Tag Archives: caribbean

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Brazil: High Court Orders Probe of President’s COVID Response

SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered the Senate on Thursday to investigate the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis and the full court ruled that churches can be barred from reopening during the pandemic, threatening to further strain tensions between President Jair Bolsonaro and the judiciary.

The order by Justice Luis Roberto Barroso for a Senate probe came only minutes after the whole court upheld the power of local authorities to prevent churches and other houses of worship from opening.

Bolsonaro has downplayed the threat of the coronavirus while arguing that the economic and emotional impacts of shutdowns would harm more Brazilians than the pandemic. He has at times bristled at the checks and balances from other branches of government, and has repeatedly criticized the Supreme Court for upholding the power of governors and mayors to establish restrictions on economic and personal activity during the pandemic. Last year, he attended protests against the court.

The conservative president, a proud Christian who has the support of some of the country’s main evangelical leaders, has opposed locally imposed lockdowns and other restrictions that health experts have said were sorely needed to halt the virus’ spread. In recent weeks, Brazil has become the epicenter of the pandemic crisis, accounting for more than one-quarter of the world’s deaths from COVID-19.

“The inquiry will call scientists from all over Brazil to testify and show how irresponsible the president’s statements were. It will get tougher for him. Public opinion will be heard at the Senate,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “It was unavoidable. The time came for the political system to react.”

With the country’s death toll rising — among the 345,000 dead are three senators — more than the required 27 senators had already signed a request for a congressional investigation into the administration’s handling of the pandemic, but moving forward required approval by the chamber’s president, Sen. Rodrigo Pacheco. Pacheco, who won his leadership post in January with Bolsonaro’s support, had refrained from triggering the probe.

“It wasn’t the moment. That’s what I think,” Pacheco told reporters in Brasilia after the judge’s order. “This inquiry at this moment will be out of bounds. It might crown the national failure in this pandemic.”

Pacheco said a probe will inevitably drag forward the 2022 presidential race in which Bolsonaro is expected to seek reelection, giving opposition senators a platform for attacking the leader and potentially accusing him of committing crimes.

The Senate is to look at how the government dealt with the COVID-19 crisis, and could level new criticism at Bolsonaro. If senators decided there was anything criminal in the response, the Senate would have to ask the federal attorney general to open its own investigation.

The ruling on houses of worship doesn’t prevent local authorities from allowing churches to reopen, and some have already done so.

But the court acted after Justice Kassio Marques, the court’s only member appointed by Bolsonaro, allowed churches across Brazil to reopen Saturday provided they followed health protocols. Many churches opened on Easter Sunday, some without observing social distancing.

Marques was overruled by his colleagues in a 9-2 vote that culminated Thursday.

Justice Gilmar Mendes said during his vote that Brazil has become “an international pariah in matters of health care.”

“Brazil, which was once a role model in public health, in immunization campaigns, is today in this highly embarrassing situation,” he said.

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Virus Surge Closes Puerto Rico Schools

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s health secretary announced Thursday that all public and private schools in the U.S. territory would close for two weeks amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The closures would go into effect April 12, roughly a month after some 100 of the island’s 858 public schools were authorized to reopen for the first time in a year amid the pandemic. Only kindergarteners, special education students and children in first, second, third and 12th grades were allowed to return to school. They attend in-person classes only twice a week and are dismissed before noon, with school cafeterias remaining close.

The announcement was praised by some health experts, teachers and parents who worried about an increase in infections and had warned that reopening schools was a rushed decision.

Health Secretary Carlos Mellado said that while no COVID-19 breakouts were identified at any of the schools, the move is necessary given the recent spike in cases.

The island of 3.2 million people has reported more than 200,000 confirmed and suspected cases and more than 2,000 deaths.

More than 1 million vaccines have been administered since inoculations began in December, and starting on April 12, all those 16 years and older can be vaccinated. Currently, only those 35 to 49 years old with chronic health conditions are authorized to receive a vaccine, along with all those 50 and older.

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Gibralter Back to Normal, US-1 in 4 Vaccinated, World Stats

GUARDIAN (UK) Gibraltar has become one of the first places in the world to vaccinate the bulk of its adult population against Covid-19, allowing virus restrictions to be lifted and life to almost return to normal.

AFP report that since the end of March, masks are only required in enclosed public spaces, shops and on public transport. And a curfew between midnight and five am was also lifted, boosting business at bars and restaurants which only reopened on 1 March after months of restrictions.

Popular spots are once again buzzing with people enjoying a meal or a drink. Gino Jimenez, chairman of the Gibraltar Catering Association who also runs a popular eatery, said it was “especially gratifying” to see vulnerable seniors finally “out of their homes and safe”.

