Tag Archives: caribbean

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Two Teens On Royal Caribbean Cruise Corona Positive

Two passengers aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise sailing from the Bahamas have tested positive for COVID-19, a Royal Caribbean spokesperson confirmed with Insider on Thursday following Cruise Industry News’ report.

The two passengers were sailing aboard the Adventure of the Seas, which is currently operating with a sweeping vaccine mandate. All guests 16 years old or older aboard the ship are required to be fully vaccinated. However, the two passengers, both under 16 years old, were unvaccinated, and tested positive during “routine testing that is required before returning home,” the spokesperson said.

Both passengers were quarantined after the positive result. One is asymptomatic, while the other is “experiencing mild symptoms,” according to the spokesperson. Passengers in their travel group and “close contacts” are all vaccinated, and all tested negative for the virus.

All of the ship’s crew and 92% of its passengers are fully vaccinated as per the company’s vaccine mandate. The last 8% are people under 16 years old.

Both the passengers and their group disembarked in the Bahamas on Thursday and are now headed back to their home in Florida.

Royal Caribbean initially had a sweeping vaccine mandate for all of its cruises. Earlier in June, the cruise line reversed its requirement to show proof of vaccination for cruises departing from Florida and Texas, two states that have banned vaccine passports.

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US to Give Asylum to Afghans Assisting Coalition Forces

Biden administration to evacuate Afghans who helped US
© Getty Images

The Biden administration is preparing to move Afghan interpreters and others who assisted American military efforts to other countries while it processes applications to relocate them to the U.S., a senior administration official and two congressional sources confirmed Thursday.

The move comes amid reports that U.S. intelligence agencies assess the Afghan government could fall as soon as six months after the U.S. withdraws from the country after 20 years, leaving those who aided the U.S. in significant danger.

It also comes after mounting pressure on the Biden administration from lawmakers to evacuate Afghans who are waiting for Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applications to be processed.

“We have identified a group of SIV applicants who have served as interpreters and translators to be relocated to another location outside of Afghanistan before we complete our military drawdown by September, in order to complete the visa application process,” the senior administration official said. “These are individuals who are already in the SIV pipeline.”

Any relocation will be done “in full compliance with U.S. consular law and in full coordination with Congress,” the official added.

The official also stressed that visa processing will continue at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and that the administration is still working with Congress to streamline the application process, including “eliminating duplicative paperwork and adjusting requirements that do not impact national security.”

“We are planning for all contingencies, so that we are prepared for all scenarios,” the official said. “Should it become necessary, we will consider additional relocation or evacuation options.”

The New York Times first reported the plan, news of which comes a day before President Biden is set to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the White House.

Biden told reporters Thursday he will discuss details of the plan with Ghani, including what location the Afghans will be moved to during visa processing.

“They’re going to come. We’ve already begun the process. Those who helped us are not going to be left behind,” Biden said.

It can take as long as 800 days for the State Department to process such a visa, and while the SIV program has been plagued with years-long delays for some time, the problem took on more urgency after Biden ordered a full U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Some 18,000 interpreters, security guards and Afghan embassy personnel are awaiting assistance through the program, though Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Wednesday that 9,000 “are just in the beginning of the process.”

Applications have also been filed for 53,000 family members.

“We have 20,000 allies who stand in need of help, and we cannot leave them to the tender mercies of the Taliban,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) told reporters Wednesday.

It’s not clear to which countries Afghans who assisted the U.S. would be relocated while the State Department vets their application or if those countries have agreed to the U.S. plan.

Lawmakers and others have suggested the U.S. territory of Guam makes the most sense. The United States evacuated thousands of South Vietnamese refugees to Guam amid the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Sources told The Hill the relocation is planned for later this summer, just before the September deadline Biden has set for troop withdrawal.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appeared to hint at the plan at a House hearing Wednesday, telling lawmakers he thought at “some point we’ll begin to evacuate some of those people soon” but deferring further comment to the State Department.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who pressed Austin on the issue at the hearing, welcomed Thursday’s news but said more details were needed.

