Philippine villagers fear twin perils: Volcano and COVID-19

By AARON FAVILA and JOEAL CALUPITAN

In this image from video released by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology - Department of Science and Technology, a plume of steam and ash rises from Taal Volcano, Batangas province, Philippines on Thursday, July 1, 2021. A tiny volcano near the Philippine capital belched a plume of steam and ash into the sky in a brief explosion Thursday, prompting an alert level to be raised due to heightened risks to nearby villages. (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology - Department of Science and Technology via AP)

LAUREL, Philippines (AP) — Thousands of people were being evacuated from villages around a rumbling volcano near the Philippine capital Friday, but officials said they faced another dilemma of ensuring emergency shelters will not turn into epicenters of COVID-19 infections.

The alert was raised to three on a five-level scale after Taal Volcano blasted a dark gray plume into the sky Thursday. The five-minute steam- and gas-driven explosion was followed by four smaller emissions but the volcano was generally calm on Friday, volcanologists said.

Level three means “magma is near or at the surface, and activity could lead to hazardous eruption in weeks,” according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. Level five means a life-threatening eruption is occurring that could endanger communities.

The agency asked people to stay away from a small island in a scenic lake where Taal sits and is considered a permanent danger zone along with a number of nearby lakeside villages in Batangas province south of Manila.

An eruption of Taal last year displaced hundreds of thousands of people and briefly closed Manila’s international airport. However, the volcano agency’s chief, Renato Solidum, said it was too early to know if the volcano’s current unrest will lead to a full-blown eruption.

The preemptive evacuations that began late Thursday involved residents in five high-risk villages in the lakeside towns of Laurel and Agoncillo.

More than 14,000 people may have to be moved temporarily away from the volcano, said Mark Timbal, a spokesman for the government’s disaster-response agency.

Town officials, however, faced an extra predicament of ensuring emergency shelters, usually school buildings, basketball gymnasiums and even Roman Catholic church grounds, would not become coronavirus hotspots. Displaced villagers were asked to wear face masks and were sheltered in tents set safely apart, requiring considerably more space than in pre-pandemic times.

In Laurel town, Imelda Reyes feared for her and her family’s safety in their home near the volcano and in the crowded grade school-turned-evacuation center where they took shelter Friday.

“If we stay home, the volcano can explode anytime,” Reyes told The Associated Press. “But here, just one sick person can infect all of us. Both are dangerous choices.”

Reyes, who washes laundry and has four children, wept in desperation as she said she and her husband, a corn farmer, wanted to leave the evacuation camp for a friend’s house in northern Nueva Ecija province but lamented they did not have money for the bus fare.

Most evacuation camps have set up isolation areas in case anyone began showing COVID-19 symptoms.

“It’s doubly difficult now. Before, we just asked people to rush to the evacuation centers and squeeze themselves in as much as possible,” said disaster-response officer Junfrance De Villa of Agoncillo town.

“Now, we have to keep a close eye on the numbers. We’re doing everything to avoid congestion,” De Villa told The Associated Press by telephone.

A nearby town safely away from the restive volcano could accommodate up to 12,000 displaced Agoncillo residents in pre-pandemic times but could only shelter half of that now. A laidback town of more than 40,000 people, Agoncillo has reported more than 170 COVID-19 cases but only about a dozen remain ill. At least 11 residents have died, he said.

The Philippines is a COVID-19 hotspot in Asia, with more than 1.3 million confirmed cases.

An alarming surge in infections has started to ease in Manila and outlying regions. But daily cases remain high and lockdowns have been reimposed in several provinces that have reported case spikes.

President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration have faced criticism over a vaccination campaign saddled with supply problems and public hesitancy. After repeated delays, vaccinations started in March.

Duterte blamed the problems on wealthy Western countries cornering vaccines for their own citizens, leaving poorer countries like the Philippines behind.

The 1,020-foot (311-meter) Taal, one of the world’s smallest volcanoes, erupted in January last year, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and sending clouds of ash to Manila, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) to the north, where the main airport was temporarily shut down.

Heavy ashfall also buried an abandoned fishing community, which thrived for years in the shadow of Taal on an island in Taal Lake, and shut down a popular district of tourist inns, restaurants, spas and wedding venues.

The Philippines lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a region prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. A long-dormant volcano, Mount Pinatubo, blew its top north of Manila in 1991 in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds of people.

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Associated Press journalist Jim Gomez in Manila contributed to this report.

Among Iraqis, the name Rumsfeld evokes nation’s destruction

WAR CRIMINAL; THE ORIGINAL BIG LIE
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

July 1, 2021

FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2006, file photo, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asks for another question following his Landon Lecture at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan. News of the death of former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has hit far differently in Baghdad than in the U.S. capital. Rumsfeld, whose service under four U.S. presidents was stained by the ruinous U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, died on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

BAGHDAD (AP) — When he heard on the news that Donald Rumsfeld had died, Ali Ridha al-Tamimi and his wife sat down with their four children and told them: “This is the person who ruined our country.”

“He destroyed many families. And did it under the cover of liberation,” Tamimi later told The Associated Press. “I will never forgive him for the pain he caused us.”

The heated emotions are shared by many in Iraq, where the name Rumsfeld is synonymous with the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein — and deaths, arrests and torture that followed. The dark chapter in Iraq’s history still echoes in the daily lives of Iraqis today.

Rumsfeld, the defense secretary for President George W. Bush, was one of the architects of the invasion that ousted Saddam on what turned out to be baseless accusations he was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

Americans and their allies failed to plan much for what came next, and disbanded Iraqi security forces as one of their first steps — leading Iraqis to hold Rumsfeld and other American leaders responsible for years of unremitting sectarian bloodletting, extremist attacks and endless car bombings.

Rumsfeld is also linked to the abuse and torture of detainees in U.S. custody in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad — an episode Rumsfeld later referred to as his darkest hour as defense secretary.

The prison was known during Saddam’s rule as one of the main facilities for jailing and executing his opponents. After Saddam, Abu Ghraib became notorious once again, for the 2004 scandal over shocking abuses of detainees by American guards.

When news broke of Rumsfeld’s death in the United States on Wednesday at 88, many Iraqis took to social media to express lingering anger and bitterness. They aired memories of the dark era in Iraq that Bush and Rumsfeld represent.

Some tweeted: “Rot in Hell.” Others described Rumsfeld as a war criminal.

