World
Covid deaths lowest since pandemic began: WHO
The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that the number of coronavirus deaths worldwide last week was the lowest reported in the pandemic since March 2020, marking what could be a turning point in the years-long global outbreak.
At a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world has never been in a better position to stop COVID-19.
“We are not there yet, but the end is in sight,” he said, comparing the effort to that made by a marathon runner nearing the finish line. “Now is the worst time to stop running,” he said. “Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap all the rewards of our hard work.”
In its weekly report on the pandemic, the U.N. health agency said deaths fell by 22% in the past week, at just over 11,000 reported worldwide. There were 3.1 million new cases, a drop of 28%, continuing a weeks-long decline in the disease in every part of the world.
Still, the WHO warned that relaxed COVID testing and surveillance in many countries means that many cases are going unnoticed. The agency issued a set of policy briefs for governments to strengthen their efforts against the coronavirus ahead of the expected winter surge of COVID-19, warning that new variants could yet undo the progress made to date.
“If we don’t take this opportunity now, we run the risk of more variants, more deaths, more disruption, and more uncertainty,” Tedros said.
The WHO reported that the omicron subvariant BA.5 continues to dominate globally and comprised nearly 90% of virus samples shared with the world’s biggest public database. In recent weeks, regulatory authorities in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere have cleared tweaked vaccines that target both the original coronavirus and later variants including BA.5.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, said the organization expected future waves of the disease, but was hopeful those would not cause many deaths.
Meanwhile in China, residents of a city in the country’s far western Xinjiang region have said they are experiencing hunger, forced quarantines and dwindling supplies of medicine and daily necessities after more than 40 days in a lockdown prompted by COVID-19.
Hundreds of posts from Ghulja riveted users of Chinese social media last week, with residents sharing videos of empty refrigerators, feverish children and people shouting from their windows.
On Monday, local police announced the arrests of six people for “spreading rumors” about the lockdown, including posts about a dead child and an alleged suicide, which they said “incited opposition” and “disrupted social order.”
Leaked directives from government offices show that workers are being ordered to avoid negative information and spread “positive energy” instead. One directed state media to film “smiling seniors” and “children having fun” in neighborhoods emerging from the lockdown.
The government has ordered mass testing and district lockdowns in cities across China in recent weeks, from Sanya on tropical Hainan island to southwest Chengdu, to the northern port city of Dalian.
Also read: Global Covid cases near 615 million
A look at the world’s skinniest skyscraper: Steinway Tower
One skyscraper stands out from the rest in the Manhattan skyline. It’s not the tallest, but it is the skinniest — the world’s skinniest, in fact.
The 84-story residential Steinway Tower, designed by New York architecture firm SHoP Architects, has the title of “most slender skyscraper in the world” thanks to its logic-defying ratio of width to height: 1-to-23 1/2.
“Any time it’s 1-to-10 or more that’s considered a slender building; 1-to-15 or more is considered exotic and really difficult to do,” SHoP Architects founding principal Gregg Pasquarelli said. “The most slender buildings in the world are mostly in Hong Kong, and they’re around 17- or 18-to-1.”
The 60 apartments in the tower range in cost from $18 million to $66 million per unit, and offer 360-degree views of the city. It’s located just south of Central Park, along a stretch of Manhattan’s 57th Street known as “Billionaires’ Row.”
At 1,428 feet (435 meters), the building is the second-tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere, second to the nearby Central Park Tower at 1,550 feet (470 meters). For comparison, the world’s tallest tower is Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which stands at 2,717 feet (828 meters).
Steinway Tower is so skinny at the top that whenever the wind ramps up, the luxury homes on the upper floors sway around by a few feet.
“Every skyscraper has to move,” Pasquarelli said. “If it’s too stiff, it’s actually more dangerous — it has to have flexibility in it.”
