World

(GLASGOW, Scotland) — Leaders from nearly every country in the world have converged upon Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference that experts are touting as the most important environmental summit in history.

The conference, delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was designed as the check-in for the progress countries are making after entering the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, a value that would be disastrous to exceed, according to climate scientists. More ambitious efforts aim to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Not one country is going into COP26 on track to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to experts. They will need to work together to find collective solutions that will drastically cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

“We need to move from commitments into action,” Jim Harmon, chairman of the World Resources Institute, told ABC News. “The path to a better future is still possible, but time is running out.”

All eyes will be on the biggest emitters: China, the U.S. and India. While China is responsible for about 26% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, more than all other developed countries combined, the cumulative emissions from the U.S. over the past century are likely twice that of China’s, David Sandalow, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told ABC News.

Latest headlines:
-US, China announce joint statement addressing climate crisis
-America ‘ready to take on the challenge,’ Pelosi says
-Obama addresses COP26, endorses Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ bill
-American agriculture is ready to tackle climate change, agriculture secretary says
-US needs to ‘get in the game’ on clean energy transitions, energy secretary say
-New climate targets announced for sports worldwide
-Biden, world leaders push to conserve global forests
-‘It’ll take trillions,’ Jeff Bezos says of his $10 billion climate pledge
-Biden apologizes for Trump administration pulling out of the Paris Agreement

Here’s how the conference is developing. All times Eastern.

Nov 10, 3:29 pm
US, China announce joint statement addressing climate crisis

Top carbon emitters U.S. and China have committed to working together on reducing emissions and transitioning to renewable energy over the next decade, according to U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry.

Kerry said it’s important that the countries work together on climate issues.

“And as I’ve said many times, the United States and China have no shortage of differences. But on climate, cooperation is the only way to get things done,” he told reporters Wednesday.

ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs

Nov 09, 1:39 pm
America ‘ready to take on the challenge,’ Pelosi says

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi focused on the domestic political success of the Build Back Better plan and its investment in climate change while speaking to reporters at COP26, continuing the message that America is back on the international climate stage.

“We come here equipped, ready to take on the challenge to meet the moment,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi said she still plans to pass the reconciliation bill the week of Nov. 15 and backed up remarks made by former President Barack Obama on Monday — that both he and President Biden could take more aggressive action on climate change if it wasn’t for near Republican control on Capitol Hill.

“Let me just say that when President Obama was president and we had majority in the first term … we did pass in the House a very strong climate bill,” she said.

“Sixty votes in the Senate is an obstacle that is very hard to overcome and is another subject for another day.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also declared that “America is back” but was more critical, saying that leaders will need to “actually deliver.”

“We’re here to say that we’re not just back, we’re different … and we are more open, I think, to questioning prior assumptions about what is politically possible and that is what is exciting about this time,” she said.

ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs

Nov 08, 5:23 pm
Obama addresses COP26, endorses Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ bill

During his speech at Monday’s COP26 events, former President Barack Obama shined a spotlight on the upcoming midterm elections and called upon young Americans to consider climate when deciding how to vote.

“Saving the planet isn’t a partisan issue,” Obama said, frustrated over the divided government.

Obama endorsed President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill and drew a comparison to when “one of our two major parties” made climate change a partisan issue back during his tenure.

On climate change, Obama harkened back to the Paris Agreement, saying, “We have not done nearly enough to address the crisis.”

He called for countries to push for ambitious action and acknowledged that while older generations have failed the young, they “can’t afford hopelessness.”

Addressing the youth participating in protests outside COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, the former president encouraged them to get more involved to deal with their anxiety over climate change.

“Protests are necessary to raise awareness. Hashtag campaigns can spread awareness,” Obama said. “But to build the broad-based coalitions necessary for bold action, we have to persuade people who either currently don’t agree with us or are indifferent to the issue.”

Nov 05, 1:23 pm
Greta Thunberg leads youth activist march

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 18, was among thousands of young people demonstrating outside of COP26.

Thunberg spoke at the Fridays for Future march, the group she founded in 2018, criticizing politicians and labeling the conference as a “failure.”

“It should be obvious that we cannot solve a crisis with the same methods that got us into it in the first place,” Thunberg said.

Many of the demonstrators who spoke to ABC News said they attended the rally to see Thunberg speak.

Some demonstrators said they did not trust their leaders to create real change but were encouraged to see how many other young people were fighting for climate action.

Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate, 24, also spoke at the protest, where she said Africa was experiencing some of the harshest effects from climate change.

