be reached for comment. Asked about the claim, a Security Ministry spokesperson said he did not have any information about that yet. 
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At this time of the year, The Friendly Fisherman on Cape Cod is usually bustling with foreign students clearing tables and helping prepare orders of clam strips or fish and chips.But because of a freeze on visas, Janet Demetri won’t be employing the 20 or so workers this summer. So as the crowds rush back, Demetri must work with nine employees for her restaurant and market — forcing her to shutter the business twice a week.“It’s really disturbing because we are really busy,” said Demetri. “We can’t keep up once the doors are open.”The Trump administration announced last month that it was extending a ban on green cards and adding many temporary visas to the freeze, including J-1 cultural exchange visas and H-2B visas. Businesses from forestry to fisheries to hospitality depend on these visas, though there are exceptions for the food processing sector.The move was billed as a chance to free up 525,000 jobs to Americans hard hit by the economic downturn, though the administration provided no evidence to support that. Supporters of immigration reform have hailed the move and insisted it should be easy to find Americans to bus tables and sell souvenirs at popular tourist destinations.“The work that people on H-2B visas do or on J-1 summer work travel is not something that is alien to Americans,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for restrictions. “Those jobs are already mostly done by Americans whether its landscaping, making beds or scooping ice cream. The employers are just going to have to up their game in recruitment because there are 20 million people who are unemployed whom they could be drawing from.”Vacation spots sufferingHardest hit by the ban are beach communities and mountain getaways up and down the East Coast from parts of New Hampshire to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.Businesses said they want to hire Americans but are in regions with tiny labor pools that are no match for the millions of tourists visiting each summer. Companies also face the challenge of convincing unemployed workers, many who are still collecting federal benefits, to take a job in the hospitality industry amid a pandemic. Rising housing prices as well as a lack of child care amid the pandemic also pose hurdles.Mark Carchidi, whose company Antioch Associates USA II Inc. processes paperwork for H-2B visas on the East Coast, said businesses he works with were counting on an additional 30,000 visas this year beyond the 66,000 already allowed under the program.More than 108,000 J-1 summer work travel visas were issued last year, according to the State Department, but only 1,787 so far this year.“Any seasonal resort area or seasonal business that you can think in whatever part of the country has really been hurt terribly hard by this,” Carchidi said.Businesses struggle to copeThe ban has left seasonal businesses scrambling to fill openings just as economies are restarting. Many are forced to scale back hours and amenities or close completely.Patrick Patrick, who has relied upon 10 to 15 J-1 visa holders to work at his army navy surplus store in Provincetown, Massachusetts, got none this year. He reduced the store’s hours and isn’t offering dressing rooms or customer services.“If you are in hospitality, accommodations or restaurants and you truly have no staff, you can’t fake it,” said Patrick, who is also the local chamber of commerce president. “We are faking it. We’re throwing merchandise on the floor and letting customers walk on it and hopefully, they buy it. You can’t do that in a restaurant.”In Myrtle Beach, businesses only got a fraction of the 3,000 J-1 and H-2B visas they were expecting, according to Stephen Greene, president & CEO of the Myrtle Beach Area Hospitality Association.Mark Lazarus, the president and owner of Lazarus Entertainment Group, employs 1,000 workers at his three theme parks. About 150 of those are usually J-1 visa holders but none came this year. As a result, he has cut his hours and reduced the number of cashiers.Lazarus agrees with Trump’s efforts to crackdown on illegal immigration but admits the J-1 ban “baffles me.” There aren’t enough students to fill seasonal jobs in Myrtle Beach, he said, and worries the ban will hurt the fragile economy.“Our revenues are going to be down because we are cutting our hours and they will be down because we can’t open all the amenities that everyone has,” he said.The shortage, however, has been eased somewhat by the pandemic’s continued impact on the tourism industry.Another layer of uncertaintyIn Myrtle Beach, bars, theaters and larger venues are still shuttered and visitor numbers are down. Maine, too, is not seeing widespread labor shortage, since business is a fraction of what the state sees in a normal summer.Still, the visa ban adds another layer of uncertainty for businesses like the 145-bed Meadowmere, one of the largest hotels in Maine. It received only half of its requested H-2B visas and likely won’t be getting seven or eight J-1 student visas.Other businesses are soldiering on and adjusting to the new reality. In Hampton, New Hampshire, businesses have hired relatives and are working longer hours. Some were able to hire local students to replace the visa holders.“I have a group of kids now that are 17-years-old replacing the J-1s who hopefully will be here for the next five years,” said Tom McGuirk, who owns a hotel and restaurant and was able to replace seven J-1 visa workers with teenagers who worked in shuttered movie theaters and camps. “That is exactly what we have been missing from the market for the past few years.”At the Friendly Fisherman, Demetri hasn’t been as fortunate. She advertised in newspapers and online for prep cooks, cashiers and counter help. Despite offering to pay $14 an hour for training and starting wages of $16 an hour plus tips, she had few takers beyond “14-year-old kids” who are limited by the hours they can work and jobs they can do.“These students aren’t taking any jobs away from locals, not a single one,” Demetri said of the J-1 visa holders.  
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The coronavirus continues its steady climb upward in some places around the world.There are now more than 12.7 million coronavirus infections around the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, with more than a half-million deaths.The U.S. has roughly one-fourth of the world’s infections at 3.2 million and more than 134,000 deaths.On the day the U.S. reported a record 66,528 new cases, President Donald Trump was seen wearing a mask for first time Saturday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on the outskirts of Washington.“When you’re in a hospital, especially … I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask,” he said.Trump has mocked reporters and others for wearing masks, a practice that has helped many countries to reduce the coronavirus infection and death rate.The Arizona Republic newspaper published a scathing obituary last week written by a woman whose father died from the virus. In it, she blames U.S. politicians and “their clear lack of leadership” for his death.Kristin Urquiza wrote of her father, Mark Urquiza, who was a 65-year-old Mexican American: “His death is due to the carelessness of the politicians who continue to jeopardize the health of brown bodies through a clear lack of leadership, refusal to acknowledge the severity of this crisis, and inability and unwillingness to give clear and decisive direction on how to minimize risk.”South Carolina reported more than 2,200 new infections Saturday, while Louisiana reported more than 2,600 Friday.Mexico reported more than 6,000 new cases Saturday. Russia said Sunday that it also had more than 6,000 new infections.More than 60 U.S. Marines have contracted the virus on the U.S. base in Okinawa.Japan said Sunday Tokyo has confirmed 206 new cases in the capital. New infections in Tokyo have been over 200 for four straight days.  
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