The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned Thursday that Iran had increased its stockpile of uranium well beyond the limits established in the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, inching it closer to being capable of building a nuclear weapon.
In a confidential quarterly report to member nations, the IAEA said Iran has an estimated 33.2 kilograms of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, an increase of 15.5 kilograms since November.
Such highly enriched uranium can be easily refined to make nuclear weapons. According to The Associated Press, the 33.2-kilogram figure brings Iran closer to having enough weapons-grade uranium to produce such a weapon.
The IAEA report estimates that as of February 19, Iran’s stockpile of all enriched uranium was roughly 3.2 metric tons, an increase of 707.4 kilograms.
The report comes as senior diplomats from the original signatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, have been meeting in Vienna with Iranian officials since November, trying to reinstate the agreement.
The head of the IAEA, Director-General Rafael Grossi said he will travel to Vienna Saturday “for meetings with senior Iranian officials,” the IAEA said Thursday.
The IAEA said these latest uranium figures, which could not be fully verified because of limits placed on the agency by Iran, indicate that time may be running out for the negotiators.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
On Barranquilla there are 18 polling stations that present electoral risk consolidated, which is equivalent to 14% of all polling stations in the city and represents an electoral potential of about 164,000 votes.
(Also: This is how the campaigns for peace seats in the Caribbean move)
The warning was launched in the last few hours by the Atlantic regional coordinator of the Electoral Observation Mission (EOM), Jorge Hernandez Hayek.
“It is necessary for the authorities to take the pertinent measures now to prevent irregularities from occurring and electoral crimes from being committed in these polling stations that present a consolidated risk or in their surroundings,” Hernández said.
(Read: The Kitesurf World Cup will move about $ 1,000 million in the Atlantic)
Similarly, Hernandez affirmed that “from the MOE we make a call to the citizens to report any irregularity or electoral crime of which you are aware to WhatsApp 3152661969 and to our website “Batteries with the Vote” (https://www.pilasconelvoto.com/), and also to vote freely and without selling your vote”.
The 18 voting positions that present consolidated electoral risk for the 2022 Congress elections are the following:
Simón Bolívar Liberator District Educational Center (Street 106 with Cra. 85) Potential: 8,574. Tables: 24
Don Bosco Social Center (cra 30 # 17-98) Potential: 19,689. Tables: 56
District Education Institution headquarters and primary school cra 26 # 56 a -17) Potential: 8,653. Tables: 25
District Education Institution (main headquarters headquarters ii calle 64 # 24 b -82) Potential 5,408. Tables: 16
District Education Institution Las Mercedes (San Pablo cra 12 e # 107 -05) Potential: 9,047 Tables: 26
This is how the risk was determined at each polling station
The consolidated risk for the 2022 elections in the District of Barranquilla is obtained from the calculation of risk in five variables: A) risk due to high electoral dominance, B) risk due to the number of unmarked ballots, C) risk due to a high number of null votes and D) risk due to high electoral participation, and E) risk due to low electoral participation in the last three elections at Congress of the republic.
(Be sure to read: Pensioners who buy a house in Barranquilla apply for property tax exemption)
These variables were the ones taken into account in the study called “Electional risk factors Barranquilla elections 2022”, carried out by researchers from the northern University, Angel Tuirán Sarmiento and Ana Naranajo Cortésand designed and financed by the Atlantic MOE.
BARRANQUILLA
Read more news from Colombia here
Video: man avoided robbery using a dangerous and very risky maneuver
Three Wayuu indigenous people were murdered in Maicao, La Guajira
In January and February the rains left 33 dead and 15,927 affected
Felipe Córdoba – Comptroller General of the Republic
RPTV NEWS AGENCY team:
Journalist: Jair Diaz
Camera and Edition: Nicholas Fajardo
BOGOTA COLOMBIA). Tuesday, March 1, 2022 (RPTV NEWS AGENCY). The Comptroller General of the Republic, Felipe Córdoba, warned today of a concentration of contractors that has occurred at the national level on the eve and in application of the Guarantee Law.
«This is one of the problems of the law of guarantees, running too much to make contracts… Increased its contracting by 7,800%”, said Felipe Córdoba, Comptroller General of the Republic.
