COVID-19: ANGOLA REPORTS 264 NEW INFECTIONS, 114 RECOVERIES

Luanda - Angola announced this Tuesday the registration of 264 new cases, 3 deaths and the recovery of 114 patients in the last 24 hours.

According to the daily report, 113 were diagnosed in Luanda, 81 in Namibe, 23 in Huila, 14 in Benguela, 10 in Bié, 7 in Lunda Sul, 4 in Huambo, 3 in Lunda Norte, 3 in Moxico, 2 in Cabinda, 2 in Cunene and 2 in Zaire.

With ages ranging from 6 months to 87 years old, the list included 154 men and 110 women.

The document states that the deaths were registered in Bié, Lunda Norte and Luanda provinces.

Those who have recovered reside in the provinces of Luanda, with 59, Lunda Sul with 16, Huambo with 15, Lunda Norte with 10, Bié 3, Cunene 3, Huíla 3, Benguela 2 and Cuando Cubango 1.

In the treatment centres, 148 people are hospitalised, 222 are in institutional quarantine and 814 contacts of positive cases are under medical surveillance.

Laboratories have processed 3.630 samples.

Angola has a total of 46,340 positive cases, with 1,166 deaths, 42,738 recovered and 2,436 active. Of the active ones, 8 critical, 23 severe, 84 moderate, 33 mild and 2,288 asymptomatic.

ANGOLA/CHINA BUSINESS VOLUME GROWS OVER 23%

Luanda - In the first quarter of 2021, the volume of business between Angola and China grew by around 23.9%, calculated at US $10.5 million.

Of the total value of trade, the Chinese imported from Angola the equivalent to US $9.5 million, with a growth of around 21.6%.

To Angola, China exported goods valued at US$1.3 billion, a growth of 50%.

The information was given by the Chinese ambassador to Angola, Gong Tao, at a press conference, which aimed to present the balance of its activities throughout 2020.

The diplomat said that in 2020 the volume of business between countries had a sharp drop of 37%.

The drop in the volume of trade between the two countries, among the causes, has been blamed on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected the oil market, since oil is the main product that Angola sells to China.

 

"China continues to maintain the status of Angola's biggest trading partner and trade cooperation between the countries is of mutual benefit," said the ambassador.

 

Regarding Angola's debt moratorium with China, the ambassador explained that companies in charge of debt service continue to maintain a dialogue with Angola to reach a debt service moratorium agreement.

 

"Companies in charge are working with Angola to review the new debt moratorium package," underlined Gong Tao.

COVID-19: USA DONATES OVER 500,000 DOSES OF PFIZER VACCINE TO ANGOLA

Luanda - Angola on Tuesday received 586,170 doses of the Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19, a donation from the United States government.

This is the second batch of this vaccine that the US government has donated to Angola. Last June, the Southern African country received 100,620 doses, as part of the Covax initiative.

The donation is part of the US government's global efforts, included in the package of 25 million doses of the vaccine for Africa, as part of the fulfilment of the promise of 80 million doses.

To that end, the US government has coordinated with the African Union and CDC Africa on the allocation of the vaccines to each country.

Regarding the offer, the Minister of Health, Silvia Lutucuta, said it was a demonstration of the concern for the administration of the vaccine in all countries, especially those that are not manufacturers and that face challenges in acquisition and access.

According to the government official, this lot is intended to reinforce the immunisation campaign.

"We are mobilising all people aged 18 and over. This batch reinforces our capacity to respond and demonstrates the storage capacity of this vaccine, which requires ultra-frozen temperatures," she explained.

In her turn, the US ambassador to the African country, Nina Maria Fite, said that, as the biggest bilateral donor of medical assistance to Angola, the United States had a long-standing relationship with the Angolan health sector to improve access to and quality of health care.

ANGOLANS COMPETE WITH ITALIAN BUSINESSMEN IN HOTEL MANAGEMENT

Luanda - Angolan and Italian investors are competing to operate and manage three hotel units of the Infotur network, put out to tender by the Institute for Management of State Assets and Participation (IGAPE).

Of the total of 11 proposals opened on Monday, three are from Italian investors, who are also interested in operating and managing the hotels.

The hotels, located in the provinces of Benguela, Huila and Namibe, are available via a public tender for the transfer of rights to operation and management, under a contract lasting 12 years, with a purchase option at the end of the agreement.

The tenders were opened during a virtual presentation guided by the tender's coordinator, IGAPE.

The jury body, made up of representatives of IGAPE, the ministries of Culture, Tourism and Environment and Finance, after the presentation of the applications, will have 10 days for analysis, seven (7) for the preparation of the report, three (3) for complaints and five (5) for closing the process.

Complying with the schedule, the publication of the results of the winners is expected to take place within a maximum of 25 to 30 days.

