Host Carol Castiel and Ian Kelly talk with former senior Homeland Security official Elizabeth Neumann, who resigned her post in April 2020 because she could no longer tolerate then-President Donald Trump’s refusal to recognize the growing and real threat posed by domestic terrorism. She tells VOA that she is dismayed with the Republican Party’s current embrace of the former president’s false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen, which led to the disastrous January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by radical Trump supporters.
…
Month: May 2021
Chinese Rocket Reentry Predictions Narrow
An out-of-control Chinese rocket is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere between 1:00 and 5:00 UTC Sunday, but experts do not know where debris from the craft will land or exactly when it will happen.Aerospace Corp. and Space-Track.org are following the rocket as it descends.Space-Track.org estimated Saturday evening that the rocket would reenter the atmosphere over the North Atlantic at 02:04 UTC (10:04 p.m. EDT), give or take one hour. Aerospace Corp. put it at 03:02 UTC 11:02 p.m. EDT), give or take two hours.Aerospace Corp. is a nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research-and-development center committed to space enterprise, according to its website. And Space-Track.org says it provides critical space situational awareness data for a worldwide space community.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday that the rocket was unlikely to cause damage.Wang told reporters in Beijing that the rocket would mostly burn up on reentry and “the probability of this process causing harm on the ground is extremely low.”He said China was closely following the rocket’s path toward Earth and would release any information about it in a “timely manner.”Carried space station moduleThe Long March 5B rocket was launched April 29 from Hainan Island. It was carrying a module for a planned Chinese space station. After the unmanned Tianhe module separated from the rocket, the nearly 21,000-kilogram rocket should have followed a planned reentry trajectory into the ocean. Because that did not happen as planned, the rocket will now make an uncontrolled reentry, and no one knows yet precisely where the debris will land.“U.S. Space Command is aware of and tracking the location of the Chinese Long March 5B in space, but its exact entry point into the Earth’s atmosphere cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its reentry,” Lieutenant Colonel Angela Webb, of U.S. Space Command Public Affairs, told CBS News.Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that “this rocket debris” is “almost the body of the rocket, as I understand it, almost intact, coming down, and we think Space Command believes somewhere around the 8th of May.”While the odds are good that any debris will fall into the ocean, debris from another Long March 5B rocket fell on parts of Ivory Coast in May 2020, causing damage to some buildings.Harvard-based astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Reuters that the debris could fall as far north as New York or as far south as Wellington, New Zealand.Speaking with reporters Thursday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the United States had no plans to try to shoot down the rocket.“We have the capability to do a lot of things, but we don’t have a plan to shoot it down as we speak,” Austin said.“We’re hopeful that it will land in a place where it won’t harm anyone. Hopefully in the ocean, or someplace like that,” he added.The launch of the Tianhe module was the first of 11 planned missions to build a Chinese space station.
…
Archaeologists Discover Remains of 9 Neanderthals Near Rome
Italian archaeologists have uncovered the fossilized remains of nine Neanderthals in a cave near Rome, shedding new light on how the Italian peninsula was populated and under what environmental conditions.The Italian Culture Ministry announced the discovery Saturday, saying it had confirmed that the Guattari Cave in San Felice Circeo was “one of the most significant places in the world for the history of Neanderthals.” A Neanderthal skull was discovered in the cave in 1939.The fossilized bones include skulls, skull fragments, two teeth and other bone fragments. The oldest remains date from between 100,000 and 90,000 years ago, while the other eight Neanderthals are believed to date from 50,000 to 68,000 years ago, the Culture Ministry said in a statement.The excavations, begun in 2019, involved a part of the cave that hadn’t yet been explored, including a lake first noted by the anthropologist Alberto Carlo Blanc, who is credited with the 1939 Neanderthal skull discovery.Culture Minister Dario Franceschini called the finding “an extraordinary discovery that will be the talk of the world.”Anthropologist Mauro Rubini said the large number of remains suggested a significant population of Neanderthals, “the first human society of which we can speak.”Archaeologists said the cave had perfectly preserved the environment of 50,000 years ago. They noted that fossilized animal remains found in the cave — elephant, rhinoceros and giant deer, among others — shed light on the flora and fauna of the area and its climactic history.