According to the control entity, 10 departments have the highest concentration of contracts. In this sense, since the entry into force of the Guarantee Law (November 13, 2021 and to date), 645,495 contracts have been signed for more than 52.3 billion pesos in the 32 departments of the country and Bogotá.
The Comptroller has found several cases where they rushed to make the contracts and there is one in particular where a contractor, as a legal representative through companies in which he was part or as a natural person, increased his contracting by 7,811%.
Magnifying glass on contracting with royalty resources before and after the entry into force of the Guarantee Law: Before, 952 projects corresponding to 3,562 contracts were approved.
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After a week of heavy rains in several regions of the country, which even left several tragedies, The Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam) pointed out that this weekend there will be an increase in precipitation.
This is why the authorities are calling to activate all emergency protocols, especially in risk areas, in order to avoid tragedies like the one that happened this week in Manizales, where a landslide left three people dead.
The rains, explained Yolanda González, director of the entity, will increase significantly, especially in the center and south of the country.
These precipitations, he added, “come from South America. Heavy rains are expected accompanied by electrical storms.”
According to the IDEA, the departments with the highest risk are Cauca, Nariño, Putumayo, Caquetá and Huila.
(Also: ‘Disasters are not natural; the country needs a geologist per municipality’)
However, we are not yet in the rainy season and we are in a phase that environmental and emergency authorities call less rainy season. However, rainfall has increased due to different meteorological phenomena that occur in the region.
In fact, some regions of the country are being hit by fires, like the one that happened this week on the San Marcos hill in Boyacá, which consumed more than 100 hectares.
(Also read: They find the last fatality reported in the Pereira tragedy)
The rains, for their part, have mainly hit the Pacific, the Andean zone and the Coffee Growing Region, which has suffered two tragedies due to landslides, one in Pereira and the other in Manizales.
From January 1 to date, some 2,849 families (11,733 people) have been affected by heavy rains and at least 27 people have lost their lives.
The first rainy season of the year in our country is expected to officially begin at the end of March.
25 days before the elections Congress of the republic, in the department of Atlantic The first alarms are already going off that show the level of risk of electoral fraud.
(Also: They cancel the mega-prison construction project in the Atlantic)
This is evidenced by the citizen complaints that alert about the way in which the electoral machines for people to go out and vote.
The complaints have been collected Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) in the Atlantic, assures the coordinator in this area of the country Jorge Hernandez Hayek.
“What they have informed us the most is about the delivery of markets,” says Hernández, referring to the movements in rural areas of delivery of material aid in exchange for votes.
(Read: This is the process to renew the driver’s license in Barranquilla)
The coordinator of the EOM in the Atlantic ensures that they have complaints that it is also being offered won by votes. “There are already candidate offers,” she said.
The electoral risk in the Atlantic
The EOM and the northern University carried out a study on the electoral situation in the department, where the consolidated risk maps of the 2018 and 2022 elections are compared.
The study shows that there are 20 municipalities, out of the 23 in the Atlantic, in which the level of risk due to the coincidence of factors indicative of electoral fraud and violence is maintained.
Usiacurí, known as ‘the manger of the Atlantic’, is the municipality with the highest electoral participation in the country.
According to the EOM, Atlántico has 4 municipalities that present risks due to violence, 19 municipalities due to an indicative risk of fraud in the Senate and 20 in the House of Representatives.
The municipalities where factors indicative of electoral fraud and factors of violence coincide are Barranquilla with high risk and Puerto Colombia and Sabanalarga with medium risk.
For the Atlantic regional coordinator of the EOM, it is necessary that institutional efforts be concentrated in these municipalities in such a way that possible irregularities can be detected during the elections.
(Also read: The Atlantic roadmap to bring water to towns that do not have it)
Hernández explains that among the factors of violence that could affect the elections on March 13 in cities like Barranquilla, is the presence of gangs or micro-trafficking gangs that could prevent people from going out to vote in the neighborhoods where they are present.
The threat of the violent
The municipalities that present risks due to violence, with a high index, are: The District of Barranquilla, followed by the municipalities of Puerto Colombia, Sabanalarga and Soledad with medium risk.