Nakate said she envisions a future when “the world is green again.”

ABC News’ Maggie Rulli

 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(GLASGOW, Scotland) — Leaders from nearly every country in the world have converged upon Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference that experts are touting as the most important environmental summit in history.

The conference, delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was designed as the check-in for the progress countries are making after entering the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, a value that would be disastrous to exceed, according to climate scientists. More ambitious efforts aim to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Not one country is going into COP26 on track to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to experts. They will need to work together to find collective solutions that will drastically cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

“We need to move from commitments into action,” Jim Harmon, chairman of the World Resources Institute, told ABC News. “The path to a better future is still possible, but time is running out.”

All eyes will be on the biggest emitters: China, the U.S. and India. While China is responsible for about 26% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, more than all other developed countries combined, the cumulative emissions from the U.S. over the past century are likely twice that of China’s, David Sandalow, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told ABC News.

Latest Headlines:
-‘Already to take on the challenge,’ Pelosi says
-Obama addresses COP26, endorses Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ bill
-American agriculture is ready to tackle climate change, agriculture secretary says
-End of coal in sight, UN says
-US needs to ‘get in the game’ on clean energy transitions, energy secretary say
-Dozens of countries promise to phase out coal
-New climate targets announced for sports worldwide
-‘America showed up,’ Biden says of time at summit
-Biden, world leaders push to conserve global forests
-‘It’ll take trillions,’ Jeff Bezos says of his $10 billion climate pledge
-US submits long-term strategy to UN
-Biden apologizes for Trump administration pulling out of the Paris Agreement

Here’s how the conference is developing. All times Eastern.

Nov 09, 1:39 pm
America ‘ready to take on the challenge,’ Pelosi says

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi focused on the domestic political success of the Build Back Better plan and its investment in climate change while speaking to reporters at COP26, continuing the message that America is back on the international climate stage.

“We come here equipped, ready to take on the challenge to meet the moment,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi said she still plans to pass the reconciliation bill the week of Nov. 15 and backed up remarks made by former President Barack Obama on Monday — that both he and President Biden could take more aggressive action on climate change if it wasn’t for near Republican control on Capitol Hill.

“Let me just say that when President Obama was president and we had majority in the first term … we did pass in the House a very strong climate bill,” she said.

“Sixty votes in the Senate is an obstacle that is very hard to overcome and is another subject for another day.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also declared that “America is back” but was more critical, saying that leaders will need to “actually deliver.”

“We’re here to say that we’re not just back, we’re different … and we are more open, I think, to questioning prior assumptions about what is politically possible and that is what is exciting about this time,” she said.

ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs

Nov 08, 5:23 pm
Obama addresses COP26, endorses Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ bill

During his speech at Monday’s COP26 events, former President Barack Obama shined a spotlight on the upcoming midterm elections and called upon young Americans to consider climate when deciding how to vote.

“Saving the planet isn’t a partisan issue,” Obama said, frustrated over the divided government.

Obama endorsed President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill and drew a comparison to when “one of our two major parties” made climate change a partisan issue back during his tenure.

On climate change, Obama harkened back to the Paris Agreement, saying, “We have not done nearly enough to address the crisis.”

He called for countries to push for ambitious action and acknowledged that while older generations have failed the young, they “can’t afford hopelessness.”

Addressing the youth participating in protests outside COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, the former president encouraged them to get more involved to deal with their anxiety over climate change.

“Protests are necessary to raise awareness. Hashtag campaigns can spread awareness,” Obama said. “But to build the broad-based coalitions necessary for bold action, we have to persuade people who either currently don’t agree with us or are indifferent to the issue.”

Nov 05, 1:23 pm
Greta Thunberg leads youth activist march

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 18, was among thousands of young people demonstrating outside of COP26.

Thunberg spoke at the Fridays for Future march, the group she founded in 2018, criticizing politicians and labeling the conference as a “failure.”

“It should be obvious that we cannot solve a crisis with the same methods that got us into it in the first place,” Thunberg said.

Many of the demonstrators who spoke to ABC News said they attended the rally to see Thunberg speak.

Some demonstrators said they did not trust their leaders to create real change but were encouraged to see how many other young people were fighting for climate action.

Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate, 24, also spoke at the protest, where she said Africa was experiencing some of the harshest effects from climate change.

Nakate said she envisions a future when “the world is green again.”

