others
What happens if I get COVID-19 while traveling?
What happens if I get COVID-19 while traveling?
Depending on your destination, it could result in an unexpected change in plans, such as being required to stay isolated in a hotel.
It’s why the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that you have backup plans ready if you’re traveling abroad. You might have to stay longer than planned if you test positive.
In some places, you won’t be able to board flights until you test negative. In others, you might also be required to stay in a quarantine facility.
Since results from a PCR test can remain positive for weeks after an infection, those who have had COVID-19 might have to get documentation from a doctor or health authorities saying they’ve recovered. Some travel only requires an antigen test.
Read: US official: Russia plans to annex parts of eastern Ukraine
If you end up needing medical treatment, check with your embassy for suggested health care providers. Keep in mind that some countries still have overwhelmed health care systems due to the pandemic.
Plan time for recovery since some countries — including the U.S. — require a negative test for reentry. Exceptions to this policy may be granted on an “extremely limited” basis, such as in the event of an emergency medical evacuation or humanitarian crisis, says the CDC.
It also helps to be financially prepared to pay unexpected bills. While it varies country to country, travelers are often responsible for costs associated with any isolation or medical treatments needed.
Travel companies suggest getting insurance that will cover the cost of treatment, isolation or rescheduled travel plans. Some countries require that you have insurance before you’re allowed to enter.
Modi vows to bolster ties with Europe amid Ukraine crisis
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday vowed to bolster ties with India's European partners in the country's quest for "peace and prosperity", ahead of his tour of Germany, Denmark and France amid the Russia-Ukraine war.
Modi will first travel to Germany on May 2, where he is slated to hold bilateral talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and address the Indian diaspora. From Germany, he will go to Denmark and will have a brief stopover in Paris on his way back home on May 4.
In a pre-departure statement, Modi said,
"My visit to Europe comes at a time when the region faces many challenges and choices... I intend to strengthen the spirit of cooperation with our European partners, who are important companions in India’s quest for peace and prosperity."
In Berlin, Modi is slated to hold bilateral talks with Scholz, and the two "will co-chair the sixth edition of the India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations", according to the Foreign Ministry.
"During his visit, the Prime Minister and German Chancellor Scholz would also jointly address a business event. The Prime Minister will address and interact with the Indian community in Germany."
Also read: Modi congratulates Prez Macron on his re-election
From Germany, Modi will head to Copenhagen. Apart from holding bilateral talks with Danish PM Mette Frederiksen, the Indian PM will participate in the second India-Nordic summit being hosted by Denmark, according to the Foreign Ministry.
At the India-Nordic summit, Modi will also hold talks with Premier Katrín Jakobsdóttir of Iceland, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway, Premier Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and PM Sanna Marin of Finland.
On his return journey on May 4, Modi is scheduled to make a stopover in Paris and meet French President Emmanuel Macron, who was recently re-elected for a second five-year term.
“President Macron has very recently been re-elected, and my visit just 10 days after the result will not only allow me to convey my personal congratulations in-person, but also reaffirm the close friendship between the two countries," Modi said.
"This will also give us the opportunity to set the tone of the next phase of the India-France Strategic Partnership,” according to the Indian PM's statement published on his official website.
Sen. Rand Paul wants to investigate origins of COVID-19
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul promised Saturday to wage a vigorous review into the origins of the coronavirus if Republicans retake the Senate and he lands a committee chairmanship.
Speaking to supporters at a campaign rally, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican denounced what he sees as government overreach in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He applauded a recent judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs.
“Last week I was on an airplane for the first time in two years and didn’t have to wear a mask,” he said, drawing cheers from the partisan crowd. “And you know what I saw in the airport? I saw at least 97% of the other free individuals not wearing masks.”
Paul has clashed repeatedly with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, over the government’s COVID-19 policies and the origins of the virus that caused the global pandemic.
Paul, who is seeking a third term this year in Kentucky, said he’s in line to assume a committee chairmanship if the GOP wins Senate control after the November election. The Senate currently has a 50-50 split, but Democrats have the slim edge because Vice President Kamala Harris is a tie-breaking vote.
