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PM Harris joins family and friends at Educator John Charles’ home-going service

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, August 26, 2021 (MMS-SKN) — Prime Minister and Area Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher Seven, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, on Wednesday August 25 joined family and friends at the home-going service and burial of one of his constituents, renowned educator and sports personality Mr John Adolphus Charles of Christ Church.

Prime Minister and Area Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher Seven, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, delivering special tribute at the funeral of the Late Mr John Adolphus Charles in Tabernacle.

The funeral service was held at the Tabernacle playing field where officiating ministers were Pastor Keith Phipps, Pastor Erickson Cumberbatch, Pastor Eldred Henry, and a daughter of the Late Mr John Charles, Senior Pastor Octavia Charles-Warner of the House of Deliverance New Testament Church of God in Tabernacle Village. Interment was at the Tabernacle burial ground.

“I am here to give some remarks, regarding the life and times of someone I knew and ought to have known because he was part and parcel of our community here in Tabernacle, in Mansion, in Molineux, in Christ Church – John Charles was a fixture,” said Prime Minister Harris, as he paid special tribute to Mr Charles.

He added: “I want to extend on my own personal behalf and on behalf of the government and people of St. Kitts and Nevis, sincerest condolences to his wife, faithful and loving wife, Rose Annie Charles, and his children.”

He named the six children saying that from his knowledge of Mr Charles, he would have wanted all of them to be named as in his (Mr Charles) way, he felt a sense of pride and protection as it related to each of them.

“John Charles, as the educator, is well known – yes as teacher, as head teacher, as education officer, but also as education planner,” said Prime Minister Harris. “Not only could I recall his involvement in purveying a quality education at primary school, at secondary school, and elsewhere in which he engaged, but I also remembered John’s strong commitment to his community.”

Mr John Charles was an avid sportsman and had made a name for himself in the field of cricket, as Dr Harris said: “What stood out was John was a classic batsman. He went to the field and to the crease and he always wanted to make runs.”

Prime Minister Harris is the sponsor of the longest running domino league not only in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, but also in the region, the Constituency Number Seven Dr the Hon Timothy Harris Domino League, which last year celebrated its 25th anniversary.

According to Dr Harris, Mr John Charles was one of the founding fathers of the league. Along with Mr Osmond Petty (now the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security), they had come together and approached him not for politics, but had come together for the community, and to make an intervention which they believed would be an important one to bring the people together. Mr Charles played for the Mansion Domino Club in the league.

“The legacy of sports as a unifier – sports as a vehicle to bring in people – was one which John Charles, along with others saw and utilised to good effect,” said Dr Harris. “So I want to thank him again for that particular contribution.”

Children of the Late Mr John Adolphus Charles were well supported by their colleagues. Pallbearers were members of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force, as his son Mr Garfield Charles is a member of the elite Strategic Intelligence Unit of the Police Force. Also giving support was Commissioner of Police Mr Hilroy Brandy.

Tributes were paid in song by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Utilities, Posts and Urban Development, with Permanent Secretary Mr Daryl Lloyd, and Post Master General Mr Dario Gill leading the team. PS Lloyd also conveyed condolences from Deputy Prime Minister the Hon Shawn Richards. Mr Charles’ eldest child, Mrs Octavia Charles-Warner, is an Executive Officer at the General Post Office.

Staff at the Cotton Thomas Comprehensive School, where his daughter Ms Celeste Charles teaches, paid tribute in song. Another of his daughters, Mrs Jo-Ann Charles-Williams, is the Community Nurse Manager at the St. Peter’s Health Centre and a result, the Ministry of Health was represented by a team from the Community Nursing Services, led by Community Nurse Manager Doris Bradshaw, who paid tribute in song.

The House of Deliverance New Testament Church of God in Tabernacle where Mrs Octavia Charles-Warner is the Senior Pastor, gave tribute in song. Supporting them was Bishop Matthew Hepburn of their sister-church, the Basseterre based Word of Life New Testament Church of God.