ABC News’ Maggie Rulli

Nov 05, 11:00 am
Despite positive momentum, ‘job is not done,’ John Kerry says

The sense of urgency at COP26 is at an all-time high but it’s too soon to declare victory, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, said on Friday.

“Let me emphasize as strongly as I can: Job not done,” Kerry told reporters at a news conference. “Job not done the day this ends.”

The summit is “just the beginning” of a decade-long race to drastically cut emissions, Kerry said.

Countries cannot leave the conference and continue on as “business as usual,” he noted, adding, “I hope that will continue and translate into a goodwill that brings out a very strong decision at the end of next week.”

ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Trevor Reed, the 30-year-old former Marine who has been detained on what his family says are trumped up charges in Russia for over two years, has gone on hunger strike, his family confirmed Monday.

It marks a dramatic escalation in Reed’s battle to secure his freedom, with his family expressing growing frustration with the Biden administration for not doing enough, they said.

“While we are immensely proud of our son’s strength of character, we are also extremely worried about his health,” his parents Joey and Paula and sister Taylor said in a statement Monday.

Reed’s Russian girlfriend told ABC News that he started his hunger strike last Thursday, Nov. 4. His family confirmed the news through his Russian attorney, saying in a statement Monday that he is protesting “his arbitrary detention and Russian authorities’ numerous and flagrant violations of his basic human rights and his rights under Russian law.”

Reed has been in solitary confinement for nearly three months now, and he has not been able to contact his family in nearly four months. The former Marine presidential guard has been in Russian custody since August 2019, sentenced to nine years last July for assaulting two police officers. The U.S. embassy in Moscow has called the trial absurd, as the two officers struggled to recall the alleged incident in court hearings and contradicted themselves repeatedly.

In a labor camp in the remote Mordovia region for months now, Reed has been confined to a small cell that doesn’t include a toilet, and items that U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan brought for him when he visited in September have not been given to him by prison guards, according to his family.

“Our concern is magnified by Russian authorities’ decision to hold Trevor incommunicado which makes it impossible for us or the Embassy to monitor his health,” they said.

After President Joe Biden met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in June, there was hope for and speculation about a prisoner swap, especially because Biden said he raised his case and that of Paul Whelan, another U.S. citizen detained by Russia.

But there was no deal reached in the weeks and months that followed, and a family representative told ABC News that they are not aware of any talks ongoing right now to free Reed.

In their statement, the Reed family urged the Biden administration to exchange one of the two Russians whose names have been floated publicly by Russian state media and senior Russian officials as a possible exchange. Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death” because of his notorious work as a prolific arms dealer, is serving a 25-year sentence in U.S. federal prison, while Konstantin Yaroshenko is serving a 20-year sentence for attempting to smuggle cocaine and other illicit drugs to the U.S. as a pilot.

While Reed’s family members note they have been “patient,” it’s clear they are getting increasingly frustrated and anguished. They said Monday they hope Biden and his national security adviser Jake Sullivan “will find the time to see us” when they next visit Washington and “find the political will to bring our son home.”

But while they said they “look forward to our son receiving” the administration’s attention for his hunger strike, the State Department was succinct on the subject. Spokesperson Ned Price said Monday that the agency is aware of reports of Reed’s hunger strike, but declined to comment further, citing privacy concerns.

Ambassador Sullivan last visited Reed in prison camp on Sept. 22 and will try to visit him again this month, Price added, as well as Whelan.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WARSAW, Poland) — An extraordinary standoff is taking place on the border between Poland and Belarus, after Belarusian authorities escorted hundreds of migrants up to it, in a dramatic escalation of what European countries have called a campaign by Belarus’ authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, to use migrants as “weapons.”

Videos published by Belarusian media and Poland’s defense ministry on Monday showed a long column of people, mostly from the Middle East, being marched by Belarusian guards in camouflage along a highway that leads up the Polish border region of Podlaskie.

The line, estimated to be made up of more than 1,000 people, was blocked by Polish border guards standing behind barbed wire fences. Videos posted later showed chaotic clashes, with some migrants trying to break down fences, while dozens of Polish police barred their path and Belarusian guards stood behind blocking their retreat. There were reports Polish border police used tear gas to push back the crowd, and in some videos, the sounds of gunshots could be heard.

As night fell, video from a helicopter released by Poland’s interior ministry showed dozens of tents set up near the border close to the village of Kuznica.

Poland’s government on Monday vowed not to let the migrants cross and accused Lukashenko of seeking a confrontation and calling it a “hybrid attack.”

