World

(LONDON) — England, which has faced more than 14 months of lockdowns as the COVID-19 pandemic raged and waned, is set to fully reopen July 19, despite a rising caseload in one of the most vaccinated places in the world.

While the other nations of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — are responsible for setting their own restrictions, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has moved forward with the plan to end social distancing in England, having already delayed reopening by a month.

The vulnerable section of the population has been told by the government “follow the same guidance as everyone else,” but they “may wish to think particularly carefully about additional precautions you might wish to continue to take.”

Everyone on the “Shielded Patient List” (some 3.7 million) should have been offered a vaccine, the government said.

As of July 15, 261,832 cases had been recorded in the previous seven days, a 32.6% increase from the previous week. In the seven days preceding July 11, according the latest available data, there were 3,933 hospitalizations – an increase of 46.8% from the week before, according to official government data.

The delta variant, which is more transmissible than the original coronavirus strain, is now responsible for around 95% of new cases in the U.K., according to The Lancet.

Experts warn that the reopening could lead to a surge in cases, but others say that how much they will increase is a question, which is one reason officials say there may be no good time to do it.

‘Proceed now with caution’

Ahead of the full reopening, mass events have been held including the European Championships, with tens of thousands attending soccer games in London. Social distancing collapsed during celebrations for England’s path to the final.

The relaxation will put an end to limits on social gatherings and mandated mask use, though some businesses and transport authorities have indicated mask use will continue to be mandatory.

The new Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, warned on BBC radio that lifting the restrictions could lead to 100,000 cases a day this summer. However, Javid has said that the success of the vaccine program – which has seen 67.1% of the adult population fully vaccinated – appears to have partially broken the link between cases and hospitalizations.

“When you look at hospitalizations and deaths, deaths, for example, [they are] are one thirtieth of what they were the last time we saw case numbers of that type,” Javid told Sky News this month. Javid announced that he tested positive on Saturday, and will now be isolating, although he said his symptoms were mild and he was fully vaccinated.

Some sections of the British media have dubbed the upcoming date as “Freedom Day.” But Johnson stressed that while restrictions are being lifted, personal responsibility remains. He said that while cases are rising, they are at the “middle range of [government scientists’] projections for infections and at the lower end of their projections for mortality.”

“But it is absolutely vital that we proceed now with caution,” he said earlier this week. “And I cannot say this powerfully or emphatically enough. This pandemic is not over. This disease coronavirus continues to carry risks for you and your family. We cannot simply revert instantly from Monday, the 19th of July to life as it was before COVID. We will stick to our plan to lift legal restrictions and to lift social distancing.”

Several leading doctors co-authored an open letter in The Lancet, warning that that the easing of restrictions is “dangerous and premature.” And the government’s approach contrasts with that of Israel, a similarly vaccinated population, which has moved to reimpose some social distancing restrictions after a rise in cases. At an international summit on Friday, over 1,200 scientists and public health experts backed the letter in The Lancet, warning that the reopening had the potential to allow vaccine resistant variants to emerge that could be exported to the rest of the world.

In an interview with ABC News this week, World Health Organization spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris warned that “the big numbers” of cases were coming from Europe and the Americas, lamenting the “extraordinary belief in many of you, particularly the north, the northern hemisphere, in the U.S. and in Europe, that somehow it’s over.”

Won’t disappear any time soon

While the vaccines have partially stemmed the number of hospitalizations and deaths, both long COVID and the possibility of new variants are potential concerns for any government looking to go down the same course, according to David Heymann, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

“Well, I think the first thing to understand is that this disease is becoming endemic and when it becomes endemic, that means it circulates in the population on a permanent basis,” according to Heymann.

Fundamentally, that means the epidemiology of the virus is changing in the U.K., with younger people more likely to be infected and hospitalized due to being lower down on the priority list of vaccines, he said.

“Now, people have to learn how to do their own risk assessment as they’ve learned for other infectious diseases like sexually transmitted infections,” he said. “And they need then to do the proper strategies to protect themselves and to protect others.”

Whatever happens, the novel coronavirus will not disappear anytime soon, even in vaccinated populations, he said.

“It will not end even if there are 70% of the people vaccinated or more or 70% with immunity, it will still have an opportunity to circulate in those populations and it will be reintroduced from time to time. So we’re looking at a virus which is establishing itself and many countries are taking different approaches. We just don’t know which approach will be best.”

Much will depend on whether the rate of hospitalizations and deaths rise once again to a point where they become intolerable, although the government has yet to provide a number which would provoke new restrictions. For now though, the government appears set on the full reopening of society in England, with the other nations of the U.K. set to chart a more cautious path.

“To those who say ‘why take this step now’ I say ‘if not now, when?” Javid told the U.K. parliament this month. “There will never be a perfect time to take this step because we simply cannot eradicate this virus.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MOSCOW) — Trevor Reed, one of two American former Marines that U.S. officials say is being held hostage by Russia, has been transferred to a prison camp a few hundred miles from Moscow, according to a prison rights monitoring group.

Reed, 30, and the other ex-Marine, Paul Whelan, have spent about two years in detention in Russia imprisoned on charges their families and American officials say were fabricated by Russia in order to seize them as bargaining chips.

