In May, facing urgent international demands for action after a string of massive wildfires in the Amazon, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro put the army in charge of protecting the rainforest.
 
Instead, The Associated Press has found, the operation dubbed as “Green Brazil 2” has had the opposite effect. Under military command, Brazil’s once-effective but recently declining investigation and prosecution of rainforest destruction by ranchers, farmers and miners has come to a virtual halt, even as this year’s burning season picks up.
 
The Brazilian army appears to be focusing on dozens of small road-and-bridge-building projects that allow exports to flow faster to ports and ease access to protected areas, opening the rainforest to further exploitation. In the meantime, there have been no major raids against illegal activity since Bolsonaro required military approval for them in May, according to public officials, reporting from the area and interviews with nine current and former members of Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency.  
 The AP also found that:
 
— The number of fines issued for environmental crimes has been cut by almost half since four years ago, especially under Bolsonaro.
 
— Two high-ranking officials from IBAMA, the environmental agency, say they have stopped using satellite maps to locate deforestation sites and fine their owners __ a once-widely used technique. IBAMA officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.  
 
— IBAMA is no longer penalizing the heads of big networks of illegal logging, mining and farming, according to two other officials. Meat packers who sell beef from deforested areas now operate freely, according to three IBAMA officials.
 
The order putting the military in charge of fighting deforestation was initially due to end in June, but it was recently extended by Bolsonaro until November despite widespread criticism that it is making the problem worse.  
 
At stake is the fate of the forest itself, and hopes of limiting global warming. Experts say blazes and deforestation are pushing the world’s largest rainforest toward a tipping point, after which it will cease to generate enough rainfall to sustain itself. About two-thirds of the forest would then begin an irreversible, decades-long decline into tropical savanna.
 
The Amazon has lost about 17% of its original area and, at the current pace, is expected to reach a tipping point in the next 15 to 30 years. As it decomposes, it will release hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
 
“From the occupation of the land to mining and the fires, it is all connected,” said Suely Vaz, who headed IBAMA between 2016 and 2019 and is now a specialist of the Climate Observatory, comprised of 50 non-governmental groups. “IBAMA should fight the whole network of deforestation. But it just doesn’t now.”  
 
Bolsonaro’s office and IBAMA did not respond to requests for comment, but Bolsonaro declared in May that “our effort is great, enormous in fighting fires and deforestation.” He also called reports of the forest on fire “a lie.”
 
Brazil’s Defense Ministry defended its record, saying its deployment was ’’an operation of multiple agencies” involving 2,090 people a day, along with 89 vehicles and 19 ships.
“Those figures are rising by the day, as resources become available and operations are gradually intensified,” the ministry said.  
 
It said the operation had led to the destruction of 253 machines involved in illegal logging as of Aug. 24 but did not specify what type of machines or say anything about other illegal activities like mining.  
 
While the threat under Bolsonaro’s administration is the latest and most severe, efforts to preserve the Amazon have been struggling for years.  
 
In the 2003-2011 administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil developed a multi-agency plan to slow Amazon deforestation that worked well, according to virtually all observers. That ended in 2012 when the government of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, pardoned illegal deforestation prior to 2008, among other measures that emboldened violators. Many believe Bolsonaro will issue new pardons.
 
IBAMA once had more than 1,300 agents. That has dropped to about 600 since 2012, when the agency stopped hiring under Rousseff in an attempt to rein in spending.
 
The weakening of IBAMA accelerated after Rousseff was ousted in 2016 and replaced by right-wing Michel Temer. Observers on all sides say the change has been far more fast-moving and dramatic since Bolsonaro was elected in 2018, after a campaign that dismissed the threat of deforestation and pledged more development of the rainforest.  
 
In the field, IBAMA has hundreds of inspectors who are supposed to conduct investigations, raid illegal sites, issue fines, destroy equipment and request arrests by local and federal police, along with a corps of temporary contract firefighters. But after the last major raid by IBAMA against illegal mining in April, the two inspectors in charge were fired by the environment ministry, allegedly for “political-ideological bias.″
 
A former Bolsonaro minister, Gen. Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, told the AP that the army is best at supporting inspections in the Amazon, not leading them.
 