“There are large groups of migrants in the area of ​​our border, which are fully controlled by the Belarusian security services and army,” Poland’s government said in a statement Monday. “By creating an artificial migration route and cynically exploiting migrants, Lukashenka is trying to destabilize Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, and to force the European Union to lift the sanctions imposed on the Minsk regime.”

The standoff escalates a crisis that has been worsening for months. Lukashenko is accused of luring in thousands of migrants since late spring and pushing them over the border into Poland and Lithuania as retaliation for the European Union’s support for Belarus’ pro-democracy movement that came close to toppling him with mass protests last year.

Poland and Lithuania have taken tough steps to block people from crossing, but Belarus refuses to allow them to return; the result has been that hundreds of people, including families with young children, have become trapped in the forests along the border, stranded without food or shelter for weeks. Temperatures are close to freezing and at least eight people have already died since September.

When ABC News reporters visited the border last month, they encountered three Yemeni asylum seekers who had been trapped in the forest for two weeks, pushed back and forth between Polish and Belarusian border guards.

One of the men, Rami Olaqi, told ABC News that Belarusian guards had robbed and beaten them before shoving them back toward Poland.

“They don’t care,” he said. “It will be better for them if we die, you know?”

It’s just a way “for the Belarusian state to intimidate Europe. And using the refugees as a bullet in their war,” Olaqi said.

Polish border guards have been pushing people back across the border, even when they have sought asylum, people who have tried to cross and local activists have said. Most experts consider such pushbacks illegal under international law.

Poland’s government spokesman. Piotr Muller. on Monday said Poland estimates there are around 3,000-4,000 migrants currently near the border, and that there are up to 10,000 in Belarus right now hoping to cross into Poland.

Lithuania’s Interior ministry on Monday said it had asked the government to consider declaring a state of emergency at the border in view of the situation with Poland.

The flows of migrants began when Belarus eased visa restrictions for dozens of countries, including many in the Middle East. Once in the country, migrants told ABC News Belarusian border guards often lead them to crossing points and cut holes in border fences to let them through.

Lukashenko himself in public speeches has repeatedly threatened to let more migrants through. Belarus’ authorities Monday accused Poland of being to blame for the crisis and claimed Belarus was prioritizing the migrants’ safety.

“The Belarusian side is taking the necessary measures to ensure the smooth functioning of the channels of international communication, as well as the safety of people moving along the highway,” Belarus’ State Border Committee wrote in a statement on its Facebook page.

There were calls on Monday for the European Union to respond. Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, on Monday said the European Union should approve further sanctions against Lukashenko’s government.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also issued a statement saying it is concerned by the escalation at the border and it “stands ready to further assist our allies and maintain safety and security in the region.”

“The Lukashenka regime’s use of migrants as a hybrid tactic is unacceptable,” the alliance of which Poland and Lithunia are members said.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PARIS) — Twenty-six looted royal treasures will return to their country of origin this week after nearly 130 years of French ownership, as debate continues over repatriating artifacts.

The pieces were looted following the war fought by France against the Kingdom of Dahomey, a former African kingdom situated in the south of present-day Benin, during the height of French colonialism in Africa.

On Nov. 17, 1892, French troops took over a palace in the city of Abomey, causing King Béhanzin to flee, leaving behind a set of royal objects the French took.

The works — including carved wooden doors, royal thrones and statues — had been on display in French museums since 1900. They will be returned to Benin in the course of the week.

French President Emmanuel Macron formalized the return of the looted treasures during a ceremony at the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum in Paris, where the pieces have been held since 2003, in late October, citing the need to “give African youth back access to their heritage.”

Macron is expected to meet Benin’s President Patrice Talon on Nov. 9 to sign the transfer treaty, allowing the works to be transported to Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin, and be shown to the public there.

The exhibition of looted treasures has been a cause for debate for many hundreds of years. Centuries ago, Greek statesman Polybius exhorted the victors of the future “not to make the calamities of others the adornment of their homeland.”

Today, the debate over the restitution of artifacts looted during colonization is in full swing. Just last month, a University of Cambridge college returned one of the artifacts looted by British soldiers known as a Benin Bronze to Nigeria.

Benin authorities had repeatedly demanded the return of the national treasures from France without success. In 2016, the French government refused Benin’s requests, arguing that France was also attached to the circulation and protection of heritage and was not legally obligated to return the pieces.

But in November 2018, Macron announced the decision to return 26 pieces of the treasure of Abomey. The process to get to this point since then has included a cycle of conferences and an exhibit in Paris.