Other tributes were given Nevisian Mr Lawrence Richards who was in university with Mr John Charles, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Mr William Vincent Hodge, former Prime Minister and now Leader of Opposition the Hon Dr Denzil Douglas, and family members including daughter Mrs Cyntella Charles-Esdaille who works as a nurse in England and who paid her tribute by video link.

Prayer of comfort was offered by Apostle Judah Payne, while eulogy was read by former Senior Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Education Mr Michael Blake who suggested that a school should be named in honour of Mr John Charles for the contribution he had made to the area of education. Message in Word was delivered by Pastor Erickson Cumberbatch of the Molineux Wesleyan Holiness Church and Chaplain of the Police Force, while closing prayer was offered by Pastor Eldred Henry.

Interment was at the Tabernacle burial ground where graveside service was led by Pastor Keith Phipps, Pastor Erickson Cumberbatch, and Senior Pastor Octavia Charles-Warner. Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy laid the first wreath on the grave, followed by the widow, Mrs Rose Annie Charles, family members, and friends.

  • Late John Adolphus Charles’ widow Mrs Rose Annie Charles placing a wreath on the grave of her husband at the Tabernacle burial ground.
  • Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Utilities, Posts and Urban Development team, led by Permanent Secretary Mr Daryl Lloyd, paying tribute in song.
  • Community Nursing Services team from the Ministry of Health, led by Community Nurse Manager Doris Bradshaw, paying tribute in song.
  • Pallbearers made up of officers from the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force, carry the casket of the Late John Adolphus Charles to its final resting place at the Tabernacle burial ground.
  • Members of Late John Adolphus Charles family pose for a group picture at the grave of their loved one at the Tabernacle burial ground.

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Haiti’s Earthquake has Compounded Years of Corruption and Political Crisis

by Jonathan M Katz
Guardian

The 2010 earthquake response was riddled with failure. Haitians cannot afford another catastrophe

‘Haiti’s government has become far weaker and more riven by corruption than the one that flailed in 2010.’
‘Haiti’s government has become far weaker and more riven by corruption than the one that flailed in 2010.’ Photograph: Reginald Louissaint Jr/AFP/Getty Image

The latest statistics from Haiti’s August 14 earthquake are stark: at least 2,207 people have been confirmed dead and more than 12,000 injured. More than 130,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. Aftershocks continue, and new landslides in the wake of the follow-on Tropical Storm Grace mean those numbers are expected to rise in the coming weeks.

But the most dispiriting number is 11. That is the number of years that passed between Haiti’s last major earthquake and this one – years in which corruption has hollowed out the state, armed gangs have expanded their territorial control, and political turmoil has intensified, culminating in the assassination of the president, Jovenel Moïse, in July.

The 2010 earthquake, while marginally weaker than this year’s, became the deadliest seismic event recorded in the western hemisphere, with more than 200,000 people killed. That was thanks to two factors: its proximity to Haiti’s densely populated capital, Port-au-Prince, and the Caribbean country’s lack of preparation in terms of building safety, infrastructure and emergency planning. Fixing those underlying weaknesses was what Bill Clinton, the former US president who oversaw the 2010 post-quake recovery, was talking about when he promised Haiti would “build back better”.

The latest disaster has shown the failure to achieve those promises. Not only were the buildings that fell in the quake-hit cities of Les Cayes, Jérémie and the villages and towns of Haiti’s southern Tiburon peninsula every bit as fragile as those that crumbled in Port-au-Prince, Léogâne and Jacmel more than a decade ago, but Haiti’s government has become far weaker and more riven by corruption than the one that flailed in the face of that tremor.

Well-armed gangs now control crucial transportation routes, including an essential corridor on the only road leading from the capital to the new quake zone. Nearly everyone affected by the disaster is poorer and hungrier than they were 11 years back. These vulnerabilities are not despite those earlier efforts to “help”, but a direct result of them.

The response to the 2010 earthquake was marked by talk of big money and big action, with little to show for it in ordinary Haitians’ lives.

