International

The Biden administration threw its support yesterday behind the potential sale of US F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, a day after Ankara lifted a veto of Nato membership for Finland and Sweden. Celeste Wallander, Assistant Secretary for Defense for International Security Affairs at Pentagon, told reporters on a call that strong Turkish defence capabilities would reinforce Nato’s defences. “The United States supports Turkey’s modernisation of its fighter fleet because that is a contribution to Nato security and therefore American security,” she said. “These plans are in the works. And, they need to be worked through our contracting processes,” she added. Turkey made a request in October to the United States to buy 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernisation kits for its existing warplanes. Washington had not previously openly expressed any opinion on the sale aside from saying all weapons sales would have to go through the necessary legal process. In March, the State Department wrote a letter to some members of the US Congress who had opposed the sale, saying “appropriate” US defence trade ties with Turkey would serve US interests. Wallander’s comments come on the heels of an 11th hour deal struck on Tuesday between Turkey, Finland and Sweden after four hours of talks, averting an embarrassing impasse at the gathering of 30 Nato leaders that aims to show resolve in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. US President Joe Biden, speaking before his meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Madrid praised Erdogan’s efforts to help strike a deal with the Nordic countries. “I want to particularly thank you for what you did,” Biden said. The three nations signed a deal under which Ankara lifted its block on Finnish and Swedish membership, while the candidates pledged not to support the Kurdish militant PKK and YPG groups, or the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, which Turkey blames for a failed 2016 coup attempt. US officials pushed back against any suggestion that Washington was backing the warplane request to remove Turkish objections to the entry of Sweden and Finland into Nato. “The US did not offer anything to Turkey and was not asked for anything by Turkey” as part of its agreement with Finland and Sweden, a senior administration official said. The official said US officials were engaged in ongoing technical talks about Turkey’s request to buy US F-16 fighter jets. Congress would have the final say about any such sales.

Dozens of people held a vigil for 51 migrants who died when they were abandoned in a suffocatingly hot tractor-trailer in Texas near the border with Mexico. A heavy downpour of rain forced organizers to hold the Tuesday night ceremony under cover in a park rather than out in the open air. Cell phone flashlights took the place of the candles that mourners had hoped to light. People expressed anger and sadness over the death of these travelers who, like many thousands every year, make a very dangerous trek seeking a better life in the United States. President Joe Biden blamed professional people-smugglers for the tragedy near San Antonio.  US officials did not give any breakdown of the dead by age, gender or nationality. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that of the dead whose identities are known, 22 were from Mexico, seven from Guatemala, and two from Honduras. At the vigil people formed a circle and took turns speaking, asking US authorities to change their immigration policy or calling on others to pray for the dead migrants. "This hurts a lot," said Andrea Osorio, a 48-year-old Mexican. "I have lived here for 33 years without papers, in fear every day," she said. "And I know why we come. We do not come to commit crimes, we only come for a better future." People of all ages -- elderly, young and small children with their parents -- attended the ceremony. So did San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who listened to other people's remarks but did not himself say anything publicly.   - 'Breaks my heart' -   Carlos Eduardo Espina, 23 and originally from Uruguay but here since he was five years old, criticized US immigration policy as cruel. "This is terrible, and breaks my heart," said Espina, whose father is Uruguayan and mother Mexican. "But every day people are drowning in the river, every day people are dying in the desert. Death is the norm in immigration in the United States." He said US immigration policy should be more humanitarian and allow for more entry visas each year. "We have to keep fighting because this is going to continue," said Espina, who is an activist on immigration issues. He accused the governments of emigration source countries in Latin America of not caring about their people. Not far from the circle of people at the vigil, Guillermina Barron, a 38-year-old Mexican, listened in silence. "Unfortunately I identify a lot with what is happening because I am Mexican, although I emigrated here 20 years ago," she told AFP, with tears in her eyes. "I feel pain and very powerless. A lot of things have to change because many lives have been lost."

The sixth day of congressional hearings into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol featured Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then-President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows. Hutchinson’s testimony focused on what Meadows and Trump knew about the attack in the days before and on January 6, informed by her close working proximity to both men. Here are some takeaways from the hearing: Trump rally attendees were armed Many Republicans — including Trump and Republican Representative Louie Gohmert — have said the rioters were not armed, but Hutchinson’s testimony contradicted this claim. She testified that both Meadows and Trump knew many in the crowd were armed with AR-15s, handguns, brass knuckles and batons and equipped with body armour. Trump was irate that many rally attendees were having to go through metal detectors, a standard security procedure for people near the president, because it gave the appearance of fewer people attending the rally. “They’re not here to hurt me,” Hutchinson recalled Trump as saying. “Let them in, let my people in. They can march to the Capitol after the rally’s over.” White House lawyers had legal concerns about Jan 6 Hutchinson testified that White House lawyer Pat Cipollone told her on Jan 3, 2021, that it would be “legally a terrible idea” for Trump to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6. “He said to me, ‘We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen,” Hutchinson testified. “’We have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day.’” Trump grabbed steering wheel of presidential limo Trump was so furious that the Secret Service and White House lawyers were planning to return him to the White House rather than allow him to go to the Capitol on January 6 that he tried to grab the steering wheel from the back seat of the presidential limo, Hutchinson said. “’I’m the effing president, take me to the Capitol now,’” Hutchinson testified Trump said. Trump denied that assertion in a statement posted on Truth Social, his social media app. “Her Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol Building is ‘sick’ and fraudulent,” he wrote and denied her testimony that he threw food and plates against the wall on several occasions. Trump threw lunch at wall after barr interview According to video testimony shown yesterday by the committee from Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s White House press secretary at the time, Trump was so enraged by then-Attorney General Bill Barr’s interview with the Associated Press saying there was no evidence of election fraud that Trump threw his lunch at the wall, breaking a porcelain dish and leaving ketchup dripping down the wall. “There were several times throughout my tenure with the chief of staff that I was aware of him either throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go onto the floor and likely break or go everywhere,” Hutchinson told the committee.

Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday for helping late financier Jeffrey Epstein abuse girls, capping the former socialite’s sordid fall from grace. The Oxford-educated daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell appeared not to react as New York Judge Alison Nathan handed down the term in a packed Manhattan federal court. The sentence was much less than prosecutors sought but still means the 60-year-old friend to royalty and former US presidents is likely to spend much of the rest of her life in jail. Nathan called Maxwell’s crimes “heinous and predatory” as she went with the amount of time recommended by the US probation office, rejecting Maxwell’s claims that she was pursued by prosecutors only because Epstein escaped trial by killing himself in prison. “It is important to emphasise that although Epstein was central to this criminal scheme, Ms Maxwell is not being punished in place of Epstein or as a proxy for Epstein,” said the judge. Maxwell was convicted late last year on five of six counts, the most serious for sex trafficking minors following a month-long high-profile trial in New York. The charges stemmed from crimes committed between 1994 and 2004. Prosecutors successfully proved that she was “the key” to Epstein’s scheme of enticing young girls to give him massages, during which he would abuse them. Two of Epstein’s victims, identified as “Jane” and “Carolyn,” testified that they were as young as 14 when Maxwell began grooming them. Maxwell expressed sympathy for the victims during a statement in court yesterday, saying she was “sorry for the pain that you experienced” but blamed Epstein. “I believe that Jeffrey Epstein was a manipulative, cunning and controlling man who lived a profoundly compartmentalised life and fooled all of those in his orbit,” she said. Prosecutors had called for Maxwell to receive between 30 and 55 years in jail, saying she “was an adult who made her own choices.” In a statement, Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the 20-year term “sends a strong message that no-one is above the law and it is never too late for justice.” “Today’s sentence holds Ghislaine Maxwell accountable for perpetrating heinous crimes against children,” he said. Maxwell has already been held in detention for some two years following her arrest in New Hampshire in the summer of 2020, meaning she will likely be released in her late 70s. “Ghislaine must die in prison,” Maxwell and Epstein accuser Sarah Ransome told reporters outside court before the sentence was read out.

At least 51 prisoners died after a fire started during a prison riot in the southwestern Colombian city of Tulua, the head of the national prisons agency said on Tuesday, one of the worst incidents of recent prison violence in the country. "It is a tragic and disastrous event," General Tito Castellanos, director of the INPEC prison agency, told local Caracol Radio early on Tuesday. "There was a situation, apparently a riot, the prisoners lit some mattresses and a conflagration occurred." Castellanos later confirmed a death toll of 51 people - 49 who died in the prison and two who died after being taken to hospital. "Unfortunately the majority of the dead died because of smoke inhalation," he told Caracol. "We have two (injured people) who have been sent to Cali. Right now their diagnosis is with the doctors and we expect a report." Twenty-four people are being treated in hospital and the fire was put out by local firefighters, Castellanos added. The prison has a total of 1,267 inmates and the cell block where the fire occurred houses 180. An official read a list of prisoners still alive and unhurt to anxious family members gathered outside the prison, some of whom shouted for joy when they heard their loved one's name. In Colombia, as in many Latin American countries, prisons are highly overcrowded. Colombia's jails have a capacity for 81,000 inmates but currently house about 97,000, according to official figures. "I have given instructions to carry forward investigations that allow us to clarify this terrible situation," President Ivan Duque, who is on a visit to Portugal, said on Twitter. Prison violence "obliges the complete re-imagining of prisons policy toward a humanization of jail and dignity for the prisoner," Colombia's President-elect Gustavo Petro, who takes office in August, said on Twitter. Colombia released some prisoners during the coronavirus pandemic after some two dozen inmates were killed during protests in 2020 against crowded conditions and lack of services in jail. Hundreds have died in prisons in neighboring Ecuador over the last year, in what the government there says is violence connected to drug gang competition and which it has failed to quell.

US President Joe Biden's wife and daughter have been banned from Russia, along with 23 other Americans, the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday. "As a reaction to the constantly expanding US sanctions against Russian political and public figures, 25 American citizens are added to a 'stop list,'" the ministry said in a note accompanying the list. The list featured several US senators, including Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Charles Grassley of Iowa, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. It also included several university professors and researchers and former US government officials.

