Day: September 4, 2023

U.S. First Lady Jill Biden has tested positive for COVID-19, the White House said on Monday, days before President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to the G-20 summit in India.

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Biden was administered a test Monday evening and was negative, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“The President will test at a regular cadence this week and monitor for symptoms,” she added.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the President was reconsidering his travel itinerary.

Read More: Pandemics Don’t Really End—They Echo

The President is slated to attend the G-20, which is being held on Sept. 9-10 in New Delhi. Following the summit, Biden has plans to travel to Vietnam.

The First Lady traveled with Biden to their Rehoboth home on Saturday after surveying hurricane damage in Florida. The President was in Rehoboth with her until Monday morning.

“She is currently experiencing only mild symptoms,” the First Lady’s communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, said in a statement. “She will remain at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.”

Read More: Why Some People Don’t Get COVID-19 Symptoms

Biden last month said the White House would request additional money from Congress to fund the next round of coronavirus vaccine shots.

A new “Eris” variant of the virus has become dominant in the United States, and hospitals have reported an increase in cases.

Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister said Monday that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will invest $25 billion each in his cash-strapped country within five years.

Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar told a group of Islamabad-based foreign journalists late Monday that different sectors, such as mines and minerals, agriculture, defense production and information technology, would receive the investment. He did not elaborate.

Economic revival

The prime minister said that the Saudi and UAE investments are part of a new “strategy for economic revival” to increase foreign direct investment in Pakistan under the supervision of the recently set up Special Investment Facilitation Council, or SIFC.

Established in June, the council comprises Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership.

Kakar spoke a day after the Pakistani military chief Asim Munir, while addressing business community leaders in the southern city of Karachi, emphasized the SIFC’s potential to attract investments of up to $100 billion from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern countries.

“I can confirm it,” he said when asked for his comments on the reported remarks by his military chief that Pakistan could receive an unprecedented $25 billion each from the Saudi Kingdom and the UAE under the SIFC.

Saudi and UAE officials did not immediately comment on Kakar’s assertions.

Kakar said that Pakistan’s untapped mineral deposits are estimated to be worth around $6 trillion. He noted work on the massive Reko Diq gold and copper mines in southwestern Baluchistan province was expected to start in December.

Last month, a Saudi delegation visited Pakistan to study mining sector investment opportunities and showed its readiness to tap into the Reko Diq deposits.

Pakistan is scrambling to deal with a critical balance of payments crisis. The country of about 241 million people needs billions of dollars in foreign exchange to repay international debts and bridge its trade deficit in the current financial year.

Islamabad is implementing long-delayed economic reforms in line with IMF requirements, leading to a historic increase in energy prices when inflation is already hovering at around 29%. The tough reforms have triggered almost daily nationwide protests, bloated electricity bills and soaring fuel prices.

Political crackdown

While speaking Monday, Kakar defended an ongoing crackdown against the opposition party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, known as the Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI. 

The crackdown, led by the military, has detained thousands of PTI supporters and leaders for allegedly playing a role in street protests in May, which also saw protesters storming and vandalizing several army installations.

Kakar denounced the violence as an attack on social order.

“An attempt was definitely made that would lead to social disorder,” the prime minister asserted, saying he supports “all lawful measures” to curb such activities in the future.

The caretaker prime minister and his administration are primarily required to oversee national elections expected to be held by February.

Former Prime Minister Khan was jailed on Aug. 5 after being sentenced to three years for selling state gifts and allegedly concealing their proceeds while in office. He refuted the graft charges as politically motivated and has appealed the conviction.

Khan, 70, has rejected charges that PTI supporters were behind the May violence, alleging his party is targeted by the military to keep from contesting the next elections.

Kakar denied the allegations, stressing that all political parties, including the PTI, would be allowed “without discrimination” to participate in the elections.

“We are here just to assist the electoral process in line with our constitutional responsibilities,” he said.

Terrorism

The caretaker prime minister reiterated Monday that militants plotting terrorist attacks in his country have obtained some of the military equipment left behind by the United States in neighboring Afghanistan, enhancing their capabilities to launch more lethal attacks against Pakistani security forces.

Kakar, 52, claimed that anti-state groups such as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and ethnic Baluch insurgents committing terrorist acts in his country have now armed themselves with thermal weapons, assault rifles, night vision goggles, and other equipment that U.S. troops left.

He did not offer evidence to substantiate his claims, saying his country was working closely with the Taliban government in Afghanistan to persuade them to evict TTP and other insurgents sheltering there.

“We are not accusing the U.S. of anything that we would need to share evidence (for),” Kakar said.

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021 from a U.S.-backed government in Kabul as all American and NATO troops withdrew after almost two decades of war with Taliban insurgents.