The report also indicates that for the elections for the House of Representatives, the municipalities of Piojó, Sabanagrande, Suan, Tubará and Usiacurí with extreme risk. For their part, the municipalities of Baranoa, Campo de la Cruz, Candelaria, Juan de Acosta, Manatí and Santa Lucía are at high risk.
Finally, with medium risk are Barranquilla, Luruaco, Palmar de Varela, Polonuevo, Ponedera, Puerto Colombia, Repelón, Sabanalarga and Santo Tomás.
Indicative of fraud for Senate
For the Senate, in the panorama of electoral risks, Juan de Acosta, Piojó, Santo Tomás, Suan and Usiacurí stand out with extreme risk. In turn, the municipalities of Baranoa, Campo de la Cruz, Candelaria, Luruaco and Tubará are at high risk. Finally, there are Manatí, Palmar de Varela, Polonuevo, Ponedera, Puerto Colombia, Repelón, Sabanagrande, Sabanalarga and Santa Lucía with medium risk.
The municipalities with the highest electoral participation
Is the case Usiacuri, which was the one with the highest participation. There, with 7,822 people on the electoral roll, there was a turnout of 6,472 people, that is, 83 percent. They are followed by Polonuevo (76.4 percent) and Tubará (75.3 percent).
LEONARDO HERRERA DELGANS Correspondent EL TIEMPO Barranquilla @leoher69 Write me at leoher@eltiempo.com
25 days before the elections Congress of the republic in the department of Atlantic The first alarms are already going off that show the level of risk of electoral fraud.
(Also: They cancel the mega-prison construction project in the Atlantic)
This is evidenced by the citizen complaints that alert about the way in which the electoral machines for people to go out and vote.
The complaints have been collected Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) in the Atlantic, assures the coordinator in this area of the country Jorge Hernandez Hayek.
“What they have informed us the most is about the delivery of markets,” says Hernández, referring to the movements in rural areas of delivery of material aid in exchange for votes.
(Read: This is the process to renew the driver’s license in Barranquilla)
The coordinator of the EOM in the Atlantic ensures that they have complaints that they are also being offered won by votes. “There are already candidate offers,” she said.
The electoral risk in the Atlantic
The EOM and the northern University carried out a study on the electoral situation in the department, where the consolidated risk maps of the 2018 and 2022 elections are compared.
The study shows that there are 20 municipalities, out of the 23 in the Atlantic, in which the level of risk due to the coincidence of factors indicative of electoral fraud and violence is maintained.
Usiacurí, known as ‘the manger of the Atlantic’, is the municipality with the highest electoral participation in the country.
According to the EOM, the department of Atlántico has 4 municipalities that present risks of violence, 19 municipalities with an indicative risk of fraud in the Senate and 20 in the House of Representatives.
The municipalities where factors indicative of electoral fraud and factors of violence coincide are Barranquilla with high risk and Puerto Colombia and Sabanalarga with medium risk.
For the Atlantic regional coordinator of the EOM, it is necessary that institutional efforts be concentrated in these municipalities in such a way that possible irregularities can be detected during the elections.
(Also read: The Atlantic roadmap to bring water to towns that do not have it)
Hernández explains that among the factors of violence that could affect the elections on March 13 in cities like Barranquilla, is the presence of gangs or micro-trafficking gangs that could prevent people from going out to vote in the neighborhoods where they are present.
The threat of the violent
The municipalities that present risks due to violence, with a high rate, are: The District of Barranquilla, followed by the municipalities of Puerto Colombia, Sabanalarga and Soledad with medium risk.
The report also indicates that for the elections for the House of Representatives, the municipalities of Piojó, Sabanagrande, Suan, Tubará and Usiacurí with extreme risk. For their part, the municipalities of Baranoa, Campo de la Cruz, Candelaria, Juan de Acosta, Manatí and Santa Lucía are at high risk.
