US President Joe Biden has reportedly received a report from the intelligence community that is “inconclusive” on the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, whether the virus transmitted from animals to humans or accidentally escaped a laboratory in China, according to a news report.

Tasked by Biden in May to produce a report in 90 days to “bring us closer to a definitive conclusion”, the intelligence community failed to arrive at a consensus, the Washington Post reported citing US officials.

A decision is expected on the public release of elements of the report in the coming days.

The debate over the origin of SARS-CoV-2 has raged around the world especially after former president Donald Trump supported those who argued it emerged from a virology lab in Wuhan city of China, where the epidemic started at the end of 2019 and then spread rapidly around the world.

Trump’s action was motivated by a desire to shift blame of his mishandling of the fightback in the US, but it was also backed by many scientists such as Robert Redfield, former chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He said he believed the coronavirus “most likely” escaped a lab.

A WHO report had earlier said the virus most likely travelled from animals to humans and that the possibility of a lab leak was “extremely unlikely”.

Efforts to conclusively ascertain the origin of the virus that has killed over 4mn people around the world, causing the largest global public health crisis in 100 years, have been marred by the lack transparency and cooperation by China.

The US intelligence community was divided as well. Biden had said in May that two agencies believed in the animal-to-human theory and a third agency went with the lab-leak possibility.

“The majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other,” the US president had said then.

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Recently I had a conversation with a hyperlocal news editor who wanted to talk through a dilemma. Her website, which covers such matters as town boards, schools, housing, public health and charity events, is resolutely nonpartisan. From the beginning, her goal has been to bring together people from varied backgrounds and with different political beliefs. Yet her sense was that most of her readers, like her, were liberal. What could she do to reach out to conservatives?

Her dilemma is not unique. Surveys show that people trust local and regional news more than they do the national media. Ideally, local news can help overcome the hyperpolarization that is tearing us apart at the national level and foster a spirit of community and cooperation.

Increasingly, though, the divisions that define national life are inescapable. Our school systems are rippling with rage over masks, vaccines and how kids are taught about racial justice. Discussions about policing have devolved into binary sloganeering about defunding the police or backing the blue.

And well-meaning journalists, mostly liberal but wanting to give a voice to everyone, wring their hands.

Last week, the research project Trusting News, a joint venture of the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the American Press Institute, released a report on how local and regional news organizations can do a better job of connecting with conservative audiences. More than 3,400 self-identified conservatives responded to a survey, and 91 of them were interviewed by 27 media outlets around the country. (In New England, the participants were New Hampshire Public Radio, Vermont’s Burlington Free Press and The Day of New London, Connecticut.)

The report, written by Marley Duchovnay, a research associate at the University of Texas’ Center for Media Engagement, and Gina M. Masullo, associate director of the center, makes six recommendations. Three of them are of particular interest:

• “Build relationships with people who have conservative and right-leaning viewpoints in your community and listen to them.”
• “Include a variety of voices from people with conservative and right-leaning views in stories. Journalists should be cautious of using ‘conservative’ or other terms as catch-all labels for people who may have very different beliefs.”
• “Consider diversity of political beliefs and backgrounds when hiring for the newsroom.”

The first two bullet points are just good journalism: get to know your community, and don’t assume everyone on the right drives “a pickup truck with the Confederate flag on the back,” as Masullo put it at a webinar held last week to explain the findings. The third, though, is potentially problematic. News organizations don’t ask job candidates about their political views, nor should they. So how do we go about ensuring ideological diversity in the newsroom?

“I think more the idea is to, in your recruitment strategy, try to hit rural areas, more conservative areas,” said Masullo. And yes, that seems fine in theory. But with the journalism economy continuing to shrink, hiring is not an everyday occurrence — and the need to hire people of color to diversify overwhelmingly white newsrooms has to be a top priority.

I was also struck by another finding in the report — that material from wire services in local media outlets contributes to perceptions of liberal bias more than the local content does. At the webinar, the presenters cited Mark Rosenberg of the Victoria Advocate in Texas, who told them: “National news drives distrust in the media far more than local news, it was surprising and frustrating to hear. 95% of what I do is local, but the syndicated copy and columns is what is driving distrust. That is something that recurred in all three interviews that I did.”

To invoke the old cliché, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. For daily newspapers like the Advocate, which have positioned themselves as a single source for community, national and international news, it’s difficult to imagine how that problem could be solved — especially when some of the respondents complained even about The Associated Press, known for its lack of bias.

Most weekly papers and hyperlocal websites, though, focus exclusively on their community, which means that they avoid offending conservatives who don’t want to see national and international news that has what they consider to be a liberal slant.

One approach that even the editors and publishers of daily papers could consider is thinking about how they can de-emphasize national news, including syndicated columns, in their opinion sections. Earlier this week my research partner, Ellen Clegg, interviewed Joshua Darr of Louisiana State University about a study he conducted along with two other scholars. The study attempted to show what happened when the Desert Sun of Palm Beach, California, dropped national opinion content for a month and went exclusively local. The result was a slight but measurable decline in polarization.

“The experiment is not without controversy,” Clegg writes. “The Trump-Biden presidential race and the COVID pandemic arguably showed how much local election laws, local public health policies and local governments matter in setting the course of the nation’s future. Abandoning coverage entirely — and opinion page columns do constitute a form of coverage all their own — could seem irresponsible to some.”