President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the two Americans’ detention and the possibility of a prisoner swap to free them at their summit in Switzerland last month.

Reed has now been moved to a prison camp in Mordovia, a region about 350 miles from Moscow, Alexey Melnikov, an official at Moscow’s Public Monitoring Commission confirmed to ABC News on Friday. The other former Marine, Whelan, has already spent nearly a year in a camp in the same region, known for its high number of prisons.

“Trevor Reed was removed this morning from Moscow’s Investigative Isolation Jail No. 5 to one of the Republic of Mordovia’s camps,” said Melnikov, whose commission is empowered by the Russian government to inspect prison conditions.

What to know about 2 former US Marines held by Russia ahead of Putin-Biden summit
Melnikov said he did not know which camp in Mordovia Reed had been sent to and that it is not yet clear if it will be the same camp where Whelan is held, which is a prison used to house foreign convicts.

Reed fell into the hands of Russian police in the summer of 2019 following a drunken party in Moscow where he was visiting his girlfriend.

Police initially said they were taking him to sober up at the station but after agents from Russia’s FSB intelligence agency arrived to question him Reed was charged with assaulting a police officer, according to his family. He was put on trial on the charges that U.S. officials have said were absurd. A court in July 2020 sentenced Reed to nine years in prison.

Reed, whose family lives in Texas, spent nearly two years in detention in Moscow pre-trial jails. But last month, a court rejected his appeal against the sentence, clearing the way for him to be moved to a prison camp.

From early in their detention, Russia has suggested trading Reed and Whelan for Russians serving prison sentences in the United States.

Hope for a potential trade have risen recently following Biden and Putin’s summit in Geneva, where both sides signaled a willingness to discuss finding a possible deal.

Since 2019, Russian officials have named several Russians they would like to see released, including Viktor Bout, one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers, and Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot jailed on drug smuggling charges.

Russia state media has more recently highlighted another Russian citizen jailed in the U.S., Roman Seleznev, who is serving a 27-year sentence on criminal hacking charges.

Bout’s release has been seen as a non-starter for American officials because of the severity of his crimes. But Yaroshenko and Seleznev are seen as more likely to be included in any trade.

Yaroshenko was arrested in a 2010 Drug Enforcement Agency sting in Liberia during which he agreed to ship cocaine to Africa and the U.S. He is serving a 20-year sentence.

Seleznev was captured by U.S. law enforcement agents in Maldives in 2014 and convicted of running a massive hacking scheme to steal credit card data from small businesses in the U.S.

All three men are suspected to have links to Russian intelligence. During Seleznev’s trial, prosecutors provided documents alleging that Seleznev was tipped off to an earlier FBI investigation against him by Russia’s Federal Security Service or FSB, after FBI agents met with the Russian agency.

The Biden administration has said freeing Reed and Whelan is a priority, and last month, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan said he expected there would be talks with the Russian government on them both.

Reed’s family had hoped he would remain in Moscow until a deal to free him was negotiated.

The Russian news service Interfax cited an anonymous source as saying that Reed’s transfer did not mean a trade for him was less likely. The move instead may just be the Russian judicial process continuing. Russian prisoners are usually moved a few weeks after an appeal is turned down.

“Reed’s transfer to a penitentiary absolutely does not mean that his possible exchange for a Russian is no longer on the table. He may still be extradited to the United States if the relevant consensus is reached with the U.S. side,” the source told Interfax.

Whelan, 51, was security executive for the auto parts company BorgWarner when he was arrested in late December 2018 in his hotel room by FSB agents while visiting Moscow for a friend’s wedding. He was accused of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison in a closed trial on charges his family and U.S. officials have said were fabricated.

Whelan spoke to ABC News by phone from the former Gulag camp last November.

“It’s pretty grim. Quite dilapidated,” Whelan said. “There’s probably like 50 to 60 of us in the building. So we kind of live on top of each other.”

He said the inmates work eight-hour shifts in a workshop he described as “Dickensian” and that they are only permitted to shower twice a week. But other prisoners treated him well he said, nicknaming him “Tourist.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PORT-AU-PRINCE) — Mamyrah Prosper moved to the U.S. in 1998 with some of her family members. But while she came looking for opportunities, it’s Haiti that she calls home.

The Africana studies professor and mother of one often visits her family and friends on the island. But she says that these days, even before the assassination of the country’s President Jovenal Moïse a week ago, the country is scarier than it used to be.

“I arrived in Haiti at the end of May, so well before the assassination, which, I guess, we could have said was not quite surprising. … There were several massacres that took place at the beginning of June,” she told ABC News, referring to an influx of gang violence that has displaced thousands of residents. “So, before the Jovenal assassination, that was really what was weighing on everybody’s mind: ‘What’s happening next?’”

“You have an entire city that is controlled by gangs that are able to circulate very freely… And so, people were generally feeling extremely scared to even do very basic things like go find food, which is something we all must do inevitably,” she added.

Moïse’s death has thrown the country further into turmoil. Having spent years working to dig itself out of economic and political strife, the president’s assassination has created a power vacuum and made residents vulnerable to the widespread fear they’ve long faced.