Pakistani leaders complain fugitive TTP leaders and fighters have enjoyed greater operational freedom and intensified cross-border attacks since the Taliban returned to power.

Taliban leaders deny the charges, saying no one can use Afghan soil to threaten other countries, including Pakistan. 

Vanuatu’s new prime minister, Sato Kilman, will “revisit” a security pact signed with Australia, Australian state broadcaster ABC reported on Tuesday, a day after he came to power in a vote by lawmakers.

The pact was a major reason for the ouster of former leader Ishmael Kalsakau, who lost a no-confidence motion in parliament and was then defeated by Kilman in a secret ballot on Monday.

Opposition lawmakers had said the security pact with Australia compromised Vanuatu’s “neutral” status and could jeopardise development assistance from China, its biggest external creditor.

On Tuesday, Kilman said the agreement, signed by the two countries in December, would be unlikely to be ratified by parliament in its current state.

“I think for us, at this point in time, I am not sure whether it is in the best interests of Vanuatu or not, only because we have not been consulted,” Kilman said in an interview with the ABC in Port Vila.

“My view would be to revisit the agreement with both sides, the Australians, and the Vanuatu government, and see if there’s any sticking points and then address that,” he said, according to a transcript of the interview posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Vanuatu is one of the Pacific island countries at the centre of competition for influence in the region between the United States and China.

The United States and its allies, including Australia, are seeking to discourage Pacific countries from establishing security ties with China, after it signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands.

A now five-time prime minister, Kilman pledged closer cooperation with China in previous stints as leader.

The ousted Kalsakau had sought to widen Vanuatu’s international ties after winning a general election in November.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Cuba has uncovered a human trafficking ring that has coerced its citizens to fight for Russia in the war in Ukraine, its foreign ministry said on Monday, adding that Cuban authorities were working to “neutralize and dismantle” the network.

The statement from Cuba’s foreign ministry gave few details, but noted the trafficking ring was operating both within the Caribbean island nation, thousands of miles from Moscow, and in Russia.

“The Ministry of the Interior…is working on the neutralization and dismantling of a human trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces participating in war operations in Ukraine,” the Cuban government statement said.

The Russian government has not commented on the allegations.

Russia last year announced a plan to boost the size of its armed forces by more than 30% to 1.5 million combat personnel, a lofty goal made harder by its heavy but of yet undisclosed casualties in the war.

In late May, a Russia newspaper in Ryazan city reported that several Cuban citizens had signed contracts with Russia’s armed forces and had been shipped to Ukraine in return for Russian citizenship.

It was not immediately clear if the Cuban foreign ministry statement was associated with the Ryazan report.

But Cuba’s government said it had already begun prosecuting cases in which its citizens had been coerced into fighting in Ukraine.

“Attempts of this nature have been neutralized and criminal proceedings have been initiated against people involved in these activities,” the Monday statement read.

New Hampshire is such a breathtaking state. I spent many summers there in my youth. New Hampshire is an enchanting collage of clear lakes, covered bridges, rustic cottages, and sweeping white mountains. But there is another thing that is making New Hampshire unique, one thing I did not get to see as a child (thank goodness.) That something is Donald Trump’s mugshot.

Congratulations, New Hampshire! You are the people who get the privilege of the first political ad featuring Donald Trump’s goofy mugshot. That is because Trump’s competitor, Chris Christie, has a super PAC supporting him, and they’ve purchased an ad buy.

This ad buy, reportedly in the six figures, is being splashed all over New Hampshire televisions. And yes, in the middle of it is Trump’s scowling mugshot. “Don’t you want to move past all the drama?”

And this ad is airing all over New Hampshire. This news probably does not make Trump happy, which means it’s OK by me! And as Palmer Report has laid out, Christie, in recent polls, is in second place in the live free or die state.

Here is what the ad says:

“Tired of the drama, the distractions, the lies?”

“It’s time for conservatives to win again.”

The camera zooms in on orange man’s face (Mugshot face.) which looks a bit more insane each time I see it. I like this ad and hope very much that the good people of New Hampshire do as well. And this will not be the last of it.

I predict Trump’s mug shot will star in MANY future political commercials. This is merely the first.

The post Donald Trump’s mugshot is about to come full circle against him appeared first on Palmer Report.

Burning Man organizers reopened the road leading out of the remote Nevada desert festival on Monday, allowing tens of thousands of attendees to escape after they had been trapped for days by mud.

But many of the 64,000 people who remained on site as of Monday may choose to stay one more night and watch the festival’s giant namesake effigy go up in flames on Monday night, one day past schedule.

Unexpected summer rain turned the weeklong, annual counterculture arts festival into a muddy nightmare.

