Eastern Congo marked an official end Thursday to the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which killed 2,280 people over nearly two years, as armed rebels and community mistrust undermined the promise of new vaccines.Thursday’s milestone was overshadowed, though, by the enormous health challenges still facing Congo: the world’s largest measles epidemic, the rising threat of COVID-19 and another new Ebola outbreak in the north.”We are extremely proud to have been able to be victorious over an epidemic that lasted such a long time,” said Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, who coordinated the national Ebola response and whose team also developed a new treatment for the once incurable hemorrhagic disease.The announcement initially was set for April but another case emerged just three days before the Ebola-free declaration was expected. That restarted the 42-day waiting period required before such a proclamation can be made.The epidemic, which began in August 2018, presented an unprecedented challenge for the World Health Organization, Congo’s Health Ministry and international aid groups because it was the first Ebola epidemic in a conflict zone. Armed groups posed such a risk that vaccinations sometimes could only be carried out by small teams arriving by helicopter.But much of the risk to hospitals and health workers came from the communities, often angered by the presence of outsiders and the amount of money being spent on Ebola as far more people died of perennial killers like malaria. Some suspected the epidemic was a political scheme, a theory that grew after then President Joseph Kabila canceled the national elections in Ebola-affected areas.Only a few years earlier, West Africa’s Ebola epidemic killed more than 11,000, as at that time there was no licensed vaccine or treatment. By the time of the eastern Congo outbreak there was not one but two new experimental vaccines to ward off the disease that kills about half its victims.After more than a quarter century of conflict, though, distrust of government health workers and other outsiders was exceptionally high in eastern Congo. Many residents initially outright refused the vaccine, fearing it would harm them.New treatment options also offered promise, and the aid group ALIMA even developed a way for patients to feel less isolated. A transparent enclosure for individual patients allowed visitors to still see their loved ones who were undergoing treatment. Yet fear of dying alone still kept many people from going to medical facilities until it was too late.Ultimately two different experimental vaccines were made available in eastern Congo on a compassionate use basis — one manufactured by Merck, the other by Johnson & Johnson. Those vaccines later received regulatory approval and now are expected to be used again in Congo’s northern Equateur province where a new outbreak already has claimed 11 lives. That area also had an outbreak in 2018 that killed 33 people before it was brought under control within months.And with the arrival of COVID-19, health teams in eastern Congo are once again trying to persuade people that a virus they’ve never heard of before could still kill them. The COVID-19 outbreak in the region has been minimal so far, but the challenges of Ebola underscore how fraught it could be to test and treat those in areas under the control of armed rebels.Some, though, are hopeful the region can weather coronavirus — people here already know how to social distance. Schools, churches and mosques are already armed with hand-washing kits.  “Ebola has changed our culture,” said Esaie Ngalya, whose grandmother died from the virus. “Now I go to see my uncle but we don’t shake hands. In our culture that is considered disrespectful but now we have no choice because health comes first.” 
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Pakistan has begun grounding scores of commercial pilots with immediate effect, a day after an official inquiry revealed that almost 30% of pilots in the country hold “dubious licenses” and “fake” education qualifications.
 
Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan told lawmakers during the ongoing session of the parliament that there are 860 active pilots in the country working with domestic commercial airlines — including the national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
 
Khan said that 262 of the pilots “did not take the exam themselves” to get a pilots’ license and instead paid someone else to appear on their behalf.  
 
Some of them “don’t have even flying experience”, he stressed while highlighting other massive irregularities such as nepotism that have plagued PIA, blaming them on previous governments.
 
An official PIA announcement said Thursday that in the wake of findings of the government inquiry, it is indefinitely grounding nearly 150 of the company’s 426 pilots pending further inquiries against them.
 
“The 262 pilots in question are associated with PIA and other domestic as well as foreign companies….PIA acknowledges that fake licenses is not just a PIA issue but spread across the entire Pakistani airline industry,” it said. 
Khan revealed details about the number of pilots with dubious licenses on Wednesday, while sharing with lawmakers details of a preliminary investigation into the May 22 PIA plane crash in the southern city of Karachi that killed 97 people.  
 FILE – Volunteers look for survivors of a plane that crashed in a residential area of Karachi, Pakistan, May 22, 2020.The plane took off from the eastern city of Lahore and crashed on a residential neighborhood near the Karachi airport while attempting to land. Only two passengers survived the crash.  
 