US WWII veteran reunites with Italians he saved as children

BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) — For more than seven decades, Martin Adler treasured a black-and-white photo of himself as a young American soldier with a broad smile with three impeccably dressed Italian children he is credited with saving as the Nazis retreated northward in 1944.

On Monday, the 97-year-old World War II veteran met the three siblings — now octogenarians themselves — in person for the first time since the war.

Adler held out his hand to grasp those of Bruno, Mafalda and Giuliana Naldi for the joyful reunion at Bologna’s airport after a 20-hour journey from Boca Raton, Florida. Then, just as he did as a 20-year-old soldier in their village of Monterenzio, he handed out bars of American chocolate.

“Look at my smile,” Adler said of the long-awaited in-person reunion, made possible by the reach of social media.

It was a happy ending to a story that could easily have been a tragedy.

The very first time the soldier and the children saw each other, in 1944, the three faces peeked out of a huge wicker basket where their mother had hidden them as soldiers approached. Adler thought the house was empty, so he trained his machine gun on the basket when he heard a sound, thinking a German soldier was hiding inside.

“The mother, Mamma, came out and stood right in front of my gun to stop me (from) shooting,” Adler recalled. “She put her stomach right against my gun, yelling, ‘Bambinis! Bambinis! Bambinis!’ pounding my chest,″ Adler recalled.

“That was a real hero, the mother, not me. The mother was a real hero. Can you imagine you standing yourself in front of a gun and screaming ‘Children! No!’” he said.

Adler still trembles when he remembers that he was only seconds away from opening fire on the basket. And after all these decades, he still suffers nightmares from the war, said his daughter, Rachelle Donley.

The children, aged 3 to 6 when they met, were a happy memory. His company stayed on in the village for a while and he would come by and play with them.

Giuliana Naldi, the youngest, is the only one of the three with any recollection of the event. She recalls climbing out of the basket and seeing Adler and another U.S. soldier, who has since died.

“They were laughing,” Naldi, now 80, remembers. “They were happy they didn’t shoot.”

She, on the other hand, didn’t quite comprehend the close call.

“We weren’t afraid for anything,” she said.

She also remembers the soldier’s chocolate, which came in a blue-and-white wrapper.

“We ate so much of that chocolate,” she laughed.

Donley decided during the COVID-19 lockdown to use social media to try to track down the children in the old black-and-white photo, starting with veterans’ groups in North America.

Eventually the photo was spotted by Italian journalist Matteo Incerti who had written books on World War II. He was able to track down Adler’s regiment and where it had been stationed from a small detail in another photograph. The smiling photo was then published in a local newspaper, leading to the discovery of the identities of the three children, who by then were grandparents themselves.

They shared a video reunion in December, and waited until the easing of pandemic travel rules made the trans-Atlantic trip possible.

“I am so happy and so proud of him. Because things could have been so different in just a second. Because he hesitated, there have been generations of people,” Donley said.

The serendipity isn’t lost on Giuliana Naldi’s 30-year-old granddaughter, Roberta Fontana, one of six children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren who descended from the three children hidden in the wicker basket.

“Knowing that Martin could have shot and that none of my family would exist is something very big,” Fontana said. “It is very emotional.”

During his stay in Italy, Adler will spend some time in the village where he was stationed, before traveling on to Florence, Naples and Rome, where he hopes to meet Pope Francis.

“My dad really wants to meet the pope,” Donley said. “He wants to share his message of peace and love. My dad is all about peace.”

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CIA head meets Taliban leader as fears for Afghanistan grow

The director of the CIA met with the Taliban’s top political leader in Kabul, an official said Tuesday, as more reports emerged of abuses in areas held by the fighters, fueling concerns about Afghanistan’s future and the fate of those racing to leave the country before the looming U.S. withdrawal.

A Taliban spokesman dashed hopes that an American-led evacuation could continue beyond an Aug. 31 deadline to allow more time for Western powers to get their citizens and vulnerable Afghans out of the country. Recent days have seen a flurry of efforts to speed the chaotic operation at Kabul’s airport, where scenes of desperation have highlighted both the disarray of the American pullout and fears that the Taliban will again impose a brutal rule.

Leaders of the Group of Seven nations plan to meet later in the day to discuss the airlift and the broader crisis.

While details of William Burns’ discussion with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar on Monday were not released, the meeting represents an extraordinary moment for a CIA that for two decades targeted the Taliban in paramilitary operations. And it gives a sense of the extent of the wrangling happening ahead of the end of America’s two-decade war in the country.

The CIA partnered with Pakistani forces to arrest Baradar in 2010, and he spent eight years in a Pakistani prison before the Trump administration persuaded Pakistan to release him in 2018 ahead of peace talks.