A week ago, Moïse was home in the capital of Port-au-Prince sleeping with his wife when mercenaries entered the fortified home and killed the president, leaving the first lady critically wounded.

More than two dozen people, mostly foreigners, have been accused of playing a role in the assassination. However, authorities have arrested Haitian-born Florida resident Emmanuel Sanon, 63, accusing him of acting as the middleman between the alleged assassins and the unnamed masterminds.

Haiti’s national Police Chief Léon Charles said Wednesday that Sanon, a longtime critic of the Haitian government, wanted to take it over himself. He said that Sanon arrived on the island via private aircraft in June and accused the Miami doctor of contracting with a security company to enlist the services of the men who are now under arrest, including 18 Colombians and three Americans — one of whom occasionally worked as an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Sanon told police he had no knowledge of the attack, CNN reported on Wednesday.

In the wake of the assassination, Haitian officials declared a state of emergency and Martial Law, the latter of which was lifted by the weekend. However, with the country still reeling, many were hesitant to leave home.

“Life has been very hard,” Francois Jean, a shoe seller in Port-au-Prince, told ABC News in French on Sunday. The father of four said he hadn’t eaten in three days. “Since Wednesday up until today, I haven’t made a dime. … It’s just today that I see the activity has restarted, and even though it has restarted, the people don’t have any money.”

Makeson Pierre, a shoe-shiner, says he’s facing the same struggles and that he would improve his situation if he could.

“The country is difficult,” he told ABC News in French. “We have no water to bathe. We have no food to eat; we’re hungry. … See how I’m cleaning these shoes here. Yeah, if I could find something else to do, I would do it. … I’d like to get out of this situation.”

The shortages don’t just apply to food, though. At a gas station on Sunday, a group of people could be seen clambering for their turn at the pump.

“You have to fight to find gas,” a father told ABC News in French. “The opportunity to get gas is spontaneous.”

He noted that many of the people at the pump would have probably been at church instead.

The predominantly Catholic country is also highly religious, and at the same pump, Helene Jean appeared in her Sunday’s best, with her Bible still in her purse.

“I came from church and when I saw that they were giving fuel here, I went home and went back to get the gallon [containers] and came back to get some fuel,” she told ABC News in French.

Prosper said there is a lack of opportunities for everyday Haitians struggling for a better way of life. She’s among a younger generation of Haitians and Haitian Americans asking for the international community to support Haitian-led solutions to the country’s problems.

“If the U.S. people should do anything, right, it’s to support the actual Haitians who are embedded in their communities and have been organizing for decades — Haitians who say we are ready to take on the role that people have already chosen for us to do,” Prosper said.

“It’s actually the international intervention that has prevented Haiti from being able to determine what it wants to do,” she continued.

Many activists like Prosper have long criticized the way foreign humanitarian aid is distributed in Haiti. She says that the aid, though necessary for providing vital support to the country, has instead motivated further violence and corruption in the government and business sectors.

A century-long debt and the current struggle for power

Once a wealthy French colony built off the backs of enslaved laborers producing sugar and coffee, the country fell into economic hardship after a slave revolt that resulted in their independence in 1804.

But it paid a price for becoming the world’s oldest Black republic: France demanded the new nation pay indemnity for overthrowing the French slaveholders. The debt of 90 million gold francs — estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars today — was so high that the country spent over 100 years paying it off. In the years since there have been growing calls for France to pay that money back.

Over the years, Haiti, currently the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, had gone through periods of dictatorship, most notably that of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier in the mid-1900s. The country was dealt a severe blow in 2010 when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck, killing an estimated 250,000 people. The country again faced another natural disaster with Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

The president’s assassination has further entrenched the turmoil occurring in Haitian cities, even though many Haitians did not view Moïse favorably.

With the line of succession remaining unclear, Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph has stepped up to lead the country’s scattered government with help from its military and national police force even as he faces opposition from its Senate. Joseph has declared a “state of siege” and has indicated he’d only assume control of the nation until a new president is elected — presidential and legislative elections had been slated for later this year.

Moïse’s political opponents had argued that his five-year presidential term had ended in February. The late president had argued that he had another year left after a disputed 2016 election pushed his inauguration to 2017.

He’d been governing by decree since January 2020 after the country failed to hold legislative elections and the legislature’s mandate expired. Opposition leaders accused him of trying to restore Haiti to a dictatorship. Then, earlier this year, the late president ordered three supreme court justices to retire and arrested nearly two dozen people, including government officials, for allegedly plotting a coup.

Moïse told a Spanish-language newspaper in January that he feared people wanted to kill him. The Haitian ambassador to the U.S. Bocchit Edmond told reporters following the president’s death that there was “no warning” ahead of his assassination.

The escalating constitutional crisis had sparked protests and intensified gang violence amid the COVID-19 outbreak throughout the country.

As a result of the political chaos, some activists and politicians are living in fear of being targeted by gangs. Ralph Francois is a social entrepreneur and CEO of Cocread, an organization focused on building sustainable communities in Haiti.