The investigation blamed it on “human error” and noted that the pilots and officials of the air traffic control on the ground did not follow set procedures.
 
Critics are praising the government for making public for the first time the outcome of an investigation into a plane crash and related irregularities plaguing the national airline industry.
 
There have been more than a dozen plane crashes in Pakistan over the past decade but promised inquiries into those incidents have never been shared with public.  
 
“Findings of initial enquiry report about the recent air crash is a stunning indictment of politicization/criminalization of state institutions leading to their collapse,” noted Raoof Hassan, an Islamabad-based political analyst.
 
“Pilots were flying planes with fake degrees and licenses. Truly a matter of utter shame for entire institution.”
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Australia’s military is being called in to help the state of Victoria cope with a sharp rise in coronavirus cases. Authorities have reported a spike in COVID-19 infections in the past week and have urged residents not to leave several disease hot spots in Melbourne.Victoria recorded 33 new coronavirus infections Thursday, the ninth consecutive day of double-digit growth in case numbers. Lockdown restrictions that have been eased in recent weeks could be reimposed.Sending in the military is a significant move. One thousand Australian troops will boost security at quarantine facilities for travelers returning from overseas. They will also help with testing as the state struggles with a surge in COVID-19 cases. Complacency and a flouting of distancing and hygiene protocols have been blamed.“The primary lever that we have now is a test-and-trace mechanism, broadening the testing availability, and the messaging and reach everyone about the need to test if they are symptomatic is our key driver to get numbers down,” said Brett Sutton, Victoria’s chief medical officer.The virus is spreading, especially in Melbourne, the state’s largest city and the second-largest city in Australia, and hot spots could again be forced into lockdown.Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews described the pandemic as a “public health bushfire,” a reference to the deadly summer blazes that tore across much of southeastern Australia.Andrews said there will be a testing blitz in 10 suburbs, and more than 100,000 tests are planned in the next 10 days.“People are going to be knocking on your door and they are going to be asking you to get tested,” Andrews said. “Please say yes. Please go and get tested. That is the most important thing that you in those suburbs can do to help us contain this virus.”State government health care workers will be using a new type of saliva swab, rather than nasal pads, to screen for the disease.Authorities have said that large family gatherings, permitted following the easing of lockdown restrictions in Victoria, have been the source of the new infections.Officials in New South Wales, the nation’s most populous state, remain concerned about active community transmission of the virus. Health Minister Brad Hazzard said it was not a time for residents to be complacent.There is some good news, though. The state of Queensland has now gone eight days without any new COVID-19 cases.Australia has recorded 7,521 confirmed coronavirus cases, 104 people have died. 
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Senegalese President Macky Sall is self-quarantining as a precaution after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.The president’s office issued a statement late Wednesday, saying although Sall tested negative for the virus, he will isolate himself for 15 days based on advice of doctors.Meantime, Yeya Diallo, a Senegalese lawmaker who announced Wednesday that she had tested positive for the coronavirus, is urging people to takes steps such as social distancing to avoid becoming infected and spreading the virus.So far, Senegal has confirmed more than 6,100 coronavirus cases and 93 deaths.  
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Supported by the United States, Syrian Kurdish groups last week announced the first step toward uniting efforts to run the northeastern part of Syria. Since 2012, the Kurdish-majority region has largely been controlled by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). The YPG is the main element within the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF has been a major U.S. partner in the fight against Islamic State (IS) in Syria. In addition to these groups, the Kurdish National Council in Syria (ENKS) is another major bloc that includes several political parties. The ENKS has opposed the PYD and its autonomous administration in northeast Syria. ‘Significant progress’ U.S. officials hope the two sides put their differences aside and focus on improving the local administration in the war-torn country.   “We are here tonight to celebrate the progress that has been made, which is significant,” Ambassador William Roebuck, deputy special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, told reporters last Wednesday in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasaka.  