The works, including a prestigious royal chair of Yoruba kings adorned by two floors of sculpted and painted figures, were on display at the Quai Branly Museum for the final time last month before making their journey home.

According to the museum, this farewell exhibition was “highly successful,” with over 15,000 visitors in one week. Following their return to Benin, the precious objects will be integrated into the Museum of the Epic of the Amazons and the Kings of Danhomè that is being built in in Abomey.

Benin’s Foreign Minister Aurelien Agbenonci rejoiced that “France and Benin are showing the world an example of museum and heritage cooperation through this restitution.”

But critics of restitution argue that decisions like this are a “Pandora’s box” that could lead to the emptying of European museums.

According to some experts, the scale of colonial spoliations in Africa is considerable.

“Statistically, I think we can say by adding up the inventories of African national museums, which hover around 3,000 or 5,000 when they are large collections, that 90 to 95% of African heritage is outside the continent in major museums,” Alain Godonou, director of the museums program at the National Heritage and Tourism Development Agency of Benin, said at a 2007 UNESCO Forum on Memory and Universality.

In order to proceed with the transfer of the Benin artworks, a new law was passed by France’s Parliament in December 2020 to make it legal to return cultural artifacts seen as properties of the French state.

Bénédicte Savoy, whose research helped lead to this restitution, highlighted the international resonance of the decision, comparing it to “the fall of the Berlin wall” as he hopes for similar reflections in other European museums.

“This restitution is a major event in the history of the 21st century,” Savoy told ABC News. “Its importance cannot be underestimated.”

Yet, others are downplaying France’s move, suspecting more delaying tactics on other artifacts.

Congolese activist Mwazulu Diyabanza told ABC News, “We are awaiting a declaration of principles whereby France and its Western counterparts will recognize the crimes committed and return without any form of trial everything they have stolen and forcibly taken.”

He added, “It is not up to the thief, the prevaricator, and the dealer to decide when and how much of the works to be returned.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — “Everything bad that you think of was there,” Sarina told ABC News in a video call, wiping away tears. “I was feeling like, ‘I’m gonna die. Why?'”

She said she came to terms with dying during her first attempt to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 19, surrounded by shouting, gunshots and beatings in a sea of thousands of people desperate to flee — but she said she told herself if she could just get her two-year-old daughter out of the Taliban’s Afghanistan, it would be OK.

“It was not easy that night,” said Sarina, whose name ABC News has changed for the safety of her family still in Afghanistan. “One second I thought I lost my daughter forever. I thought, ‘This is not the life I wanted…I will remain under Taliban, and they will kill me. At least my daughter will be safe.”

After waiting outside the airport for more than 10 hours, where she said they were treated like “animals,” her family returned to their shelter in Kabul, saying her daughter had seen enough.

It’s a day Sarina said is seared in her memory as a “nightmare” and one she hopes her 2-year-old will forget — although bruises on her “tiny face,” as Sarina called it, pointing to her cheeks and explaining their shoulders pushed into their child in the crowd, would serve as a painful reminder of what they had endured.

“My eyes begin, like, filled with tears,” she said, when she’s asked about their journey. “I think it’s not possible to forget those moments that much soon.”

Her husband also came out with bruises, she said, after Taliban fighters whipped him with strands of rubber. Thousands queued outside the airport, and thousands, like Sarina, didn’t make it out of Afghanistan that day.

“The entire night, I cried. I thought ‘Why why? Why did this happen to my daughter?’ She is my everything. She’s a little angel,” she said, through tears. “She was crying. and she told me, ‘Mommy, Mommy, home? Home? Home?'”

Surrounded by chaos, Sarina said she thought to herself, too, “Where is home?”

Fighting for women of Afghanistan — and her life

Sarina spent nine years studying in India, but returned to Afghanistan after completing her Bachelor’s Degree to work in women’s activism.

“There were job opportunities in India for me, but I let them, I let them out. I wanted to be in my country, feel the pain of those poor people, those women, that I really need — I really need to help them,” she said.

She said she worked on USAID projects and in a legal clinic for nearly three years, helping women divorce their husbands after domestic violence, before taking her “dream job” at the relief and development organization, Cordaid.

“Millions of girls, they want education. They want to study in universities. They want jobs. Even if you go to the villages of Afghanistan, you can see that desire in their eyes — how much the Afghan woman wants education,” she said.

But her work — and her life — became at risk when the Taliban seized power, she said. She was called to be evacuated because she was a target.