The Washington Post first reported Burns’ meeting with Baradar. A U.S. official confirmed the report on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. A Taliban spokesman said he was not aware of any such meeting but did not deny that it took place.

In the wake of their stunning takeover of Afghanistan, Taliban leaders have promised to restore security and tried to project an image of moderation, but many Afghans are skeptical — and thousands have raced to the airport to flee the country. U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet added to those concerns Tuesday, warning she had credible reports of “summary executions” and restrictions on women in areas under Taliban control. She urged the Human Rights Council to take “bold and vigorous action” to monitor the rights situation.

Bachelet did not specify what time timeframe she was referring to or the source of her reports. It has been difficult to determine how widespread abuses might be and whether they reflect that Taliban leaders are saying one thing and doing another, or if fighters on the ground are taking matters into their own hands.

When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the group largely confined women to their homes, banned television and music, chopped off the hands of suspected thieves and held public executions.

Later Tuesday, G-7 leaders will discuss the crisis in Afghanistan, as European leaders press the U.S. to consider delaying its withdrawal to allow more time to evacuate those desperate to leave.

U.S. administration officials have refused to be pinned down about whether an extension is likely or even possible given that the Taliban spokesman have warned that Aug. 31 is a “red line” and that extending the American presence would “provoke a reaction.”

On Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said again that his group would accept “no extensions” to the deadline.

He said Taliban forces would take over airport security after Aug. 31, adding that there was no need for even the planned deployment of Turkish troops there.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the majority of local staff who worked for his country in Afghanistan haven’t yet gotten out and called Tuesday’s meeting “very important” for discussing international access to the Kabul airport beyond the end of August. Britain’s defense minister separately has called the deadline a “mistake.”

Tragic scenes at the airport have transfixed the world. Afghans poured onto the tarmac last week and some clung to a U.S. military transport plane as it took off, later plunging to their deaths. At least seven people died that day, and another seven died Sunday in a panicked stampede. An Afghan solider was killed Monday in a gunfight.

Underscoring the fears of those seeking to flee, Bachelet cited reports Tuesday of “summary executions” of civilians and former security forces who were no longer fighting, the recruitment of child soldiers, and restrictions on the rights of women to move around freely and of girls to go to school. She cited repression of peaceful protests and expressions of dissent.

She called for strong action to investigate reports of rights abuses.

“At this critical moment, the people of Afghanistan look to the Human Rights Council to defend and protect their rights,” she said. “I urge this council to take bold and vigorous action, commensurate with the gravity of this crisis, by establishing a dedicated mechanism to closely monitor the evolving human rights situation in Afghanistan.”

By “mechanism,” Bachelet was referring to the possibility that the council might appoint a commission of inquiry, special rapporteur or fact-finding mission on the situation in Afghanistan.

While advocacy groups like Human Rights Watch echoed such calls, a draft resolution at the council stopped far short of intensified scrutiny — and appeared to push back any deeper look at the rights situation until next year.

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9 women now serving as governors in US, tying a record

With Kathy Hochul officially taking the reins as New York’s governor, a historic number of women are currently leading U.S. states — a push towards equality and representation that could continue into next year’s midterm elections.

There are now nine women serving as governor in the U.S. That ties a record that was set in 2004 and matched in 2007 and 2019, but it’s still well shy of gender proportionality.

Taking over on short notice for a scandal-plagued predecessor in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Hochul began her tenure Tuesday with more than enough challenges for a new administration. She also began with an historic opportunity: Hochul is the first woman to hold one of the most prominent governorships in the U.S.

“New York as a whole has been a tough place for women to break into the highest levels, because there is very much a tight set of powerful gatekeepers,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

“And unfortunately — even in 2021 — women are still seen, in effect, as newcomers,” she said.

A century after women gained the right to vote, 19 states still have never been led by a woman. That includes some of the most populous states, such as California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Even if it succeeds, California’s recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom next month doesn’t appear likely to elevate a woman to the state’s top job.

Hochul had served as New York’s lieutenant governor until succeeding fellow Democrat Andrew Cuomo, who resigned after a decade in office. Cuomo had faced a potential impeachment battle after an attorney general’s investigation said he had sexually harassed or inappropriately touched 11 women. Among other things, Cuomo also had faced a legislative investigation into whether he misled the public last year about COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.

“I want people to believe in their government again,” Hochul said Tuesday while outlining her top goal.

Hochul already has announced she will seek a full four-year term in 2022.

Taking over in a crisis could benefit her politically, especially since women can face greater scrutiny when running for office, said Betsy Fischer Martin, executive director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University.

“It gives her an automatic way to shine in the office,” Fischer Martin said.