Still, for many daily newspaper editors, running syndicated material in the opinion section isn’t a way to serve readers so much as it is an aversion to new ways of doing things. More local opinion journalism, combined with some national content from the left and the right, would seem like a good mix.

A crucial concern that isn’t really addressed in the report but that did come up at the webinar is the importance of not pandering to people with right-wing views. Though the goal of broadening the conversation and bringing more voices into the tent is a laudable one, we can’t forget that it’s conservatives — radicals, really — who have gone off the rails, embracing lies about the outcome of the last election, the Jan. 6 insurrection, vaccinations, mask-wearing and such. Trusting News director Joy Mayer, though, told the participants that the very nature of the study tended to weed such people out.

“The people who self-selected into this research were not the people with the most extreme views and the most extreme distrust,” Mayer said. “If you are willing to spend an hour sitting and talking to a local journalist, you have to believe that they want to change. You have to believe they’re worth an investment of your time. The whole world is not made up of people who would be grateful for an hour to spend with a journalist.”

If journalists who run local news projects want to serve everyone in their community, and not just the more liberal elements, then the fundamental ideas outlined in the report are worth paying attention to: listen; be fair; don’t resort to cheap labels in describing those with different views.

I don’t know if it can help. But getting past the divisions that are ripping us apart is perhaps the most vital challenge facing us today. If there is to be solution, it’s got to start at the local level.

GBH News contributor Dan Kennedy’s blog, Media Nation, is online at dankennedy.net.

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SYDNEY — Australia’s New South Wales state has recorded another new daily high of 919 coronavirus infections. It also has had two more deaths related to COVID-19.

New South Wales’s previous high for a 24-hour period was 830 infections reported Sunday.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said Wednesday that the health system in Australia’s most populous state is under pressure but is coping.

The COVID-19 death toll has reached 76 in New South Wales since the outbreak of the delta variant was first detected in Sydney on June 16.

Neighboring Victoria, Australia second-most populous state, reported 45 new infections Wednesday.

Both states are locked down.

———

MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

— Georgia Gov. Kemp orders National Guard to overwhelmed hospitals

— US outbreaks force early reversals on in-person learning at schools

— ACLU sues over South Carolina ban on school mask mandates

— Dr. Fauci recommends hospitals, doctors use more antibody treatments

———

Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

———

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

BOISE, Idaho — State leaders in Idaho are urging people to volunteer at hospitals to help health workers who are being swamped by a rising number of COVID-19 cases.

Idaho Public Health Administrator Elke Shaw-Tulloch says hospitals need help with everything from housekeeping to delivering care, which could be provided by retired health workers.

The director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare says volunteer help is badly needed to keep the state’s medical facilities operating.

Dave Jeppesen says that ”their level of capacity is so strained that we are talking about crisis standards of care — we’re dangerously close to that as this point in time.”

As of Friday, the number of coronavirus infections statewide had increased 31% compared to the previous week, and hospital admissions for COVID-19 were up about 30%, according to data from the CDC.

———

JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi’s top health official says he has received threats from people who are spreading lies accusing his family of receiving payments for him urging the public to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Mississippi has seen a rapid increase in cases since early July, driven by the highly contagious delta variant of the virus and the state’s low vaccination rate. State health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs has been imploring people for months to get vaccinated.

On Tuesday, Dobbs wrote on Twitter that he has gotten threatening phone calls from people repeating unfounded “conspiracy theories” involving him and his family.

Dobbs says one lie is that his son, who is also a physician, receives a World Bank-funded kickback whenever Dobbs urges people to get vaccinated. In Dobbs’ words: “I get zero $ from promoting vaccination.”

———

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A poison control hotline in Alabama is fielding increasing calls about possible poisoning with ivermectin poisoning, an animal de-wormer that doctors are warning people not to try as a home remedy for COVID-19.

The Alabama Poison Information Center at Children’s of Alabama has fielded 24 ivermectin exposure cases so far this year, of which 15 were related to COVID-19 prevention and treatment. It says there have been five other calls seeking information about ivermectin.

By comparison, the center had six total calls involving the de-wormer in 2019 and 12 in 2020.

Federal regulators have approved ivermectin to treat people and animals for some parasitic worms and for head lice and skin conditions, but the drug is not approved for COVID-19. The human and animal formulations are not the same, and doctors say it is dangerous for people to self-dose, particularly with the large quantities given to animals.

———

JACKSON, Miss. — More than 1,000 out-of-state medical workers are starting to deploy to 50 Mississippi hospitals to help with staffing shortages as the state deals with a surge of COVID-19 cases.

Gov. Tate Reeves said Tuesday that 808 nurses, three certified nurse anesthetists, 22 nurse practitioners, 193 respiratory therapists and 20 paramedics have been hired under 60-day contracts that could be extended if needed.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency awarded contracts to four companies of the 19 that submitted proposals when the state sought medical workers earlier this month.

Mississippi will pay $80 million for the contracts, and Reeves says he expects the federal government to reimburse the state for the entire expense.

———

DALLAS — Texas hospital systems are increasingly closing off-site emergency rooms and moving their staff to hospitals to help with a flood of COVID-19 cases.

Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston closed three suburban emergency rooms in Kingwood, Spring and Sienna to help ease the burden on its hospital staffs. St. Luke’s Health in Houston closed its Conroe ER to help meet surging admissions at its hospital in nearby The Woodlands.

Texas Health Hospital Rockwall near Dallas has moved the staff at its satellite ER to the hospital’s ER, and it also put up an air-conditioned tent outside to accommodate 10 to 15 overflow patients.

Of the 7,258 ICU beds in Texas hospitals, 6,746 were filled Wednesday. Of those, 3,592 were COVID-19 cases.

———

HOUSTON — The National Rifle Association has canceled its annual meeting, which had been set to be held next month in Houston, due to concerns over the pandemic.

The NRA’s meeting had been set for Sept. 3 through Sept. 5 and would have been attended by thousands of people taking part in social gatherings and other events on acres of exhibit space.

The organization said Tuesday it made the decision after analyzing relevant data regarding COVID-19 in Harris County, where Houston is. Houston, like other Texas cities and communities, has seen a jump in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations due to the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.

The NRA says impacts from the virus “could have broader implications” for those attending if the event went forward.

———

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A summer coronavirus surge driven by the delta variant is again straining some California hospitals, particularly in rural areas, but the trend shows signs of moderating and experts predict improvement in coming weeks.

The pattern is similar to the infection spikes California experienced last summer and much more severely over the winter, when intensive care units were overflowing. But this time the surge has come without the shutdown orders that previously hobbled California’s economy, businesses and schools.

The state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said Tuesday that “we’re hopeful, definitely.” Pan says the state’s latest projection “does look encouraging that we are plateauing and or peaking.”

More than 8,200 people are hospitalized for COVID-19 across California, with nearly 2,000 in intensive care. Deaths have begun increasing and state models project nearly 2,000 people will die within the next three weeks.

———

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State University will require all students, faculty and staff to complete the full coronavirus vaccination process by Nov. 15.

School President Kristina Johnson said Tuesday that the requirement is based on the decision by the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to grant full approval to the Pfizer vaccine.

Ohio State is one of the country’s largest universities and a major employer in the state capital, Columbus.

Johnson says the vaccination requirement coupled with Ohio State’s mask mandate provides “the best chance of continuing to enjoy the traditions that we love throughout the academic year with higher vaccination rates in our campus community.”

———

O’FALLON, Mo. — Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop school districts from enforcing mask mandates, requirements aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

A spokesman said Tuesday that the lawsuit names Columbia Public Schools along with the district’s Board of Education and board members, but is a class action lawsuit that “would apply to school districts across the state that have a mask mandate for schoolchildren.”

The new school year began Monday in several districts across the state, and with the delta variant causing a big spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths, more than four dozen districts are requiring students, teachers and staff to wear face coverings.

The lawsuit cites the low death rate among school aged children.

———

SALEM, Ore. — People in Oregon, regardless of vaccination status, will once again be required wear masks in most public outdoor settings — including large outdoor events where physical distancing is not possible — beginning on Friday.

The outdoor mask mandate, which was announced Tuesday by Gov. Kate Brown, is part of a growing list of statewide measures implemented in Oregon in an attempt to slow the rapid spread of COVID-19. There was already an indoor mask mandate.

Over the past month coronavirus cases, fueled by the highly transmissible delta variant, have overwhelmed hospitals in the Pacific Northwest state.

Health officials say part of the reasoning for the new mandate is because they are seeing instances where cases are clustering around outdoor events, such as music festivals.

On Monday there were just 47 adult intensive care unit beds available in the state, with 937 COVID-19 patients hospitalized. Currently more than 90% of the state’s ICU and hospital beds are full.

———

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee’s mayor has ordered mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for city employees. Mayor Tom Barrett made the announcement Tuesday afternoon. The requirement applies to general city employees as well as temporary employees and interns.

“We have an obligation to provide a safe workplace for all employees, and a vaccinated workforce is part of that,” Barrett, a Democrat, said in a news release.

The mandate will go into effect Sept. 1. Unvaccinated employees will receive up to two hours of paid leave to get vaccinated and will have until Oct. 29 to produce proof of vaccination. Workers who won’t comply will face 30-day unpaid suspensions. Workers who continue to refuse to get the shots will be fired. The city will provide exemptions from the shots based on medical or religious reasons.

The mandate doesn’t apply to unionized city workers. The mayor’s office says the city is negotiating with the unions on how the requirement will apply to members.

———

OMAHA, Neb. — The health department for Nebraska’s most populous county has asked the state for approval to issue a countywide mandate requiring people to wear face masks indoors.

If approved, the order would apply not only to businesses, but to schools within the county’s borders, as well.

Douglas County Health Director Lindsay Huse told the County Board on Tuesday that she had sought the approval for the mask order from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

Huse said the order, if approved, would require masking until community transmission drops below the substantial category and until eight weeks past the time a COVID vaccine is approved for children between the ages of 5 and 11.

———

WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci is urging hospitals and doctors to make greater use of antibody treatments for people infected with COVID-19 as hospitalizations and deaths rise due to the spread of the delta variant.

Infusions of antibody drugs can keep patients who are experiencing mild-to-moderate symptoms from getting so sick they need hospitalization, the government’s top infectious disease specialist said at Tuesday’s White House coronavirus briefing. They also can serve as a preventive treatment for people exposed to someone with a documented infection.