In January, he organized a protest demanding the government step up the search for his kidnapped friend. Then, two months ago, Francois told ABC News that he fled Haiti after learning that a gang had allegedly attempted to kidnap him.

“That day, I was supposed to be there but … because I had a Skype meeting where we had to plan — doing a demonstration for one of our friends that had been kidnapped that day,” he said. “So my neighbor was kidnapped. It’s like a whole house, and I live upstairs and she lives downstairs. She had two daughters. … It was shocking.”

Francois described the situation in Haiti as a “monster” the government can’t control and said that it has culminated in the president’s assassination.

“Our president has been killed … in a humiliat[ing] way, in his room,” he said. “So, if the president is not safe in Haiti, who’s safe? How can we trust the government who failed to protect us — who failed to protect the president — to engage us in the political process and bring serenity and security? They don’t have credibility for that.”

Haitian activists and educators are demanding better leadership, hoping it’ll help put an end to the country’s political corruption.

“Even though the situation of employment in Haiti is difficult, for women, it’s especially difficult,” Shawma Aurelier, executive director of Port-au-Prince-based women’s empowerment organization SOFA, told ABC News through a translator.

She said the president’s assassination will cause more people to lose hope in changing the country’s future.

“They come to the conclusion that the best thing to do would be to leave Haiti,” she said.

“It will be very difficult for Haiti to be rebuilt if all the residents and persons living in the country should decide the best solution is to leave,” she added.

Support from afar

Families and friends of Haiti’s residents are currently the largest source of external financial aid sent to the struggling country.

In Miami, much of the staff at the Chef Creole restaurant in the Little Haiti neighborhood send money to loved ones back home. Eslane Charles has been working there and told ABC News through a translator that she’s been supporting her parents and children from across the Caribbean.

“She said it’s tough,” said Wilkinson Sejour, chef and owner of the restaurant, translating for Charles. “Although you send money, it’s never enough.”

Sejour sees his restaurant as an economic engine for his employees and their families and said they need the money now more than ever.

“As soon as they get paid, they are dashing out of the restaurant so they can go to a local supermarket to do a money transfer,” he said.

Sejour said he’s noticed the glimmer of hope in his fellow Haitians and Haitian Americans grow dimmer recently as all the money they send seems to have no impact on the country’s outlook. But he implored people not to get discouraged.

“I know it’s depressing sometimes when people give and give and give … and they feel that their giving is not doing anything,” he said. “And I’m saying, on behalf of Little Haiti, on behalf of mini Haitis, on behalf of big Haiti herself, please don’t lose hope on us. Continue giving us everything that your conscious and your heart will allow you to give. And with the grace of Christ, we’ll be all right.”

Self-determination in Haiti

Francois, the first Haitian to be a Yale World Fellow, says he intends to return to and live in Haiti with his friends and family members. He said the next generation of young Haitian leaders like himself have been ready to take on the responsibility of making a better Haiti.

“We are ready. We are ready to take the lead and make sure that Haiti could become a land of security, a land of prosperity for its children because we have to,” he said. “I spent my whole life in Haiti. I work[ed] hard for that, and I don’t see myself living in other countries and I’m sure that there are other people in my generation who see that also.”

“I want the international community to listen to Haitians’ self-determination, to listen to civil societies,” he added. “To stop looking at Haiti as a land where we have two sides of political opponents fighting for power. It is more than that.”Prosper says she recognizes the privilege she has in being able to travel in and out of the country amid its many conflicts but said she remains optimistic that there will soon be a stronger Haitian-led solution to the country’s problems.

“I have no other choice but to be optimistic … when the people who are experiencing the hardship — and who are really faced with very dangerous situations — continue to have hope and are always fired up for the next fight,” she said. “So, I only have hope.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PRETORIA, South Africa) — At least 117 people have been killed in ongoing riots across South Africa despite the efforts of heavily outnumbered authorities to quell violent unrest sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.

South Africa’s acting minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said in a statement Thursday that the death toll now stands at 91 in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal and 26 in the economic hub of Gauteng province. An additional six people were found dead on the roof of a mall in Thembisa township in Gauteng province, and the South African Police Service has opened an investigation to determine whether their deaths were related to the riots, according to Ntshavheni.

The South African Police Service said in a statement Tuesday that many fatalities occurred during “stampedes” as scores of people looted food, liquor, clothes and electrical appliances from shops in poor areas. Other deaths were caused by explosions when people tried to break into ATMs as well as shootings, according to police.

At least one police officer was killed in an attack on law enforcement, while seven others were injured responding to the riots, police said.

So far, 2,203 people have been arrested, according to Ntshavheni. But the chaos has continued in some areas and officials are “concerned about the economic impact of the violence, looting and destruction of infrastructure,” she said.

“Over the past few days, the main routes have been blocked by protesters with stones and other dangerous items,” Ntshavheni said in the statement Thursday, noting that such activities impact supply chains and the movement of key goods throughout the country.

“We wish to address those who are still undertaking the road blockage to desist from doing so because it is the poor, vulnerable and marginalized who will suffer as a result of their actions,” she added. “The impact of the looter’s actions will be felt more by the poor and middle class as many people stand a chance of losing their livelihoods.”