For months, the U.S. has been mediating negotiations between the two Kurdish sides to obtain agreement on a political framework that will allow them to participate in a joint administration for northeast Syria. Following the announcement, the U.S. Embassy in Syria issued a statement, saying the initial agreement will cover governance, administrative cooperation and protection. “The United States welcomes this as an important step towards greater understanding and practical cooperation, which will benefit the Syrian Kurdish people, as well as Syrians of all components,” the embassy said in a statement last week. The U.S. Embassy in Damascus suspended its operations in 2012 following a Syrian government crackdown on protesters during the early days of the country’s civil war. But the embassy maintains contact with the Syrian public through social media.   Stabilizing NE Syria Nicholas Heras, a Middle East expert at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, says the U.S. wants to align the Syrian Kurdish parties in order to stabilize northeast Syria, as Washington continues its campaign against IS. “A major U.S. goal is to diversify the political actors in northeast Syria and to provide a Turkish-approved Syrian Kurdish party with the opportunity to participate in governance and security in northeast Syria,” he told VOA. “Uniting the Syrian Kurdish factions is a local move with geopolitical implications for U.S. policy on Syria and the U.S.-led effort to execute counter-ISIS operations,” Heras said, using another acronym for Islamic State. Considered close to Turkey, the ENKS has expressed willingness to participate in the local administration established by the PYD. “The success of this agreement depends on how much the U.S. can support it while investing in our region politically,” said Sulaiman Oso, an ENKS leader.  Other Kurdish officials say such unity efforts are important to protect the gains they have made against IS and other militant groups throughout the Syrian civil war. “Turkey and the Syrian regime are trying to damage our gains, but we have been able to create a consensus amongst ourselves, which will prevent these actors from exploiting our divisions,” Mazloum Abdi, general commander of SDF, told VOA.  Turkish objection Heras says the push by the U.S. for Syrian Kurdish unity “could also assuage Turkey’s concerns about a PYD-dominated order in northeast Syria sufficiently to forestall future Turkish military action against the SDF.” Turkey views the YPG and PYD as extensions of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been engaged in a decades long war with Turkish armed forces for greater Kurdish rights. The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara and Washington. In the past two years, Turkey and its allied Syrian militias have seized several Kurdish towns in northern Syria that were previously held by the YPG. In what appeared to be a response to the recent Syrian Kurdish talks, Turkish officials said that any organizations that work with the PKK will be considered legitimate targets, including the ENKS. “Whatever their names are, those who are with the YPG-PKK are not different in our eyes from the YPG-PKK, and they are legitimate targets,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with CNN Turk television last week. Two days after the Syrian Kurdish unity announcement, the Turkish military launched a campaign against what Turkey calls elements of the PKK militant group in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Ilhan Tanir, an editor with the Turkish website Ahval News, believes Turkey will focus its efforts on spoiling the unity talks.  “We have already seen that Ankara, both by threatening ENKS and bombing Iraqi Kurdistan, has shown it is unhappy with the talks and will do more to halt such a joint administration,” Tanir told VOA. But Kurdish officials believe a solid partnership between the different factions in Syria would strengthen their political status at the regional level.   “It will ultimately protect our region from threats by other states who accuse the PYD of being a PKK affiliate,” Oso said of the ENKS.   VOA’s Namo Abdulla contributed to this report from Washington. 
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They are an unorthodox generation. The class of 2020 was born while the United States was still reeling from the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Their world has been filled with unpredictability since day one.Members of the class of 2020 finish their senior year of high school after being confined to their homes for weeks, losing out on some of the most highly anticipated rituals of the American teenager: sports championships, dance recitals, senior trips, prom and graduation.“I did not realize that March 13th was my last day at school,” said Cassidy Goebel of Evansville Day School in Midwestern U.S. state of Indiana, by email. “One of my friends was joking around and said: ‘C’mon guys, let’s give hugs like the last day of school.’ We all just laughed and said, ‘Sure.’ I wish I would have hugged my friends tighter that day.”Cassidy’s sister Sierra was a senior this year, too. Their class had only 18 people.“Our class was like a family,” Sierra Goebel said, also by email. She said she felt the loss of little things as well as big rituals: “It was supposed to be the time where you sat in the hall telling the ridiculous memories you had here.”She said she and her friends tried to cheer each other up remotely, using phone and video chats. They are hoping to schedule a “do-over” prom for July.Another classmate, Neha Bhasin, had been scheduled for an experiential learning trip to Puerto Rico the week before spring break. It was canceled.