“When we take over in November, I will be chairman of a committee and I will have subpoena power,” Paul said. “And we will get to the bottom of where this virus came from.”
The senator, an eye surgeon, continued to offer his theory about the origins of the virus.
“If you look at the evidence, overwhelmingly, not 100%, but overwhelmingly the evidence points to this virus being a leak from a lab,” Paul said.
In the U.S., many conservatives have accused Chinese scientists of developing COVID-19 in a lab and allowing it to leak.
U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China’s leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according a Biden-ordered review that was released last summer.
The scientific consensus remains that the virus most likely migrated from animals in what’s known as a zoonotic transmission. So-called “spillover events” occur in nature, and there are at least two coronaviruses that evolved in bats and caused human epidemics, SARS1 and MERS.
At the Kentucky GOP rally for Paul, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, the state’s senior senator, also pointed to Paul’s opportunity to lead a committee if the GOP wins Senate control.
If that occurs, he said, Paul would become chairman of “one of the most important committees in the Senate — in charge of health, education, labor and pensions.”
McConnell was upbeat about Republican prospects in November.
“I’ve never seen a better environment for us than this year,” said McConnell, who is in line to again become majority leader if the GOP reclaims the Senate.
The rally featured a number of other prominent Kentucky Republicans, including several who are considering running for governor in 2023, when Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear will seek a second term.
In his speech, Paul continued to rail against socialism, saying it would encroach on individual liberties. The senator was first elected to the Senate in the tea party-driven wave of 2010.
“When President Trump said he wanted to ‘Make America Great Again,’ I said, ‘Amen,’” Paul said. “But let’s understand what made America great in the first place, and that’s freedom, constitutionally guaranteed liberty.”
In this year’s Senate race in Kentucky, Charles Booker is by far the best known of a handful of Democrats seeking their party’s nomination for Paul’s seat in the May 17 primary. Paul is being challenged by several little-known candidates in the GOP primary. A general election campaign between Paul and Booker would be a battle between candidates with starkly different philosophies.
Booker, a Black former state lawmaker, narrowly lost a bid for the Senate Democratic nomination in 2020. He is a progressive who touts Medicare for all, anti-poverty programs, a clean-energy agenda and criminal justice changes. Paul, a former presidential candidate, has accumulated a massive fundraising advantage over Booker.
Kentucky has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.
Over 3,000 lost at sea trying to reach Europe in 2021: UN
More than 3,000 people died or went missing last year while trying to cross the Mediterranean and the Atlantic to reach Europe, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
Of the total, 1,924 people were reported to have died or gone missing on the Central and Western Mediterranean routes, and 1,153 on the Northwest African maritime route to the Canary Islands, finds the UNHCR's new report "Protection, saving lives, & solutions for refugees in dangerous Journeys."
Fatalities for 2020, stood at 1,776 for the three routes – reflecting an increase of 478 people since the beginning of this year.
Read: 150 migrants feared dead after boats capsize off Libya coast
Most of the sea crossings took place in packed, unseaworthy, inflatable boats – many of which capsized or were deflated leading to the loss of life, UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said Friday.
The sea journey from West African coastal states, such as Senegal and Mauritania to the Canary Islands, is long and perilous and can take up to 10 days.
Many boats drifted off course or otherwise went missing without a trace in these waters, she said.
Land routes also continue to be highly dangerous, where even more people may have died on journeys through the Sahara Desert and remote border areas, in detention centres, or while being held by smugglers or traffickers.
Extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, sexual and gender-based violence, and forced labour and marriage are just some of the abuses reported by people travelling these routes.
Also, Covid-related border closures impacted movements towards North Africa and European coastal countries, with many desperate refugees and migrants turning to smugglers.
Read: Dozens feared dead in DR Congo boat accident
Continued political instability and conflicts, deteriorating socioeconomic conditions as well as the impact of climate change may increase displacement and dangerous onward movements, Shabia said.
In launching an updated protection and solutions strategy for refugees on dangerous journeys along routes towards Europe across the Central and Western Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic, the UNHCR appealed for support in providing meaningful alternatives to these dangerous journeys and preventing people from becoming victims of traffickers.