…
Blast Near Afghan School in Kabul Kills 25, Injures 52
An explosion near a school in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens more, the interior ministry said.Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said at least 52 people, most of them students, were injured in the blast.He did not specify the cause or the target of the explosion.Ghulam Dastagir Nazari, spokesman for the health ministry, said 46 people had been taken to hospitals so far.Kabul is on high alert since Washington announced plans last month to pull out all U.S. troops by Sept. 11. with Afghan officials saying Taliban have stepped up their attacks across the country.No group has claimed responsibility for Saturday’s blast.It took place in western part of Kabul, a heavily Shiite Muslim neighborhood that has frequently been attacked by Islamic State militants over the years.
…
EU Calls on US, Others to Export Their COVID-19 Vaccines
The European Commission called on the United States and other major COVID-19 vaccine producers Friday to export what they make, as the European Union does, rather than talk about waiving intellectual property (IP) rights to the shots.Commission head Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference on the sidelines of a summit of EU leaders that discussions about the waiver would not produce a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine in the short and medium term.”We should be open to lead this discussion. But when we lead this discussion, there needs to be a 360-degree view on it because we need vaccines now for the whole world,” she said.”The European Union is the only continental or democratic region of this world that is exporting at large scale,” von der Leyen said.She said about 50% of European-produced coronavirus vaccine is exported to almost 90 countries, including those in the World Health Organization-backed COVAX program, whose aim is to supply vaccines to mainly poor countries.”And we invite all those who engage in the debate of a waiver for IP rights also to join us to commit to be willing to export a large share of what is being produced in that region,” she said.Only higher production, removing export barriers and the sharing of already-ordered vaccines could immediately help fight the pandemic quickly, she said.”So what is necessary in the short term and the medium term: First of all, vaccine sharing. Secondly, export of vaccines that are being produced. And the third is investment in the increasing of the capacity to manufacture vaccines,” she said.Von der Leyen said the European Union had started its vaccine sharing mechanism, citing delivery of 615,000 doses to the Western Balkans as an example.
…
NASA Mars Helicopter Heard Humming Through Thin Martian Air
First came the amazing pictures, then the video. Now NASA is sharing sounds of its little helicopter humming through the thin Martian air.NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California released this first-ever audio Friday, just before Ingenuity was set to soar on its fifth test flight.The low hum from the helicopter blades spinning at more than 2,500 revolutions per minute is barely audible. It almost sounds like a low-pitched, far-away mosquito or other flying insect.That’s because the 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) helicopter was more than 260 feet (80 meters) from the microphone on the Perseverance rover. Martian wind gusts also obscured the chopper’s sound.Scientists isolated the sound of the whirring blades and magnified it, making it easier to hear.The sound was recorded during the helicopter’s fourth test flight on April 30.Ingenuity — the first powered aircraft to fly on another planet — arrived at Mars on February 18, clinging to Perseverance’s belly. Its first flight was April 19; NASA named the takeoff and landing area Wright Brothers Field in honor of Wilbur and Orrville, who made the world’s first airplane flights in 1903. A postage-stamp-size piece of wing fabric from the original Wright Flyer is aboard Ingenuity.The $85 million tech demo was supposed to end a few days ago, but NASA extended the mission by at least a month to get more flying time.Friday afternoon’s test flight was aiming for twice the altitude — as high as 33 feet (10 meters). The helicopter was also headed to a new touchdown spot.With the helicopter’s first phase complete, the rover can now start hunting for rocks that might contain signs of past microscopic life. Core samples will be collected for eventual return to Earth.
…
Blinken/Ukraine-Russia Tensions
Will Pomeranz, deputy director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, and Andrea Kendall-Taylor, senior fellow and director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) discuss with host Carol Castiel the significance of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Ukraine as Washington shores up support for the beleaguered former Soviet state as it faces Russian aggression in the East and as the US counters Russian malign activities with wide-ranging sanctions for Moscow’s interference in the 2020 US elections and hacking of government and private sector entities.