People walk without wearing face masks in Gibraltar.
People walk without wearing face masks in Gibraltar. Photograph: Cristina Quicler/AFP/Getty Images

Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo announced Thursday that rules restricting gatherings to no more than 16 people will be eliminated as of 16 April 16. And as of Monday there will no longer be any limit on the numbers who can sit together at a bar or restaurant.

In Gibraltar, with a population of 34,000, the pandemic claimed 94 lives, most this January and February, and infected nearly 4,300 residents. But thanks to the vaccine drive, there have been no virus-related hospitalisations for more than two weeks

A British police officer talks on the phone without a protective face mask in Gibraltar.
A British police officer talks on the phone without a protective face mask in Gibraltar. Photograph: Cristina Quicler/AFP/Getty Images

Since “Operation Freedom” began in January, Gibraltar has fully inoculated 85 percent of the population. “It is a huge relief,” Health Minister Samantha Sacramento told AFP at her office atop the only hospital. She credits the enclave’s small size and a steady supply of vaccines – Pfizer and AstraZeneca – for the swift rollout.

“During the first weeks, we were vaccinating seven days a week. It was literally a conveyer belt,” said Sacramento, the only woman in Gibraltar’s cabinet. Frontline hospital staff and elderly care home residents and workers were the first in line.

Those who receive both doses of the jab are issued with a vaccination card that can be used to attend mass events or to travel. Last week Gibraltar’s Victoria Stadium welcomed 600 fully-vaccinated people for the territory’s World Cup football qualifier against the Netherlands.

The crowd during the World Cup qualifying match between Gibraltar and the Netherlands.
The crowd during the World Cup qualifying match between Gibraltar and the Netherlands. Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/REX/Shutterstock

And on 27 March, 500 spectators watched a top heavyweight boxing match at Gibraltar’s Europa Sports Complex. In both cases, fans also had to test negative on the day of the event.

Rafael Cordon, a 63-year-old chef who commutes daily to work in the British territory from the Spanish town of San Roque said he was grateful to Gibraltar for being able to get fully vaccinated so quickly. He said there was now a big contrast between both places.

Being in Spain, where mask-wearing in public is compulsory and night curfews are in place, is “like being inside a fishbowl where your movements are limited,” he said. “Then you cross over to this side and it is like going from one world to another. This is an oasis right now.”

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The US vaccination programme continues to gather pace. Madeline Holcombe reports for CNN:

As the US aims to ramp up inoculations to win the race against Covid-19 variants, more than 1 in 4 adults are now fully vaccinated. Officials and experts hope to get Americans vaccinated quickly as lockdown fatigue takes its toll and many people are letting down their guard just as more transmissible, and perhaps more deadly, variants of the virus become dominant. In that effort, all 50 states have committed to opening vaccinations to all Americans 16 and up by 19 April.
The US is still averaging above 60,000 new cases a day – a level Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, said puts the US at risk for another surge. Experts are especially concerned about the spread of the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the UK and now the dominant strain in the US.
“I wish we had another three or four months before this B.1.1.7 variant surge started to occur,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, director for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said this week.
As states including California and Vermont plan to fully reopen this summer, experts are warning that to truly declare victory against the variants, Americans need to get vaccinated and continue measures like social distancing and mask wearing.

CNN – More than 1 in 4 US adults are fully vaccinated against Covid-19

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Russia’s  Vaccine Less Effective Against Variant

Maria Kiselyova for Reuters reports that Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus shot is less effective against the South African variant – but the manufacturer is claiming that it still does better than other vaccines

The lead scientist behind it, Alexander Gintsburg, has been cited by the Interfax news agency as saying: “With regards to the ‘South African’ strain, the effictiveness of the antibodies produced by Sputnik V, like all other vaccines, against it declines.”

The Sputnik V shot has become embroiled in a controversy in Slovakia, where the health agency has claimed that the vaccines delivered to it are not the same as the Sputnik V vaccines that were tested in clinical trials.

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Australia Frustration

There is a lot of frustration in Australia about the distribution of vaccines not matching the efficiency with which the country initially tried to squash Covid. Christopher Knaus reports for us:

Australia could have been manufacturing vaccines like Pfizer already had it acted early on calls to develop onshore mRNA capability, experts say.

The AstraZeneca announcement on Thursday has left the vaccine rollout in a state of disarray, and heavily reliant on securing more imports of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which has already achieved provisional approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Unlike the AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be produced at CSL’s Melbourne facilities, there is no current capability to produce mRNA vaccines in Australia.

For months, the Australian Academy of Science and mRNA experts have urged the Australian government to help develop a domestic mRNA manufacturing capability. That capability has not been developed.

