World

KIEV — EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell vowed the bloc's full support for Ukraine on Wednesday as he visited amid fears Moscow plans to invade and ahead of US-Russia talks on the crisis.

The visit comes as the West tries to deter Moscow from launching an attack on its ex-Soviet neighbour, which has battled pro-Kremlin separatists in two eastern regions bordering Russia since 2014.

"We are here first to reaffirm European Union's full support to Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity," Borrell told a press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

"Any military aggression against Ukraine will have messy consequences and severe costs," he said in the village of Stanytsya Luganska in the Lugansk region.

"And we are coordinating with the US, with NATO and other like-minded partners in order to work for de-escalation."

Kuleba said Ukraine and the European Union had a common goal, "to de-escalate the situation through diplomatic means so Moscow reduces tensions and abandons its aggressive intentions".

Borrell's visit was the first by an EU foreign policy chief to eastern Ukraine since war broke out nearly eight years ago.

Borrell said the timing was right because "the geopolitical landscape is changing very quickly and the conflict on the borders of Ukraine is on the verge of getting deeper".

Washington and its allies have accused Russia of planning an invasion after massing some 100,000 troops near Ukraine's border.

High-ranking officials from the United States and Russia are set to hold two days of talks in Geneva on the crisis starting Sunday after the Kremlin issued a raft of demands to Washington.

Brussels fears it is being sidelined as the United States and Russia discuss the balance of power in Europe.

"There is no security in Europe without security of Ukraine. And it is clear that any discussion on European security must involve the EU and Ukraine," Borrell insisted on Wednesday.

HERAT, Afghanistan — The Taliban have ordered shop owners in western Afghanistan to cut the heads off mannequins, insisting figures representing the human form violate Islamic law.

A video clip showing men sawing the heads off shop dummies in Herat has gone viral on social media, drawing scorn both inside and outside the country.

Since returning to power in August, the Taliban have increasingly imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law and severely curtailed freedoms — particularly those of women and girls.

While the hardline Islamists have not issued any formal national policy on mannequins — or other creeping restrictions — various local authorities are clamping down on what they say are immoral practices.

Aziz Rahman, head of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Herat, confirmed the order to AFP on Wednesday.

Some shopkeepers had tried to get around the decapitation order by covering mannequin heads with scarves or bags, but Rahman said that did not go far enough.

“If they just cover the head or hide the entire mannequin, the angel of Allah will not enter their shop or house and bless them,” he said.

Several shopkeepers in the city of around 600,000 were angered by the order.

“As you can see, we have cut the heads off,” Basheer Ahmed, a garment seller, told AFP, adding each dummy had cost 5,000 Afghanis (around $50).

“When there is no mannequin how do you expect us to sell our products? The customer likes it when the garment is draped properly over a mannequin.”

After returning to power on August 15 the Taliban promised a softer version of the harsh rule that characterised their first stint in power, from 1996 until 2001, when any artificial representation of the human form was outlawed.

But restrictions have been creeping back including local reports of orders for people to attend prayers five times a day, for men to grow beards, and for Western clothing to be discouraged.

Women, in particular, are feeling the brunt of the new orders, and are slowly being squeezed out of public life.

Most secondary schools for girls are shut, women are barred from government employment apart from select specialised areas, and last week new guidelines stated they cannot undertake long journeys unless accompanied by a male relative.

The Taliban have also stepped up raids on liquor sellers, rounded up drug addicts and banned music.

Their takeover has devastated aid-dependent Afghanistan’s economy, with billions of dollars of assets frozen by the United States and international aid largely paused.

However, the UN Security Council last week adopted a US resolution to help humanitarian aid reach desperate Afghans while keeping funds out of the hands of the Taliban government, which has yet to be recognised by any country.

WASHINGTON — The United States recorded more than one million COVID-19 cases on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, as the Omicron variant spread at a blistering pace.

There were 1,080,211 new cases in the country, a global record, with the number of cases doubling on the previous week.

It comes a day after top US pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci said the country was experiencing "almost a vertical increase" in COVID-19 cases, adding the peak may be only weeks away.

The heavily mutated Omicron strain, the most transmissible to date, accounted for around 59 percent of national US cases in the week ending December 25, according to government modeling.

Fauci said the experience of South Africa, where the strain was first detected in late November and peaked quickly, then subsided nearly as speedily, offered some hope.

Rates of death and hospitalisation in the US have been far lower in recent weeks than during previous COVID surges.