Finally, with medium risk are Barranquilla, Luruaco, Palmar de Varela, Polonuevo, Ponedera, Puerto Colombia, Repelón, Sabanalarga and Santo Tomás. Senate Fraud Indicator
For the Senate, the panorama of electoral risks highlights Juan de Acosta, Piojó, Santo Tomás, Suan and Usiacurí with extreme risk. In turn, the municipalities of Baranoa, Campo de la Cruz, Candelaria, Luruaco and Tubará are at high risk; and finally Manatí, Palmar de Varela, Polonuevo, Ponedera, Puerto Colombia, Repelón, Sabanagrande, Sabanalarga and Santa Lucía with medium risk.
(Be sure to read: These are the candidates for the House of Representatives for the Atlantic)
The municipalities with the highest electoral participation
It should be remembered that in the Atlantic are the municipalities with the greatest participation for the Parliamentary election in the country.
Is the case Usiacuri, which was the one with the highest participation. There, with 7,822 people on the electoral roll, there was a turnout of 6,472 people, that is, 83 percent. They are followed by Polonuevo (76.4 percent) and Tubará (75.3 percent).
LEONARDO HERRERA DELGANS Correspondent EL TIEMPO Barranquilla @leoher69 Write me at leoher@eltiempo.com
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced Wednesday a move by Russian legislators to recognize two Russian-supported breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent.
Russia’s lower house voted Tuesday to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics, which declared independence from Ukraine in 2014 after President Viktor Yanukovych was removed from office in the Ukrainian Revolution.
The European Union urged Moscow not to follow through on the vote by the State Duma. Approval of the vote could further intensify tensions between Russia and Western countries over Russia’s military buildup along Ukraine’s borders that has fueled fears of a Russian invasion.
“Enactment of this resolution would further undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, constitute a gross violation of international law, call into further question Russia’s stated commitment to continue to engage in diplomacy to achieve a peaceful resolution of this crisis,” Blinken said in a statement.
Blinken warned that such a move would “necessitate a swift and firm response from the United States in full coordination with our allies and partners.”
President Joe Biden speaks about Ukraine in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 15, 2022, in Washington.
Russia has denied any plans to invade Ukraine and has accused the West of inflaming tensions.
Recognition of the republics could kill the Minsk accords that were reached in 2014 and 2015 after Russian-supported separatists seized territory in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Ukraine has been at war with the breakaway regions since 2014, a conflict that has killed some 15,000 people.
“Kremlin approval of this appeal would amount to “the Russian government’s wholesale rejection of its commitments under the Minsk agreements,” Blinken declared.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had “taken note” of the request from parliament’s lower house but that it would not be consistent with the Minsk agreements aimed at ending the conflict.
Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
Afghanistan’s hardline Islamic rulers say they plan to “reconsider” their policy towards the United States if the administration of President Joe Biden refuses to return the full $7 billion in assets that have been frozen in the United States.
President Biden issued an executive order last Friday calling on banks to set aside $3.5 billion of the frozen assets in a trust fund slated for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. The remaining $3.5 billion would stay in the United States to finance payments from lawsuits by U.S. victims of terrorism, specifically the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington, D.C. and New York City, that are still working their way through the courts.
A spokesman for the Taliban issued a statement Monday saying the September 11 attacks “had nothing to do with Afghanistan.” The spokesman said if the United States “does not deviate from its position and continues its provocative actions, the Islamic Emirate will also be forced to reconsider its policy towards the country,” referring to Afghanistan’s official name.
FILE – Taliban officials walk down a hotel lobby during talks in Doha, Qatar, Aug. 12, 2021. The Taliban and the United States ended two days of meetings in Qatar on Nov. 30, 2021.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan at the time of September 11 attacks, and harbored Osama bin Laden, the head of the al Qaida terrorist network and mastermind of the U.S. attacks. A U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan weeks after the attacks overthrew the Taliban after they refused Washington’s demands to surrender bin Laden.
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last August ended the nearly 20-year war, but the United Nations and other international relief groups say Afghanistan faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, which stems from more than four decades of conflict and natural calamities.
More than half of the country’s poverty-stricken population, or an estimated 24 million Afghans, face an acute food shortage and some one million children under five years of age could die from hunger by the end of this year, according to U.N. estimates following the U.S. withdrawal from the country.
Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
U.S. President Joe Biden again warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone call Saturday of “swift and severe” consequences if Russia invades Ukraine, according to a statement from the White House.