“We have not seen a specific plan yet,” Moulton said at a news conference. “It’s clearly long overdue today, so we need to start immediately, and we have not yet seen a timeline from the administration. Obviously the news this morning is very welcome news, but as I’ve said, it’s far from the last chapter of this story.”

In increasingly stark language, lawmakers from both parties and outside advocates have been warning Afghans who helped the United States face slaughter by the Taliban after the U.S. departure.

Amid the warnings, the administration said it was accelerating visa processing. But lawmakers argued that was not enough, saying too few days remain before Biden’s official deadline for withdrawal by September, let alone by the expected unofficial completion in July.

“If we leave those behind who pledged their allegiance to us and the United States of America, they will be slaughtered,” House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told reporters Wednesday, arguing the Biden administration needs to do more to speed processing.

“We need to start preparing for what the chaos is going to be once they pull out.”

At a White House briefing Wednesday, press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged the delays but suggested Congress would be needed to streamline some of the processing requirements.

“These are individuals who have played an incredibly courageous role in helping the United States at various times over the course of our recent history: We are processing and getting people out at a record pace. We are working with Congress right now to streamline some of the requirements that slow this process down, and we’re doing the kind of extensive planning for potential evacuation should that become necessary,” she said.

“So we are continuing to evaluate what our options are there, continuing to take steps forward. And certainly, we want to take every step we can take from the federal government to treat all of these courageous individuals as they deserve.”

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‘Inevitable Isn’t Failure’

Guest Editorial submitted by Timothy A Caines

 

With the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus in SKN, there has been much ado about fault, blame, failure. The reality is, this was inevitable. But this inevitability is not rooted in failure. Au contraire, it is rooted in success.  Success on the part of the Harris Administration; but also elements opposed to it. 

When Covid-19 descended on the world a year and a half ago, needless to say that most countries were unprepared. The dynamic and fluid nature of the virus left everyone having to mould their own template for responses, though some actions overlapped. As the smallest independent nation in the Western Hemisphere, St. Kitts and Nevis fared better than most, anywhere in the world. No need to rehash the specifics. The record on that is fact. Undeniable. Unassailable. Unbiased.

So great was the success of staving off the virus for so long, that we got relaxed and complacent. A year ago, everyone was masked up, hand sanitizing and social-distancing. In the ensuing months, with no cases imported, spread, or illness; we accepted that we were “Covid-free”. 

We dropped our guard, despite the continuing admonitions of our Government and Health Ministries to keep doing as we were doing. Then, the vaccine rollout met with some initial and continuing resistance, for varying reasons, some of which we will explore. 

Individual relaxation and complacency are the bases for which we now have such high numbers of cases. Had this individual – patient zero of this current outbreak – come to our shores a year ago, we likely would not have had this outbreak. Definitely not these numbers being reported. 

The lesson for us is that the war is still raging, notwithstanding that we were, and all things considered, are still winning. 

With the vaccine rollout there came a new dynamic. Whereas before, we had for the most part, a oneness of purpose in the fight against the virus, seemingly when we got our “best weapon”, we began to divide. 

Given the rapidity of the development of the vaccine, there was leeway to be given to the skeptics of the vaccine then, and even now to some extent. But it has become clearer every day, now demonstrably so, that there are elements among us who do not want the country to do as well as it has being doing. 

Elements, seemingly longing for such an outbreak; wanting the country to lockdown, and the economy to further shutdown. These elements have sought to, and have had fair success, in stoking fear and mistrust in the vaccine and by extension, in the government. Covert at first, there is now no hiding it. The question is why?

An objective person could have initially thought that the actions of these elements were out of genuine concern for the safety and welfare of our citizens and residents, and for the best decisions to be made for us all. But when one examines the reality, one would conclude otherwise. 

