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As some countries struggle to get enough COVID-19 vaccine, China has intensified efforts to distribute its vaccine in the Balkans. Some experts say it’s an effort to increase the county’s influence in the region. Dino Jahic and Amer Jahic have the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
Camera: Dino Jahic
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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet warns a proliferation of human rights violations around the world is eroding fundamental freedoms and heightening grievances that are destabilizing.Presenting a global update Friday to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva,
Bachelet zipped through a long litany of global offenders. No region was spared. Few countries emerged with clean hands.  
 
She criticized repressive policies in powerful countries such as Russia, which she said enacted new legal provisions late last year that further limited fundamental freedoms.“Existing restrictive laws have continued to be harshly enforced, including during recent demonstrations across the country. On several occasions, police were filmed using unnecessary and disproportionate force against largely peaceful protesters and made thousands of arrests,” she said.
 
Bachelet noted problems in the U.S. with systemic racism. She took the European Union to task for anti-migrant restrictions that put lives in jeopardy. She denounced the shrinking civic space across Southeast Asia, condemning the military coup in Myanmar and death squads in the Philippines.  
 
She condemned corrupt, discriminatory and abusive practices in Venezuela, Honduras and other countries in the Americas that have forced millions of people to flee for their lives. She deplored the terrible suffering of millions of people victimized by conflicts in the Middle East.
 
Specifically, Bachelet expressed concern about alleged abuses committed by all parties in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. She called for a credible investigation into allegations of mass killings, extrajudicial executions, and other attacks on civilians, including sexual violence in the province.
 
“I am also disturbed by reported abductions and forcible returns of Eritrean refugees living in Tigray—some reportedly at the hands of Eritrean forces. At least 15,000 Eritreans who had taken refuge are unaccounted for following the destruction of their shelters. Coupled with growing insecurity in other parts of Ethiopia, the conflict in Tigray could have serious impact on regional stability and human rights,” she said.
 
Bachelet called on the Ugandan government to refrain from using regulations to combat COVID-19 to arrest and detain political opponents and journalists. And, she warned of the dangers posed by apparent official attempts in neighboring Tanzania to deny the reality of COVID-19.
 
“Including measures to criminalize recognition of the pandemic and related information. This could have serious impact on Tanzanians’ right to health. I note reports of pushbacks of hundreds of asylum seekers from Mozambique and the DRC, as well as continued reports of torture, enforced disappearances and forced returns of Burundian refugees,” she said.
 
Bachelet noted people in every region of the world were being left behind and excluded from development and other opportunities as the coronavirus pandemic continued to gather pace. She said building trust and maintaining and expanding freedoms were central to global efforts to contain and crush the coronavirus.
 
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Friday took part in a European Union summit to discuss security and defense priorities for the alliance.
Stoltenberg joined European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel at EU headquarters in Brussels where they addressed other EU leaders by videoconference.
Ahead of the meeting, at a news briefing with Michel, Stoltenberg said NATO troops are working with civilian efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to set up military field hospitals, transporting patients and medical equipment, among other efforts. He said their main focus is to ensure a health crisis does not become a security crisis.
But Stoltenberg said, the main role of the alliance is to act as a link between North America and Europe, and he welcomed the strong message from U.S. President Joe Biden regarding his commitment to rebuilding alliances with Europe.  
Michel agreed saying he is “totally convinced” the Biden administration offers a unique opportunity to strengthen the partnership between NATO and the EU.  
At a news briefing following the security meeting, Von der Leyen said cooperation with NATO was a top priority, but, reflecting the views of other key EU members, said the bloc, “as a whole, has more tasks for stabilization and security than the tasks within NATO. And for that, we have to be prepared.”
EU members Germany and France have been pressing for “strategic autonomy” within the bloc, particularly after what they called former U.S. president Donald Trump’s ambiguous attitude towards traditional U.S. European allies. They said they believe Europe has to be able to stand alone.
The French news agency reports a draft of conclusions from Friday’s meeting indicates the bloc’s leadership will reaffirm that “in the face of increased global instability, the EU needs to take more responsibility for its security,” but no concrete new announcements are expected.
 
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A former British prime minister has prepared a blueprint for world leaders to use to manage the next pandemic.  
 
Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change has issued a report titled The New Necessary: How We Future-Proof for the Next Pandemic that calls for international cooperation in the future to identify and test for any new outbreak.  The report also called on countries to work together to produce vaccines.    
 
Blair told The Guardian, “Had there been global coordination a year ago, I think we could have shaved at least three months off this virus,” in a reference to the outbreak of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.  
 
Blair also called on Britain to take a leadership role in establishing an international health security infrastructure to ensure global cooperation for any future pandemics.  
 