With 9,382 deaths over the past seven days, the nation's death toll has fallen by 10 per cent, week on week.

In the last seven days, the country has recorded 3.4 million cases at an average of 486,000 per day with a peak on January 3, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The US record during previous waves was 258,000 cases per day, for the week of January 5 to 11, 2021.

Officials have struggled to find a balance that will protect public health without gravely damaging the economy or slamming key services like policing and air travel.

Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention halved the isolation period for asymptomatic COVID cases to five days, in a bid to blunt mass Omicron-induced disruption as infections hit new highs in multiple US states.

And on Monday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer's COVID-19 booster shot for children as young as 12 ahead of the reopening of schools following the holiday break.

COVID-19 has killed at least 5,441,446 people globally since the outbreak emerged in December 2019, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on Monday.

Taking into account excess mortality linked to COVID-19, the World Health Organisation estimates the overall death toll could be two to three times higher.

LHOK SUKON, Indonesia —  About 24,000 people have been evacuated and two children killed in floods on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, officials said on Tuesday, with environmental campaigners blaming deforestation for worsening the disaster.

Torrential rains have hammered the island for days, causing rivers to burst their banks and sending water levels surging in residential areas, the national disaster agency said.

“We experience flooding at least five to eight times a year — but [this] is one of the most severe,” said Muzakkir, from Pirak Timur in hard-hit Aceh province, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Syarifuddin, from the village of Lhok Sukon in Aceh, said the “floodwaters just kept rising — at my house, they are up to my chest”.

The province is where the evacuations and deaths have occurred, as well as some buildings been destroyed by fast-moving floodwaters and agricultural land damaged.

Jambi province on Sumatra was also hard hit, with many homes flooded.

Environmental NGO Walhi said the flooding was worsened by deforestation to make way for Sumatra’s expansive palm oil plantations.

Trees act as natural defences against floods, slowing the rate at which water runs down hills and into rivers.

Logging on higher ground was having a particularly damaging impact in Aceh, said Ahmad Shalihin from Walhi.

Neighbouring Malaysia has also been hard hit by flooding since last month, and thousands more people have been forced to flee their homes in recent days amid new downpours.

The number of people evacuated to government shelters stood at around 13,000 on Tuesday, with the states of Johor, Malacca and Sabah the worst affected.

But the numbers have fallen considerably from a peak of around 70,000 in mid-December, when Malaysia saw its worst floods for years.

About 50 people have been killed so far in the floods nationwide, according to police.

Flooding and landslides are common in both southeast Asian countries during the months-long rainy season.

By Isabelle Tourné
Agence France-Presse

PARIS — With new versions forcing vaccine makers to re-test jabs, the virus that causes COVID-19 has proven highly unpredictable.

But the latest variant to sweep the globe has persuaded some experts that long hoped-for collective immunity is in sight, and that the virus may be evolving into a relatively benign seasonal illness.

Omicron has proven particularly contagious, infecting people thought to have immunity conferred by vaccines or a bout with the disease itself.

But while Omicron it driving a record number of cases in countries around the world, the illness is generally less severe, compared to previous variants.

More people getting Omicron and recovering, combined with more vaccinations, could be the key to boosting collective defences against almost any form of COVID, some experts have said.

Lower rates of hospitalisation due to Omicron also suggests COVID-19 might evolve into a weaker form, similar to coronaviruses long circulating in the general population.

"Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of an evolution towards a more banal virus like the others we know," said Alain Fischer, who coordinates France's pandemic vaccine response.

Clinical virologist Julian Tang reacting to a UK study on Omicron's lesser severity, said he imagined one day repeat vaccination and other measures would only be necessary for the most vulnerable.

"I am still hopeful that the virus will eventually become more like the other common cold coronaviruses — perhaps over the next one to two years," he said.

These conjectures have been embraced by public health officials.

Speaking before the legislature this week, French Health Minister Olivier Veran said "maybe this will be the wave that allows us to acquire a kind of immunity".

Earlier, his Israeli counterpart, Nachman Ash, told an Israeli radio station that herd immunity was "possible".

"But we don't want to reach it by means of infections," he said. "We want it to happen as a result of more people getting vaccinated."

In Israel, two thirds of the population is fully vaccinated. This week the government approved a fourth jab for people over 60 and health workers in a bid to fight the virus without resorting to a lockdown.