In February, the academy used a pre-budget submission to warn Australia and the region would be vulnerable to supply limitations without the ability to produce mRNA vaccines.

Associate professor Archa Fox, a leading mRNA expert with the University of Western Australia, said it was frustrating that the country was yet to develop mRNA manufacturing capability.

But she said it was not too late.

Fox said it was difficult to be too critical of government, given the uncertainty around the various vaccine candidates – particularly the relatively new RNA vaccine technologies – in the early stages of the pandemic.

“It is a little frustrating because even if lots of people jumped in now, it still would take at least probably a year, even with plenty of investment,” she told the Guardian. “But that’s not too late for boosters against variants and all that sort of stuff.”

Even with manufacturing capability, the government still would have needed to achieve a licensing agreement with pharmaceutical companies to produce local versions of their mRNA vaccines.

Read more of Christopher Knaus’ report here: Frustrated experts say Australia could already be producing mRNA Covid vaccines if it had acted earlier

Dispute Over India Supplying Vaccine to COVAX

The Serum Institute of India (SII) is legally compelled to ship coronavirus vaccine to global vaccine sharing facility COVAX, its co-lead Gavi has told Reuters, a provision that could complicate the SII’s efforts to boost domestic supplies. Gavi is a public–private global health partnership which says it has the goal of increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.

India, where infections have surged to 13.06 million, suspended all major exports of vaccines last month to fill demand at home, forcing the world’s biggest vaccine maker to divert nearly all its production to the domestic market, and meaning reduced supplies for nations expecting vaccine shipments.

“The agreement is legally binding and served as a basis for the first-round allocation document, which has been communicated to all participating economies,” a Gavi spokeswoman said in an email to Reuters.

The pact specified Gavi would receive from SII 1.1 billion doses of either the AstraZeneca vaccine or that of Novavax , with 200 million committed, and the rest on option. SII partner AstraZeneca has already issued it a legal notice over delays to other shipments, even as many Indian states have complained of a shortage facing priority recipients.

From an initial August target of vaccine coverage for 300 million of its highest-risk people, or just over a fifth of its population of 1.35 billion, India has upped the figure by about 100 million, adding pressure on SII to crank up supplies.

India could resume vaccine exports by June, the firm’s chief executive, Adar Poonawalla, told the media this week. However he also said that the Indian government needed to provide the SII with financial assistance, as the revenue lost from being unable to export was hampering efforts to ramp up production.

On Thursday, the foreign ministry said domestic demand would determine the extent of India’s exports. It has already shipped 64.5 million doses and given out 92 million at home.

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Hong Kong suspends its order of AstraZeneca jabs

Hong Kong has confirmed this morning that it has requested AstraZeneca suspend delivery of its Covid-19 vaccine amid fears of side effects and concerns over its efficacy against new variants of the coronavirus.

Hong Kong’s health chief Sophia Chan said the city has asked AstraZeneca not to deliver as planned later this year. “We think it is not necessary for AstraZeneca to deliver the vaccines to the city within this year,” she said, adding Hong Kong wanted “to avoid any waste as vaccines are in short supply globally”.

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan.
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan. Photograph: Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty Images

Hong Kong has already secured a decent supply of vaccines for its 7.5 million residents, with deals for 7.5 million shots each with BioNTech/Pfizer and China’s Sinovac, both of which have begun deliveries.

Chan said Hong Kong was also keen to look at other vaccines that may have stronger results against newer strains of the coronavirus.

Earlier this week David Hui, a leading public health expert and government adviser, called for Hong Kong to replace AstraZeneca with a new single dose vaccine made by Johnson and Johnson.

People queue up outside a vaccination center for BioNTech in Hong Kong earlier this week.
People queue up outside a vaccination center for BioNTech in Hong Kong earlier this week. Photograph: Vincent Yu/AP

While it has a steady supply of vaccines, take up has been slow amid swirling distrust of the government. So far just 529,000 people have had their first dose. There has also been public concern that China’s Sinovac vaccine received fast-track approval despite not publishing its clinical trial data in a peer reviewed journal.

Worries over the AstraZeneca shot have spread worldwide after Europe’s medicines regulator said this week it could cause very rare blood clots in some recipients, prompting some countries to stop giving it to people under a certain age.

Late in March Hong Kong had previously suspended the use of Pfizer/BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine after discovering a packaging problem affecting one batch of vials.#

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FINLAND

An extremely quick snap from Reuters here, that Finland plans to gradually ease the country’s Covid-19 restrictions towards the summer.

Prime minister Sanna Marin added a note of caution at a news conference this morning though, saying that the spread of the virus is still severe and that the restrictions should not be lifted prematurely.

