Tag Archives: caribbean

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Tropical Storm to Drench US Gulf Coast

Forecasters predict a tropical system will bring heavy rain, storm surge and coastal flooding to the northern Gulf Coast as early as Friday and throughout the weekend.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida — extending from Intracoastal City, Louisiana, to the Okaloosa-Walton County line in the Florida Panhandle, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The poorly organised disturbance was located Friday morning about 255 miles (410 kilometres) south of Morgan City, Louisiana, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph). It was moving north at 14 mph (22 kph).

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards late Thursday issued a state of emergency due to the potential weather threats. The move is an administrative step that authorizes the use of state resources to aid in storm response efforts, the governor’s office said.

The system is expected to produce up to 8 inches (20 centimetres) of rain across the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, and up to 12 inches (30 centimetres) through the weekend along the central US Gulf Coast.

The combination of storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline, the hurricane centre said. The water could reach the heights of about 1-3 feet (30-91 centimetres).

There have already been two named storms during the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. Meteorologists expect the season to be busy, but not as crazy as the record-breaking 2020 season.

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World Bank Report Lauds Bahamas Unemployment Benefits

Chester Robards Send an email

A World Bank report has lauded The Bahamas’ level of unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, explaining that this country is one of a few in the region to offer unemployment payments to citizens not eligible for the National Insurance Board’s contributory unemployment benefit.

According to the report, titled “Employment in Crisis”, only about one-third of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) offer a national unemployment income support plan.

“Job displacement income support – programs specifically designed to sustain the income and consumption of laid-off workers and their families – in the form of unemployment insurance is, therefore, relatively rare in the region,” the report states.

“Workers with formal employment contracts in Brazil, Chile and Uruguay have access to large risk pools offered by a national unemployment insurance plan (that is, one not specific to a worker’s firm, occupation, or sector). In addition, Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados, Colombia, Ecuador and the República Bolivariana de Venezuela offer unemployment insurance in the form of contributory risk-pooling plans.”

The report explained that some countries, like The Bahamas, offered unemployment coverage that was effective during the pandemic.

At the start of the pandemic, the government created what is called an unemployment assistance (UEA) program, which was separate from the National Insurance Board’s unemployment benefit.

Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis in The Bahamas, the government has spent $16 million on self-employed, government-funded unemployment assistance programs, $134.6 million on the government-funded unemployment extension program and $97.4 million on the national insurance unemployment benefit.

The report outlines how workers in informal sectors are often in danger of missing out on unemployment coverage in many countries in the region.

“Workers with formal but more precarious contracts may be statutorily excluded from coverage by unemployment income support programs,” the report states.

“And even among formally employed workers with ‘standard’ employment contracts, effective coverage is disappointingly low. Demanding eligibility requirements that fail to reflect the patterns of employment and tenure achieved even by many formal workers impede effective coverage.

“Regulatory and administrative failures often mean that contributions are not received. The transaction costs of securing benefits can be prohibitively high, particularly if the benefits are meager.”

The report reveals that Barbados leads the region in protecting its citizens during the pandemic through unemployment payments, delivering benefits to almost 90 percent of unemployed workers, while The Bahamas captured about 26 percent.

“Beyond the exceptional case of Barbados, whose system delivers benefits to 88 percent of unemployed workers, only in The Bahamas, Chile and Uruguay do national unemployment insurance arrangements appear to provide widespread, effective coverage,” the report states.

“Outside these three countries, even in the remaining few LAC countries that offer unemployment insurance, coverage remains too low.”

 

 

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COVID Deaths Top 4M, Record Moscow Cases, World Stats

Reuters – Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

Global COVID-19 death toll exceeds 4 million

Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide passed 4 million on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as many countries struggle to procure enough vaccines to inoculate their populations.

It took over a year for the COVID-19 death toll to hit 2 million, while the next 2 million were recorded in just 166 days, according to a Reuters analysis. read more

Cases hit an all-time daily high in Moscow

Daily cases of COVID-19 hit an all-time high in Moscow on Friday, official data showed, with the number of new cases in the Russian capital tripling in two weeks to reach 9,056 amid talk of a third wave.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said he was extending restrictions imposed earlier such as bans on public events with more than 1,000 people, shutting cafes and restaurants at night, and closing soccer fan zones set up for the European Championship.

Russia reported 17,262 new cases nationwide on Friday, pushing the national infection tally to 5,281,309 since the pandemic began. read more

Health experts warn of Olympic COVID-19 threat

Japan’s top medical experts warned on Friday that holding the Olympic Games during the pandemic could increase infections, and said banning all spectators was the least risky option, setting up a possible collision with organisers.