The South African Police Service is providing armed escorts for the transportation of critical supplies, such as food, fuel, medicine and oxygen, according to Ntshavheni.

There were also reports of clashes between looters and residents, with some members of the community brandishing firearms or other weapons “in an apparent retaliation against perpetrators of the public violence,” Ntshavheni said.

“We don’t want a situation where members of the public are at logger-heads with the law after such a noble effort,” she added.

Ntshavheni noted that the situation in Gauteng province is now “largely calm,” while KwaZulu-Natal province “remains volatile but much improved towards stability.” She attributed the improved situation to the additional boots on the ground in areas identified as potential “hotspots.”

The South African Police Service said it has recalled officers from leave and rest days, while the South African National Defence Force has deployed thousands soldiers to assist overstretched local law enforcement agencies.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to “restore calm and order,” describing the unrest as the worst the country has witnessed since the 1990s, before the end of the apartheid regime,

“Over the past few days and nights, there have been acts of public violence of a kind rarely seen in the history of our democracy,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nation on Monday evening. “Let me be clear: We will take action to protect every person in this country against the threat of violence, intimidation, theft and looting. We will not hesitate to arrest and prosecute those who perpetrate these actions and will ensure that they face the full might of our law.”

The lawlessness has disrupted South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination program, with some clinics forced to close, which Ramaphosa warned will have “lasting effects on our ability to consolidate some of the progress we were already witnessing in our economic recovery.” Vaccine shots are urgently needed in the country, which — along with other nations in Africa — is fighting a new wave of COVID-19 infections. The South African government recently reimposed and extended tight restrictions, including a nightly nationwide curfew, school closures, a ban on gatherings and limits on alcohol sales.

Violence and unrest has gripped parts of South Africa since Zuma turned himself in to police on July 7 to begin his 15-month jail term for contempt of court. South Africa’s highest court handed down the sentence after Zuma failed to appear before an inquiry examining corruption allegations during the nine years that he served as president. Zuma has maintained his innocence, saying he’s the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt, and his supporters took to the streets last week. But the protests appear to have reawakened deep-seated grievances over persistent poverty, unemployment and inequality, some 27 years after apartheid ended.

Following layoffs and an economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic, South Africa’s unemployment rate stands at a record high of 32.6% and is even higher among the youth, at 46.3%, according to official numbers released in June by the national statistical service. Meanwhile, more than half of the country’s 60 million people were living in poverty last year, according to data collected by the World Bank Group.

“There is no grievance, nor any political cause, that can justify the violence and destruction that we have seen in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng,” Ramaphosa said. “The path of violence, of looting and anarchy, leads only to more violence and devastation. It leads to more poverty, more unemployment, and more loss of innocent life. This is not who we are as a people.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — More than 100 people have been confirmed dead while many more remain unaccounted for amid catastrophic flooding across western Europe, officials said.

Record rainfall in recent days from a slow-moving weather system has triggered flash floods in the region, particularly parts of western Germany and eastern Belgium. Swollen rivers and reservoirs have burst their banks, turning streets into raging torrents of brown floodwater that swallowed cars, homes, businesses and even entire villages.

The death toll in Germany was 93 as of Friday morning, with 50 of the fatalities reported in Rhineland-Palatinate state and 43 in neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populous state, according to German news agency DPA. But authorities have warned that the figure is likely to increase.

Around 1,300 people were still listed as missing in the devastated Ahrweiler district of Rhineland-Palatinate state as of Thursday night, according to a statement from the local district administration.

An estimated 165,000 customers of Westnetz, the biggest power distribution grid company in Germany, were without electricity on Thursday, according to a statement from utility giant E.ON, which owns Westnetz.

In Belgium, the death toll rose to 15 on Friday morning, a spokesperson for the Belgian interior ministry told ABC News. Four people, including a 15-year-old, were also unaccounted for.

More than 20,000 customers were without power in Belgium’s Wallonia region on Friday morning, according to local media.

Search and rescue operations were ongoing in both Germany and Belgium.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people were evacuated during rescue missions in more than a dozen cities in the Wallonia region of southern Belgium on Thursday night, according to a spokesperson for the country’s interior ministry.

Speaking alongside U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed shock over the scope of devastation from the flooding.

“I grieve for those who have lost their lives in this disaster,” Merkel said during a joint press conference at the White House in Washington, D.C. “I fear the full extent of this tragedy will only be seen in the coming days.”

Armin Laschet, the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany’s leading candidate to replace Merkel in the September election, blamed the severe weather on global warming.

“We will be faced with such events over and over, and that means we need to speed up climate protection measures, on European, federal and global levels, because climate change isn’t confined to one state,” Laschet told reporters on Thursday during a visit to hard-hit areas.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Thousands of Cubans have been protesting food, vaccine and medicine shortages, in the one of the country’s largest demonstrations in decades.

Some residents went days without power in the summer heat, while others continue to be forced to wait in long lines for basic goods, as prices continue to rise. Activists say COVID-19 has exacerbated other structural issues, like health care and poverty, and the extended electricity outages signal a breaking point.