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UK transport secretary: public could now ‘start to think’ about foreign holidays

The UK’s transport secretary Grant Shapps has said that the public could now “start to think” about foreign holidays this summer.

Asked if people could start to book foreign holidays now, he told Sky News: “I’m not telling people that they shouldn’t book summer holidays now, it’s the first time that I’ve been able to say that for many months.

“But I think everybody doing it understands there are risks with coronavirus and of course actually, I think people would want to be clear about which countries are going to be in the different traffic light system.

“So there is only two or three weeks to wait before we publish that list itself. But yes, tentative progress, for the first time, people can start to think about visiting loved ones abroad, or perhaps a summer holiday.

“But we’re doing it very, very cautiously, because we don’t want to see any return of coronavirus in this country”, PA report him saying.

There’s a grim despatch from Agence France-Presse about the situation in the Philippines this morning. In a bid to slow the spread of the virus and decongest hospitals, authorities in the Philippines last month ordered more than 24 million people in the capital and four neighbouring provinces to stay home unless they are essential workers.

A week after lockdown was imposed, 70-80 percent of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients were full, while ICU beds were “almost 100 percent” occupied in most of the capital, Health Undersecretary Maria Vergeire said.

“It’s a dire situation – it is the worst nightmare of a hospital manager happening in reality,” said Jaime Almora, president of the Philippine Hospital Association.

Leland Ustare, an anaesthesiologist at St Luke’s Medical Center, said some patients were spending days in the emergency room waiting for an intensive care bed. “This time is even worse than last year,” Ustare said, referring to the first few months of the pandemic. The numbers are really worse.”

AFP report that the government is distributing modular tents to struggling hospitals and re-deploying health workers from regions where virus transmission rates are low. Isolation facilities were being expanded to include schools and hotel rooms for mild cases in an effort to ease the burden and stop the virus spreading in crowded households.

Almora said the problem in hospitals was a lack of health workers, not beds. “The hospitals have the capacity, they have the beds, but they cannot expand their capability because of the manpower problem,” he said.

Some nurses have resigned out of fear of catching the virus or gone abroad to work in hospitals where the risks were the same but the pay higher, he said. Government insurance restrictions on copayments was also deterring smaller facilities from accepting Covid-19 patients, Almora added.

The country’s caseload of more than 828,000 – the second highest in Southeast Asia – is expected to top a million before the end of April. President Rodrigo Duterte, whose government has been under fire over its handling of the pandemic and vaccine rollout, warned last week of “bleak months” ahead.

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Australians left in lurch as AstraZeneca Covid vaccine advice changes

Melissa Davey

Here’s Melissa Davey with the latest on the vaccination rollout in Australia:

States and territories have been left scrambling to respond to government advice recommending against vaccinating anyone under 50 with the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, leaving tens of thousands of people in the lurch.

On Friday, New South Wales halted its AstraZeneca rollout entirely for several hours while patient consent forms with the latest information about the rare risk of severe clotting associated with the vaccine were added. The state’s rollout for people aged 50 and over has since resumed.

“As with all other vaccines, informed consent is required before administering Covid-19 vaccines, ensuring recipients make decisions based on an understanding of the risks and benefits,” a NSW health spokesman said. “AstraZeneca vaccinations for those aged 50 years and over will recommence later today.”

Meanwhile Western Australia has barred anyone under the age of 50 from getting the AstraZeneca vaccine. The chief health officer, Andrew Robertson, said effective from Friday: “People under 50 who are booked in to receive their AstraZeneca vaccine will have their appointments cancelled.”

People in the 1a and 1b vaccination program cohorts – including health workers – who are under 50 and have already received their first AstraZeneca vaccine, should “not be alarmed” and proceed to get their second jab, he said. “You should not cancel your second vaccination booking,” he said.

The Tasmanian government put an immediate hold on any first dose AstraZeneca vaccinations for people aged under 50, with the premier, Peter Gutwein, saying the state government was working through what the latest advice would mean for the ongoing rollout.

The advice to the federal government from the Australian Technical Advisory Group for Immunisation (Atagi) does not say all people under 50 should not receive the vaccine, but rather says the alternative Pfizer vaccine is “preferred”. The difficulty is Australia has low supply of the Pfizer vaccine, and GPs can not readily offer it to everyone as an alternative.

Read more of Melissa Davey’s report here: Tens of thousands of Australians left in the lurch as AstraZeneca Covid vaccine advice changes

Hungary delays school re-opening by 3 weeks

Yesterday Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyás was bullish about Hungarian schools reopening in 19 April as planned.

Today, Orbán himself is not. Reuters report that he’s just announced on state radio that school reopenings will be pushed back three weeks to 10 May.