The typical quake survivor received a tarp for shelter, immediate medical attention for a deep wound or broken bone, and perhaps a hygiene kit and a few days’ worth of food and water. Only a pittance of the billions spent was put into the hands of Haiti’s poor majority; perhaps the most enduring legacy of the intervention was a devastating cholera epidemic caused by United Nations peacekeepers nine months after the quake.

Donors’ primary excuse for their unwillingness to put money in Haitians’ hands – as opposed to those of their own countries’ militaries, contractors or aid groups – was corruption. Though none offered evidence of significant corruption in the government of the then president, René Préval, the image of the black republic as a place home to endemic corruption persisted in many foreigners’ minds. Many, including those in the Obama administration, blamed Préval – often an obstinate man with an abiding skepticism of foreign interventions – for the slow pace of recovery and reconstruction.

Then, in late 2010, a presidential election was held. When the initial results showed the candidate of Préval’s Unity Party headed to a second-round runoff, the US embassy immediately cast doubt on the results.

In January 2011, Hillary Clinton, in her role as Obama’s secretary of state, flew to Port-au-Prince to demand Préval’s candidate be taken out of the race, and replaced by the third-place finisher, a rightwing populist pop singer named Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly. Martelly appealed to the most powerful international actors in Haiti, including Bill Clinton, because of his enthusiastic support for foreign investment schemes – including a push to reinvigorate Haiti’s garment assembly sector, in which Haitian people would be used as cheap labour to make clothes.

The Martelly years ended up being some of the most corrupt in Haiti in a generation. A Haitian anti-corruption watchdog reported in 2017 that much of the $2bn in Venezuela’s PetroCaribe oil loans – money freed up to be spent on infrastructure, public health, and other needs – had been embezzled during Martelly’s presidency.

By then Martelly had left office, handing power to his handpicked successor, a largely unknown businessman from Haiti’s rural north called Jovenel Moïse. (Auditors later found that Moïse had been the recipient of millions of dollars of the PetroCaribe money under Martelly, including having been paid two separate times for a road rehabilitation project that was never completed.)

A massive wave of nationwide anti-corruption protests broke out against the Moïse government, only to be crushed violently by police and allied gangs. A wave of kidnappings, massacres and political violence gripped the country from 2019 through 2021. Not a single election was held at any level, allowing parliament to disband and Moïse to appoint mayors himself and otherwise rule by decree. As the end of Moïse’s constitutional term neared in early 2021 he announced his intention to stay on for another year, while planning a constitutional referendum that would allow him to succeed himself. Through it all, Moïse enjoyed the robust support of the Trump administration.

President Moïse’s killing leaves Haiti less stable but as elitist as ever.
On 7 July, Moïse was assassinated in his home above Port-au-Prince. Dozens of Colombian mercenaries were arrested within hours of the attack. The head of Moïse’s presidential security detail was also brought in for questioning. Many questions remain, from who conducted the assassination to which political figures, if any, sanctioned it.

Those were the conditions in place when the 14 August earthquake struck, and they are the conditions in place as the response gets slowly under way. Responders find themselves dealing with chronic problems, such as food insecurity and longstanding health needs, as much or more than the immediate effects of the disaster. Hardworking Haitian bureaucrats within the health ministry, as well as overwhelmed doctors, nurses and scattered local officials, are doing all they can with the meagre resources available.

Prime minister Henry, eager to show the eviscerated central government still exists, is trying to assert control over international aid, and has promised substantial oversight so as not to repeat the disastrous experiences of 2010. Ordinary Haitians, self-reliant as they are, can only hope to see some follow-through this time – to help them strengthen their homes and lives before the next disaster strikes.

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A&B: Facilities Nearly Full as COVID Hospitalisations Increase, New Rules to Follow

The Antigua and Barbuda public State of Emergency which is scheduled to end on September 30 is likely to be extended for the sixth time since March 2020.

Reflecting on the sharp rise in covid cases over the past two weeks, “It is almost an automatic requirement going forward”, Cabinet Spokesman, Minister Melford Nicholas told reporters moments ago.

