ADDIS ABABA June 23 (Reuters) – An air strike killed at least 43 people in the town of Togoga in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on Tuesday, a medical official told Reuters, after residents said new fighting had flared in recent days north of the regional capital Mekelle.

Ethiopian military spokesman Colonel Getnet Adane did not confirm or deny the incident. He said air strikes were a common military tactic and that government forces do not target civilians.

The bomb hit a market at around 1 p.m., according to a woman who said her husband and 2-year-old daughter had been injured.

“We didn’t see the plane, but we heard it,” she told Reuters on Wednesday. “When the explosion happened, everyone ran out. After a time we came back and were trying to pick up the injured.”

The woman said the market had been full of families, and she did not see any armed forces in the area. “Many, many” people had been killed, she said.

Reuters could not independently verify her account. She and other sources asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

The medical official confirmed at least 43 fatalities, citing witnesses and first responders.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the head of a government task force on Tigray did not respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. State Department said it was concerned by reports of civilian deaths in the market attack and urged Ethiopian authorities to ensure full medical access for all the victims.

“We also call for an urgent and independent investigation, as well as remedial action, to hold those responsible for this attack accountable,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is deeply alarmed by the reports of civilian casualties, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

“We have requested access to the area to assess the situation and see how we can provide assistance,” Dujarric said. “The situation in the area remains very, very volatile.”

The airstrike happened as Ethiopian officials counted ballots from national and regional parliamentary elections held this week in seven of the nation’s 10 regions.

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No voting was held in Tigray, where the military has been battling forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region’s former ruling party, since November. Security concerns and problems with ballot papers also delayed voting in two other regions.

Residents reported that TPLF forces had entered several towns north of Mekelle in the past three days, withdrawing from one of them within hours.

AMBULANCES BLOCKED

The official and two other health workers helping with the response in Togoga told Reuters on Wednesday that Ethiopian soldiers were blocking the main road from Mekelle to the town and preventing ambulances from reaching the scene.

“Patients are dying right now,” the official told Reuters around midday.

He said two ambulances had been able to reach the town via a back road late on Tuesday but did not have the necessary equipment and were not allowed to leave.

He said the teams had counted at least 43 dead, and 44 critically wounded patients needing treatment.

One medical worker told Reuters he had tried to reach the scene six times over two days.

Finally around several ambulances reached Mekelle’s Ayder Referral Hospital as night fell. The oldest victim who arrived was 62, and the youngest was six, a doctor there told Reuters. Many had serious injuries, including a man whose brain was exposed, he said.

A doctor who had stayed at the scene overnight told Reuters it was “terrible” and shared pictures of people too wounded to move wrapped in blankets against the cold.

“We heard screaming and crying coming from houses where people died – one family lost four members,” she said. “All the houses around the market were flattened, apples and tomatoes lying everywhere.”

“Many people who were injured died before we could reach them … I felt so hopeless.”

Military spokesman Getnet denied that the military was blocking ambulances.

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The deadly disease has sickened former coronavirus patients across the country. Doctors believe that hospitals desperate to keep Covid patients alive made choices that left them vulnerable.

by Emily Schmall

NY Times

 

 

AHMEDABAD, India — In the stifling, tightly packed medical ward at Civil Hospital, the ear, nose and throat specialist moved briskly from one bed to the next, shining a flashlight into one patient’s mouth, examining another’s X-rays.

The specialist, Dr. Bela Prajapati, oversees treatment for nearly 400 patients with mucormycosis, a rare and often deadly fungal disease that has exploded across India on the coattails of the coronavirus pandemic. Unprepared for this spring’s devastating Covid-19 second wave, many of India’s hospitals took desperate steps to save lives — steps that may have opened the door to yet another deadly disease.

“The pandemic has precipitated an epidemic,” Dr. Prajapati said.

In three weeks, the number of cases of the disease — known by the misnomer “black fungus,” because it is found on dead tissue — shot up to more than 30,000 from negligible levels. States have recorded more than 2,100 deaths, according to news reports. The federal health ministry in New Delhi, which is tracking nationwide cases to allot scarce and expensive antifungal medicine, has not released a fatalities figure.

The coronavirus pandemic has drawn stark lines between rich nations and poor, and the mucormycosis epidemic in India stands as the latest manifestation. During the second wave, which struck India in April, its creaky, underfunded medical system lacked beds, oxygen and other necessities as infections and deaths soared.

The mucormycosis epidemic adds even more urgency to the difficult task of protecting India’s 1.4 billion people. Only a small fraction have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, and they remain vulnerable to a third wave and the consequences that could follow.