Orban also said he expects 3.5 million of Hungary’s 10 million people to be vaccinated with at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by 19 April.

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WORLD STATS

Graphs – Countries – News

Coronavirus Cases:

134,618,106

Deaths:

2,917,595

Recovered:

108,392,057
ACTIVE CASES
23,308,454
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

April 9 (GMT)

Updates

  • 28,487 new cases and 768 new deaths in Poland [source]
  • 9,150 new cases and 402 new deaths in Russia [source]
  • 5,140 new cases and 548 new deaths in Mexico [source]

 

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SVG orders evacuation due to La Soufrière activity 

 

Following days of increased seismic activity at La Soufrière Volcano in St. Vincent and The Grenadines, the leader of the CARICOM member nation has issued an evacuation order for surrounding communities.

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said he received communication from Professor Richard Robertson of the Seismic Research Centre of the University of the West Indies, based in Trinidad and Tobago.

Gonsalves said Professor Robertson indicated to him that the situation had deteriorated further at La Soufrière. He (Gonsalves) said that he also spoke to Michelle Forbes, the Director of National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO), and she tendered him advice relevant to evacuation.

“You may recall at 1 o’clock, Professor Robertson had indicated a fresh batch of magma either near or approaching the surface of the volcano, and the possibility of the volcano moving to an explosive phase has increased significantly.”

Gonsalves said since then there has been further heightened activity, and he (Robertson) would have explained what has occurred, and had given the recommendation.

Robertson explained that the activity changed significantly early Thursday morning with the onset of tremor activity.

“You would have had six series of tremors interspersed by two and half hours.”

He said the last period of tremor was accompanied by gas venting.

“It looks clearly like it wants to clear its throat. It looks to us like a kind of explosion, and at this point we cannot say for sure nothing will happen within the next 24 hours…to guarantee safety of the people, we have to make certain decisions.

“We would not be surprised, for example, if sometime within the next 24 to 48 hours there are explosions from the volcano much more significant than we have seen so far.”

Having received that report earlier, Gonsalves issued the following order:

“I hereby order as follows: 1) the evacuation of all premises in the areas designated as the red zone on the northeast and northwest of St Vincent and the evacuation of the area itself…and 2) the exclusion of persons, vessels or vehicles form such premises and areas, save and except for the purpose of effecting the said evacuation,”

He emphasised that while the evacuation order would be published today (Friday), it would take immediate effect.

“I want to urge all our people to be calm, do not panic, be disciplined, be orderly.”

“Royal Caribbean said they would be available to transport persons for a short period of time and to hold our people who are evacuated,” Gonsalves said

According to the Prime Minister, Royal Caribbean was offering three of its ships, two of them expected to arrive by this morning, while Carnival Cruise Line has also indicated that by this evening, two of its cruise ships will be in the country to transport evacuees.

“The cruise ships of Royal Caribbean will be first used to transport the persons from St Vincent and the Grenadines who are to be evacuated to other countries in the region who have offered temporary hospitality, namely St Lucia, Grenada, Barbados and Antigua,” he said, adding that the British Virgin Islands has also offered assistance but arrangements have not been made.

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Biden-US Gun Violence an ‘International Embarrassment,’ Wants Tighter Controls

President Biden on Thursday decried the epidemic of gun violence in America as an “international embarrassment” as he rolled out a series of executive actions intended to address the issue.

“Nothing I’m about to recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment,” Biden said in the Rose Garden. “They’re phony arguments suggesting these are Second Amendment rights at stake with what we’re talking about. But no amendment, no amendment to the Constitution is absolute.”

“So the idea is just bizarre to suggest that some of the things we’re recommending are contrary to the Constitution,” he added. “Gun violence in this country is an epidemic. And it’s an international embarrassment.

Biden, flanked in the Rose Garden by Vice President Harris and Attorney General Merrick Garland, outlined six measures his administration will pursue to try to curb gun violence. 

Biden directed the Justice Department to propose rules to make “ghost guns,” homemade weapons without a serial number that are more difficult to track, subject to background checks; to propose model “red flag” legislation for states that could help law enforcement keep firearms out of the hands of potentially dangerous individuals; and to reclassify pistols modified with stabilizer braces to be subject to the National Firearms Act.

The Department of Justice is also expected to issue a report on gun trafficking for the first time in years, and five federal agencies will be directed to focus grant programs more on community-based gun violence intervention. Biden is set to nominate David Chipman, a gun control advocate, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Chipman worked as an ATF agent for 25 years.

Biden framed the need for action as urgent, repeatedly calling the steady drum beat of mass shootings in the U.S. an epidemic. He pointed to recent mass shootings in Atlanta; Boulder, Colo.; and one this week in South Carolina that left five people dead.