Al-Tamimi said he holds Rumsfeld personally responsible for his own detention in 2006, on suspicion of undertaking in anti-U.S. activities, including, he said, allegations of inciting against the U.S. presence in Iraq. Speaking to the AP over the phone on Thursday, he would not elaborate.

He was held in Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq for two years without a conviction. His son was just over a month old when he was detained. “He killed me while I was alive,” al-Tamimi said of Rumsfeld.

Al-Tamimi’s son was growing up for those two years “not knowing he had a father or where he was,” he said. Al-Tamimi was later found innocent by an Iraqi court and freed in 2008.

On social media, Iraqis shared stories of what Americans called a war of liberation gone horribly wrong for their country.

Muntader al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist known for throwing his shoes at Bush during a 2008 news conference to vent his outrage at the U.S.-led invasion, tweeted: “He is gone and Baghdad remains.”

In Washington, Rumsfeld’s former colleagues remembered him as simultaneously smart and combative, patriotic and politically cunning, with a career under four presidents that was tainted by the disastrous invasion of Iraq, for which Rumsfeld served as one of the most visible and vocal supporters.

Bush on Wednesday hailed Rumsfeld’s “steady service as a wartime secretary of defense — a duty he carried out with strength, skill, and honor.”

But the memories of those whose lives and nation were changed by the U.S. administration’s actions could not have been more different.

“Rumsfeld was a black mark on the history of Iraq. He brought the corrupt politicians that now control Iraq,” said Ihsan Alshamary, an Iraqi researcher in political affairs. He said Rumsfeld is responsible not just for the U.S. occupation of Iraq, but for decisions that had calamitous effects on Iraq’s future.

“As an Iraqi, I am relieved that one of the people responsible for the deaths of thousands, if not tens of thousands of Iraqis, is now dead. He will face his maker and have to answer for his transgressions in this life,” said Jawad al-Tai, a 45-year-old living in Baghdad.

“He didn’t liberate us. This is a myth. He killed us and told us to thank him for it,” al-Tai said.

In the wake of the invasion, many Iraqis were grateful to have Saddam removed by the Americans, and initially hopeful for their country’s future.

But that changed as it became clear that the Americans were unsure how to proceed after gutting the Iraqi government and security forces — or how to deal with the violent Sunni extremist groups, militants and and Shiite militias, some backed by neighboring Iran, that sprang up in the resulting security vacuum.

Sajad al-Rikabi, a 38-year-old Iraqi activist who participated in mass protests against government corruption in 2019, said he holds the U.S. responsible for the broken country that is Iraq today, and the post-war political class that now rules the land.

“The only way I will say “Rest in Peace” for him, is if the U.S. comes in and dismantles the system he created,” al-Rikabi said of Rumsfeld. “All that we are protesting now came because of his policies.”

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Associated Press writer Samya Kullab in Baghdad contributed to this report.

No decision yet in Turkey’s negotiations for Kabul Airport

By ZEYNEP BILGINSOY

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s defense minister said Friday that negotiations over his country’s proposal to operate and secure the key international airport in Afghanistan are taking place.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Turkey was discussing the plan with several countries. “There must be some political decisions at the United Nations and NATO, and an agreement must be reached with the Afghan government,” he said, adding that Turkey was seeking political, financial and logistical support from various countries.

He emphasized that a final decision had not yet been reached, but negotiations with the United States were continuing and the plan would be executed after the Turkish president’s approval.

Earlier this summer, Turkey proposed to operate and provide security for Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport in the aftermath of the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed it with U.S. President Joe Biden at their first face-to-face meeting during the NATO summit in mid-June.

An agreement on the protection of the airport has become increasingly urgent as the final withdrawal of the remaining 2,500-3,500 U.S. troops and 76,000 allied NATO soldiers nears a conclusion. On Friday all U.S. troops left Bagram Airfield after 20 years. The airfield had been the epicenter of the countrywide military operation to defeat the Taliban and hunt down al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

NATO-member Turkey has over 500 troops in Afghanistan and already plays a significant role at the airport. Akar has previously said Turkey has no plans to deploy more troops.

“The airport must be open and operate. If the airport doesn’t work, embassies will pull out, and in such a situation, Afghanistan would become an isolated state,” the defense minister said.

Without a separate agreement on the airport the current operations would have to be maintained under the Resolute Support Mission, which is the current U.S.-led military mission. Until there is an agreement it is not clear that the U.S. and NATO can declare their military mission in Afghanistan over.

“We have stated our intent. We said we can stay if these conditions are realized,” Akar said.

The minister’s comments were carried by official Anadolu news agency.

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Associated Press Writer Kathy Gannon contributed from Kabul, Afghanistan

EXPLAINER: When is the US war in Afghanistan really over?

By ROBERT BURNS and LOLITA C. BALDOR

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FILE - In this May 23, 2021, file photo Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, top U.S. commander for the Middle East, speaks to reporters traveling with him in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Although all combat troops and 20 years of accumulated war materiel will soon be gone, the head of U.S Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, will have authority until September to defend Afghan forces against the Taliban. He can do so by ordering strikes with U.S. warplanes based outside of Afghanistan, according to defense officials who discussed details of military planning Thursday on condition of anonymity. (AP Photo/Lolita Baldor, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the last U.S. combat troops prepare to leave Afghanistan, the question arises: When is the war really over?

For Afghans the answer is clear but grim: no time soon. An emboldened Taliban insurgency is making battlefield gains, and prospective peace talks are stalled. Some fear that once foreign forces are gone, Afghanistan will dive deeper into civil war. Though degraded, an Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State extremist network also lurks.

For the United States and its coalition partners, the endgame is murky. Although all combat troops and 20 years of accumulated war materiel will soon be gone, the head of U.S Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, will have authority until at least September to defend Afghan forces against the Taliban. He can do so by ordering strikes with U.S. warplanes based outside of Afghanistan, according to defense officials who discussed details of military planning on condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon said Friday that the U.S. military has left Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years. The facility was the epicenter of the war, but its transfer to the Afghan government did not mark the U.S. military’s final withdrawal from the country.

A look at the end of the war:

WHAT’S LEFT OF THE COMBAT MISSION?

Technically, U.S. forces haven’t been engaged in ground combat in Afghanistan since 2014. But counterterrorism troops have been pursuing and hitting extremists since then, including with Afghanistan-based aircraft. Those strike aircraft are now gone and those strikes, along with any logistical support for Afghan forces, will be done from outside the country.