“As it reaches the point of expiration, we will obviously have to get the Parliament’s consent to extend it, and of course the conditions that will prevail now and that we’re going into would indicate that that it is almost an automatic requirement going forward”, he said.

According to the latest Cabinet notes, there are presently 27 people hospitalized with the coronavirus.

Thirteen of the 17 beds at the Infectious Diseases Centre (IDC) are occupied, while 10 of 16 beds inside the covid ward of the Sir Lester Bird Mount St John’s Medical Centre are being used to treat people with severe covid symptoms.

“The SLBMJMC Covid Ward has 39 beds and 72% of them are occupied in the Covid ward”, the notes read.

Three minors ages 12 to 17 tested positive during the last two days and one child is presently being treated in the Emergency Room.

The number of active covid cases have also risen to 222.

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A number of measures have been adopted to curb the spread of covid-19.

On advice of the Ministry of Health, Cabinet Spokesman Melford Nicholas says with effect from Friday August 27, an 8pm curfew will run for two weeks from 8pm to 5am daily.

He says this will give the health officials an opportunity to deal with people who are infected and hospitalized as a result of contracting the virus.

Reopening of schools have been pushed back by a week. Students will no longer return on the 6 of September but instead on the 13 of September.

Health authorities have recommended a three stage approach for the reopening of schools. Students will begin with face-to-face classes when school begins, if there are no further increases in covid cases.

Bars and gyms will also be closed for that two-week period; restaurants can only offer take out services; churches will be reverted to a maximum of 25 people in attendance for all services, including weddings and funerals and summer camps are now closed.

All other social gatherings will be limited to 10 people.

These new measures come as the country records a further increase in covid cases.

According to Nicholas, 58 people have tested positive for coronavirus over the last few days, bringing the total active cases to 222 which includes a five month old infant.

Latest dashboard figures as of August 24, 2021

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World View: Kabul Airport Terror Alert, Japan Stops Moderna Vax, Cruise Lines Require Vax Passengers, More

 

Aug 26, 2021

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The Associated Press

Advancing the Power of Facts

The Rundown

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LONDON (AP) — Western nations warned Thursday of a possible attack on Kabul’s airport, where thousands have flocked as they try to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the waning days of a massive…Read More

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TOKYO (AP) — Japan suspended use of about 1.63 million doses of Moderna vaccine Thursday after contamination was found in unused vials, raising concern of a supply shortage as the country tries to a…Read More

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MIAMI (AP) — Joel Steckler was eager for his first cruise in more than a year and a half, and he chose the ship that just two months ago became the first to accept passengers again after a long pand…Read More

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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Australian farmer couldn’t go to his aunt’s funeral because of pandemic restrictions so he paid his respects with a novel alternative: dozens of sheep arranged in the s…Read More

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SPRINGVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — She was folding a red sweater when she heard a car door slam, went to the window and realized that a moment she always imagined would kill her was about to be made real: th…Read More

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 30-year-old man who appeared nude at 4 months old in 1991 on the cover of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album is suing the band and others, alleging the image i…Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said as many as 1,500 Americans may be awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan, a figure that suggests the U.S. may accompli…Read More

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Frustrated by out-of-control increases in drug overdose deaths, California’s leaders are trying something radical: They want the state to be the fi…Read More

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Grenada Health Minister To Be Fined for Not Wearing Mask

Grenada Health Minister Nickolas Steele says he is prepared to suffer the financial consequences after he was photographed recently in the company of American actor Steven Seagal not wearing a mask.

Steele told reporters that he is aware that the photograph may send a different message to the population whom health officials, including himself, here have been urging persons to wear the mask and adhere to the other protocols, such as social distancing.

“I had a conversation with the Commissioner of Police and as far as I am concerned there is public evidence that I was not wearing a mask and I await my ticket, I will pay my charge,” Steele told reporters at the weekly post-cabinet press conference.

“The law and the regulations we put out there are for everybody and those who were in the vehicle are going to do the same. The law is for everybody.