“In some places you cannot find any other institution, no police or IBAMA. There’s no structure and the military steps up,” he said. “The armed forces can help and they are helping. But inspections need to be done by those that are experts. And you have to work with local authorities, they are the ones who know who the criminals are.”
 
In 2016, the year Temer took office, there were almost 10,000 fines nationwide for environmental crimes, according to IBAMA’s website. In 2019, the first year of the Bolsonaro presidency, that shrank to 7,148. In the first six months of 2020, it stood at 3,721.
 
Defense Ministry numbers confirm that fines under operation Green Brazil 2 have continued at a lower rate, with 1,526 fines so far over about three months’ worth almost $80 million.
 
“There is a reduction in fines because the president doesn’t like them, campaigns against them,” an IBAMA inspector based in the Amazon said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press by agency heads in the capital, Brasilia.
 
“Appointees to local IBAMA offices know that,” the official said. “If a given unit fines too much, they get a call from Brasilia.”
 
Last week, a group of five soldiers and five IBAMA firefighters drove into Nova Fronteira, a remote district of Pará state. Satellite images showed a big fire threatening a part of the forest on the edges of a private property.
 
Upon arrival, they saw a wooden gate closed with a single padlock. In the past, IBAMA staff would enter private properties in emergencies, as allowed by Brazilian law. That policy has changed with the army’s arrival.
 
“We can’t come in if the owner is not here,” said one soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press.
 
A simple but effective change could be issuing fines to land owners through satellite imagery-aided investigation. An IBAMA specialist on data said 70% of deforestation in many areas can be located on aerial maps by Brazil’s space agency. That alone would allow IBAMA to find who owns the land and hold them accountable — which is not happening under the army, agency veterans said.  
 
“We are not even trying now,” one high-ranking official said.  
 
A former top IBAMA official said the army didn’t know how to lead investigations and could not legally issue fines, seize equipment or block construction. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he has received death threats from people involved in Amazon development.  
 
“The army could use their technology to see where deforestation is growing, map it all and go after who is responsible,” he said. “But they spend their time either stopping IBAMA from doing that or working on construction projects.”  
 
Another IBAMA agent who has organized hundreds of raids nationwide said the agency also is no longer investigating the heads of big networks of illegal logging, mining and farming. That type of high-end investigative work slowed down under Temer, with a few prominent exceptions, and stopped entirely under Bolsonaro, with new regional leaders of IBAMA offices tending to be former or active military or police officials seconded to civilian positions.
 
Those who support development applaud the army’s foray into the Amazon.  
 
Part-time farmer Antonio Silva has noticed the changes in the operations of Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency — and he loves them. Silva struggled for years doing odd jobs in northern Brazil before he moved to the country’s Amazon frontier and bought himself a 4-acre poultry farm outside the city of Novo Progresso, where he also works as a security guard.  
 
As ranching and mining ate into the rainforest, the city grew from a few thousand to 25,000 residents, and the market for Silva’s chicken and turkeys grew. There are now three electronics stores in town, instead of just one.  
 
 
He said IBAMA used to aggressively patrol around his little farm, seeking out those who seized public lands and chopped and burned the rainforest for profit. A few years ago, they came in by helicopter, bringing police with machine guns. They arrested people and destroyed machinery.
 
“It was shocking,” Silva said. “It is better now….they come twice a week to put out some fires, talk and that’s it.”
 
Every morning the city is covered in smoke from the previous days, which dissipates before fires start again in the afternoon. Novo Progresso has a dozen IBAMA inspectors and firefighters.
 
Residents say inspectors have barely left the office since the army arrived and firefighters are being called only in urgent situations or long after the blazes are out.
Last week, a group of IBAMA firefighters drove two hours to a fire started three days earlier. An area equivalent to eight soccer fields had already been burned and some trees were still on fire, endangering a region of dense forest.
 
A man who did not identify himself blamed a neighbor for starting the blaze, but did not name the person or file a complaint. Agents saw a chainsaw on the ground and the man took it away, without answering whether he had a license for it, as required by Brazilian law. Records show no investigation was opened, no fines were issued.
 