If we, as a country, have to move a large boulder from east to west, and the government is on the west side pulling at the boulder with our arms, a critic can be taken seriously if he suggests moving to the east side and pushing westward. The reason given being “because then we can more utilize our legs which have the strongest muscles in our body”.

If solutions and alternatives are not being offered to the criticized decisions and actions of the government that these elements claim to not be the best, then the goal for them cannot be finding those best solutions. 

What can be observed from these elements, is crafted spin on every action and utterance of the Government and health officials, to “muddy the water” as much as possible. But for what purpose?

There is the old adage “A divided house cannot stand”. Well, a divided St. Kitts and Nevis cannot defeat the virus. And these opposing elements know it. We have every indicator of that in the successes we have when we moved as one when the virus first transgressed our shores a year and change ago – as opposed to the much harder battle we are currently engaged in. 

It is never easy when you have to fight an enemy at the gates, and saboteurs inside the city.  

If we fail in our fight against Covid-19, the blame will be laid squarely at the feet of PM Harris and his Administration. No ifs, ands, or buts. And this, given the evidence at hand, is the “why?” and “for what purpose?” asked. 

The critiquing without solutions from these elements. The claims that people need more information without trying to produce it. The claims of wrong data without producing the right ones. The sowing of distrust in the majority of our medical professionals and the accepted science. The dangerous misinformation. 

Elements seemingly are prepared for the country to suffer, to be put at risk of years of setback, if it could weaken PM Harris and his Administration. 

But who are they asking to pay the price? If these elements succeed in sowing sufficientmisinformation, distrust and fear that the virus spirals out of control, and the country is forced into a full lockdown and economic shutdown, who suffers most? Whose health is most at risk? Whose social norms are most at risk? Whose children’s education is most at risk? Whose jobs are most at risk? 

A wise man used to say “Don’t let anyone take away your bread and can’t give you crackers”.

We are in this fight together and we will win through to absolute victory, but we must do it together. We have been, and are winning, notwithstanding the fierceness of the current battle. Commendations are due to Prime Minister Harris and his Administration for an excellent job so far. 

The new measures, the ramped up testing, the robust and exhaustive contact tracing have been effective in containing the spread of the virus. It is up to us, the individual citizens and residents, to stop it. 

Prime Minister Harris often speaks of “shared responsibility”. There is no greater time for it than now. The Government is doing its part and its best. Let us do ours again. 

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Peru: Election Official Quits in Contested Poll Result

LIMA, June 24 (Reuters) – Peru’s already tense election process was plunged into further disarray after one of the four magistrates on the jury reviewing contested ballots quit after clashing with the other officials over requests to nullify votes.

Luis Arce said on Wednesday night he would leave his post after the jury rejected the first 10 requests to annul votes presented by right-wing Keiko Fujimori, who was narrowly behind socialist outsider Pedro Castillo in the June 6 vote.

Fujimori has made allegations of fraud with little evidence and sought to disqualify votes in favor of Castillo. Electoral observers have said the vote was carried out cleanly, while the U.S. State Department said it was a “model of democracy.”

The tight election has starkly divided the copper-rich Andean nation with marches and protests almost daily in the capital Lima.

Arce in a resignation letter alleged bias on the jury and said “decisions were already made”. His departure could hold up the confirmation of the result as the jury processes the contested ballots with just 44,000 votes between the candidates.

The JNE on its Twitter account rejected Arce’s allegation of bias as “offensive” and said a magistrate was not allowed to resign mid-review so he would be suspended instead, and a provisional replacement found “to avoid delaying our work.”

Castillo’s Free Peru party said on Thursday the resignation was aimed at “preventing the proclamation of Pedro Castillo, thereby ignoring the popular vote, breaking democracy and installing a coup d’état with silk gloves.”

Fujimori’s conservative Fuerza Popular party has filed hundreds of appeals involving at least 200,000 votes.

A lawyer representing Fuerza Popular said that in light of the magistrate´s resignation the government should consider asking the Organization of American States (OAS) to audit the electoral process, as was done in neighbouring Bolivia following contested elections in 2019.