…
China Says Rocket Debris Unlikely to Cause Damage
Debris from a large, out-of-control Chinese rocket that is expected to reenter the atmosphere this weekend is unlikely to cause damage, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday. The Long March 5B rocket was launched April 29 from Hainan Island. It was carrying a module for a planned Chinese space station. After the unmanned Tianhe module separated from the rocket, the nearly 21,000-kilogram rocket should have followed a planned reentry trajectory into the ocean, but now, no one knows where the debris will land. “U.S. Space Command is aware of and tracking the location of the Chinese Long March 5B in space, but its exact entry point into the Earth’s atmosphere cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its reentry,” Lt. Col. Angela Webb, U.S. Space Command Public Affairs, told CBS News. Reentry is expected May 8. While the odds are that any debris will fall into the ocean, in May 2020, debris from another Long March 5B rocket fell on parts of Ivory Coast, causing damage to some buildings. Harvard-based astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Reuters that the debris could fall as far north as New York or as far south as Wellington, New Zealand. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, May 6, 2021.Speaking with reporters Thursday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the United States has no plans to try to shoot down the rocket. “We have the capability to do a lot of things, but we don’t have a plan to shoot it down as we speak,” said Austin. “We’re hopeful that it will land in a place where it won’t harm anyone. Hopefully in the ocean, or someplace like that,” he added. The launch of the Tianhe module is the first of 11 planned missions to build the Chinese space station.
…
African Activists Welcome US Support of COVID Vaccine Waiver
African nations have welcomed news that the U.S. supports a proposal to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. But, they warn, the road ahead is long and full of obstacles.Health experts and activists say the decision, announced this week by the U.S. trade representative, could save lives in parts of the world where the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage and vaccines are in short supply. Fatima Hassan is director of the Health Justice Initiative, a South African group that advocates for equitable health care. While Hassan said she welcomes U.S. support of the so-called “TRIPS” waiver — it stands for “Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property” — she worries that the process is moving too slowly. “Obviously … we welcome the Biden administration’s announcement — and really its giving effect, partially, to a promise he made when he was campaigning to be the president of the United States,” he said, but added that it is only a “small step to be able to go forward in terms of the TRIPS waiver, but also in terms of other initiatives to scale up manufacturing not just in Africa, but in the global South, particularly in Latin America and Asia as well.” Biden Agrees to Waive COVID-19 Vaccine Patents, but It’s Still Complicated Implementing waiver of intellectual property rights at WTO is not as simple as handing over vaccine recipes so countries can make generic versionsThe waiver idea came from two nations that have suffered greatly during the pandemic: South Africa and India. South Africa is the continent’s worst-hit country, with nearly 1.6 million confirmed cases and a vaccination program that has been plagued by fits and starts. Health officials are now bracing for a third wave of infections. Hassan stressed that the waiver alone won’t immediately produce a bounty of locally produced vaccines. The Africa Centers for Diseases Control has identified about six facilities on the continent that are capable of manufacturing vaccines — hardly enough to quickly meet the needs of more than 1.2 billion Africans.And, says Yuan Qiong Hu of global aid group Doctors Without Borders, the U.S. does not have the final word here. The World Trade Organization meets in June to hammer out the conditions, and there are a number of high-profile opponents, including the European Union, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, Brazil and Australia.While more than 100 countries support the waiver proposal, countries that oppose the waiver, says Hassan, may fear that it sets an irreversible precedent.