Inside Afghanistan, U.S. troops will no longer be there to train or advise Afghan forces. An unusually large U.S. security contingent of 650 troops, based at the U.S. Embassy compound, will protect American diplomats and potentially help secure the Kabul international airport. Turkey is expected to continue its current mission of providing airport security, but McKenzie will have authority to keep as many as 300 more troops to assist that mission until September.

It’s also possible that the U.S. military may be asked to assist any large-scale evacuation of Afghans seeking Special Immigrant Visas, although the State Department-led effort envisions using commercially chartered aircraft and may not require a military airlift. The White House is concerned that Afghans who helped the U.S. war effort, and are thereby vulnerable to Taliban retribution, not be left behind.

When he decided in April to bring the U.S. war to a close, President Joe Biden gave the Pentagon until Sept. 11 to complete the withdrawal. On Friday, the Pentagon said it now plans to complete the pullout by the end of August. The Army general in charge in Kabul, Scott Miller, has essentially finished it already, with nearly all military equipment gone and few troops left.

The Pentagon said Miller is expected to remain in command for a couple more weeks. But will his departure this month constitute the end of the U.S. war? With as many as 950 U.S. troops in the country until September and the potential for continued airstrikes, the answer is probably not.


HOW WARS END

Unlike Afghanistan, some wars end with a flourish. World War I was over with the armistice signed with Germany on Nov. 11, 1918 — a day now celebrated as a federal holiday in the U.S. — and the later signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

World War II saw dual celebrations in 1945 with Germany’s surrender marking Victory in Europe (V-E Day) and Japan’s surrender a few months later as Victory Over Japan (V-J Day) following the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Korea, an armistice signed in July 1953 ended the fighting, although technically the war was only suspended because no peace treaty was ever signed.

Other endings have been less clear-cut. The U.S. pulled troops out of Vietnam in 1973, in what many consider a failed war that ended with the fall of Saigon two years later. And when convoys of U.S. troops drove out of Iraq in 2011, a ceremony marked their final departure. But just three years later, American troops were back to rebuild Iraqi forces that collapsed under attacks by Islamic State militants.

VICTORY OR DEFEAT?

As America’s war in Afghanistan draws to a close, there will be no surrender and no peace treaty, no final victory and no decisive defeat. Biden says it was enough that U.S. forces dismantled al-Qaida and killed Osama bin Laden, the group’s leader considered the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Lately, violence in Afghanistan has escalated. Taliban attacks on Afghan forces and civilians have intensified and the group has taken control of more than 100 district centers. Pentagon leaders have said there is “medium” risk that the Afghan government and its security forces collapse within the next two years, if not sooner.

U.S. leaders insist the only path to peace in Afghanistan is through a negotiated settlement. The Trump administration signed a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 that said the U.S. would withdraw its troops by May 2021 in exchange for Taliban promises, including that it keep Afghanistan from again being a staging arena for attacks on America.

U.S. officials say the Taliban are not fully adhering to their part of the bargain, even as the U.S. continues its withdrawal.

NATO MISSION

The NATO Resolute Support mission to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces began in 2015, when the U.S.-led combat mission was declared over. At that point the Afghans assumed full responsibility for their security, yet they remained dependent on billions of dollars a year in U.S. aid.

At the peak of the war, there were more than 130,000 troops in Afghanistan from 50 NATO nations and partner countries. That dwindled to about 10,000 troops from 36 nations for the Resolute Support mission, and as of this week most had withdrawn their troops.

Some may see the war ending when NATO’s mission is declared over. But that may not happen for months.

According to officials, Turkey is negotiating a new bilateral agreement with Afghan leaders in order to remain at the airport to provide security. Until that agreement is completed, the legal authorities for Turkish troops staying in Afghanistan are under the auspices of the Resolute Support mission.

COUNTERTERROR MISSION

The U.S. troop withdrawal doesn’t mean the end of the war on terrorism. The U.S. has made it clear that it retains the authority to conduct strikes against al-Qaida or other terrorist groups in Afghanistan if they threaten the U.S. homeland.

Because the U.S. has pulled its fighter and surveillance aircraft out of the country, it must now rely on manned and unmanned flights from ships at sea and air bases in the Gulf region, such as al-Dhafra air base in the United Arab Emirates. The Pentagon is looking for basing alternatives for surveillance aircraft and other assets in countries closer to Afghanistan. As yet, no agreements have been reached.

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Associated Press writer Kathy Gannon contributed to this report.

A timeline of more than 40 years of war in Afghanistan
By The Associated Press

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FILE - In this photo courtesy Ronald Reagan Library, then President Ronald Reagan meets with Afghan "freedom fighters" on Feb. 2, 1983, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, to discuss Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan. The former Soviet Union marched into Afghanistan on Christmas Eve, 1979, claiming it was invited by the new Afghan communist leader, Babrak Karmal, setting the country on a path of 40 years of seemingly endless wars and conflict. After the Soviets left in humiliation, America was the next great power to wade in. (Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library via AP)

The former Soviet Union marched into Afghanistan on Christmas Eve, 1979, claiming it was invited by the new Afghan communist leader, Babrak Karmal, and setting the country on a path of 40 years of seemingly endless wars and conflict.

After the Soviets left in humiliation, America was the next great power to wade in. Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. invaded to oust the Taliban regime, which had harbored al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

After nearly 20 years, the U.S. is ending its war in Afghanistan, withdrawing the last American troops.

Left behind is the U.S.-allied government, riven by corruption and divisions, which must fend off advancing Taliban insurgents amid stalled peace talks. Many Afghans fear the next chapter will see their country plunge into chaos and inter-factional fighting among warlords.

Here is a timeline of some key dates in Afghanistan’s 40 years of wars:


Dec. 25, 1979 — Soviet Red Army crosses the Oxus River into Afghanistan. In neighboring Pakistan, Afghan mujahedeen, or Islamic holy warriors, are assembling, armed and financed by the U.S. for an anti-communist war. More than 8 million Afghans flee to Pakistan and Iran, the first of multiple waves of refugees over the decades.

1980s — CIA’s covert Operation Cyclone funnels weapons and money for the war through Pakistani dictator Mohammed Zia-ul Haq, who calls on Muslim countries to send volunteers to fight in Afghanistan. Bin Laden is among the thousands to volunteer.

1983 — President Ronald Reagan meets with mujahedeen leaders, calling them freedom fighters, at the White House.