To prevent the tower from swaying too far, the architects created a counterbalance with tuned steel plates. And while the exterior has the de rigueur reflective glass, it also includes a textured terracotta and bronze facade that creates wind turbulence to slow the acceleration of the building, Pasquarelli said. About 200 rock anchors descend at most 100 feet (30 meters) into the underlying bedrock to provide a deep foundation.
Steinway Tower has a long history as the former location of Steinway Hall, constructed in 1924. JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group bought the building in 2013, and now they’re looking to the future.
“What I’m hoping is that 50 years from now, you’ve only known New York with 111 West 57th St.,” Pasquarelli said. “I hope it holds a special place in all future New Yorkers’ hearts.” ___
The Latest: Biden says world 'cannot wait' for Mideast peace
President Joe Biden says he remains supportive of an independent Palestinian state but says the “ground is not ripe” for restarting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Biden delivered the assessment at a news conference with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the occupied West Bank.
The comments were likely to disappoint the Palestinians, who are looking to the U.S. to press Israel into restarting peace talks. The last substantive talks collapsed over a decade ago.
Biden said the world “cannot wait” for a peace agreement and said that steps need to be taken to improve the lives of Palestinian people.
Abbas said “the key to peace” in the region “begins with ending the Israeli occupation of our land.”
HERE'S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
Biden heads to West Bank with little to offer Palestinians
As Biden visits, a look at those targeted in Saudi Arabia
Israeli politics a backdrop to Biden's visit to the Mideast
China’s Foreign Ministry said Friday it won’t take a backseat to the U.S. in the Middle East, as President Joe Biden visits the region to reassert American leadership and “not create a vacuum.”
“The Middle East is not the backyard of any other country and there is no such thing as vacuum in the region,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing on Friday.
“We have made relentless efforts and played a key role in safeguarding peace, promoting development, and bringing a fair and equitable resolution on hotspot issues in the region,” Wang added. “China is ready to work with the international community to continue to play a positive role in realizing peace and development in the Middle East.”
Biden is using his trip to Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia to shore up ties with regional partners.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- President Joe Biden has arrived in the biblical town of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Biden was given a bouquet of flowers by a pair of Palestinian children as he arrived. He held his hand over his heart as a Palestinian band played the U.S. national anthem before he entered Abbas’ office.
The brief meeting with the Palestinian leader comes after two days of nonstop talks with Israeli leaders. Biden is then to continue to Saudi Arabia for talks with Arab leaders.
Read: ‘Free Palestine’: Protesters in major US cities decry airstrikes over Gaza
In the West Bank, Biden is expected to announce some $200 million in additional assistance to the Palestinians, after pledging $100 million to hospitals that serve Palestinians in east Jerusalem earlier Friday.
While voicing support for a Palestinian state, Biden is not expected to float any new diplomatic initiatives during his visit.
Palestinian officials have expressed disappointment over the U.S. inability to restart peace talks.
On his way from Jerusalem, Biden’s motorcade passed by a billboard posted by an Israeli human rights group saying, “Mr. President, this is apartheid.” Human rights groups say Israel’s treatment amounts to apartheid. Israel rejects the allegation as an attack on its legitimacy.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Palestinian journalists covering President Joe Biden’s visit to the occupied West Bank are wearing black T-shirts bearing the image of slain Palestinian-American correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh.
The popular Al-Jazeera correspondent was killed in May while covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank.
The Palestinians, including colleagues who were with her, say that Israeli soldiers intentionally killed her. Israel says its troops were in a battle with Palestinian gunmen, and it’s not clear who fired the deadly bullet.
U.S. experts who inspected the bullet recently determined that Israeli fire likely killed her. But without providing evidence, they said there was no reason to believe the shooting was intentional. The findings have infuriated the Palestinians, including Abu Akleh’s family. The black T-shirts worn by journalists in Bethlehem, saying “Justice for Shireen,” were meant as a sign of solidarity with their slain colleague.
