Two years after a pan-European military initiative was first proposed to help tackle the Sahel’s Islamist insurgency, the Takuba task force is finally becoming reality, as its first troops arrive amid the coronavirus pandemic, political turmoil and spreading unrest.A group of roughly 100 Estonian and French special forces are the first on the ground to comprise Takuba, the Tuareg name for a sabre. Some 60 Czech troops are to join them in October, and another 150 Swedish ones by early next year. Estonia, Belgium and more recently Italy count among others to announce troops for the mission intended to help Mali and Niger forces fight extremist groups in the region.But for now, and likely in the future, the main foreign troop contributor in the region is France, analysts say, whose own 5,100-troop Barkhane counterinsurgency operation enters its seventh year.And despite recent military victories, they say, chances of eradicating the conflict are remote, unless the Europeans and Africans offer more holistic, long-term solutions.“If you have a gushing wound on your neck, you don’t put a plaster on it,” said Andrew Yaw Tchie, a senior Africa security expert at the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, or RUSI.Victory possible?France thinks differently. At a June Sahel summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania, French President Emmanuel Macron urged regional and international governments to intensify their military campaign against the Islamists.”We are all convinced that victory is possible in the Sahel,” Macron said, citing progress in recent months.Emboldening his stance was the early June killing of a key Islamist leader by French forces with the reported aid of a U.S. drone. Abdelmalek Droukdel, headed al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, one of the main groups operating in the region.But other prominent jihadist leaders, including two linked to al-Qaida, remain at large, in a tangled conflict in which Islamist and local extremist groups have fueled and profited from inter-communal violence as well.Overall, the United Nations estimates terrorist attacks against civilian and military targets in three of the most vulnerable Sahel countries — Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — has increased fivefold since 2016.In a recent interview with VOA, J. Peter Pham, the top U.S. envoy to the Sahel region, noted extremist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger had increased 40 percent in the first quarter of this year alone.Asked whether counter-insurgency efforts were winning, Pham added, “It depends on what time horizon you use and what definition you use for winning.”While Droukdel’s death might be considered a “specific” success, he noted insecurity was expanding in Burkina Faso and central Mali, which “certainly cannot be counted a success.”Spreading threatExtremist groups are also spreading southward, deeper into sub-Saharan Africa — profiting from north-south ethnic and religious divides within countries, and more recently, analysts say, the coronavirus pandemic.Against this backdrop, there is no unified international military response, says Bakary Sambe, director of the Timbuktu Institute in Dakar.“Today, there are 19 different international strategies in the Sahel and no coordination,” Sambe said. “At a time when terrorist groups are beginning to coordinate, international partners are diverging.”The Takuba task force is intended to facilitate regional coordination, as well as to provide equipment and training to Malian and other G-5 Sahel forces, which also hail from Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Chad.Some observers see it as a test case for Macron’s broader goal of a more unified European Union defense, which a number of other EU member states are lukewarm about.It’s also unclear how many European countries will ultimately commit to the Sahel initiative. Some, including Norway and Germany, have already bowed out for a mix of reasons. Britain, which formally exited the EU last year, plans instead to dispatch 250 forces to beef up the U.N.’s MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in Mali.RUSI’s Tchie, who describes Britain as joining an “unwinnable fight in the Sahel” with its U.N. commitment, has similar reservations about the Takuba troops.“In essence, all you’re doing is saying, ‘Let’s deal with counterterrorism, and at some point, we’ll deal with the other stuff,’” he said, summarizing what he considers the European thinking.Yet such thinking, he added, fails to address interlinking problems, including climate change, corruption, poverty and underdevelopment that are fueling the conflict.Parallels with SomaliaAdding to the challenges is the current political turmoil in Mali, where West African leaders are trying to find an exit plan to a crisis in which protesters are calling for President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to quit.Some regional forces have been accused of civilian abuses. For their part, extremist groups have capitalized on the coronavirus pandemic to further their interests, including staging attacks and recruiting new members, analysts say.France faces its own set of challenges. Its Barkhane force has lost 43 men in its Sahel operations since 2013. It also faces a negative image in some countries, where memories of its colonial presence linger.Takuba is partly intended to send the message that “France is not alone in the Sahel,” the country’s newspaper Le Monde wrote.The Timbuktu Institute’s Sambe sees it another way.