I will pay my charge. I will receive my ticket for not wearing a mask in public. And we will move forward and I expect any and everybody else to follow by example as well. It has been 15 months that we all have been dealing with this (COVID-19) and yes I dropped my guard, I wasn’t wearing my mask, therefore, I will pay the consequences,” Steel said.

Under the regulations, no person without reasonable excuse, be in a public space without wearing a face mask, or a face covering in a manner that covers his or her mouth, nose and chin.

The regulations allow for the person on summary conviction to be liable to a fine not exceeding EC$500 and to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months.

It also makes provision for a person who commits an offense to be liable on service of a fixed penalty notice by a police officer, if the person so chooses to a fixed penalty of EC$350.

Steele was not the only government minister photographed with Seagal without a mask.

The Ministry of Culture and Arts in a Facebook post published on August 20, had a photograph with Minister Yolande Bain-Horsford and Permanent Secretary Michael Stephen, in a photo op with the Hollywood actor.

The ministry said that the American actor was here to discuss “the performing arts and possible plans of constructing a studio in Grenada”.

CMC

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Mask Violence: Guyana Security Guard Shoots Market Customer Over Masking Argument

Police are investigating an incident in which a 57-year-old security guard reportedly shot a supermarket customer on Tuesday during an argument that stemmed from the man not wearing a mask.

Police said that the customer had sought to enter a supermarket in East Bank Demerara, but was prevented from doing so by the security guard because he was not wearing a mask, which is part of public health regulations aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus that has killed 601 people and infected 24,506 others since last year March.

The police said that following the argument, the customer left and later returned with a cutlass, brandishing it at the security guard, who told them that he shot the customer in the leg.

The customer was rushed to Leonora Cottage Hospital and later transferred to the West Demerara Regional Hospital, where he is in a stable condition.

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Brazil to Give COVID-19 Booster Shots to Elderly & Vulnerable, More

SAO PAULO, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Brazil will give booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines to people with compromised immune systems and those over the age of 70 beginning in mid-September, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

Vaccines from AstraZeneca (AZN.L), Johnson & Johnson(JNJ.N), or Pfizer (PFE.N) will be used for the booster shots, the ministry said in a statement.

The information differs from remarks on Tuesday byHealth Minister Marcelo Queiroga, who had said vulnerable people and over 80-year-olds would receive an additional jab of the Pfizer.

The rapid spread of the Delta variant and new research suggesting diminished effectiveness of vaccines over time has led many countries to propose an additional dose to reinforce protection.

Sinovac’s Coronavac vaccine, which was used for many elderly people in Brazil because it was the earliest available in large quantities, is not part of the plans outlined for the booster shots.

The extra shots will be administered to those with vulnerable immune systems 28 days after their second dose. For those 70 and over, the ministry stipulated a six-month interval before applying a booster shot.

Also starting next month, the gap between the first and second shots of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines will fall to eight weeks from 12 weeks for all those vaccinated in Brazil.

Brazil has had more than 20.6 million confirmed coronavirus infections and more than 575,000 fatalities due to the virus.

According to data from the Health Ministry, 123.9 million people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in Brazil, or about 59% of the population.

Some 55.7 million had been completelyimmunized, or about 26.5% of the country’s population, the data showed.

Reporting by Eduardo Simões; Writing by Ana Mano; Editing by David Holmes and Steve
Orlofsky
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St Lucia could be added to the UK’s travel red list, as ministers prepare to update the traffic-light system for the final time this summer.

Covid data analyst Tim White warned PA news agency that the Caribbean island is “in real peril” of being put on the red list as “the numbers keep getting worse”.

This would mean travellers arriving in the UK from St Lucia would be required to stay in a quarantine hotel for 11 nights on their arrival, at a starting price of £2,285 per adult.

He said Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria and Ghana could also face being added to the red list today.

On the positive side, Turkey has said it expects to be removed from the red list and there is also pressure for restrictions to be eased on passengers arriving from Pakistan.

