Month: May 2021

A majority of Americans across racial and ethnic groups believe discrimination has worsened in the last year against Asian Americans, who became the target of attacks after being unfairly blamed for the coronavirus pandemic. A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 60% of Americans say discrimination against Asian Americans has swelled compared with a year ago, including 71% of Asian Americans, 66% of Black Americans, 59% of white Americans and 55% of Hispanic Americans. Nearly half of Americans believe Asian Americans encounter “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of discrimination in the U.S. today. The poll also finds about 6 in 10 Americans say racism in the U.S. in general is a “very” or “extremely” serious problem. And a majority of Asian Americans say they feel unsafe in public because of their race. Susan Lee of Sacramento, California, said friends initiated conversations with her about racism as random attacks on Asians became more frequent, but the 72-year-old Chinese American noted a key difference between friends who were Asian and non-Asian. FILE – People hold placards as they gather to protest anti-Asian hate crimes, racism and vandalism, outside City Hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, March 28, 2021.”My non-Asian friends are probably more astonished that this is occurring,” Lee said. “I think Chinese or ‘Asians’ have always been looked at as a positive asset. I think they are puzzled by that situation.” Barbara Canchola, 76, of El Paso, Texas, said she would have answered “not at all” if she had been asked pre-pandemic if Asian Americans face racism. Canchola, who identifies as Hispanic, said she associated anti-Asian discrimination as something way in the past like Japanese American internment camps during World War II. “I really wouldn’t think they are facing any kind of discrimination because I happen to think they’re very well educated — most of them — and they don’t face that much scrutiny,” Canchola said. “However, ever since the pandemic began and it was labeled a ‘China thing,’ that’s where it all began.” She attributes her new outlook to all the television coverage “where the people are being assaulted on the street out of the blue.” Renee Tajima-Pena, an Asian American Studies professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and co-producer of the PBS docuseries “Asian Americans,” isn’t surprised some people have never thought of Asian Americans as victims. The dominant narrative has always been they are successful, don’t speak up and, therefore, encounter little racism. “The model minority myth is such a drug for Americans,” Tajima-Pena said. Between March 2020 and this past March, more than 6,600 anti-Asian hate incidents have been documented by Stop AAPI Hate, a national reporting center. The encounters range from verbal harassment to attacks that ended fatally, including the March 16 Atlanta-area shootings that killed six Asian women. The Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that Asian-targeted hate crimes in the largest U.S. cities rose 145% in 2020 compared with 2019, even though hate crimes overall declined 6%. In the first quarter of this year, anti-Asian crimes reported to police in 16 major cities and counties jumped 164% from the same time period last year. “That’s why people understand now the violence Asian Americans face,” Tajima-Pena said. “People couldn’t avoid it in the press or the national conversation. People are gathering data and talking about it.” FILE – Members of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles drive with signs reading “#Stop Asian Hate,” in a caravan around Koreatown, March 19, 2021.Fifty-seven percent of Asian Americans say they feel unsafe in public “often” or “sometimes” because of their race, similar to the share of Black Americans and higher than the share of Hispanic or white Americans. Because the survey was conducted in English and Spanish, it is representative of the English-speaking Asian American population but may not include those who primarily speak a language other than English. Glendon Yuri-Sweetland, 34, of Brewer, Maine, blames former President Donald Trump for the increased discrimination against Asian Americans. Trump’s constant referrals to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” and other racist terms are still embedded in a lot of minds, he said. “As my husband would say, ‘It’s only stirring the pot,'” Yuri-Sweetland said. “But I think that even just having that platform for a while, our former president probably has had enough exposure to get his message out.” Close to half of Americans are “very” or “extremely” concerned that incidents of violence targeting Asian Americans have increased because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the poll, including about two-thirds of Asian Americans. President Joe Biden last week signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. The legislation will put a Justice Department official in charge of a review of anti-Asian hate crimes and will allot federal grants for law enforcement training and hate crime hotlines. Tajima-Pena believes the visibility of Asian Americans outside of their communities has fundamentally changed in the past year and it isn’t going to fade. And videos like the one showing the brutal beating of a Filipino American woman in New York City as three people stood by and watched have undoubtedly contributed to the greater awareness. “I think the narrative is shifting,” Tajima-Pena said. “It’s like 2020 was really the year where our response was ‘Stop AAPI hate’. … The flip side of it is in 2021, people are really looking at solutions and solidarity.” 
 