Three antibody products are available under emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, and they’re free thanks to taxpayer support. But Fauci says they remain “a much-underutilized intervention.”

However, demand for the drugs increased five-fold last month to nearly 110,000 doses, with the majority going to states with low vaccination rates. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been among the patients treated with antibodies.

———

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana’s largest hospital system, Ochsner Health, says it’s requiring all employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 29.

The announcement came a day after the Pfizer vaccine received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The state health department announced 3,814 new coronavirus cases statewide.

There were also 121 confirmed deaths reported Tuesday, along with 18 listed as “probable.” Hospitalizations ticked up again, increasing by 18 to 2,856.

“This policy is the right thing to do to protect our employees, their families, and our patients,” Ochsner CEO Warner Thomas said.

Ochsner Health, based in suburban New Orleans, say 69% of its employees are already vaccinated.

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FILE – Ronnie Wood, from left, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones perform on July 15, 2019, in New Orleans. Watts’ publicist, Bernard Doherty, said Watts passed away peacefully in a London hospital surrounded by his family on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. He was 80. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)

LONDON (AP) — Charlie Watts, the self-effacing and unshakeable Rolling Stones drummer who helped anchor one of rock’s greatest rhythm sections and used his “day job” to support his enduring love of jazz, has died, according to his publicist. He was 80.

Bernard Doherty said Tuesday that Watts “passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family.”

“Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also as a member of The Rolling Stones one of the greatest drummers of his generation,” Doherty said.

Watts had announced he would not tour with the Stones in 2021 because of an undefined health issue.

The quiet, elegantly dressed Watts was often ranked with Keith Moon, Ginger Baker and a handful of others as a premier rock drummer, respected worldwide for his muscular, swinging style as the Stones rose from their scruffy beginnings to international superstardom. He joined the band early in 1963 and remained over the next 60 years, ranked just behind Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as the group’s longest lasting and most essential member.

Watts stayed on, and largely held himself apart, through the drug abuse, creative clashes and ego wars that helped kill founding member Brian Jones, drove bassist Bill Wyman and Jones’ replacement Mick Taylor to quit and otherwise made being in the Stones the most exhausting of jobs.

A classic Stones song like “Brown Sugar” and “Start Me Up” often began with a hard guitar riff from Richards, with Watts following closely behind, and Wyman, as the bassist liked to say, “fattening the sound.” Watts’ speed, power and time keeping were never better showcased than during the concert documentary, “Shine a Light,” when director Martin Scorsese filmed “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” from where he drummed toward the back of the stage.

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President Joe Biden says he hears no criticism from America’s allies about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the collapse of the government. But the criticism in Europe, at least, is loud and persistent.

Officials from Britain, Germany, Italy and France have complained that despite Biden’s promises of consultation, there has been more diktat than conversation on Afghanistan. He is likely to hear more grumbling in an emergency videoconference call on Tuesday among the leaders of the Group of 7.

The latest fiasco in Kabul, after earlier U.S. missteps in Libya and Syria, not to speak of Iraq, has added greater urgency to a question that has dogged NATO virtually since the end of the Cold War, long before President Donald Trump happened on the scene: Will there be any serious shift in the way the NATO alliance operates, with the United States leading and Europe following?

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he will ask Biden during the G-7 call to keep Kabul airport open for evacuation flights past the original deadline of the end of the month, and this time Biden seems likely to agree.

But the allies’ demands for a “conditions-based withdrawal” were rejected by Biden, who insisted, perhaps a bit too hastily, on a firm deadline for leaving Afghanistan. No country stood up and said no, a senior NATO ambassador said.

Biden took office with a chance to reset relations with Europe after the trauma of the Trump years. While Biden has said almost all the right things on issues of trade and climate change, the Afghanistan fiasco has left many Europeans more convinced than ever that they cannot rely on the United States to look after their security interests — no matter who is occupying the White House.

Washington’s shift of foreign policy focus to countering the rising global influence of China has only deepened their anxieties.

Taliban members outside the closed United States embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021. Officials from Britain, Germany, Italy and France have complained that despite President Joe BidenÕs promises of consultation, there has been more diktat than conversation on Afghanistan. (Image/The New York Times)

During NATO’s summit meeting in June, which Biden attended, the president of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman, called the decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan “a betrayal,” an official in the room later said. Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, thanked him and moved on to the preferred American theme of challenging China.

Knowing that they could not replace the American military or remain in Afghanistan without U.S. troops, NATO allies largely left the withdrawal up to Washington. NATO had no evacuation-coordination plan, and the rapid victory of the Taliban surprised and embarrassed everyone, with key NATO officials on summer vacation and no American ambassador in place.

Some of the calls for change do seem more serious than in the past. Armin Laschet, a German conservative aiming to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor, called the U.S. withdrawal “the greatest debacle that NATO has experienced since its foundation.”

Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union foreign affairs chief, told the European Parliament that the departure was “a catastrophe for the Afghan people, for Western values and credibility, and for the developing of international relations.’’

Theresa May, the former British prime minister, who rushed to be the first foreign leader to see the newly elected Trump, asked in Parliament: “Was our intelligence really so poor? Was our understanding of the Afghan government so weak? Was our knowledge on the ground so inadequate? Or did we just think we had to follow the United States and on a wing and a prayer it would be all right on the night?”