Biden and Putin discussed the crisis as tensions continue to grow amid concerns that Russia is ready to mount an invasion of Ukraine. Russia continues to add to the more than 100,000 troops it has amassed at the Ukrainian border in recent months.
There was no immediate comment from Russia on the discussion.
Washington has received intelligence reports that the invasion could happen as early as Wednesday.
The White House said Biden conducted the call from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, from 11:04 a.m. EST to 12:06 p.m. EST.
“President Biden was clear that, if Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States together with our Allies and partners will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia,” the White House statement said.
“President Biden was clear with President Putin that while the United States remains prepared to engage in diplomacy, in full coordination with our Allies and partners, we are equally prepared for other scenarios,” the statement added.
A senior U.S. administration official told reporters after the call there was “no change in the fundamental dynamic” of the crisis. The official said Biden again proposed diplomatic solutions and that the call ended without an indication of what Putin’s next move would be.
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv has begun evacuating its staff. A U.S. State Department official told reporters Saturday that consular services at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine will be suspended beginning Sunday.
The official said Sunday is also when “American citizens will not be able to secure routine support with passport issues, visa services, any of the other routine consular services that we customarily provide from our embassies.”
The State Department previously issued an advisory warning people not to travel to Ukraine “due to the increased threats of Russian military action” and advised “those in Ukraine should depart immediately.”
A few U.S. diplomats are expected to be relocated to far western Ukraine, near Poland, a NATO ally, a move that would allow the U.S. to maintain a “diplomatic presence” in Ukraine.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday that Moscow has decided to “optimize” its diplomatic staff numbers in Ukraine, citing fears of “possible provocations from the Kyiv regime.”
Zakharova did not describe the move in detail but said the embassy and consulates in Ukraine continued to perform key functions.
Before speaking with Biden, Putin had a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with him in Moscow earlier in the week. During the meeting, Putin said the accusations against Russia of an imminent invasion were “provocative speculation.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, gestures towards French President Emmanuel Macron during a joint press conference, Feb. 8, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Macron’s office said that he would also discuss the crisis Saturday with Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Also Saturday, Britain told its nationals to leave Ukraine, and Germany and the Netherlands told its citizens to leave as soon as possible.
Macron said he told the Russian leader that “sincere dialogue” is incompatible with escalating fears that Russia will invade Ukraine.
The two spoke for nearly two hours, Macron’s office said. It said Macron and Putin “both expressed a desire to continue dialogue” on how to “advance the Minsk accords” on the restive Donbas region as well as “security conditions and stability in Europe,” his office said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Map: Russian troop locations near Ukraine
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced in a statement on Saturday that he had ordered the temporary repositioning of the 160 members of the Florida National Guard who have been deployed to Ukraine since late November, according to a statement by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
“These troops, assigned to the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, have been advising and mentoring Ukrainian forces as part of Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine,” the statement said. It added that the troops would be repositioned elsewhere in Europe.
“This repositioning does not signify a change in our determination to support Ukraine’s Armed Forces but will provide flexibility in assuring allies and deterring aggression,” the statement added.
Ukrainian servicemen receive the delivery of FGM-148 Javelins, American man-portable anti-tank missile provided by the U.S. to Ukraine, at Kyiv’s airport Boryspil, Feb. 11, 2022.
Earlier Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, about what appears to be Russia’s imminent invasion of Ukraine.
“The Secretary made clear that a diplomatic path to resolving the crisis remained open, but it would require Moscow to de-escalate and engage in good-faith discussions,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.
Blinken “reiterated that should Moscow pursue the path of aggression and further invade Ukraine, it would result in a resolute, massive, and united Transatlantic response,” the statement said.
Blinken, speaking at a press conference in Fiji, said if Putin “decides to take military action [against Ukraine] we will swiftly impose severe economic sanctions in coordination with allies and partners around the globe, will bolster Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, we will reinforce our allies on the eastern flank. I’ll underscore this unity and result when I speak with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov later tonight.”
Blinken also spoke Saturday with U.K. Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss about the crisis. The U.S. State Department said in a statement that Blinken emphasized the importance of working with our NATO Allies and European partners in the region to impose swift, severe costs on Russia in response to any further military aggression by Russia against Ukraine.”