The report, led by top health adviser Shigeru Omi, was released after Tokyo 2020’s organising committee chief told the Sankei newspaper she wanted to allow up to 10,000 spectators at stadiums for the Games, which kick off on July 23.

Japan is pushing ahead with hosting the delayed Games despite worries about another surge in infections and strong public opposition. Organisers have banned spectators from overseas. read more

India should brace for third wave, say health experts

A third wave of infections is likely to hit India by October, and although it will be better controlled than the latest outbreak the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year, according to a Reuters poll of medical experts.

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists, doctors, scientists, virologists, epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccinations will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak.

Of those who ventured a prediction, over 85% of respondents, said the next wave will hit by October, including three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September. The remaining three said between November and February. read more

Britain reports steep rise in Delta variant cases

Britain has reported another steep rise in weekly reported cases of the Delta coronavirus variant, Public Health England data showed on Friday. Concerns about the variant prompted Prime Minister Boris Johnson to decide this week to delay the final lifting of lockdown restrictions.

PHE said there had been 33,630 new cases of the Delta variant in the week to June 16, taking the number of confirmed cases to 75,953, a 79% increase on the previous total. read more

Notting Hill Carnival, billed as Europe’s biggest street party, has been cancelled for a second year in a row, organisers said on Friday. read more

Compiled by Karishma Singh Editing by Robert BirselLD
========================================================

WORLD STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

178,264,359

Deaths:

3,859,364

Recovered:

162,768,123
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

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Latest News

June 18 (GMT)

Updates

  • 10,100 new cases and 127 new deaths in Iran [source]
  • 280 new cases and 3 new deaths in Libya [source]
  • 1,557 new cases and 51 new deaths in Japan [source]
  • 17,262 new cases and 453 new deaths in Russia [source]

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Drop in Havana COVID-19 Cases Boosts Hope Cuban Vaccines Working

HAVANA, June 17 (Reuters) – Coronavirus infections have halved in Havana since authorities started administering Cuba’s experimental vaccines en masse in the capital a month ago, official data shows, raising hopes about their efficacy even as cases increase nationwide.

The cash-strapped country, which has a reputed state-run biotech sector, has declined to import vaccines but still hopes to be among the first in the region to have vaccinated its whole population by year-end.

Critics said that Cuba’s plan against COVID-19 hinges though on whether the vaccines prove effective – a risky bet to make as it traverses its worst outbreak yet, with overall cases reaching record highs and a lockdown compounding economic woes. read more

Authorities have yet to release efficacy data for its most advanced vaccine candidates from late phase trials but have said they hope to do so this month.

Cuba has five experimental shots in various stages of clinical trials, with two in late phase trials already being administered en masse to the population in intervention studies – in particular in Havana, one of the worst-hit areas.

Cases in the capital have halved over the past month from a peak of around 800 per day, which officials have suggested is due to both the vaccines and tighter restrictions on gatherings and movement.

“We need to continue as fast as possible (applying vaccine candidates) to see the impact together with the (prevention) measures … and to stop cases from continuing to rise,” Cuba’s top epidemiologist Francisco Duran said on Wednesday.

The decline in Havana contrasts starkly with the steady rise in infections and deaths in the rest of the country after the arrival of more contagious variants. Overall, cases hit a new high of 1,537 on Tuesday.

That puts new infections at more than twice the global average on a per capita basis, although accumulated infections and deaths from COVID-19 in Cuba since the start of the pandemic remain a fraction of rates worldwide as authorities had the outbreak tamed for most of last year.

Around 4.5% of Cuba’s 11 million inhabitants have received all three doses required for the country’s two most advanced vaccine candidates, Abdala and Soberana 2, state-run media reported this week.

“I have a lot of faith in the Cuban vaccines,” said Havana resident and architect Ramón Ramírez Li, 37. “But we need to continue with the foot on the accelerator and staying careful every day.”

State-run biopharmaceutical corporation BioCubaFarma has talked about the potential for exporting the vaccines once the entire population is vaccinated. This would be a potential boon amid a tightening of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo in recent years.

An array of countries have already expressed an interest, particularly those that are politically aligned with Communist-ruled Cuba.

Iran is even conducting its own late phase trials of Soberana 2 and Cuban state-run media said this week it could announce its authorization for emergency use shortly.