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO’s secretary-general from 2004 to 2009, said that European criticism of Biden was quite accurate, but also somewhat irrelevant, because “we Europeans have become addicted to U.S. leadership.’’ Given the rise of China, he said, “the trans-Atlantic relationship as we have known it will never be the same.’’

Afghanistan should be a lesson for Europe, he told the BBC. America’s focus on China means that Europeans must “develop a capacity to stand on our own feet, militarily and politically,’’ and “should seriously think about what to do for our own defense and spend the money to make that happen.’’ But he added: “We’re very far from that now, unfortunately.”

For all the renewed calls for European independence of action and “strategic autonomy,” some say there is scant evidence much will change.

“Europeans are up in arms, but there are no alternative options, so I take this with a grain of salt,” said Rem Korteweg, a senior fellow at the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch research institution. “It’s repeating the mantras of Europeans whenever things don’t go as we want,’’ he said. But the wars in Bosnia and Libya demonstrated “the inability of Europeans to do anything serious without the Americans.”

To alter that would require a commitment of political will and taxpayer money that European leaders show little sign of providing. It is hard enough to get NATO’s European members to spend the 2% of gross domestic product on defense that they agreed, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to do by 2024. Even Laschet’s Germany, which is spending more, is up to only 1.53%.

“It’s nice to talk of European strategic autonomy, but to do what?” Korteweg asked. “What problem do we want to solve without the Americans? On what problem do we not want them to lead? Or is European autonomy a way of protecting ourselves from the big, bad outside world, from migration flows and Chinese economic coercion?”

Benjamin Haddad, a Frenchman who directs the Future Europe Initiative at the Atlantic Council, sees the debate reinforcing a call by French President Emmanuel Macron for a more autonomous European defense capacity in cooperation with NATO.

But Haddad is skeptical. “Europe did damage control with Trump, to wait him out,” he said. “Now, there is a bit of a shock, and clearly the Trump years didn’t serve as the wake-up call we expected from Europeans.’’

Haddad sees no concern that Washington will renege on its commitment to NATO’s collective defense. “But there is a message to Europe that there is no U.S. appetite to intervene in conflicts in the neighborhood that could impact Europe,” he said.

Anna Wieslander, a Swedish defense analyst and director for Northern Europe at the Atlantic Council, sees the Afghan pullout as a clear sign that NATO will shift again to focus on great-power competition with China and Russia, emphasizing issues of deterrence, resilience, disinformation and climate change.

European allies were tired of Afghanistan, too, she said, where the war against terrorism became mixed up with democracy promotion, nation building and social reform. “But NATO is not a development aid organization,” she said.

The withdrawal fiasco will revive the strategic autonomy argument, but the best result, she said, would be “a European pillar in NATO” that could — with major investment — provide some of the strategic airlift, surveillance, reconnaissance, and command and control that only the Americans now provide. “If we want more capacity and burden-sharing,” Wieslander said, “that could be a useful, if expensive debate.’’

Julian Lindley-French, a defense analyst at the Institute of Statecraft in London, says that the Europeans are doing a lot of “virtue signaling,’’ despite “the weakness of the European effort in Afghanistan over the past 20 years,’’ where most allies limited their operations with cautious rules of engagement.

“European weakness,” he added, “is in fact European isolationism.’’

European complaints about the chaotic withdrawal are serious but could boomerang, warned Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

“I’m sympathetic to European anxiety, given their reliance on the United States for the ultimate guarantee of their security, but also because it raises important questions about Biden’s judgment,’’ Schake said.

NATO allies “stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us in Afghanistan for 19 years, and the U.S. seems insufficiently appreciative of that long effort,” she said. “But I fear that there will be an American backlash to these European complaints when they could have done more.”

Even as Americans “may feel disgraced by what will happen after our abandonment,’’ Schake said, “our European friends complaining loudly about our failures is unlikely to instill greater commitment by Americans to European concerns and interests.”

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Wellington, New Zealand-Cheryl Simpson was supposed to celebrate his 60th birthday while having lunch with a friend, but instead was trapped in his home in Auckland.

The discovery of a single local COVID-19 case in New Zealand was sufficient for the government to put the entire country in a strict blockade last week. Others may consider it a Draconian, but New Zealanders have worked so well in the past that they generally support such measures.

“I’m happy to be able to get into the blockade even if I don’t like it,” said Simpson, owner of a dog daycare center that is currently closed for precautions. She said the country wants to shatter recent outbreaks: “I want to knock on the bloody stuff above my head.”

But in other parts of the Pacific, Japan is resisting such measures in the face of record surges, instead emphasizing its accelerating vaccine program. And Australia fell somewhere in the middle.

All three countries have passed the first year of the pandemic in relatively good condition, but are now a highly contagious form of the delta mutant that has contributed to the growing sense of inability to eradicate the coronavirus. We are on a forked road to deal with the outbreak of. Managed.

Professor Michael Baker, an epidemiologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said countries around the world are struggling to adapt to the latest threats. “Old rules do not work with delta variants.”

The difference in blockade and vaccine emphasis, and how effective such strategies are in defeating delta variants, can have widespread consequences for the economies and civil health of the three countries.