September 1986 — The U.S. provides the mujahedeen with shoulder-held anti-aircraft Stinger missiles, which turns the course of the war. Soviets begin negotiating withdrawal.

Feb. 15, 1989 — The last Soviet soldier leaves Afghanistan, ending 10 years of occupation

April 1992 — Mujahedeen groups enter Kabul. The fleeing Najibullah is stopped at the airport and put under house arrest at a U.N. compound.

1992-1996 — Power-sharing among the mujahedeen leaders falls apart and they spend four years fighting one another; much of Kabul is destroyed and nearly 50,000 people are killed.

1994 — The Taliban emerge in southern Kandahar, take over the province and set up a rule adhering to a strict interpretation of Islam.

Sept. 26, 1996 — The Taliban capture Kabul after sweeping across the country with hardly a fight; Northern Alliance forces retreat north toward the Panjshir Valley. The Taliban hang Najibullah and his brother.

1996-2001 — Though initially welcomed for ending the fighting, the Taliban rule with a heavy hand under Mullah Mohammed Omar, imposing strict Islamic edicts, denying women the right to work and girls the right to go to school. Punishments and executions are carried out in public.

March 2001 — The Taliban dynamite the world’s largest standing Buddha statues in Bamyan province, to global shock.

September 2001 — After 9/11 attacks, Washington gives Mullah Omar an ultimatum: hand over bin Laden and dismantle militant training camps or prepare to be attacked. The Taliban leader refuses.

Oct. 7, 2001 — A U.S.-led coalition launches an invasion of Afghanistan.

Nov. 13, 2001 — The Taliban flee Kabul for Kandahar as the U.S.-led coalition marches into the Afghan capital with the Northern Alliance.

Dec. 5, 2001 — The Bonn Agreement is signed in Germany, giving the majority of power to the Northern Alliance’s key players and strengthening the warlords who had ruled between 1992 and 1996. Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun like most Taliban, is named Afghanistan’s president.

Dec. 7, 2001 — Mullah Omar leaves Kandahar and the Taliban regime officially collapses.

May 1, 2003 — President George W. Bush declares “mission accomplished” as the Pentagon says major combat is over in Afghanistan.

2004 and 2009 — In two general elections, Karzai is elected president for two consecutive terms.

Summer 2006: With the U.S. mired in Iraq, the Taliban resurgence gains momentum with escalating attacks. Soon they begin retaking territory in rural areas of the south.

April 5, 2014 — The election for Karzai’s successor is deeply flawed and both front-runners, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, claim victory. The U.S. brokers a deal under which Ghani serves as president and Abdullah as chief executive, starting an era of divided government.

Dec. 8, 2014 — American and NATO troops formally end their combat mission, transitioning to a support and training role. President Barack Obama authorizes U.S. forces to carry out operations against Taliban and al-Qaida targets.

2015-2018 — The Taliban surge further, staging near-daily attacks targeting Afghan and U.S. forces and seizing nearly half the country. An Islamic State group affiliate emerges in the east.

September 2018 — After his election promises to bring U.S. troops home, President Donald Trump appoints veteran Afghan-American diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad as negotiator with the Taliban. Talks go through 2019, though the Taliban refuse to negotiate with the Kabul government and escalate attacks.

Sept. 28, 2019 — Another sharply divided presidential election is held. It is not until February 2020 that Ghani is declared the winner. Abdullah rejects the results and holds his own inauguration. After months, a deal is reached establishing Ghani as president and Abdullah as head of the peace negotiating committee.

August 18, 2019 — The Islamic State group carries out a suicide bombing at wedding in a mainly Hazara neighborhood of Kabul, killing more than 60 people.

Feb. 29, 2020 — The U.S. and the Taliban sign a deal in Doha, Qatar, setting a timetable for the withdrawal of the around 13,000 U.S. troops still in Afghanistan and committing the insurgents to halt attacks on Americans.

Sept. 12, 2020-February 2021 — After months of delay, Taliban-Afghan government negotiations open in Qatar, sputter for several sessions and finally stall with no progress. Ghani refuses proposals for a unity government, while the Taliban balk at a cease-fire with the government.

March 18, 2021 — After the U.S. proposes a draft peace plan, Moscow hosts a one-day peace conference between the rival Afghan sides. Attempts at a resumption of talks fail. Taliban and government negotiators have not sat at the table since.

April 14, 2021 — President Joe Biden says the remaining 2,500-3,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be withdrawn by Sept. 11 to end America’s “forever war.”

2019-Present — Violence grows in Kabul. IS carries out brutal attacks, including on a maternity hospital and a school, killing newborns, mothers and schoolgirls. Also growing is a wave of random attacks, unclaimed and mysterious, with shootings, assassinations and sticky bombs planted on cars, spreading fear among Afghans.

May 2021-Present — Taliban gains on the ground accelerate. Multiple districts in the north, outside the Taliban heartland, fall to the insurgents, sometimes with hardly a fight. Ghani calls a public mobilization, arming local volunteers, a step that risks compounding the many factions.

July 2, 2021 — The United States hands over Bagram Airfield to Afghan military control after the last troops in the base leave. The transfer of Bagram, the heart of the U.S. military’s presence in Afghanistan throughout the war, signals that the complete pullout of American troops is imminent, expected within days, far ahead of Biden’s Sept. 11 timetable.

VACCINE IMPERIALISM & COLONIALISM

Africa’s COVID-19 envoy blasts EU, COVAX over vaccine crisis


FILE — In this Friday, June 25, 2021 file photo members of the Economic Freedom Fighters stage a protest march in Pretoria, South Africa, demanding that vaccines from China and Russia be included in the country's vaccine rollout program. The African Union special envoy tasked with leading efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the continent is blasting Europe as Africa struggles amid a crushing third wave of infections. (AP Photo Alet Pretorius, File)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The African Union special envoy tasked with leading efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the continent is blasting Europe as Africa struggles amid a crushing third surge of infections, saying Thursday that “not one dose, not one vial, has left a European factory for Africa.”

Strive Masiyiwa also took aim at the global effort meant to distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, accusing COVAX of withholding crucial information including that key donors hadn’t met funding pledges. He didn’t name which donors.

“The situation could be very different had we known back in December that ‘Listen, this help is not coming, do for yourselves,’” Masiyiwa told reporters, adding that “many countries were just sitting back saying, ‘the vaccines are coming.’ ... We as Africans are disappointed.”