The former top IBAMA official said the professional corps of inspectors used to have little fear of fining violators, confiscating their equipment or even destroying the whole operation. After the inspectors had their powers cut back, poorly paid and locally hired firefighters started giving them less information on wrongdoing.  
 
“The firefighters would do it at their own risk,” the former official said. “And what for? After that gig ends six months later they have to live in the same place.”
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Remnants of Hurricane Laura unleashed heavy rain and twisters hundreds of miles inland from a path of death and mangled buildings along the Gulf Coast, and forecasters warned an eastern turn would again make the storm a looming threat, this time to the densely populated Eastern Seaboard.Trees were down and power was out as far north as Arkansas, where remnants of the storm that killed at least six people in the United States were centered. The once-fearsome Category 4 hurricane packing 240-kph winds weakened to a depression after dark.New tornado warnings were issued after nightfall in Mississippi and Arkansas, hours after one of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the United States barreled across Louisiana on Thursday.A reported tornado tore part of the roof from a church in rural northeastern Arkansas as the remnants of Hurricane Laura crossed the state. No injuries were reported as the system still packed a punch after smashing into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast near the line with Texas.A full assessment of the damage could take days. By then, the storm could re-energize and pose a threat to several Northeast states by Saturday, forecasters said.Despite demolished buildings, entire neighborhoods left in ruins and almost 900,000 homes and businesses without power along the coast, a sense of relief prevailed that Laura was not the annihilating menace forecasters had feared.Benjamin Luna helps recover items from the children’s wing of the First Pentecostal Church that was destroyed by Hurricane Laura, Aug. 27, 2020, in Orange, Texas.“It is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute, catastrophic damage that we thought was likely,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “But we have sustained a tremendous amount of damage.”He called Laura the most powerful hurricane to strike Louisiana, meaning it surpassed even Katrina, which was a Category 3 storm when it hit in 2005.The hurricane’s top wind speed of 241 kph put it among the strongest systems on record in the U.S. Not until 11 hours after landfall did Laura finally lose hurricane status as it plowed north and thrashed Arkansas, and even up until Thursday evening, it remained a tropical storm with winds of 65 kph.The storm crashed ashore in low-lying Louisiana and clobbered Lake Charles, an industrial and casino city of 80,000 people. On Broad Street, many buildings had partially collapsed. Windows were blown out, awnings ripped away and trees split in eerily misshapen ways. A floating casino came unmoored and hit a bridge, and small planes were thrown atop each other at the airport.In front of the courthouse was a Confederate statue that local officials had voted to keep in place just days earlier. Laura knocked it down.“It looks like 1,000 tornadoes went through here. It’s just destruction everywhere,” said Brett Geymann, who rode out the storm with three relatives in Moss Bluff, near Lake Charles. He described a roar like a jet engine as Laura passing over his house around 2 a.m.“There are houses that are totally gone,” he said.Buildings and homes are flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura Aug. 27, 2020, in Cameron, La.As the extent of the damage came into focus, a massive plume of smoke visible for miles began rising from a chemical plant. Police said the leak was at a facility run by Biolab, which manufactures chemicals used in household cleaners and chlorine powder for pools. Nearby residents were told to close their doors and windows, and the fire smoldered into the night.The fatalities included a 14-year-old girl and a 68-year-old man who died when trees fell on their homes in Louisiana, as well as a 24-year-old man who died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator inside his residence. Another man drowned in a boat that sank during the storm, authorities said.No deaths had been confirmed in Texas, which Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called “a miracle.” Chevellce Dunn considered herself among the fortunate after a night spent huddling on a sofa with her son, daughter and four nieces and nephews as winds rocked their home in Orange, Texas. Left without power in sweltering heat, she wondered when the electricity might come back.“It ain’t going to be easy. As long as my kids are fine, I’m fine,” Dunn said.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 6 MB480p | 8 MB540p | 11 MB720p | 24 MB1080p | 46 MBOriginal | 50 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioIt was unclear when the journey home would be complete for more than 580,000 coastal residents who evacuated under the shadow of a coronavirus pandemic. Although not everyone fled, officials credited those who did leave with minimizing the loss of life.A lower-than-expected storm surge also helped save lives. Edwards said ocean water rose as much as 4 meters rather than the 6 meters that was predicted.Finishing search and rescue efforts was a top priority, Edwards said, followed by efforts to find hotel or motel rooms for those unable to stay in their homes. Officials in Texas and Louisiana both sought to avoid traditional mass shelters for evacuees over fears of spreading COVID-19.Bucky Millet, 78, of Lake Arthur, Louisiana, considered evacuating but decided because of the coronavirus to ride out the storm with family. A small tornado blew the cover off the bed of his pickup. That made him think the roof of his house was next.“You’d hear a crack and a boom and everything shaking,” he said.Laura’s winds blew out every window of the living room in the Lake Charles house where Bethany Agosto survived the storm with her sister and two others. They huddled in a closet, where she said, “it was like a jigsaw puzzle…we were on top of each other, just holding each other and crying.”Laura was the seventh named storm to strike the U.S. this year, setting a new record for U.S. landfalls by the end of August. Laura hit the U.S. after killing nearly two dozen people on the island of Hispaniola, including 20 in Haiti and three in the Dominican Republic.President Donald Trump planned to visit the Gulf Coast this weekend to tour the damage. 
