Times Of Harvard

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his countrymen ‘are not afraid’ after Russia moved to recognise the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and hours later said it would deploy troops there to “maintain peace”. An urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council took place on the deepening Ukraine crisis as the US said the announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin was an “unprovoked violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”. Western countries have repeatedly warned Russia not to officially recognise the separatist regions in Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia has been massing its forces around Ukraine’s borders for weeks, raising concern among the US and other Western governments that it might be planning to invade the country. Moscow has insisted it has no plans to do so.

Mali called on France Wednesday to “restrain itself” from delivering “unfriendly and derogatory” remarks against the military government of the West African country. The “unfriendly and derogatory remarks” are likely to “harm the development of friendly relations between the nations,” the Malian Foreign Ministry said in a brief message to Anadolu Agency . The statement came after the Malian Foreign Ministry Tuesday summoned the French ambassador to Bamako to express its “displeasure” after French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the Malian government. The verbal exchange was sparked by Macron’s remarks on Mali last Thursday, made on the sidelines of the Africa 2020 event at the Elysee Palace – where he questioned the legitimacy of the current government in Mali. “We presided over the national tribute to Sergeant Maxime Blasco (a French soldier killed in Mali on Sept. 24) and he is buried among his own. What the Malian prime minister said is unacceptable. This is a disgrace. And it ...

NATO canceled the accreditation of eight members of the Russian mission on Wednesday, saying they were "undeclared Russian intelligence officers." A NATO official said the alliance reduced the number of positions Russia can accredit from 20 to 10. Noting that NATO's policy to Russia remains consistent, the official said: "We have strengthened our deterrence and defense in response to Russia's aggressive actions, while at the same time we remain open for a meaningful dialogue." According to Russian news agency Interfax , Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian lower house of parliament's international affairs committee, said: "Moscow would retaliate." Relations between NATO and Russia have been strained, especially after the country’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny last year. NATO canceled the accreditation of seven Russian officials in 2018 for the poisoning of former Russi...

British police investigating the killing of a 28-year-old woman in London said Thursday they are probing whether she was attacked by a stranger, in a case that sparked new concerns for the safety of women walking the capital's streets. The Metropolitan Police are calling for information over the killing of primary school teacher Sabina Nessa on Sept. 17 in Kidbrooke, southeast London. Detectives believe she was attacked during what would have been a five-minute walk through a local park on her way to meet a friend at a pub. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said authorities are recruiting more police officers and had introduced a strategy to tackle violence against women and girls earlier this year. London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Thursday described the violence against women as a national “epidemic." “We have to got give this issue the same seriousness we give other issues,” he told ITV. More than 180 women have been killed by men across England from March 2020,...

 In the shadow of a fortified Capitol, a few hundred demonstrators turned up Saturday for a rally to support those charged in January’s riot, but were vastly outnumbered by the media and a heavy police presence. U.S. Capitol Police were taking no chances, with hundreds of officers brought into Washington in an effort to avoid a repeat of the pre-inauguration attack. The fence around the Capitol was put back up, the city police force was fully activated and Capitol Police requested assistance from the National Guard. There were a few scuffles as the rally started and one person was arrested for carrying a knife, police said, but no major incidents were reported early on. Still, law enforcement officials remained on edge, concerned about the possibility of violent protesters and counterprotesters. Police were also preparing for the possibility that some demonstrators may arrive with weapons, though backpacks were allowed into the area and there were no checkpoints.  The rally wa...

Just one month ago, President Joe Biden and his health advisers announced big plans to soon deliver a booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine to all Americans. But after campaigning for the White House on a pledge to “follow the science,” Biden found himself uncharacteristically ahead of it with that lofty pronouncement. Some of the nation’s top medical advisers on Friday delivered a stinging rebuke of the idea, in essence telling the White House: not so fast. A key government advisory panel overwhelmingly rejected Biden’s plan to give COVID-19 booster shots across the board and instead recommended the extra vaccine dose only for those who are age 65 or older or who run a high risk of severe disease. Biden’s Aug. 18 announcement that the federal government was preparing to shore up nearly all Americans’ protection had been made with great fanfare. It was meant to calm the nerves of millions of Americans fearful of a new, more transmissible strain of the coronavirus. “The plan is for ev...

 China is prepared to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan if it succeeds in toppling the Western-backed government in Kabul, U.S. News has learned, a prospect that undercuts the Biden administration's remaining source of leverage over the insurgent network as it continues its startling campaign to regain control. Beijing has publicly pressured the Taliban to continue working toward a peace agreement with President Ashraf Ghani's government – an outcome China appears to genuinely prefer and one the U.S. has pressed with growing urgency. However, new Chinese military and intelligence assessments of the realities on the ground in Afghanistan have prompted leaders in the Chinese Communist Party to prepare to formalize their relationship with the insurgent network, according to multiple U.S. and foreign intelligence sources familiar with the Chinese assessments. The move comes as the Taliban has been routing Afghan forces – as of Thursday afternoon it had ov...