In a statement, the OAS said its mission to the country found no fault with the conduct of the election.

Castillo, a former reacher and union leader, has rattled Peru’s political elite, mining companies and markets with plans to redistribute mineral wealth and redraft the constitution. He has, however, moderated his rhetoric in recent weeks.

Reporting by Marco Aquino; Editing by Adam Jourdan, Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis

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World View: Building Collapse, Russia Mandates Vaccination, Chauvin Sentence, More

June 25, 2021

Alternate text

The Associated Press

The Rundown

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SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — The Champlain Towers South drew people from around the globe to enjoy life on South Florida’s Atlantic Coast, some for a night, some to…Read More

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin learns his sentence Friday for murder in George Floyd’s death, closing a chapter in a case…Read More

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NEW YORK (AP) — Day after day, as the partisan battle lines hardened on Capitol Hill over President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, his calls for bipartisanship…Read More

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MOSCOW (AP) — They tried grocery giveaways and lotteries for new cars and apartments. But an ambitious plan of vaccinating 30 million Russians by mid-June st…Read More

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris faces perhaps the most politically challenging moment of her vice presidency Friday when she heads to the U.S. southern borde…Read More

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Rastafari Views Fuel Jamaican Vaccine Hesitancy, Russian Case Surge, World Stats

Reuters
Tasheia Williams feeds her baby after the Sabbath service at the temple of The School of Vision, a Rastafari farming community in the Blue Mountains, near Kingston, Jamaica, on June 19, 2021. REUTERS/Ina Sotirova
Children eat peanut butter sandwiches during the Sabbath service, at The School of Vision, a Rastafari community in the Blue Mountains, near Kingston, Jamaica, on June 19, 2021. Picture taken June 19, 2021. REUTERS/Ina Sotirova
Treesha Bailey (L) and Tasheia Williams chant and dance to celebrate the Sabbath in a ceremony known as nyabinghi, at the temple of The School of Vision, a Rastafari farming community in the Blue Mountains, near Kingston, Jamaica, on June 19, 2021. REUTERS/Ina Sotirova

Children eat peanut butter sandwiches during the Sabbath service, at The School of Vision, a Rastafari community in the Blue Mountains, near Kingston, Jamaica, on June 19, 2021. Picture taken June 19, 2021. REUTERS/Ina Sotirova

ST ANDREW, Jamaica, June 24 (Reuters) – At a Rastafari farming community high up in the hills above Jamaica’s capital, dreadlocked locals gather at the temple to worship and celebrate with Bible readings and traditional drumming and chanting. No COVID-19 protocols are in place.

This isolated community of around 100 people called the School of Vision has so far escaped the ravages of the pandemic. They credit traditional medicine, like root wine and herbs such as neem, bitterwood and ginger, for helping fend off the virus, and do not want to take the vaccine.

Jamaica has reported around 16,800 infections and 350 deaths per 1 million people, according to statistics compiled by Reuters – lower than many other countries in the region.

But lockdowns to keep the spread in check have taken a toll on the economy, and in particular on the tourism on which the Caribbean island relies, and authorities are keen to secure and roll out vaccines to return to normality.

One challenge they face is scepticism of vaccines, which is widely shared among Jamaica’s Rastafari, who tend to distrust Western medicine and institutions, partly due to a long history of racial injustice.

“There is some danger in (the vaccines) and that is why I am not taking it and not encouraging it,” Dermot Fagon, 66, the dreadlocked priest of the School of Vision, told Reuters. He said he feared it would allow authorities to track people via a microchip, a conspiracy theory that has spread in other parts of the world, too.

Although the School of Vision itself is small and fringe, Rastafari – who account for around 5-10% of Jamaica’s nearly 3 million inhabitants – have an outsized influence on society.

Prominent Rastafari reggae and dancehall artists like Spragga Benz and Cocoa Tea have voiced skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccines, influencing their large followings on social media.