“I think that wanting to realize Takuba is in itself an admittance that Barkhane and other foreign interventions have been a failure,” he said. “It’s been years that a purely security and military approach hasn’t functioned to eradicate terrorism.”In London, RUSI’s Tchie draws parallels between the Islamist groups in the Sahel and Somalia, where the al-Shabab terrorist group has grown and spread despite years of U.S. and other military efforts. In both regions, he says, extremist groups have scored points in local communities, he says, in ways national and foreign intervention has not.“It delivers justice, it delivers humanitarian relief to communities, and people feel more secure,” he said of al-Shabab. “It’s not that people want to go to al-Shabab. But when they need security, justice and things to work for them, al-Shabab delivers.”  
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he is ready to take executive action after congressional lawmakers failed again to reach agreement on a relief package for the tens of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs following the COVID-19 pandemic.Trump told a news conference that executive orders are being prepared to enhance unemployment benefits until the end of the year, defer student loan payments and forgive interest on the loans, and extend a moratorium on evictions. He said an executive order is also being prepared to defer payroll taxes until the end of the year.It was not immediately clear if he has the legal authority to take the executive actions he has proposed. It was also not immediately clear how the actions, if implemented, would work. For example, if payroll taxes are deferred, it is not clear whether workers would then have to pay them retroactively at some point and whether that payment would be one large payment or stretched out over time.Republican lawmakers are not interested in an economic relief package that costs more than $1 trillion. The bottom line for the Democrats is $2 trillion. There seems to be no room for negotiating away from those numbers for the politicians. Reports say the lawmakers have not scheduled any additional meetings.Millions of Americans recently saw the $600 enhancement to their weekly unemployment benefits come to an end. Social service agencies have warned that the lack of the additional funds for the unemployed could result in food insecurity and evictions for millions.
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Meet Cynthia Reyes whose family has been living a nightmare. Reyes recently lost her father to COVID-19. With no time to mourn, the 35-year old woman who has diabetes, asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis also got the virus, along with family members. Reyes lives in California’s Imperial County, a farming region along the Mexican border with one of the state’s highest coronavirus infection rates. VOA’s Mariama Diallo has this report.
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Canada will slap retaliatory tariffs on C$3.6 billion ($2.7 billion) worth of U.S. aluminum products after the United States said it would impose punitive measures on Canadian aluminum imports, a senior official said on Friday.Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told a news conference the countermeasures would be put in place by Sept. 16 to allow consultations with industry.The move marks the latest ruction in a choppy relationship between the neighbors and close allies since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.Trump moved on Thursday to reimpose 10% tariffs on some Canadian aluminum products on Aug 16 to protect U.S. industry from a “surge” in imports. Canada denies any impropriety.”At a time when we are fighting a global pandemic … a trade dispute is the last thing anyone needs – it will only hurt the economic recovery on both sides of the border. However, this is what the U.S. administration has chosen to do,” said Freeland.”We do not escalate and we do not back down,” she said later, variously describing the U.S. decision as “entirely unacceptable,” absurd and ludicrous.The Canadian list of goods that might be subject to tariffs includes aluminum bars, plates, refrigerators, bicycles, washing machines and golf clubs. Trump is a keen golfer.”I think the very best outcome would be for the United States to reconsider,” said Freeland, adding that she was confident common sense would prevail.The list of goods subject to tariffs is narrower than the last time Ottawa struck back at Trump because the two sides agreed in 2019 to limit the scope of retaliation in disputes over steel and aluminum, said a Canadian government source who requested anonymity.In 2018, Ottawa slapped tariffs on C$16.6 billion ($12.5 billion) worth of goods ranging from bourbon to ketchup after Washington imposed sanctions on Canadian aluminum and steel.Ottawa may be calculating its measures will be short-lived. A source briefed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office said Canadian officials are increasingly sure Trump will lose the Nov. 3 presidential election.Trump acted just weeks after a new continental trade pact between the United States, Canada and Mexico took effect. The North American economy is highly integrated and Canada sends 75% of all its goods exports to the United States. 