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The outbreak of COVID-19 that has been spreading in St. Kitts and Nevis for the past four weeks continues to rise passing the 350 marks with over 201 cases currently active.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Hazel Laws said that they have been trying to contain this present COVID-19 outbreak first identified on May 19.

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Despite this, the airline said it has continued to offer services on many of its routes and provided invaluable repatriation flights for Caribbean citizens.

The airline said that the recent announcement by Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley that the borders of Trinidad and Tobago may soon reopen “is welcome news, but all forecasts suggest that the recommencement of travel will not be in the same volumes as they were pre-COVID.

“Therefore, until air travel regains its pre-COVID momentum the airline will need to adjust its operations to cater for a reduced scale of demand after the opening of the borders. Put simply, passenger demand in the short to medium term is not going to recover sufficiently to support the existing company structure after the reopening of the borders.”

The airline said that as a consequence, it is required to take further steps to ensure it has a sustainable business model for 2021 and beyond. It said these steps include major cost reductions in all areas of the airline’s operations, specifically its human resource complement, its fleet and other assets, and its route network.

“As part of the streamlining strategy, the number of jets in the fleet will be reduced, for the time being, over the course of 2021. Its route network will also be adjusted to reflect the changing market. In terms of employees, the airline has determined that 25 percent of its workforce or about 450 positions throughout its network is surplus to its current needs.

“The Company will embark on consultation with the employees and other stakeholders, with respect to treating with this surplus labour situation,” the airline said in the statement.

Last week, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said that the government is hoping that the airline would return in a much more “efficient shape and form”.

CMC

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LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) – The coronavirus pandemic stoked hunger for trusted news in a time of global crisis and a clear majority of people want media organisations to be impartial and objective, The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism said on Wednesday.

Trust in news grew during the pandemic, especially in Western Europe, helping brands with a reputation for reliable reporting, though mistrust was particularly apparent in the polarised media of the United States.

A clear majority of people across countries believed news outlets should reflect a range of views and try to be neutral, the institute said in its annual Digital News Report (https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2021).

“We’ve been through a very dark time and much of the public recognise that news organisations have often been the ones shining light in that darkness,” said Rasmus Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute.

“There has been a greater appreciation of trustworthy news overall,” he told Reuters. “It’s very clear in our research, in country after country, in age group after age group, that large majorities want journalism to try to be neutral.”

The report is based on surveys covering 46 markets and more than half the world’s population.

The accelerating technological revolution means 73% of people now access news via a smartphone, up from 69% in 2020, while many use social media networks or messaging apps to consume or discuss news. TikTok now reaches 24% of under 35s, with higher penetration rates in Asia and Latin America.

Facebook is seen as the main artery for spreading false information, though messaging apps such as WhatsApp also play a role.

But the tech giants also served as an avenue for dissent, The Reuters Institute said, citing protests in Peru, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and the United States.

More people distrusted the news than trusted it in the United States, where Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 U.S. presidential election reduced demand for news.

Broadly, those who felt the media has been unfair were those with a right-leaning political outlook. Young people aged 18-24, Black and Hispanic Americans, East Germans and certain British socio-economic classes felt they were covered unfairly.

But the overall message was that most people want fair and balanced news, and despite deepening problems for the business model of print news, many will pay for it.

“While impartial or objective journalism is increasingly questioned by some, overall people strongly support the ideal of impartial news,” Craig T. Robertson, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute, wrote in the report.

“People want the right to decide for themselves.”

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is a research centre at the University of Oxford that tracks media trends. The Thomson Reuters Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Thomson Reuters, funds the Reuters Institute.

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Cuban scientists celebrating the results of a newly-developed Covid vaccine has emerged on social media – with the communist country boasting one of the highest efficacy rates in the world.

The three-shot Abdala vaccine against the coronavirus proved 92.28 per cent effective in last-stage clinical trials.

The announcement came just days after the government said another homegrown vaccine, Soberana 2, had proved 62 per cent effective with just two of its three doses.

“Hit by the pandemic, our scientists at the Finlay Institute and Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology have risen above all the obstacles and given us two very effective vaccines,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted.

The announcement came from state-run biopharmaceutical corporation BioCubaFarma, which oversees Finlay, the maker of Soberana 2, and the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the producer of Abdala.

Cuba, whose biotech sector has exported vaccines for decades, has five coronavirus vaccine candidates.

The Caribbean’s largest island is facing its worst COVID-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic following the arrival of more contagious variants, setting new records for daily coronavirus cases.