The state also said they discussed continuing efforts to seek a diplomatic
Resolution to the crisis and that Blinken reassured the U.K. it will consult with allies and partners on any decisions the U.S. makes in Europe.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could begin “during the Olympics” or when Putin decides to order it.
Many analysts have said that Russia is unlikely to carry out any invasion before the Winter Olympics in China end February 20.
Russia now has enough forces on Ukraine’s border to conduct a major military operation, Sullivan said, and Russia could seize “significant territory” in Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv, in an attack.
FILE – In this image from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Jan. 26, 2022, the Russian navy’s frigate Admiral Essen prepares to sail off for an exercise in the Black Sea.
On Friday, Biden took part in a secure video call with world leaders to discuss Ukraine.
“The leaders agreed on the importance of coordinated efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine, including their readiness to impose massive consequences and severe economic costs on Russia should it choose military escalation,” according to a White House statement. In addition to Biden, the call included the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Britain, NATO, the European Union and the European Council.
A senior U.S. defense official told reporters that Biden has ordered an additional 3,000 soldiers to Poland in addition to the 1,700 already headed there. The Pentagon said the troops are being deployed to reassure NATO allies and deter any potential aggression against NATO’s eastern flank.
The Pentagon announced last week the deployment of the previous 1,700 troops to Poland along with 300 troops who were to be moved from the United States to Germany. It also announced at that time that 1,000 troops already based in Germany were to be redeployed to Romania.
Russian officials have denied they plan to invade Ukraine, but diplomatic talks with Western officials have led to a standoff. Russia has demanded that the United States and its allies reject Ukraine’s bid for membership in NATO.
The West has rejected that as a nonstarter but has said it is willing to negotiate with Moscow over missile deployment and troop exercises in Eastern European countries closest to Russia.
Western governments have been calling on Russia to take steps to de-escalate the crisis and have vowed to impose swift and severe economic sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine.
VOA State Department correspondent Cindy Saine, Carla Babb at the Pentagon and national security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Friday that Russia could attack Ukraine at “any time” and warned Americans to leave Ukraine immediately.
Blinken issued the warning in Australia after meeting leaders of the Quad countries, the United States, Australia, Japan and India. Blinken cited “troubling signs” regarding Russia, including adding to the more than 100,000 troops it has amassed at the Ukrainian border.
“As we’ve said before, we’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time. And to be clear, that includes during the Olympics,” Blinken said at a joint news conference in Canberra.
“We’re continuing to draw down our embassy, Blinken said. “We will continue that process. And we’ve also been very clear that any American citizens who remain in Ukraine should leave now.”
Russia maintains it has no plans to invade Ukraine but wants the West to keep Ukraine and other former Soviet countries out of NATO.
Blinken is visiting Australia as part of a Biden administration effort to show its long-term strategic focus remains on the Asia-Pacific region and that the Ukraine crisis will not distract it from its main priorities.
Blinken began Friday’s meetings with his Quad counterparts with Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne of Australia, who said the two would discuss China, North Korea and Ukraine.
After the meetings, the Quad ministers vowed in a joint statement to cooperate more closely to ensure the Indo-Pacific region was free of “coercion,” a veiled reference to China’s economic and military expansion.
They also promised to strengthen cooperation on the coronavirus pandemic, cyberthreats and counterterrorism, while condemning North Korea’s “destabilizing ballistic missile launches” in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Payne, who hosted the Quad meeting, said Wednesday the gathering sends a message to China that security in the region remains a priority for the United States.
Payne said the Quad ministers were “voting with their feet in terms of the priority that they accord to issues” important to the Indo-Pacific.
Blinken’s visit to Australia is his first trip there since an enhanced trilateral security partnership known as AUKUS — Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States — was announced in September. The agreement includes a deal to build nuclear-propelled submarines for Australia as part of enhanced deterrence against China’s military expansion across the Indo-Pacific region.