The approach calls for increased humanitarian assistance, support and solutions for people in need of international protection and survivors of gross human rights abuses.
It covers some 25 countries across four regions connected by the same land and sea routes – used by migrants, asylum seekers and refugees – and includes countries of origin, departure, first asylum, transit and destination.
Palestinian assailants shoot dead Israeli guard in West Bank
Palestinian assailants shot and killed a security guard at the entrance of a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank late Friday, the Israeli military said, in a fresh attack that could further fuel Israeli-Palestinian tensions that have soared in the past two months.
The Israeli military said early Saturday that the attackers arrived at Ariel settlement entrance and shot the guard in his post before fleeing the scene. The military launched a pursuit of the suspects in the West Bank.
In a separate incident, Israeli troops shot and killed a 27-year-old Palestinian man during clashes at Azoun village near the town of Qalqilya early Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
A string of Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank over the past two months have left 14 Israelis dead.
Hamas, the militant group ruling Gaza, praised the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility for it.
“The operation proves that revolution is raging all over the West Bank,” said spokesman Hazem Qassem. “This is a practical implementation of our people’s declaration that Jerusalem is a red line.”
Read:Israeli military says it bombed home of a top Hamas leader
Tensions increased this month at a major Jerusalem holy site, with Palestinian worshippers clashing daily with Israeli police. The site contains Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, and increasing numbers of Palestinians go there to pray during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Earlier Friday, Palestinians hurled stones and Israeli police fired rubber-coated bullets at the site, which has seen a wave of unrest in recent weeks.
The police say Palestinians inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound began hurling stones and fireworks around dawn in the direction of a heavily guarded gate that leads to the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray. The police advanced into the compound, firing rubber-coated bullets.
The violence ended around an hour later after other Palestinians in the compound intervened, convincing the stone throwers and the police to pull back.
The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said more than 40 people were wounded, with 22 requiring treatment at local hospitals. It said Israeli forces prevented first responders from entering the compound during the clashes, and that one of its medics was beaten by police.
The police did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said in a statement they had arrested three people.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is built on a hilltop that is the most sacred site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of the Jewish temples in antiquity. It has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In recent weeks, Israeli police and Palestinians have clashed there on a number of occasions. Israeli authorities accuse Hamas of inciting violence and say security forces were forced to intervene to halt stone-throwing.
The Palestinians say the presence of Israeli police at the site, and regular visits by increasing numbers of nationalist and religious Jews, are a violation of decades-old informal arrangements governing the site. The visits were halted last week for the last 10 days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which concludes this weekend.
UN works to broker civilian evacuation from Mariupol
The United Nations doggedly sought to broker an evacuation of civilians from the increasingly hellish ruins of Mariupol on Friday, while Ukraine accused Russia of showing its contempt for the world organization by bombing Kyiv when the U.N. leader was visiting the capital.
The mayor of Mariupol said the situation inside the steel plant that has become the southern port city’s last stronghold is dire, and citizens are “begging to get saved.” Mayor Vadym Boichenko added: “There, it’s not a matter of days. It’s a matter of hours.”
Ukraine’s forces, meanwhile, fought to hold off Russian attempts to advance in the south and east, where the Kremlin is seeking to capture the country’s industrial Donbas region. Artillery fire, sirens and explosions could be heard in some cities. And a senior U.S. defense official said the Russian offensive is going much slower than planned in part because of the strength of Ukrainian resistance.
Also read: Allies must ‘double down’ and send Ukraine tanks, jets: UK
In other developments:
— A former U.S. Marine was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, his family said in what would be the war’s first known death of an American in combat. The U.S. has not confirmed the report.
— Ukrainian forces are cracking down on people accused of helping Russian troops. In the Kharkiv region alone, nearly 400 have been detained under anti-collaboration laws enacted after Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion.
— The international sanctions imposed on the Kremlin over the war are squeezing the country. The Russian Central Bank said Russia’s economy is expected to contract by up to 10% this year, and the outlook is “extremely uncertain.”