When the road finally reopened, a long line of vehicles snaked through the desert, inching along in an epic traffic jam as event organizers urged drivers to take it slowly on Monday and consider delaying their departure until Tuesday to reduce traffic.

“It really looked apocalyptic,” said festival volunteer Evi Airy. “When you see the people walking barefoot in such a cold with the children. Some people have a small child here like three years old, four years old. I don’t know how they survived.”

The site in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert sits atop the former Lake Lahontan, which the U.S. Geological Society describes as a deep lake that existed as recently as 15,000 years ago. It is about 15 miles (25 km) from the nearest town and 110 miles (177 km) north of Reno.

For days, up to 70,000 people were ordered to stay put and conserve food and water as officials closed the roads, requiring vehicles to stay put. One person died at the event, officials said on Sunday, providing few details. An investigation was under way.

The way out is a 5-mile (8-km) dirt road to the nearest highway.

Even before the gate was officially open, campers started leaving while it was still dark. Stuck vehicles littered the roads in the makeshift Black Rock City that springs up for the festival, some of them horizontally blocking lanes roads because they had lost control.

The desert path to the main gate was a graveyard of marooned cars.

At one point event workers gave instructions on how to traverse a “river” created by the rain, placing cones on an arc with instructions to take the bend at 20 mph (30 kph), a course that still bathed vehicles in mud. But just past that final obstacle lay the gravel road toward civilization.

The temporary airport serving the festival was reopened earlier on Monday.

National Weather Service forecasters said on Monday the rain was over, after reporting the area received from three-quarters of an inch to 1.5 inches (1.9 to 3.8 cm) of rain since late on Friday.

Some festival-goers ignored the order to stay put and attempted to walk or drive out to the highway.

Others partied on in the rain.

Videos posted to social media showed costumed revelers – including a few children – sliding through the sticky mess, most of them covered from head to toe in wet earth.

Every year Burning Man brings tens of thousands of people to the Nevada desert to dance, make art and enjoy being part of a self-sufficient, temporary community of like-minded spirits. Originating in 1986 as a small gathering on a San Francisco beach, the week-long festival is now attended by celebrities and social media influencers. A regular ticket costs $575.

The festival typically has a penultimate night send-off with the burning of a giant wooden effigy of a man, along with a fireworks show. Originally set for Sunday night, it was rescheduled for Monday night at 9 p.m. PDT (0400 GMT on Tuesday), organizers said.

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Authorities in Russia arrested a mathematician on terrorism charges Monday after he had just completed a prison sentence for hooliganism, the latest step in a yearslong Kremlin crackdown on political opponents.

Azat Miftakhov, 30, was detained minutes after his release from a penal colony over 900 kilometers east of Moscow, according to Russian media reports. His lawyer, Svetlana Sidorkina, told Russian state news agency Tass that Miftakhov was charged with justifying terrorism and refused to plead guilty.

Miftakhov was arrested in 2019 and accused of attacking a Moscow office of the Kremlin’s ruling United Russia Party, allegations he rejected. At the time, he was a postgraduate student pursuing an advanced degree in math and professed anarchist views. He accused authorities of torturing him in detention.

A Moscow court convicted him of hooliganism in 2021 and sentenced him to six years in prison. Human Rights Watch called his conviction “clearly unjust and unfair.” Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights group and a co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, declared Miftakhov a political prisoner.

With the time he spent in pretrial detention taken into account, Miftakhov was released Monday from IK-17, a penal colony in the Kirov region northeast of Moscow.

Miftakhov’s supporters told Russian media that he was taken back into custody minutes after he came out of the facility and barely had time to speak to his relatives waiting outside.

Tass reported Monday that the new charges center around conversations with other inmates during which Miftakhov allegedly expressed support for a 2018 attack on a regional office of Russia’s Federal Security Service that killed three officers of the agency, known by the Russian acronym FSB.

Authorities deemed the attack an act of terrorism.

Kremlin critics and political opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin have come under increased pressure from the government in recent years. Many were arrested and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Others have left the country to avoid being prosecuted.

The number of arrests and raids targeting opposition activists increased exponentially after Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Kim Jong Un plans to travel to Russia this month to meet President Vladimir Putin and discuss the possibility of supplying Moscow with weapons for the war in Ukraine, as Russia says it is seeking closer military ties with North Korea.

In a rare trip abroad, Kim would travel from Pyongyang, probably by armoured train, to Vladivostok, on the Pacific Coast of Russia, where he would meet Putin, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing U.S. and allied sources.

While in Vladivostok, a port city not far from North Korea, the two leaders would discuss Kim’s sending Russia artillery shells and antitank missiles in exchange for Moscow’s advanced technology for satellites and nuclear-powered submarines, the newspaper reported.