After the failed first attempt, which she called “traumatic,” Sarina bunkered back down with her family and seven other women in Cordaid — a Dutch development organization she worked for since 2019 which campaigns for women’s rights and independence. When she said she was feeling the lowest, she received a text from a stranger in the U.S. asking how she could help.

“That moment I needed some good words,” she told ABC News, choking up. “Someone telling me that ‘You’re okay, we are with you.’ And that was the moment Cori told me that, ‘Don’t worry Sarina, now I’m with you, many other people are behind you. You’re not alone. We are trying to help you.'”

Cori Shepherd Stern, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker who has an adopted refugee daughter, reached out to Sarina after learning of her situation through a mutual friend. It gave her the motivation she needed for a second attempt two days later.

Shepherd Stern told ABC News it was one of the most “emotionally intense” moments of her life.

“The sheer terror she was feeling, the horrified shock from what she was witnessing was very, very clear and immediate to me,” she said. “I took steps to logistically help her but more than anything, I tried to call out to her from a safe place and stay with her until she and her daughter were safe, too.”

Using Google Maps and communicating with volunteers outside Kabul, Sarina said she and her team were able to find the Dutch army behind the Baron Hotel on Aug. 26, and yelled out, ‘”Holland, Holland!'” The Dutch government had agreed to take the women of Cordaid and their families to safety.

“Finally, that was,” she said, stopping to cry. “That was the moment of victory — but I’m not happy. My family, my mom, my dad, my sisters, I immediately called my dad and told him that I am not happy. I don’t have you in here. I’m not happy. He said ‘don’t worry about that.’ I thought, ‘No.’ Because I know that my dad has done a lot for us.”

Turning to help get her family out

Acknowledging how far she’d come in days alone — from Kabul to Pakistan and from Pakistan to Turkey and from Turkey to Amsterdam — where she’s been at a military base for Afghan refugees for the last 10 weeks — she’s extremely distressed because her family is behind.

“How can I be safe, and they are all miserable?” she said. “They are not safe,” she continued, adding that she’s particularly concerned for her father.

“He is, right now, in depression,” she said, then recalling the version of her father she is used to, bringing a smile to her face. “He is a legend. He is like a hero. He studied at all times of his life,” she said, listing all the places where he has taught and spoken.

Shepherd Stern, who helped Sarina with moral support, and a small team of volunteers are now helping her family with paperwork to get them out. The options they’re looking into include a P-2 visa for her father or individual humanitarian parole for each family member.

But an unprecedented 20,000 Afghan nationals like Sarina’s family have requested parole since August — more than 10 times the number of applications received from around the world in a typical year, USCIS confirmed to ABC News in a statement.

The agency said they are surging resources and training personnel in response — but activists say it isn’t coming soon enough.

“This family needs to get out now,” Shepherd Stern said.

Sarina talks with her dad on the phone every day, multiple times a day, and she said he tells her, “‘My dearest daughter. You should follow your education. You should keep it up.'”

“He was always telling me that you should stand on your feet. ‘I am educating you to be a strong woman,’ and I’m a strong woman, but I am feeling bad that he is not here,” she cried. “He does not deserve to be over there while these people rule over him.”

Because of his devotion to educating women, she said she expects more from the U.S. and international aid agencies to help get her family out.

“It’s a matter of saving the lives of five people,” she said.

Sarina said she refuses to think what she considers unthinkable — that they may not get out.

“Life ends for them — because there is nothing left over here. What should my dad do? What should my sisters do? You tell me — what’s left? It’s mean — it’s life-ending for them,” she said.

“I just don’t want to think about that,” she added, with optimism in her voice. “They will get out soon.”

Sarina’s future

The Netherlands managed to evacuate around 2,000 people like Sarina from Afghanistan.

She has a permit for residency for five years — but it’s unclear when she’ll get settled in a home. To prepare herself, she watches Dutch language lessons on YouTube every day and is now taking classes at a local university offered to refugees. She plans to pursue a Master’s in gender and sexuality studies and become a professor — like her father.

While her time at the camp in the Netherlands has presented new challenges, it has also brought new blessings: Sarina learned on Tuesday that she is approximately eight weeks pregnant.

It’s all the more reason she wants her family out.

“Please help my family. Get them out of Afghanistan, please. That’s a request. That’s a humble request,” she said, with special devotion to her father. “I am everything I am today because of him.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — The U.S. is reopening borders to vaccinated travelers on Monday after 20 months of being closed to many countries, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, China, India, South Africa and most of Europe.