On Thursday, Moscow’s forces launched a missile attack on a residential high-rise and another building in Kyiv, shattering weeks of relative calm in the capital following Russia’s retreat from the region early this month.
U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said one of its journalists, Vira Hyrych, was killed in the bombardment. Ten people were wounded, one of them losing a leg, authorities said.
The missile strike came barely an hour after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a news conference with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.
“This says a lot about Russia’s true attitude toward global institutions, about attempts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the U.N. and everything the organization represents,” Zelenskyy said.
Also read: A chilling Russian cyber aim in Ukraine: Digital dossiers
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s way of giving “his middle finger” to Guterres.
In an apparent reference to the Kyiv bombing, Russia’s military said it had destroyed “production buildings” at the Artem defense factory.
The missile strike came just as life in Kyiv seemed to be getting back a little closer to normal, with cafes and other businesses starting to reopen and growing numbers of people going out to enjoy the arrival of spring.
Volodymyr Fesenko, a Ukrainian political analyst and head of the Kyiv-based Penta Center think tank, said the attack carried a message: “Russia is sending a clear signal about its intention to continue the war despite the international pressure.”
Getting a full picture of the unfolding battle in the east has been difficult because airstrikes and artillery barrages have made it extremely dangerous for reporters to move around. Both Ukraine and the Moscow-backed rebels fighting in the east also have introduced tight restrictions on reporting from the combat zone.
But so far, Russia’s troops and the separatist forces appear to have made only minor gains.
The U.S. believes the Russians are “at least several days behind where they wanted to be” as they try to encircle Ukrainian troops in the east, said the senior U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the American military’s assessment.
As Russian troops try to move north out of Mariupol so they can advance on Ukrainian forces from the south, their progress has been “slow and uneven and certainly not decisive,” the official said.
In the bombed-out city of Mariupol, around 100,000 people were believed trapped with little food, water or medicine. An estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders and 1,000 civilians were holed up at the Azovstal steel plant.
The Soviet-era steel plant has a vast underground network of bunkers able to withstand airstrikes. But the situation has grown more dire after the Russians dropped “bunker busters” and other bombs.
“Locals who manage to leave Mariupol say it is hell, but when they leave this fortress, they say it is worse,” said Boichenko, the mayor.
U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said the organization was negotiating with authorities in Moscow and Kyiv to create safe passage.
This time, “we hope there’s a slight touch of humanity in the enemy,” the mayor said. Ukraine has blamed the failure of numerous previous evacuation attempts on continued Russian shelling.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV that the real problem is that “humanitarian corridors are being ignored by Ukrainian ultra-nationals.” Moscow has repeatedly claimed right-wing Ukrainians are thwarting evacuation efforts and using civilians as human shields.
Also Friday, two towns in central Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region were hit by Russian rockets, the regional governor said. There was no immediate word on casualties or damage.
Fighting could be heard from Kramatorsk to Sloviansk, two cities about 18 kilometers (11 miles) apart in the Donbas. Columns of smoke rose from the Sloviansk area and neighboring cities. At least one person was reported wounded in the shelling.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to destroy the Donbas and all who live there.
The constant attacks “show that Russia wants to empty this territory of all people,” he said.
“If the Russian invaders are able to realize their plans even partially, then they have enough artillery and aircraft to turn the entire Donbas into stones, as they did with Mariupol.”
The governor of Russia’s Kursk region said that a border post came under mortar attack from Ukraine and that Russian border forces returned fire. He said there were no casualties on the Russian side.
In the village of Ruska Lozava, near Kharkiv, hundreds of people were evacuated after Ukrainian forces retook the city from Russian occupiers, according to the regional governor. Those who fled to Kharkiv spoke of dire conditions under the Russians, with little water or food and no electricity.
“We were hiding in the basement. It was horror. The basement was shaking from the explosions. We were screaming, we were crying and we were praying to God,” said Ludmila Bocharnikova.
A video posted by Ukraine’s Azov battalion showed troops raising the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag over the government building in the center of the village, though fighting continued on the outskirts.
Former U.S. Marine Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was killed Monday while working for a military contracting company that sent him to Ukraine, his mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN.