“I was devastated,” she said. “Instead of getting to leave with such an amazing experience, the idea of spending that week remote learning was frustrating.” She said it was hard to finish nine years at the small private school without a proper goodbye.The cusp of adulthoodWhile high school rituals may not seem important in the face of a pandemic – or the anti-racism protests that have since gripped the nation – high school counselor Franciene Sabens of southern Illinois says these quintessentially American traditions represent much to kids at the cusp of adulthood.“These activities (and now losses) are tied to a student’s social identity,” Sabens said. She said the end-of-high-school rituals “allow them opportunities for self-expression, to practice social skills in a formal setting, and an opportunity to make beautiful, and often final memories with their classmates and friends before graduating high school.”She added that some students start planning for prom – the final, formal dance of the year – as early as December.Phil Sturm of Chevy Chase, Maryland, has three grown daughters and a Chinese exchange student, Yichen Zhang, who has become “like the son I never had,” he said.“My daughters, who really consider him to be their brother, decided that … if there was going to be no prom [at school], that there was going to be a prom for their brother” at home, Sturm said. Yichen’s girlfriend, a Chinese student from Boston University, was staying with them as well. So all of the family members dressed up, put on music, and crowned Yichen and his girlfriend the prom king and queen.Documenting lossesSabens noted that different events are special to different people.“To some, prom was a colossal loss,” she said. “To others, their band trip was the biggest loss of their life … and others feel like their life will never be the same without their senior year sports season.”Documenting those losses has helped some Rhode Island students cope. Brock Geiselman is a photographer and assistant coach for the basketball team at his alma mater, Cumberland High School in Cumberland, Rhode Island.Geiselman set out to make portraits of athletes on the grounds of the school in their caps and gowns, posing with their athletic equipment. As more students caught wind of the project, Geiselman decided, “we’re going to incorporate something that they’ve lost. I just incorporated everything.” (One of the losses was access to sports uniforms, which are owned by the school, so he took cap-and-gown photos instead.)Kids posed for Geiselman with their drum kits, their trophies, their catcher’s mitts, their mountain bikes.  Families paid for the picture with donations, in sums from $10 to $300.Brendan Wright of Cumberland High School, Cumberland, Rhode Island, will play baseball at West Point next year. (Geiselman Imagery)Geiselman is using the proceeds to buy grocery and restaurant gift cards for families struggling to make ends meet. At last count, the total proceeds were around $7,500.Kaylee Powers lost out on a senior trip to Disney World with her two best friends, Abby Becker and Lily Monahan.“Our last day of school was the day they canceled the Disney trip,” she said. “That day, Disney closed.”But the girls did gather for a final time as seniors on school property for a photo session.The three girls have been taking pre-event photos together at Abby’s house since freshman year. A day or two after the photo was taken, they each took a solitary walk across the graduation stage. The event took place over several days to accommodate social distancing guidelines.And so, it turns out, the Class of 2020 closes with a lesson in resilience.Party barnAmy Griffin runs an “entertainment farm” in Helena, Alabama, where she and her husband rent out their barn and farmland for parties. She and her husband staged an alternative prom for area students on June 5.“It was an amazing way for us to provide for our business that has been struggling since closing down the first of March, while also giving back to the community,” she said.Some 200 students showed up, paying $30 a ticket. The dance was held in a large party barn with barn doors left open for ventilation. Tables outside were spaced throughout the barnyard for social distancing. The Griffins strung lights in the trees and kept the petting zoo open for extra fun. Attendees were given masks to wear, although not all attendees used them.Griffin said all went well, except the weather.“About an hour into the dance, a rainstorm came through – but it was laughable,” she said.  “After all, what would an event honoring the class of 2020 be without something unexpected happening?”She noted that no one complained, despite doused bonfires and wet decorations. On the contrary, she said, “Anytime one of them passed my husband and I during the dance, they thanked us,” she said. “As each of them left the dance at the end, they graciously thanked us again. Every single one of them.” 
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Roughly 280,000 refugees from Africa live in Yemen, and they are among the poorest, most vulnerable people in the world. Aid organizations say during this pandemic, international resources to support them have dwindled to almost nothing. And families say they are barely surviving, choosing to potentially expose themselves to the virus rather than to starve. Heather Murdock reports from Istanbul with Naseh Shaker in Sanaa, Yemen.Camera: Naseh Shaker    Produced by: Jon Spier
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U.S. House Democrats blasted Attorney General William Barr at a hearing on Wednesday over accusations he had improperly meddled in criminal cases and antitrust probes for political gain, but they stopped short of pledging to take any steps to try and oust the nation’s top law enforcement official.
 