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U.S. President Joe Biden condemned the six-month conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region Wednesday, calling for a cease-fire and declaring that human rights abuses “must end.””I am deeply concerned by the escalating violence and the hardening of regional and ethnic divisions in multiple parts of Ethiopia,” Biden said in a White House statement. “The large-scale human rights abuses taking place in Tigray, including widespread sexual violence, are unacceptable and must end.”Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed initially sent troops into Tigray in November after accusing the once-dominant regional ruling party of orchestrating attacks on federal army camps.Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, declared victory later that month when the army entered the regional capital, Mekele.But fighting continues and the half-year conflict has sparked allegations of massacres and rape by Ethiopian forces and troops from neighboring Eritrea.”Belligerents in the Tigray region should declare and adhere to a cease-fire, and Eritrean and Amhara forces should withdraw,” Biden said, referring to the Amhara region, which borders Tigray to the south.Threat of famineEarlier this week, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock warned the Security Council that “there is a serious risk of famine if assistance is not scaled up in the next two months.”Based on the warning, Biden said, “all parties, in particular the Ethiopian and Eritrean forces, must allow immediate, unimpeded humanitarian access to the region in order to prevent widespread famine.”For the first time on Wednesday, Abiy’s government disclosed the toll of attacks by Tigrayan forces, who federal officials have long claimed would be unable to mount an effective insurgency.Ethiopia said it had recorded 22 dead officials, 20 others who had been “kidnapped,” and four more who were “wounded and hospitalized.”Some of the conflict’s worst atrocities, including mass rapes and massacres, are believed to have left hundreds dead.”The government of Ethiopia and other stakeholders across the political spectrum should commit to an inclusive dialogue,” Biden said, urging the country’s leaders and institutions to “promote reconciliation, human rights and respect for pluralism.””The United States is committed to helping Ethiopia address these challenges,” Biden said, indicating that US special envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman would return to the region next week.
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Amid growing speculation that COVID-19 might have leaked from a Chinese laboratory, U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday instructed federal agencies “to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion.”Biden, in a statement, told the U.S. intelligence community “to report back to me in 90 days” after he had received a report this month that had no definitive conclusion.”It will be another whole of government of effort … by our national labs and other agencies,” White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters shortly after the president’s statement was released.U.S. officials have stressed for months that a lack of cooperation from the government in Beijing hinders outside efforts to learn more about the origins of the coronavirus that has killed at least 3.4 million people worldwide, including nearly 600,000 in the United States.The Wall Street Journal on Monday cited a U.S. intelligence report that researchers at a Wuhan, China, lab fell ill in November 2019, a month before the Chinese government reported to the World Health Organization the first cases of the illness that would be designated as COVID-19.”The failure to get our inspectors on the ground in those early months will always hamper any investigation into the origin of COVID-19,” Biden said in his statement.This file photo taken on Feb. 23, 2017 shows workers next to a cage with mice (R) inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, capital of China’s Hubei province.”It is most likely that this is a virus that arose naturally, but we cannot exclude the possibility of some kind of a lab accident,” Dr. Francis Collins, the National Institutes of Health director, told Senate lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday.The WHO, which is to conduct the second phase of an inquiry into the virus’s origins, has faced mounting criticism for dismissing the possibility that the new coronavirus escaped from the Chinese scientific facility, an assumption that officials in Beijing have repeatedly rejected as untrue.Two months ago, the organization concluded in a report that it was “extremely unlikely” that COVID-19 had escaped from the Wuhan lab.Collins told senators that the report “satisfied nobody” and “this time we need a really expert-driven, no-holds-barred collection of information, which is how we’re mostly really going to find out what happened.”NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins holds up a model of the coronavirus as he testifies before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Capitol Hill in Washington, May 26, 2021.Some Republican lawmakers in Washington contend the WHO is not up to the task of determining the origin of the virus, in part because China has undue influence over the organization.”Can we agree that if you took [Chinese] President Xi Jinping and turned him upside and shook him, the World Health Organization would fall out of his pocket?” Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, asked Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during Wednesday’s hearing.”I don’t think I can answer that, sir,” Fauci replied.”Phase two of the COVID origins study must be launched with terms of reference that are transparent, science-based and give international experts the independence to fully assess the source of the virus and the early days of the outbreak,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told the annual meeting of the WHO on Tuesday.Australia, Germany and Japan are among the other countries that have also this week called for the WHO to conduct a more comprehensive investigation. One reason the United States rejoined the WHO was to hold it accountable, said Jean-Pierre, the deputy press secretary, during Wednesday’s White House briefing.”We’ve been very clear with the WHO to get to the bottom of this,” she told reporters.During his administration, then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the WHO over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.In a statement on Tuesday amid growing suspicion that the virus may have escaped a Chinese laboratory, Trump said: “Now everybody is agreeing that I was right when I very early on called Wuhan as the source of COVID-19, sometimes referred to as the China Virus. To me, it was obvious from the beginning, but I was badly criticized, as usual.” 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday ended his Middle East tour to bolster the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip by praising Jordan’s King Abdullah’s “crucial” leadership in helping to secure the truce.“Jordan’s recent contributions to help bring an end to the conflict in Israel demonstrate the kingdom’s enduring role as a force for peace in the region, which is one of the reasons our relationship is so strong and so vital,” Blinken told reporters after meeting with King Abdullah in Amman.Regarding recovery efforts in hard-hit Gaza, Blinken said, “The most urgent thing is humanitarian assistance for the people in Gaza, and particularly water, sanitation, electricity. We all have to come together to answer those immediate needs. Beyond that, reconstruction, rebuilding.”Blinken arrived in Jordan, where half the population of 10 million are of Palestinian origin, after meeting earlier in the day in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.Egypt was heavily involved in achieving the cease-fire in the recent conflict.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi at the Heliopolis Presidential Palace on May 26, 2021.During his meetings in Egypt, Blinken said he spoke with el-Sissi about the release of Americans who have been detained in Egypt.Accent on human rights”I certainly raised this in, in my meeting today, and will continue to do so until Americans are reunited with their families,” Blinken said. “More broadly, I think you know that President Biden takes the issue of human rights and our commitment to human rights very seriously. Indeed, he’s asked us to put it at the heart of our foreign policy.”Blinken began Wednesday by meeting with Israeli President Reuben Rivlin, closing the first leg of his first trip to the Middle East since becoming the top U.S. diplomat.“The Secretary and President Rivlin discussed ways to promote coexistence and tolerance among all citizens of Israel regardless of heritage or background,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. “They reaffirmed the importance of the steadfast U.S.-Israel partnership and the need to promote peace and stability for all.”Price also said Blinken invited Rivlin to visit the United States in the coming weeks.FILE – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pauses while speaking during a joint statement with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, May 25, 2021, in Ramallah, West Bank.After talks Tuesday in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Blinken said he would ask the U.S. Congress for $75 million in assistance for Palestinians in Gaza.”We know that the last round of violence is symptomatic of a larger set of issues that we have to address if we’re going to prevent its recurrence, and that’s what we talked about today,” Blinken said. “We welcome the cease-fire that continues to hold, but that’s not enough. We have to build on the cease-fire and try to move things in a genuinely positive direction.”Two-state solution seen vitalBlinken also reiterated Tuesday the Biden administration’s belief that a two-state solution “is the only way to truly assure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state. And, of course, to give the Palestinians the state that they’re entitled to.”He said the United States would reopen its consulate in Jerusalem, which the Trump administration closed in 2019, and provide $5.5 million in immediate disaster assistance and more than $32 million for a U.N. emergency humanitarian relief campaign.FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken shake hands during a press conference in Jerusalem, May 25, 2021.Blinken said the consulate’s reopening was “an important way for our country to engage with and provide support to the Palestinian people.”Of the U.S.-designated terror group that controls Gaza, Blinken said, “We will work to ensure that Hamas doesn’t benefit from these reconstruction efforts.”Earlier in the day, the secretary of state underscored Israel’s right to defend itself as he visited Jerusalem as part of an effort to build on the cease-fire.Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken said that both Israel and the Palestinians had experienced “profound” losses during the fighting, and that there was a lot of work ahead to restore hope, respect and trust.”Casualties are often reduced to numbers, but behind every number is an individual human being — a daughter, a son, a father, a mother, a grandparent, a best friend,” Blinken said. “And as the Talmud teaches, to lose a life is to lose the whole world, whether that life is Palestinian or Israeli.”Blinken also pledged help to expand economic opportunities for Palestinians both in Gaza and in the West Bank, saying that doing so would provide for a more stable environment that would benefit both Palestinians and Israelis.Netanyahu thanked the United States for its show of support, while warning the militants to maintain the cease-fire.”If Hamas breaks the calm and attacks Israel, our response will be very powerful,” he said.