The criticism revealed African leaders’ sheer exasperation at the world’s dramatic vaccine divide, with Masiyiwa describing vaccinated, unmasked Europeans attending football matches while just 1% of Africans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The continent has the lowest vaccine coverage in the world.

Masiyiwa stressed that Africa has purchased 400 million vaccine doses and can buy more, but he challenged donors: “Pay up your money ... We will no longer measure pledges, we will measure vaccines arriving at our airports.”

The African continent of 1.3 billion people is now in the grip of a third surge of infections that is “extremely aggressive,” the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. Health officials have described overflowing COVID-19 wards, dangerous oxygen shortages and a growing spread of the virus to extremely vulnerable and unequipped rural areas.

Masiyiwa said COVAX had promised to deliver 700 million vaccine doses to Africa by December. But at mid-year, Africa has received just 65 million doses overall. Less than 50 million doses via COVAX have arrived.

“We are very far away from our target,” Nkengasong said. “We don’t want to be seen as the continent of COVID ... (In Europe) the stadiums are full of young people shouting and hugging. We can’t do that in Africa.”

A spokeswoman for the public health group that manages the U.N.-backed COVAX, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, did not address Masiyiwa’s allegations. She said COVAX publishes a supply forecast “based on best available information,” and said the vaccine shortfall so far this year is because the major COVAX supplier, the Serum Institute of India, diverted production for domestic use.

The World Health Organization in a separate briefing said COVID-19 case numbers are doubling in Africa every three weeks and the highly contagious delta variant is driving the new wave of infections.

And the Lancet COVID-19 Commission African Task Force made an urgent appeal for at least 300 million vaccine doses so every African country can fully vaccinate at least 20% of its people by the end of August. It said 46% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, with about 33% in the European Union and about 40% in China.

Nkengasong and Masiyiwa did announce some vaccine progress, saying the first shipments of Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer doses based on U.S. support will begin arriving next week. It was not clear how many doses would be in the shipments. Meanwhile, more African-purchased doses will arrive in August, Masiyiwa said.

The African continent has had 5.5 million confirmed COVID-19 infections and has seen a “remarkable” 23% increase in deaths over the past week, the Africa CDC director said.

He said the continent needs 1.6 billion doses in a double-dose regime, or 800 million for a single-dose regime, to meet the goal of vaccinating 60% of the population.

Masiyiwa gave a frank accounting of where global efforts to vaccinate the world against COVID-19 had sputtered. “It became pretty clear by December that the hope that we would all as a global community buy vaccines together through COVAX was not being adhered to, particularly by the rich and powerful nations,” he said.

COVAX aimed to provide 20% of Africa’s vaccine needs, with African nations stepping up for the rest, he said. But “it really doesn’t matter how much money your country has, they couldn’t buy vaccines ... I never saw presidents try so hard, calling chief executives.”

The African continent has relied on vaccine manufacturing capabilities elsewhere in the world, but the COVID-19 vaccine crisis has jolted African leaders into pursuing their own production.

Step by step, Masiyiwa laid out the challenges: Vaccine suppliers require advance purchases, and the World Bank could only lend to countries once vaccines are available. African nations scrambled via the Africa Export-Import Bank, owned by member states, to come up with some $2 billion. African countries created a purchasing platform to improve their buying power.

But the vaccines have been hard to find as countries with manufacturing capabilities imposed controls on export sales in the interest of vaccinating their own citizens first. “It was the same whether we were talking to the East, to the West, whatever,” Masiyiwa said. “This has created a massive crisis.”

He took aim at Europe: “When we go to talk to their manufacturers, they tell us they’re completely maxed out meeting the needs of Europe, we’re referred to India.” But the EU now imposes public health restrictions on people vaccinated with Covishield, the Indian-produced version of the EU-accepted AstraZeneca vaccine.

“So how do we get to the situation where they give money to COVAX, who go to India to purchase vaccines, and then they tell us those vaccines are not valid?” Masiyiwa said.

Without mentioning the EU issue, COVAX in a statement on Thursday warned against turning away people “protected by a subset of WHO-approved vaccines,” saying it would “effectively create a two-tier system, further widening the global vaccine divide.”

Some countries engage in so-called vaccine diplomacy and those bilateral donations are welcome, Masiyiwa said, but they’re not enough to “move the needle.”

___

Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

GENOCIDE BY ANY OTHER NAME

Ethiopia denies trying to ‘suffocate’ Tigray region

By CARA ANNA

JULY 2, 2021

A destroyed bridge over the Tekeze River is seen in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia Thursday, July 1, 2021. The bridge on a main supply route linking western Tigray that is crucial to delivering desperately needed food to much of Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region has been destroyed, aid groups said Thursday. (Roger Sandberg/Medical Teams International via AP)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s government on Friday rejected accusations that it’s trying to “suffocate” the people of Tigray by denying them urgently needed food and other aid, as transport and communications links remained severed to the region that faces the world’s worst famine crisis in a decade.

Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen spoke to reporters a day after a bridge that’s crucial for accessing much of the region of 6 million people was destroyed and the United Nations indicated that special forces from the neighboring Amhara region were to blame. Amhara authorities have occupied western Tigray and forced out hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans.

“The insinuation that we are trying to suffocate the Tigrayan people by denying humanitarian access and using hunger as a weapon of war is beyond the pale. There is absolutely no reason for us to do so. These are our people,” Demeke said.

Ethiopia’s government blamed Tigray forces for the bridge’s destruction. But an aid worker who travelled to the site said area residents described to him how they saw Amhara special forces placing objects on the bridge and driving away after the blast. “They still seemed in shock at what had happened,” Roger Sandberg, vice president of field operations with Medical Teams International, told The Associated Press.

Sandberg said area residents also told him that there was no other way to cross, while Tigray forces conveyed to him that they wouldn’t obstruct NGO access to the region.

The U.N. Security Council was meeting to discuss Tigray on Friday.

In a stunning turn earlier this week, Ethiopia declared a unilateral cease-fire on humanitarian grounds while retreating from Tigray forces. But the government faces growing international pressure as it continues to cut off the region from the rest of the world. Aid workers say fuel and other supplies are running low.

In a strikingly outspoken statement, the World Food Program said on Friday that a second key bridge leading into Tigray was destroyed on Thursday, while no WFP flights bringing in U.N. or other aid workers have been allowed by Ethiopia since June 22.