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he plans to resign because of declining health.Speaking to reporters Friday in Tokyo, Abe said he has decided to step down from the post since he is suffering from a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis that ended his first term in office in 2007.Abe, whose term would have ended in September 2021, is expected to stay on until a new party leader, who will serve as prime minister, is elected and approved by the parliament.Speculation about Abe’s resignation emerged earlier this year after visits to a Tokyo hospital for health checkups. No details were made public at the time.The 65-year-old Abe had acknowledged suffering ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager, and said he was undergoing treatment for the condition.On Monday, Abe became Japan’s longest serving prime minister by breaking the record of his great-uncle, Eisaku Sato, who served 2,798 days from 1964-72.Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index closed down 1.5% on Friday after reports of Abe’s intentions.  
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During a novel coronavirus pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 170,000 Americans, five former directors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have been asking, “Where is the CDC?”  The former directors say the CDC’s response to the pandemic has fallen short and that its traditional lead role has been sidelined.  VOA’s Carol Pearson reports.
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As a shell-shocked Gulf Coast region began to assess the damage from Hurricane Laura, the downgraded Category 4 storm bolted north out of Louisiana Thursday, leaving in its wake snapped tree trunks, leveled neighborhoods, shattered buildings and more than 875,000 people without power.Winds above 240 kph barreled off the Gulf of Mexico into the 80,000-person city of Lake Charles, making it the most powerful hurricane to hit Louisiana since 1856.And while the hurricane proved less lethal and destructive than state and local officials at first feared Wednesday evening, a video posted on the internet showed the storm knocking a full-size RV on its side.First responders reported winds peeling the roof off the casino they were being staged in overnight. Trees were thrown into homes and blocked major roads, and a riverboat that became unmoored was pushed into the supports holding up an interstate freeway.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 6 MB480p | 8 MB540p | 11 MB720p | 24 MB1080p | 46 MBOriginal | 50 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe historic hurricane killed at least six people, according to the Associated Press, following warnings from authorities in Texas and Louisiana of “unsurvivable” flooding and catastrophic winds.Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said, “It is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute, catastrophic damage that we thought was likely.”Louisiana is likely to continue to see tropical storm-level wind and rain throughout   Friday. But as residents and first responders began surveying the damage early Thursday afternoon, it was clear that many Louisianians will require months if not longer to rebuild from the impact of this storm.”We haven’t seen this kind of crisis before,” said Todd Terrell, founder and president of United Cajun Navy, a Louisiana-based group of volunteers who assist in the aftermath of disasters around the United States.Terrell explained to VOA that a convergence of preexisting conditions — including a damaged economy, tense race relations, and a global coronavirus pandemic — are making the early response to Laura’s damage especially challenging.COVID-19 makes everything differentTerrell said COVID-19, in particular, has made a difficult situation even worse.”It’s not just a matter of worrying if the person you’re rescuing on your small boat has a virus,” he said. “But it’s also about making sure people are spaced apart when we’re giving them supplies or food. Most importantly for us, though, our volunteer numbers are a lot lower than we’re used to.”When Hurricane Florence hit North and South Carolina in 2018, the United Cajun Navy counted more than 1,000 volunteers in the first two days after the storm. In contrast, as of Thursday afternoon, Terrell estimated there were between 150 and 200 taking part in rescue efforts in southwestern Louisiana.The reason, he explained, is that a lot of his volunteers are connected to the military.”They either can’t be around big groups because the military won’t let them, or they’re retired and older, so it’s not safe for them during a pandemic. No matter the reason, though, we need more volunteers fast.”The first dayAnother thing making the aftermath of Hurricane Laura different from other recent storms is that it appears much of the destruction to heavily populated areas is a result of wind instead of water damage.”United Cajun Navy is kind of known for using boats to rescue people during disasters, but they’re not quite as important this time around,” Terrell explained. “Day One has been about finding people who are missing and getting supplies to those who need them.”United Cajun Navy sent 125,000 pounds of supplies on the first day — mostly snacks and water — but also items like diapers.”When you come back and find your house is destroyed, those are the kind of supplies you need right away,” said Terrell, who expects more residents will return to survey the damage over the weekend.That’s the plan for Victor Daigle, who decided with his family to evacuate from their home in Westlake, which borders Lake Charles, and go to his grandmother’s home outside of the storm’s path.As of late Wednesday, they thought they would stay put.”You see so many hurricanes and tropical storms that don’t do anything. We figured we were OK to stay,” Daigle explained. “But then when it strengthened to