Only 32% of Jamaicans said they would take a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a recently published Gallup poll – one of the highest vaccine hesitancy rates worldwide and far below the around 60-70% that World Health Organization experts have estimated is needed to achieve herd immunity.

Jamaica’s government is aware of the Rastafari community’s doubts, and prepared for the reality that not every Jamaican would take the vaccine, Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Dunstan Bryan told Reuters.

“Herd immunity can be achieved without having all those populations vaccinated,” he said.

SKEPTICISM

The Rastafari movement developed in Jamaica in the 1930s after a prophecy that a Black man would be crowned king in Africa and Haile Selassie was subsequently made Ethiopian Emperor.

Blending Old Testament Christian prophecy and pan-African political consciousness, Rastafari philosophy and lifestyle became famous around the world through Bob Marley’s reggae songs.

Fagon says he took to the mountains outside the capital Kingston years ago to avoid the ills of modern Western society, which Rastafari refer to as ‘Babylon,’ and live a more natural, harmonious life.

“We don’t like the synthetics,” Patrick Barrett, a popular reggae artist known as Tony Rebel, told Reuters, adding that food was his medicine. “I would prefer the natural order of things.”

Jahlani Niaah, a lecturer of Rastafari studies at the University of the West Indies, said “average Jamaicans have more skepticism” because of Rastafari mistrust. Other groups like evangelical churches are also advising against the vaccines.

Authorities have so far only fully vaccinated some 57,000 people – not even 2% of the population – as they have struggled to obtain the necessary supplies.

For some Rastafari, it’s all just a tall tale.

“It is a false alarm,” popular reggae artist Worin Shaw, 44, known as Jah Bouks, told Reuters. “They are fabricating a lot of things, government and scientists. It is a money-making thing you know.”

Reporting by Kate Chappell in Kingston and Ina Sotirova in St Andrew Writing by Sarah Marsh Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
=======================================================

Russia mandates vaccinations for some as virus cases surge

By DARIA LITVINOVAtoday
People, most of them without face masks, walk at Red Square during sunset in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, June 24, 2021. An ambitious plan of vaccinating 30 million Russians by mid-June against the coronavirus has fallen short by a third, and the country has started to see a surge in daily new infections. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
People, most of them without face masks, walk at Red Square during sunset in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, June 24, 2021. An ambitious plan of vaccinating 30 million Russians by mid-June against the coronavirus has fallen short by a third, and the country has started to see a surge in daily new infections. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

MOSCOW (AP) — They tried grocery giveaways and lotteries for new cars and apartments. But an ambitious plan of vaccinating 30 million Russians by mid-June still has fallen short by a third.

So now, many regional governments across the vast country are obligating some workers to get vaccinated and requiring the shots to enter certain businesses, like restaurants.

As many Western countries lift coronavirus restrictions and plan a return to normal life after mass vaccinations, Russia is battling a surge of infections — even though it was the first in the world to authorize a vaccine and among the first to start administering it in December.

Daily new cases have grown from about 9,000 in early June to about 17,000 on June 18 and over 20,000 on Thursday, with Moscow, its outlying region and St. Petersburg combining for about half of all new infections.

Officials have blamed Russians’ lax attitude toward taking necessary precautions and the growing prevalence of more infectious variants. But perhaps the biggest factor is the lack of vaccinations.

Only 20.7 million people, or 14% of its population of 146 million, have received at least one shot as of Wednesday, and only 16.7 million, or about 11%, have been fully vaccinated.

Experts say those numbers are due to several factors, including the public’s wariness of the rushed approval and rollout of the Sputnik V vaccine; an official narrative that Russia had tamed its outbreak; criticism on state TV of other vaccines as dangerous; and a weak promotional campaign that included incentives such as consumer giveaways.