One person has been killed and four others are missing after an explosion rocked an industrial park housing several chemical companies in Germany’s western city of Leverkusen. Tuesday’s explosion at the waste management facility of the Chempark site, which houses chemical companies including Bayer and Lanxess, took place shortly before 10am local time (08:00 GMT) It sent a large black cloud into the air and sparked a fire, though the blaze was later extinguished. The city of Leverkusen said in a statement that the blast occurred in storage tanks for solvents. It said 16 people were injured, four of them seriously. “We are deeply concerned about this tragic accident and the death of our employee,” the head of Chempark, Lars Friedrich, said in a written statement. It took firefighters almost four hours to extinguish the fire that took hold after the blast. Germany’s Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance initially classified the incident as “an extreme threat” and ur...

Top infectious disease official Anthony Fauci indicated on Sunday that the most "vulnerable" individuals will be "among the first" to receive a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine. In an interview with US broadcaster CNN, Fauci said: "Those who are transplant patients, cancer chemotherapy, auto-immune diseases, that are on immunosuppressant regimens, those are the kind of individuals that if there's going to be a third booster, which might likely happen, would be among first." Citing recent studies that show there might be waning immunity in vaccinated people, Fauci said health officials are reviewing data to determine when boosters might be needed. "It's a dynamic situation. It's a work in progress, it evolves like in so many other areas of the pandemic," Fauci said. "You've got to look at the data." Infections are on the rise once again in the United States as the country hits a brick wall against those reluctant to ...

Thousands of Europeans took to the streets in France, Italy and Greece on Saturday to demonstrate against coronavirus restrictions and mandatory vaccination policies. In France, some 160,000 demonstrators expressed anger towards French President Emmanuel Macron and the government in Paris and other major cities. The protesters are incensed by a new bill requiring citizens to have a pass showing proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test result to enter restaurants and other public areas. The legislation was passed by the lower house of parliament on Friday, but is still being debated in the Senate. The French demonstrators shouted slogans such as "No to the pass of the shame," while other protesters carried placards calling Macron a "tyrant."  The protesters clashed with police in the French capital, with authorities deploying tear gas and water cannons on marchers. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin condemned violence towards police and said nine people ha...

  A surge of coronavirus cases in several Middle Eastern countries could have dire consequences, aggravated by the spread of the Delta variant and low vaccine availability, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday. After a decline in cases and deaths in the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region for eight weeks, the agency said there had been significant increases in cases in Libya, Iran, Iraq and Tunisia, with sharp rises expected in Lebanon and Morocco. Next week countries across the region will mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, which traditionally includes religious and social gatherings where infections could spread. "WHO is concerned that the current COVID-19 upsurge may continue to peak in the coming weeks, with catastrophic consequences," the agency's regional office said in a statement. A lack of adherence to public health and social measures and "increasing complacency by communities", as well as low vaccination rates and the spread of new var...

 Violence and looting has raged in South Africa for the sixth day running, stoking fears of food and fuel shortages as disruption to farming, manufacturing and oil refining began to bite amid the country’s worst unrest in decades. More than 70 people have died as grievances over the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma have widened into an outpouring of anger over the inequality that remains 27 years after the end of apartheid. Poverty has been exacerbated by severe social and economic restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. More than 1,200 people have been arrested in the lawlessness that has raged in poor areas of two provinces, where a community radio station was ransacked and forced off the air on Tuesday and some COVID-19 vaccination centres were closed, disrupting urgently needed inoculations. Many of the deaths in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces occurred in chaotic stampedes as thousands of people stole food, electric appliances, liquor and clothing from ...

 Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger lamented the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and hinted that they may have to return to the conflict area. "It is a crushing defeat, and I'm really sad about it honestly," Kinzinger said during his appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press Sunday. "The Taliban always had a saying: 'America has the watches but we have the time,'" said the congressman. "I'm proud of the American people for sticking by this mission for 20 years, we actually needed to do it longer." "The Taliban have outlasted the will of the United States...and we may have to go back now," he added. Kinzinger's description of the situation agreed with an article published by The Economist on Saturday, whose headline called the war in Afghanistan a "crushing defeat," as the Taliban has continued to make a comeback in the country without U.S. troop intervention. President Joe Biden announced plans to w...

More than 3.44 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered worldwide, according to figures Monday on Our World in Data, a tracking website affiliated with Oxford University. China leads the global count with over 1.38 billion jabs, followed by India with 377.35 million. The list continued with mostly Western countries, with the US having administered 334.15 million shots, Brazil 114.46 million, Germany 81.94 million, the UK 80.65 million, Japan 60.26 million, and France 59.12 million. Turkey ranked ninth on the list with over 58.3 million doses, followed by Italy, Indonesia and Mexico. The country with the most doses administered by population is the United Arab Emirates, with 161.11 doses per 100 people. Following the UAE are the island nations of Malta with 159.86 doses per 100 people and Seychelles with 141.98, Iceland 132.44, San Marino 131.59, Bahrain 128.89, Israel 126.2, Chile 125.83, Uruguay 123.04, Mongolia 118.96, the UK 118.8, Qatar 117.91, Faeroe Islands 11...