South Korea began its coronavirus vaccine campaign Friday, focusing its initial inoculation efforts on nursing home residents and staff.  
 
U.S. President Joe Biden hosted an event at the White House Thursday honoring the 50 millionth coronavirus vaccination administered in the country.
 
“Fifty million shots in just 37 days since I’ve become president,” Biden told reporters at the event, noting that despite extreme weather conditions, the United States is on track to surpass his promise to vaccinate 100 million people in his first 100 days in office.
 Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 8 MB480p | 11 MB540p | 14 MB720p | 24 MB1080p | 55 MBOriginal | 74 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe New York Times reports that researchers at Caltech and Columbia University have identified a rapidly spreading “worrisome” coronavirus variant in New York City.  The researchers found, according to the newspaper account, that the mutation could “weaken the effectiveness of vaccines.”
 
The researchers’ findings have not yet been published in a scientific journal. 
 
Brazil marked one year since its first confirmed case of the coronavirus Thursday – the same day it recorded a total of a quarter million deaths from the disease the virus causes.
 
The country has averaged roughly 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 daily in recent weeks – much like the peak of the virus in the country last July, according to statistics from the country’s Health Ministry.
 
President Jair Bolsonaro, who fell ill with COVID-19 last year, has repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the virus and has publicly stated he will not be vaccinated against it. Brazil has confirmed more than 10 million cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. It has the second-highest death rate in the world, following the United States.
 
Roughly five weeks after the first shot against the virus was administered in Brazil, the country has vaccinated about 3.6% of its population, according to Our World in Data, a research site.
 
Also on Thursday, the U.N. Children’s Fund announced that the COVAX facility for coronavirus vaccines will soon get access to 170 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
 
The COVAX facility aims to ensure at least 2 billion vaccine doses are available to 85 of the world’s poorest countries.  UNICEF said Thursday that deliveries of the vaccine will begin in the first quarter of 2021.   
 
There are more than 113 million global coronavirus infections, and the virus has claimed the lives of more than 2.5 million people.
 
The U.S. continues to lead the world in the number of cases at 28.4 million, followed by India with 11 million cases and Brazil with 10.3 million.  
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Kosovo journalist Visar Duriqi was returning to his apartment outside the capital, Pristina, just after midnight Thursday when three masked men ambushed him.  “The moment I approached my apartment a person came out of nowhere and first hit me with his fist on the left side. I tried to resist. At that moment, two other people came out of the dark and started pounding me”, Duriqi told VOA’s Albanian Service.   Duriqi, a reporter for the news website Insajderi, was returning from a television appearance, where he and other analysts discussed the arrest Wednesday of 12 public employees accused of corruption.  The attackers beat Duriqi, breaking four of his teeth and his nose.  Kosovo’s acting Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti described the incident an “attack on free speech” that is “unacceptable,” and urged police to find the perpetrators.Police are investigating but have not yet identified the attackers or a motive.  Duriqi, who covers corruption and organized crime, is not the first journalist at Insajderi to be targeted. In separate incidents in 2017, the outlet’s director, Parim Olluri, was attacked and the editor-in-chief, Vehbi Kajtazi, was assaulted. No one has been held responsible for either incident.Insajderi covers crime and corruption—major issues in Kosovo. In addition to his reporting,  Duriqi is the producer of a television show “InDoks” that examines the same issues.Threatening environment
Local journalist associations condemned the attack on Duriqi and said violence toward media has increased in Kosovo.  “Everyone who sees the picture of the condition of our colleague should be alarmed,” Gentiana Begolli, head of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, told VOA. She described the images of Duriqi’s injuries as “extremely disturbing.”The association has documented a steady rise in violence against reporters, with 17 cases in 2018, 21 in 2019, and 24 last year. But, Begolli said, the real figures could be higher.  “Too many journalists are discouraged from reporting their cases, due to impunity,” Begolli said.  
 
“What emboldens people to attack journalists is that the sentences are either paltry or the perpetrators are never found,” Duriqi said.Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said physical and verbal attacks were among the main issues affecting the country’s media. Kosovo ranks 70 out of 180 countries, where 1 is the most free, on RSF’s annual World Press Freedom Index. It improved by five points last year.In its 2020 country report, the European Commission said the country had a vibrant media scene but that law enforcement needed to do more to investigate threats and attacks on journalists.The European Union’s Mission in Kosovo condemned the attack on Duriqi and called on authorities via Twitter to “swiftly investigate the incident and bring perpetrator(s) to justice”.Deeply disturbed by the attack on the investigative journalist @Visar_Duriqi. Journalists must be able to work in a free and safe environment. Call on the authorities to swiftly investigate the incident & bring perpetrator(s) to justice. pic.twitter.com/rzP68EFgtu— European Union Kosovo (@EUKosovo) February 25, 2021The European Federation of Journalists and the European Center for Press and Media Freedom also criticized the violence and urged Kosovo’s chief prosecutor “to urgently and thoroughly investigate and hold the criminals responsible to account.”
 