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Amazon is going Hollywood.
The online shopping giant is buying MGM, the movie and TV studio behind James Bond, “Legally Blonde” and “Shark Tank,” with the hopes of filling its video streaming service with more stuff to watch.
Amazon is paying $8.45 billion for MGM, making it the company’s second-largest acquisition after it bought grocer Whole Foods for nearly $14 billion in 2017.  
The deal is the latest in the media industry that’s aimed at boosting streaming services to compete against Netflix and Disney+. AT&T and Discovery announced on May 17 that they would combine media companies, creating a powerhouse that includes HGTV, CNN, Food Network and HBO.  
Amazon doesn’t say how many people watch its Prime Video service. But more than 200 million have access to it because they’re signed up for its Prime membership, which gives them faster shipping and other perks. Besides Prime Video, Amazon also has a free streaming service called IMDb TV, where Amazon makes money by playing ads during movies and shows.
Buying MGM would give Amazon access to more films, shows and famous characters, including Rocky, RoboCop and Pink Panther. Amazon will also get a cable channel: Epix, which MGM owns.  
Known for its roaring lion logo, MGM is one of the oldest Hollywood studios, founded in 1924 when films were silent. It has a long list of classics in its library, including “Singin’ in the Rain.”
More recent productions include reality TV staples “Shark Tank” and “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” as well as the upcoming James Bond movie “No Time to Die” and an Aretha Franklin biopic called “Respect.”  
Amazon already has its own studio but has had mixed results. Two of its shows, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Fleabag,” won best comedy series Emmys. But many of its films have failed to click with audiences at the box office. Recently, Amazon has been spending on sports and splashy shows. It will stream “Thursday Night Football” next year and is producing a “Lord of the Rings” show, which reportedly cost $450 million for its first season alone.
The deal, which is subject to customary approvals, will make Amazon, already one of the most powerful and valuable companies in the world, even bigger. Regulators around the world are scrutinizing Amazon’s business practices, specifically the way it looks at information from businesses that sell goods on its site and uses it to create its own Amazon-branded products.  
A report by the House Judiciary Committee in October called for a possible breakup of Amazon and others, making it harder for them to buy other businesses and imposing new rules to safeguard competition.
Amazon, founded in 1995 as an online bookstore, has become a $1.6 trillion behemoth that does a little bit of everything. It has a delivery business network that gets orders to people in two days or sooner; sells inhalers and insulin; has a cloud-computing business that powers the apps of Netflix and McDonald’s; and has plans to send more than 3,200 satellites into space to beam internet service to Earth.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Jordan Wednesday on the last leg of a Middle East tour for a meeting with King Abdullah to solidify the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.Blinken arrived in Jordan, where half the population of 10 million are of Palestinian origin, after meeting earlier in the day in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi at the Heliopolis Presidential Palace, May 26, 2021.Egypt was heavily involved in achieving the cease-fire in the recent conflict.His visit to Jordan and Egypt came one day after expressing support for Israel’s security and announcing reconstruction aid for Gaza.“As you know, Egypt played a critical role in helping to broker the cease-fire, and Jordan has long been a voice for peace and stability in the region,” Blinken told reporters Tuesday.Palestinian Shaban Esleem inspects the rubbles of his bookstore which was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes during the Israeli-Palestinian fighting, in Gaza City, May 24, 2021.Earlier in the day, the secretary of state underscored Israel’s right to defend itself as he visited Jerusalem as part of an effort to build on a cease-fire.Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken said that both Israel and the Palestinians experienced “profound” losses during the fighting, and that there is a lot of work ahead to restore hope, respect and trust.”Casualties are often reduced to numbers, but behind every number is an individual human being — a daughter, a son, a father, a mother, a grandparent, a best friend,” Blinken said. “And as the Talmud teaches, to lose a life is to lose the whole world, whether that life is Palestinian or Israeli.”Blinken also pledged help to expand economic opportunities for Palestinians both in Gaza and in the West Bank, saying that doing so would provide for a more stable environment that will benefit both Palestinians and Israelis.Netanyahu thanked the United States for its show of support, while warning the militants to maintain the cease-fire.”If Hamas breaks the calm and attacks Israel, our response will be very powerful,” he said.
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The Taliban called on Afghanistan’s neighbors Wednesday not to allow the United States to use their territory or air space for any future military operations against the war-torn nation. 
  