At least 50 migrants died after being stuck inside a sweltering semi-trailer in San Antonio, US and Mexican officials said yesterday, in one of the deadliest human trafficking incidents in recent history. The migrants were discovered dead inside the truck’s trailer on the outskirts of the Texas city on Monday, where temperatures swelled to a high of 103F (39.4C). Authorities responded to a remote area in the south part of the city and found the truck parked next to railroad tracks. Bodies were strewn over a couple of blocks after it is believed that the back door of the trailer was opened, a local law enforcement official told Reuters yesterday. Local and US authorities said there were no signs of water and no visible working air conditioning inside the truck. “It’s unspeakable,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said on MSNBC, noting that his community depends on migrants while there is a labour shortage. “It’s a tragedy beyond explanation.” US President Joe Biden said in a statement that the incident was “horrifying and heart-breaking.” Calling out the multibillion-dollar criminal smuggling industry, Biden said that “exploiting vulnerable individuals for profit is shameful,” and said that his administration was working to crack down on these networks. Biden has struggled with a record number of migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border since he took office in January 2021. Some 22 Mexicans, seven Guatemalans and two Hondurans were identified among the dead, Mexico Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter yesterday. There was no information on the nationality of the other 19, Mexican officials said. More than a dozen people were transported to hospitals for heat stroke and exhaustion, including four minors, but no children were among the dead, the San Antonio Fire Department said. The Baptist Medical Center in San Antonio said on Tuesday that three of the five patients brought there had died. The truck may have been carrying around 100 migrants, but the exact number remains unclear, according to a law enforcement official and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official briefed on the investigation. The migrants were sprinkled in a pungent substance, said the two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity. In past incidents, smugglers have used different substances to disguise the smell of human cargo and evade canine detection. The surviving migrants will likely be released into the United States to pursue asylum or other forms of humanitarian relief, the CBP official and two other law enforcement officials told Reuters. Federal prosecutors are expected to open a criminal investigation into the matter, one of the law enforcement sources said. The US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Honduran foreign ministry told Reuters that the country’s consulates in Houston and Dallas would investigate the incident. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador offered condolences “to the relatives of this catastrophe.” Ebrard yesterday said Mexico was opening an investigation. San Antonio’s police chief, William McManus, on Monday said a person who works in a nearby building heard a cry for help and came out to investigate. The worker found the trailer doors partially opened, looked inside and found a number of dead bodies. It appeared that the migrants had recently crossed the US-Mexico border and were picked up by the truck to be taken to where they would work, said a Mexican official and two of the US officials. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed the death toll and said that its Homeland Security Investigations division had detained three individuals “believed to be part of the smuggling conspiracy.” The local law enforcement official said one suspect was arrested by the truck and two were found at a house after police tracked a vehicle an eyewitness described leaving the scene. A Mexican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least one of the three people arrested had American citizenship.

Peru's government on Sunday declared that a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections had begun to hit the country, which has one of the highest mortality rates from the virus in the world.  "We are currently in a fourth wave, as we have seen the increase (of cases)... in different provinces of our country, such as Junin, Arequipa, Cusco and the capital," Health Minister Jorge Lopez told local broadcaster RPP radio.  According to official figures, infections increased from 1,800 per week at the beginning of the month to more than 11,000 in the last week.  The increase has not so far led to a significant rise in hospitalizations or deaths. At least 65 percent of the country's eligible population have received three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, with more than 80 percent having received at least two doses. Those aged over 40 are eligible to receive a fourth dose. Peru experienced its third wave of the pandemic between the end of 2021 and February 2022, with a peak of almost 50,000 infections per day on average in the third week of January.  There are currently 833 hospitalized patients with Covid-19 in the country, down from a record 15,547 in March 2021.  A nation of 33 million people, Peru has seen more than 213,000 deaths due to the coronavirus since the pandemic began, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University.

Baz Luhrmann's rock'n'roll biopic "Elvis" hip-swiveled to the top of the box office on its opening weekend in North America, taking in an estimated $30.5 million in a rare tie with "Top Gun: Maverick," industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.  The nearly three-hour long extravaganza by director Luhrmann, known for glitzy films like "Moulin Rouge!" and "The Great Gatsby," brought in nearly double the average for the musical biography genre, said analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. Despite being a "risky proposition," in part for casting relative newcomer Austin Butler as Elvis Presley alongside Tom Hanks as his exploitative manager, Colonel Tom Parker, the film has impressed audiences and critics, Gross said. "This is the Baz Luhrmann show, a music, dance and sex appeal spectacular -- it's a hit," he said. "Elvis" was locked in a dead heat with "Top Gun: Maverick" -- the crowd-pleasing sequel to the original 1986 film that once again features Tom Cruise as cocky Navy test pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. It also earned an estimated $30.5 million in its fifth weekend of release. It is now the highest grossing film of the year worldwide, breaking the $1 billion mark with nearly $522 million in ticket sales in North America and $484 million overseas. In third place was "Jurassic World Dominion," Universal's sixth installment in the "Jurassic Park" franchise, at $26.4 million.  The latest dinosaur frightfest stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard alongside franchise originals Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum. Fourth spot went to horror film "The Black Phone" starring Ethan Hawke as a serial killer, which earned $23.4 million on its opening weekend.  "Lightyear," Pixar and Disney's latest computer-animated offering from the "Toy Story" empire, took the fifth position with $17.7 million in its second week.  The spinoff from the wildly successful animation series stars Chris Evans and has taken $88.8 million domestically and $63 million overseas, after a lackluster opening. Rounding out the top 10 were:  "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" ($1.7 million) "Jugjugg Jeeyo" ($604,000) "Everything Everywhere All At Once" ($533,346) "The Bob's Burgers Movie" ($513,000) "The Bad Guys" ($440,000)