a Category 4 — we’ve got two kids, so, it was time to go.”The things that matterOne of those children, Ellis, is less than a month old. He was born premature and was released from the hospital less than a week ago.”My wife and I are eager to see the damage to our home,” Daigle admitted, “but we’ve seen pictures of Lake Charles and Westlake, and I don’t think it’s safe to drive around at the moment. There are trees everywhere.”Many of the roads are littered with fallen trees and other debris. A large stretch of the interstate has been shut down because of a hurricane-caused chemical fire at a nearby plant. The fire prompted the governor to advise all residents to shelter in place with doors and windows closed.This is not possible for many residents of southwest Louisiana, including Daigle and his family.”Most people who evacuated know at least one person who was crazy and decided to stay,” he said. “So, it’s pretty common for people to go send a text or go online and say, ‘Hey, can you check out my place and make sure everything’s OK?'”Daigle said his friend sent him a picture that showed two large uprooted trees in his front yard, and a large pine tree that had fallen on top of his house.”Yeah, that kind of got me when I saw that picture,” he said.The Daigles moved into the home two years ago. Victor, a carpenter, has been doing most of the renovations on his own.”We finally got it looking beautiful, and now there’s a tree laying across the roof,” he said. “Who knows what kind of damage that’s caused to our house and how long it’s going to take to fix.”But Daigle said when he and his wife stopped to talk about it, it’s easy to see how lucky they are.“No matter what’s wrong with the roof, or the house, or whatever — that can be fixed,” he said. “My family’s still with me, and that’s the only thing that matters. Everything that’s important is still here.” 
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Several opposition parties in Tanzania allege that hundreds of their candidates have been dubiously disqualified from participating in the October 28 general election.The parties have called on the National Electoral Commission to address their grievances, which have been formally submitted, after lower-level election officials removed more parliamentary and councilor candidates from opposition parties than from the ruling Party of the Revolution, otherwise known as Chama Cha Mapinduzi.Benson Kigaila, deputy secretary-general of the main opposition party Chadema, said 57 of its candidates for parliament and 642 for councilor had been disqualified as of Thursday.Kigaila related the case of one candidate who requested an appeal form. Instead, the election officer locked the office and left. The candidate waited all day for the officer, who never returned.Other grievancesOther opposition candidates have raised similar complaints.Kigaila said Chadema and two other opposition parties — the Civic United Front (CUF) and ACT-Wazalendo (Alliance for Change and Transparency) — have reported the incidents to the electoral commission and called for an investigation so their candidates could be reinstated.The CUF’s presidential contender, economics professor Ibrahim Lipumba, said his party had received reports of candidates being challenged and, in some instances, robbed of their nomination forms by unknown individuals.”There are people who have been dubiously disqualified. And, in some cases, people have been attacked and their forms have been taken,” Lipumba said.The electoral commission has received complaints and expects to decide on each one by September 6, its elections director, Dr. Wilson Mahera Charles, acknowledged to VOA.”We cannot say there was sabotage until it is proven,” Mahera said. He said some applications that had been rejected “may be valid — and some applicants may have simply failed to fulfill the requirements of submitting their candidacy.”Lissu objections dismissedIn another development, the commission dismissed objections lodged by Tundu Lissu, presidential candidate for the Chadema party, against two of his rivals: incumbent President John Magufuli, who seeks a second, five-year term, and Lipumba of the CUF.The commission decided there was no merit to Lissu’s contention that his rivals’ applications were invalid.Lissu, an outspoken critic of Magufuli, returned to Tanzania late last month after nearly three years in Belgium. He had moved there in 2017 for treatment after he was shot 16 times by unknown gunmen in Dodoma.This report originated in VOA’s Swahili service.
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The World Health Organization says it is important to test people who have been exposed to COVID-19 even if they are showing mild symptoms or no symptoms at all.  At the organizations regular Thursday briefing, WHO technical lead for COVID-19 Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters the most important factor is testing to identify active cases so they can be isolated, and their contacts can be traced. As an example, she said recent surges of the virus have involved clusters of people who may have been exposed to the virus. In cases like that, testing may need to be expanded to include people on the milder or asymptomatic end of the spectrum. CDC Relaxes COVID Testing Guidelines, Alarming Some Health Providers Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people who come in close contact with infected people ‘do not necessarily need a test’     Van Kerkhove said, however, that countries were free to adapt their testing guidance for their individual needs and that while testing itself was important, how fast countries are able to get results is equally critical. WHO Emergency Programs Chief Mike Ryan said broad testing of the general population in most countries at this point is not that useful and can be a waste of resources. He said that the rate of testing should remain high, but what may be just as important is quick turnaround of testing results. The advice from WHO officials comes days after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention switched its guidance to say asymptomatic close contacts of cases don’t need to be tested. The abrupt change in policy came as a shock to some health care professionals, who have suggested the new guidance has been politically motivated. 
 