The Islamist insurgent group issued the warning as Washington plans to reposition some U.S. troops in the region to carry out Afghan counterterrorism missions once U.S. and NATO militaries exit from the landlocked South Asia nation.   
The Taliban cautioned in their statement that facilitating U.S. military operations by neighboring countries in the future will be a “grave historical mistake and a disgrace.” It denounced the presence of foreign forces as “the root cause” of insecurity and war in the region. 
  
“The people of Afghanistan will not remain idle in the face of such heinous and provocative acts,” the group warned without elaborating further.  
  
President Joe Biden announced last month that the remaining an estimated 2,500 American troops, along with thousands of NATO partners, will leave Afghanistan by September 11 to end what he said was the “forever war.”  
  
The drawdown stemmed from a peace-building agreement the United States signed with the Taliban in February 2020. But the insurgents have not reduced violence nor have their U.S.-brokered peace talks with the Afghan government achieved any breakthroughs, raising concerns the country would descend into more chaos and bloodshed once the foreign troop drawdown is complete.  
  
The pact binds the Taliban not to allow Afghan soil for terrorist attacks against the United States and its allies.  
  
However, continuing and intensified hostilities between the Afghan parties to the conflict have raised concerns that transnational terrorist groups, including al-Qaida and Islamic State, could turn Afghanistan again into a sanctuary. 
  
“As we have repeatedly assured others that our soil will not be used against security of others, we are similarly urging others not to use their soil and airspace against our country,” the Taliban reiterated Wednesday. 
  
“If such a step is taken, then the responsibility for all the misfortunes and difficulties lies upon those who commit such mistakes.” 
  
There are no U.S. bases in any of the six countries that border Afghanistan.  
  
Pakistan, which shares a 2,600-kilometer border with Afghanistan, on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of hosting a U.S. Base, or of allowing “kinetic drone” operations in Afghanistan from Pakistani soil.   FILE – In this photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov attends the talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, April 7, 2021.On Monday, Russia’s presidential envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have both assured Moscow that hosting military bases was “impossible” for them, narrowing options for Washington for its military posture once the withdrawal from Afghanistan is complete. 
  