“He wanted to go over because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for,” she said, “and he wanted to be a part of it to contain it there so it didn’t come here, and that maybe our American soldiers wouldn’t have to be involved in it.”
The Marine Corps said Cancel served four years but was given a bad-conduct discharge and sentenced to five months’ confinement for violating orders. No details on the offense were given.
At least two other foreigners fighting on the Ukrainian side, one from Britain and the other from Denmark, have also been killed.
Ukraine cracks down on ‘traitors’ helping Russian troops
Viktor appeared nervous as masked Ukrainian security officers in full riot gear, camouflage and weapons pushed into his cluttered apartment in the northern city of Kharkiv. His hands trembled and he tried to cover his face.
The middle-aged man came to the attention of Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, after what authorities said were his social media posts praising Russian President Vladimir Putin for “fighting with the Nazis,” calling for regions to secede and labeling the national flag “a symbol of death.”
“Yes, I supported (the Russian invasion of Ukraine) a lot. I’m sorry. … I have already changed my mind,” said Viktor, his trembling voice showing clear signs of duress in the presence of the Ukrainian security officers.
“Get your things and get dressed,” an officer said before escorting him out of the apartment. The SBU did not reveal Viktor’s last name, citing their investigation.
Viktor was one of nearly 400 people in the Kharkiv region alone who have been detained under anti-collaboration laws enacted quickly by Ukraine’s parliament and signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
Also read: Explosions rock Kyiv again as Russians rain fire on Ukraine
Offenders face up to 15 years in prison for collaborating with Russian forces, making public denials about Russian aggression or supporting Moscow. Anyone whose actions result in deaths could face life in prison.
“Accountability for collaboration is inevitable, and whether it will happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow is another question,” Zelenskyy said. “The most important thing is that justice will be served inevitably.”
Although the Zelenskyy government has broad support, even among many Russian speakers, not all Ukrainians oppose the invasion. Support for Moscow is more common among some Russian-speaking residents of the Donbas, an industrial region in the east. An eight-year conflict there between Moscow-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces had killed over 14,000 people even before this year’s invasion.
Also read: Allies must ‘double down’ and send Ukraine tanks, jets: UK
Some businessmen, civic and state officials and members of the military are among those who have gone over to the Russian side, and Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations said more than 200 criminal cases on collaboration have been opened. Zelenskyy has even stripped two SBU generals of their rank, accusing them of treason.
A “registry of collaborators” is being compiled and will be released to the public, said Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s Security Council. He refused to say how many people were targeted nationwide.
Under martial law, authorities have banned 11 pro-Russian political parties, including the largest one that had 25 seats in the 450-member parliament – the Opposition Platform For Life, which was founded by Viktor Medvedchuk, a jailed oligarch with close ties to Putin.
Authorities say pro-Russian activists in southeastern Ukraine, the scene of active fighting, are acting as spotters to direct shelling.
“One of our key goals is to have no one stab our armed forces in the back,” said Roman Dudin, head of the Kharkiv branch of the SBU, in an interview with The Associated Press. He spoke in a dark basement where the SBU moved its operations after its building in central Kharkiv was shelled.
The Kharkiv branch has been detaining people who support the invasion, call for secession and claim that Ukrainian forces are shelling their own cities.
Allegations of collaborating with the enemy carry strong historic resonance in Ukraine. During World War II, some in the region welcomed and even cooperated with invading forces from Nazi Germany after years of Stalinist repression that included the “Holodomor” – a man-made famine believed to have killed more than 3 million Ukrainians. For years afterward, Soviet authorities cited the cooperation of some Ukrainian nationalists with the Nazis as a reason to demonize today’s democratically elected leaders of Ukraine.
Human rights advocates know of “dozens” of detentions of pro-Russian activists in Kyiv alone since the new laws were passed, but how many have been targeted nationwide is unclear, said Volodymyr Yavorskyy, coordinator at the Center for Civil Liberties, one of Ukraine’s largest human rights groups.
“There is no complete data on the (entire) country, since it is all classified by the SBU,” Yavorskyy told AP.