After a number of stops and starts, President Joe Biden announced the date for the resumption on Oct. 25.

“I have determined that it is in the interests of the United States to move away from the country-by-country restrictions previously applied during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the White House said in a statement.

Many travelers communicated their excitement at the news, some prepping for their big trip back weeks in advance. A group of Twitter users is even planning on celebrating together in London’s Heathrow Airport Monday morning before their flight.

The travel ban was first put into place by former President Donald Trump in March 2020, briefly lifted when he left office, then reinstated by Biden.

Many couples communicated their frustration and despair online, rallying around the Twitter hashtag #LoveIsNotTourism.

Christin Bell and Josh Hague met in the summer of 2019, when Bell was traveling from her hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, to England. They would travel back and forth across the Atlantic every six weeks to see each other, but found themselves separated by the travel ban.

“[Initially we thought] this is just temporary, because at first it was,” Bell told ABC News. “This is going to be 60 days and then we’ll be through it. Well, 60 days quickly turned into two years and we struggled.”

As the U.K. relaxed its travel restrictions, Bell was allowed to visit Hague six months later, but he was still forbidden from coming to the U.S., unless he spent two weeks quarantining in a country not included in the travel ban, such as Turkey or Mexico, something that was not possible for them financially.

“Americans could travel pretty much wherever they wanted. Yet, family members of Americans could not travel, and that was extremely frustrating,” said Bell.

In January, as the COVID vaccine was distributed on both sides of the Atlantic, the ban was kept in place, with the Biden administration stating concerns about the delta variant.

“With the pandemic worsening and more contagious variants spreading, this isn’t the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel,” White House press secretary Jen Paski said in January.

Many speculated that Biden might lift the ban after the G-7 conference during the summer, but the White House reiterated their position in July 2021, despite mounting international pressure.

“The American travel ban on Europeans felt much more arbitrary and also allowed for much less exceptions. … It reinforced the feeling that the American passport is stronger than the European passports,” Celia Belin, a visiting fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings Institution, told ABC News.

On Oct. 20, in the midst of a spat with France over a submarine contract with Australia, the Biden administration announced it was lifting the ban on vaccinated travelers.

“[The announcement] came on the back of a very difficult summer transatlantically for Joe Biden,” Belin told ABC News.

Belin added that lifting the ban, which only applies to vaccinated travelers, still excludes many countries where the vaccine is not yet easily available or recognized by the U.S. The administration is also working through a backlog of visas, which were halted during the ban.

“The day that the ban lift was announced … we just looked at each other and cried with joy that it was finally ending,” said Bell.

Bell and Hague got engaged the day before the ban was lifted, and are now planning their wedding in the U.S.

“We can actually go forward and plan our life together instead of sitting in this excruciating limbo,” Bell said.

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(PERTH, Australia) — Terence Darrell Kelly was charged Thursday afternoon with one count of forcibly taking a child under 16 for allegedly abducting 4-year-old Cleo Smith from a campsite on Oct. 16.

Kelly has been held by authorities in Perth, Australia, since Friday, according to the Western Australian Police Force. Prior to being charged, police reported he had twice been taken to the hospital for self-inflicted injuries, and that he needed to be held under maximum security.

“A person in that situation would not remain in Carnarvon anyway, so the normal process will take place. We’ll put extra security measures for obvious reasons,” Western Australia Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said at a news conference in Perth.

Kelly was taken into custody on Wednesday morning after a tip led police to a suburban home in Carnarvon, Australia, where Cleo was found unharmed.

Cleo had been missing for 18 days after she was abducted from her tent while camping with her family in a remote part of western Australia. The search for her had gained national attention.

Cleo’s family released a statement Friday morning thanking everyone who helped recover their daughter.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in the rescue of our daughter Cleo Smith. In particular, we would like to thank Western Australia Police, all those involved in the initial search, the Carnarvon community, local businesses and of course our family and friends,” the statement said. “We are humbled by the love and support that we have received from not only our local community but the whole of Western Australia and across the country.”

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(NEW YORK) —  Donations have poured in from thousands of “World News Tonight” viewers in the wake of our report on Southern Madagascar, a country on the verge of the world’s first climate change-induced near-famine in modern history.

Unlike other countries, where extreme hunger and near-famine conditions are caused by war, conflict, or isolated weather events, southern Madagascar is facing these conditions because of a years-long drought caused by climate change.