Iran also shares a long border with Afghanistan, but Tehran’s persistent tensions and mistrust with Washington, experts say, leave that option out. 
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A confrontation between two members of U.S. Congress is the latest flash point of political incivility in America. VOA’s Steve Redisch examines the issue.Producer: Kimberlyn Weeks 
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On the first anniversary of the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd in police custody that sparked worldwide protests, U.S. lawmakers have failed to pass comprehensive police reform legislation. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.
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The White House announced Tuesday that President Joe Biden will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva next month, as the administration seeks to restore stability amid worsening bilateral tensions. Some Republican lawmakers have criticized the decision, raising concerns about recent moves by Moscow and its ally Belarus. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.  
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For promoters of wind energy, the change in direction expressed by the current U.S. administration is a refreshing breeze.After four years of former President Donald Trump deriding wind turbines as “ugly, noisy and dangerous” bird-killing symbols of wrong-headed environmentalism, President Joe Biden has set a goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.Biden’s administration predicts as many as 10 million homes could receive power this way, annually eliminating 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.FILE – In this April 23, 2021, file photo, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks during a news briefing at the White House in Washington.On Tuesday, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl and California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a “breakthrough” to push northern and central California offshore wind projects.“It’s an announcement that will set the stage for the long-term development of clean energy and the growth of a brand new made-in-America industry,” said McCarthy.“We’ve been working on this for years and years and years,” Newsom told reporters on a conference call with the government officials, calling development of offshore wind projects one of California’s “top priorities” and a “visionary opportunity” to transition away from nuclear power.Haaland said “demand for offshore wind energy has never been greater.”The initial areas for offshore wind development in the Pacific Ocean potentially could bring as much as 4.6 gigawatts of clean energy to the grid, enough to power 1.6 million American homes, according to McCarthy, who said “the Department of Defense is doing more than its fair share to help us fight the climate crisis.”Because the U.S. military conducts testing, training and operations off the California coast, the Pentagon played a critical role in identifying the new areas for offshore wind development, according to officials.“It’s our view that the world faces a grave and growing climate crisis. Climate change is both a threat to the Department of Defense’s operations around the world and an existential challenge to our ability to maintain resilience here at home,” Kahl told reporters on a conference call. “The Defense Department is committed to working across the U.S. government to find creative solutions that both preserve this military readiness while also facilitating sustainable climate pathways that are essential to our national security.”FILE – Three of Deepwater Wind’s five turbines stand in the water off Block Island, R.I, the nation’s first offshore wind farm, Aug. 15, 2016.Harvesting offshore wind powerThere are currently about 69,000 wind turbines in the United States, almost all of them onshore in rural areas, according to the FILE – California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference near Big Sur, Calif., April 23, 2021.Environmental impactWind farms generate most of their energy at night but, determining how to store what they produce for use during daytime peak demand remains a technical challenge. Solutions being researched include sodium-sulfur and lithium-ion batteries, as well as flywheels and underground caverns of compressed air.“We spent the past few years getting nowhere” in terms of environmental justice, prior to the Biden administration taking office, Newsom said, explaining that the offshore turbines “would not impact diverse communities” but rather benefit them.The projects in California, the nation’s most populous, are likely to be buffeted by some opposition in a state where residents and special interest groups have a reputation for being particularly litigious when it comes to new infrastructure projects, on or offshore.The state plans in an unprecedented manner to fast-track its environmental review process for the new wind farms.“We value process but not the paralysis of a process that takes years and years and years that could be done in a much more focused way,” Newsom told reporters when asked why there should not be a substantial environmental review.Meanwhile, some who live near big wind installations on the U.S. East Coast do not like the towering turbines and have gone to court to oppose them. Residents in the state of Massachusetts filed lawsuits blaming noise and flickering light from the facilities for a variety of medical ailments, including headaches, tinnitus, insomnia and dizziness. The legal battles continue.Fishermen in numerous coastal communities have opposed the planned offshore wind turbines, contending they would interfere with fishing routes and harm catches of commercial species.Despite the concerns, the offshore wind industry has the potential “to create tens of thousands of family-supporting and good-paying union jobs in the clean energy economy,” Haaland told reporters on Tuesday.