“Ukrainian authorities are actively using the practice of Western countries, in particular the U.K., which imposed harsh restrictions on civic liberties in warring Northern Ireland. Some of those restrictions were deemed unjustified by human rights advocates, but others were justified, when people’s lives were in danger,” he said.
A person in Ukraine can be detained for up to 30 days without a court order, he said, and antiterrorism legislation under martial law allows authorities not to tell defense attorneys about their clients being remanded.
“In effect, these people disappear, and for 30 days there’s no access to them,” Yavorskyy said. “In reality, (law enforcement) has powers to take anyone.”
The government knows the implications of detaining people over their opinions, including that it risks playing into Moscow’s line that Kyiv is repressing Russian speakers. But in wartime, officials say, freedom of speech is only part of the equation.
“The debate about the balance of national security and ensuring freedom of speech is endless,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told AP.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights office, said her agency has documented “cases of arrests and detention allegedly made by Ukrainian law enforcement authorities, which may involve elements of human rights violations” and is following up with the Ukrainian government.
She said her office is looking into eight cases that “appear to be disappearances of people considered as ‘pro-Russian,’ and we have documented two cases of unlawful killings of ‘pro-Russians,’” along with cases of vigilantism, in which law enforcement and others punish those suspected of being pro-Russian,
In the town of Bucha, now a symbol of horrific violence in the war, Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said collaborators gave invading troops the names and addresses of pro-Ukrainian activists and officials in the city outside Kyiv, with hundreds of civilians shot to death with their hands tied behind their backs or their bodies burned by Russian forces.
“I saw these execution lists, dictated by the traitors -– the Russians knew in advance who they’re going to, at what address, and who lives there,” said Fedoruk, who saw his own name on one list. “Of course, Ukrainian authorities will search for and punish these people.”
In the besieged port city of Mariupol, officials accused collaborators of helping the Russians cut off electricity, running water, gas and communications in much of the city.
“Now I understand perfectly why the Russians were carrying out such precise, coordinated strikes on objects of critical infrastructure, knew about all locations and even times when Ukrainian buses evacuating refugees were supposed to depart,” said Mayor Vadym Boychenko.
Political analysts say the invasion and the brutality by Russian troops against civilians have turned off many Moscow sympathizers. Still, many such supporters remain.
“Russian propaganda took deep roots and many residents of the east who watch Russian TV channels believe absurd claims that it’s Ukrainians who are shelling them and other myths,” Volodymyr Fesenko of the Penta Center think tank told AP. “Naturally, Ukrainian authorities in the southeast are afraid of getting stabbed in the back and are forced to tighten security measures.”
Unlike Viktor, whose Kharkiv apartment was raided, 86-year-old Volodymir Radnenko didn’t seem surprised when Ukrainian security arrived to search his flat Saturday after detaining his son, Ihor. The military said the son was suspected of helping the Russians in shelling of the city — some of which occurred in Radnenko’s neighborhood about 15 minutes before the officers showed up, with the smell of smoke lingering. At least two people were killed and 19 others wounded in the region.
“He is used to thinking that Russia is all there is,” Radnenko told AP after the officers left. “I ask him: ’So who is shelling us? It’s not our (people), it’s your fascists.’ And he only gets angry at that.”
Small solutions, big impacts: How five community-based projects tackling climate
There are many small-scale, community-driven initiatives making a huge difference in people's lives and contributing to efforts to curb global warming.
In early April, 29 countries pledged more than $5 billion to the UN-backed Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The Fund said this was "record support, providing a major boost to international efforts to protect biodiversity and curb threats to climate change, plastics and toxic chemicals."
The GEF is a multilateral fund that serves as a financial mechanism for several environmental conventions – including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
It has its Small Grants Program (SGP) which grants up to $50,000 directly to local communities, including indigenous peoples, community-based organisations and other non-governmental groups investing in projects related to healing the planet.
The initiative is implemented in 127 countries by the UN Development Program (UNDP) which provides technical support to selected local projects that conserve and restore the environment while enhancing people's wellbeing and livelihoods.