Biden was headed to the biblical town of Bethlehem to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Biden has announced hundreds of millions of dollars of assistance to the Palestinians. But Palestinians are disappointed that there are no plans for a diplomatic initiative to promote the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
JERUSALEM — President Joe Biden has announced $100 million in U.S. assistance for east Jerusalem hospitals that serve as “the backbone” of health care for Palestinians.
Also read: Israel-Palestine conflict: China calls for UN council action, slams US
He spoke Friday during a visit to the Augusta Victoria Hospital, which provides advanced medical care, including radiation treatment for cancer patients and pediatric kidney dialysis, to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
The funding is subject to approval by the U.S. Congress and would pay out over several years.
Biden called the six hospitals “the backbone of the Palestinian health care system.”
The aid came after the Trump administration slashed $25 million to the hospitals in 2018 as part of a larger suspension of aid to the Palestinians. Biden has restored much of that assistance since assuming office, but has made no progress in resuming the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which collapsed more than a decade ago.
Dr. Fadi Atrash, the hospital’s CEO, called Biden’s visit a “courageous statement of support for the Palestinian people.”
Biden was set to meet with Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank later on Friday.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three for their future state.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and views the entire city as its capital. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state, and its fate is at the heart of the century-old conflict.
The six east Jerusalem hospitals, which symbolize the Palestinian presence in the city, have faced a funding crisis in recent years, as the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority has struggled to pay for advanced treatment for Palestinians.
Augusta Victoria Hospital, which is operated by the Lutheran World Federation, ended 2021 in severe debt, with more than $70 million owed by the PA, according to a letter sent to U.S. lawmakers in May.
JERUSALEM — About two dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators have gathered in east Jerusalem ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to a local hospital.
The protesters on Friday are holding Palestinian flags and posters of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist who was killed in May while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank.
After two days of nonstop meetings with Israeli leaders, Biden is visiting the Augusta Victoria Hospital, which serves local Palestinians, before heading to Bethlehem to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The demonstration is several hundred meters (yards) from the hospital, with Israeli police standing at a distance outside the building. It was not clear if Biden’s motorcade would pass by the crowd.
Biden is expected to announce over $300 million in assistance for the Palestinians on Friday. While Biden has voiced support for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, there are no plans for any diplomatic initiative to resolve the decades-old conflict.
Friday’s visit marks a tacit acknowledgement of Palestinian claims to east Jerusalem.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and considers the entire city its capital. But its annexation of the eastern sector, home to the city’s most important religious sites, is not internationally recognized. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
JERUSALEM — Saudi Arabia on Friday opened its airspace to “all air carriers,” signaling the end of its longstanding ban on Israeli flights overflying its territory — a key step toward normalization between the two nations as President Joe Biden visits the region.
In a statement posted to Twitter hours before Biden is set to become the first U.S. leader to fly directly from Israel to the kingdom, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said it was announcing “the decision to open the Kingdom’s airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the Authority for overflying.”
The announcement is an incremental step toward the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel and builds on the strong but informal ties the erstwhile foes have developed recent years over their shared concerns about Iran’s growing influence in the region.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has allowed flights between Israel and Gulf states to cross through its airspace. In 2020, then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly flew to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and last week several Israeli defense reporters visited the kingdom and published news reports about their welcome.
Global Covid cases top 519 million
The overall number of Covid cases has surged past 519 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 519,340,631 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,257,771 Thursday morning.
Also read: North Korea raises alarm after confirming 1st COVID-19 case
The US has recorded 82,227,294 cases so far and 998,739 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,110,586 on Wednesday, with 2,897 new cases registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's data.
Of the new cases, 1,118 were reported in Delhi. Currently, there are 5,471 active cases in Indian capital.
Besides, 54 deaths across the country due to the pandemic recorded since Tuesday morning took the total death toll to 524,157.