In light of the surge, at least 14 Russian regions — from Moscow and St. Petersburg to the remote far-eastern region of Sakhalin — made vaccinations mandatory this month for employees in certain sectors, such as government offices, retail, health care, education, restaurants, fitness centers, beauty parlors and other service industries.

Moscow authorities said companies should suspend without pay employees unwilling to get vaccinated, and they threatened to temporarily halt operations of businesses that don’t meet the goal of having 60% of staff get at least one shot by July 15 and both shots by Aug. 15.

As of Monday, all Moscow restaurants, cafes and bars will admit only customers who have been vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 in the past six months, or can provide a negative coronavirus test from the previous 72 hours. City officials also limited most elective hospital care to those who are fully vaccinated or can provide tests showing they have antibodies to fight the infection.

The moves seem to be an act of desperation by authorities.

“They backed themselves into a corner, they have no choice now,” said Judy Twigg, a political science professor specializing in global health at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“They overhyped this vaccine so that people didn’t trust it. Then they took a series of measures that were clearly attempted to make it seem as though the government had everything under control, the pandemic was no big deal. … And now they’re in this situation, not surprisingly, where low vaccination rates have left an opening for the delta variant to come in,” she said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted Thursday the vaccinations in Moscow were “voluntary,” because those refusing to get the shot can still seek a different job.

The governor of the southern region of Krasnodar, home to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, said hotels and sanitariums will only accommodate vacationers with a negative coronavirus test or a vaccination certificate starting July 1. As of Aug. 1, only vaccinated individuals will be admitted.

The mandates have drawn mixed responses, with some saying they are welcome if they prevent closures of businesses, while other say it’s unclear how employers can persuade those who don’t want the shots.

“Most restaurateurs believe that vaccination is necessary,” said Sergei Mironov, founder of a restaurant chain and vice president of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers. “But it is necessary to create (the right) conditions for the vaccination (drive).”

“There are too many rumors, and even doctors say different things,” and convincing younger employees to get vaccinated is especially difficult, he said.

Tatyana Moskalkova, the government’s human rights commissioner, said the unvaccinated have cited discrimination by employers, with threats of dismissal or withholding bonuses.

At a TV awards ceremony Tuesday, popular actor Yegor Beroyev wore a yellow star akin to those worn by Jews under the Nazis in World War II, and he spoke of “waking up in a world where (COVID-19 vaccination) became an identification mark of whether you are a citizen, … will you be able to visit institutions and events, will you enjoy all the benefits and rights.”

As proof of vaccination for entering a restaurant, customers must visit a government website and get a QR code, a digital pattern designed to be read by a scanner.

Restaurant owners won concessions Thursday when Moscow agreed the QR codes aren’t needed for the next two weeks at establishments with outdoor terraces, and underage customers won’t have to provide documentation if accompanied by their parents.

Still, the situation for many restaurants “is hard and will be harder by the day,” Mironov said.

In Moscow, online searches for fake inoculation documents increased shortly after the mayor announced mandatory vaccinations, social anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova told an online lecture on vaccine hesitancy.

Police quickly cracked down, launching 24 criminal cases last week against sellers of fake vaccination certificates. Still, several accounts offering the bogus documents could be found easily on the Telegram messaging app this week.

The number of such offers has grown about 19% every month since March, said Evgeny Egorov, digital risk protection analyst at Group-IB, a Singapore-based cybersecurity company. In mid-June, Group-IB found at least 90 active offers, he said.

The independent pollster Levada Center said polls show about 60% of Russians are unwilling to get vaccinated.

Levada director and sociologist Denis Volkov said the vaccination mandates could change the minds of many because it’s a clear signal from the government that the shots are necessary.

“I often hear (from respondents) that they wouldn’t do it, are afraid and so on, but if there are restrictions, and it is required for travel, state services, or at work, then yes,” Volkov said.

It could be starting to change attitudes. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said the average vaccination rate across Russia has almost doubled in the past week, and long lines have been seen at pop-up vaccination clinics in Moscow shopping malls.