Indigenous women solar engineers bringing light to rural Belize
Baby formula industry must end 'misleading' online marketing: WHO
The $55 billion baby formula industry must end exploitative online marketing targeting parents, particularly mothers, the UN health agency said in a new report published Friday.
The study found companies are paying social media platforms and influencers to gain direct access to pregnant women and mothers at some of the most vulnerable moments in their lives, through personalised content that is often not recognisable as advertising.
Methods used include apps, virtual support groups or "baby clubs," promotions and competitions, as well as advice forums or services.
This pervasive marketing is increasing purchases of breast-milk substitutes, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, dissuading mothers from breastfeeding exclusively, as recommended by the agency.
The promotion of commercial milk formulas should have been terminated decades ago, said Dr Francesco Branca, director of the WHO's nutrition and food safety department.
Read: WHO recommends Pfizer's Covid pill Paxlovid
"The fact that formula milk companies are now employing even more powerful and insidious marketing techniques to drive up their sales is inexcusable and must be stopped," he added.
The report "Scope and impact of digital marketing strategies for promoting breast-milk substitutes," is the second in a series and follows an initial study, published in February, on how the marketing of formula milk influences people's decisions on infant feeding.
It summarises findings of new research that sampled and analysed four million social media posts about infant feeding published between January and June 2021 using a commercial social listening platform.
The posts reached nearly 2.5 billion people and generated more than 12 million likes, shares, or comments.
Formula milk companies post content on their social media accounts around 90 times per day, reaching 229 million users – three times the number of people reached by informational posts about breastfeeding from non-commercial accounts – according to the study.
The authors compiled evidence from social listening research on public online communications and individual country reports of research that monitors breast-milk substitute promotions.
They drew on a recent international study of mothers' and health professionals' experiences with formula milk marketing.
Read: WHO says global COVID cases, deaths declined again last week
Studies revealed how misleading marketing reinforces myths about breastfeeding and breast milk and undermines women's confidence in their ability to breastfeed successfully.
The proliferation of global digital marketing of formula milk blatantly breaches a landmark international code on the marketing of breast-milk substitutes, adopted 40 years ago, the WHO said.
The agreement is designed to protect the general public and mothers from aggressive marketing practices by the baby food industry that negatively impact breastfeeding practices.
The WHO said the fact that these forms of digital marketing can evade the scrutiny of national monitoring and health authorities, shows new approaches to code-implementing regulation and enforcement are required.
Despite clear evidence that exclusive and continued breastfeeding are key determinants of improved lifelong health for children, women, and communities, far too few children are breastfed as recommended.
The proportion could fall further if current formula milk marketing strategies continue, the WHO said.
Moderna seeks to be 1st with COVID shots for littlest kids
Moderna is seeking to be the first to offer COVID-19 vaccine for the youngest American children, as it asked the Food and Drug Administration Thursday to clear low-dose shots for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.
Frustrated families are waiting impatiently for a chance to protect the nation’s littlest kids as all around them people shed masks and other public health precautions -- even though highly contagious coronavirus mutants continue to spread. Already about three-quarters of children of all ages show signs they’ve been infected at some point during the pandemic.
Moderna submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration that it hopes will prove two low-dose shots can protect children younger than 6 -- although the effectiveness wasn’t nearly as high in kids tested during the omicron surge as earlier in the pandemic.
“There is an important unmet medical need here with these youngest kids,” Dr. Paul Burton, Moderna’s chief medical officer, told The Associated Press. Two kid-size shots “will safely protect them. I think it is likely that over time they will need additional doses. But we’re working on that.”
Latin American nations ease restrictions as COVID cases dropModerna said two kid doses were about 40% to 50% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19, not a home run but for many parents, any protection would be better than none.
That effectiveness is “less than optimal. We were hoping for better efficacy but this is a first step,” said Dr. Nimmi Rajagopal of Cook County Health in Chicago. She’s anxiously awaiting vaccinations for her youngest patients and her own 3-year-old son who’s ready to enter preschool.
Read: New tests to decide Shanghai reopening as Beijing stocks up
“It gives me such peace of mind to know that hopefully by fall I’ll get him in school and he’ll be fully vaccinated,” she said.