North Korea announced its first coronavirus infection more than two years into the pandemic Thursday as leader Kim Jong Un called for raising preventive measures to maximum levels, reports AP.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said tests from an unspecified number of people with fevers in the capital Pyongyang confirmed they were infected with the Omicron variant. North Korea had previously claimed a perfect record in keeping out Covid-19, a claim widely doubted by outside experts.
The country’s population of 26 million is believed to be mostly unvaccinated, after its government shunned vaccines offered by the UN-backed COVAX distribution programme, possibly because those have international monitoring requirements.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh reported 33 Covid cases in 24 hours till Wednesday morning, which took the total caseload to 1,952,888.
With no new Covid deaths reported during this period for the 20th consecutive day, the total fatalities from the pandemic remained unchanged at 29,127.
The daily test positivity rate slightly dropped to 0.53 percent from Tuesday's 0.54 percent as 6,217 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Tuesday, the number of cases was lower as 26 new cases were reported.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 percent. The recovery rate rose to 97.21 percent as 249 patients recovered during this period.
In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
Also read: Shanghai re-tightens on COVID, frustrating trapped residents
Among the five deaths during the period, two were unvaccinated patients while three were vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine.
The country reported its first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 cases, since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 percent.
The country registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.
6 students killed in Oklahoma crash were in car that seats 4
Six teenage girls on a high school lunch break were killed when their small car with only four seats collided with a large truck hauling rocks, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Wednesday.
The crash occurred shortly after noon Tuesday in Tishomingo, a rural city of about 3,000 located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Oklahoma City, the patrol said. Those killed included the 16-year-old driver, three 15-year-olds, and two 17-year-old passengers, according to the patrol.
Read:One 'black box' found in China Eastern plane crash
While what led to the crash is unknown, it highlighted concerns of teenagers carrying other young passengers.
“Just adding a single passenger under age 21 increases the risk of crashing by 44%” when the driver is a teen," said William Van Tassel with AAA’s national office.
The crash report, released Wednesday morning, said the circumstances of the wreck remained under investigation. But Highway Patrol Trooper Shelby Humphrey said Tuesday night that the girls’ car was making a right turn when it collided with the truck, KXII-TV reported.
"One of the main concerns and risks of having multiple teenagers in a car is the distractions that come with that,” Van Tassel said.
“If one of the passengers is over 35 (the risk) goes down by 62%. That implies teens can drive safely when there’s an adult in the car," Van Tassel told The Associated Press.
Only the 16-year-old driver and front-seat passenger were wearing seat belts when the 2015 Chevrolet Spark collided with the truck, according to the Highway Patrol.
“The unbelted people put everyone at risk," Van Tessel said. "In a crash, the unbuckled people fly around all over the place,” injuring others inside the vehicle.
Oklahoma is the only state where passengers who are older than 7 years old and in the back seat of a car do not have to wear a seat belt, said Leslie Gamble, the manger of public and government relations for AAA-Oklahoma.
“A 41-member coalition of traffic safety advocates has pushed for a bill to be passed by our state legislators for the past three years without success,” Gamble said
The crash occurred about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Tishomingo High School.
Students in the district of about 850 students were in class Wednesday, Tishomingo Public School Superintendent Bobby Waitman said.
“Academics are secondary, frankly, at this point to the students knowing that they belong, that they have a safe place,” Waitman said.
“You'll never fully understand, I don't think we'll ever fully understand a loss like this," Waitman added.
The girls' names weren't released because they are juveniles.
The Highway Patrol identified the driver of the truck as Valendon Burton, 51, of Burneyville, Oklahoma. The report said Burton was not injured.
The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team, according to NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson.
Read:Tornado rips through New Orleans and its suburbs, killing 1
Waitman said funerals for the students were not yet scheduled and that the district would work with their families to potentially schedule a memorial service on campus.
The crash happened one week after nine people were killed — including six members of a New Mexico college’s golf team and their coach — died in a crash in West Texas. In that crash, the NTSB determined that a 13-year-old boy was behind the wheel of a truck when it blew a tire and struck the van carrying University of the Southwest students.