A demand for vaccines could also lead to shortages. As of mid-May, just over 33 million doses were produced in Russia, and a significant amount was exported.

Several regions have reported supply problems this week, but Peskov said those were “temporary logistical difficulties.”

=============================================

WORLD STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

180,833,446

Deaths:

3,917,623

Recovered:

165,465,939
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

[back to top ↑]

Latest News

June 25 (GMT)

Updates

  • 20,393 new cases and 601 new deaths in Russia [source]
  • 215 new cases and 1 new death in Fiji [source]
  • 1,042 new cases and 44 new

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Brazil’s Environment Minister Resigns Over Illegal Amazon Logging

Brazil’s environment minister has quit ahead of a criminal investigation into claims he obstructed a police inquiry into illegal logging in the Amazon.

Ricardo Salles is accused of vouching for the legal origin of a vast haul of timber worth approximately $25m (£18m).

This is despite police evidence that it had been illegally logged.

Mr Salles is also facing a separate investigation into allegations that he was involved in the export of illegal timber to the US and Europe.

“I understand that Brazil throughout this year and next, on the international stage and also nationally, needs to have a strong union of interests,” Mr Salles said on Wednesday. “So that this can be done as smoothly as possible, I have submitted my resignation.”

He has repeatedly defended record on protecting the rainforest, arguing that he had tried to find a balance between mining and agribusiness and the need to safeguard the Amazon.

In 2019, Mr Salles told the BBC: “Brazil has done an excellent job. We have 84% of the Amazon preserved as opposed to many other countries that criticise us, they have no forest anymore.”

Conservationists have blamed the government of President Jair Bolsonaro for turning a blind eye to farmers and loggers clearing land in the Amazon, hastening deforestation.

Mr Salles will be replaced by the ministry’s secretary for the Amazon, Joaquim Alvaro Pereira Leite.

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US: ‘Political Earthquake’ as Major Cities Swing to Black Candidates

Voters are turning to outsider candidates to run their cities in a political earthquake that has ousted incumbents and shattered expectations across the country.

Municipal elections are always rife with local intrigues and upheavals. But this year, many of the outsider candidates who are winning, often over the opposition of the entrenched political class, share a specific trait in common: They are Black.

By the end of this year, there are likely to be more Black mayors among the nation’s 50 largest cities, 12, than there are Republicans, 11. Three of the nation’s four largest cities — New York, Chicago and Houston — will be run by Black elected officials.

Voters in New York City on Tuesday gave more than half of their first-choice votes, in the city’s first experiment with ranked choice voting, to Black candidates.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams (D) won almost 32 percent of the first-round vote in the Democratic mayoral primary, making him the odds-on favorite to win once the remaining rounds of preferences are counted. The only candidate with even an outside chance at overcoming him is Maya Wiley, a former top city official who claimed 22 percent of the initial vote.

If either Adams or Wiley go on to win in November, as expected in the heavily Democratic five boroughs, he or she would be the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest city.

But they would not be alone among a class of first-term American mayors that is far more diverse than previous city executives.

Upstate, voters delivered two more knockout blows in primaries: Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown (D) lost his bid for a fifth term to India Walton (D), a self-proclaimed socialist and activist. And Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren (D), beset by scandals, lost her bid for a third term to City Councilman Malik Evans (D).

All four leading candidates in Buffalo and Rochester are Black. But Walton and Evans, like others who have won this year, ran as change agents against an old guard they portrayed as out of touch with their cities in a time of upheaval.

To the south, two more Black candidates upset white incumbents in primary elections in Pennsylvania last month.

State Rep. Ed Gainey (D) pulled off a surprise upset of Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto (D) as the incumbent sought a third term. In Harrisburg, City Council President Wanda Williams beat Mayor Eric Papenfuse in the Democratic primary.

The more recent rush of a new and more diverse class of American mayors comes after two critical turning points, political observers said: The first was the election of Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, whose campaign was built on grassroots organizing meant to circumvent entrenched party interests and to capitalize on the emergence of social media as a political powerhouse.