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National Rifle Association members who have been alleging corruption within the gun lobby’s leadership for years have cautiously welcomed a lawsuit from New York state that threatens to dissolve the foremost champion of gun rights in the United States. New York Attorney General Letitia James sued on Thursday to break up the NRA, alleging senior leaders of the nonprofit group wasted millions of dollars of members’ money on their own luxury travel, personal gifts from retailers like Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, family vacations to the Bahamas and big game hunts in Africa. FILE – New York state Attorney General Letitia James takes a question after announcing that the state is suing the National Rifle Association, during a press conference in New York, Aug. 6, 2020.”Honestly, this is the best thing for the NRA,” said Stephen Bozich, a lifetime NRA and NRA safety instructor. “It will end up resulting in the kind of action a lot of people in the gun community have been looking for, which is new leadership.” Like other NRA members, Bozich wants the NRA to remain intact. With the presidential election three months away, he is also skeptical about the political motives of James, a liberal Democrat who ran for attorney general in 2018 on anti-NRA rhetoric. But within the NRA’s 5 million members are dissidents who have been clamoring for reform, only to be defeated as NRA leadership and its 76-member board of directors closed ranks behind Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. The dissidents have tried to speak for lower-income members who send some of their scarce disposable income to the NRA to defend their constitutional right to keep and bear arms. The lawsuit details how LaPierre squandered more than $1 million of that money on private jet travel for his wife and family over four years when he was not even a passenger. Such mismanagement shrank NRA assets by $64 million over three years, the suit said. “I’ve been trying to wake people up for years as to the corruption,” said Tim Harmsen, a lifetime NRA member and host of the Military Arms Channel online. “The NRA is broken on the inside. It needs new leadership. Wayne has to go. It’s almost as if he’s purposely trying to run the organization into the ground.” FILE – National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre speaks at Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2020, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Feb. 29, 2020.In depositions cited by the lawsuit, LaPierre does not deny the expenditures but justifies them as legitimate expenses. The NRA has dismissed the suit as a baseless and politically motivated attack. It did not immediately respond to a Reuters request to address the internal criticism. The NRA’s internal critics complain that years of inaction only jeopardized gun rights and invited someone like James to step in, using the state’s authority to regulate a nonprofit organization that is registered in New York. Richard Feldman, a former NRA lobbyist who remains a member, said LaPierre should take an immediate, unpaid leave and board members who were on the oversight committees should resign. “Those in the know were aware for years about improprieties and outrageous expenditures with the top leadership at NRA,” Feldman said. “But the extensively detailed allegations of double dealing, sweetheart contracts and engorged salaries coupled with board payoffs are depressingly staggering.”
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The U.S. Postal Service says it lost $2.2 billion in the three months that ended in June as the beleaguered agency, hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, piles up financial losses that officials warn could top $20 billion over two years.”Our financial position is dire, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, a broken business model and a management strategy that has not adequately addressed these issues,” Louis DeJoy, the new postmaster general, said Friday in his first public remarks since taking the job in June.”Without dramatic change, there is no end in sight,” DeJoy told the postal board of governors at a meeting Friday.While package deliveries to homebound Americans were up more than 50%, that was offset by continued declines in first-class and business mail, even as costs increased significantly to pay for personal protective equipment and replace workers who