World Water Day on Tuesday
The World Water Day will be observed in the country, as elsewhere across the globe on Tuesday.
This year's theme is 'Groundwater, making the invisible visible'.
World Water Day is observed on March 22 as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
READ: World Water Day Sunday
Observing the occasion as an international day was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).
Global Covid cases top 470 million
The overall number of Covid cases has surged past 470 million as the pandemic enters into its third year.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 470,646,813 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,077,482 Monday morning.
The US has recorded 79,734,788 cases so far and 971,162 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
Read: Bangladesh logs 3 Covid-linked deaths with 82 cases with positivity rate below 1%
In China, the government reported 2,027 new cases in the 24 hours through midnight Sunday, up from the previous day’s 1,737, reports AP.
China's national health authorities reported two COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, the first recorded rise in the death toll since January last year, bringing the country's coronavirus death toll to 4,638.
China had recorded 4,636 deaths since the pandemic began in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. It revised its death toll once in April 2020, adding in new deaths that were not initially counted as the pandemic overwhelmed the city's hospitals and other systems.
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,007,841 on Sunday, as 1,761 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Besides, as many as 127 deaths due to the pandemic since Saturday morning took the total death toll to 516,479.
Meanwhile, Brazil reported 304 deaths and 44,154 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the national death toll to 657,102 and the total caseload to 29,617,266, the country's Ministry of Health reported Saturday.
Brazil has been struggling with the Omicron variant of the virus since the end of December, with a record number of infections in January, but since February, indicators such as deaths, hospitalizations and positive cases have been in sharp decline, according to official data.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh reported three Covid-linked deaths with 82 fresh cases in 24 hours till Sunday morning after seeing a deathless day.
The daily positivity rate rose a bit to 0.90 from Saturday’s 0.83 per cent after testing 9.082 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Read:Moderna seeks FDA authorization for 4th dose of COVID shot
With the latest numbers country’s total fatalities rose to 29,117 while the caseload mounted to 19,50,609.
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent.
The recovery rate rose to 95.89 per cent with the recovery of 837 more patients during the 24-hour period.
Gunfire at Arkansas car show leaves 1 dead, 27 wounded
One man was killed and 27 people were wounded when two people got into a gunfight during a car show that's part of an annual community event in a small southeast Arkansas town, authorities said Sunday.
A person who left the scene of the Saturday evening shooting has been arrested on unrelated charges and is being questioned about the shooting in Dumas, a city of about 4,000 located about 90 miles (144 kilometers) southeast of Little Rock, Arkansas State Police Col. Bill Bryant said.
“All we know at this time, there was two individuals that got in a gunfight,” Bryant said at a Sunday afternoon news conference.
Read:Car runs into Carnival revelers in Belgium, killing 6
He said several children were among the wounded, including two under the age of 2.
The car show is part of a community event held each spring called Hood-Nic, which is short for neighborhood picnic. The Hood-Nic Foundation says on its website that its mission is to “rebuild, reunite, and respond to the needs of the youth in our communities.”
The event, which helps raise funds for scholarships and school supplies, also included a bonfire, a basketball tournament, musical performances, a teen party and a balloon release.
“The purpose of Hood-Nic has always been to bring the community together,” the foundation said on its Facebook page. “This senseless violence needs to end.”
“It’s always been a family-friendly event with a message of non-violence,” said Kris Love-Keys, the foundation's chief development officer.
Cameron Shaffer, 23, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, was killed in the gunfire, Bryant said. He said authorities have no indication that he was involved in the gunfight.
Earlier in the day, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said on Twitter that one of the two suspects had been arrested and was being held on unrelated charges. But state police later would only say the person who was arrested was being questioned.
“As the investigation continues I will examine details to see if there are any steps that could have been taken to prevent this type of tragedy,” Hutchinson said.
Read:Car crash kills 7 in southern Myanmar
Six people under the age of 18 who were wounded by gunfire were taken to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, according to a spokeswoman. Most had been released as of Sunday afternoon.