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The U.S. is expected to release a declassified intelligence report Friday that blames Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the 2018 grisly murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident with U.S. citizen children.  
 
Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul Oct. 2, 2018, and was killed by operatives linked to the crown prince. His body was dismembered, and his remains have never been found. Riyadh eventually admitted that Khashoggi was mistakenly killed in what it called a rogue operation but denied the crown prince’s involvement.  
 
The role of the crown prince, often referred to by his initials, MBS, in Khashoggi’s death has been the subject of media reports since late 2018.  
 
U.S. President Joe Biden talked with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Thursday.  The White House said that during the call, Biden and Salman “discussed regional security, including the renewed diplomatic efforts led by the United Nations and the United States to end the war in Yemen, and the U.S. commitment to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory as it faces attacks from Iranian-aligned groups.”   
The White House readout of the call noted the recent release of several Saudi-American activists and Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul from custody and affirmed the importance the U.S. places on universal human rights and the rule of law. It did not mention the report on Khashoggi.   
 
The Trump administration rejected demands by lawmakers to release a declassified version of the report as the White House prioritized arms sales to the kingdom and alliance with Riyadh amid rising U.S. tensions with Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Iran.  
 
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On the eve of the seventh anniversary of the Russian invasion and seizure of Crimea, the United States and European Union have reaffirmed their positions that Crimea belongs to Ukraine.
 
“Russia’s invasion and seizure of Crimea” is “a brazen affront to the modern international order,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “We affirm this basic truth: Crimea is Ukraine,” Blinken said.
 
The U.S. “does not, and will never, recognize Russia’s purported annexation of Crimea,” the statement added.
 
The United States is repeating its call for Russia to immediately end its occupation of Crimea, to release all Ukrainian political prisoners, and return full control of the peninsula to Ukraine.  The U.S. is also calling on Russia to end its “aggression” in eastern Ukraine.
 Until Russia reverses its course regarding Ukraine and Crimea, U.S. sanctions on the country will remain in place, Blinken said.
 
In his capacity as the president of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas reiterated EU’s condemnation of the annexation of Crimea, which it says constitutes a violation of international law.
 
The Council reaffirms its “unequivocal and unwavering support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders,” Maas said in a statement.  
    
The statement calls on Russia “to fully comply with international humanitarian law and international human rights standards, including by granting unimpeded access to regional and international human rights monitoring mechanisms, as well as non-governmental human rights organisations, to Crimea and Sevastopol.”
 
On February 27, 2014, masked Russian troops moved in and captured strategic locations in Crimea, as well as Crimean institutions, including the Supreme Council or Crimean Parliament. The council of ministers was dissolved and a new pro-Russian prime minister installed. 
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Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been sent to a prison outside Moscow to serve his sentence, his lawyer said Thursday, a move that came despite a demand by Europe’s top human rights court for his release.Navalny lawyer Vadim Kobzev did not immediately name the prison where Navalny was sent. Russian news reports have previously indicated that Navalny, who has been held in a maximum-security jail in Moscow, would likely be sent to a facility in western Russia.Navalny, 44, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vociferous foe, was arrested January 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation and accused Navalny of cooperating with Western intelligence agencies — claims he has ridiculed.Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for violating the terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany. The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated — and which the European Сourt of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled to be unlawful.Large protestsNavalny’s arrest has fueled a wave of protests that have drawn tens of thousands to the streets across Russia. Authorities have detained about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or given jail terms ranging from seven to 15 days.Russian officials have dismissed demands from the United States and the European Union to free Navalny and stop the crackdown on his supporters.Moscow also rejected the ECHR ruling that, citing risks to Navalny’s life in custody, ordered the Russian government to release him. The Russian government has rebuffed the court’s demand as unlawful and “inadmissible” meddling in Russia’s home affairs.Earlier this week, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose new sanctions against Russian officials linked to Navalny’s jailing.Since Navalny’s arrest, Russian officials and state news media have aggressively tried to discredit him, a change from the previous tactic of largely ignoring him.Possible ‘advocacy of hatred’Some of the criticism has emphasized anti-migrant views expressed years ago as he was rising to prominence.Amnesty International this week stripped Navalny of his designation as a “prisoner of conscience” because of those views. “Navalny had, in the past, made comments which may have amounted to advocacy of hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, violence or hostility,” the organization said in a statement Thursday.The statement denied the move was in response to external pressure, but news reports have suggested Amnesty International was targeted in a coordinated campaign to discredit him.”These were not independently acting activists … these were people who would like to defame Alexey as the most prominent opponent of Mr. Putin,” Vladimir Ashurkov, executive director of Navalny’s anti-corruption organization, said in a conference call Thursday.Amnesty International said rescinding the prisoner-of-conscience designation did not change its demand for Navalny to be freed.”There should be no confusion: Nothing Navalny has said in the past justifies his current detention, which is purely politically motivated. Navalny has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his right to freedom of expression, and for this reason, we continue to campaign for his immediate release,” the organization said. 
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French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Thursday that 20 French regions or departments, including Paris and surrounding areas, will be under “reinforced surveillance” for COVID-19 and could be placed under weekend lockdowns beginning March 6 if infection rates do not improve. In a televised news conference along with Health Minister Olivier Veran, Castex said “the health situation in our country has deteriorated,” but he said a nationwide lockdown is still not being considered. French Prime Minister Jean Castex adjusts his protective face mask during a press conference on the government’s current strategy for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in Paris, France, Feb. 25, 2021.Castex said the “virus is gaining ground,” citing more than 30,000 new cases reported Wednesday after several months of between 15,000 and 20,000 cases per day. He also said hospital were approaching a critical point. France’s infection rate is about 250 cases per 100,000 people. The prime minister said he asked the leaders of the 20 regions to consult with elected officials in their respective areas and encourage all residents to be extremely vigilant. Castex said officials will take stock next week, and if the situation continues to deteriorate, they will impose measures similar to those put in place in Nice and Dunkirk, where weekend lockdowns have been imposed and only essential travel is allowed. 
 