Hundreds of people each day are shot in the country, Biden said, noting flags were still at half-staff for the victims of the Atlanta shooting when the Boulder shooting happened less than a week later.

“This is an epidemic for God’s sake, and it has to stop,” he said.

Attendees in the Rose Garden included numerous advocates for stronger gun laws, including former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot in 2012, parents of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings of 2012 and 2018, respectively, and Brandon Wolfe, a survivor of the 2017 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla.

Biden reiterated his calls for Congress to take action by passing three House-passed measures on the issue, just as he did last month after the Colorado shooting. The president urged the Senate to pass the House bills that would expand background checks, close the so-called Charleston loophole and reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. All three were passed with bipartisan support in the House.

“They’ve offered plenty of thoughts and prayers … but they’ve passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence,” Biden said. “Enough prayers. Time for some action.”

 

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Police disclose Phillip’s cause of death

An autopsy was performed on the body of 34-year-old Leon Phillip of La Guerite, St. Kitts, on April 7, 2021, by Resident Pathologist, Dr. Adrian Nuñez.

Dr. Nuñez concluded that death was due to hypovolemic shock due to massive hemothorax as a consequence of a single gunshot wound to the thorax.

Last Thursday Police had responded to a report of a shooting incident in Newtown last Wednesday and upon arrival found the motionless body of 34-year-old Leon Phillip of La Guerite laying on the ground with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the chest.

The District Medical Officer had visited the scene and pronounced him dead, while personnel from the Forensic Services Unit processed the scene and had collected items of evidential value.

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Corona Effect: Cash Poor SVG Govt. May Be Unable to Pay Staff

A volcano ready to explode isn’t the only current worry for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. If the prevailing economic situation continues,the Government may be unable to pay salaries and benefits, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said on Wednesday.

“I say this with all honesty, the way things are going… in one or two months… the government may not have the $30 million every month to pay civil servants and to pay the NIS contributions to civil servants, those who are pensionable to pay the NIS contributions for current, and to pay salaries and wages,” Gonsalves said on NBC Radio.

He said while his government has held things together economically “through all kinds of difficulties”, there is now “a real pressure on”.

“We saw in the first month in January… revenue collections drop by $15 million. We recouped in February. Things are even-steven between February this year and February last year. But we recouped because there were a couple of big alien landholding licence transactions in Mustique, where we collect for each of those big transactions… roughly 17 per cent of the value and they were very big ones.

“There are a couple more in the pipeline. In fact… I have to call the people to expedite because it means money – I’m talking about the public servants… to get these things quickly,” Gonsalves said.

He made the comments as he again appealed to public sector workers, and residents generally, to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

So far, the government has administered 11,000 doses of the vaccine, which is about 11 per cent of the population. Officials were hoping that approximately 50,000 people would have gotten the jab by this month, vaccine availability permitting.

Last week, the Gonsalves administration announced a ‘vaccinate or test policy’, which requires that public sector workers either provide proof of vaccination or subject themselves to testing up to once every two weeks.

But the government is facing opposition from public-sector unions, which say the policy offends the Constitution, an argument that the prime minister, a lawyer, rebutted on Wednesday.

“You know, I just don’t understand this thing that for somebody to take a test on you, a simple test, … a rapid test [to determine] whether you have COVID-19 or not, that that is an unacceptable and unreasonable invasion of your individual rights and freedoms. It doesn’t make any sense in fact or in law,” he said.

Gonsalves pointed out that the British government announced that come June, it will implement a traffic light system for travel by nationals. Green would indicate the countries to which British nationals can travel and red, the countries they cannot travel

“Interestingly, one of the critical considerations is the extent of the vaccination in the [destination] country,” he noted.

Virgin Atlantic is scheduled to begin flying to St. Vincent in June.

“If we are not on that green list there, the likelihood is that it will not come. This is a very serious matter about lives and livelihoods,” the Prime Minister said.

He said his government has tried to cushion the blow of the harsh economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, but said: “it’s rough on a lot of people”.

His dire statement comes as the island’s famous volcano threatens to erupt. The lead scientist monitoring St Vincent and the Grenadines’ La Soufrière volcano, Professor Richard Robertson, has said today’s swarm of volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes is an indication of magma trying to escape out the vent.

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Five Mexican Border Challenges for the Biden Admin.

Conditions on the southwest border represent a serious political challenge to President Biden, with illegal crossings and asylum requests increasing significantly in March.

The situation mirrors immigration flashpoints such as the unaccompanied minor crises faced by former President Trump in 2019 and former President Obama in 2014.

Here are five reasons why the United States faces a chronic state of crisis at the southwest border.