Japan has never imposed a blockade on the coronavirus. Before World War II and after the fascist era during World War II, the public was wary of government overkill, and Japan’s postwar constitution provides strict protection for civil liberties.

Prior to the delta type, many people in Japan were already accustomed to wearing surgical masks when they had a spring allergy or cold, so the country was able to control the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Today, most people on public transport wear masks during their commute. However, late at night, people tend to find it in restaurants and bars, which is why this variety spread. Holding the Tokyo Olympics was also useless.

In-game infections have been minimized by strict protocols, but experts such as Dr. Shigeru Omi, a key government medical adviser, have given the festive atmosphere that the Olympics will ease the alert of the Japanese people. It is said to have been created.

New cases in Japan jumped to 25,000 daily this month, more than triple the previous high. Omi considers it a disaster.

On Friday, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga expanded and expanded the state of emergency covering Tokyo and other regions until at least mid-September, but most restrictions are not legally enforceable.

Many governors are urging the prime minister to consider stricter restrictions. But Mr. Suga said the blockade is taking place all over the world and vaccines are a “way to go.”

Daily vaccinations in Japan increased tenfold from May to June as thousands of workplaces and universities began offering shots, but the country was catching up because of the late start. Only about 40 percent are fully vaccinated.

In Australia, a delta outbreak struck Sydney in June after an unvaccinated limousine driver was infected while transporting a US cargo aviation crew from Sydney Airport. State officials hesitated for 10 days and then imposed a blockade across Sydney, which has now continued for two months.

In the early days of the pandemic, the Australian federal government imposed a one-time national blockade. Currently, in the delta outbreak, we are pursuing a strategy called aggressive repression, including strict control over Australian departures and foreign entry, but essentially firing at state leaders. I’m calling.

New infections in Sydney have increased from a few weekly before the recent outbreak to more than 800 per day.

“It’s impossible to eliminate it altogether. Sydney’s Prime Minister of New South Wales, Gladys Berejikrian, said from a determination that state leaders had previously shown to completely quell the outbreak. He said it was interpreted by many as an important setback.

“That’s why we have a dual strategy in New South Wales,” said Beregikrian. “Reduce these cases and increase vaccination rates. In order for us to live freely in the future, we need to achieve both.”

The outbreak in Sydney spread to the capital, Canberra, and Canberra was also blocked. While shopping on Friday, civil servant Matina Carbon wore a mask.

“I don’t know anyone really intends to beat Delta,” she said. “I think we need to increase the rate of vaccination and open things slowly when we think it’s safe.”

However, Australia is far behind Japan in inoculating people, with only 23 percent being fully vaccinated.

Shortly after the first pandemic last year, neighboring New Zealand imposed a strict national blockade and closed its borders against non-residents. It completely wiped out the virus.

Since then, five million countries have been able to defeat each outbreak, recording only 26 viral deaths.

Six months have passed without any incidents prevailing in the area, and people are able to live their daily lives as they did before the pandemic.

But this month, the outbreak in Sydney spread to New Zealand and was carried by returning travelers.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern immediately imposed the strictest form of blockade.

By Sunday, the number of locally spread cases in New Zealand had increased to 72 and the virus had reached the capital, Wellington. Authorities competed to track an additional 10,000 people who may have been exposed.

“We were here before. We know that exclusion strategies work. Cases increase and then decrease until we’re gone,” she said. “It has been tried and is true. It needs to stick out.”

Epidemiologist Baker believes that it is still possible for New Zealand to wipe out the virus again by pursuing a “ember” approach that takes drastic steps to counteract the first signs of an outbreak. Stated.

There aren’t many Plan Bs in New Zealand.

A recent report by an expert adviser to the government pointed out that the country has relatively few beds in intensive care units, noting that outbreaks could quickly overwhelm the healthcare system.

And New Zealand is the slowest developed country to use firing as a weapon, with only 20 percent of fully vaccinated people.

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo and McGilck from Canberra, Australia.

Source link Blockage or vaccine? Three Pacific countries try to diverge | World News

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An insight here from news agency AP on the current state of Lebanese heath services, where hospitals are at breaking point and medical staff exhausted:

Drenched in sweat, doctors check patients lying on stretchers in the reception area of Lebanon’s largest public hospital. Air conditioners are turned off, except in operating rooms and storage units, to save on fuel.

Medics scramble to find alternatives to saline solutions after the hospital ran out. The shortages are overwhelming, the medical staff exhausted. And with a new surge in coronavirus cases, Lebanon’s hospitals are at a breaking point.

The country’s health sector is a casualty of the multiple crises that have plunged Lebanon into a downward spiral – a financial and economic meltdown, compounded by a complete failure of the government, runaway corruption and a pandemic that isn’t going away.

The collapse is all the more dramatic since only a few years ago, Lebanon was a leader in medical care in the Arab world. The region’s rich and famous came to this small Mideast nation of 6 million for everything, from major hospital procedures to plastic surgeries.

The Rafik Hariri University hospital is Lebanon’s largest public hospital and the country’s No 1 for the treatment of coronavirus patients. Lebanon has so far registered nearly 590,000 infections and over 8,000 deaths.