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The United Nations said Thursday that it is struggling to meet massive and growing humanitarian needs in northern Syria after losing access to a vital border crossing last month, at a time when the country’s economy is collapsing and COVID-19 is spreading.
 
“These challenges were foreseen, and have resulted in a more costly, higher risk, less timely and, ultimately, less effective humanitarian response,” Acting Deputy U.N. Humanitarian Chief Ramesh Rajasingham told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the impact of the closure of the Bab al-Salaam crossing at the Syrian-Turkish border.
 
The U.N., which has appealed for more access, is trying to work with the remaining crossing—Bab al-Hawa in Idlib—and with the parties on the ground to ensure deliveries can be made unimpeded.
 
“The capacity of the remaining authorized crossing at Bab al-Hawa needs to be expanded; as does the capacity of crossing points inside Syria,” Rajasingham said. “Significant road works will need to be completed before the onset of winter weather.”
 
After protracted negotiations and multiple rounds of council votes and vetoes, a majority of council members on July 11 bent to Russia’s will and closed the crossing north of Aleppo. That has complicated the process of getting aid to 1.3 million people in the northwest who live outside the territory controlled by the government of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.FILE – A tent city for the internally displaced is seen in Idlib province, northwestern Syria, July 24, 2020.“Due to the callous and inhumane Russian and Chinese vetoes earlier this summer, U.N. humanitarian access via the cross-border modality is forced to trickle into Syria from the single remaining crossing point at Bab al-Hawa,” said U.S. Political Coordinator Rodney Hunter. “And despite their assertions to the contrary, we have seen no sustained improvements in the regime’s provision of cross-line access.”
 