Wallace McGehee, the car show's organizer, told KARK that that when the bullets started flying, he began “running, ducking, getting down, trying to get kids out of the way.”
Candace McKinzie, who helped organize the event, told The New York Times that the gunfire seemed to come out of nowhere.
“You went from laughing and talking and eating and everything to random firing,” she said.
McKinzie said people started running and tripping over one another and older people were falling.
Those who were shot include McKinzie’s cousin and sister. She said both were expected to recover.
Chris Jones, a Democrat running for Arkansas governor, tweeted that he was at the event earlier Saturday, registering voters and enjoying “a positive family atmosphere.”
“I am deeply saddened (and honestly angered) by this tragedy,” Jones said in a statement.
Car runs into Carnival revelers in Belgium, killing 6
A car slammed at high speed into Carnival revelers in a small town in southern Belgium early Sunday, killing six people and leaving 10 more with life-threatening injuries, authorities said, adding many others were lightly injured.
“What should have been a great party turned into a tragedy,” said Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden.
Read:Ukraine war is backdrop in US push for hypersonic weapons
The prosecutor's office, which gave the death toll, also said two local people in their thirties were arrested at the scene in Strépy-Bracquegnies, 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Brussels. Prosecutors said, in the early stages of their investigation, there were no elements to suspect a terror motive.
In an age-old tradition, Carnival revelers had gathered at dawn, intending to pick up others at their homes along the way, to finally hold their famous festivity again after it was banned for the past two years to counter the spread of COVID-19. Some dressed in colorful garb with bells attached, walking behind the beat of drums. It was supposed to be a day of deliverance.
Instead, said mayor Jacques Gobert, “what happened turned it into a national catastrophe.”
More than 150 people of all ages had gathered around 5 a.m. and were standing in a thick crowd along a long, straight road. Suddenly, “a car drove from the back at high speed. And we have a few dozen injured and unfortunately several people who are killed,” Gobert said.
The driver and a second person were arrested when their car came to a halt a few hundred meters (yards) further on.
Since Belgium was hit with twin terror attacks in Brussels and Zaventem that killed 32 civilians six years ago, thoughts of a terror motive are never far away.
But prosecutor Damien Verheyen said “there is no element in the investigation at this time that allows me to consider that the motivations of the two could have been terror related.”
The prosecutor's office also denied media reports that the crash may have been caused by a car that was being chased by police.
Read:Top Australian scientists to tackle plastic waste
King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo were expected to visit Strépy-Bracquegnies later Sunday to express support for the families of the dead and those injured.
Carnival is extremely popular in the area. Carnival festivities in nearby Binche have even been declared a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
As Ukraine war rages, diplomats near Iran nuclear agreement
As the war in Ukraine rages on, diplomats trying to salvage the languishing 2015 Iran nuclear deal have been forging ahead with negotiations despite distractions caused by the conflict. They now appear to be near the cusp of a deal that would bring the U.S. back into the accord and bring Iran back into compliance with limits on its nuclear program.
After 11 months of on-and-off talks in Vienna, U.S. officials and others say only a very small number of issues remain to be resolved. Meanwhile, Russia appears to have backed down on a threat to crater an agreement over Ukraine-related sanctions that had dampened prospects for a quick deal.
That leaves an agreement — or at least an agreement in principle — up to political leaders in Washington and Tehran. But, as has been frequently the case, both Iran and the U.S. say those decisions must be made by the other side, leaving a resolution in limbo even as all involved say the matter is urgent and must be resolved as soon as possible.
“We are close to a possible deal, but we’re not there yet,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday. “We are going to find out in the near term whether we’re able to get there.”
Read:Russian attacks batter Ukraine as Putin warns of 'traitors'
Also Wednesday in Berlin, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger said work “on drafting a final text has been completed” and ”the necessary political decisions now need to be taken in capitals.”