This would mean all passengers would be allowed into the UK again as long as they test negative for Covid before travelling. Some will have to isolate at home for up to 10 days, while those who were fully vaccinated in the UK, Europe or US with a drug approved by their respective regulators could skip quarantine altogether.

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India reported 46,164 new Covid cases and 607 deaths in the latest 24 hour period, according to data released by the health ministry on Thursday.

The figures compare to 37,593 new cases and 648 deaths the previous day.

India’s official total death toll currently stands at 436,365.

In the UK, teachers and families are being urged to take precautions to reduce outbreaks of the winter sickness bug before pupils return to school next week.

As Covid restrictions have eased, health officials have been alerted to a surge in norovirus outbreaks, particularly in nurseries and child-care settings.

A report by Public Health England (PHE) warns that further rises could be seen in coming months. Norovirus is highly infectious and causes vomiting and diarrhoea but usually passes in a couple of days.

Summary

Here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening so far:

  • Moderna Inc says it has withheld supply of about 1.63 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine in Japan after a report of contamination of vials with particulate matter, which it suspects involves a production line in Spain.
  • New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has dismissed criticism of her ambitious elimination strategy to stamp out Covid, as the country’s outbreak grows, saying the approach has saved lives and will continue to do so.
  • The Australian state of New South Wales has reported a record 1,029 cases, with hospitals in Sydney, the epicentre of the outbreak, struggling to cope with the rise in patients. The nurses union says multiple facilities are under “enormous pressure” and have “very little capacity” in their emergency departments.
  • The scientists dispatched to China by the WHO to discover Covid’s origins said that the window of opportunity for solving the mystery is “closing fast”. They appeared to be attempting to reframe their original finding, which said a lab leak was “extremely unlikely”, after details emerge on how terms were agreed with Chinese officials.
  • Brazil announced it will give Covid booster shots to immunosuppressed or vulnerable people, and citizens over the age of 80, after it emerged yesterday it had leaked its supply contract with Pfizer – showing it provided the pharma giant with indemnity from possible citizen lawsuits over potential adverse events after it provided jabs at cheaper prices.
  • Papua New Guinea has banned all repatriation flights from India, after accusing the country’s high commission of a deliberate “deception” that resulted in passengers infected with Covid-19 arriving in the country.
  • Taiwan reported zero community cases of Covid-19 for the first time since its biggest outbreak began in May, killing more than 800 people. Residents had lived a largely normal life for most of 2020 and early 2021, albeit with closed borders.
  • Just over half of Florida’s 2.8 million public school students are now required to wear masks in classrooms as a courtroom battle continues over efforts by Governor Ron DeSantis to leave such decisions up to parents.
  • The emergence of the Delta variant means that vaccination may not prove to be the magic bullet that many governments hoped for, a new report by the Economist Intelligence Unit said. It called on political leaders to rethink their Covid strategy to adapt it for the long term.

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PAHO: Vaccine Inequity Remains the Weak Point in COVID-19 Battle

BOGOTA, Aug 25 (Reuters) – The unequal distribution of vaccines which protect against COVID-19 is the weak point in efforts to combat the disease in the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday.

“Vaccine inequity remains the Achilles’ heel of our response,” PAHO Director Dr. Carissa Etienne said during the organization’s weekly virtual briefing.

“A handful of companies produce all the world’s supply of COVID-19 vaccines,” Etienne said. “Many of them are letting price and country of origin, not need, determine how doses are rolled out, so much of today’s vaccine supply remains in the hands of wealthy nations around the world.”

Countries are also suffering because of production delays, leaving them waiting for doses purchased months ago, she said.

Almost 12 million vaccine donations from the United States, Spain, Norway, France and Sweden will not be enough to protect the hundreds of millions of people who remain vulnerable, Etienne said, adding just over 23% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean are fully vaccinated.

PAHO will launch an effort to bring mRNA vaccine technology to the region and boost manufacturing efforts, she said.