The US Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Americans have a fundamental right to carry a handgun in public, a landmark decision with far-reaching implications for states and cities across the country struggling with a surge in gun violence. The 6-3 decision strikes down a more than century-old New York law that required a person to prove they had a legitimate self-defence need, or “proper cause”, to receive a permit to carry a handgun outside the home. Several other states, including California, have similar laws – and the court’s ruling will curb their ability to restrict people from carrying guns in public. Democratic President Joe Biden denounced the decision, saying that it “contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all”. “We must do more as a society – not less – to protect our fellow Americans,” Biden said. “I call on Americans across the country to make their voices heard on gun safety.” Despite a growing call for limits on firearms after two horrific mass shootings in May, the court sided with advocates who said that the US Constitution guarantees the right to own and carry guns. The ruling is the first by the court in a major Second Amendment case in over a decade, when it ruled in 2008 that Americans have a right to keep a gun at home for self-defence. It was a stunning victory for the National Rifle Association (NRA) lobby group, which brought the case along with two New York men who had been denied gun permits. “Today’s ruling is a watershed win for good men and women all across America and is the result of a decades-long fight the NRA has led,” NRA executive vice-president Wayne LaPierre said in a statement. “The right to self-defence and to defend your family and loved ones should not end at your home.” New York Governor Kathy Hochul called it a “dark day”, while California’s leader Gavin Newsom termed the decision “shameful”. “It is outrageous that at a moment of national reckoning on gun violence, the Supreme Court has recklessly struck down a New York law that limits those who can carry concealed weapons,” Hochul said. “This is a dangerous decision from a court hell bent on pushing a radical ideological agenda and infringing on the rights of states to protect our citizens from being gunned down in our streets, schools, and churches,” Newsom tweeted. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion and was joined by the other five conservatives on the nine-member court, three of whom were nominated by former Republican president Donald Trump. He said that the New York law prevents “law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defence needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defence”. “We conclude that the State’s licensing regime violates the Constitution,” Thomas said. The ruling comes as the US Senate is considering a rare bipartisan bill that includes modest gun control measures. The Senate bill would tighten background checks for would-be gun purchasers convicted of domestic violence or significant crimes as juveniles. It does not include more sweeping gun control measure favoured by Democrats including President Joe Biden such as a ban on assault-style rifles or high-capacity magazines. The Senate voted 65-34 to advance the gun safety package toward a final vote on passage that could come today. On May 14, an 18-year-old used an AR-15-type assault rifle to kill 10 African Americans at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Less than two weeks later 19 children and two teachers were shot and killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, by another teen with the same type of high-powered, semi-automatic rifle. In the decision, Justice Samuel Alito dismissed arguments that guns outside of homes lead to great violence, including when it comes to mass shootings. “Why, for example, does the dissent think it is relevant to recount the mass shootings that have occurred in recent years?” he wrote. The New York law said that to be given a permit to carry a firearm outside the home, a gun owner must clearly demonstrate that it is explicitly needed for self-defence. Gun-rights advocates said that violated the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which says “the right of people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”. The three liberal justices on the Supreme Court dissented from the ruling. “Many states have tried to address some of the dangers of gun violence,” Justice Stephen Breyer said. “The Court today severely burdens states’ efforts to do so.” More than half of US states already allow permitless carry of firearms, most of them only doing so in the past decade. The New York state law dated to 1913 and had stood based on the understanding that individual states had the right to regulate gun usage and ownership. Over the past two decades more than 200mn guns have hit the US market, led by assault rifles and personal handguns, feeding a surge in murders, mass shootings and suicides. Polls show that majorities of Americans support some new limits on firearms, demands that typically rise following mass shootings like those recently seen in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. At the same time, conservatives defend a broad reading of the Second Amendment, which they say limits most new restrictions on gun purchases. More than 20,800 people have died from gun violence in the United States so far in 2022, including through homicide and suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit research group.