Conditions in Central America

Living conditions in Central America and Mexico have historically been the biggest driver of human migration in the Western Hemisphere.

While Mexican migration has mostly ebbed over the past five years — with the notable exception of a pandemic-driven spike — the number of people fleeing the Northern Triangle of Central America has consistently risen.

Each of the three Northern Triangle countries — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — faces its unique set of environmental, economic and governance challenges, but the overwhelming cause of migration to the United States remains economic opportunity.

“A Central American working [in the United States] can earn three to six times as much as in Central America, even accounting for the cost of living,” said Alex Nowrasteh, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute.

Added to the economic demand are various governance and environmental factors that can trigger an individual’s decision to leave the region or a family’s decision to send its children to the United States.

José Villalta, a Salvadoran migrant who came to the United States as a 17-year-old in 2006, told The Hill he made the dangerous trek through Mexico shortly after his father died in 2005.

Villalta said his mother approved the move despite its dangers, spurred by the worsening security situation in El Salvador and the promise of economic betterment in the United States.

“The overarching condition here is that America remains a powerful magnet,” said Daniel Garza, executive director of the Libre Initiative, a group within the political network of GOP mega-donor Charles Koch.

“Throughout the arc of history, the lives of immigrants that have come before them have in fact improved. That’s the draw. There’s nothing we can do about that other than to improve on it,” added Garza.

El Salvador’s security situation has improved on paper since the election of President Nayib Bukele in 2019, but the gang violence has been replaced by what opponents say is an increasingly authoritarian government.

Bukele last week traded barbs on Twitter with Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.) that concluded with Bukele calling on Hispanics not to vote for the four-term congresswoman.

Guatemala has long faced governance issues, and climate change-driven droughts in its highlands have pushed out migrants, many of whom speak Mayan languages, rather than Spanish, making their interactions in Mexico and at the U.S. border more difficult.

And the Honduran government is the constant target of accusations of corruption and coalition with transnational drug gangs, including accusations that President Juan Orlando Hernández is directly involved in international drug trafficking.

His brother, Juan Antonio Hernández, was last month sentenced to life in prison in the United States for drug trafficking.

“I’m back again here today to continue on this process of addressing the symptoms of the problems we have in the Northern Triangle of Central America,” said Torres on a trip to the border Tuesday organized by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).

“We’re never going to alleviate the problem we see at our southern border until we begin to see improved conditions — quality-of-life conditions — in the Northern Triangle,” said Torres.

Human smuggling is a business

Biden administration officials have endlessly repeated the phrase “the border is closed” in English and in Spanish at nearly all forums where immigration is discussed.

The advisory has fallen on deaf ears even among the administration’s allies, as it has done little to stave off Republican criticism of Biden’s border policies and has had no discernible effect on messaging used by smugglers to recruit potential clients.

“These are cold, calculating criminals who are out to make billions. They’re going to hustle their customers, and they’ll lie and manipulate to build their business,” said Frank Sharry, the founder and executive director of America’s Voice, a progressive immigration advocacy group.

“There’s a silly debate in Washington about Biden’s messaging. Trump’s messaging was as cruel as could be and you had the highest spike in border apprehensions in recent history,” added Sharry.

According to a study commissioned by the Rand Corporation, human smuggling networks in the region vary from large transnational criminal organizations to local groups that can sometimes outsource work to the larger groups.

The 2017 study found little evidence that the smuggling groups are directly linked to drug cartels, but they do commonly pay cartels a tax to operate in their territories.

The Northern Triangle’s human smuggling business in 2017 netted between $200 million and $2.3 billion, according to the report.

No legal pathways

Despite the regional demand for immigration pathways to the United States, the number of legal permanent residency permits given to citizens of the Northern Triangle remains relatively low.

In 2019, 27,656 Salvadorans, 13,453 Guatemalans and 15,901 Hondurans were granted green cards by the United States, out of 1,031,765 green cards granted in total, according to data compiled by the Migration Policy Institute.

“They have virtually no visas on which to come legally, so they come illegally or try to game the asylum system. We can’t stop this flow, nor should we try, as immigrants make America more prosperous. Only more visas for these people will channel this illegal flow into a legal and regulated market,” said Nowrasteh.

While Biden has some executive options at his disposal to grant legal status or deportation deferral to certain groups of migrants, a permanent change in the visa process will require legislative action.

And it’s unlikely that any immigration proposal will clear the 60-vote threshold of the Senate, particularly while immigration remains Biden’s top political liability.

Decades of stunted negotiations on the issue have also taken their toll, leaving immigration as one of the most partisan and divisive issues in Washington.