Even before the bridges were destroyed, at least 3,800 metric tons of food had been blocked from reaching parts of western Tigray, WFP emergency coordinator Tommy Thompson told reporters in Geneva. He warned that “more people will die” if access doesn’t materialize, but added that an air bridge might be set up in coming days.

The U.N. agency said trucks are loaded and ready to replenish its nearly-exhausted food stocks inside Tigray, where 5.2 million people need emergency food aid. “We’ll be out of food in the northwest by this weekend,” Thompson said.

Up to 900,000 people in Tigray are facing famine conditions, the United States has said. A new U.N. humanitarian update issued late Thursday said that “the blackout of electricity, telecommunications, and internet throughout Tigray region will only exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation.”

Ethiopia’s foreign minister said the government has a roadmap for dialogue to resolve the Tigray crisis that’s expected to include “rank and file members of the (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) who show readiness to choose a peaceful path.” But Tigray forces, recently designated by Ethiopia as a terrorist group, now control most of the region and have demanded that Ethiopia resumes basic services before any talks.

“A cease-fire doesn’t mean cutting a region off power or destroying critical infrastructure,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted on Friday. “A credible cease-fire means doing everything possible so that aid reaches the millions of children, women and men who urgently need it.”

The security situation in Tigray was generally calm after the retreat of Ethiopian forces and those of neighboring Eritrea, who have been accused by witnesses of some of the worst atrocities in the war. Officials with Eritrea, an enemy of Tigray leaders after a 1998-2000 war along their border, have not responded to requests for comment.

Amhara authorities have warned Tigray forces against trying to retake the region’s western areas. But the Tigray forces spokesman told the AP this week they would “liberate” the region from “enemies,” and thousands of fighters were seen heading west.

Ethiopia’s government has said the cease-fire will last only until the crucial farming season in Tigray is over, meaning September. But the WFP said farmers have already missed the peak planting month of June because of seed and fertilizer shortages.

___

Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

Bridge key to delivering aid to Ethiopia’s Tigray destroyed

By CARA ANNA

July 1, 2021

FILE - In this Friday, May 7, 2021 file photo, fighters loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) greet each other on the street in the town of Hawzen, then-controlled by the group but later re-taken by government forces, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. The Tigray forces that in late June 2021 have retaken key areas after fierce fighting have rejected the cease-fire and vowed to chase out Ethiopian government forces and those of neighboring Eritrea. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A bridge that’s crucial to delivering desperately needed food to much of Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region has been destroyed, aid groups said Thursday as Tigray fighters were said to be approaching other combatants occupying large areas nearby.

The destruction of the bridge over the Tekeze River “means aid efforts will be even more severely hampered than before,“ the International Rescue Committee said in a statement. Tigray has the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade, with the United States saying up to 900,000 people face famine conditions in a situation it calls “entirely man-made.”

It was not immediately clear who destroyed the bridge on a main supply route linking western Tigray, which is occupied by forces from the neighboring Amhara region, and the rest of Tigray.

Aid groups were looking into reports of other key bridges destroyed. Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s government has prohibited aircraft to fly below 29,000 feet within the airspace over Tigray, according to a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration notice posted Wednesday.

The Tigray forces, emboldened after retaking the regional capital this week in a stunning turn in the eight-month war with Ethiopia’s military, have taken control of key towns this week, and several thousand of its fighters had been seen to be moving west.

The spokesman for the Tigray forces this week told The Associated Press they would “liberate” the region from “enemies” including the Ethiopian forces, Amhara forces and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea.

Ethiopia’s government, under pressure from battlefield losses amid some of the fiercest fighting of the war, this week declared an immediate and unilateral cease-fire. Witnesses have seen Eritrean forces retreating toward the border Eritrea shares with Tigray.

Amhara authorities have warned the Tigray forces against trying to retake western areas. The Amhara regional spokesman, Gizachew Muluneh, told the AP an investigation would be carried out into the bridge’s destruction. Ethiopian military spokesman Col. Getinet Adane said that “we have the information about it but it will be disclosed in a press conference.”

The bridge’s destruction is “disastrous,” tweeted the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. There are just four main roads into the Tigray region of 6 million people and now only one “might be passable,” Samantha Power said, since one is blocked by Amhara forces and another by fighting.

TIGRAY FIGHTERS

France’s U.N. ambassador, Nicolas De Riviere, the current president of the U.N. Security Council, said the body would “most likely” hold an open meeting Friday afternoon on developments in Tigray that would include political and humanitarian briefings.

He said at a news conference that the council should again demand humanitarian access to Tigray and compliance by the parties with human rights, which have been violated during the conflict.

Humanitarian aid groups have been badly constrained in Tigray, with electricity and communications links still cut in the region. The Tigray fighters, who had long dominated Ethiopia’s government and military before a falling-out with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, have demanded the return of services to the region as a condition of any peace negotiations.

In a recent case of blocking aid, a 29-truck convoy carrying World Food Program supplies was denied access and had to return to the Amhara region earlier this week, a U.N. humanitarian worker said. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

A WFP spokesman, Peter Smerdon, told the AP the Tekeze bridge’s destruction “will have an impact, but we are currently assessing how much of an impact and whether there is an alternative route we could use to bring in urgently needed food stocks from Gondar to our warehouses in Shire.”

He did not say how soon those Shire warehouses would be empty if a supply route cannot be found. The rainy season now beginning in Tigray will further complicate matters.

The cease-fire is limited; Ethiopia’s government has said it will last only until the end of the crucial farming season in Tigray, which means September.

CULTURAL & ETHNIC GENOCIDE

UN: Over 400,000 people in Ethiopia’s Tigray face famine now

In this Saturday, May 8, 2021, photo, an Ethiopian woman scoops up grains of wheat after it was distributed by the Relief Society of Tigray in the town of Agula, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. As the United States warns that up to 900,000 people in Tigray face famine conditions in the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade, little is known about vast areas of Tigray that have been under the control of combatants from all sides since November 2020. With blocked roads and ongoing fighting, humanitarian groups have been left without access. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations said Friday that more than 400,000 people in Ethiopia’s crisis-wracked Tigray region are now facing the worst global famine in decades and 1.8 million are on the brink, and warned that despite the government’s unilateral cease-fire there is serious potential for fighting in western Tigray.

The dire U.N. reports to the first open meeting of the U.N. Security Council since the conflict in Tigray began last November and painted a devastating picture of a region where humanitarian access is extremely restricted, 5.2 million people need aid, and Tigray forces that returned to their capital Mekele after the government’s June 28 cease-fire and exit from the region have not agreed to the halt to hostilities.