The conditions there make the land here too arid to farm and leading to crop failure. The severe lack of rain has led to depleted food sources and dried-up rivers. Climate change has also led to sandstorms affecting these lands, covering formerly arable land and rendering it infertile.

“World News Tonight” anchor David Muir and his team traveled to Madagascar to report on the worsening situation, as aid organizations and the Malagasy government rush to fill in the gaps of food and water in this region.

Since our report aired Monday, the World Food Programme said they received support from more than 22,000 donors, raising $2.7 million, which will go towards helping the people of southern Madagascar.

Arduino Mangoni, the deputy country director of the World Food Programme in Madagascar, told ABC News he had “never seen people, especially children, in this situation that we’re seeing here.”

“As they cannot plant, it’s affecting their food security,” Patrick Vercammen, the World Food Programme’s emergency coordinator here, told Muir during a visit to Akanka Fokotany, an affected village. “Having sandstorms in this kind of landscape is not something usual and having the effects of sandstorms shows that nature is changing, the environment is changing, and the climate change is affecting this area more than the rest of Madagascar.”

The situation has led to widespread malnutrition affecting more than 1 million people, and pockets of what the United Nations classifies “catastrophic” food insecurity signaling deepening hunger.

Madagascar has produced 0.01 percent of the world’s annual carbon emissions in the last eight decades, but it is suffering some of the worst effects.

“It is not fair…these people have not contributed to climate change because they do not have electricity, they do not have cars etc., and they’re paying probably the highest price in terms of the consequences of climate change,” Mangoni said.

The children are the most affected, with at least half a million kids under the age of five expected to be acutely malnourished, according to the World Food Programme and UNICEF.

In fact, the agencies say about 110,000 children are already in severe condition, suffering irreversible damage to their growth.

As the country enters the lean season – that dangerous time during which people wait for the next successful harvest — the need to provide food to those at risk of starvation has become more urgent. Aid workers warning that, without action, they could run out of food resources by the end of the year.

The World Food Programme is working together with the Malagasy government to alleviate some of the most acute needs in this region; prevent and treat children experiencing malnutrition; and build infrastructure and knowledge to make the population of southern Madagascar more resilient in the face of drought. They’re supporting more than 700,000 people in dire need, and the need is expected to grow.

Click here for more information about the U.N. World Food Programme’s lifesaving support in Madagascar.

Click here to help families in Madagascar.

The World Food Program says:

• $7 provides a month of school meals for a child in need
• $15 provides a month’s worth of lifesaving nutrition to small-scale farmers
• $25 provides 50 mothers with nutritious meals
• $50 provides a child with a year of school meals
• $75 feeds a family of 5 for one month, providing staples like rice, vegetable oil, sugar, salt, flour, beans, and lentils
• $1,000 can feed a family of 5 for one year.

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(PUERTO MORELOS, Mexico) — Two people are dead after a shooting involving alleged drug gangs in a Mexico resort zone Thursday afternoon, authorities said.

The shooting occurred on a beach in Puerto Morelos, south of Cancun, during a confrontation between alleged members of rival groups of drug dealers, according to a statement from the Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office. Two of the alleged gang members died, and there were no additional injuries, the office said. Armed suspects escaped in a stolen motorboat, authorities said.

The stretch of beach is near two resorts, and the shooting sent vacationers running to their hotel rooms.

An American vacationing in Cancun confirmed to ABC News that he heard shots fired while at the Hyatt Ziva Hotel in Puerto Morelos.

Shortly after 2 p.m. local time, Jim Wildermuth, of Atlanta, said he was at the pool outside his room with other guests when they heard “cracks.”

“We kind of looked at each other funny,” Wildermuth said.

They then ran up to their rooms and were told to stay there because there was an active shooter on the property, according to Wildermuth, who said he saw military personnel directing people in front of the hotel.

A Hyatt spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News that they are “aware of a developing situation at Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun.”

“We understand the hotel team immediately engaged local authorities who are on the scene investigating the situation,” the company said, adding that it is “taking steps in an effort to ensure the safety of guests and colleagues.”

Guests at the hotel were deemed safe after the shooting, authorities said.

A spokesperson for the Azul Beach Resort Riviera Cancun, which is located near the Hyatt Ziva Cancun, told ABC News it has no comment at this time.

The shooting comes nearly two weeks after two female tourists were killed during an apparent drug gang shootout in the Mexico resort destination of Tulum. Three tourists were wounded in the Oct. 23 shooting.

ABC News’ Josh Margolin and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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