The situation in Haiti following an Aug. 14 earthquake which killed over 2,000 people remains serious, Etienne said. The country’s health ministry has asked for additional surgical and trauma care support and PAHO is distributing supplies.

Some 59 health facilities in the country’s south were affected by the quake, she added, about half severely.

Vaccine doses for Venezuelan migrants – millions of whom have fled their country for other parts of Latin America – are being acquired, including through the COVAX mechanism, PAHO’s health emergencies director Dr. Ciro Ugarte said.

It is important that undocumented migrants have access to shots, he added, not only to protect them but the communities where they live.

The Americas reported over 1.5 million new COVID-19 cases last week and nearly 20,000 related deaths.

Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb, Editing by Franklin Paul and Marguerita Choy

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More than 100 Afghan Journalists Given Sanctuary in Mexico

CNN- More than 100 Afghan journalists and their families arrived in Mexico on Wednesday after requesting humanitarian protection, according to a statement from Mexico’s Foreign Ministry.

The group of 124 people whose lives would have been in danger in Afghanistan consisted of media workers and their families, including children, according to the statement. They arrived to Mexico City International Airport early on Wednesday.

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the decision to offer protection to the journalists is “congruent with the historical position of Mexico.”

It’s about those who are risking their lives to inform, to communicate; who are committed to freedom of expression,” he said, adding that the group included reporters and local staff members from “many media who have applied for humanitarian visas to Mexico due to the latest events.”

The foreign ministry added in the statement that the travel and living costs during their stay in Mexico will be covered by private sponsors and civil society organizations.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has warned that Afghan journalists face extreme dangers amid the Taliban takeover.

At least three female Afghan journalists have been murdered this year, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), while one was shot dead by a gunman in December 2020.

New York Times journalist Michael Slackman speaks during a press conference to welcome a group of journalists and media correspondents to Mexico.

The New York Times said Wednesday that a group of Afghans who worked for the newspaper, along with their families, were part of the group.

According to a statement issued by the Mexican Foreign Ministry, the director of International News for the New York Times, Michael Slackman, thanked Mexico for its support and “the rapid dispatch by Mexico’s government of safe transportation for journalists.”

In the statement, Slackman also urged “the entire international community to follow this example and to continue working on behalf of the brave Afghan journalists who are still in danger.”

Western news outlets are working to evacuate local journalists from Afghanistan

RSF said the Taliban was already imposing harsh constraints on the news media — even as it made promises about protecting press freedom.

“Officially, the new Afghan authorities have not issued any regulations, but the media and reporters are being treated in an arbitrary manner,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said in a statement.

The group said that at least ten journalists have been subjected to violence or threats while working in the streets of Kabul and Jalalabad in the past week.

Many of the western media that had presence in Afghanistan have evacuated their foreign correspondents and local staff in recent weeks, following the Taliban takeover.

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US Supreme Court: Asylum Seekers Can’t Stay in US While Claims Being Processed

The US Supreme Court has ordered President Joe Biden to reinstate a policy of making asylum seekers stay in Mexico while claims are processed.

The policy was put in place by his predecessor, Donald Trump, as part of his measures to restrict the number of asylum seekers entering the US.

But Mr Biden suspended it on his first day of office.

Rights groups say the policy subjects migrants to dangerous conditions in Mexico’s border towns.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a bid to block a Texas-based judge’s ruling requiring the government to revive the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy.

It said the Biden administration had “failed to show a likelihood of success” on the claim that rescinding the policy was not “arbitrary and capricious”.

The Biden administration can make another attempt to try and end the policy.

The American Civil Liberties Union has called on Mr Biden to try again and provide a “fuller explanation” for why the policy should be terminated.

Some 70,000 migrants were enrolled in the MPP policy. A month after Mr Biden’s inauguration, his administration began to gradually process these tens of thousands of people waiting in Mexico, allowing them into the US while their cases are heard.

It’s not yet clear how many people will be affected by the ruling.

The US Homeland Security department said it regretted the Supreme Court’s decision and would “continue to vigorously challenge it”.

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