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo urged the Tigray Defense Force “to endorse the cease-fire immediately and completely,” stressing that the U.N.’s immediate concern is to get desperately need aid to the region.

Acting U.N. humanitarian chief Ramesh Rajasingham said the situation in Tigray “has worsened dramatically” in the last 2 ½ weeks, citing “an alarming rise in food insecurity and hunger due to conflict” with the number of people crossing the threshold to famine increasing from 350,000 to 400,000. With 1.8 million a step away, he said, some suggest “the numbers are even higher.”

“The lives of many of these people depend on our ability to reach them with food, medicine, nutrition supplies and other humanitarian assistance,” he said. “And we need to reach them now. Not next week. Now.”

The largely agricultural Tigray region of about 6 million people already had a food security problem amid a locust outbreak when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Nov. 4 announced fighting between his forces and those of the defiant regional government. Tigray leaders dominated Ethiopia for almost three decades but were sidelined after Abiy introduced reforms that won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.

No one knows how many thousands of civilians or combatants have been killed. DiCarlo said an estimated 1.7 million people have been displaced from their homes, and more than 60,000 have fled into neighboring Sudan. Though Abiy declared victory in late November, Ethiopia’s military kept up the offensive with allied fighters from neighboring Eritrea, a bitter enemy of the now-fugitive officials who once led Tigray, and from the Amhara region adjacent to Tigray.

In a stunning turn earlier this week, Ethiopia declared a unilateral cease-fire on humanitarian grounds while retreating from advancing Tigray forces. But the government faces growing international pressure as it continues to cut off the region from the rest of the world.


DiCarlo said reports indicate that leaders of Tigray’s previous regional administration including its former president have returned to the regional capital Mekele, which has no electrical power or internet. “Key infrastructure has been destroyed, and there are no flights entering or leaving the area,” she said.

Elsewhere in Tigray, DiCarlo said, Eritrean forces, who have been accused by witnesses of some of the worst atrocities in the war, have “withdrawn to areas adjacent to the border” with Eritrea.

Amhara forces remain in western Tigray, and DiCarlo said the Amhara branch of the ruling Prosperity Party warned in a statement on June 29 that the region’s forces will remain in territory it seized in the west during the conflict.

“In short, there is potential for more confrontations and a swift deterioration in the security situation, which is extremely concerning,” she warned.

Ethiopia’s U.N. Ambassador Taye Atske Selassie told reporters later when asked if Amhara forces would remain in western Tigray, “that is a matter of fact.”

Selassie, who comes from that part of Ethiopia, said the western area was once part of Amhara but was “forcibly incorporated into Tigray in 1990 without any due process.” He said the dispute will now be submitted to a government border commission.

On the humanitarian front, Rajasingham said over the past few days U.N. teams in Mekelle, Shire and Axum have been able to move out to other places which is “positive.”

The U.N. now plans to send convoys to difficult-to-reach areas but the U.N. World Food Program only has enough food for one million people for one month in Mekelle, he said.

“This is a fraction of what we need for the 5.2 million people who need food aid,” the acting aid chief said. “However, we have almost run out of health, water, sanitation and other non-food item kits. Food alone does not avert a famine.”

Rajasingham urged “all armed and security actors” in Tigray to guarantee safe road access for humanitarian workers and supplies, using the fastest and most effective routes.

He expressed alarm at Thursday’s destruction of the Tekeze River bridge -- “and the reported damage to two other bridges -- which cut a main supply route to bring in food and other life-saving supplies.”

Rajasingham called on the Ethiopian government “to immediately repair these bridges and by doing so help prevent the spread of famine.”

“What we are seeing in Tigray is a protection crisis,” Rajasingham stressed, citing civilian killings during the conflict, and more than 1,200 cases of serious sexual and gender-based violence reported, “with more continuing to emerge.”

Selassie, the Ethiopian ambassador, reiterated the government’s call for a national dialogue and its commitment to ensure accountability for crimes and atrocities committed during the conflict -- moves welcomed by U.N. political chief DiCarlo.

She urged the international community to encourage the government and Tigrayan forces to ensure there is no impunity for the crimes.

The Security Council took no action and made no statement but U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said its first open meeting after six closed discussions was important to show the people of Tigray and the parties to the conflict that the U.N.’s most powerful body is concerned about the issue and closely watching developments.

“And hopefully it will lead to further action by the council if the situation there does not improve,” she said.

French far-right chief under fire for her mainstream turn
By ELAINE GANLEY

SEPARATED AT BIRTH LePEN & HILLARY



PARIS (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is facing stinging criticism for making her party too mainstream, dulling its extremist edge, and ignoring grassroots members, with voices from inside and outside warning this could cost her votes in next year’s presidential race.

The rumblings grew louder after the National Rally’s failure a week ago in regional elections, and come just ahead of this weekend’s party congress.

Le Pen is the anti-immigration party’s unquestioned boss, and her fortunes aren’t expected to change at the two-day event in the southwestern town of Perpignan, hosted by local Mayor Louis Aliot — Le Pen’s former companion and, above all, the party’s top performer in last year’s municipal elections. But there could be an uncomfortable reckoning, just as Le Pen is trying to inject new dynamism into the National Rally.

Critics say Le Pen has erased her party’s anti-establishment signature by trying to make it more palatable to the mainstream right. As part of the strategy, she softened the edges and strove to remove the stigma of racism and antisemitism that clung to the party after decades under her now-ostracized father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. She even changed the name from National Front, as it was called under her father, who co-founded the party in 1972 and led it for four decades.

“The policy of adapting, of rapprochement with power, even with the ordinary right, was severely sanctioned,” said Jean-Marie Le Pen. “(That) was a political error and translates into an electoral failure, and perhaps electoral failures,” he added, referring to the regional election result and the 2022 presidential vote.

The defiant patriarch, now 93, was expelled in the effort to boost the party’s respectability, but his criticism reflects that of more moderate members who say his daughter has muddled the message.

Her goal is to reach the runoff in the presidential race in 10 months with greater success than in 2017, when she reached the final round but lost to centrist Emmanuel Macron.