got sick or chose to stay home in fear of the virus, DeJoy said.Without an intervention from Congress, the agency faces an impending cash flow crisis, he said. The Postal Service is seeking an infusion of at least $10 billion to cover operating losses as well as regulatory changes that would undo a congressional requirement that the agency pre-fund billions of dollars in retiree health benefits.Louis DeJoy, the 75th postmaster general of the United States and chief executive officer of the USPS. (USPS photo)The agency is doing its part, said DeJoy, a Republican fundraiser and former supply chain executive who took command of the agency June 15. DeJoy, 63, of North Carolina, is a major donor to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. He is the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who is not a career postal employee.Limits on overtimeIn his first month on the job, DeJoy said, he directed the agency to vigorously “focus on the ingrained inefficiencies in our operations,” including by applying strict limits on overtime.”By running our operations on time and on schedule, and by not incurring unnecessary overtime or other costs, we will enhance our ability to be sustainable and … continue to provide high-quality, affordable service,” DeJoy said.While not acknowledging widespread complaints by members of Congress about delivery delays nationwide, DeJoy said the agency would “aggressively monitor and quickly address service issues.”DeJoy’s remarks came as lawmakers from both parties called on the Postal Service to immediately reverse operational changes that are causing delays in deliveries across the country just as big volume increases are expected for mail-in election voting.Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that changes imposed by DeJoy “threaten the timely delivery of mail — including medicines for seniors, paychecks for workers and absentee ballots for voters — that is essential to millions of Americans.”In separate letters, two Montana Republicans, Senator Steve Daines and Representative Greg Gianforte, also urged the Postal Service to reverse the July directive, which eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and mandates that mail be kept until the next day if distribution centers are running late.FILE – Republican Greg Gianforte greets supporters after winning Montana’s sole congressional seat, May 25, 2017, in Bozeman, Mont.’Unacceptable’And 84 House members — including four Republicans — signed yet another letter blasting the changes and urging an immediate reversal.”Delaying mail service is unacceptable,” Gianforte wrote Thursday to DeJoy. “Do not continue down this road.”In their letter, the 84 House members said it was “vital that the Postal Service does not reduce mail delivery hours, which could harm rural communities, seniors, small businesses and millions of Americans who rely on the mail for critical letters and packages.” The letter was led by Representative Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, who has called DeJoy to testify at a hearing next month.The flurry of letters came as the top Democrat on a Senate panel that oversees the Postal Service launched an investigation into the operational changes.Michigan Senator Gary Peters of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said DeJoy had failed to provide answers about the service delays, despite repeated requests.Peters is asking members of the public to provide their stories about delays or other problems with deliveries.The Postal Service is reeling from mail delays and financial problems at a time when record numbers of mail ballots are expected in the November presidential election because of the coronavirus pandemic.FILE- In this Dec. 14, 2017, photo, boxes for sorted mail are stacked at the main post office in Omaha, Neb.Criticism from TrumpTrump, a vocal critic of the Postal Service, contended Wednesday that “the Post Office doesn’t have enough time” to handle a significant increase in mail-in ballots. “I mean, you’re talking about millions of votes. … It’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.”DeJoy met with Schumer and Pelosi on Wednesday in a closed-door session that Schumer called “a heated discussion.” Democrats told DeJoy that “elections are sacred” and urged him not to impose cutbacks “at a time when all ballots count,” Schumer said.In his remarks to the postal board of governors, DeJoy disputed reports that the agency was slowing down election mail or any other mail. He called election mail handling “a robust and proven process.”While there will “likely be an unprecedented increase in election mail volume due to the pandemic, the Postal Service has ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on time in accordance with our delivery standards, and we will do so,” DeJoy said. “However … we cannot correct the errors of [state and local] election boards if they fail to deploy processes that take our normal processing and delivery standards into account.”Democrats have pushed for $10 billion for the Postal Service in talks with Republicans on a huge COVID-19 response bill. The figure is down from a $25 billion plan in a House-passed coronavirus measure. Key Republicans whose rural constituents are especially reliant on the post office support the idea.