Meanwhile, Cuba’s Health Minister Jose Portal held online talks on Wednesday with his Vietnamese counterpart to propose transferring vaccine production technology, Vietnam’s state-run news agency reported.

Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional Reporting by Nelson Acosta; editing by Grant McCoo

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World View: New US Holiday, Pandemic Refugees, Iran Votes, More

June 18, 2021

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AP Morning Wire

The Associated Press

The Rundown

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Black Americans rejoiced Thursday after President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday, but some said that, while they appreciated the recognition at a time of racial reckoning in America, more is needed to change policies…Read More

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GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. refugee agency says war, violence, persecution and human rights violations caused nearly 3 million people to flee their homes last year, even though the COVID-19 crisis restricted movement worldwide as countries shut borders …Read More

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court’s latest rejection of a Republican effort to dismantle “Obamacare” signals anew that the GOP must look beyond repealing the law if it wants to hone the nation’s health care problems into a winning political issue…Read More

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran voted Friday in a presidential election tipped in the favor of a hard-line protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fueling public apathy and sparking calls for a boycott in the Islamic Republic….Read More

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NEW DELHI (AP) — Starting Monday, every Indian adult can get a COVID-19 vaccine dose for free that was purchased by the federal government….Read More

OTHER TOP STORIES

VATHY, Greece (AP) — Around dawn one recent spring day, an inflatable dinghy carrying nearly three dozen people reached the Greek island of Samos from the nearby Turkish coast…Read More

The coelacanth — a giant weird fish still around from dinosaur times — can live for 100 years, a new study found. These slow-moving, people-sized fish of the deep, nicknamed …Read More

A busy week in the region sees photos from the European soccer championships taking place across the continent, along with the Group of Seven summit meetings in Cornwall, Engl…Read More

GABORONE, Botswana (AP) — A huge diamond weighing more than 1,000 carats, which could be the third-largest mined in history, has been discovered in the southern African countr…Read More

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UN: Pandemic Forces Rising Number of People to Leave Homes

NEW YORK, June 18 (Reuters) – The number of people forced to flee their homes due to conflict, persecution and human rights abuses has doubled in the past decade to reach 82.4 million at the end of last year, the United Nations said on Friday.

“In the year of COVID, in a year in which movement was practically impossible for most of us… 3 million more people have been forcibly displaced,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told Reuters.

Nearly 70% of those affected are from just five countries – Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar – according to the annual report on forced displacement by the U.N. Refugee Agency UNHCR.

“Trends have unfortunately continued. So if we had to work to update the figures… for the first six months of 2021, we will probably see a further increase from that 82.4 million,” said Grandi. Around 42% of those displaced were children.

He said the increase in those uprooted from their homes was partly fueled by new flashpoints, including northern Mozambique, West Africa’s Sahel region, and Ethiopia’s Tigray, along with flare-ups in long-running conflicts in Afghanistan and Somalia.

The United Nations is also preparing for a likely further displacement of civilians in Afghanistan after U.S. and international troops leave the country in September, Grandi said earlier this week.

Amid a rise in populism and nationalism in global politics, Grandi called on world leaders to “stop demonizing people” that are forced to move.

“To say that the only way to address this population flow is by building walls or pushing people back at sea is morally despicable or unspeakable. These are human beings,” Grandi said. “Whatever the motive for the flight or for the movement human beings deserve full dignity like everybody else.”

Former U.S. President Donald Trump took a hardline approach on border security and immigration. Grandi, who recently visited Washington, praised new President Joe Biden’s pledge to “restore a U.S. asylum system that is both effective and humane.”

“It’s very important that that pledge is carried out,” he said. “The attitude that I heard in Washington is people that are in need of international protection will be given international protection, but we must make the system more effective otherwise abuses will happen, numbers will skyrocket.”

The UNHCR report found that in 2020 just 34,400 refugees were formally resettled globally – one-third of the previous year. They were resettled in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Reporting by Michelle Nichols, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien

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Mexican Economy Grows nearly 25% in May- Recovery Gathers Steam

MEXICO CITY, June 17 (Reuters) – Mexico’s economy grew 24.8% in May compared with the same month last year, as a recovery from a slump induced by the coronavirus pandemic gathered pace, a preliminary estimate published by national statistics agency INEGI showed on Thursday.

A breakdown of the figures showed that secondary activities, which include manufacturing, were up by 36.4% from May 2020. Meanwhile tertiary activities, which encompass the service sector, expanded by 19.8% over the same period.

If the preliminary estimate is confirmed, May’s activity was only about 0.4% behind the level reached in February 2020, the last full month before pandemic-related restrictions began to hit the economy, according to an index compiled by INEGI.