Even if Omicron leads to fewer severe cases per million people, a larger proportion of the population infected means that hospitalisations are bound to increase overall.

The World Health Organisation ahead of the holidays stressed the danger of many people getting infected with Omicron while the more severe Delta variant is still circulating.

In the absence of herd immunity worldwide, Omicron is unlikely to be the last COVID variant, experts warn.

"We aren't there yet," said Fontanet.

"We can expect new variants to emerge, but as our immunity strengthens over time — either through natural infection or with booster doses of the vaccine — their ability to lead to serious consequences will diminish."

For epidemiologist Antoine Flahault, who heads up the Institute of Global Health in Geneva, all scenarios remain on the table.

"If we want to start learning lessons from the recent past of this pandemic, let us remember that it is largely unpredictable," he told AFP.

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden on Sunday reassured his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky that Washington "will respond decisively" if Russia moves to invade its pro-Western neighbour, the White House said in a statement.

With a Russian military buildup on Ukraine's borders, Biden "made clear" to Zelensky during a phone call that the "United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine", White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

The show of US support for Ukraine comes days after Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin of severe consequences if Moscow launches a military invasion.

In his call with Zelensky, Biden also stressed Washington’s commitment “to the principle of ‘nothing about you without you’,” in an apparent reference to the need to include Ukraine in negotiations about its own future.

Zelensky tweeted afterwards that he appreciated the United States’ “unwavering support” and that the call “proves the special nature” of the two countries’ relationship.

High-ranking US and Russian officials are due to sit down on January 9 and 10 in Geneva to discuss the crisis.

Earlier this week, Biden spoke to Putin, the two leaders’ second conversation by phone in three weeks as tensions mount over Ukraine.

Discussing the call with Putin on Friday, Biden said: “I’m not going to negotiate here in public, but we made it clear he cannot, I’ll emphasise, cannot, invade Ukraine.”

The US leader added, in remarks to reporters during a holiday stay in Delaware, that he had “made it clear to President Putin that we will have severe sanctions, we will increase our presence in Europe, with NATO allies” if Russia invades Ukraine.

Psaki also said in Sunday’s post-call statement that Biden reaffirmed “the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

The US leader additionally “expressed support for confidence-building measures to de-escalate tensions in Donbas and active diplomacy to advance the implementation of the Minsk Agreements”.

Under the Minsk agreement, brokered by France and Germany, Ukraine agreed to carry out political reforms while Russia agreed to end its support for pro-Russian separatist rebels.

Washington and its European allies accuse Russia of threatening Ukraine with a new invasion.

Some 100,000 Russian troops are massed near the border of the country, where Putin already seized the Crimea region in 2014 and is accused of fomenting a pro-Russian separatist war which erupted that same year in the east.

Moscow describes the troop presence as protection against the expansion of NATO, although Ukraine has not been offered membership in the military alliance.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Friday with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg; afterwards, Blinken urged Russia to “engage meaningfully” in the upcoming talks on the tense standoff between Moscow and Kiev.

Stoltenberg said that NATO was “united” and “prepared for dialogue”.

In Thursday’s call, Biden warned Putin against invading Ukraine, while the Kremlin leader said anti-Moscow sanctions would be a “colossal mistake”.

After a 50-minute phone call, their second in just over three weeks, both presidents indicated support for further diplomacy.

Putin was “pleased” overall with the talks, foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov told reporters.

A senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the tone “was serious and substantive.”

WASHINGTON — One year after the violent assault on the US Capitol, Americans remain deeply concerned about the health of their democracy and about a third say violence against the government can sometimes be justified, according to two polls published on Sunday.

The January 6 attack on the seat of Congress, led by supporters of Donald Trump, was “a harbinger of increasing political violence,” and American democracy “is threatened”, according to two-thirds of those surveyed for a CBS News poll.

Meantime, Americans’ “pride” in their democracy has dropped sharply, from 90 per cent in 2002 to 54 per cent now, a Washington Post/University of Maryland survey found.

With the January 6 anniversary nearing, the polls offer specific causes for concern: CBS found that 28 per cent of respondents believe force can be used to defend the result of an election, while 34 per cent told The Washington Post that a violent action against government can sometimes be justified — the largest percentage in decades.

The results underscore the seemingly almost irreconcilable views dividing American society, which President Joe Biden — who took office 14 days after the Capitol rioting — has promised to overcome.

Two-thirds of Trump supporters continue to believe his baseless charge that Biden is not the legitimately elected president.