Industry groups also have weighed in.Canada’s Procurement minister Anita Anand poses for a photo in front of a shipment from South Africa of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at Toronto Pearson Airport in Ontario, Canada, April 28, 2021.Despite such opposition, Hassan remains upbeat.“Maybe this statement from the U.S. trade office is actually the first of a long journey, where over the next few decades we’ll finally be able to have a real reckoning around the impact of intellectual property on access to healthcare services, in particular medicine,” she said. “The fact that medicines are still commodified, that they are subject to a trade regime and subject to the quite excessive and quite protectionist rules of the World Trade Organization is a key concern for many organizations and many health advocates and activists. “I think that we shouldn’t underestimate the statement and the move by the U.S. government,” she added. “It’s certainly going to create a ripple effect.”Umunyana Rugege, director of South African advocacy group Section 27, certainly hopes that is the case. Her group campaigns for social justice in South Africa. Before COVID-19 appeared, their health advocacy focused on another pandemic: HIV. South Africa carries the world’s heaviest burden of that virus. Rugege said her country’s lengthy experience in that battle enabled them to act quickly when COVID-19 first appeared. “Early in the pandemic, what we did was to call for a number of things,” she said. “The first thing was a moratorium on any new patents on COVID-related technologies. So that’s before we even had vaccines, before we knew what treatments were going to work. We said, let’s make sure that we’re not giving out new patents on these technologies. The second thing we demanded was for automatic compulsory licenses where there are health technologies that are found to be effective against COVID, but that have patents.” This is familiar ground for African health activists. From the mid-90s, activists lobbied hard for the World Trade Organization to issue a similar waiver for lifesaving antiretroviral medications. A final agreement was inked in 2001. According to the United Nations, as many as 42 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since counting began more 40 years ago. Since COVID was first recognized in early 2020, the World Health Organization says it has killed 3.2 million people.
…
Online Post Helps Both Hungry and Egyptian Chef During Ramadan
A few years ago, Mariam Yehia, her mom and a friend started a Ramadan tradition — they bought hot meals and handed them out to the needy in Cairo so they can break their fast during the Muslim holy month. “We feel really good that we try as much as we can to help people,” Yehia said. But “we feel always that we’re not doing enough.” This year, an online post gave the 26-year-old a way to do more. A friend wrote on Facebook about Mahmoud Kamal, a chef who needed financial help. So instead of getting the iftar meals from a restaurant near her home, Yehia decided to buy them from Kamal. She and her group placed a first order of 60 meals that included chicken, rice and vegetables. For a little extra money, Kamal added dates and juice. Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, is a time for heightened giving and empathy. In Egypt, free communal iftar meals typically see strangers huddled around long tables on the street to break their fast together. But such tables were banned due to the coronavirus, and Yehia felt the need to give had been amplified. “Some kids run to their parents when you tell them that you’re giving out meals, and they’re very excited and happy,” she said. “It breaks our hearts, but … at least seeing them happy and excited to just get a simple meal is really something.” Yehia then decided to make a post of her own, recommending the meals and encouraging people to either order from Kamal or suggest other cooks who may also need more business. Her post ended up getting about a thousand shares. “The idea of going an extra mile to do two good things instead of one in one simple act, I think this is what resonated with people,” she said. “It’s all about encouraging people to do good things.” Jana El Daour is the friend who made the original post that inspired Yehia and others. El Daour had never met Kamal but heard from an acquaintance who knew him that he was in debt. She was used to seeing her father give rides to strangers who needed them and, growing up, she and family members would pack meals to distribute in Ramadan or toys to give out during religious feasts. So, she wanted to help. “Often we get overwhelmed with everything we need to do and with work. … We’re in a bubble, so when I find a chance to break away from the bubble and help, I do what I can,” El Daour said. “It was just a post. I don’t feel like I did much.” It didn’t feel that way to Kamal. Since El Daour’s post, phone calls and orders have been streaming in. Some paid for the meals and requested he distribute them to the needy himself. He said he would send them a video showing him handing out the food. Others told him they just wanted to help him. His wish now is to meet El Daour. “I really want to thank her,” he said.”Often we have this negative outlook on life and on people,” El Daour said. “But this just proved that people are still good, still share, still support and still help each other.”