“Mr. Barr’s work at the Department of Justice has nothing to do with correcting injustice. He is the president’s fixer,” said Jerrold Nadler, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
 
“He has shown us that there is one set of rules for the president’s friends, and another set of rules for the rest of us.”
 FILE – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler walks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 21, 2020.Nadler had mulled subpoenaing Barr to appear before the panel for a future hearing, but a Justice Department spokeswoman on Wednesday tweeted that Barr would voluntarily appear to testify on July 28.
 
Wednesday’s contentious hearing featured testimony from two current Justice Department employees who took the unusual step of publicly blowing the whistle against their own employer.
 
The hearing came at a time when Barr has come under growing scrutiny after he intervened in two prosecutions involving Trump allies, fired a federal prosecutor whose office is investigating Trump’s personal attorney, and oversaw the use of force by federal law enforcement officers against peaceful protesters in historic Lafayette Square.
 
Federal prosecutor Aaron Zelinksy testified on Wednesday that the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington was pressured from the “highest levels” of the Justice Department to scale back its sentencing recommendation for Trump’s longtime friend, Roger Stone.
 
 “Roger Stone was being treated differently from every other defendant. He received breaks that are, in my experience, unheard of,” said Zelinsky, who withdrew from the case after senior department officials filed a new sentencing memo that backed away from the original recommendation of seven to nine years in prison.
 
Stone, 67, who was convicted of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress during its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
 
Republicans on the panel criticized Zelinsky, who admitted he had not directly spoken with Barr or the then-Acting U.S. Attorney Tim Shea about their reasons for scaling back the sentencing recommendation.
 
Zelinsky told lawmakers that Shea’s office declined his request for a meeting, and that J.P. Cooney, who supervises public corruption cases in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, had told him that political motivations were behind the abrupt shift.
 
The second employee to testify on Wednesday was antitrust attorney John Elias, who spoke about the about the politicization of antitrust probes into marijuana companies and the auto sector.
 
With less than five months before U.S. elections, the partisanship displayed during the House Judiciary hearing was on display throughout the Congress. During the hearing, legislation to stop excessive force by police departments fell victim to partisan infighting in the Senate.
 
Donald Ayer, the former Deputy Attorney General under George H.W. Bush who also testified before the committee Wednesday, said he feared Barr’s misbehavior was only accelerating as the election draws closer.
 
“The drum beat of his misbehavior is accelerating,” he said. “I don’t know what’s next, but I’m scared to think about what it might be,” he said.   
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Офіційний курс гривні до долара США залишається стабільним уже майже три місяці – від кінця квітня. Упродовж всього цього часу котирування не опускаються нижче від 26 гривень 50 копійок за долар і не піднімаються вище за 27 гривень за одиницю американської валюти, свідчать дані Національного банку України.

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Як свідчать дані Finance.ua, на українському міжбанківському валютному ринку котирування зростали весь день 24 червня і на час завершення торгів (17:00) установилися на рівні 26 гривень 68–71 копійка за долар.
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In this edition of Straight Talk Africa guest host and VOA Health Correspondent Linord Moudou explores the impact Covid-19 is having on the continent. She will also discuss with our panel of experts the current and future complexities of dealing the coronavirus.
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