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After two years of discreet silence about his detention without charges in China, Irish businessman Richard O’Halloran finally spoke up this month. His youngest child was only 5 years old when he traveled to Shanghai in February 2019 on what he expected to be a short business trip, O’Halloran said in an interview with FILE – People hold signs calling for China to release Canadian detainees Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, March 6, 2019.While the case of the “two Michaels” has been widely publicized, O’Halloran’s ordeal was little known until he went public this week. In the interview, the 45-year-old father of four said his anguish had reached the point that he asked the Chinese judge in charge of his case: “Do you expect that I tell my wife to get on with her life, and for my kids to try and forget about me? Is that what you’re trying to do?” O’Halloran, an executive with the Irish subsidiary of an aviation leasing company, traveled to China to help settle a commercial dispute that resulted in the arrest of his employer on charges of defrauding Chinese investors of some $70 million. While not charged with any crime, O’Halloran has been told he cannot leave China until the money is returned to the investors. The Chinese embassy in Dublin told RTE: “In any country, company representatives have the legal obligation to return the proceeds of crime flowing into the company and related yields to the victims.” The embassy added, “We fully understand Mr. O’Halloran’s family’s anxiety and hope they will advise Mr. O’Halloran to cooperate in a meaningful way with judicial authorities in Shanghai to ensure an early solution to the case.” But O’Halloran argued in his interview that the Chinese legal system is “fundamentally flawed.” “To expect somebody to sign documents in Chinese, to conduct an entire interview in Chinese, without legal representation, is just not correct in my view,” he said. FILE – Winston Lord, then-U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia, addresses a press conference in Honolulu, Jan. 25, 1996.The case has attracted the attention of some major China policy experts, including Winston Lord, a former U.S. ambassador to China and assistant secretary of state for East Asia. “I’ve been following the case closely for many months, it’s a very sad, frustrating and cruel case,” Lord said in a phone interview from his home in Manhattan. “This man is a businessman from Ireland, he went to the mainland to try to help the Chinese resolve a case against another Chinese, and he’s been kept in detention — not house arrest, but he can’t leave the country — for two years.”  Lord said China may be hurting its own economic interests by holding O’Halloran. “I already know people who don’t want to be stationed in China, whether it’s pollution, repression, or extreme measures like this,” he said. The detention has also been denounced on the floor of the Irish parliament, where Senator Michael McDowell insisted that “no Chinese citizen would be treated in this way in this country.”Watch: In the #Seanad today I highlighted the ongoing wrongful detention of Richard O’Halloran in China https://t.co/xs8h15ztJ5 via @YouTube— Michael McDowell (@SenatorMcDowell) February 15, 2021″Comparative size of our two countries doesn’t justify wolf diplomacy being deployed against Ireland to try and blackmail this man into doing something unlawful,” he said. McDowell cautioned the Irish government against falling into what he called the three stages of inaction — “the stage which was premature to do anything, the stage which was too sensitive, and the stage which was too late.” 
 
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