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Brent Scowcroft, a pragmatic three-star general who served as national security adviser to Republican U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush and  later criticized President George W. Bush’s Iraq war policies,  died on Thursday. He was 95. Scowcroft, a member of the presidential commission that investigated the biggest scandal of Ronald Reagan’s presidency  and an architect of the 1991 Gulf War under the elder Bush, died of natural causes, according to a statement on Friday from a  spokesman for the Bush family. Scowcroft reached the rank of Air Force lieutenant general  during a 29-year military career and was an influential voice on U.S. national security for decades. He was a cautious internationalist – he called himself a realist – closely aligned with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Scowcroft served as chief military aide to Republican President Richard Nixon during a time when the United States was looking to extricate itself from the Vietnam War, then became Ford’s national security adviser from 1975 to 1977 and George H.W. Bush’s national security adviser from 1989 to 1993. “He’s just marvelous and he never asks for one ounce of credit,” the elder Bush said of Scowcroft after the Gulf War was won in March 1991. Scowcroft, a soft-spoken man with the manner of a genial Westerner, remained close to Bush and co-authored a 1998 book with him. But he took exception to his son George W. Bush’s “unilateral” approach to world affairs as president. Scowcroft was a key adviser to the elder Bush during the 1991 Gulf War in which U.S. forces, along with a coalition of allies, expelled Iraqi troops that had invaded oil-rich neighbor Kuwait in August 1990.. The war ended with Bush’s team opting to leave Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in power after Iraq’s forces were quickly swept out of Kuwait. Twelve years later Bush’s son ordered an invasion of Iraq that ousted Saddam and led to his execution but left American troops fighting a messy war in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. Scowcroft, in a PBS interview five years later, explained the first Bush administration’s decision not to send U.S. forces to Baghdad in 1991 to overthrow Saddam. “It was never our objective to get Saddam Hussein. Indeed, had we tried we still might be occupying Baghdad. That would have turned a great success into a very messy, probable defeat,” Scowcroft said.  ‘Failing venture’Before the younger Bush launched his Iraq war in 2003, Scowcroft publicly opposed it, doubted the U.S. justifications for it and called it an unwise diversion from the fight against terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al Qaida. In 2004, Scowcroft called Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan a “failing venture” and faulted Bush for becoming “mesmerized” by hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In 2005, Scowcroft said the continued American presence in Iraq was inflaming the Middle East. He advocated handing over the U.S. operation in Iraq to NATO or the United Nations. His criticisms were particularly stinging, considering he was a mentor to Condoleezza Rice, who served Bush as national security adviser and then secretary of state. Scowcroft had served under Bush as chairman of the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board but was removed in 2005. During Ford’s presidency, Scowcroft closely advised the president, alongside Kissinger, on the 1975 evacuation of the last U.S. forces in Vietnam. The chaotic scene in Saigon – with helicopters plucking people off rooftops – became a symbol of America’s debacle in Vietnam that left 58,000 U.S. troops dead. In 1987, Scowcroft was one of three members of the Tower Commission that investigated the biggest scandal of Republican Reagan’s presidency – the sale of arms to Iran in exchange for U.S. hostages in Lebanon, with proceeds diverted to fund “contra” rebels in Nicaragua in violation of U.S. law. Born on March 19, 1925, in Ogden, Utah, Scowcroft graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1947 and later earned a doctorate in international relations from Columbia University. His career as a military pilot ended in 1949 when his P-51 Mustang crashed in New Hampshire, breaking his back. He taught Russian history at West Point and headed the U.S. Air Force Academy’s political science department before taking a series of jobs at the Pentagon in the 1960s. Scowcroft had one daughter with his late wife, Marian.    
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На відновлення тимчасово непідконтрольної Києву частини Донецької і Луганської областей України знадобиться близько 10 мільярдів доларів. Про це в ефірі Радіо Донбас.Реалії (проєкт Радіо Свобода) заявив радник президента України з економічних питань Олег Устенко. За його словами, це приблизно 5-7% ВВП країни.