A Jordanian court has sentenced a former royal aide and a minor royal to 15 years in jail on charges of attempting to destabilise the monarchy. Bassem Awadallah, who has United States citizenship and once served as a top aide to King Abdullah II, and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a member of the royal family, were found guilty of sedition and incitement charges on Monday. The court said it had confirmed evidence backing the charges against the pair and that they had been determined to harm the monarchy by pushing former heir to the throne Prince Hamzah as an alternative to the king. Bin Zaid was sentenced to another year in prison and 1,000 dinars ($1,400) for drug abuse, Petra news agency reported. The charges have exposed rifts within the ruling Hashemite family that has been a beacon of stability in a volatile region in recent years. Awadallah, a former finance minister who was a driving force behind Jordan’s liberal economic reforms, was charged with agitating to undermine the political ...

The United Nations Security Council is set to discuss a bitter regional dispute over a massive dam built by Ethiopia on the main tributary of the Nile River. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is the source of an almost decade-long diplomatic standoff between Ethiopia and downstream nations Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia says the project is essential to its development, but the governments in Cairo and Khartoum fear it could restrict their citizens’ water access. Thursday’s open session comes after Egypt and Sudan turned to the 15-member body as Ethiopia began this week the second stage of filling GERD. The government in Addis Ababa insists the African Union (AU) should resume handling the talks. On Tuesday, the UN called on the three countries to recommit to talks on the project’s operation and urged them to avoid any unilateral action. “Solutions to this need to be guided by example … by solutions that have been found for others who share waterways, who share rivers, and that is b...

  A series of attacks between US forces in Iraq and independent Iraqi militias has resulted in death of a number of high-ranking US and Israeli military officials. Last week, the Iraq's People's Mobilization Forces (PMF) launched a series of attacks against US bases in Iraq. In June 27 attack, three missiles hit the US headquarters at the US base in Erbil injuring f our people, including two high-ranking military personnel, according to senior US military official James Hurdel. The injured officials included  Lt. Col. James C. Willis of the U.S. Army and Colonel Sharon Asman of the Israeli Defence Force The injured were immediately taken to Al Udeid Air Base Hospital in Qatar. Next day, only one person survived and three other officials lost their lives. According to the reports, the bodies of the victims were then reportedly sent to the capitals of their home countries. The funeral of Lt. Col. James C. Willis was held on July 1 in his hometown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Acco...

Saudi Arabia's former commander in charge of the coalition war in Yemen has been sentenced to death following a military trial, according to a report yesterday by the Washington DC-based Institute for Gulf Affairs. The report cited one of his relatives, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Fahd Bin Turki Bin Abdulaziz, a senior Saudi prince, and nephew of King Salman was apparently sentenced to death for treason after being accused of attempting a coup to oust the king and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The source is said to have revealed text messages he received from a former senior official in Riyadh, confirming the charges and the death sentence. In September last year, it was reported that Bin Turki was sacked from his position along with his son, Prince Abdulaziz Bin Fahd, who was a deputy governor of Al-Jawf region. Both were arrested during an investigation into corruption. At the time, a prominent Saudi whistle-blower, known online as Mujtahidd, claimed that th...

 Four Saudis who took part in the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul are claimed to have been given paramilitary training in the US. The training was provided by the security company Tier 1 Group, which is owned by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, under a contract approved by the US State Department, according to The New York Times. Cerberus advertises itself as a "global leader in alternative investing." Former Vice President Dan Quayle is Chairman of Cerberus Global Investments and a member of Cerberus's senior leadership team. The training was provided by the Arkansas-based security company Tier 1 Group, which is owned by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. The company says the training — including "safe marksmanship" and "countering an attack" — was defensive in nature and devised to better protect Saudi leaders. One person familiar with the training said it also included work in surveillance ...

Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing George Floyd, a Black man, was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison Friday. Chauvin, 45, was convicted in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for up to 9 1/2 minutes as the 46-year-old Floyd gasped that he could not breathe and went limp. Bystander video of Floyd’s arrest on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a corner store prompted protests around the world and led to scattered violence in Minneapolis and beyond. Judge’s justification Following emotional testimony Friday from Floyd’s family and Chauvin’s mother, along with brief condolences from Chauvin himself, Judge Peter Cahill said the sentence was not based on emotion, sympathy or public opinion. “I’m not going to attempt to be profound or clever because it’s not the appropriate time,” Cahill said, explaining his reasoning would be laid ou...