Next year could be a pivotal one for women running for governor. Democratic Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon will be the only female incumbent barred from seeking re-election by term limits. Six male governors also will be term-limited, opening a path to office for fresh candidates from both parties.

In Arizona, where Republican Gov. Doug Ducey can’t run again, the field already has several candidates who are women, including Republican state Treasurer Kimberly Yee and Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Arizona already holds the record for the most women who have served as governor — four. Kansas has had three.

In Arkansas, which has never had a woman serve as governor, a high-profile Republican primary pits Attorney General Leslie Rutledge against Sarah Sanders, press secretary for former President Donald Trump and daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee. The incumbent, Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, will be termed out.

In 2018, women’s political advocates also thought they were primed for success with a record number of candidates for governor. But they did not ultimately set a new record for victories.

Women currently hold 18% of governors’ offices — significantly less than this year’s new records of 27% of U.S. congressional seats and 31% of state legislative seats. In addition, Vice President Kamala Harris also became the first woman in that role this year.

Part of the challenge in electing women as governors is overcoming stereotypes of men as stronger, more decisive leaders, Walsh said.

Another challenge is deepening the pool of women willing to enter politics, said Wendy Doyle, president and CEO of the Kansas City, Missouri-based nonprofit United WE.

The organization is coordinating an effort to get more women appointed to positions on state, county and city boards and commissions. It’s working with local officials in California, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania Texas and Washington. The idea is that some women appointed to positions eventually will run for elected offices.

“It’s a long game,” Doyle said. “But we’ve got to build the pipeline; we’ve got to build the bench.”

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UK records 174 new COVID deaths – the highest daily figure since 12 March

This compares with the 31,914 new COVID cases and 40 deaths reported yesterday, and 26,852 cases and 174 deaths recorded this time last week.

The UK has recorded a further 174 COVID deaths – the highest daily figure since 12 March.

30,838 new coronavirus cases have also been reported in the latest 24-hour period.

This compares with the 31,914 new COVID cases and 40 deaths reported yesterday.

This time last week, 17 August, the UK recorded 26,852 cases and 170 deaths.

It is the highest number of daily deaths since 175 were recorded on March 12.

On Monday, 46,401 people were given their first dose of a vaccine, taking the total number to 47,737,142 – 87.8% of the UK’s population aged over 16.

131,283 people were given their second dose, which means 77.2% of the population is now fully inoculated.

It comes as weekly coronavirus-related deaths in the UK have reached their highest level since March, the Office for National Statistics said.

There were 652 COVID deaths registered in the week ending 13 August, an increase of 6.7% on the previous week.

Around one in 18 deaths registered (5.5%) mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate.

It is the highest number since 800 fatalities involving COVID were registered in the week ending 26 March.

The ONS said the latest total includes 550 deaths in England, 41 in Scotland, 40 in Northern Ireland and 19 in Wales.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she cannot rule out re-imposing some COVID restrictions, following a “substantial increase” in cases.

She told a Scottish government coronavirus briefing that new cases had almost doubled in the past week, and said the country had reached a “fragile and pivotal moment in our journey through the pandemic”.

Scotland has also announced plans to establish a judge-led public enquiry into its government’s handling of the health crisis.

People infected with the more transmissible Delta variant have a viral load 300 times higher than those with the original version of COVID-19, researchers in South Korea have found.

This means the virus spreads more easily from person to person, increasing infections and hospitalisations.

Image:Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she cannot rule out re-imposing some COVID restrictions

“But it doesn’t mean Delta is 300 times more infectious… we think its transmission rate is 1.6 times the Alpha variant, and about two times the original version of the virus,” said South Korean health ministry official Lee Sang-won.

The Delta variant was first identified in India and the Alpha variant in the UK.

Almost 5,000 coronavirus cases in the UK are suspected to be linked to a surf and music festival in Cornwall, with health officials launching an investigation.

Image:Almost 5,000 COVID-19 cases are believed to be linked to Boardmasters. Pic: Darina Stoda/Boardmasters

4,700 people have tested positive following Boardmasters in Newquay earlier this month – 800 are thought to be living in Cornwall, but cases are spread across the UK.

It comes despite festival-goers aged 11 and above being asked to demonstrate their COVID status via the NHS app before being allowed to enter the sold-out event.

Attendees had to prove they were either double vaccinated, show a negative lateral flow test taken within 24 hours of arriving, or that they had natural immunity following a positive PCR test taken at least ten days earlier.

Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly recorded the second-highest rate of coronavirus cases out of 312 areas in England, up from 383.5 per 100,000 to 717.4 – with 4,129 new cases in the week up to 19 August.

Mayor of Newquay, Louis Gardner – who owns a deli in the town – said: “We’re seeing a spike in Cornwall because we’ve got the highest number of visitors we’ve ever had.”

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