«Попередня оцінка – це близько 10 мільярдів доларів, які будуть потрібні для відновлення непідконтрольної території. Йдеться про 5-7% нашого ВВП», – зазначив Устенко.

На думку радника президента, необхідно створити фонд, зокрема і на гроші донорів для того, щоб відновлювати тимчасово окуповані території після їх реінтеграції.

Збройний конфлікт на Донбасі триває від 2014 року після російської окупації Криму. Україна і Захід звинувачують Росію у збройній підтримці бойовиків. Кремль відкидає ці звинувачення і заявляє, що на Донбасі можуть перебувати хіба що російські «добровольці».

За даними ООН, станом на кінець грудня 2018 року, за час конфлікту загинули близько 13 тисяч людей із усіх його боків, майже 30 тисяч – поранені.
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На розгляді Антимонопольного комітету наразі перебуває чотири справи про набуття контролю над акціонерним товариством «Мотор Січ», заявляє пресслужба АМКУ 7 серпня.

За повідомленням, комітет зокрема досліджує вплив транзакцій щодо цієї компанії на конкуренцію на ринках, на яких працює «Мотор Січ». 

Крім того, АМКУ розслідує продаж акцій товариства, здійснений без його дозволу.

«Не дивлячись на те, що вчора покупець акцій ПАТ «Мотор Січ» відкликав заяви про надання дозволу на концентрації, АМКУ продовжує здійснювати дослідження питання набуття акцій ПАТ «Мотор Січ» без отримання дозволу АМКУ, розпочате за власною ініціативою. АМКУ в межах повноважень буде проведена оцінка продажу стратегічного підприємства «Мотор Січ» на відповідність конкурентному законодавству», – заявляє комітет.

Читайте також: Пристрасті навколо «Мотор Січі»: китайський інвестор, американський чинник, український олігарх і державна таємниця

За заявою, АМКУ планує вжити «жорстких заходів» в разі виявлення порушень.

Дочірня компанія китайської Beijing Skyrizon і DCH Group українського бізнесмена Олександра Ярославського 4 серпня спільно подали нову заяву в Антимонопольний комітет України (АМКУ) про купівлю акцій підприємства «Мотор Січ», повідомила цього тижня Beijing Xinwei Technology Group Co., Ltd на Шанхайській фондовій біржі. Про це також 5 серпня інформувала DCH Group.

Акції «Мотор Січ» перебувають під арештом із квітня 2018 року за клопотанням слідчого СБУ з метою збереження речових доказів у порушеній у липні 2017 року кримінальній справі.

ПАТ «Мотор Січ» – один із найбільших світових виробників двигунів для авіаційної техніки, а також промислових газотурбінних установок. Постачає продукцію більш ніж у 100 країн світу.