…
US Says Fate of Nuclear Pact Up to Iran as Talks Resume
The Biden administration is signaling that Iran shouldn’t expect major new concessions from the United States as a new round of indirect nuclear talks is set to resume.A senior administration official told reporters Thursday that the U.S. has laid out the concessions it’s prepared to make in order to rejoin the landmark 2015 nuclear deal that former President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018. The official said success or failure now depends on Iran making the political decision to accept those concessions and to return to compliance with the accord.The official spoke to reporters in a State Department-organized conference call on the eve of the negotiations’ resumption in Vienna. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. position going into the fourth round of closed-door talks at which the remaining participants in the nuclear deal are passing messages between the American and Iranian delegations.The comments came after Secretary of State Antony Blinken complained of Iranian intransigence in the talks during a visit to Ukraine.“What we don’t know is whether Iran is actually prepared to make the decisions necessary to return to full compliance with the nuclear agreement,” Blinken said in an interview with NBC News in Kyiv. “They unfortunately have been continuing to take steps that are restarting dangerous parts of their program that the nuclear agreement stopped. And the jury is out on whether they’re prepared to do what’s necessary.”Iran has thus far given no indication it will settle for anything less than a full lifting of all the Trump sanctions and has balked at suggestions it would have to reverse all of the steps it has taken that violate the deal. Iranian officials have in recent weeks said the U.S. has offered significant, but not sufficient sanctions relief, but they have not outlined exactly what they would do in return.The administration official said the United States is ready to return to the explicit terms of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, as they were negotiated by the Obama administration, but only if Iran will do the same. The official said the United States will not accept doing more than required by the JCPOA to bring Iran back into compliance.The deal gave Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Much of that relief evaporated after Trump pulled out and re-imposed and expanded U.S. sanctions. Iran responded by breaking though the deal’s limits on uranium enrichment, the use of advanced centrifuges and other activities such as heavy water production.After previous rounds of talks in Vienna, the administration had said there was flexibility in what it might offer to Iran, including going beyond the letter of the deal to ease non-nuclear sanctions from the Trump era that nonetheless affected the relief the Iranians were entitled to for agreeing to the accord.That is still the case, although the official’s comments on Thursday suggested that the limits of that flexibility had been reached. The official would not describe the concessions the U.S. is prepared to make but said any that it finds to be “inconsistent” with the nuclear deal would be stricken.The official declined to predict whether the fourth round would produce a breakthrough but said it remains possible to reach an agreement quickly and before Iran’s June presidential elections that some believe are a complicating factor in the talks. The official said the outlines of what both sides need to do is clear. “We think it’s doable,” the official said. “This isn’t rocket science;”But, the official said success depends on Iran not demanding more than it is entitled to under the terms of the original deal and by verifiably reversing the steps it has taken that violate it.The Biden administration has been coy about what specific sanctions it is willing to lift, although officials have acknowledged that some non-nuclear sanctions, such as those Trump imposed for terrorism, ballistic missile activity and human rights abuses, may have to be eased for Iran to get the relied it is entitled to. That’s because the some entities that were removed from sanctions under the nuclear deal are now penalized under other authorities.The official did say that the administration no longer believed that the Trump administration had improperly or illegitimately imposed some of the those non-nuclear sanctions with the sole purpose of trying to frustrate a potential return to the deal.The official said the administration does not question the “evidentiary basis” of those sanctions. However, the official said the administration is looking to see if they are “consistent with a return” to the deal, which it has already determined to be in the U.S. national security interest if Iran comes back into compliance.“If we think it is inconsistent with a return to the JCPOA to maintain a particular designation, then we are prepared to lift it,” the official said.
…
Vice President Harris’ Family in India Where COVID Rages
G. Balachandran turned 80 this spring — a milestone of a birthday in India, where he lives. If not for the coronavirus pandemic, he would have been surrounded by family members who gathered to celebrate with him.But with the virus ravaging his homeland, Balachandran had to settle for congratulatory phone calls. Including one from his rather famous niece: Vice President Kamala Harris.The retired academic said he cannot have such an elaborate function during a Zoom interview Thursday from his home in New Delhi.Harris’ uncle says he spoke with the vice president and her husband, Doug Emhoff, for quite a while. To close out the conversation, Harris assured him she’d take care of his daughter — her cousin — who lives in Washington.”Don’t worry, Uncle. I’ll take care of your daughter. I talk to her quite a lot,” Balachandran recalls Harris telling him in their March conversation.It was the last time they had a chance to speak. Since then, the coronavirus has raged out of control in India, overwhelming the nation’s health care system and killing hundreds of thousands of people.FILE – In this Nov. 8, 2020, photo, Vice President Kamala Harris’ maternal uncle, Balachandran Gopalan, talks to media outside