The country is facing a surge of COVID-19 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heightening concerns about government protection and services.

Chanting “freedom,” “enough” and “unite,” protestors started taking to the streets on Sunday, July 11, in Cuba and the U.S., blocking traffic to demand action from the Cuban government and President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Cuban historian and activist Marley Pulido told ABC News this hasn’t been an organized effort, but that the government’s continued inaction in addressing inequality has forced many to take the streets.

The August 1994 uprising was the last anti-government protest of this magnitude — when Cuba fell into an economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to Pulido.

Cuba’s economic crisis

During a December 2020 parliament session, Cuba’s Economy Minister Alejandro Gil announced that Cuba’s economy shrank 11% during the pandemic, worsened by the U.S.-imposed trade embargo. The trade embargo, which first began in the early 1960s, bans American businesses from working with Cuban interests.

At the event, he also reported that imports were down 30% in 2020 compared to 2019.

Rising international food and shipping prices have continued to worsen the country’s access to goods from overseas, according to Gil.

More than 70% to 80% of Cuba’s food is imported onto the island, according to World Food Programme. So that 30% reduction in imports led to a scarcity in food, as well as medicine, fuel and more that it imports.

On top of a lack of access to basic needs, Cuba declined to import foreign vaccines through a World Health Organization-led COVAX dose sharing initiative, which provides free or reduced cost vaccines to low resource countries. Instead, the country opted to create its own vaccine.

However, as cases continue to rise on the island of roughly 11 million people, a shortage of syringes has hindered the vaccine rollout, according to Global Health Partners, a non-profit dedicated to public health in Latin America.

The compounding issues have resulted in unrest across the island.

“There is definitely a disconnect between the government and the people,” Pulido said. “People have the right to be heard and people have the right to hold their government accountable.”

How the government has responded

In April 2020, amidst the global coronavirus pandemic and the ever-growing economic struggles, Raul Castro stepped down as head of Cuba’s Communist Party despite the Castros’ decades-long leadership of the party.

The Castros’ nominated successor, Díaz-Canel, condemned the protests in a televised appearance, calling on supporters to counter-protest and confront the anti-government demonstrations.

“The combat order is given: To the streets, revolutionaries,” Díaz-Canel said. “We’re calling on all of the revolutionaries in the country, all of the communists, to come out onto the streets and to go to the places where these provocations are going to take place.”

As videos and posts documenting the protests in Cuba went viral on social media, several activists say that internet service was shut down, which also left residents with limited access to resources outside of the island.

A heavy police presence also trailed protesters. Officials say they began arresting demonstrators and journalists after public property was damaged and police officers were attacked. Cuban officials have not reported how many people were arrested.

One man is confirmed to have died in connection with the protests, according to Cuba’s Interior Ministry.

The Cuban president blamed the unrest on U.S. forces, claiming that Cubans in America used social media to prompt demonstrations and blamed the trade embargo for the country’s economic crisis.

“Who is bothered by the regime, the alleged regime, in Cuba? Who is bothered by the Cuban political system, the way we do things? Not our people, not the majority of our people, because they are the ones who have built that system,” Díaz-Canel said.

US involvement and what’s to come

Though the Obama administration loosened the sanctions against the island government in 2014, former President Donald Trump reversed America’s position and introduced new sanctions to continue to put pressure on the Cuban government.

President Joe Biden has yet to address the call to end the embargo and its role in the country’s economic challenges. However, Biden has voiced his support for Cuban protestors when speaking to reporters on July 12 at the White House.

“The United States stands firmly with the people of Cuba as they assert their universal rights,” he said. “We call on the government, the government of Cuba, to refrain from violence and their attempts to silence the voice of the people of Cuba.”

“The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves,” Biden said.

As for Cubans trying to seek refuge in the United States from the unrest via boat, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas warned against it.

“Allow me to be clear: if you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States,” Mayorkas said. “Anyone intercepted at sea, regardless of their nationality will not be permitted to enter the United States … To those who risk their lives doing so, this risk is not worth taking.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Despite an alleged plot to lure and kidnap her, the arrest of her brother in Iran and ongoing death threats, Iranian American activist and journalist Masih Alinejad refuses to be silenced.

Eight months ago, the FBI arrived at Alinejad’s Brooklyn, New York, home to alert her that she was under surveillance by Iranian intelligence. They had obtained photos of her husband, children and even her as she watered flowers in her garden, Alinejad said.

“It was shocking because I left my beloved homeland to be safe here, and I was like, ‘Wow, so now the officials are that close to me,’” she told ABC News Live Prime, adding that authorities moved her to several different safe houses.

A federal court unsealed an indictment Tuesday charging four Iranian nationals with conspiring to kidnap Alinejad for “mobilizing public opinion in Iran and around the world to bring about changes to the regime’s laws and practices.”

Federal prosecutors said the suspects were directed by the government of Iran to conduct surveillance on Alinejad and lure her to a third country to be captured and brought back to Iran.

The group allegedly also targeted people in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. Four suspects are believed to remain at large in Iran while a fifth suspect was arrested in California.