INEGI noted that April’s data had been revised up to show growth of some 21.6% from the same month in 2020, one percentage point higher than the previous estimate.

The agency also said the preliminary figures pointed to month-on-month economic growth of 0.5% between April and May.

The coronavirus pandemic hit the Mexican economy hard last year, reducing gross domestic product by some 8.5%. In 2021, the finance ministry says the economy could grow by 6.5%, recouping much of the ground lost.

Robust export activity has helped to drive the recovery, which has benefited from massive economic stimulus spending in the United States, Mexico’s top trade partner.

Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Alex Richardson

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Brazil Violence: Huge Manhunt for Killer After Family of 4 Slain

Police operation in search for the man suspected of killing a family of fourimage copyright Mathias Folha
More than 200 police officers are involved in the manhunt

Hundreds of officers are involved in the search for a man accused of killing a family of four in Brazil, police say.

A helicopter has been deployed in the manhunt for the 33-year-old suspect who is believed to be hiding in a rural area in central Goiás state.

Police say he killed a man and his two sons, aged 15 and 21, in their house in an attempted robbery last week.

He is also accused of kidnapping and then killing the man’s wife, whose body was found three days later.

After that, the suspect, who has been identified as Lázaro Barbosa, took another family hostage, police said. They were released unharmed. He also allegedly set a car ablaze.

More than 200 police officers are involved in the manhunt in rural areas located about 100km (62 miles) from the capital, Brasília.

On Tuesday, the man was involved in a shootout with the police but managed to escape, police said. One officer was grazed in the head.

Federal District Governor Ibaneis Rocha told O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper: “It’s the first time I see something like this. It’s an impressive manhunt, and the police officers… still haven’t managed to find him.”

Mathias Folha, a resident in Cocalzinho de Goiás, which is located in the search area, told BBC News Brasil: “It’s been hard to sleep at night. The whole town’s life is around this. I even had to leave my house.”

The suspect was previously accused of crimes including homicide and armed robbery. He was arrested in 2007, but escaped from prison 10 days later.

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Slavery: US Federal Government to Observe Juneteenth Holiday Friday

By Morgan Chalfant

The federal government will give employees the day off on Friday after President Biden signs a bill making Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in America, a federal holiday.

“Today @POTUS will sign the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, establishing June 19th as a federal holiday. As the 19th falls on a Saturday, most federal employees will observe the holiday tomorrow, June 18th,” the Office of Personnel Management tweeted on Thursday.

Biden is scheduled to sign legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday on Thursday afternoon during an event with Vice President Harris in the East Room, during which they both will give remarks.

The House voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to pass the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in a vote of 415-14. Those who voted against the legislation were all Republicans. The legislation passed the Senate by unanimous consent earlier this week.

Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19, the day in 1865 when the remaining enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom by the Emancipation Proclamation.

The vote to make Juneteenth a federal holiday — on par with Memorial Day, Veterans Day and other national holidays — punctuated a broader push for racial justice and equity in the United States following the police murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in Minneapolis in May 2020.

“What I see here today is racial divide crumbling, being crushed this day under a momentous vote that brings together people who understand the value of freedom,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), the sponsor of the bill, said at a press conference on Wednesday before the vote in the House.

Democrats and Republicans have disagreed over how to address racism in policing and other institutions. However, the push to make Juneteenth a federal holiday was bipartisan, with several Republicans in both the House and Senate cosponsoring the legislation. Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) was the lead Republican sponsor of the bill in the Senate.

“The freedom of all Americans that Texas celebrates every Juneteenth should be celebrated all across the nation,” Cornyn said in a statement on Tuesday. “The passage of this bill represents a big step in our nation’s journey toward equality.  I thank my colleagues in the Senate for their support, and my fellow Texans who have been celebrating this important holiday for more than a century.”

Some Republicans who objected to the bill said they were concerned that calling the holiday “Juneteenth National Independence Day” would cause it to be confused with Independence Day on July 4.

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) criticized the bill as an “effort by the left to create a day out of whole cloth to celebrate identity politics as part of its larger efforts to make ‘critical race theory’ the reigning ideology of our country.”

Juneteenth will be the first federal holiday established by Congress since 1983 — nearly four decades ago — when lawmakers established Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to recognize the civil rights giant.

Most U.S. states already recognized Juneteenth before Wednesday’s vote. Hawaii became the 49th state to officially recognize it this week, leaving South Dakota as the only state that does not observe the day.

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