his house, in New Delhi, India.While the crisis in India has created diplomatic and humanitarian challenges for the Biden administration, for Harris it is also personal: Her mother was born there, and she’s spoken emotionally throughout her political career about the influence of her many visits to India as a child.On Friday, she’s set to deliver remarks at a State Department event focused on the effort to combat COVID-19 in India, and she’s expected to express U.S. solidarity with the nation.Speaking at a fundraiser for the Indian nongovernmental organization Pratham in 2018, Harris talked about walking hand-in-hand with her grandfather, P.V. Gopalan, and listening to him speak with friends about the importance of a free and equal democracy.”It was those walks on the beach with my grandfather on Besant Nagar that have had a profound impact on who I am today,” she said.She spoke often on the campaign trail about her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a headstrong and resilient woman who bucked tradition and decided to leave India to pursue a career as a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.And during her acceptance speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Harris opened her speech with a shout-out to her “chithis” — a Tamil word for aunt. One of those chithis, Sarala Gopalan, is a retired obstetrician who lives in Chennai.As a child, Harris used to visit India every other year. Now all that remains of her extended family there are her aunt and uncle. Another Indian-born aunt lives in Canada.Balachandran said that while he used to hear about friends of friends getting the virus, now it’s hitting close to home. Those he knows personally or worked with are getting the virus, and some are dying.”The conditions are pretty bad in India,” he said.Balachandran considers himself one of the lucky ones, as he’s retired and largely stays home alone, leaving only occasionally for groceries, so that “nobody can infect me other than myself.”His sister Sarala is the same, he says, and has largely isolated herself in her apartment in Chennai to avoid exposure. Both are fully vaccinated, something he knows is a luxury in India, which has suffered from a severe vaccine shortage.That shortage is part of what prompted criticism in India of what many saw as an initially lackluster U.S. response to a humanitarian crisis unfolding in the nation over the past month. The U.S. initially refused to lift a ban on exports of vaccine manufacturing supplies, drawing sharp criticism from some Indian leaders.When COVID-19 cases in India started to spin out of control in April, there were calls for other countries — particularly the U.S. — to get involved. While a number of countries, including Germany, Saudi Arabia and even India’s traditional foe Pakistan, offered support and supplies, U.S. leaders were seen as dragging their feet on the issue.The White House had previously emphasized the $1.4 billion in health assistance provided to India to help with pandemic preparedness and said when asked that it was in discussions about offering aid.The delay in offering further aid was seen as putting a strain on long-standing close diplomatic relations between the two nations, and on April 25, after receiving scrutiny over the U.S. response, a number of top U.S. officials publicly offered further support and supplies to the nation — including a tweet and a call to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from President Joe Biden himself.Harris’ niece in California, Meena Harris, has retweeted a half-dozen accounts calling for more aid to India, including one from climate activist Greta Thunberg admonishing the global community to “step up and immediately offer assistance.”Harris’ office declined to comment for this article.The U.S. announced it would lift the export ban on vaccine manufacturing supplies and said it would send personal protective equipment, oxygen supplies, antivirals and other aid to India to help the nation combat the virus.The administration gets no criticism from S.V. Ramanan, a temple administrator of the Shri Dharma Sastha Temple in Harris’ Indian grandfather’s hometown Thulasendrapuram in Southern Tamil Nadu state, 215 miles (350 kilometers) from the coastal city of Chennai.”Everyone has their priorities. America also passed through something similar and we helped then. Now they are helping us,” he said.Ramanan added that he didn’t expect that having Harris as vice president fast-tracked aid to India or that it somehow meant help should have come earlier, adding: “I think in general all other countries should help, and I’m glad the U.S. has stepped up.”He hopes Harris can make a visit to her ancestral village when things are better.While Harris has embraced her Indian heritage as part of her political profile, in responding to the crisis there she’s been careful to speak from the perspective of a vice president rather than an Indian American worried about her family’s safety.”We are all part of a world community. And to the extent that any of us, as human beings who have any level of compassion, see suffering anywhere around the world, it impacts all of us. You know, it impacts us all,” she told reporters last week in Ohio.A ban on travel to and from the country was announced that day. Harris said only that she hadn’t spoken to her family since the ban was announced.And G. Balachandran, Harris’ uncle, doesn’t fault his niece for how the U.S. response has played out.He said that, knowing Kamala, “she would have done all that she can in order to expedite the matter.”For now, he’s content with the occasional phone call from his niece. When the two talk, it’s mostly about family; he doesn’t share much about current affairs in India because, he joked, “she’s got a whole embassy that’s sending her cables every hour on all of India!”But he does hope to visit the vice president’s residence in Washington at the Naval Observatory when he can travel again. Balachandran said he’d like to meet Biden again and remind him that the last time they met was when Biden was vice president and swore in Harris as a U.S. senator.”I wish we could all be together at the same time,” he said of the extended family, “but that’s a big wish to look for at this moment.”