“There have been opportunities for the last 15 years for Republicans to work with Democrats to fix the broken immigration system, and and every single time the number of Republicans who want to block a solution to score political points is far more than the John McCains and Jeff Flakes,” said Sharry, referring to former Arizona GOP Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, both of whom supported immigration reform.

Garza blamed Democrats for an unwillingness to reach across the aisle on the issue.

“They’re playing the good guys, but we’re getting tired of that schtick,” he said. “We’re getting tired of that [Republican] schtick too of just pure security.”
Border infrastructure

Biden has faced charges of hypocrisy over his criticism of Trump’s policies as his administration has been forced to process unaccompanied minors in Border Patrol facilities designed to detain adults.

Republicans have called for a return to Trump’s policies, including reinstatement of the controversial Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” program, where asylum-seekers from third countries waited out their asylum cases in Mexico.

The Biden administration has shifted its border priorities to quickly process minors out of Customs and Border Protection custody to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Still, reforming border infrastructure to more family-friendly environments would require huge investments and provide only temporary relief.

“The main question is, what are we doing to improve the system and the process so people can know quickly what their asylum situation is?” said Garza. “We need to improve legal channels. It’s a balance of security and how we improve our entry system.”

Regional enforcement

Biden last month assigned Vice President Harris the task of coordinating relations with the Northern Triangle countries to address the root causes of migration.

The task has turned Harris into a political lightning rod, with activists on the right and left making demands of the vice president on all facets of immigration policy, not just her assigned portfolio.

“We need to hear from Kamala Harris. The more she’s absent, the more we get the feeling they have nothing,” said Garza.

Harris on Wednesday held a call with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was accused of having a transactional approach to immigration in his dealings with Trump.

In a readout of the call, the State Department said Harris and López Obrador discussed targeting human smuggling and trafficking, an issue that’s been given little more than lip service in the past.

“We don’t have a border crisis. The crisis is in Central America. Kamala Harris’s job is to focus on the source of the crisis, which is in Central America,” said Sharry, who praised the administration’s root-causes approach.

“We’ll see if they follow through. They could panic and do stupid things like every other administration has always done,” said Sharry.

control.

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Claim US Sanctions Preventing Venezuela Obtaining Vaccines

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) – Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza claimed yesterday that without economic sanctions against the Government of President Nicolas Maduro, the country would already have purchased all 30 million coronavirus vaccines it needs.

The United States, one of many countries not to recognise Maduro’s re-election in 2018, has frozen millions of dollars of Venezuelan money in US bank accounts.

 

It views the election as fraudulent, and along with European and other countries recognises Opposition Leader Juan Guaido as the country’s acting president.

 

Washington has handed control of the frozen funds to Guaido.

 

“If Venezuela did not have its resources blocked we would have been able to buy the 30 million vaccines the country needs three months ago,” Arreaza said in an interview with AFP.

 

“As they are blocked, here we are.”

 

Venezuela has received 250,000 of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine doses to date, and half-a-million from China’s Sinopharm.

 

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Health workers, teachers and government officials are first in line.

 

Guaido last month said he would allocate $30 million in the frozen funds towards vaccinations in Venezuela.

 

Caracas is negotiating to buy more doses from the global COVAX vaccine access programme.

 

The director of the Emergency Health Department of the Pan American Health Organization, Ciro Ugarte, has said that “negotiations and talks continue and efforts to unblock Venezuela’s resources abroad are still in progress”.

 

But no payment for COVAX vaccines had yet been made, he said.

 

Like the rest of South America, Venezuela is battling a harsh new pandemic wave fuelled, authorities say, by more infectious virus variants from Brazil.

 

Officially, the country has had 165,000 cases and some 1,700 deaths, but observer groups such as Human Rights Watch question the numbers, which they say are likely vastly underestimated.

 

 

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Associated Press World View: Biden & Guns, N. Ireland Violence, Holocaust Survivors Online, More

April 8, 2021

Alternate textPresident Joe Biden will unveil a series of executive actions aimed at addressing gun violence today. Biden has faced increasing pressure to act on gun control after a recent spate of mass shootings across the U.S.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed nearly 560,000 Americans, but it has also inflamed another public health crisis: addiction. An AP report shows how the pandemic drove those already in the shadows further into isolation, as overdose deaths reached record levels last year.
And in East Timor, a defrocked American priest who saved lives during the country’s struggle for independence is standing trial over accusations he sexually abused girls who lived at a shelter he founded. The AP spoke to several of the accusers.

 

Also this morning:

  • Northern Ireland leaders call for calm after rioting
  • Holocaust survivors harness social media to spread knowledge
  • Myanmar ambassador locked out of embassy in UK

KARL RITTER

Southern Europe News Director

The Associated Press

Rome

The Rundown

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