The global food crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine will kill millions by leaving the hungriest more vulnerable to infectious diseases, potentially triggering the world's next health catastrophe, the head of a major aid organisation has warned. A Russian naval blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports has stopped grain shipments from the world's fourth-largest exporter of wheat and corn, raising the spectre of shortages and hunger in low-income countries. The knock-on effects of the food shortages mean many will die not only of starvation but from having weaker defences against infectious diseases due to bad nutrition, Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria told AFP this week. "I think we've probably already begun our next health crisis. It's not a new pathogen but it means people who are poorly nourished will be more vulnerable to the existing diseases," he said in an interview on the sidelines of a G20 health minister meeting in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta. "I think the combined impact of infectious diseases and the food shortages and the energy crisis... we can be talking about millions of extra deaths because of this," he said. World governments should minimise the impact of the food crisis by providing frontline healthcare to their poorest communities, who will be the most vulnerable, said the British former banker who now heads the $4 billion fund. "That means focusing on primary healthcare so the healthcare that is delivered in the villages, in the communities. Hospitals are important but when you are faced with this kind of challenge, the most important thing is primary healthcare."   - 'Disaster' -   The battle to contain the spread of coronavirus has taken resources away from the fight against tuberculosis, which killed 1.5 million people in 2020, according to World Health Organization data. "It's been a disaster for TB," said Sands. "In 2020 you saw globally 1.5 million people less getting treated for TB and tragically that means several hundreds of thousands of people will die but also that those people will infect other people." The health expert said solving the food crisis was now paramount in aiding the treatment of the world's second-deadliest infectious disease.   The West and Ukraine accuse Russia of trying to pressure them into concessions by blockading vital grain exports to increase fears of global famine. Moscow has countered by saying that it is Western sanctions that are to blame for shortfalls in the Middle East and Africa. Germany will host a meeting on the crisis on Friday under the title "Uniting for Global Food Security", with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken among those attending. "It is the poor person pandemic and because of that, it hasn't attracted the same amount of investment in research and development," Sands said, referring to tuberculosis.  "This is a tragedy because this is a disease we know how to prevent, how to cure, we know how to get rid of."

Russia threatened yesterday to punish Lithuania with measures that would have a “serious negative impact” for blocking some shipments by rail to Moscow’s Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, the latest dispute over sanctions imposed over war in Ukraine. Within Ukraine, Russian forces and their separatist proxies made further advances in the east, pushing towards Lysychansk, now Kyiv’s main bastion in the area of heaviest fighting in the eastern Donbas region that Moscow claims for the separatists. Ukraine, its forces and weaponry dwarfed by Russia’s, has begged the West to send more and better artillery. Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced yesterday the arrival of powerful German self-propelled howitzers. Blaming Western sanctions, Russia has begun pumping reduced volumes of gas to Europe via Ukraine. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the diminished flows amounted to an economic attack on Germany that “cannot be allowed to succeed”. Diplomatic attention has turned towards Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave, a Baltic Sea port and surrounding countryside where nearly a million Russians live, connected to the rest of Russia by a rail link through EU- and Nato-member Lithuania. Lithuania has shut the route for transport of steel and other ferrous metals, which it says it is required to do under EU sanctions that took effect on Saturday. Russian officials say other basic goods have been blocked too. Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, visited the enclave yesterday to chair a security meeting there. He said Lithuania’s actions showed that Russia could not trust the West, which he said had broken written agreements over Kaliningrad. “Russia will certainly respond to such hostile actions,” Patrushev was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA. “Appropriate measures” were being worked out, and “their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania”, he said without elaborating. Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said it was “ironic” to hear Russia complain about alleged violations of international law, given that it had violated “possibly every single international treaty”. Moscow summoned EU envoy Markus Ederer to the Russian Foreign Ministry yesterday. EU spokesperson Peter Stano said Ederer asked the Russians at the meeting “to refrain from escalatory steps and rhetoric”. The standoff creates a new source of confrontation on the Baltic, a region already set for a security overhaul that would hem in Russia’s sea power as Sweden and Finland apply to join Nato and put nearly the entire coast in alliance territory. The EU sought to deflect responsibility from Lithuania, saying the policy was collective action by the bloc. In a symbolic but morale-boosting decision, Ukraine is set to become an official candidate for European Union membership tomorrow, diplomats said. US Attorney General Merrick Garland became the latest international dignitary to visit Ukraine, affirming yesterday Washington’s commitment to identify, arrest and prosecute those involved in war crimes during Russia’s invasion.

A 15-year-old boy was killed and three other people, including a police officer, were wounded in a shooting after a concert in Washington Sunday night, the local police chief said. The shooting was preceded by two other incidents which caused panic at the unpermitted "Moechella" concert celebrating Juneteenth, with several people injured while running away, DC police chief Robert Contee told reporters. Police then shut down the sidewalk concert on safety grounds but shortly afterwards, despite a heavy police presence, the shooting occurred nearby in which the boy was killed, Contee said. "Unfortunately things like this can happen when you have the wrong mix of people, or people who introduce firearms into a situation," he said. The officer and two other wounded people were recovering in hospital, he added. There was no exchange of fire and the gun used had not been recovered, Contee said. It was not clear if the teenager was targeted but before the incident police had seized two illegal firearms nearby and were chasing another individual with an illegal firearm, the police chief said. "There's a theme that you see here: illegal firearms in the hands of people who should not have them make events like this unsafe for people who just want to enjoy the beautiful weather, who want to enjoy Father's Day, who want to enjoy our city. This is unacceptable," he said. "When you have large gatherings in a dense area, all it takes is one person introducing a gun to the situation that makes it deadly. In this case, unfortunately, a 15-year-old lost his life," Contee added. The United States is in the midst of a particularly gruesome chapter in its epidemic of gun violence. The most fatal incident in this stretch was a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 children and two teachers dead on May 24. Since the start of the year more than 20,000 people have died from firearm violence in the United States, according to an NGO called the Gun Violence Archive. This includes deaths by suicide.