…
Iran nuclear talks continue
Negotiations continue on a US return to the Iran nuclear deal and on how to ensure its full and effective implementation. Observers say the threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East cannot be ignored and must be tackled, even as Iran demands an end to crippling US sanctions.
…
Iran nuclear talks continue
Negotiations continue on a US return to the Iran nuclear deal and on how to ensure its full and effective implementation. Observers say the threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East cannot be ignored and must be tackled, even as Iran demands an end to crippling US sanctions.
…
Trio of Nations May Counter Beijing’s Vaccine Offer to India
As India sets new daily records in COVID-19 deaths and infections, some experts see the humanitarian crisis as an opportunity for other nations to counter China’s vaccine diplomacy elsewhere.Three of the nations that make up the Quad — U.S., Australia and Japan — are expected to assist the fourth, India, after U.S. President Joe Biden promised April 26 to provide New Delhi with the China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying gestures during a press conference in Beijing on Dec. 10, 2020.China has denied it is engaged in vaccine diplomacy, and it says it is supplying “vaccine aid,” This handout photo taken on May 3, 2021, shows Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte receiving a dose of China’s Sinopharm to battle the COVID-19 coronavirus at Malacanang Palace in Manila.The partnership allows Quad leaders to take “shared action necessary to expand safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing in 2021” and “work together to strengthen and assist countries in the Indo-Pacific with vaccination, in close coordination with the existing relevant multilateral mechanisms including World Health Organization (WHO) and COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access),” according to a statement the White House released March 12.Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, thinks that the partnership will need to be modified “given that it was dependent on Indian vaccine manufacturing capacity. India will, understandably, prioritize vaccines for its domestic population.”Ideally, such partnerships should be fully coordinated with COVAX and WHO to maximize impact, Adalja said in an email to VOA Mandarin. However, Joe Thomas Karackattu, assistant professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India, where he focuses on Sino-Indian relations and China’s foreign and economic policy, told VOA Mandarin via email that COVID-19 relief cannot become a strategic turf war.”All countries have to work together,” he said. “If the Quad delivers on the pitch for the ‘Quad Vaccine Partnership’ … it might cement a longer-term foundation for the Quad to coordinate on multilateral cooperation, but that necessarily does not automatically translate into an organic and systematic modus vivendi in strategic affairs.” On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it supports waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. South Africa and India had proposed the waiver, which is opposed by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a group that includes vaccine makers such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. “This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures. The administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines,” wrote U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.This is a monumental moment in the fight against #COVID19. The commitment by @POTUS Joe Biden & @USTradeRep@AmbassadorTai to support the waiver of IP protections on vaccines is a powerful example of ?? leadership to address global health challenges. pic.twitter.com/3iBt3jfdEr— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 5, 2021 While a waiver could remove obstacles to ramping up the production of vaccines in developing countries, crafting the waiver may take time because it will require approval from all 164 members of the World Trade Organization.Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
…
Facebook Removes Ukraine Political ‘Influence for Hire’ Network
Facebook has taken down a network of hundreds of fake accounts and pages targeting people in Ukraine and linked to individuals previously sanctioned by the United States for efforts to interfere in U.S. elections, the company said Thursday.Facebook said the network managed a long-running deceptive campaign across multiple social media platforms and other websites, posing as independent news outlets and promoting favorable content about Ukrainian politicians, including activity that was likely for hire. The company said it started its probe after a tip from the FBI.Facebook attributed the activity to individuals and entities sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, including politician Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian lawmaker who was blacklisted by the U.S. government in September over accusations he tried to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election won by President Joe Biden. Facebook said it removed Derkach’s accounts in October 2020.Derkach told Reuters he would comment on Facebook’s investigation on Friday. Facebook also attributed the network to political consultants associated with Ukrainian politicians Oleh Kulinich and Volodymyr Groysman, Ukraine’s former prime minister. Kulinich did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Groysman could not immediately be reached for comment.Facebook said that as well as promoting these politicians, the network also pushed positive material about actors across the political spectrum, likely as a paid service. It said the activity it investigated began around 2015, was solely focused on Ukraine, and posted anti-Russia content.”You can really think of these operators as would-be influence mercenaries, renting out inauthentic online support in Ukrainian political circles,” Ben Nimmo, Facebook’s global influence operations threat intelligence lead, said on a call with reporters.Facebook’s investigation team said Ukraine, which has been among the top sources of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” that it removes from the site, is home to an increasing number of influence operations selling services.Facebook said it removed 363 pages, which were followed by about 2.37 million accounts, and 477 accounts from this network for violating its rules. The network also spent about $496,000 in Facebook and Instagram ads, Facebook said.