Russia, a staunch Assad ally, has argued that all aid should go through Damascus across internal lines, so the government has control over where it goes.
 
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said cross-line operations should be further improved and “should become the natural and the only way” to deliver aid.
 
Since January, Russia, with support from China, has essentially forced the council to close a total of three border crossings from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. The remaining one—Idlib’s Bab al-Hawa—is authorized to remain open at least through next July.
 
Aid needs are growing as the Syrian economy continues to struggle to stay afloat. Unemployment is high and food prices have soared beyond the reach of many Syrians.
 
Across Syria, some 11 million people need humanitarian assistance; the U.N. reaches about 7.2 million each month. Food insecurity is a growing concern, with an additional 1.4 million people at risk in the last six months. The U.N. and its partners reach about 5.4 million people monthly with food aid.
 
The COVID-19 pandemic has also reached the war-torn country. The Health Ministry has confirmed 2,440 cases, but the U.N. says with a daily average of only 345 tests conducted nationwide, the number is likely far higher.
 
“Reports of healthcare facilities filling up, of rising numbers of death notices and burials, all seem to indicate that actual cases far exceed official figures,” the U.N.’s Rajasingham said.
 
COVID-19 also briefly forced the suspension of political talks this week. A third session of the Constitutional Committee due to start in Geneva on Monday was put on hold when four Syrian participants tested positive for the virus. On Thursday, the U.N. said health officials had given the green light for the talks to resume with proper COVID-19 protocols in place and they were due to begin in the afternoon. 
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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spoke on Wednesday with the family of the Black man shot by police in Wisconsin, and emerged from the conversation calling for justice and condemning violent protest in Jacob Blake’s name.
 
Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been rocked by civil unrest and violence since Sunday, when police shot Blake, 29, in the back at close range in an incident captured on video. Blake is paralyzed and is being treated for his injuries.
 
“I spoke to Jacob’s mom and dad and sister and other members of the family just a little bit earlier, and I told them justice must and will be done,” Biden said in a video posted to his campaign’s social media accounts.
 
He said he agreed with Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, who said violence in the streets does not reflect her son or family.
 
“Protesting brutality is a right and absolutely necessary but burning down communities is not protest,” Biden said. “It’s needless violence. Violence that endangers life. Violence that guts businesses and shutters businesses that serve the community. That’s wrong.”
 
A 17-year-old identified as Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested and charged with homicide on Wednesday in connection with gunfire that killed two people and wounded a third during a third night of protests on Tuesday.
 
Republican President Donald Trump on Wednesday said had spoken with Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, who he said agreed to accept U.S. law enforcement support to deal with the unrest. The president has not publicly discussed Blake’s shooting.
 
Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, said on Wednesday that she took part in the conversation with Blake’s family.
 
“There are still two systems of justice in America,” she said at a campaign event.
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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday the alliance is “watching developments in Belarus closely,” and that NATO supports “a sovereign and independent Belarus.” Stoltenberg made the comments to reporters after meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two leaders met to discuss pressing European diplomatic issues ahead of meetings with European Union defense ministers in Berlin.
 
In their bilateral talks, the two leaders also discussed the territorial dispute between Greece and Turkey, and the situation in Afghanistan.
 
Additionally, Stoltenberg mentioned the U.S. decision to pull troops out of Germany earlier this year and put additional personnel in Poland. The NATO chief said, “It is important that allies continue to consult closely because the U.S. presence in Europe is important both for the security of Europe and for the security of the United States.”
 
Ahead of the meeting with EU defense ministers, Stoltenberg added his voice to growing calls for a “transparent” investigation into the case of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Stoltenberg said there was “no reason to doubt” German doctors’ conclusions that the Kremlin critic was poisoned.  
 
Navalny’s supporters say he was poisoned by a cup of tea at a Siberian airport. Navalny later became ill on a flight to Moscow. The plane made an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, where he was hospitalized before he was airlifted to Germany for treatment last Saturday.
 
Russia has not opened an investigation into the incident and a Kremlin spokesman said there was “no pretext” to do so. The EU leaders are meeting in Berlin because Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union Council.
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