“The FBI was asking me to go live [on Instagram from a] safe house … because they were trying to find out whether the [Iranian] intelligence was going to find out my new location, and they did,” Alinejad said. “I … couldn’t believe it. But at the same time, I don’t know why, but something just helped me to be more determined, to be more loud.”

While she was still at the safe house, she said that she started to contact some of the mothers whose children were killed at protests in Iran.

“Now, every week, I’m giving them a voice. … I got my power back,” she said. “The goal of the [Iranian] government [is] just to actually take my focus away from my work, from my job, because I’m a journalist. I’m an activist and I’m giving voice to millions of Iranian voiceless people. So I was like, ‘You know what, I’m going to do what I’m going to do.’”

Alinejad says “the Islamic Republic is scared” of her in part because she’s a woman.

“You go to my beautiful country, you will be beaten up because you’re unveiled. … I launched a campaign against compulsory hijab, and that is why, actually, I’m receiving death threats,” she said. “Of course, it is a scary [thing] that they were going to kidnap me, but that shows that they [are] scared [of] me and millions of other Iranian women, Iranian men, who got united this time loudly sending videos to me saying no to Islamic Republic. That’s why they sent someone here in New York to kidnap me. They didn’t want to after because they didn’t want any, you know, no Americans. So that’s why I strongly believe they are scared of their own people. And I’m giving voice to the people.”

In an attempt to discredit her, Alinejad says Iranian national television aired a report saying that she was raped, which was a lie. She also said Iran created a law that if anyone sent her videos, they could face up to 10 years in prison.

“I said to myself, ‘One day, I didn’t give up. I’m not going to give up,’” she said. “Then, after my family, they brought my sister on TV to disown me publicly. Then they interrogated my 70-year-old mother who wears [a] hijab. She has nothing to do with my campaign, but they interrogated her.”

Alinejad’s brother is in jail.

She says it was a difficult decision to reveal publicly that she had been the target of the kidnapping plot — mainly out of fear for her family.

“Sometimes I cannot even breathe when I think about my brother and my family. I love them. I’m a village girl,” she said. “My dream is to be in my own country. But what helps me to be strong and not give up [on] the people inside Iran [is] when I see that women were sending videos to me walking unveiled, which is a punishable crime. These are like Rosa Parks of Iran. So when they don’t give up, then I’m not going to give up because otherwise I’m going to actually [be] betraying my own people.”

Now, her goal is to send a message to the Biden administration and other Western powers that the Iranian regime must be dealt with.

“Stand up for human rights values because the regime [is] actually trying to manipulate the rest of the world. And it breaks my heart when I see the people of Iran are being abandoned,” she said. “I want to actually ask all the leaders of the free world to … not abandon Iranian people.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Approximately 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Haiti on Wednesday, meaning it no longer was the only country in the Americas without any. But vaccine hesitancy, to say nothing of the recent violence and political unrest, could delay distribution for weeks.

Both U.S. and Haiti military forces helped UNICEF transport the doses in a mostly clandestine effort necessitated by the surrounding violence. The Moderna vaccines, which will be stored in hundreds of solar-power refrigerators throughout Haiti, were donated by the U.S. government through COVAX and delivered to Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital.

Though grateful, UNICEF representatives said they’ll require many more — and not just in Haiti.

“We hope this first donation of doses will be followed by others,” UNICEF said in a statement. “More donations from well-supplied countries will be needed for Haiti and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to reach those most vulnerable to COVID-19 infection.”

Distribution is expected to start later this week as local health authorities and aid groups are battling vaccine misinformation that’s apparently spreading throughout the country.

Only 22% of all Haitians said they would get vaccinated, according to preliminary results of a UNICEF-supported study conducted by the University of Haiti in June. There’s also the ongoing gang violence and political uncertainty following the assassination of Haiti’s president.

Violence in June among armed groups escalated in several areas of Port-Au-Prince during a spike of COVID-19 cases. Over 15,000 women and children have been forced to flee their homes.

“Rising insecurity and clashes between gangs,” a UNICEF spokesperson said, “have seriously hindered humanitarian operations in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to visit the White House Thursday for talks with President Joe Biden.

After deciding not to seek another term in office, her trip will likely mark a farewell to Biden. It’s a chance for the longtime acquaintances and partners to reaffirm the strong U.S.-Germany bond in the face of global challenges, such as the coronavirus pandemic and rising autocratic influences.

“Chancellor Merkel has been a true friend to the United States, a strong advocate for the transatlantic partnership for multilateral cooperation, as well as for our shared priorities,” a senior administration official said ahead of the meeting. “In their meeting, I expect that President Biden will convey gratitude for her leadership role, in Europe and around the world, as she prepares to depart the German political stage, following their elections this September.”

The visit with also be an opportunity for the pair to hash out some areas of concern ahead of the end of Merkel’s tenure.

Merkel kicks off her visit having breakfast with Vice President Kamala Harris. In the afternoon, Merkel attends both a one-on-one and a larger group meeting at the White House with Biden. Merkel and Biden hold a press conference in the late afternoon and then in the evening, Biden will host a dinner for her and “a range of individuals who have long been strong supporters of Germany and the bilateral relationship, which will further demonstrate the close and continuing ties between our countries,” a senior administration official said.

Despite the warm welcome, challenges remain.

One sticking point between the two countries is Nord Stream 2, a pipeline to move gas directly from Russia, under the Baltic Sea and into Germany. Biden is opposed to the pipeline, as are many Republicans in Congress, because it could give Russia increased influence in Europe and more control over energy reserves. The pipeline will likely deprive other countries, such as Ukraine, of badly-needed oil revenues and some experts fear Russia could shut off the gas supply to certain countries in retaliatory moves.

Biden lifted U.S. sanctions on companies helping to build the pipeline in May as a goodwill gesture to European allies, as he worked to get them on board with his tough-on-Russia policies and in a tacit admission that U.S. sanctions ultimately failed to halt construction. That was a move some Republicans, including Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, criticized.

“Instead of treating Putin like a gangster who fears his own people, we’re giving him his treasured Nord Stream 2 pipeline and legitimizing his actions with a summit,” Sasse said.

It’s a topic Biden is expected to bring up with Merkel on Thursday.

“I do expect that President Biden will raise his long-standing concerns with Chancellor Merkel during their meeting about Russia’s geopolitical project and about the importance of developing concrete mechanisms to ensure that energy is not used as a coercive tool against Ukraine, our eastern flank allies or any other country. We believe that the sanctions waivers that we announced in May have given us diplomatic space to be able to work with Germany to have these conversations to try and find ways to address the negative impacts of the pipeline,” the official said.

However, the official did not anticipate any formal announcement on Nord Stream out of the meeting.

The official did preview that Biden and Merkel will release a so-called Washington Declaration, “which will outline their common vision for cooperation to confront policy challenges,” and provide guiding principles for years ahead, even as Merkel’s successor takes the helm. The official also anticipated a climate and energy partnership to be announced, though they provided no further details on what that will look like.

Another area of difference between the two leaders is China’s rising global influence. While Biden has seen China as a competitor that must be curtailed, Merkel is friendlier towards a rising China, believing their success and a balanced trade relationship between the two countries will benefit Germany.

Other agenda items include the pandemic and security challenges in Afghanistan.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PRETORIA, South Africa) — At least 72 people have been killed in ongoing riots across South Africa, despite the efforts of heavily outnumbered authorities to quell the violent unrest sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.

The South African Police Service said in a statement Tuesday that the death toll had risen to 27 in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal and to 45 in the economic hub of Gauteng province, with many of the fatalities occurring in “stampedes” as scores of people looted food, liquor, clothes and electrical appliances from shops in poor areas. Other deaths were caused by explosions when people tried to break into ATM machines as well as shootings, according to police.

At least one police officer was killed in an attack on law enforcement, while seven others were injured while responding to the riots, police said.

So far, 1,234 people have been arrested, according to police, but the chaos has continued. Looters were seen ransacking warehouses and supermarkets in the port city of Durban on Tuesday, while rioters set fire to a chemical plant near the town of Umhlanga, just north of Durban.

The South African Police Service has recalled officers from leave and rest days, while the South African National Defence Forces has deployed thousands of soldiers to assist the overstretched law enforcement agencies on the ground.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to “restore calm and order,” describing the unrest as the worst the country has witnessed since the 1990s, before the end of the apartheid regime,

“Over the past few days and nights, there have been acts of public violence of a kind rarely seen in the history of our democracy,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nation on Monday evening. “Let me be clear: We will take action to protect every person in this country against the threat of violence, intimidation, theft and looting. We will not hesitate to arrest and prosecute those who perpetrate these actions and will ensure that they face the full might of our law.”

The lawlessness has disrupted South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination program, which Ramaphosa warned will have “lasting effects on our ability to consolidate some of the progress we were already witnessing in our economic recovery.” Vaccine shots are urgently needed in the country, which — along with other nations in Africa — is fighting a new wave of COVID-19 infections. The South African government recently reimposed and extended tight restrictions, including a nightly nationwide curfew, school closures, a ban on gatherings and limits on alcohol sales.

Violence and unrest has gripped parts of South Africa since Zuma turned himself in to police on July 7 to begin his 15-month jail term for contempt of court. South Africa’s highest court handed down the sentence after Zuma failed to appear before an inquiry examining corruption during the nine years that he served as president. Zuma has maintained his innocence, saying he is the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt, and his supporters took to the streets last week. But the protests appear to have reawakened deep-seated grievances over persistent poverty, unemployment and inequality, some 27 years after apartheid ended.

Following job layoffs and an economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic, South Africa’s unemployment rate stands at a record high of 32.6% and is even higher among the youth, at 46.3%, according to official numbers released in June by the national statistical service. Meanwhile, more than half of the country’s 60 million people were living in poverty last year, according to data collected by the World Bank Group.

“There is no grievance, nor any political cause, that can justify the violence and destruction that we have seen in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng,” Ramaphosa said. “The path of violence, of looting and anarchy, leads only to more violence and devastation. It leads to more poverty, more unemployment, and more loss of innocent life. This is not who we are as a people.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.