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Nearly four months after a coup in Myanmar triggered a prolonged period of violence and upheaval in the country, the Biden administration has designated Myanmar nationals for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), allowing many in the U.S. to be shielded from deportation and obtain work permits.The registration period is set from May 25 to November 22. The A damaged church in which four people taking refuge were killed in an army shelling in Loikaw in Myanmar’s eastern Kayah State, May 24, 2021, as clashes continue in the area between the army and the local rebel fighters. (Credit: Kantarawaddy Times)The coup took place hours before the seating of a new parliament following election results that were seen as rejection to the country’s generals. Security forces reportedly have killed dozens of protesters since the coup. Here in the U.S., the temporary protected status will last 18 months. According to DHS, in addition to demonstrating continuous residence in the United States since March 11, 2021, applicants must undergo security and background checks.But the department added that border restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic remain in place, and citizens still in Myanmar “should not believe smugglers or others claiming the border is now open.”Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said that her organization has resettled in the U.S. about 7,000 Burmese nationals over a period of years.In a statement, Vignarajah commended the Biden administration for extending humanitarian protection to Myanmar nationals.“Burmese nationals in the U.S. are unable to safely return home because of rampant human rights abuses at the hands of the country’s military. This designation recognizes that we cannot in good conscience deport families to a crisis zone where violence, religious persecution of both Christian and Muslim minorities, and a de-facto forced-assimilation policy, still reign,” Vignarajah said.According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, a research center that collects and analyzes immigration court activities, recent data showed there were 602 Burmese nationals facing deportation in U.S. immigration courts. In the 2019 fiscal year, 28 Burmese citizens were deported. 
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The U.S. military estimates that it has completed up to a quarter of its pullout from Afghanistan. “U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) estimates that we have completed between 16-25% of the entire retrograde process,” the command, which oversees operations in Afghanistan, said Tuesday. CENTCOM also said it had removed the equivalent of approximately 160 C-17 planeloads of material from Afghanistan and had turned over more than 10,000 pieces of equipment to the Defense Logistics Agency for disposition. U.S. President Joe Biden announced last month that American troops would leave Afghanistan by September 11, after nearly 20 years of military involvement in the war-torn country. As of Biden’s announcement, at least 2,500 U.S. troops made up part of NATO’s Afghanistan mission, which includes less than 10,000 troops. FILE – U.S. Marines fill sandbags on the frontlines of a U.S. Marine Corps base, near a cardboard sign reminding everyone that Taliban forces could be anywhere, in southern Afghanistan, Dec. 1, 2001.The withdrawal of the U.S.-led NATO force has sparked fears that Afghanistan’s civil war could intensify and spiral out of control. Afghan civilians have been killed in a string of attacks since May 1, when the United States formally began its withdrawal, and the Taliban has made territorial gains across the country, including in Baghlan province in the north, Helmand province in the south, Farah province in the west and Laghman in the east. It is still unclear whether the Taliban will keep its commitment made in February 2020 to remove ties with al-Qaida. The terror group was responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks, which killed some 3,000 people on American soil. U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged the president Tuesday to “reconsider” the decision to withdraw, as his diplomatic and military teams “confront him with the risks and consequences.” “When we’re gone, there is every reason to believe al-Qaida will regroup in its historic safe haven. Giving up the high ground while the enemy is still on the battlefield isn’t a strategic move,” said McConnell. U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida who orchestrated the 2001 attacks, during a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011. U.S. defense officials have argued that planning for how the U.S. will respond to threats from Afghanistan once the pullout is complete is ongoing, hinting in recent weeks that there has been some progress on securing basing agreements to better position U.S. counterterrorism forces. But despite some optimism, administration officials have yet to announce any specific measures. “It’s still a work in progress,” Milancy Harris, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for Special Operations and Combatting Terrorism, told a webinar Tuesday. McConnell noted Afghanistan’s neighbors Iran, Pakistan, and Russian-influenced Central Asian nations “aren’t exactly likely to let us base significant counterterrorism units in their countries.” Harris added that the administration is working every day “to make sure we think through and take a really deliberate planning approach to the withdrawal.” “My emphasis is on scalability and responsiveness,” Harris said, calling U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan until now an example of how the military can work effectively to counter terror groups. VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
 
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The White House says 50% of U.S. adults will become fully vaccinated on Tuesday.
 
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that 49.8% adults, or 128.7 million, had been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
 
The Biden administration has set a goal to have 160 million adults, roughly 70% of the population, vaccinated by July 4.  
 
The race to vaccinate the country comes as the U.S. tries to reach “herd immunity,” when enough Americans are inoculated against the virus that it can no longer spread. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, estimates that between 70% and 85% of people need to be immunized for the country to reach a blanket of protection.
 
Some 49.4% of Americans over the age of 12 have received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 39.3% are fully vaccinated.
 
As more coronavirus restrictions are being lifted, businesses, sports teams and state governments are offering special promotions to persuade young people and others to get vaccinated. The largest incentives are in Ohio, where Governor Mike DeWine announced the state will give away $1 million each to five vaccinated residents ages 18 or older, starting May 26.
 
As more fans return to sporting events, the New York Yankees and the New York Mets professional baseball teams are offering free tickets to fans who get their shots at the ballpark. And ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft are offering free round-trip rides to vaccination sites until July 4.
 
Various bars are offering free beer to patrons 21 and older who got the vaccine, while some restaurants are giving away food to vaccinated customers.   
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