At a time when the United States has expressed concern about growing military ties between the two countries, the news of Kim’s planned visit came after Russia said it was discussing holding joint military exercises with North Korea.

“Why not, these are our neighbours. There’s an old Russian saying: you don’t choose your neighbours and it’s better to live with your neighbours in peace and harmony,” Interfax news agency quoted Russia’s Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, as saying on Monday.

When asked about the possibility of joint exercises between the two countries, he said they were “of course” being discussed, it said.

South Korean news agency Yonhap earlier cited South Korea’s intelligence agency as saying Shoigu, who visited Pyongyang in July, had proposed to Kim that their countries hold a naval exercise, along with China.

The Kremlin said last week that Moscow intends to deepen its “mutually respectful relations” with Pyongyang, one of its close Cold War allies and also one of a small handful of countries to back Russia’s proclaimed annexation of parts of Ukraine in 2022.

The New York Times reported that Kim could possibly go to Moscow, although that was not certain.

Kim’s father, the reclusive Kim Jong Il who famously shunned planes and travelled by armoured train only, last visited Russia just months before his death in 2011.

Shoigu visited North Korea for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War in July, celebrated in North Korea as “Victory Day,” with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service saying that he appeared to have held a private meeting with Kim, Yonhap reported.

The United States said last week it was concerned that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea were advancing actively, and that Shoigu had tried during his visit to convince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition to Russia.

On Saturday, Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, told TASS news agency that he was not aware of any plans for North Korea to participate in trilateral military drills with China and Russia, but that in his opinion it would be “appropriate” in light of U.S.-led exercises in the region.

Russia and North Korea have recently called for closer military ties but North Korea has denied having any “arms dealings” with Russia.

The United States recently imposed sanctions on three entities it accused of being tied to arms deals between North Korea and Russia.

North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006 and had been testing various missiles over recent years but it rarely holds military exercises with its neighbours.

The United States and its ally, South Korea, hold regular military exercises, which North Korea denounces as preparations for war against it.

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A longtime aide to President Joe Biden who is a senior adviser in Vice President Kamala Harris’ office is Biden’s choice to represent the United States at the United Nations agency devoted to education, science and culture.

The U.S. recently rejoined the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization after a five-year hiatus initiated by Biden’s immediate predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump.

The Democratic president’s choice to become the U.S. permanent representative to the Paris-based UNESCO, with the rank of ambassador, is longtime aide Courtney O’Donnell, according to a White House official, who spoke Monday on the condition of anonymity to discuss the nomination before a formal announcement.

O’Donnell currently wears two hats: She’s a senior adviser in Harris’ office and acting chief of staff for Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, and lends her expertise to a range of national and global issues, including gender equity and countering prejudice against Jews, a top issue for Emhoff, who is Jewish.

O’Donnell also was communications director for Jill Biden when she was second lady during Joe Biden’s vice presidency in the Obama administration. O’Donnell helped Jill Biden raise awareness and support for U.S. military families and promote community colleges.

She has extensive experience in developing global partnerships, public affairs and strategic communications, having held senior roles in two presidential administrations, nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, national political campaigns and the private sector, according to her official bio.

O’Donnell most recently oversaw global partnerships at Airbnb.

Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain said O’Donnell is trusted by colleagues worldwide.

“This is a fantastic pick, and she will do a fantastic job at UNESCO,” he said in a statement.

Cathy Russell worked with O’Donnell in the second lady’s office and said she is skilled at developing global partnerships, creating social impact campaigns and providing strategic counsel on a range of issues.

“Everyone who knows Courtney knows she is committed to the value of global engagement and strengthening American leadership around the world,” Russell said.

The Senate must vote on O’Donnell’s nomination.

The first lady attended a ceremony in late July at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, where the U.S. flag was raised to mark Washington’s official reentry into the U.N. agency after the absence initiated by Trump, a Republican. She spoke about the importance of American leadership in preserving cultural heritage and empowering education and science across the globe.

The United States announced its intention to rejoin UNESCO in June, and the organization’s 193 member states voted in July to approve the U.S. reentry. The ceremony formally signified the U.S. becoming the 194th member — and flag proprietor — at the agency.

The U.S. decision to return was based mainly on concerns that China has filled a leadership gap since Washington withdrew, underscoring the broader geopolitical dynamics at play, particularly the growing influence of China in international institutions.

The U.S. exit from UNESCO in 2017 cited an alleged anti-Israel bias within the organization. The decision followed a 2011 move by UNESCO to include Palestine as a member state, which led the U.S. and Israel to cease financing the agency. The U.S. withdrawal became official in 2018.