 
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This week on Red Carpet, reactions to Beyoncé’s new visual album “Black is King” and a look at how African music is making its way around the world. Also, a new exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio spotlights artists standing up to racism. These stories and more on the show this week.
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Harvard College is likely to see a more than 20 percent drop in enrollment this fall, according to the student-staff The Harvard Crimson news outlet.  Harvard, considered among the top three universities in the United States, has been besieged with the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. Many students cannot travel, do not want to be on campus in close quarters with others, or are deferring while classes are online because those classes are not deemed a good value financially. Students Give Online Learning Low MarksMany call on universities to end the semester earlyAbout 5,231 undergraduates intend to enroll for fall classes, the Crimson reported. Last year, Harvard had 6,755 enrolled undergraduates. Among admitted students, 340 freshmen – or 20 percent — deferred their enrollment to next year.  “Between 80 and 110 students take a gap year under typical circumstances, according to the College’s website,” the Crimson reported.Harvard will hold all undergraduate classes virtually this fall. The Crimson stated that of “5,231 undergraduates who intend to enroll this fall, the majority — 3,599 students — will learn remotely, while 1,168 freshmen and 464 upperclassmen will live in residence.”Harvard “now projects that only 25 percent of students will live on campus.”Not all students will be online, however. The university has invited back to campus more than 1,000 students for whom remote learning was nearly impossible because they were lacking “sufficient computer, fast internet, a quiet place to work, or unhindered time to commit to coursework; those who faced challenging home and family circumstances or shelter and food insecurities; and those who require accessible learning resources or technology on campus.”The majority of staff will also continue to work from home.
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Bail for the leader of a Mexican megachurch nearly doubled to $90 million after prosecutors expanded charges against him, including child rape, and possession of child pornography.The new bail ruling by a Los Angeles judge ensures Naason Joaquin Garcia, of the Guadalajara-based La Luz del Mundo church (Light of the World church) will remain in custody until his trial.Garcia, who says he has a million followers worldwide, was initially jailed on sex crimes charges last year with a $50 million bail.The attorney general’s office of California filed dozens of new felony charges, including rape, against Garcia and two co-defendants last week 
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Russia boasts that it’s about to become the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, with mass vaccinations planned as early as October using shots that are yet to complete clinical trials — and scientists worldwide are sounding the alarm that the headlong rush could backfire.Moscow sees a Sputnik-like propaganda victory, recalling the Soviet Union’s launch of the world’s first satellite in 1957. But the experimental COVID-19 shots began first-in-human testing on a few dozen people less than two months ago, and there’s no published scientific evidence yet backing Russia’s late entry to the global vaccine race, much less explaining why it should be considered a front-runner.“I’m worried that Russia is cutting corners so that the vaccine that will come out may be not just ineffective, but also unsafe,” said Lawrence Gostin, a global public health law expert at Georgetown University. “It doesn’t work that way. … Trials come first. That’s really important.”According to Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled the effort, a vaccine developed by the Gamaleya research institute in Moscow may be approved in days, before scientists complete what’s called a Phase 3 study. That final-stage study, usually involving tens of thousands of people, is the only way to prove if an experimental vaccine is safe and really works.Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said members of “risk groups,” such as medical workers, may be offered the vaccine this month. He didn’t clarify whether they would be part of the Phase 3 study that is said to be completed after the vaccine receives “conditional approval.”Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova promised to start “industrial production” in September, and Murashko said mass vaccination may begin as early as October.In this photo made from footage provided by the Russian Defense Ministry on July 15, 2020, a group of volunteers participating in a coronavirus vaccine trial pose for a photo as they leave the Budenko Main Military Hospital outside Moscow, Russia.Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease specialist, questioned the fast-track approach last week. “I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing a vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone, because claims of having a vaccine ready to distribute before you do testing I think is problematic at best,” he said.Questions about this vaccine candidate come after the U.S., Britain and Canada last month accused Russia of using hackers to steal vaccine research from Western labs.Delivering a vaccine first is a matter of national prestige for the Kremlin as it tries to assert the image of Russia as a global power capable of competing with the U.S. and China. The notion of being “the first in the world” dominated state news coverage of the effort, with government officials praising reports of the first-step testing.In April, President Vladimir Putin ordered state officials to shorten the time of clinical trials for a variety of drugs, including potential coronavirus vaccines.According to Russia’s Association of Clinical Trials Organizations, the order set “an unattainable bar” for scientists who, as a result, “joined in on the mad race, hoping to please those at power.”The association first raised concern in late May, when professor Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya institute, said he and other researchers tried the vaccine on themselves.The move was a “crude violation of the very foundations of clinical research, Russian law and universally accepted international