The Yellowstone National Park will partly reopen on Wednesday after record flooding and rockslides following a burst of heavy rains that led the park to be closed for the first time in 34 years. The entire park, spanning parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, was closed to visitors, including those with lodging and camping reservations, from last Monday, as officials inspected damage to roads, bridges and other facilities. The closure came as Yellowstone was gearing up to celebrate its 150th anniversary year, and as local communities heavily dependent on tourism were counting on a rebound following COVID-19 travel restrictions over the past two summers. "While the park's north loop remains closed due to flood damage until further notice, Yellowstone will begin allowing visitors to access the south loop of the park at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, June 22, 2022," the National Park Service said late on Saturday. "To ensure the south loop does not become overwhelmed with visitors and to balance park resource protection and economic interests of surrounding communities, the park is instituting an interim visitor access plan," the federal agency's statement added. All five park entrances were closed on Monday to inbound traffic for the first summer since a series of devastating wildfires in 1988. The south loop includes the Old Faithful geyser and Yellowstone Lake and is accessed via the south, east and west entrances of the park. Some of its parts will remain closed. The flooding and slides that led to the park's closure were triggered by days of torrential showers in the park and steady rains across much of the wider Intermountain West following one of the region's wettest springs in many years. The park service characterized the rainfall and floods sweeping the park as unprecedented, with the Yellowstone River topping its banks beyond record levels.

Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency in three provinces late Friday in response to sometimes violent protests by Indigenous groups demanding cuts in fuel prices. Oil producer Ecuador has been hit by rising inflation, unemployment and poverty exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Fuel prices have risen sharply since 2020, almost doubling for diesel from $1 to $1.90 per gallon (3.8 liters) and rising from $1.75 to $2.55 for petrol. Demonstrators from the country's Indigenous community -- which makes up over a million of Ecuador's 17.7 million inhabitants -- launched an open-ended anti-government protest this week that has since been joined by students, workers and others. The demonstrations have blocked roads across the country, including highways leading into the capital Quito. Clashes with security forces during the protests have left at least 43 people injured, and 37 have been arrested. In response, Lasso's decree Friday -- which covers Quito -- enables the president to mobilize the armed forces to maintain order, suspend civil rights and declare curfews.  "I am committed to defending our capital and our country," Lasso said on television.  "I called for dialogue and the response was more violence. There is no intention to seek solutions." The demonstrations have largely been concentrated in the northern region of Pichincha and neighboring Cotopaxi and Imbabura. With spears in hand, Indigenous Amazonians this week temporarily occupied local government headquarters in the provinces of Pastaza and Morona Santiago. The country's armed forces on Twitter condemned "the violent actions carried out by protesters" in Pastaza, saying one person had been left with "fractures and multiple injuries." In Quito, nearly 1,000 protesters tried to tear down metal fences that surround the presidential headquarters.   - No compromise -   In a bid to ease grassroots anger, Lasso announced in his address late Friday a small increase in a monthly subsidy paid to Ecuador's poorest, as well as a program to ease the debt of those who have loans from state-run banks. Lasso, a rightwing ex-banker who took office a year ago, met Thursday with Indigenous leaders to assuage discontent but the discussions apparently yielded little result. Producers of flowers, one of Ecuador's main exports, complained Friday that due to the roadblocks, their wares were rotting. But the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), which called the protests, has said it will maintain the road blockades until the government meets 10 demands. Conaie -- which has been credited with helping topple three Ecuadorian presidents between 1997 and 2005 -- wants prices reduced to $1.50 for diesel and $2.10 for petrol, a demand the government has so far rejected. Its other demands include food price controls and renegotiating the personal bank loans of about four million families. In response to Lasso's decree, the head of Conaie, Leonidas Iza, insisted the protests would go on "indefinitely." "From this moment we prepare the mobilization" of activists to Quito to maintain the protests, he added, without specifying when the demonstrators would arrive. The protests have so far caused about $50 million in damage to the economy, according to the Ministry of Production. But Conaie has called for an end to the violence. "Vandalism, confrontation, violence cannot be accepted," said Iza.

A shooting at a church in the US state of Alabama left two people dead and one wounded Thursday, police said. It happened at St Stephen's Episcopal Church in the town of Vestavia Hills and a suspect is in custody, the town's police department said on Facebook. The shooting took place as the church was holding a potluck dinner, the church said on its website. Police captain Shane Ware told reporters a lone assailant entered the church and started shooting. Three people were hit: Two have died and the other is being treated, he said. The United States is in the midst of a particularly gruesome chapter of its epidemic of gun violence. The most fatal case in this stretch was a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 children and two teachers dead on May 24. Since the start of the year more than 20,000 people have died of firearm violence in the United States, according to an NGO called the Gun Violence Archive. This includes deaths by suicide.