Trump had addressed thousands of supporters shortly before the Capitol assault, telling them the election had been “rigged” and that they should “fight like hell”.

Some 60 per cent of those polled say Trump bears heavy responsibility for the invasion of the Capitol just as lawmakers were set to certify Biden’s victory.

‘Coordinated effort’ 

There again, opinion follows partisan lines: 83 per cent of Trump voters placed his level of responsibility at only “some” or “none,” the Post survey found.

And 26 per cent of Americans want him to run again in 2024, according to CBS.

A select committee of the House of Representatives has spent months working to establish the roles and responsibility of those who incited or may have organised the protest.

Despite limited cooperation from Trump’s inner circle, the panel has conducted more than 300 interviews and collected thousands of documents.

“We have uncovered some things that cause us real concern, things like people trying to ... undermine the integrity of our democracy,” the panel’s chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, said on Sunday on ABC.

“It appeared to be a coordinated effort on the part of a number of people to undermine the election,” he said.

“It could be people in the executive branch. It could be people in the Department of Defence... and some very wealthy individuals.”

He said he would not hesitate to refer any evidence of illegality to the Justice Department.

Liz Cheney, one of only two Republicans on the panel, on Sunday strongly condemned Trump for waiting hours before urging the Capitol rioters to stand down.

He could easily have issued such a call, she told ABC.

“He failed to do so. It’s hard to imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty.”

MOSCOW — US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin emphasised the need for diplomatic solutions ahead of their latest phone call on Thursday aimed at defusing tensions surrounding the Ukraine conflict.

The call comes after Moscow earlier this month presented Western capitals with sweeping security demands, saying NATO must not admit new members and seeking to bar the United States from opening new bases in ex-Soviet countries.

The call, which will begin at 2030 GMT, also comes ahead of talks between representatives of the two rivals in Geneva in January, with Washington saying it expects to discuss the Ukraine conflict and Moscow insisting its security demands be contended with.

Biden, who is at his home in Delaware for the New Year's holiday, will stress in his call with Putin that Washington is looking for a "diplomatic path" out of the crisis, a senior administration official told reporters.

"But we are also prepared to respond if Russia advances with a further invasion of Ukraine," Biden will tell Putin, the official said, adding that Washington remained "gravely concerned" about the military build-up and wanted to see the Russian forces return "to their regular training areas."

In a holiday message to Biden hours before the call, Putin said he is "convinced" that "we can move forward and establish an effective Russian-American dialogue based on mutual respect and consideration of each other's national interests".

Conversational mood 

His spokesman Dmitry Peskov then told reporters that Moscow is "in the mood for a conversation".

"We believe that only through talks is it possible to solve all the immediate problems that we have in abundance between us," Peskov said, adding that the call was Putin's initiative.

The call will be the second in less than a month between the two leaders, with Biden in early December warning Putin of "severe consequences" if Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

Washington has led the charge in raising the alarm over Russian troop movements near its ex-Soviet neighbour Ukraine, where the West says Moscow has massed around 100,000 forces ahead of a possible winter invasion.

Putin has denied the allegation and accused the West of stoking tensions, saying that NATO's eastward expansion is a threat to Russian security.

Ukraine, which has since 2014 fought a pro-Russia insurgency in its east that has claimed over 13,000 lives, has repeatedly said it wants to join the US-led security alliance.

But Russia considers ex-Soviet states to be within its sphere of influence, and has grown increasingly insistent that the only way out of the crisis is the West accepting its demands that would redraw Europe's security architecture.

At the talks in Geneva next month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has vowed that Moscow will take a "hard line" aimed at avoiding concessions.


US support for Ukraine 

His ministry on Thursday said that delegations for the talks will be led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

The United States has called some of the Russian positions non-starters, but said it is willing to talk and will also bring up its own concerns.

Ahead of the US-Russia talks, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by telephone on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"I was assured of full US support for Ukraine in countering Russian aggression," Zelensky tweeted afterward.

Blinken also spoke separately to his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany on "coordination to deter any further Russian aggression against Ukraine", State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

The Biden administration has vowed to take all actions in lockstep with its European allies.

Following the Geneva talks, Russian delegates will meet with delegates of the NATO alliance ahead of a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, a key Cold War forum that brings together Moscow and the West.

"We will determine further steps depending on the readiness of the United States and NATO for substantive talks regarding our concerns," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Thursday.