Now, only children ages 5 or older can be vaccinated in the U.S., using rival Pfizer’s vaccine, leaving 18 million younger tots unprotected.
Moderna’s vaccine isn’t the only one in the race. Pfizer is soon expected to announce if three of its even smaller-dose shots work for the littlest kids, months after the disappointing discovery that two doses weren’t quite strong enough.
Whether it’s one company’s shots or both, FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said the agency will “move quickly without sacrificing our standards” in deciding if tot-sized doses are safe and effective.
While questions are swirling about what’s taking so long, Marks pointedly told lawmakers earlier this week that the FDA can’t evaluate a product until a manufacturer completes its application. In a statement Thursday, the FDA said it will schedule a meeting to publicly debate Moderna’s evidence with its independent scientific advisers but that the company still must submit some additional data. Moderna expects to do so next week.
“It’s critically important that we have the proper evaluation so that parents will have trust in any vaccines that we authorize,” Marks told a Senate committee.
If FDA clears vaccinations for the littlest, next the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would have to recommend who needs them -- all tots or just those at higher risk from COVID-19.
“It’s very important to get the youngest children vaccinated” but “moving quickly doesn’t mean moving sloppily,” said Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician and public health expert at Boston College. FDA must “see if it’s safe. They need to see if it’s effective. And they need to do so swiftly. But they won’t cut corners.”
Many parents are desperate for whichever vaccine gets to the scientific finish line first.
“We’ve been kind of left behind as everybody else moves on,” said Meagan Dunphy-Daly, a Duke University marine biologist whose 6-year-old daughter is vaccinated -- but whose 3-year-old and 18-month-old sons are part of Pfizer’s trial.
The family continues to mask and take other precautions until it’s clear if the boys got real vaccine or dummy shots. If it turns out they weren’t protected in the Pfizer study and Moderna’s shots are cleared first, Dunphy-Daly said she’d seek them for her sons.
Read: UN secretary-general arrives in Ukraine
“I will feel such a sense of relief when I know my boys are vaccinated and that the risk of them getting a serious infection is so low,” she said.
The FDA will face some complex questions.
In a study of 6,700 kids ages 6 months through 5 years, two Moderna shots — each a quarter of the regular dose — triggered high levels of virus-fighting antibodies, the same amount proven to protect young adults, Burton said. There were no serious side effects, and the shots triggered fewer high fevers than other routine vaccinations.
But depending on how researchers measured, the vaccine proved at best about 51% effective at preventing COVID-19 cases in babies and toddlers and about 37% effective in the 2- to 5-year-olds. Burton blamed the omicron variant’s ability to partially evade vaccine immunity, noting that unboosted adults showed similarly less effectiveness against milder omicron infections. While no children became severely ill during the study, he said high antibody levels are a proxy for protection against more serious illness — and the company will test a child booster dose.
“That’s not totally out of the realm of what we would have expected,” said Dr. Bill Muller of Northwestern University, who helped with Moderna’s child studies. “Down the road I would anticipate it’s going to be a three-shot series.”
Another issue: So far in the U.S., Moderna’s vaccine is restricted to adults. Other countries have expanded the shot to kids as young as 6. But while Moderna has filed FDA applications for older kids, too, the FDA hasn’t ruled on them. Months ago the agency cited concern about a rare side effect, heart inflammation, in teen boys, a concern that hasn’t been reported in much younger children.
It’s not clear if FDA will consider Moderna’s vaccine for children of all ages now or focus first on the littlest. But Muller already has had lots of parents ask why shots were being tested in tots before older kids were vaccinated — and says pediatricians and pharmacists must be ready with answers.
Burton said safety data from millions of older children given Moderna vaccinations abroad should help reassure parents.
While COVID-19 generally isn’t as dangerous in youngsters as adults, some do become severely ill or even die. About 475 children younger than 5 have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic’s start, according to the CDC, and child hospitalizations soared at omicron’s peak.
Yet it’s not clear how many parents intend to vaccinate the youngest kids. Less than a third of children ages 5 to 11 have had two vaccinations, and 58% of those ages 12 to 17.