Former president Donald Trump pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, to overturn his 2020 election defeat despite being told repeatedly Pence had no authority to do so, aides to Pence told the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol yesterday. Members of the Democratic-led House of Representatives select committee said Trump continued his pressure campaign even though he knew a violent mob of his supporters was threatening the Capitol as Pence and lawmakers met to formally certify President Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 election. The nine-member committee has used the first three of at least six public hearings expected this month to build a case that Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat amounted to illegal conduct, far beyond normal politics. “Mike Pence said no. He resisted the pressure. He knew it was illegal. He knew it was wrong,” Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairperson, said. “That courage put him in tremendous danger.” Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, while repeating his false accusations that he lost the election only because of widespread fraud that benefited the Democrat Biden. He and his supporters — including many Republican members of Congress — dismiss the January 6 panel as a political witch-hunt. Marc Short, who was Pence’s chief of staff, said in videotaped testimony that Pence told Trump “many times” that he did not have the authority to stop the vote certification in Congress as the Republican president sought. Gregory Jacob, Pence’s counsel, said the main proponent of that theory, outside lawyer John Eastman, admitted in front of Trump two days before the attack that his plan to have Pence halt the procedure would violate the law. Trump’s accountability for the January 6 riot is “incidental to his responsibility and accountability for his attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election from the American people,” retired US Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig told the committee. “It is breath-taking that these arguments even were conceived, let alone entertained by the president of the United States at that perilous moment in history,” Luttig, who was an informal adviser to Pence, said. The committee played chilling video showing some of the Trump supporters in the crowds of thousands of people who descended on the Capitol baying for Pence to be pulled out of the building, or hanged. Committee members said Trump’s comments against Pence fuelled their anger. “You’ll also hear that the president knew there was a violent mob at the Capitol when he tweeted at 2:24pm that the Vice President did not have the quote, ‘courage’ to do what needed to be done,” said Democratic Representative Pete Aguilar, a committee leading questioning of the witnesses. The certification on January 6 had become a focus for Trump, who saw it as a last-ditch chance to retain the presidency despite his loss at the polls. His supporters flocked to Washington to rally with the Republican president, who had made repeated false claims that the election was stolen through widespread voting fraud. They stormed the Capitol, attacked police and sent Pence and lawmakers fleeing for their safety. Pence did not follow Trump’s instructions to scrap the certification of votes. The hearing also examined the emergence of a plan advocated by Trump associates including attorney John Eastman that Pence could unilaterally reject certified electors from certain states where results had been challenged. Pence refused to accept that theory. Separately, Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee’s Democratic chairperson, told reporters yesterday that the committee should ask Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to testify.

Qatar and US ties will further deepen in a post-pandemic era and amid certain geopolitical challenges, according to a delegation of US mayors on a tour of the country. Speaking to Gulf Times, Rochester Hills mayor Bryan Barnett expressed confidence that such relationship “will only get stronger”, citing that US mayors passed a resolution a week ago recognising 50 years of partnership and friendship between the US and Qatar. He said the resolution puts a spotlight on the strength of the two countries’ economic and cultural relationship, as well as other areas of bilateral co-operation. “I think that’s symbolic of our past and as mayors ourselves, we’re here in part to look at the next 50 years and how we can continue those relationships and learn from each other as we represent our unique and distinct populations,” said Barnett. He, along with city mayors Jim Ross (Arlington) and Mike Duggan (Detroit), took part in a number of high-level meetings with some Qatari ministers and government offi cials, as well as investment groups, in addition to attending forums and other activities, as part of their visit to Qatar. Ross, who is also visiting the country for the first time, cited Qatar’s significant contribution to their city museum, which recognises military personnel who received medal of honour. He also lauded Qatar’s hospitality and the warm reception of its people, saying that “everybody from the upper levels of government to the individuals working at the hotel are just as friendliest can be, and for me, that’s what communities are all about.” “I am especially indebted to Qatar for their willingness to participate and recognising military veterans and our community,” Ross stressed. Like its generosity to Arlington and other cities in the US, Duggan said that Qatar donated research projects to the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. The mayors also see an array of opportunities in trade and investment between the two countries and their cities as Qatar had previously shown interest in many communities around the US becoming partners. “Collaborative eff orts begin with relationships, you can’t collaborate effectively with anybody that you can’t develop relationships with. Qatar and the United States have 50 years of showing what really good relationships are about,” Ross pointed out, as he expressed confidence that such relations will grow further in the next 50 years. “I’m excited about the ongoing relationships between the US and our individual communities in Qatar. I am excited about how Qatar has been able to develop itself and Doha and seeing the tremendous growth here and what is happening here in this community and I’m excited about what they can offer the US and what the US can in turn offer them, so it’s really special for us.” The Arlington mayor finds education as an area for further collaboration between the two countries, as he lauded Qatar for creating Education City and bringing over half a dozen diff erent US universities to have satellite campuses in Doha. “This includes Texas A&M, I went there and I’d like to brag about it, that’s why I went to Law School and I was happy to see it here,” Ross said. “The way Qatar has developed that centre (Education City) is just phenomenal and I’d love to see that collaborative effort continue and grow.”