“We hope that these negotiations can now be swiftly completed,” he said.
Reentering the 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, has been a priority for the Biden administration since it took office.
Once a signature foreign policy achievement of the Obama administration in which now-President Joe Biden served as vice president, the accord was abandoned in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump, who called it the worst deal ever negotiated and set about restoring and expanding on U.S. sanctions that had been lifted.
The Biden administration argues that any threat currently posed by Iran would be infinitely more dangerous should it obtain a nuclear weapon. Deal opponents, mostly but not entirely Republicans, say the original deal gave Iran a path to developing a nuclear bomb by removing various constraints under so-called “sunset” clauses. Those clauses meant that certain restrictions were to be gradually lifted.
Both sides’ arguments gained intensity over the weekend when Iran targeted the northern Iraqi city of Irbil with missile strikes that hit near the U.S. consulate compound. For critics, the attack was proof that Iran cannot be trusted and should not be given any sanctions relief. For the administration, it confirmed that Iran would be a greater danger if it obtains a nuke.
“What it underscores for us is the fact that Iran poses a threat to our allies, to our partners, in some cases to the United States, across a range of realms,” Price said. “The most urgent challenge we would face is a nuclear-armed Iran or an Iran that was on the very precipice of obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
Meanwhile, a new glimmer of hope for progress emerged Wednesday when Iran released two detained British citizens. The U.S., which withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018, and the three European countries that remain parties to it had said an agreement would be difficult if not impossible to reach while those prisoners, along with several American citizens, remain jailed in Iran.
Should the prisoner issue be resolved, Price said Tuesday, the gaps in the nuclear negotiations could be closed quickly if Iran makes the political decision to return to compliance.
“We do think that we would be in a position to close those gaps, to close that remaining distance if there are decisions made in capitals, including in Tehran,” Price said.
Read: Iran claims missile barrage near US consulate in Iraq
Yet, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdolahian said a deal depends entirely on Washington.
“More than ever, (the) ball is in U.S. court to provide the responses needed for successful conclusion of the talks,” he said after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday. Amirabdolahian said he had been “reassured that Russia remains on board for the final agreement in Vienna.”
Lavrov said the negotiations were in the “home stretch” and suggested that last-minute Russian objections to the potential spillover of Ukraine-related sanctions into activities Moscow might undertake with Tehran under a new nuclear deal had been overcome.
He said the agreement under consideration would carve those activities out, something the U.S. has not denied and has said the Russians should have understood from the beginning.
“We would not sanction Russian participation in nuclear projects that are part of resuming full implementation of the (deal),” Price said. “We can’t and we won’t and we have not provided assurances beyond that to Russia.”
He said the U.S. would not allow Russia to flout Ukraine-related sanctions by funneling money or other assets through Iran. Any deal “is not going to be an escape hatch for the Russian Federation and the sanctions that have been imposed on it because of the war in Ukraine.”
Deal critics are skeptical that Russia won’t at least try to evade Ukraine sanctions in dealings with Iran and have warned that potential sanctions-busting is just one reason they will oppose a new agreement.
Earlier this week, all but one of the 50 Republicans in the Senate signed a joint statement vowing to dismantle any agreement with Iran that has time limits on restrictions to advanced nuclear work, or that does not address other issues they have, including Iran’s ballistic missile program and military support for proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
While the GOP won’t be able to stop a deal now, it may have majorities in both houses of Congress after November’s midterm elections. That would make it difficult for the administration to stay in any deal that is reached.
Another concern of deal critics is the scope of sanctions relief that the Biden administration is ready to provide Iran if it comes back into compliance with the deal. Iran has been demanding the removal of the Trump administration’s designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a “foreign terrorist organization.”
The U.S. has balked at that, barring Iranian commitments to stop funding and arming extremist groups in the region and beyond. The matter is of considerable interest in Washington, not least because the IRGC is believed to be behind specific and credible threats to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Trump administration’s Iran envoy Brian Hook.