26-05-2021

WEdnESdAY, MAY 26, 2021
7
A Belarusian dog handler checks luggages off a Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS (flight number FR4978)
parked on Minsk International Airport's apron in Minsk.
Photo : Internet
In NYC's furthest flung neighborhood,
vaccine a tough sell
NEW YORK : If there's one
place where people could
fear the coronavirus more
than a vaccination needle,
it's the Far Rockaway
section of Queens: Nearly
460 residents of the
seaside neighborhood have
died of COVID-19, reports
UNB.
That's one out of every
146 people who live there,
making for one of New
York City's highest death
rates. And yet, no other
place in the city has a lower
percentage of vaccinated
people.
As of Monday, only 29%
of people living Far
Rockaway's ZIP code,
11691, had received even
one vaccine dose,
according to data from the
New York City Health
Department. That
compares to a rate of 49%
citywide and nationally.
The situation in the
community of around
67,000 people illustrates
Thousands evacuated in India
as strong cyclone inches closer
NEW DELHI : Tens of thousands of
people were evacuated Tuesday in lowlying
areas of two Indian states and
moved to cyclone shelters to escape a
powerful storm barreling toward the
eastern coast.
Cyclone Yaas is set to turn into a "very
severe cyclonic storm" with sustained
wind speeds of up to 177 kilometers per
hour (110 miles per hour), the India
Meteorological Department said. The
cyclone is expected to make landfall
early Wednesday in Odisha and West
Bengal states. The cyclone coming
amid a devastating coronavirus surge
complicates India's efforts to deal with
both just 10 days after Cyclone Tauktae
hit India's west coast and killed more
than 140 people.
Thousands of emergency personnel
have been deployed in coastal regions
the challenges facing
health officials in many
places as they try to
overcome hesitancy fueled
by
mistrust,
misinformation and fear.
"We have a good amount
of people that still don't
want to get vaccinated, for
whatever reason," said
Diana Catalan, a health
clinic manager involved in
the Far Rockaway
inoculation effort whose
father, a neighborhood
resident, died of the virus
in February.
Some people want to wait
a few months to see how
vaccinated friends and
family respond to the
shots, she said. Some have
heard unfounded
conspiracy theories that
the vaccine is dangerous.
Others just feel no urgency,
having escaped serious
harm so far.
Catalan said she was
anxious to get her father a
shot at the Joseph P.
Addabbo Family Health
Center, where she works.
But he got the virus before
the vaccine became
available to people in his
age group. He was 62.
"He was very young and
he had no chronic
illnesses," Catalan said.
"He was nothing but a
hard-working man."
More than an hour's
subway ride from
Manhattan, Far Rockaway
sits between a bay and a
strip of urban beach on the
eastern end of Queens
seashore, beneath the flight
path for nearby Kennedy
Airport.
Like a lot of places where
vaccination rates lag, a
majority of residents are
Black and Hispanic.
Among some Black
Americans, there's
documented distrust in the
medical establishment and
government because of a
history of discriminatory
treatment.
of the two states for evacuation and any
possible rescue operations, said S.N.
Pradhan, director of India's National
Disaster Response Force. India's air
force and navy were also on standby to
carry out relief work.
Fishing trawlers and boats have been
told to take shelter until further notice
as forecasters warned of high tidal
waves.
In West Bengal, authorities were
scrambling to move tens of thousands
of people to cyclone shelters. Officials
said at least 20 districts in the state will
feel the brunt of the storm.
Last May, nearly 100 people died in
Cyclone Amphan, the most powerful
storm in more than a decade to hit
eastern India, including West Bengal
state. It flattened villages, destroyed
farms and left millions without power
"People are naturally
going to be scared of
anything offered by the
medical community,
especially because of what
we've seen through health
care and what that has
looked like for low-income
black and brown
c o m m u n i t i e s
disadvantaged in the
state," Khaleel Anderson, a
state Assembly member
who represents the area
explained.
For some Latinos,
delaying the vaccine often
comes down to logistics,
such as work schedules or
fear of negative
i m m i g r a t i o n
consequences. A section of
the neighborhood is also
home to a community of
Orthodox Jews, a group
that, like white evangelical
Christians, is also
experiencing more vaccine
skepticism.
in eastern India and Bangladesh.
"We haven't been able to fix the
damage to our home from the last
cyclone. Now another cyclone is
coming, how will we stay here?" said
Samitri, who uses only one name.
In Odisha, a state already battered by
coronavirus infections, authorities
evacuated nearly 15,000 people living
along the coast and moved them to
cyclone shelters, senior officer Pradeep
Jena said.
In a televised address Monday, the
state's chief minister, Naveen Patnaik,
appealed to people being moved to
cyclone shelters to wear double masks
and maintain social distancing. He
asked authorities to distribute masks to
the evacuated people.
"We have to face both the challenges
simultaneously," Patnaik said.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated Tuesday in low-lying areas of two Indian states and
moved to cyclone shelters to escape a powerful storm barreling toward the eastern coast. Photo : AP
More airlines suspend flights
in Belarus airspace
PARIS : Air France, Finnair and Singapore
Airlines became the latest carriers to suspend
flights over Belarus on Tuesday after Minsk
forced a jet to land to arrest a dissident.
The announcements came a day after
European Union leaders urged EU-based
airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace and
banned the country's airlines from the 27-
nation block.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko
sparked international outrage by dispatching a
fighter jet Sunday to intercept a Ryanair flight
from Athens to Vilnius carrying wanted
reporter Roman Protasevich, 26, and his
girlfriend Sofia Sapega.
Air France said in a statement it had "taken
note" of the conclusions of Monday's EU
summit and had suspended flights over
Belarus "until further notice".
Planes already in the air will have their flight
plans modified, the French company said.
Singapore Airlines was also rerouting flights
"that are bound for Europe to avoid the
Belarusian airspace" and would continue to
"closely monitor the situation", a spokesperson
said.
"The safety of our customers and crew is our
top priority," a spokesperson told AFP.
Finnair said the next flight that will be
affected by its decision to reroute planes is one
that was heading to the Turkish coastal town of
Gazipasa on Wednesday.
Scandinavian airline SAS, Germany's
Lufthansa and Latvia-based regional airline Air
Baltic made similar announcements on
Monday.
Britain also issued instructions for British
aircraft to avoid Belarusian airspace while
Ukraine decided to halt direct flights between
the two countries and over Belarus.
Western leaders have accused Belarusian
authorities of essentially hijacking a European
plane, while Minsk claimed it had reacted to
secure the flight after receiving a bomb threat.
Blinken in Israel on Mideast
tour to shore up Gaza truce
JERUSALEM : U.S. Secretary of
State Antony Blinken has arrived
in Israel at the start of a Middle
East tour aimed at shoring up the
Gaza cease-fire, reports UNB.
He will face the same obstacles
that have stifled a wider peace
process for more than a decade,
including a hawkish Israeli
leadership, Palestinian divisions
and deeply rooted tensions
surrounding Jerusalem and its
holy sites.
The 11-day Gaza war killed more
than 250 people, mostly
Palestinians, and caused
widespread destruction in the
impoverished coastal territory.
Blinken is expected to focus on
coordinating reconstruction
without engaging with Gaza's
militant Hamas rulers, who are
considered terrorists by Israel and
Western countries.
The truce that came into effect
Friday has so far held, but it did not
address any of the underlying
issues.
Blinken, who landed at Ben
Gurion International Airport early
Tuesday, is the highest-ranking
U.S. official to visit the region since
President Joe Biden assumed
office. He was welcomed on the
tarmac by Israeli Foreign Minister
Gabi Ashkenazi and other officials.
The administration had hoped to
extricate the U.S. from the region's
intractable conflicts and focus on
competition with China and
climate change. But like so many of
its predecessors, it was pulled back
into the Middle East by another
outbreak of violence.
He will begin his visit in Israel,
where Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu is fighting for his
political life after a fourth
inconclusive election in two years.
Netanyahu faces mounting
criticism from Israelis who say he
ended the offensive prematurely,
without forcibly halting Palestinian
rocket attacks or dealing a heavier
blow to Gaza's militant Hamas
rulers.
The war was triggered by weeks
of clashes in Jerusalem between
Israeli police and Palestinian
protesters in and around the Al-
Aqsa Mosque compound, a
flashpoint holy site. The protests
were directed at Israel's policing of
the area during the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan and the
threatened eviction of dozens of
Palestinian families by Jewish
settlers.
The evictions were put on hold
just before the Gaza fighting
erupted, but the legal process is set
to resume in the coming weeks.
Police briefly clashed with
protesters at Al-Aqsa on Friday,
hours after the cease-fire came into
effect. The site is revered by Jews
and Muslims, and has seen several
outbreaks of Israeli-Palestinian
violence over the years.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, stands with Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, upon
arrival at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport, Tuesday, May 25, 2021, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Blinken has arrived
in Israel at the start of a Middle East tour aimed at shoring up the Gaza cease-fire. Photo : AP
New Zealand halts
travel bubble with
Australian state
WELLINGTON : New
Zealand suspended
quarantine-free travel with
Australia's Victoria state
over a new coronavirus
cluster Tuesday, the fourth
time the trans-Tasman
travel bubble has been
disrupted since it opened
last month.
Officials in Wellington
said they were taking a
cautious approach after
Melbourne recorded nine
locally acquired cases in the
past two days, believed to be
related to a leak from a
quarantine hotel.
New Zealand's Covid-19
response minister Chris
Hipkins said the suspension
would take effect at 8:00pm
(0800 GMT) Tuesday and
remain in place for at least
72 hours.
"The government
understands the disruption
this will temporarily cause
affected passengers," he
said.
"It was a close call but the
correct one given the
current unknowns."
As it stands, the
suspension will be lifted in
time for the Otago
Highlanders-Melbourne
Rebels Super Rugby match
in Queenstown, which will
be attended by New
Zealand Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern and her
Australian counterpart
Scott Morrison.
Gaza-based journalists
in Hamas chat blocked
from WhatsApp
GAZA CITY : A few hours after the latest
cease-fire took effect in the Gaza Strip, a
number of Palestinian journalists in the
coastal enclave found they were blocked from
accessing WhatsApp messenger - a crucial
tool used to communicate with sources,
editors and the world beyond the blockaded
strip, reports UNB.
The Associated Press reached out to 17
journalists in Gaza who confirmed their
Whatsapp accounts had been blocked since
Friday. By midday Monday, only four
journalists - working for Al Jazeera -
confirmed their accounts had been restored.
The incident marks the latest puzzling
move concerning WhatsApp's owner
Facebook Inc. that's left Palestinian users or
their allies bewildered as to why they've been
targeted by the company, or if indeed they'd
been singled out for censorship at all.
Twelve of the 17 journalists contacted by
the AP said they had been part of a WhatsApp
group that disseminates information related
to Hamas military operations. Hamas, which
rules over the Gaza Strip, is viewed as a
terrorist organization by Israel and the
United States, where WhatsApp owner
Facebook is headquartered.
It's unclear if the journalists were targeted
because they'd been following that group's
announcements on WhatsApp.
Hamas runs Gaza's Health Ministry, which
has a WhatsApp group followed by more
than 80 people, many of them journalists.
That group, for example, has not been
blocked.
Hassan Slaieh, a freelance journalist in
Gaza whose WhatsApp account is blocked,
said he thinks his account might have been
targeted because he was on a group called
Hamas Media.
"This has affected my work and my income
because I lost conversations with sources and
people," Slaieh said.
Al Jazeera's chief correspondent in Gaza,
Wael al-Dahdouh, said his access to
WhatsApp was blocked around dawn on
Friday before it was reinstated Monday. He
said journalists subscribe to Hamas groups
only to get information needed to do
journalistic work.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said the
company bans accounts to comply with its
policies "to prevent harm as well as
applicable law." The company said it has
been in touch with media outlets over the last
week about its practices. "We will reinstate
journalists if any were impacted," the
company said.
Al Jazeera said that when it sought
information regarding its four journalists in
Gaza impacted by the blockage, they were
told by Facebook that the company had
blocked the numbers of groups based out of
Gaza and consequently the cell phone
numbers of Al Jazeera journalists were part
of the groups they had blocked.
Among those affected by the WhatsApp
blockage are two Agence France-Presse
journalists. The Paris-based international
news service told the AP it is working with
WhatsApp to understand what the problem
is and to restore their accounts. The 11-day
war caused widespread destruction across
Gaza with 248 Palestinians, including 66
children and 39 women, killed in the fighting.
Israel says 12 people in Israel, including two
children, also died.