Many private hospitals, which offer 80% of Lebanon’s medical services, are shutting down because of lack of resources or turning away patients who can’t pay. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP

The hospital, which depended on the state power company, had to start relying on generators for at least 12 hours a day. Since last Monday, the generators have been the only source of power, running non-stop. Most of the hospital’s diesel, sold at the black market at five times the official price, is either donated by political parties or international aid groups.

To save on fuel, some rooms run only electrical fans in the sweltering summer heat. Not all hospital elevators are working. Bed capacity has been downsized by about 15% and the ER admits only life-threatening cases.

It is a perpetual crisis that has left the hospital always on the brink, says its director, Firas Abiad. There are “shortages of almost everything.”

Every day, he struggles to secure more fuel – the hospital has a maximum two-day supply at any time. Shelves are thin on medicines, including for cancer patients and dialysis. A new aid shipment of blood serum will last just a few days.

“We can hardly get by,” said Jihad Bikai, head of the ER. He recently had to send a critical patient to another hospital because he no longer has a vascular surgeon on staff.

On a recent afternoon at the Rafik Hariri hospital, nurse Mustafa Harqous, 39, tried to ignore the ruckus outside the coronavirus ER: patients with oxygen masks waiting for a bed to free up, families pressing to visit sick relatives, others arguing over out-of-stock drugs.

He went about his work in the 25-bed room. Except for a month-old baby, the patients were mostly men in their 30s and 40s.

Power outages, like this one at Rafik Hariri hospital, are increasingly common in Lebanon. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP

“Some people understand the shortages are not our fault,” he said. “But many don’t.”
He worries how he will fill up his car for the drive home, an hour and a half away. The government, he said, is “leaving people in the middle of the sea with no rescue boat.”

Reports say at least 2,500 doctors and nurses have left Lebanon this year. At the Rafik Hariri hospital, at least 30% of doctors and more than 10% of nurses left, most recently five in one day. Many private hospitals, who offer 80% of Lebanon’s medical services, are shutting down because of lack of resources or turning away patients who can’t pay.
Bikai, the 37-year-old ER chief, was offered a job in a neighbouring country. His salary is barely enough to cover his son’s dentist’s bills. His wife, also a doctor, works by his side in the ER.

“There is a moment, when you are pushing hard to get over a mountain, and you get to a place, you can’t move,” he said. “I worry we’ll get to that.”

Abiad, the hospital director, struggles to remain positive for his staff.
“Our country is disintegrating in front of our eyes,” he said. “The most difficult part is … we can’t seem to be able to find a way to stop this deterioration.”

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DEAR EDITOR:

Gov. DeWine’s pick of the top Ohio utility regulator, Sam Randazzo, who is named in the prosecution agreement about the House Bill 6 bribery scandal, is a slap in the face to consumers.

FirstEnergy admitted in federal filings that it bribed Randazzo to help draft House Bill 6 and delay a rate case that would have reduced revenues for the company. Though Randazzo has not been charged with any crime and has said he did nothing wrong, I believe he is totally unfit to be the person who represents the best interests of consumers and all Ohioans.

The prosecution agreement signed by FirstEnergy describes how its top two — subsequently fired — executives met with Randazzo at his Columbus condo on Dec. 18, 2018. Randazzo had just informed them that Gov.-elect DeWine was seeking applications to be utility commissioner and that he was in the running to become one — perhaps even chairman.

The next day, after the energy officials told Randazzo they would pay him $4.3 million under an earlier consulting agreement, Randazzo texted them back, pledging his loyalty.

“Made me laugh — you guys are welcome anytime and anywhere I can open the door. Let me know how you want me to structure the invoices. Thanks,” the message said.

The bailout legislation, HB6, also gutted standards for renewables and energy efficiency. Even before the scandal broke last summer, what was known about HB6 prompted one news organization to call it “the worst energy bill of the 21st century.” And the harm of HB6 only gets worse with age. The International Panel on Climate Change on Monday published a report saying that climate-related disasters are upon us, and if we don’t urgently work to reduce carbon emissions, they’ll be far more cataclysmic in the future.

Ohioans need a champion of consumers as the top utility regulator, someone who promotes a path to safe, clean and cost-effective energy not someone in the pocket of corrupt, scandal-ridden special interests. Gov. DeWine failed us, our kids and our future with this pick.

MARNE CARIO

Girard

Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox

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Authorities of a provincial capital in northern China have said citizens not vaccinated against Covid-19 will not be allowed to enter public places including hospitals, malls, subways, hotels, and markets.

Grassroot workers in the city have been ordered to daily submit the names and details of people who have not taken the jab to local committees and sub-district offices.

The government of Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said those who have not been vaccinated but found to be responsible for spreading Covid-19 will be prosecuted, Chinese media reported on Sunday.

This is the first time authorities of a major city in China have made vaccinations compulsory except for medical reasons.

Residents have to show proof of vaccination and a green health code to enter public areas.

In July, the national health commission (NHC) had said “informed, consented and voluntary” were the basic principles for China’s inoculation programme, adding, however, that people without medical reasons and within the acceptable age should take the shots.

The NHC issued the guidelines after authorities in several cities had issued rules saying unvaccinated people will be prohibited from entering public venues such as hospitals and supermarkets.

The government of Tanghe county, in central China’s Henan province, for example, had requested civil servants, including retired staff, to get vaccinated or warned that they won’t be allowed to continue to work or receive salary.