US President Joe Biden will meet with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman next month. The White House ended weeks of speculation yesterday, announcing that Biden will travel to Israel, the Palestinian West Bank, and Saudi Arabia from July 13-16 - his first trip to the Middle East since taking office. In addition to meetings with individual leaders in all three places, he will attend a regional Gulf Co-operation Council summit in Saudi Arabia. Biden is expected to press for increased Saudi oil production, in the hope of taming spiralling fuel costs and inflation at home ahead of midterm congressional elections in which his Democratic party risks a drubbing. John Kirby, a White House foreign policy spokesman, told MSNBC yesterday that oil production “absolutely...is going to be part of” Biden’s discussions in Saudi Arabia. But while the White House also confirmed that “energy security” will be a topic, officials stressed that the whole trip has broader aims. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre emphasised that “this visit to the Middle East region culminates months of diplomacy,” as opposed to being driven by recent domestic political concerns. Biden’s multiple leader-level engagements during the brief yet intense journey will demonstrate “the return of American leadership” to the region, a senior US official told reporters. The tour starts with meeting Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Israel, with emphasis on the US support for Israel’s armed forces. Biden will also meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, likely in Bethlehem, the US official said. Biden will stress “his lifelong commitment to a two state solution” for Palestinians and Israelis and restore US ties with Palestinians that were “nearly severed” under his predecessor Donald Trump. The part of the trip that will make history - and generate the most chatter - comes last. Biden’s flight from Israel to Jeddah will be the first by a US president from Israel to an Arab state that does not recognise the country. In 2017, Trump made the journey in reverse. Once there, Biden will attend the Gulf Co-operation Council meeting with leaders from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as being joined by the leaders of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, the US official said. A priority for Biden will be maintaining the recently extended truce in Yemen,  the official said. Biden will also join a virtual summit of the so-called I2-U2 diplomatic group of India, Israel, the UAE and the US, with focus on “the food security crisis” sparked by Russia’s invasion of major agricultural exporter Ukraine.

The World Health Organization said Tuesday it would hold an emergency meeting next week to determine whether to classify the global monkeypox outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern. The UN agency is also working to change the name of the disease, which was long confined to Western and Central Africa until more than 1,000 cases were detected in dozens of countries across the world over the last two months. "The outbreak of monkeypox is unusual and concerning," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists. "For that reason I have decided to convene the Emergency Committee under the international health regulations next week, to assess whether this outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern". The emergency committee will meet on June 23 to discuss the designation, which is the highest alarm the UN agency can sound.   - New name -   Tedros added that the "WHO is also working with partners and experts from around the world on changing the name of monkeypox virus... and the disease it causes." "We will make announcements about the new names as soon as possible." The announcement comes after more than 30 scientists wrote last week that there was an "urgent need for a non-discriminatory and non-stigmatising nomenclature for monkeypox". "In the context of the current global outbreak, continued reference to, and nomenclature of this virus being African is not only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatising," they wrote.  While monkeypox was first discovered in macaques, many cases are believed to be transmitted to humans by rodents. The normal initial symptoms of monkeypox include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a blistery chickenpox-like rash. However, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that current cases do not always present flu-like symptoms, and rashes are sometimes limited to certain areas. Tedros said that 1,600 confirmed monkeypox cases and 1,500 suspected cases have been reported to the WHO this year from 39 countries, 32 of which have been recently hit by the virus. While 72 deaths have been reported in countries where monkeypox was already endemic, none have been seen in the newly affected countries, Tedros said. "Although WHO is seeking to verify news reports from Brazil of a monkeypox-related death there," he added.   - No mass vaccination -   To fight the global spread, the WHO aims to recommend "tried-and-tested public health tools including surveillance, contact-tracing and isolation of infected patients". However, the WHO does not recommend mass vaccination against monkeypox, he said, after the European Union said Tuesday it had purchased almost 110,000 vaccine doses. "While smallpox vaccines are expected to provide some protection against monkeypox, there is limited clinical data, and limited supply," Tedros told journalists. "Any decision about whether to use vaccines should be made jointly by individuals who may be at risk and their health care provider, based on an assessment of risks and benefits, on a case-by-case basis." Rosamund Lewis, WHO's technical lead for monkeypox, told journalists that there are a few smallpox vaccines that may be protective against monkeypox. But "much of the data that we have is from years gone by, and/or from clinical studies -- there is not a lot of clinical data," she said. She called on countries that are vaccinating to share their research and pointed to a set of interim guidance documents released by the WHO. Tedros also emphasised that vaccines must be "available equitably wherever needed," adding that the WHO is working with its member states "to develop a mechanism for fair access to vaccines and treatments".