“This started with Barack Obama,” said Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist and a former contributor to Hill.TV. “It’s clear over the last 10 years, new people have come into the process, new infrastructure is supporting them, and barriers to entry are falling.”

The second factor was the social upheaval of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic coupled with the protests over police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd put a new spotlight on embattled mayors who were at times overwhelmed by their jobs.

“That is an anti-incumbent environment. That is a change environment,” said Lee Harris (D), the mayor of Shelby County, Tenn. “The young up-and-comers might have an advantage because they are more consistent with that change being in the air.”

Even before 2020, Black elected leaders were making substantial progress at the local level. The Democratic nominees, all of whom are favored to win in November, will join a host of big city mayors of color already in office. 

Baltimore and St. Louis both elected new Black mayors to replace retiring incumbents in the last several months. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D), 36 when he took office, is among the youngest ever to run his city. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones (D) is the first Black woman to win the job in her city. 

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) won her city’s top office in 2019. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) won reelection the same year. Dallas; San Francisco; Charlotte, N.C.; Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; and Washington, D.C., are all run by Black mayors. Kim Janey (D), the president of the Boston City Council, has served as acting mayor since Marty Walsh resigned to become President Biden’s Labor Secretary; Janey has said she will run for a full term later this year.

The roster of newly elected mayors does not fit an easy ideological framework: In Rochester, Walton would be the first self-described socialist to win election in an American city since a young Bernie Sanders became mayor of Burlington, Vt., in 1981. In New York City, Adams, a former police officer, was seen as the more conservative, law-and-order choice among a huge field of Democratic contenders.

But most represented substantial change from their predecessors, whether by moving past old scandals, putting a new focus on police misconduct or simply turning the page from lackluster management of a pandemic — and voters’ interest in change now transcends racial lines.

“The first generation of Black mayors were elected in highly racially polarized elections, if you go back to the 1970s,” said Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League and a former mayor of New Orleans. “These Black mayors are getting elected in many of these communities with coalition politics. It’s Black voters plus others.”

Some observers said they saw a parallel with another candidate who benefited greatly from the support of Black voters: Joe Biden. Biden advisers credit his showing among those most loyal — but not the most liberal — Democratic primary voters for his come-from-behind victory in the South Carolina primary in February 2020, a win that catapulted him to his party’s presidential nomination.

“That explains the Biden effect too,” Harris said. “Even if you view him as stable, he’s still the opposite of what you had before.”

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Study Finds Big Drop in US Life Expectancy for Blacks, Hispanics

By Peter Sullivan

The Hill

Life expectancy in the United States declined by the largest amount since World War II between 2018 and 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study finds.

The study published in the British Medical Journal finds that U.S. life expectancy declined by 1.87 years between 2018 and 2020, from 78.74 years to 76.87 years.

The drop in life expectancy was disproportionately high among Black and Hispanic Americans, declining by 3.88 years among Hispanic people and 3.25 years among Black people compared to 1.36 years among white people.

That decline comes as COVID-19 caused more deaths in the U.S. than have been reported in any other country, with the total now more than 600,000.

The U.S. also does not stack up well when compared to a peer group of other high-income countries in the study. The U.S. life expectancy decline was 8.5 times the drop in peer countries (0.22 years), increasing the gap between the U.S. and peer countries to 4.69 years.

“The US had a much larger decrease in life expectancy between 2018 and 2020 than other high income nations, with pronounced losses among the Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black populations,” the authors write.

Richard Besser, former acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now the president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the results should be a wake-up call.

“For decades, the US has been losing ground in life expectancy to other wealthy nations, and these findings show that the gap widened even more due to Covid-19,” he said in a statement. “The study further confirms that how long people live in the United States depends in large part on income, skin color, and geography.”

“We must use this moment to correct the mistakes of the past and create a fairer and more just future,” he added.

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