National Rally candidates — including several who originally hailed from the mainstream right — failed in all 12 French regions during elections last Sunday marked by record-high abstention with only one in three voters casting ballots. Polls had suggested the party, which has never headed a region, would be victorious in at least one. Instead, it lost nearly a third of its regional councilors, in voting regarded as critical to planting local roots needed for the presidential race — a task that some say has been neglected.

“It’s local elections that are the launch pad for the rocket” that could take Marine Le Pen to the presidential palace, Romain Lopez, mayor of the small southwest town of Moissac, said in an interview. “Today, we look like eternal seconds. That can ... demobilize the National Rally electorate for the presidential elections.”

Some local representatives have resigned in disgust since the regional elections defeat, among them the delegate for the southern Herault area, Bruno Lerognon.

In a bitter letter to Le Pen, posted on Facebook, Lerognon blasted his boss’ strategy to lure voters from other parties as “absurd.” He said members of the party’s local federation were “odiously treated” — removed from running in the regional elections in favor of outsiders. Cronyism, had “rotted” the local far-right scene, he wrote, alluding to long-standing criticism of power clans within the National Rally whose voices are decisive. Le Pen replaced him a day later.

In western France, all four members of a small local federation resigned between rounds of the regional elections. None of the four was represented on local electoral lists — “pushed aside,” as they claimed, by higher-ups elsewhere. They bemoaned a “losing strategy” born at the Lille party congress in 2018, when Le Pen first proposed changing the party’s name and severed remaining ties with her father.

A party figure with a national reputation, European Parliament lawmaker Gilbert Collard, has criticized the strategy of opening up as “a trap.” He said he won’t attend the congress.

Lopez, the mayor of Moissac, will be there, hoping that he and others with complaints will be heard.

Lopez, 31, is a proponent of Le Pen’s outreach to other parties, and credits his own broad appeal to voters for his election last year, in an upset for the previously leftist town.

But the party hierarchy is disconnected from its scarce, albeit vital local bases, Lopez said. National officials treat local representatives like children “and impose everything, how to communicate, build a local campaign,” Lopez said. “And by imposing everything from the top, you have a national strategy ... disconnected from the reality of each town or region.”

He is unsure whether the party will give local officials like himself speaking time, beyond his five minutes at a roundtable, but hopes to be heard.

“When you’re in self-satisfaction, when you refuse to look at imperfections, you go straight into the wall,” he said.

SCOTUS 

Justices turn away florist who refused same-sex wedding job



WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday declined to take up the case of a florist who refused to provide services for a same-sex wedding, leaving in place a decision that she broke state anti-discrimination laws.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have agreed to hear the case and review the decision. Four justices are needed for the court to take a case.

In 2018 the high court ordered Washington state courts to take a new look at the case involving florist Barronelle Stutzman and her Arlene’s Flowers business. That followed the justices’ decision in a different case involving a Colorado baker who declined to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.

After that review, the Washington Supreme Court ruled unanimously that state courts did not act with animosity toward religion when they ruled Stutzman broke the state’s anti-discrimination laws by refusing on religious grounds to provide flowers for the wedding of Rob Ingersoll and Curt Freed.

Stutzman had sold Ingersoll flowers for nearly a decade and knew he was gay. But she contended his marriage went against her religious beliefs and she felt she could not provide services for the event.

Washington state law says businesses offering services to opposite-sex couples must provide the same service to same-sex couples.

A CENTURIES OLD REVOLUTIONARY TRADITION
In Cuba, novels and news accompany rolling of cigars

By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ

Odalys de la Caridad Lara Reyes entertains employees by reading to them as they work making cigars at the La Corona Tobacco factory in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, June 29, 2021. She's one of a tiny band of tobacco factory readers, a job that dates to the 19th century and has become a unique part of Cuba's culture. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco)

HAVANA (AP) — Every morning Odalys de la Caridad Lara Reyes gets to work, takes her seat and starts to read out loud. Usually there’s a novel. She’s partial to books by Victor Hugo and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Of late, during the pandemic, it’s just been the news.

She’s one of a small band of tobacco factory readers — a job that has become a unique part of Cuba’s culture.

“If I am born again, I would be a reader again, because through this profession I have learned in all areas,” said Lara, a short, 55-year-old woman with straight, graying hair, a deep voice and perfect diction.

Arrayed before her at the La Corona factory are scores of workers rolling the world’s finest cigars — San Cristobals, Montecristos, Cuabas.

By legend, at least, cigars like the Montecristos and Romeo y Julietas owe their very names to books being read as they were being rolled.

If they like what they’re hearing, the torcedores rattle their cutters. If they don’t, they may drop them to clatter on the floor.

During the pandemic, so many cutters have been absent so often — sometimes under quarantine or caring for children — that following a novel day to day is impossible. So for the time being, Lara has just read the news, reading items about COVID-19 therapies, the repatriation of migrants or the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

Sitting at a podium on a wooden stage near a Cuban flag, she’ll also read out birthday reminders and factory announcements, such as what’s on offer at the cafeteria.

Historians say the practice dates to about 1865, when workers at the El Fígaro factory picked a colleague to read to them as they rolled — promising to produce more cigars to compensate for the missing worker. Later, they chipped in to pay a salary. Despite initial resistance from factory owners, the practice spread.

It became a way for workers to educate themselves. It also helped spread the cause of Cuban independence at the end of the 19th century — political activism that led to temporary bans.

Independence hero Jose Marti once took a turn at the reader’s chair to deliver a speech to emigrant Cuban tobacco rollers working at a factory in Florida, said Spanish language Professor María Isabel Alfonso, a specialist in Cuban culture at St. Joseph’s College in New York. The job “occupies a special place within the Cuban collective imagination,” she said.

Today more than 200 readers are on staff at state-owned factories. The government has declared the job a “cultural patrimony of the nation.” But the workers still elect the readers and vote on what will be read.

In 1996, Lara, then a mother with two small children, was working as an announcer at a radio station when she heard that a position was open at La Corona. She applied and was given a tryout along with two men.

“We spent 20 days reading ... and when the vote came, the workers elected me as the factory reader.”

She said that perhaps the most difficult days came in 2016, when she was reading out accounts of the death of former President Fidel Castro.

“We cried to see the loss and there are no words to describe what one feels trying to convey to many people who are also hurting,” she said.

Norma Perez selects the best leaves to roll cigars at the La Corona Tobacco factory where a worker reads to them in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, June 29, 2021. Readers are on staff at the state-owned factories, a job the government has declared a “cultural patrimony of the nation,” and workers elect the readers and vote on what will be read. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco)