Donated by India, COVID-19 vaccines languish and may expire in Afghanistan amid misinformation, scepticism

By Ruchi Kumar

Mohammad Rahmani is not a COVID-19 denier. He wears a mask and practices social distancing. But the 24-year-old software engineer from Kabul, Afghanistan is deeply skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines. Online videos — created in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries, then uploaded on social media — have convinced him that SARS-CoV-2 and the vaccine that protects against it are part of a large conspiracy to reduce the global population.

This kind of scepticism is common within Afghanistan, where very few residents even follow basic public health guidelines. Local physicians lament that many people mistakenly believe the COVID-19 threat is already over or that it has been greatly exaggerated. “They fall for rumours like the virus will not affect Muslims,” said Mohammad Sarwar Firozi, a physician and administrator within the Afghan Ministry of Public Health. “There is very little awareness, and people don’t realise that this virus can kill you and is killing Afghans.”

In fact, COVID-19 skeptics could point to the government’s statistics, which suggest just over 2,800 coronavirus deaths have occurred in the country of 38 million people. But the government has likely undercounted; a survey backed by the World Health Organisation found that roughly 10 million people — nearly one third of the country’s population — had been infected with the virus as of last summer. According to Firozi, 40 to 50 percent of SARS-CoV-2 tests in Kandahar Province are coming back positive. The percentage is particularly high for individuals returning from neighbouring Pakistan, which is experiencing a new wave of infections.

In February, India donated half a million doses of the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine to Afghanistan as part of a diplomacy effort. Tragically, not long after making the donation, India suffered one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks, and it is now experiencing vaccine shortages despite being home to the world’s largest producer of vaccines. (“The way to hell is often paved with good intentions,” wrote one former diplomat in The Times of India.) A second, slightly smaller batch of vaccines arrived in Kabul in March through COVAX, the World Health Organisation-backed programme designed to distribute vaccine doses to poorer countries.

But a mixture of scepticism and misinformation perpetuated on social media has slowed an already under-resourced vaccination campaign. As a result, doctors and officials contacted by Undark say vaccines that are desperately needed in India may soon expire in Afghanistan. The Afghan government denies this charge. Ghulam Dastagir Nazary, director of the Afghan Ministry of Public Health’s immunisation campaign, confirmed that the country received 500,000 vaccine doses from the Indian government that were due to expire on 4 June. “But,” he said, “they have already been utilised.”

“Of the first doses we received, we have so far administered over 80 percent,” acknowledged a senior health official working on the country’s immunisation campaign. However, he shared an internal tally of available vaccine in one government department alone that showed more than 5,000 doses set to expire on 4 June. In addition, the vaccines donated through COVAX will expire on 15 July. The health official spoke with Undark on the condition of anonymity out of fear of government reprisal. “We won’t be surprised if they are wasted simply because people are not convinced,” the official said, showing stocks of unused vaccine vials to Undark’s reporter in the Afghan capital.

Afghanistan’s vaccine rollout started out well, said Nazary. The Ministry of Public Health prioritized health care workers, security forces, journalists, and teachers — and demand was huge. But then interest tapered off after reports that the vaccine had been paused in some European countries due to a rare but potentially associated side effect: blood clotting. (The European Medicines Agency has since determined that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh the risks.)

These legitimate reports of possible side effects soon gave way to misinformation and false rumours, said Nazary, and the country’s vaccination rate “was reduced to almost zero for some weeks.” In response, the government is undertaking a “crisis communication management plan,” he said. The Ministry of Public Health is asking other ministries, as well as the media, for help promoting the vaccine. Immunisation has also been opened to all adults, not just essential workers.

In Afghanistan, vaccination is voluntary, and Afghans must proactively seek vaccination from medical centers. Currently, with vaccine doses from India and the WHO, the country has enough to cover 3 percent of its total population, said Nazary, but health officials are struggling to administer even this amount to the public. Yet Nazary denied that there is any expected wastage: “We only have 75,000 doses remaining across the country,” he said, and they expire in mid-July.

When Undark showed Nazary photographs of vaccine vials with a 4 June expiration date, he insisted that no such vials exist inside the country. He did, however, say that some wastage is inevitable as part of any COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

The anonymous official who showed Undark the soon-to-expire vaccine doses agreed that some amount of wastage is to be expected because each vaccine vial contains eight to 10 doses and “an opened vial is good only for a very short period of time.” If a physician opens a vial but only sees, say, six patients that day, some of the vaccine will go to waste. But this type of wastage is different from what he’s witnessing in the capital: vaccines at risk of exceeding their shelf life, even before they’ve been opened.

In contrast to the many vaccine deniers in the country, some employees at the various government departments administering vaccines are putting together leftover shots to make whole doses and taking them to their families, the health official shared. “Each vial usually has a little left over even after the 10 doses are administered,” he said. Government employees are combining the leftover drops to create a full dose, then taking it to their families. “They are treating these vaccines as precious lifesavers,” he said. “And that is how it must be, because wasting these precious lifesaving drugs that were gifted to us by India — even though they needed it more — is criminal.”

Firozi agreed: “It would be a grave injustice if these vaccines get wasted, especially when people in the donor country are suffering.” People should be motivated to take these vaccines, and make India’s sacrifice worthwhile, he added. “Not taking the vaccine when you have the opportunity to is an oppression to yourself and the society.”

Many Afghans remain unconvinced. “If the vaccine really works, then why is India giving it away to us for free when thousands of them are dying on daily basis?” asked Ghulam Farooq, a 29-year-old civil servant from Kabul who has also refused to take the vaccine. He reasons that if the vaccine really worked, then India — its largest producer — would not be in the position it is in today.

Farooq’s decision to abstain from the vaccine also arrived from claims of alleged side effects, including infertility and impact on sexual performance. “I am still young and I got married only four years ago. I have two kids and I am planning to have at least a couple of more kids. I can’t risk that,” he explained. “Anyway, this whole corona thing is propaganda by the West.”

These types of conspiracy theories are rife in much of Afghan society, and range from the vaccines being a CIA project to track and target Afghans to a widespread but mistaken belief that the vaccine was made with ingredients that violate Islamic law, a serious issue in the Muslim-majority country. The claims of CIA interference and its resulting impact on immunisation campaigns have a precedent in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the United States government did, in fact, use a hepatitis B vaccination drive to track Osama Bin Laden.

In an attempt to reach a wider and largely devout Muslim population, the public health ministry has enlisted the help of prominent religious leaders to dispel some of the rumours swirling around the vaccine. “After years of living in conflict, Afghans are susceptible to fake information because we tend to believe the worst,” explained Mauvali Ehsanul Haq Hanafi, a religious leader who had joined the Afghan government’s campaign to spread awareness of the vaccines. “I have come across people with no medical or religious knowledge who are spreading wrong information that the vaccine is haram,” or un-Islamic, he said, adding that their information was based on rumours. (Spreading rumours is considered sinful in Islam.)

Firozi went one step further and blamed rumour-spreaders for the COVID-19 deaths in Afghanistan. “People who are spreading misinformation and influencing others to not get the vaccine are responsible for the lives we lose on a daily basis,” he said. “They will be answerable to God.”

On the first day of Ramadan last month, the Ministry of Public Health enlisted the leadership of the country’s Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs to take the vaccines in front of the media to dispel the myth that the vaccine could impact the practice of fasting during the most holy month for Muslims.

As a deeply religious and conservative society, it isn’t uncommon for Afghans to devoutly follow the words of religious leaders and community elders. Hanafi attempts to use his influence to convince the people to take the vaccine by delivering sermons, talking to other religious leaders, and using social media to encourage Afghans to get the shots. He says he is often challenged to respond to misinformation, particularly related to claims questioning the religious soundness of the vaccine. “I once heard from a person saying that the vaccine consists of pork ingredients,” which are forbidden in Islam, he said. “I know there is no evidence to this rumour. Another person believed that because the vaccine is produced by a non-Muslim, it can have a negative impact on a believer’s faith.”

In response, he explains that “the virus does not see if one is a Muslim or a non-Muslim. There is only one thing it targets and that is the human body.” Hanafi says he urges all Afghans, including religious leaders, to stop the spread of misinformation.

The anonymous official blamed the government for creating an environment of mistrust that allows such conspiracies to thrive. “The leadership of the government, specifically his excellency, the president and his deputies, should have taken the vaccine in front of the media in order to convince the people of its effectiveness," the official said. "Other world leaders did so; that is how you earn your people’s trust.”

Hanafi agreed, adding that the government could have done more early in the vaccine rollout. “They could have used the voice of those who people listen the most to, who will be most effective in convincing people; instead they ran the campaign with artists and singers,” he said referring to the choice of campaign ambassadors endorsing the vaccine. Hanafi believes that employing community elders, security officials, and more religious leaders to address concerns of the community would have been more effective. “It would be grave negligence if these vaccines are wasted,” he added. “Islam is against wasting.”

However, his appeals fail to resonate with those like Farooq, who believes that his faith will protect him better than the vaccine. “I believe that if I survived so many wars, it is unlikely that this corona will kill me,” he said. “I have faith in God, and I know God will protect me.”

Ruchi Kumar is an Indian journalist currently working in Kabul, Afghanistan, focusing on news stories from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. She has been published in Foreign Policy, The Guardian, NPR, The National, Al Jazeera, and The Washington Post, among other outlets.

This article was originally published on Undark. Read the original article.

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Global Day Of Parents 2021: History, importance and challenges of parenting during COVID-19 pandemic

Every year on 1 June, the world celebrates Global Day Of Parents. It is a day to celebrate the contribution of parents in the upbringing of their children. The day also acknowledges that the development of children is the primary responsibility of the family. Children should live in a family environment for their personality to grow completely.

The UN states that the day gives us an opportunity to appreciate all parents for the selfless commitment they have towards children and the lifelong sacrifices they make to nurture their relationship with children.

Global Day Of Parents History

In 2012, the United Nations adopted 1 June as the Global Day of Parents. However, the focus on families and the role they play in the development of children started long before that.

The Commission for Social Development had requested the Secretary-General of the UN to increase the awareness of policymakers towards the problems faced by families in a resolution in 1983.

In a 1989 resolution, it was declared that the year 1994 is the International Year of the Family. Years later, in 1993, the UN General Assembly decided that 15 May will be celebrated as the International Day of Families.

Global Day Of Parents during COVID-19

In its official blog, the UN mentions that families are facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic and parents are primarily responsible for the well-being of their children. The support of parents is required for the emotional and physical well-being of children who would otherwise be at risk.

The organisation has released a set of family-friendly workplace policies. In order to provide support to their employees, workplaces should adopt these policies.

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US, EU representatives urge countries to take a greener stand during South Korea's virtual climate summit

Top US and EU representatives on Monday urged other countries to do more in the global initiative towards a greener planet, stressing the world "cannot afford to wait" at a virtual summit hosted by South Korea. Climate change is a major threat to global growth, with perils ranging from disease outbreaks and declines in crop yields. But international negotiations on how to tackle it have long been hampered by disagreements over burden-sharing between rich countries that bear far more historical responsibility for climate change and the rising giants that are now among the world's biggest polluters.

Last month, US President Joe Biden announced that the world's largest economy would cut emissions blamed for climate change by 50 to 52 percent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, doubling the country's previous commitments.

The US' special climate envoy John Kerry told the P4G climate conference hosted by South Korea: "We are pressing other countries to step up their ambitions as well."

Moments earlier Vietnam called for developed countries to take the lead and provide financial assistance to others, but Kerry told Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh: "We all have to do it."

After the coronavirus pandemic, he added, "everyone wants to get back to normal but unfortunately we can't be satisfied with that because the fact is normal was already a crisis and existential one."

His comments came as virtual negotiations resumed ahead of the next UN climate change conference in Glasgow in November, with scientists issuing increasingly dire warnings on the situation.

At the two-day P4G or 'Partnering for Green Growth' summit -- the second of its kind following the inaugural meeting held in Copenhagen in 2018 -- world leaders called in the concluding Seoul Declaration for more action in the global drive towards a greener planet.

The Paris agreement sought to limit temperature increase to well below two degrees Celsius, aiming for 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

But Monday's statement came as many of the largest emitters have so far failed to keep up their commitments and countries have not even agreed on a unified rulebook governing how the Paris agreement works in practice.

"We recognise that climate change, desertification and land degradation, and biodiversity loss are three of the greatest environmental challenges of our times," the declaration added.

The UN says that emissions must fall nearly eight percent annually to keep 1.5C in play -- equivalent to the emissions saved during the pandemic every single year through 2030.

"Europe will be doing its part," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen told the meeting. "But the reason we are here today is that we all need to do our share.

"It is a matter of self-interest, of mutual interest, and of collective interest."

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Seeds of nearly 5,000 plants stocked in South Korea's mountains as plant extinction threatens food security

Hidden in a South Korean mountain tunnel designed to withstand a nuclear blast, the seeds of nearly 5,000 wild plant species are stored for safekeeping against climate change, natural disaster and war. Plant extinction is progressing at an alarming rate, researchers warn, driven by increasing human population, pollution and deforestation, even before many species are catalogued. The Baekdudaegan National Arboretum Seed Vault Centre preserves nearly 100,000 seeds from 4,751 different wild plant species to ensure they are not lost to "apocalyptic events", says its head Lee Sang-yong.

It is one of only two such facilities in the world, he told AFP: unlike more commonplace seed banks, where samples are stored and regularly withdrawn for various purposes, deposits in seed vaults are meant to be permanent, with use intended only as a last resort to prevent extinction.

The vault is designated as a security installation by South Korea's National Intelligence Service, surrounded by wire fences and dozens of cameras, with restrictions on filming in place and police patrolling on a regular basis.

Inside, a lift leads about eight floors down to a cavernous concrete tunnel, where two heavy steel doors guard the storage room and its hand-cranked shelving racks, kept at minus 20 degrees Celsius to preserve the seeds and 40 percent humidity to keep them viable.

The vault's samples are largely of flora from the Korean peninsula, but with a capacity of two million seeds, the South makes its space available to other countries, with Kazakhstan and Tajikistan among those to have taken up the offer.

Depositors retain ownership of their samples and control over withdrawals.

But Lee pointed out: "The seed vault stores seeds to prevent their extinction, so the best scenario would be that the seeds never have to be taken out."

Despite its doomsday-defying role, it was built by a country that in 1950 was invaded by the neighbouring North, and Pyongyang has since developed a nuclear and missile arsenal.

The facility was built in the "safest spot" in South Korea, Lee said, designed to withstand a 6.9-magnitude earthquake and even an atomic strike.

"It's geographically very safe," Lee said. "And we paved a 46 metre-deep underground tunnel to ensure it's safe from war and nuclear threats."

Race against time

The world's biggest and best-known seed vault is buried deep inside a former coal mine on Svalbard, a remote Arctic Norwegian archipelago around 1,300 kilometres from the North Pole.

Dubbed the "Noah's Ark" of food crops, the Global Seed Vault focuses on agricultural and related plants, storing more than one million seed samples from nearly every country on the planet.

But researchers say preserving the seeds of wild plants -- the original source of the crops we eat today -- should not be overlooked.

Many crop relatives in the wild that could provide genetic diversity to help long-term food security "lack effective protection", according to a recent UN report.

It warned that farming was likely to be less resilient against climate change, pests and pathogens as a result, adding: "The biosphere, upon which humanity as a whole depends... is declining faster than at any time in human history."

Wild plants hold promise as future medicines, fuels and food, said the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in a report last year, but around two-fifths of them are threatened with extinction, largely due to habitat destruction and climate change.

It was a "race against time" to identify them before they disappeared, it added.

Research on wild plant seeds is "lacking tremendously", said Na Chae-sun, a senior researcher at the Baekdudaegan National Arboretum.

She and her team collect samples and carry out a meticulous and extensive process including X-ray tests and trial plantations before seeds are catalogued and stored in the seed vault.

"One might ask why is that wild flower on the kerbside important?" she said.

"Our job is to identify these one by one and letting people know how important they are," she went on.

"The crops that we eat today may have come from that nameless flower on the kerbside."

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South Africa tightens COVID-19 restrictions; expert says measures 'inadequate' to stop third wave

Johannesburg: South Africa on Sunday announced that it would strengthen the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions up a level to curb the exponential growth in the deadly viral infection, but a leading expert said the action is not enough to stop the third wave of the pandemic from hitting the country.

The total coronavirus cases in South Africa jumped to 1,659,070 with the detection of 4,515 new infections in the last 24 hours, while 70 more fatalities due to the disease pushed the toll to 56,363.

Follow LIVE updates on COVID-19 here

In an address to the nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in the country will move up a level from Monday.

Citing gatherings as the biggest spreader of the virus, he said all gatherings, including religious, social, political and cultural will be restricted to a maximum of 100 people indoors and 250 outdoors. Smaller venues will only be allowed 50 percent of their maximum capacity.

Funerals will be limited to 100 people and a maximum of two hours, with no night vigils and so-called 'after tears' parties where alcohol flows freely will be prohibited.

However, leading epidemiologist Prof Shabir Madhi said the measures are not strong enough to stop the third wave, which has already hit four of the nine provinces.

"The type of limitations that have been proposed or recommended by the president are probably inadequate. If we seriously want to slow down the rate of infection of the virus, during the course of the next few weeks, we literally should be banning these sort of mass gatherings," said the director of the South African Medical Research Council Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand.

"Even allowing for 100 people in a poorly ventilated indoor space, it not just those 100 individuals who are at risk of being infected it is the hundreds of other people that they are going to come back into contact with when they go back to their homes or work places that are at risk of being infected, Madhi told TV channel Newzroom Afrika after the president's address to the nation.

Madhi said the current surge in infections was due to the failure of the government to roll out the COVID-19 vaccination programme on time as well as the poor behaviour of citizens in observing protocols such as wearing masks and social distancing at public gatherings.

"The behaviour of citizens unfortunately, and particularly the behaviour at mass gatherings, lends itself to a heightened rate of transmission of the virus, but this is a consequence of a failure in terms of rolling out COVID-19 vaccination.

Had we started vaccinating three months ago, rather than three weeks ago, we would have been in a situation where high-risk individuals would have already got meaningful protection against the severe disease, which is what we want, he said.

Ramaphosa said the provinces of Free State, Northern Cape, North West and South Africa's economic hub of Gauteng have already reached the threshold of a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, making it only a matter of time before the entire country is hit by the third wave.

"Because the rate of infection has been low for some time, and because we all are suffering from pandemic fatigue, we became complacent. We have not been as vigilant about wearing our masks all the time, we have not been avoiding crowded places and have been socialising more.

"As a result, infections are surging again. The increase in daily cases is following the same trajectory as it did at the start of the previous two waves, the president said as he urged people to postpone social engagements, avoid public places and not travel unless absolutely necessary.

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Denmark helped US spy on German chancellor Angela Merkel and other top European allies: Report

Copenhagen: The US spied on top politicians in Europe, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, from 2012 to 2014 with the help of Danish intelligence, Danish and European media reported on Sunday.

Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR) said the US National Security Agency (NSA) had eavesdropped on Danish internet cables to spy on top politicians and high-ranking officials in Germany, Sweden, Norway and France. The NSA had taken advantage of a surveillance collaboration with Denmark's military intelligence unit FE to do so, it said.

Denmark's defence ministry has not responded to AFP's requests for a comment. Defence minister Trine Bramsen, who took over the defence portfolio in June 2019, was informed of the spying in August 2020, according to DR.

She told the broadcaster that "systematic eavesdropping of close allies is unacceptable."

it was not clear whether Denmark authorised the US to use its surveillance system to spy on its neighbours.

DR revealed the information following an investigation it led together with Swedish broadcaster SVT, Norway's NRK, Germany's NDR, WDR and Suddeutsche Zeitung, and France's Le Monde.

German chancellor Angela Merkel, then-foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and then-opposition leader Peer Steinbruck were among those the NSA had spied on, DR said.

The NSA was able to access SMS text messages, telephone calls, and internet traffic including searches, chats and messaging services, DR said.

The spying was detailed in a secret, internal FE working group report codenamed "Operation Dunhammer" and presented to FE top management in May 2015, DR said.

DR said its information came from nine different sources who had access to classified FE information, and said their revelations were independently confirmed by several sources.

Neither the FE nor its director at the time, Lars Findsen, commented immediately on the revelations.

The US spying, if confirmed, was going on during and after the 2013 Snowden affair, which erupted when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed thousands of classified documents exposing the vast US surveillance put in place after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Among other things, that documents showed the US government was spying on its own citizens and carrying out widespread tapping worldwide, including of Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

In November 2020, DR reported that the US had used the Danish cables to spy on Danish and European defence industries from 2012 to 2015.

Meanwhile, the French government on Monday called hte media reports "extremely serious" if proven.

"It is extremely serious, we need to see if our partners in the EU, the Danes, have committed errors or faults in their cooperation with American services," Europe minister Clement Beaune told France Info radio.

He added it would also be very serious if it turned out Washington had been spying on EU leaders. "Between allies, there must be trust, a minimal cooperation, so these potential facts are serious," said the minister.

He said the facts must first "be verified" and then "conclusions drawn in terms of cooperation."

"This is not something that should be played down," Beaune said, while acknowledging that similar allegations had emerged back in 2013 that the United States had spied on Merkel.

"We are not in some kind of cuddly world so this kind of behaviour can unfortunately happen," he said.

With inputs from AFP

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As Haiti struggles with COVID-19 pandemic, severe acute malnutrition spikes among children

Severe acute childhood malnutrition is expected to more than double this year in Haiti as the country struggles with the coronavirus pandemic, a spike in violence and dwindling resources, a UNICEF report said Monday.

More than 86,000 children under age five could be affected, compared with 41,000 reported last year, said Jean Gough, UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

“I was saddened to see so many children suffering from malnutrition,” she said after a weeklong visit to Haiti. “Some will not recover unless they receive treatment on time.”

Severe acute malnutrition is considered a life-threatening condition.

In a slightly less dangerous category, acute malnutrition in kids younger than 5 in Haiti has risen 61 percent, with some 2,17,000 children expected to suffer from it this year, compared with 1,34,000 last year.

Overall, UNICEF said, about 4.4 million of Haiti’s more than 11 million inhabitants lack sufficient food, including 1.9 million children.

Gough told The Associated Press during a recent visit to a hospital in the southern city of Les Cayes that UNICEF has only a one-month supply left of a special food paste given to children in need and is seeking $3 million by the end of June.

Officials said the pandemic also has disrupted health services, with childhood immunisation rates dropping from 28 percent to 44 percent, depending on the vaccine. The decrease has led to a rise in diphtheria cases as health workers brace for an expected measles outbreak this year.

UNICEF noted that unvaccinated children also are more likely to die from malnutrition.

Lamir Samedi, a nurse who works at a community health center in the southern town of Saint-Jean-du-Sud, said the target was to vaccinate 80 percent of children in the area, but they had yet to reach 50 percent.

Among the children hospitalised is 11-month-old Denise Joseph, who lay quietly in a crib in Les Cayes after being diagnosed with tuberculosis two weeks ago.

“She never eats,” said her grandmother, Marie-Rose Emile, who is caring for the infant since her mother also is ill. Emile is struggling to provide for the baby, saying she has barely harvested any beans, corn or potatoes this year.

Gough, the UNICEF official, said she was discouraged by the dismal numbers of malnutrition and drop in childhood immunisations. She said more outreach services are needed because not enough people are visiting community health centers.

Among those visiting a health center for the first time was 27-year-old Franceline Mileon, who brought her young child after hearing a health official with a bullhorn in her neighborhood announcing that a vaccination program had begun. She sat on a bench, coddling her baby, as she waited for a nurse to weigh her.

Overall, UNICEF said it needs nearly $49 million this year to meet humanitarian needs in Haiti, adding that little of that amount has been pledged. The agency $5.2 million of that amount would go toward nutrition and $4.9 million for health, including childhood immunisations.

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Skeptics in Russia don't fully trust Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, refuse to get vaccinated

Like many Moscow residents, Davlatmo Khadamshoyeva has her doubts about coronavirus vaccines developed in Russia, and is in no hurry to be immunised. "I haven't got the jab yet. I don't really trust it," the 23-year-old, not wearing a mask, told AFP outside an iconic shopping centre on Red Square. "The vaccine hasn't been fully tested yet," the international relations student said. Russia — with great fanfare — registered the world's first coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V in August 2020.

Named after the world's first satellite launched by the USSR in 1957, Sputnik has been touted by President Vladimir Putin as "the world's best" jab, while leading independent medical journal, The Lancet, deemed it effective in a study published in February.

In addition to Sputnik, Russian scientists have also developed two more vaccines.

Still, authorities in Moscow and other cities are facing an uphill battle to win over skeptics like Khadamshoyeva.

Putin on Wednesday urged Russians to cast their doubts aside and get vaccinated, saying Russia's shots were "the most reliable and safest" in the world.

"The most important thing is health. Please think about it," 68-year-old Putin said.

Russians cite a variety of reasons for not getting vaccinated — from the belief they will be injected with a tracking microchip to fears it will cause genetic mutation.

Breakdown in trust

But independent sociologists said vaccine hesitancy was a sign of deep social woe and was evidence of a breakdown in trust between Russians and the authorities after decades of Kremlin propaganda.

"Vaccine refusal is a consequence of the relationship between Russians and the authorities," said Alexei Levinson, a senior researcher at Levada-Center, Russia's leading independent pollster.

Much of the mistrust stems from people's belief that for the authorities, politics trump health concerns, he told AFP, and that the development of the vaccine was rushed to boost the Kremlin's foreign policy credentials.

In Moscow, vaccines are available for free to Russians who want them, with vaccination centres set up at prominent places including parks and malls. At the GUM shopping centre on Red Square, a jab comes with a free ice cream.

The authorities have also introduced some incentives to encourage people to get vaccinated, including free airline miles and small cash payouts to the elderly.

In a video last week, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin implored Muscovites to get immunised, saying the percentage of people vaccinated in Moscow was the lowest of any European city.

Of some 12 million Moscow residents, only 1.3 million had been vaccinated, he said.

"People keep dying, but they don't want to get vaccinated," the mayor said.

According to a Levada-Center survey, 62 percent of Russians are reluctant to get vaccinated and 56 percent of Russians are not afraid of getting the coronavirus.

Natalya Yevtushenko, a 55-year-old yoga instructor, said she had recovered from a bad case of the coronavirus but had no immediate plans to get immunised.

Viruses "come and go", she said.

"If you have a weak immune system, of course it will knock you down."

Russia in the Soviet era was a vaccine powerhouse and together with the United States helped rid the world of polio.

But since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia has struggled to innovate and experts say recent healthcare reforms including restructuring and hospital closures have made matters worse.

Prefer to wait

Foreign-made coronavirus vaccines are not available in Russia, and while many say they are not against getting vaccinated in principle, they would be more easily convinced if a foreign alternative were available.

Ania Bukina, a 35-year-old marketing manager, said she believes the healthcare reforms had likely damaged the integrity of Russian medicine and there was little information about possible side effects of Sputnik.

"I prefer to wait until other vaccines are available and there is more data," Bukina told AFP.

Around 11 million people are fully vaccinated in the country of 144 million, according to data collected by monitoring site Gogov.

Russia has been among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic.

Russia had recorded about 250,000 virus-related deaths by the end of March, according to statistics agency Rosstat.

But some experts say the country underreports coronavirus fatalities.

Even stakeholders in the pharmaceuticals industry in Russia say the low vaccine uptake is a result of how the country has promoted its vaccine.

"If you constantly talk about the faults of other countries' vaccines like they've been doing on our televisions, then this leads to distrust towards vaccines in general," said Anton Gopka, Russian co-founder of New York-based biotech investment firm ATEM Capital.

 

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As lockdowns start to ease, Egypt counts on tourism from ancient discoveries to pull economy through

Workers dig and ferry wheelbarrows laden with sand to open a new shaft at a bustling archaeological site outside of Cairo, while a handful of Egyptian archaeologists supervise from garden chairs. The dig is at the foot of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, arguably the world’s oldest pyramid, and is one of many recent excavations that are yielding troves of ancient artifacts from the country’s largest archaeological site.

As some European countries reopen to international tourists, Egypt has already been trying for months to attract them to its archaeological sites and museums. Officials are betting that the new ancient discoveries will set it apart on the mid- and post-pandemic tourism market. They need visitors to come back in force to inject cash into the tourism industry, a pillar of the economy.

But like countries elsewhere, Egypt continues to battle the coronavirus, and is struggling to get its people vaccinated. The country has, up until now, received only 5 million vaccines for its population of 100 million people, according to its Health Ministry. In early May, the government announced that 1 million people had been vaccinated, though that number is believed to be higher now.

In the meantime, authorities have kept the publicity machine running, focused on the new discoveries.

In November, archaeologists announced the discovery of at least 100 ancient coffins dating back to the Pharaonic Late Period and Greco-Ptolemaic era, along with 40 gilded statues found 2,500 years after they were first buried. That came a month after the discovery of 57 other coffins at the same site, the necropolis of Saqqara that includes the step pyramid.

“Saqqara is a treasure,” said Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany while announcing the November discovery, estimating that only one percent of what the site contains has been unearthed so far.

“Our problem now is that we don’t know how we can possibly wow the world after this,” he said.

If they don’t, it certainly won’t be for lack of trying.

In April, Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s best-known archaeologist, announced the discovery of a 3,000-year-old lost city in southern Luxor, complete with mud brick houses, artifacts and tools from pharaonic times. It dates back to Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty, whose reign (1390–1353 BC) is considered a golden era for ancient Egypt.

That discovery was followed by a made-for-TV parade celebrating the transport of 22 of the country’s prized royal mummies from central Cairo to their new resting place in a massive facility farther south in the capital, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

The Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is now home to an archaeological museum, as is Cairo’s International Airport, both opened in recent months. And officials have also said they still plan to open the massive new Grand Egyptian Museum next to the Giza Pyramids by January, after years of delays. Entrance fees for archeological sites have been lowered, as has the cost of tourist visas.

The government has for years played up its ancient history as a selling point, as part of a years-long effort to revive the country’s battered tourism industry. It was badly hit during and after the popular uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and the ensuring unrest. The coronavirus dealt it a similar blow, just as it was getting back on its feet.

In 2019, foreign tourism’s revenue stood at $13 billion. Egypt received some 13.1 million foreign tourists — reaching pre-2011 levels for the first time. But in 2020, it greeted only 3.5 million foreign tourists, according to the minister el-Anany.

At the newly opened National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Mahmoud el-Rays, a tour guide, was leading a small group of European tourists at the hall housing the royal mummies.

“2019 was a fantastic year,” he said. “But corona reversed everything. It is a massive blow.”

Tourism traffic strengthened in the first months of 2021, el-Anany, the minister, told The Associated Press in a recent interview, though he did not give specific figures. He was optimistic that more would continue to come year-round.

“Egypt is a perfect destination for post-COVID in that our tourism is really an open-air tourism,” he said.

But it remains to be seen if the country truly has the virus under control. It has recorded a total of 14,950 deaths from the virus and is still seeing more than a thousand new cases daily. Like other countries, the real numbers are believed to be much higher. In Egypt, though, authorities have arrested doctors and silenced critics who questioned the government’s response, so there are fears that information on the true cost of the virus may have been suppressed from the beginning.

Egypt also had a trying experience early on in the pandemic, when it saw a coronavirus outbreak on one of its Nile River cruise boats. It first closed its borders completely until the summer of 2020, but later welcomed tourists back, first to Red-Sea resort towns and now to the heart of the country — Cairo and the Nile River Valley that hosts most of its famous archaeological sites. Visitors still require a negative COVID-19 test result to enter the country.

In a further cause for optimism, Russia said in April that it plans to resume direct flights to Egypt’s Red Sea resort towns. Moscow stopped the flights after the local Islamic State affiliate bombed a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015, killing all on board.

Amanda, a 36-year-old engineer from Austria, returned to Egypt in May. It was her second visit in four years. She visited the Egyptian Museum, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization and Islamic Cairo, in the capital’s historic center.

She had planned to come last year, but the pandemic interfered.

“Once they opened, I came,” she said. “It was my dream to see the Pyramids again.”

El-Rays, the tour guide, says that while he’s seeing tourists starting to come in larger numbers, he knows a full recovery will not happen overnight.

“It will take some time to return to before corona,” he said.

— Feature image: People visit the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Old Cairo. Photo credit: AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty

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Tamela Mann, Trae Tha Truth among performers at concert in honour of George Floyd

Religious leaders, musical guests, spoken word artists and politicians gathered for a concert in Houston, the home town of George Floyd, to commemorate the anniversary of his death.

Pastors Remus E Wright and Mia K Wright welcomed the Floyd family on Sunday at The Fountain of Praise, a church that held one of his funeral services, and more than 450 live viewers on Facebook.

“It’s been an incredible year and a very emotional year, so much grief and loss, so much angst and anxiety, worldwide protests, the insurrection at the Capitol, but I guarantee you one thing — that none of us will forget 25 May, 2020, the day that George Floyd’s life was taken from us,” Mia Wright said.

Floyd, who was Black, died last year after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck, pinning him to the ground for about 9 1/2 minutes as Floyd pleaded for air. Floyd’s death sparked worldwide protests and calls for change in policing in the US. Chauvin was fired after Floyd died and was later convicted of murder and manslaughter in his death.

“The tragedy of his murder becomes even more profound as your strength in seeking justice sparked a reckoning too long overdue,” voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams said of the Floyd family.

Among the guests were Democratic politicians US Rep. Al Green, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Vice Mayor Pro-Tem Martha Castex-Tatum and Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis and musical guests Trae Tha Truth, Grammy-nominated artists Gene Moore Jr. and Major and Grammy Award-winning gospel singer Tamela Mann.

The concert being held by the George Floyd Foundation is among events being held across the nation to mark the anniversary. The foundation was launched by Floyd’s siblings in his honor to help combat racial inequities in Black and brown communities.

“On behalf of our family, we thank you for lending your voices tonight, but also for the past year which has been a landmark movement in our nation and the world,” George Floyd Foundation President and Floyd’s first cousin Shareeduh McGee said, thanking every celebrity, athlete, politician, artist, pastor educator, media personalities, corporations and more. “Tonight, we say thank you.”

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No end in sight: Sri Lanka faces its worst marine crisis as plastic from burning ship washes ashore

Sri Lanka faces an unprecedented pollution crisis as waves of plastic waste from a burning container ship hit the coast and threaten to devastate the local environment, a top environment official warned Saturday. Thousands of navy ratings using mechanical diggers scooped tonnes of tiny plastic granules on the beaches that had come from the Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl that has been smouldering on the horizon for ten days. Sri Lanka's Marine Protection Authority (MEPA) said the microplastic pollution could cause years of ecological damage to the Indian Ocean island.

"This is probably the worst beach pollution in our history," MEPA chairman Dharshani Lahandapura said.

The tiny polyethylene pellets threaten tourism beaches and fish-breeding in shallow waters.

Fishing has been banned along an 80-kilometre stretch of coast near the ship that has been burning for 10 days despite an international firefighting operation.

"There is smoke and intermittent flames seen from the ship," navy spokesman Captain Indika de Silva told AFP.

Orange-coloured plastic booms were set up in case oil leaks from the crippled ship reaches the Negombo lagoon that is famed for its crabs and jumbo prawns.

Thousands of small boats were beached at Negombo Saturday because of the fishing ban.

No end in sight

Naval rating Manjula Dulanjala said his team had almost cleared the beach on Friday evening, but were shocked to find it covered again the following morning.

"This is like the coronavirus. No end in sight. We removed all the plastic yesterday, only to see more of it dumped by the waves overnight," he said.

The pellets and waste were packed into green and white polythene sacks and taken away by trucks.

An officer leading another team said that in certain parts of the beach the microplastics and charred debris was 60 centimetres (two feet) deep.

Sri Lanka faces an unprecedented pollution crisis as waves of plastic waste from a burning container ship hit the coast and threaten to devastate the local environment, a top environment official warned https://t.co/oUOyydmi1X pic.twitter.com/xPgjN1fEm7

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 29, 2021

Local fisherman Peter Fernando, 68, said he had never seen such destruction.

The December 2004 Asian tsunami devastated much of the island's coastline and killed an estimated 31,000 people, but only damaged coastal infrastructure.

Roman Catholic priest Sujeewa Athukorale said most of his parishioners were fishermen who risked becoming destitute.

"Their immediate need is to be allowed to go back to the sea," he said.

"There are 4,500 fishing families in my parish alone."

Mangroves threatened

Fisherman Lakshan Fernando, 30, said people feared the plastic waste could destroy mangroves as well as the corals where fish breed in the shallow water.

Sri Lanka is facing one of the biggest #marinepollution events in its history because of the #xpresspearl fire. The entire Western Coastal Belt of the country has now been polluted with chemicals, plastic pellets and an oil spill, with possible acid rain on the way. #lka pic.twitter.com/MYvcYQWUvP

— Extinction Rebellion Sri Lanka (@XRebellionLK) May 28, 2021

"No one is able to say how long we will have the adverse effects of this pollution," Fernando told AFP.

"It could take a few years or a few decades, but in the meantime what about our livelihoods?"

An oil leak from the vessel, said to be carrying 278 tonnes of bunker oil and 50 tonnes of gasoil, would increase the risk of devastation.

Much of the ship's cargo, including 25 tonnes of nitric acid, sodium hydroxide, lubricants and other chemicals, appeared to have been destroyed in the fire, officials said.

The X-Press Pearl caught fire as it waited to enter Colombo harbour and remains anchored just outside the port.

An international salvage operation is led by the Dutch company SMIT, which has sent specialist fire-fighting tugs. India has sent coastguard vessels to help Sri Lanka's navy.

SMIT was also involved in dousing a burning oil tanker off Sri Lanka's east coast last September after an engine room explosion killed a crew member.

The fire on the New Diamond took more than a week to put out and left a 40-kilometre (25-mile) long oil spill. Sri Lanka has demanded the owners pay $17 million for the clean-up.

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'Threat to life itself': Doctors4XR march to WHO demanding global action against health risks posed by climate change

Hundreds of health workers marched to the World Health Organization on Saturday demanding that authorities in all countries recognise and act to counter the health risks of climate change. Around two hundred people wearing white medical coats and facemasks marched or were pushed in wheelchairs two kilometres (1.2 miles) through Geneva's international district to the WHO headquarters. Some carried giant banners urging action, including a towering thermometer showing the red temperature scale rising towards a burning planet.

Once at the WHO building, representatives of the Doctors for Extinction Rebellion (Doctors4XR) climate activist network handed over a petition to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Signed by more than 1,100 health professionals from around the world, the text slammed the "inertia, inaction and the abyssal distance between speeches and actions".

It demanded that health authorities in every country, who are currently taking part virtually in the main annual meeting of WHO member states, "publicly state that climate change is putting people at risk of death, and act now to preserve life."

Thank you for joining us today @DrTedros. Your membership badge is in the post 😉👏🙌 #newestmember pic.twitter.com/NubG6C1lza

— Doctors for XR (@DoctorsXr) May 29, 2021

Professor Valerie D'Acremont, infectious diseases specialist gave a moving speech to @DrTedros during a health professional protest at WHO HQ today, calling for climate change + biodiversity loss to be prioritised as the major health problem of our times.#RedAlertWHO #WHA74 pic.twitter.com/cnKQaiXE79

— Doctors for XR (@DoctorsXr) May 29, 2021

"Year after year, declaration after declaration, multilateral institutions — including WHO — have warned us: climate change and the loss of biodiversity endanger human health worldwide," the petition said.

Health workers worldwide are already "confronted every day with the consequences of environmental deterioration on our patients and communities," they said.

"The list of ailments they suffer from is getting longer every day.

"We are seeing more and more respiratory and cardiovascular diseases due to polluted air, loss of working days and deaths due to heat waves, over- and undernutrition due to lack of quality food, and diarrhoea and intoxications due to polluted drinking water.

 No vaccine for climate change

To make the point, the petition came in an envelope decorated with a drawing of a healthy human at 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit), then "sick" if two degrees were added, in "mortal danger" at +4C and at +5C, "too late", followed by the words: "Same with the planet."

"Despite accumulating evidence, repeated warnings... despite more frequent and more serious natural disasters, including the Covid-19 pandemic," the petition said, "the concrete actions implemented by our governments are not nearly enough."

Tedros hailed the activists, vowing to read their letter to the member states.

Thanks to @richardhorton1 + Dr James Hospedales of @Earth_Medic for their words to Dr Tedros + @xrSchweiz for all their hard work.

Thanks @DrTedros for your words, for your commitment to share this letter to the #WHA74, + of course for accepting to become an honorary member! pic.twitter.com/7glo9z0NbV

— Doctors for XR (@DoctorsXr) May 29, 2021

"The COVID-19 pandemic has once again highlighted the intimate relationship between the health of people and planet," he said, stressing that it showed "what happens when we are under prepared and fail to cooperate with each other."

In that sense, "the risks posed by climate change could dwarf that of any single disease," he warned.

"The pandemic will end, but there is no vaccine for climate change."

Richard Horton, the chief editor of the Lancet medical journal and one of the signatories, agreed.

"The climate crisis is not merely a threat to health," he said by video link. "It is a threat to life itself."

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Nehru’s Nazi friend: How Adolf Hitler’s star pilot came to play a cameo role in making of modern India

Illuminated by tracer and exploding artillery, the small training plane hurtled through Berlin’s bombed-out Tiergarten, lurching into the air with the last, desperate hopes of the Third Reich. Flight-Captain Hanna Reitsch had spent the evening begging to stay inside the Führerbunker and die with her leader, Adolf Hitler. Instead, she had been ordered to carry Field Marshal Robert von Greim—appointed head of the Nazi Luftwaffe after the betrayal of HermannGöring—to rally its remaining aircraft to Berlin’s defence.

Later, the young Flight-Captain would tell a United States military intelligence officer: “It was the blackest day when we could not die at our Führer’s side”.

In the summer of 1959, Flight-Captain Reitch had her next moment in history: this one, inside the home of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, along with his daughter, and future prime  minister, Indira Gandhi, and his grandchildren, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi. Reitch had flown the prime minister over New Delhi in her glider. He was delighted, and an invitation to lunch followed. For last several days of her visit to India, she lived at the Nehrus’ home as their guest.

“Nehru was particularly curious about the rumour that Hanna had been Hitler’s mistress”, Reitch’s biographer, Sophie Jackson, records. “Hanna did not mind recounting her time in the bunker. At least with this audience, she could speak openly and would not be automatically condemned”.

The grandchildren—one of whom was later to become an airline pilot, and then Prime Minister; the other, to die in an aviation accident—“were enthusiastic, as only young boys can be, over all things to do with flying”. “They showed her their model aeroplanes and escorted her around Delhi”. Indira Gandhi and Reitch, according to her autobiography, continued to correspond.

In some senses, the brief friendship between Nehru and the Nazi tells us little—except perhaps about the exceptional privilege being White brought, and sometime still brings, in post-independence India. Yet, the story illuminates, how quickly the world—and even committed anti-fascists like Nehru—were to forgive those who participated in and enabled the most evil regime the world has ever known.

Emerging from prison late in 1945, Reitch found her world no longer existed. Fearing the prospect of being repatriated to Soviet Union-controlled Germany, her father Wilhelm Reitch had shot dead his wife Emy von Alpenheim, younger daughter Heidi Reitch, and her three children, before turning the gun on himself. These kinds of suicides, historian Jörg Freidrich has shown, were not uncommon: the downfall of Hitler had meant not just military defeat, but the implosion of society itself.

In 1932, Reitch had learned to fly gliders in the small town of Grunau, going on to set several altitude and endurance records. Following a brief stint as a movie stunt pilot, she went on join the Luftwaffe’s testing centre at Rechlin-Lärz Airfield—achieving iconic status in Nazi propaganda for flying the Focke-Achgelis Fa 61, the world’s first fully controllable helicopter, the Junkers Ju87 dive bomber, the Dornier D017 light bomber and the rocket-propelled Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet.

Following the war, though, Germans were barred from piloting powered aircraft. Reitch returned to her first love, gliding. From 1955 on, she set multiple new records. New Delhi, meanwhile, had lost its flying club’s fledgling fleet, after a jet aircraft crashed into the hangar. Hans Georg Steltzer, the Federal Republic of Germany’s ambassador in New Delhi from 1957 to 1960, thought a new glider would make a perfect present to the newly-independent country.

The fact that Steltzer chose an apparently unrepentant Nazi icon to fly that glider is illuminating. In fact, key figures in Nazi Germany were being rehabilitated across the world. Reitch’s one-time lover Wernher von Braun—the architect of the Nazi missile programme, and now widely known to have been responsible for war crimes involving the use of slave labour—had become a respected figure in the United States’ space programme.

Large numbers other Nazi scientists were rehabilitated in both the United States and Soviet Union; the new Federal Republic’s political leadership and intelligence services, too, were awash with former Nazis.

Elsewhere in the world, too, figures close to the Nazi establishment found themselves rehabilitated. Kurt Tank, the legendary Focke-Wulf aircraft designer, went on to design combat jets for Argentina, Egypt and India. Indeed, Tank was in India when Reitch made her visit, although there’s nothing to suggest the two met.

For Reitch, the India visit appears to have coincided with an effort to build a new inner world. Reitch, Sophie Jackson tells us, became drawn to“various forms of Eastern religion, particularly meditation. It seemed to Hanna that this might help combat her anxiety and emptiness”. She went on what her biographer describes as a “pilgrimage” to Pondicherry, meeting with the French spiritualist Mira Alfassa. The one-time Nazi test pilot, by her own account, even practiced yoga with Nehru.

The journey to India was to mark Reitch’s rebranding as a feminist aviation icon. Meetings with President John F Kennedy, and other world leaders, followed. Then, she moved to Ghana in 1962, setting up a flight school for the newly-independent country. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s iconic freedom movement leader, became a close friend.

Berhard Rieger, in a signal 2008 essay, observed that Ghana provided an ideal stage for Reitch’s effort at “moral self-reinvention: it allowed her to parade herself as a racially unprejudiced humanitarian, thereby sidestepping the very political questions of responsibility and guilt that marred her biography”. For the country she served, too, German technology could be marketed as a benevolent philanthropic tool, thus freeing it of the burden it carried for abetting industrialised slaughter.

In interviews given in her last years, though, Reitch took off the veil she had donned. “And what do we have now in Germany”, she asked the American photojournalist Ron Laytner? “A land of bankers and car-makers. Even our great army has gone soft. Soldiers wear beards and question orders. I am not ashamed to say I believed in National Socialism. I still wear the Iron Cross with Diamonds Hitler gave me”.

“Today in all Germany”, she concluded, “you can’t find a single person who voted Adolf Hitler into power”. “Many Germans feel guilty about the war. But they don’t explain the real guilt we share—that we lost”.

Even at the very end, she expressed neither shame nor regret for the Holocaust, or her own role in Nazi Germany’s wars of aggression. Perhaps, in private, Nehru had asked her what she thought on these issues. Whether he did, and what she said, the archive does not tell us.

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Sri Lanka facing worst marine ecological disaster, says environment authority after cargo ship catches fire

Colombo: Sri Lanka's apex environment body said on Saturday the country was facing its worst marine ecological disaster triggered after a Singapore-flagged cargo ship caught fire near the Colombo beach, fuelling severe environmental concerns.

The cargo vessel — MV X-press Pearl — was carrying a consignment of chemicals and raw materials for cosmetics from Hazira in Gujarat to Colombo Port on 20 May, when it caught fire some 9.5 nautical miles away from the port of Colombo.

The firefighting effort on 21 May was assisted by the Indian coastal guard vessels and an aircraft, in addition to the Sri Lanka Navy and Air Force.

#NeighbourhoodFirst #OperationSagarAraksha2 #ICG Ships Samudra Prahari, Vaibhav & Vajra continue with #FireFighting onboard #MVXPressPearl. Fire considerably reduced with moderate density smoke. Aerial reccee carried out by #ICG aircraft. No oil spill detected. @DefenceMinIndia pic.twitter.com/EbluIQLRia

— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) May 30, 2021

Apart from the 325 metric tonnes of fuel in its tanks, the vessel was loaded with 1,486 containers carrying about 25 tonnes of hazardous nitric acid.

Darshani Lahandapura, Chairperson of the Marine Environment Pollution Authority (MEPA), said that according to the available information so far this would be the worst marine ecological disaster in the island nation.

"With the available information so far, this can be described the worst disaster, she said.

The plastic beads floating in the waters covering the affected coastal area are badly affecting the marine ecology in the respective areas, she said.

Lahandapura said the fishing breeding points and mangroves around the Negombo Lagoon, a major tourist attraction, were very sensitive and the resultant pollution could affect them.

She said an explosion was heard from the ship wreck last night.

According to a statement issued by the ship's owners in Singapore, "by 9.45 am Sri Lanka time today, the vessel's hull remains structurally intact, as do the bunker tanks, and there has been no loss of oil into the port's waters. The Sri Lankan Navy has also confirmed that there have been no oil sightings since the fire began .

The Sri Lanka Air Force dropped fire dousing material this morning. Authorities say the fire was under control and the possibility of ship's sinking was less.

The ministry of fisheries has assured that there was no reason to fear consuming fish as the fishing in the affected area had been banned from last Sunday.

The fishermen affected by the fishing ban are to be provided livelihood support, the ministry said.

MEPA officials said a large number of dead sea turtles, birds and small fish could be seen along the coast.

India on Tuesday dispatched ICG Vaibhav, ICG Dornier and Tug Water Lilly to help the Sri Lankan Navy extinguish the fire on the container ship.

#NeighbourhoodFirst #ICG Ships Vaibhav & Vajra undertaking coordinated #FireFighting with precision towards dousing fire onboard #MVX-PressPearl off #Colombo @DefenceMinIndia @MEAIndia @IndiainSL @SpokespersonMoD pic.twitter.com/09nSY5WOj0

— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) May 28, 2021

India's specialised pollution response vessel Samudra Prahari will reach on Saturday to augment pollution control efforts, the Colombo Gazette reported on Friday.

All 25 crew members of the ship, of Indian, Chinese, Filipino and Russian nationalities, were rescued on Tuesday after a 'fire alarm' dispatch was sent.

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Israel moves toward coalition deal that could sideline Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party

Jerusalem: The longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history, Benjamin Netanyahu, faced the most potent threat yet to his grip on power on Sunday after an ultranationalist power-broker, Naftali Bennett, said his party would work with Opposition leaders to build an alternative government to force Netanyahu from office.

If the manoeuvring leads to a formal coalition agreement, it would be an uneasy alliance between eight relatively small parties with a diffuse range of ideologies. The prime minister’s post would rotate between two unlikely partners: Bennett, a former settler leader who rejects the concept of a sovereign Palestinian State and champions the religious Right — and Yair Lapid, a former television host who is considered a voice of secular centrists.

“I will work with all my power to form a national unity government together with my friend Yair Lapid,” Bennett said in a speech on Sunday night.

He added, “If we succeed, we will be doing something huge for the state of Israel.”

Bennett’s announcement came shortly after an armed conflict with Palestinians in Gaza that many thought had improved Netanyahu’s chances of hanging on to his post.

As a result of the profound ideological differences within the emerging coalition, which would include both leftist and Far-Right members, its leaders have indicated their government would initially avoid pursuing initiatives that could exacerbate their political incompatibility, such as those related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and focus instead on infrastructure and economic policy.

If forced from office, Netanyahu is unlikely to leave politics. Either way, however, he has left a lasting legacy. He shifted the fulcrum of Israeli politics firmly to the right — Bennett’s prominence being a prime example — and presided over the dismantling of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, all while scoring groundbreaking diplomatic agreements with four Arab states, subverting conventional wisdom about Israeli-Arab relations.

By frequently attacking the judiciary and remaining in office while on trial for corruption, Netanyahu also stands accused of undermining central tenets of liberal democracy.

And he is not going without a fight: Immediately after Bennett’s announcement, Netanyahu responded with a speech of his own, calling on right-wing lawmakers within the Opposition alliance to abandon Bennett for his own right-wing bloc.

“This is not unity, healing or democracy,” Netanyahu said. “This is an opportunistic government. A government of capitulation, a government of fraud, a government of inertia. A government like this must not be formed.”

Ideological differences between the Opposition parties were the main reason Bennett waited for so long since a General Election in March to throw his lot in with Lapid. He was under pressure from his own party not to break with Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious alliance, a factor he hinted at in his speech on Sunday.

“This is the most complex decision I’ve made in my life, but I am at peace with it,” Bennett said.

Any agreement reached in the coming days would need to be formally presented to Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, by Wednesday night. It would still then need to be endorsed by a vote in the Knesset, the Hebrew name for the Israeli Parliament.

Under the deal being discussed, Bennett would lead the government first, probably until the fall of 2023, while Lapid would most likely serve as foreign minister, according to two people involved in the negotiations. The pair would then swap roles until a new general election in 2025. Bennett’s party won fewer seats than Lapid’s in a March election, but he holds significant leverage during the negotiations because no government can be formed without him.

Their government would rely on the support of a small Arab Islamist party, Raam, to give it the 61 seats needed to control the 120-seat Parliament. Raam is not likely to play a formal role in the coalition, but is expected to support the new government at the Knesset confidence vote.

Netanyahu would remain as caretaker prime minister until the parliamentary vote.

The negotiations for this coalition were almost derailed by the recent conflict with Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip. That made Bennett leery of forming a government reliant on Raam, which has roots in the same religious stream as the Gaza militants.

If approved, the deal would mark the end of the Netanyahu era — at least for now. Supporters of the proposed coalition hope it could break the deadlock that has stymied government action for more than two years.

Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing Likud party, has been in office since 2009, after an earlier stint from 1996 to 1999. His 15 years in power make him Israel’s longest-serving leader; it is one year longer than the combined terms of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.

Near the end of Netanyahu’s tenure, he secured a major diplomatic prize with a set of eye-catching normalisation agreements between Israel and four Arab states. They shattered assumptions that Israel would stabilise its relationship with the Arab world only once it made peace with the Palestinians.

Under Netanyahu, Israel also scored diplomatic victories with the United States: The Trump administration moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem, closed its consulate for Palestinian affairs, shut down the Palestinian mission in the United States, and took a more combative line against Israel’s enemy Iran.

But the Israeli-Palestinian peace process collapsed under Netanyahu’s watch, with formal negotiations petering out seven years ago. And tensions with Israel’s Arab minority increased, leading to widespread Arab-Jewish mob violence during the recent conflict.

His government also enacted a law in 2018 that downgraded the status of the Arabic language in Israel and said that only Jews had the right to determine the nature of the Israeli State.

Through an electoral agreement with Far-Right politicians, which ultimately allowed them to enter Parliament, Netanyahu also contributed to a rise in Far-Right influence on public discourse.

And by clinging to power while standing trial on corruption charges, critics said, he undercut the rule of law and undermined democratic norms — all while being unable to give his full attention to governing, distracted as he was by such a serious court case.

Netanyahu has denied the charges and defended his right to clear his name without leaving office.

The case, and the polarising effect it has had on the Israeli electorate, played a major role in Israel’s political instability over the past four years.

Netanyahu’s decision to stay in office divided voters less by political belief than by their attitude toward him.

In particular, it split the Israeli Right, and made it harder for both Netanyahu and his opponents to form a working majority.

That led to four inconclusive elections in two years, each of which ended with no faction being big enough to win power alone. The deadlock left the country without a state budget, among other problems.

A desire to avoid a fifth election was a primary reason behind Bennett’s decision, he said. “It is either a fifth election or a unity government,” he said.

After the first two elections in 2019, Netanyahu was left in charge as a caretaker prime minister. After the third vote, in March 2020, he formed a government of national unity with his main rival, Benny Gantz, a shaky deal that collapsed last December when the two factions failed to agree on a state budget.

A similar deadlock initially emerged after the most recent election in April. Rivlin, the president, granted Netanyahu, whose party finished first, an initial mandate to try to form a governing coalition. But he failed after a far-right group refused to enter a coalition reliant on Raam, which holds the balance of power.

That gave Lapid — whose centrist party, Yesh Atid, or There Is a Future, came in second — the chance to form a government instead. His efforts were initially stymied by the outbreak of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, which prompted his likely coalition partner, Bennett, to back out of coalition talks.

But a ceasefire made it easier for the pair to restart negotiations, leading to the move on Sunday.

Lapid, 57, is a former broadcaster who entered politics in 2012 and served as finance minister under Netanyahu in 2013.

He was best known for moves to reshape a welfare system that gives money to devout Jewish men who study religious texts instead of seeking paid employment. Subsequent administrations reversed most of Lapid’s changes.

During the campaign, Lapid, 57, pledged to preserve checks and balances and protect the judiciary.

Bennett, 49, is a former Israeli army commando and software entrepreneur. He lives in Israel, but once led the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Until January, his party was in a formal alliance with Bezalel Smotrich, a Far-Right leader. Bennett opposes Palestinian statehood and favours formally annexing large parts of the West Bank.

Patrick Kingsley c.2021 The New York Times Company

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Florida: Two dead, over 20 injured in shooting outside banquet hall in Miami county

Hialeah: Two people died and an estimated 20 to 25 people were injured in a shooting outside a banquet hall in South Florida, police said.

The gunfire erupted early Sunday at the El Mula Banquet Hall in northwest Miami-Dade County, police told news outlets.

The banquet hall had been rented out for a concert. Three people got out of an SUV and opened fire into a crowd outside with assault rifles and handguns, police director Alfredo "Freddy" Ramirez III said. Authorities believe the shooting was targeted.

"These are cold blooded murderers that shot indiscriminately into a crowd and we will seek justice," Ramirez said in a tweet.

Two people died at the scene, police said. As many as 25 people went to various hospitals for treatment. No arrests were immediately announced.

"This is a despicable act of gun violence, a cowardly act," Ramirez told the Miami Herald.

"This type of gun violence has to stop. Every weekend it's the same thing," Ramirez said during an early morning news conference.

Governor Ron DeSantis also commented on the shooting on Twitter.

"We mourn the loss of the two victims and are praying for the recovery of the more than 20 people injured at El Mula Banquet Hall near Hialeah. We are working with local authorities to bring justice to the perpetrators. Justice needs to be swift and severe!" DeSantis tweeted.

Businessman and TV personality Marcus Lemonis, star of "The Profit", took to Twitter to offer a $100,000 reward to help authorities capture the suspects.

Gun violence ushered in the Memorial Day weekend in South Florida when dozens of shots wer e fired outside another gathering in Miami's Wynwood area. The shooting late Friday killed one person and injured six others.

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Israel's Opposition inches closer to forming coalition to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Jerusalem: Israeli politicians Sunday inched closer to forming a coalition that would end the era of right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest serving leader.

Lawmakers opposed to Netanyahu were in intense talks ahead of a Wednesday night deadline, as a ceasefire held following the latest deadly military conflict with Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu, 71, who faces trial on fraud, bribery and breach of trust charges which he denies, has held onto power through a period of political turmoil that saw four inconclusive elections in under two years.

After a March vote in which Netanyahu's Likud party gained the most seats but again failed to form a government, former TV anchor Yair Lapid is now trying to build a rival coalition.

The centrist Lapid, 57, has until Wednesday 11:59 pm local time to build a coalition of at least 61 deputies for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

Lapid is seeking to forge a diverse alliance the Israeli media has dubbed a bloc for "change", which would include the nationalist hardliner Naftali Bennett as well as Arab-Israeli lawmakers.

In his determination to bring down the hawkish prime minister, Lapid has offered to share power and let Bennett, 49, serve the first term in a rotating premiership.

Netanyahu, in office for 12 consecutive years after an earlier three-year term, tried to cling to power Sunday by offering his own, last-ditch power-sharing agreement to several former allies including Bennett.

He warned that Israel would otherwise be ruled by a dangerous "left-wing" alliance.

Lapid's possible new government would also include the centrist Blue and White party of Benny Gantz and the hawkish New Hope party of Netanyahu's former ally Gideon Saar. Avigdor Liberman's pro-settlement Yisrael Beitenu party as well as Labour and the dovish Meretz party would also join the coalition.

The shaky arrangement would also need support from some Israeli Arab lawmaker of Palestinian descent in order to pass a confirmation vote in parliament.

'Desperate position' 

The intense talks follow weeks of escalating tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, including a deadly 11-day exchange of rocket fire from Gaza and devastating Israeli airstrikes.

The war with Hamas that ended with a 21 May truce, as well as tensions in the occupied West Bank and in mixed Jewish-Arab towns in Israel, initially appeared to leave Netanyahu more likely to hold onto power.

But political scientist Gayil Talshir at Hebrew University told AFP on Sunday that Israel was now "closer than ever" to a coalition of change, adding that "Netanyahu is in a desperate position".

Netanyahu's Likud party won 30 seats in the March elections but failed to form a governing coalition after his far-right partners refused to sit with Arab factions or receive their support.

Lapid, whose party won 17 seats, was then given four weeks to form a government.

Netanyahu had previously pushed for yet another election, which would be the fifth since April 2019.

"Now that he sees a change coalition may be announced this evening or tomorrow, he has to move forward with a more serious deal," Talshir told AFP.

On Sunday Netanyahu offered a rotation agreement to Bennett and Saar. But Saar rebuffed this on Twitter, writing that "our stance and our commitment was and remains: replacing the Netanyahu regime".

Netanyahu in a subsequent video called on Saar and Bennett to "come now, immediately" to meet him and join a three-way rotation government, warning that "we are in crucial moment for the security, character and future of the state of Israel".

Obstacles 

Lapid's "change" coalition also still faced several obstacles.

Some right-wing lawmakers object to a partnership with Arab politicians who represent a 20 percent minority of Israeli citizens.

The recent Gaza conflict sparked inter-communal clashes between Jewish and Arab Israelis in many cities.

At least one of Yamina's seven members, Amichai Chikli, told Israeli public radio he would "absolutely" vote against the new government.

Arab politicians have also been divided about joining a government headed by Bennett, who supports expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians hope to create a future state.

Lawmakers from the Arab-led Joint List with six seats said they would be in favour of a Lapid government, but did not support one headed by Bennett.

Mansour Abbas, head of the Islamic conservative Raam party with four seats, has said he could potentially support a coalition that would improve conditions for the Arab community.

Even with support from an Arab party, a new coalition in Israel is unlikely to reverse years of Israeli settlement construction or bring peace any time soon with Hamas in Gaza.

Mossi Raz, a lawmaker with the Meretz party, told Israel public radio that "a change government will do a lot of good things. I'm not sure a peace agreement will be one of them."

 

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Cereal offender? Finland police set to probe Prime Minister Sanna Marin's breakfast bill

Helsinki: Finland's police announced on Friday that they will investigate whether the prime minister's breakfasts have been illegally subsidised using taxpayers' money.

Prime Minister Sanna Marin found herself in hot water on Tuesday when the tabloid Iltalehti reported that she has been claiming back about 300 euros ($365) per month for her family's breakfasts while living at her official residence, Kesaranta.

While Opposition figures accused the prime minister of being left with egg on her face, the 35-year-old head of government insisted that the perk was also given to her predecessors.

"As prime minister I have not asked for this benefit nor been involved in deciding on it," Marin said on Twitter.

Legal experts consulted by the media subsequently suggested that using taxpayers' money to pay for the prime minister's morning meal may in fact contravene Finnish legislation.

On Friday, police announced a pre-trial investigation into a possible public-office offence, after receiving a request to probe the issue.

"The prime minister has been reimbursed for some meals, even though the wording of the law on ministerial remuneration does not appear to permit this," police said in a statement.

In the statement, detective superintendent Teemu Jokinen said the investigation will focus on the decisions of officials inside the prime minister's office, and "in no way relates to the prime minister or her official activities."

Marin said Friday on Twitter that she welcomes the investigation and will cease claiming the benefit while it is looked into.

The Social Democrat politician has enjoyed relatively high levels of public support since coming to office in December 2019, and her centre-left coalition has been credited with helping Finland maintain some of Europe's lowest coronavirus infection rates.

However, as the Nordic nation gears up for local elections on 13 June, her party lags in the polls behind the Opposition, while the far-right Finns Party has been predicted to make record gains.

 

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'Enough is enough': Thousands in Brazil protest Jair Bolsonaro's chaotic handling of COVID-19 crisis

Rio de Janeiro: Tens of thousands of people in Brazil staged another day of protest against President Jair Bolsonaro, in particular for his chaotic handling of the pandemic, which has claimed more than 461,000 lives in the country.

In downtown Rio de Janeiro, some 10,000 people wearing masks marched through the streets, with some chanting "Bolsonaro genocide" or "Go away Bolsovirus."

Similar rallies were held in other major cities, the latest in a wave of anger against Bolsonaro that began months ago. After the United States, Brazil has the world's second highest coronavirus death toll.

At the outset of the pandemic, the far right politico Bolsonaro dismissed COVID-19 as "a little flu" and as the death toll has risen steadily he has gone on to infuriate people in other ways, opposing stay-at-home measures and masks, touting ineffective medications, refusing offers of vaccines, and failing to anticipate oxygen shortages that left patients to suffocate.

One of the themes of the rally Saturday was how many lives might have been saved if the Bolsonaro government had started Brazil's vaccination drive earlier. The drive is going slowly and has sputtered frequently for lack of supplies.

"We must stop this government. We must say 'enough is enough,'" businessman Omar Silveira told AFP at the Rio rally.

Of Bolsonaro, he said: "He is a murderer, a psychopath. He has no feelings. He does not feel, as we do. He cannot perceive the disaster that he is causing."

Demonstrators also assailed Bolsonaro for allowing deforestation of the Amazon and land seizures from indigenous people, and said he encourages violence and racism.

Rallies were held Saturday in other major cities such as the capital Brasilia, Salvador in the northeast and Belo Horizonte in the southeast.

In the northeastern city of Recife, police firing tear gas and rubber bullets dispersed a street rally, said the news website G1.

Brasilia saw its largest rally since the start of the pandemic as people marched on Congress, where a senate commission is investigating Bolsonaro's handling of the health crisis.

The past two weekends supporters of Bolsonaro held demonstrations in support of him, and at his request, as his approval rating plummeted to a record low of 24 percent, according to a poll by Datafolha.

Around 49 percent of those questioned favor Bolsonaro being removed from office while 46 percent are opposed, this pollster said.

 

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A soccer enthusiast, a piano player: Stories of children who died in Israel-Palestine conflict

Just minutes after the war between Israel and Hamas broke out, a 5-year-old boy named Baraa al-Gharabli was killed in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip.

A 16-year-old, Mustafa Obaid, was killed in the same strike, on the evening of 10 May.

Around the same time, four cousins — Yazan al-Masri, 2, Marwan al-Masri, 6, Rahaf al-Masri, 10, and Ibrahim al-Masri, 11 — were killed in Beit Hanoun, Gaza.

“It was devastating,” said Mukhlis al-Masri, a cousin. “The pain for our family is indescribable.”

When asked to describe how they felt, many parents answered with a simple “It’s God’s will,” their voice often reduced to a whisper, the words conveying resignation. They said their children had wanted to be doctors, artists and leaders.

“I’m in disbelief,” said Saad Asaliyah, a taxi driver from Jabaliya, who lost his 10-year-old daughter. “I try to calm myself by saying it was God’s will for her to go.”

During 11 days of fighting this month between Israel and Hamas, at least 67 children under age 18 were killed in Gaza and 2 in Israel, according to initial reports.

Nearly all of the children killed were Palestinian.

Gaza is crowded, and its population skews young, with about half under age 18. So when Israeli warplanes hit homes and residential neighborhoods, the number of children at risk is extraordinary. Sometimes nearly entire households disappear with a single blast.

Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll in Gaza because the group fires rockets and conducts military operations from civilian areas. Israel’s critics cite the death toll as evidence that Israel’s strikes were indiscriminate and disproportionate.

Children are the most vulnerable.

In Gaza, they grow up amid widespread poverty and high unemployment and cannot freely travel in or out of the territory because of the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt. They also live under the constant threat of war. An average 15-year-old would have lived through four major Israeli offensives. Nearly everyone in Gaza knows someone who has been killed in the fighting.

“When I think about the children who died,” said Ola Abu Hasaballah, a child psychologist in Gaza, “I also think about the ones who survive, those who were pulled out of the rubble and lost a limb, or those who will go to school and see their friend is missing.”

***

In the Arab village of Dahmash in central Israel, when the sirens wailed around 3 a.m. May 12, Nadine Awad, 16, and her father ran outside for cover, said her uncle, Ismail Arafat. But a rocket fired by militants in Gaza slammed into the ground next to their home, killing both of them.

Nadine was a top student, her academic adviser, Sirin Slameh, said. She spoke English proficiently, taught herself how to play the piano and participated in Jewish-Arab coexistence programs, Slameh said. The week before, she had scored a 97 on a math exam, a subject she had struggled with.

She was very close to her father, Arafat said, and would follow him everywhere.

“The sad part is, she followed him outside when the sirens blared,” he said, “and now she has followed him to the grave.”

***

While most of the children were Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes, there are exceptions.

At least two of the children killed in Gaza — Baraa al-Gharabli and Mustafa Obaid — may have been killed when Palestinian militants fired a rocket at Israel that fell short, according to an initial investigation by Defense for Children International-Palestine.

And one of the children killed in Israel, Nadine Awad, was Palestinian.

“The rockets don’t differentiate between Arabs and Jews,” said Ismail Arafat, her uncle.

***

Once the war started, Ido Avigal, 5, was so anxious that he did not want to sleep, shower or eat alone, said Shani Avigal, his mother.

When sirens started blaring in Sderot, Israel, he huddled with his family in a fortified safe room at his aunt’s home. But when a rocket hit a nearby building, shrapnel punctured the thick glass of the safe room, tearing into his stomach and killing him.

Avigal said her son was caring and loving and had recently told his classmates that “not all Arabs are bad.”

“I said, 'They all don’t want to kill us,'” he told his mother. “I eventually convinced them.”

The same day, May 12, Hamada al-Emour, 13, went with his cousin, Ammar al-Emour, 10, to get haircuts at a barber shop — a tradition among many Palestinians before the festival that follows the end of Ramadan.

They were nearly back home in Khan Younis when an Israeli airstrike killed them both, said Atiya al-Emour, Hamada’s father, who said he witnessed his son’s death.

“I wish I didn’t see what happened to him,” said al-Emour. “It was awful.”

Mahmoud Tolbeh, 12, was an excellent student, his father, Hamed Tolbeh, said. He liked the sciences and dreamed of becoming a mechanical engineer. He was helpful around the house, making eggs and sandwiches for his siblings, tea and coffee for guests, cleaning the house and picking up groceries.

“He was the backbone of our family,” Tolbeh said. “We could rely on him for anything.”

On the last night of Ramadan, he went to help a cousin at his barber shop. Mahmoud was steps from the shop’s entrance, his father said, when shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike hit his head and neck. He died two days later.

His sister Nagham cradled his body.

“He had a bright future,” his father said. “But it was buried with him in the grave.”

Yahya Khalifa, 13, enjoyed riding his bike, had memorized several chapters of the Quran and hoped to one day visit Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

“He was an innocent and sweet boy,” his father, Mazen Khalifa, said.

He went out to run a quick errand, promising to pick up yogurt and ice cream for the family, his father said, and was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The identities of the children killed, their photographs and the circumstances of their deaths came from their parents and other relatives, teachers and schools in Gaza and Israel, international rights organizations, Palestinian officials, social media, and news organizations in Gaza and Israel. Most of the details were corroborated by multiple sources.

***

The Israeli military says that it takes rigorous precautions to prevent civilian deaths. It says a major part of its bombing campaign was aimed at Hamas’ underground tunnel network, a military facility that runs underneath civilian neighborhoods.

Many people in Gaza, however, say that the number of civilians killed proves that whatever precautions Israel may be taking are tragically insufficient.

“People think there has to be some rationale,” said Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, “but the bottom line is, they want to inflict pain and suffering.”

The low toll on the Israeli side also reflected an imbalance in defensive capabilities.

Hamas and other militant groups fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israeli towns and cities, also indiscriminately. But most were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, which Israeli officials said stopped about 90 percent of the rockets. And many Israelis have safe rooms in their homes.

In Gaza, most people have no access to safe rooms or shelters. Many people seek refuge in the United Nations schools, but they too have been bombed, reinforcing a feeling that anyone could be killed anywhere.

Even in Israel, Arab citizens don’t always have equal access to bomb shelters. Awad, who was killed by a rocket from Gaza, lived in an Arab village with no bomb shelter.

Fawziya Abu Faris, 17, woke up early every morning in Umm al-Nasr, a Bedouin community in northern Gaza, to milk her family’s sheep and make fresh cheese and yogurt, said her father, Nasser Abu Faris.

It was shortly after midnight in Beit Lahia, Gaza, and the three terrified children were huddled in their mother’s arms. Muhammad-Zain al-Attar, 9 months, sat in the middle; his sister, Amira al-Attar, 6, and brother, Islam al-Attar, 8, on either side.

The first strike hit the entrance of their ground floor apartment, trapping the family and making it impossible to flee, their father, Muhammad al-Attar, said. The second, moments later, brought the three-story building down.

Al-Attar dug himself out of the rubble and survived. His wife and children were crushed under a concrete pillar, their bodies found still together.

Mental health experts and independent organizations who work with children in Gaza say they commonly suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic fear and anxiety. Those feelings can produce debilitating nightmares and self-destructive or aggressive behavior.

“Gaza is already a very violent and terrorizing experience for children because they are under constant military rule,” said Karl Schembri, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which runs a psychotherapy and education program for children in Gaza. Eleven of the children the group works with were killed this month, all of them in their homes.

“They were getting assistance and care to try and put behind them their nightmares and their trauma,” Schembri said. “Now they are buried with their dreams and their nightmares.”

Suheib al-Hadidi, 12, lived with his parents and four brothers in the crowded Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. He was fascinated by birds, which had a freedom he could only imagine. He owned a cockatiel, trained it to sit on his shoulder and envisioned a future as a breeder, his cousin, Abdullah al-Hadidi, said.

His brother, Yahya al-Hadidi, 10, was a shy boy who liked riding his bike and playing with cats, Abdullah al-Hadidi said.

Osama al-Hadidi, 5, was considered one of the most stylish members of his family. He changed clothes frequently and took pains to perfect his looks, Abdullah al-Hadidi said. “He would shower and change his clothes every two hours.”

Abdurrahman al-Hadidi, 7, studied English, dreamed of traveling to Turkey and liked playing with remote-control cars, his father, Muhammad al-Hadidi, said.

The four brothers were asleep at their uncle and aunt’s home, Muhammad al-Hadidi said, when an Israeli bomb ripped through the ceiling, killing them, their mother, their aunt and four cousins.

The al-Qawlaq family owned two adjacent apartment buildings on Al Wahda Street, a main thoroughfare in Gaza City. At around 1 a.m. May 16, Israeli strikes reduced both buildings to rubble, killing more than 20 members of the extended family, including eight children: Yara al-Qawlaq, 9; Hala al-Qawlaq, 12; Rula al-Qawlaq, 5; Zaid al-Qawlaq, 8; Qusai al-Qawlaq, 6 months; Adam al-Qawlaq, 3; Ahmad al-Qawlaq, 15; and Hana al-Qawlaq, 14.

“It’s unimaginable,” said Waseem al-Qawlaq, who survived. “It’s beyond torture.”

Dima al-Ifranji, 15, was the oldest child and the apple of her father’s eye. She was one of the top students in her class, spoke English and French and dreamed of studying medicine, her father, Rami al-Ifranji, said.

“She was brilliant,” he said. “She was a master of foreign languages.”

Her brother, Yazan al-Ifranji, 13, was a bright child, often the first to answer questions in class, Rami al-Ifranji said. Yazan al-Ifranji liked playing soccer and listening to music and hoped to become a computer engineer.

Mira al-Ifranji, 11, imagined a future as a dentist. And Amir al-Ifranji, 9, was a polite child with a vibrant smile who loved playing soccer and video games on his phone.

An Israeli airstrike May 16 killed all four children and their mother.

It was late at night, and even though the feast celebrating the end of Ramadan was over, Dana Ishkontana, 9, and Lana Ishkontana, 5, wanted to dress up in their new holiday outfits. Their uncle, Raed Ishkontana, snapped pictures on his phone while their two brothers, Yahya Ishkontana, 4, and Zain Ishkontana, 2, watched, Raed Ishkontana recalled.

Then he stepped out to get snacks for the family: chocolate candy bars and potato chips.

The four children and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike, he said. “I wish I never left.”

Her father called her “Galaxy.” Tala Abu Elouf, 13, he thought, had skin the color of a Galaxy chocolate bar. She was quick with a joke, and her father, Dr. Ayman Abu Elouf, adored her, said Alaa Abu Elouf, her cousin.

Her brother, Tawfiq Abu Elouf, 17, was a serious student, intensely prepping for the standardized tests Palestinians take in their senior year of high school, Alaa Abu Elouf said.

Brother, sister, mother and father were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Al Wahda Street in Gaza City on May 16, Alaa Abu Elouf said.

Rafeef Abu Dayer, 10, liked to draw. She had sketched one of the high-rise buildings that an Israeli airstrike destroyed in Gaza City two days earlier and had started to color in her drawing when her mother called her for lunch.

“You can go back to drawing after you eat,” her mother said.

The girl sat down for lunch with 13 relatives in a private residential garden. Minutes later, Israel attacked a building nearby, an uncle said. Shrapnel and rubble struck Rafeef. She and another uncle were killed.

On May 19, the day before Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire, Dima Asaliyah, 10, was walking home from her older sister’s house carrying an electric pizza oven. It was a small one, her father, Saad Asaliyah, said, the size of a soccer ball, that the family used to bake bread.

An Israeli surveillance drone had been hovering overhead, and Saad Asaliyah now wonders if Israeli soldiers mistook it for a weapon.

“Maybe their alarms went off because of the stove,” he said. “But did they not see how small she was?”

There was an explosion, and his youngest child was gone.

“Do you see her picture?” he asked. “She’s worthy of our grief.”

Mona El-Naggar, Adam Rasgon and Mona Boshnaq c.2021 The New York Times Company

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