…
The Infodemic: UK Data Doesn’t Prove COVID-19 is a Hoax
Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here.Daily DebunkClaim: UK government data disproves the existence of the COVID-19 pandemic.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: ReutersSocial Media DisinfoScreenshotCirculating on social media: Claim that If you get the COVID-19 vaccine, you can’t donate blood or plasma “because it’s completely tainted.”Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: PolitiFactFactual Reads on CoronavirusThe origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?
Neither the natural emergence nor the lab escape hypothesis can yet be ruled out. There is still no direct evidence for either. So no definitive conclusion can be reached. That said, the available evidence leans more strongly in one direction than the other.
— Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 5
…
The Infodemic: COVID Vaccination Isn’t Transmissible
Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here.Daily DebunkClaim: COVID-19 vaccines have been designed so that recipients can transmit their inoculations.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: ReutersSocial Media Disinfo ScreenshotCirculating on social media: Video featuring a purported doctor claiming that gargling with an antiseptic prevents COVID-19 infection.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: Agence France-PresseFactual Reads on CoronavirusIndia accounts for 46% of world’s new COVID-19 cases, quarter of deaths
The surge of the coronavirus in India, including of a highly infectious new variant first identified there, has seen hospitals runs out of beds and oxygen, and morgues and crematoriums overflowing.
— Reuters, May 5
…
Twitter to Point Out Mean Tweets Before They Are Sent
Twitter wants to curb what the company calls “potentially harmful or offensive” tweets. The social media company announced Wednesday it has released a feature that can detect a mean tweet and prompt a user to be sure they really want to send it. “People come to Twitter to talk about what’s happening, and sometimes conversations about things we care about can get intense, and people say things in the moment they might regret later,” the company said in a blog post. “That’s why in 2020, we tested prompts that encouraged people to pause and reconsider a potentially harmful or offensive reply before they hit send.” The prompt says: “Want to review this before tweeting?” Users can then decide whether to send, edit or delete the tweet. Twitter did not specify what would be considered “potentially harmful or offensive.” The company currently has a similar feature that asks users if they went to read an article before retweeting a link to the article. Twitter’s new mean tweet detector has been tested for the past year and will be rolled out soon to English-language Twitter. The company said that while testing, 34% of users, when prompted, either edited the offensive tweet or did not send it at all. Last week, Twitter stock plunged 10% on lower-than-expected user growth.
…
Pfizer, BioNTech to Donate Coronavirus Vaccine to Olympians
Pfizer and BioNTech will donate their COVID-19 vaccine to athletes training for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said Thursday. Doses are expected to be delivered later this month, which would be in time for the athletes to be fully immunized for the games, starting July 23. “We are inviting the athletes and participating delegations of the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games to lead by example and accept the vaccine where and when possible,” IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement. Last month, the IOC announced a similar deal to distribute Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines to Chinese athletes prior to both the Tokyo Summer Games and the Beijing Winter Games. Most countries have yet to approve Chinese vaccines for emergency use. How the Tokyo Games will be held is still in question as Japan is reportedly considering extending its coronavirus state of emergency, Reuters reported.
…