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14ymedio, Havana, 17 June 2021 — The Cuban banking system has devised a new option to keep the foreign currency of tourists starting with Prepaid Cards at the Cadeca currency exchange offices in Varadero and Cayo Coco.

The cards, of 200, 500 and 1,000 dollars, are only for non-resident travelers, who can buy them by presenting their passport and depositing the amount in cash plus a commission of five dollars, only until the 20th. After that they may do so in any other currency among those accepted in the country.

Prepaid cards can only be spent within Cuba and will be valid for two years. Travelers will thus be able to make purchases in hard currency stores without cash, although they can also withdraw Cuban pesos at ATMs. What they do not allow are transfers from abroad, or deposits or movements of funds between similar cards or others that operate in dollars. And unspent balance is non-refundable in foreign currency.

Last Friday, the first vice president of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), Francisco Mayobre Lence, explained on television that travelers who arrive on the island after June 21 will not be able, like nationals, to exchange dollars in cash, and so must arrive with a different currency to cover their expenses or use an international card accepted in the Cuba (the embargo does not allow the use of cards issued in the United States).

The new product could solve some of these problems, but it is to be expected that other problems will occur. The measure has not been well received by Cubans residing in the country, who speculate, in social networks and the official press, about the difficulties that this may have for tourists.

“So, does the tourist who comes with dollars after June 20 have to eat them? Can’t he buy these cards? Will the tourist be forced to come to Cuba with a currency other than the USD?” asks a Cubadebate reader to which another responds: “Cuban inventions. Apparently they forgot that there is competition in the Caribbean.”

Some users fail to imagine tourists lining at a Cadeca and believe it is very possible that a black market for dollars will continue to circulate. Meanwhile, others ask insistently if, since the use of the cards is not limited to the personwho acquired them, anyone will be able to use them, a doubt that reveals the aspiration of many to get one of these products by any means.

Last Thursday the government announced by surprise that it would stop accepting cash in US dollars. Yesterday, the General Customs of the Republic issued a statement clarifying that this also affects the payment of customs duties and services for items imported at the border, which can only be paid in currencies other than the United States or by card.

The agency has asked Cubans to take steps to avoid acting out and comply with regulations without giving up import rights.

Cubans and economists debate the reasons for this decision by the authorities, arguing that they have huge amounts of dollars in cash stuck in banks because they are not able to operate internationally with them. The foreign currency stores, which increasingly provide more goods, even basic goods, to Cubans and, at the same time, are more scarce every day, lack products due to the impossibility of buying with all the cash they collect, due to the US sanctions, which prevent them from moving the money, argues the Government.

Critics doubt this argument and offer other hypotheses, together or in combination, ranging from an attempt to pressure the Biden government to relax sanctions through pressure from families who send remittances, to money laundering through a desperate attempt to get hold of as much US currency they can collect, in record time.

Another theory suggests that it is a matter of curbing the rise in the price of the dollar in the informal market. Exchange houses sell dollars at a rate of 1 x 24 Cuban pesos, while in illegal networks the rate has reached 70.

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Sao Paulo, Brazil (CNN) At least 140 positive Covid-19 cases have been detected among players, members of delegations and service providers since the beginning of the Copa América tournament in Brazil on June 13, according to the country’s health ministry.

Brazil was chosen to host the football tournament earlier this month despite concerns about the country’s still uncontrolled spread of Covid-19, after the Copa América was moved from its original host countries of Argentina and Colombia. Brazil ranks second in the world for number of Covid-19 fatalities after the United States, and crossed the grim threshold of 500,000 deaths over the weekend.

Half of the national teams participating in the Copa América have been affected by Covid-19 so far. Venezuela, the hardest-hit team, registered eight players infected in its last report. Colombia, Bolivia and Peru also have personnel with coronavirus. The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) does not release the number of cases per national team.

As the tournament was beginning, Argentine superstar Lionel Messi expressed concerns about contracting the virus while with his national team.

“It worries us because it is a risk for everyone catching Covid,” he told reporters. “We try to be careful but it’s not easy. These things happen.”

“We’ll try to do all we can so no one gets it, but sometimes it doesn’t depend solely on ourselves.”

Of the positive cases confirmed so far at the Copa América, 42 were among players and members registered in national teams, 97 cases were detected among service providers hired for the event and one case was a CONMEBOL staff member.

That’s a significant rise since the last report on Covid-19 at the tournament. Last week, the health ministry reported 37 positive cases among players and delegation members and 45 among service providers of the tournament.

Infections have been registered in all four host cities: Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Cuiaba and Goiania.

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