regulations” the group said in an open letter to the government, urging scientists and health officials to adhere to clinical research standards.But a month later, the Health Ministry authorized clinical trials of the Gamaleya product, with what appeared to be another ethical issue.Human studies started June 17 among 76 volunteers. Half were injected with a vaccine in liquid form and the other half with a vaccine that came as soluble powder. Some in the first half were recruited from the military, which raised concerns that servicemen may have been pressured to participate.Some experts said their desire to perform well would affect the findings. “It’s no coincidence media reports we see about the trials among the military said no one had any side effects, while the (other group) reported some,” said Vasily Vlassov, a public health expert with Moscow’s Higher School of Economics.As the trials were declared completed and looming regulatory approval was announced last week, questions arose about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness. Government assurances the drug produced the desired immune response and caused no significant side effects were hardly convincing without published scientific data describing the findings.The World Health Organization said all vaccine candidates should go through full stages of testing before being rolled out. “There are established practices and there are guidelines out,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said Tuesday. “Between finding or having a clue of maybe having a vaccine that works, and having gone through all the stages, is a big difference.”In this photo made from footage provided by the Russian Defense Ministry on July 15, 2020, medical workers look at volunteers participating in a coronavirus vaccine trial as they leave the Budenko Main Military Hospital outside Moscow, Russia.Offering an unsafe compound to medical workers on the front lines of the outbreak could make things worse, Georgetown’s Gostin said, adding: “What if the vaccine started killing them or making them very ill?”Vaccines that are not properly tested can cause harm in many ways — from a negative impact on health to creating a false sense of security or undermining trust in vaccinations, said Thomas Bollyky, director of the global health program at the Council on Foreign Relations.“It takes several years to develop any drug,” said Svetlana Zavidova, executive director of Russia’s Association of Clinical Trials Organizations. “Selling something the Gamaleya (institute) tested on 76 volunteers during Phase 1-2 trials as a finished product is just not serious.”Russia has not yet published any scientific data from its first clinical trials. The WHO’s list of vaccine candidates in human testing still lists the Gamaleya product as in Phase 1 trials.It uses a different virus — the common cold-causing adenovirus — that’s been modified to carry genes for the “spike” protein that coats the coronavirus, as a way to prime the body to recognize if a real COVID-19 infection comes along. That’s like vaccines being developed by China’s CanSino Biologics and Britain’s Oxford University and AstraZeneca.It’s not the first controversial vaccine Russia developed. Putin mentioned earlier this year that Russian scientists delivered an Ebola vaccine that “proved to be the most effective in the world” and “made a real contribution to fighting the Ebola fever in Africa.”Russia’s Health Ministry authorized two Ebola vaccines for domestic use — one in 2015 and another one in 2018 — but there is little evidence either was widely used in Africa.People wearing face masks and gloves to protect against coronavirus come through passages equipped with disinfectant sprays at a shopping mall entrance in Moscow, Russia, Aug. 3, 2020.In 2019, the WHO considered the 2015 vaccine along with several others for use in Congo but didn’t pick it. It pointed out that it had been approved for emergency use after Phase 1 and 2 trials, but not Phase 3. According to ClinicalTrials.Gov, a website maintained by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, a study among 2,000 people in Guinea and Russia was still ongoing last month.The 2018 Ebola vaccine, according to the WHO, was tested on 300 volunteers in Russia and completed all three phases. The Associated Press couldn’t find any records of the studies in the Health Ministry’s registry of approved clinical trials. As of 2019, both Ebola vaccines were listed by the WHO as “candidate vaccines.”Russia’s Health Ministry did not respond to numerous requests for comment, and the Gamaleya institute referred an interview request to the ministry.It remains unclear whether Phase 3 trials, said to be carried out after the COVID-19 vaccine receives “conditional approval,” will wrap up by October, when health officials plan to start mass vaccinations, and how trustworthy the results will be. The study will supposedly involve 1,600 participants — 800 for each of the two forms of the vaccine; in comparison, a similar Phase 3 trial in the U.S. includes 30,000 people.According to Dmitriev, countries including Brazil and India have expressed interest in the vaccine.For Lawrence Gostin, this is another cause for concern.“There may be many people in the world who don’t care about the ethics and just want the vaccine,” he said.  
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Міжнародні резерви України зросли до 28,8 мільярда доларів, повідомив Національний банк.

У липні золотовалютний запас зріс на 300 мільйонів доларів.

«Зростання резервів упродовж минулого місяця зумовлене насамперед успішним розміщенням урядом єврооблігацій», – пояснили в НБУ.

Водночас у липні попит на валюту на міжбанківському валютному ринку дещо перевищував пропозицію, тому Національний банк відновив інтервенції з продажу валюти для згладжування надмірних коливань. За місяць регулятор продав майже 500 мільйонів доларів. При цьому в окремі дні ситуація на валютному ринку дозволила купити 130 мільйонів доларів.

«Поточний обсяг міжнародних резервів покриває 4,9 місяців майбутнього імпорту, що є достатнім для виконання зобов’язань України та поточних операцій уряду і Національного банку», – заявили в регуляторі.

У липні змінилося керівництво НБУ. На початку місяця у відставку подав Яків Смолій, який заявив про тиск. На його місце прийшов Кирило Шевченко. На тлі зміни очільника регулятора відбувалася девальвація національної валюти.
Золотовалютні резерви України продовжують триматися на рівні осені 2012 року.

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