The Hohhot government’s decision, announced on Saturday, seems a departure from the NHA guidelines.

“In principle, it is not advisable to enter the above-mentioned places (without being vaccinated),” the Hohhot government notice said after listing the places banned for those who have not taken the jabs.

The banned public places include markets, tourist attractions (scenic spots), amusement parks, indoor enclosed entertainment venues, cinemas, cultural centres and libraries.

“Those who have not been vaccinated shall be persuaded by their units to be vaccinated as soon as possible before the end of August,” the notice quoted by Chinese media said.

Students have been advised not to go to school without being fully vaccinated, the notice indicated.

Inner Mongolia’s push to boost vaccination rates comes as the ruling Communist Party of China stresses on achieving herd immunity – which puts an end to community transmission – by December this year.

The decision also comes in the backdrop of the recent outbreak in several parts of China of the Covid-19 Delta variant; more than 1,300 cases were reported during the cluster outbreaks, the highest for China since last year.

Not only the fear of censure, Chinese cities have also offered incentives to citizens including electronic bikes, eggs, ice cream and milk to get jabbed.

Over 1.9 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in China as of Wednesday, NHC data showed.

China could reach 80% Covid-19 vaccines coverage by the end of this year, achieving herd immunity, the country’s top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan said in a virtual speech at a health conference on Friday.

A total of 777.046 million people in China, a country of 1.4 billion, have been fully vaccinated, NHC spokesperson Mi Feng said earlier this month.

China has also been vaccinating children and teenagers aged between 12 and 17 with over 60 million doses administered in the age group.

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Dutch government is donating 10 million euros to fund aid such as food, clean drinking water and medical supplies for Afghans.

The foreign ministry said Sunday the money will go to the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund that can be tapped by United Nations organizations and NGOs working in Afghanistan.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Tom De Bruijn says “we want to support the Afghan population under these difficult circumstances.”

Meanwhile, the Dutch defense ministry said a plane it chartered arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday carrying 160 passengers from Afghanistan. It did not disclose the nationalities of the evacuees.

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MORE ON THE CRISIS IN AFGHANISTAN:

— British military: 7 Afghans killed in chaos at Kabul airport

— China both worries and hopes as US departs Afghanistan

— Europe fears Afghan refugee crisisafter Taliban takeover

— AP PHOTOS: Two decades of war, and daily life in Afghanistan

— Biden vows to evacuate all Americans — and Afghan helpers

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— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

MADRID — Spain’s government says that U.S. President Joe Biden and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have agreed that the Rota and Morón military bases in Spain used by U.S. forces will temporarily take in Afghans who worked for the Americans and fear Taliban reprisals.

One Spanish plane carrying 64 people who worked for the U.S. landed late Saturday at Spain’s Torrejón air base near Madrid.

Additionally, Spain has received another 230 evacuees this week from Kabul, mostly Afghans who worked for Spain and for the European Union. Fifty-five of these evacuees have already flown on to other EU countries.

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LONDON — Tony Blair, the British prime minister who deployed troops to Afghanistan 20 years ago after the 9/11 attacks, says the U.S. decision to leave has “every Jihadist group round the world cheering.”

In a lengthy essay posted on his website late Saturday, Blair said the decision to withdraw troops was “tragic, dangerous, unnecessary.” He added that Britain has a “moral obligation” to stay until “all those who need to be are evacuated.”

He said the exit was not in the West or Afghanistan’s interest, with the Taliban reasserting itself across most of the country.

He also warned that the decision by the U.S. to keep Britain largely in the dark about the withdrawal risks relegating the country to “the second division of global powers.”

Blair accused U.S. President Joe Biden of making the decision on the back of “an imbecilic political slogan about ending ‘the forever wars’.”

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KABUL, Afghanistan — The British military says seven Afghan civilians have been killed in the crowds near Kabul’s international airport amid the chaos of those fleeing the Taliban takeover of the country.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement Sunday that “conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging but we are doing everything we can to manage the situation as safely and securely as possible.”

The airport has been the focal point for thousands trying to flee the Taliban, who swept into Kabul a week ago after their lightning advance seized the country.

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ISLAMABAD — The spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines says the airline has suspended flights from Kabul and is not evacuating anyone at the moment.

Abdullah Hafeez Khan says Sunday that the airline has no on-ground arrangements and lacks appropriate facilities at Kabul international airport to operate evacuation flights.

Khan said the suspension is temporary and the airline will resume its operations once the required arrangements are made there.

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NEW DELHI — An Indian official says an air force transport plane has left Kabul for New Delhi carrying 168 people on board.

Arindam Bagchi, the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, says the plane took off from Kabul on Sunday morning and the passengers include 107 Indian nationals. He didn’t give the nationalities of 61 others evacuated from the Afghan capital.

Meanwhile, another group of 87 Indians who were evacuated from Kabul to Tajikistan on Saturday in an Indian air force plane are being flown to New Delhi on Sunday, Bagchi said in a tweet. Two Nepalese nationals also were evacuated on that flight.

India began evacuating its nationals last Sunday after the Taliban swept into Kabul.

The Press Trust of India news agency said around 400 Indians were believed to be stranded in Afghanistan. No official figure was available.

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