“The Quad is not a military alliance, but it is not lost on China that you have four democracies, all with a strong maritime presence and advanced military capabilities, concerned by the increasingly aggressive approach China takes with its neighbors,” said Charles Edel, the Australia chair of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Blinken’s visit to Australia comes amid a growing partnership between China and Russia that was on display during Sunday’s meeting in Beijing between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the beginning of the Winter Olympics. The meeting occurred amid Russia’s military buildup along neighboring Ukraine’s borders and China’s increasingly assertive efforts to reunite Taiwan with the mainland.
In Beijing, Chinese officials have expressed wariness over the Quad and AUKUS.
China criticized the U.S. Friday for trying to “discredit, suppress and contain” the country’s development after Blinken said earlier this week there were concerns “that in recent years, China has been acting more aggressively at home and more aggressively in the regions.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian rejected the remarks, telling reporters at a daily briefing the U.S. revealed an “ideological bias.”
Zhao described the alliance as “a tool to contain China and maintain U.S. hegemony.”
The top U.S. diplomat’s weeklong trip includes Fiji as well as Honolulu, Hawaii.
Blinken will meet Saturday with Fiji leaders who consider fishing and climate change priority issues.
“We agreed to boost maritime security support for Indo-Pacific partners to strengthen their maritime domain awareness and ability to develop their offshore resources, to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight and to combat challenges such as illegal fishing,” Australian Foreign Minister Payne said after the meeting.
U.S. President Joe Biden cautioned American citizens about staying in Ukraine on Thursday, urging them to leave the country immediately and warning of a potential major conflict with Russia should a clash erupts between U.S. and Russian troops.
Speaking in a televised interview on the U.S.-based television network NBC News, Biden said “American citizens should leave, should leave now.”
“We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. This is a very different situation, and things could go crazy quickly,” Biden said.
The U.S. president said he would not send troops to Ukraine, even to rescue Americans in case of a Russian invasion.
“That’s a world war. When Americans and Russians start shooting one another, we’re in a very different world,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking to reporters in Australia where he is meeting Friday with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and India, the so-called QUAD, reiterated Biden’s warning, saying Russia could invade Ukraine during the Beijing Winter Olympics, which end on Feb. 20.
“We’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time and, to be clear, that includes during the Olympics,” Blinken said.
Russia opened 10 days of massive military drills in Belarus on Thursday and docked six of its ships at a strategic Black Sea port, drawing a sharp rebuke from Ukrainian officials, who characterized Moscow’s actions as further escalating tensions in the region.
The Russian maneuvers in Belarus involved thousands of troops and sophisticated weapons systems, such as S-400 surface-to-air missiles, Pantsir air defense systems and Su-35 fighter jets, with some of the training just 210 kilometers north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the six ships arrived at the port of Sevastopol in Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. They had been on a 13,000-kilometer journey from the Baltic Sea to begin what officials described as naval exercises. The Russian landing ships are designed for unloading troops, vehicles and material onto land.
Officials in Moscow and Minsk have said Russian troops will withdraw from Belarus sometime after the drills end February 20. But Western officials remain fearful they could be deployed in a Russian invasion of Ukraine, a onetime Soviet republic, along with 100,000 troops Moscow has massed along Ukraine’s eastern flank.
Ukrainian officials, who launched their own drills on Thursday, assailed the impending naval drills, characterizing them as “destructive activity to destabilize the security situation.” Kyiv accused Russia of violating international law by restricting wide swaths of open waters to conduct missile and artillery fire training.
“These actions pose another threat to Ukraine’s sovereignty in its territorial sea area and in its sovereign rights in the exclusive maritime economic zone,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a statement. “By blocking the recommended sea lanes, the Russian Federation has made it literally impossible to navigate in these areas and allow ships to enter Ukrainian seaports, especially in the Sea of Azov.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, in a call with reporters, denied that the drills would affect seagoing commercial operations.
Map: Russian troop locations near Ukraine
Peskov said Russia was staging the joint exercises with Belarus, its largest ever, to combat “unprecedented security threats … the nature and, perhaps, concentration of which are, unfortunately, much larger and much more dangerous than before.”
Russian officials have denied they plan to invade Ukraine, but diplomatic talks with Western officials have led to a standoff. Russia has demanded that the United States and its allies reject Ukraine’s bid for membership in NATO.
The West has rejected that as a non-starter but has said it is willing to negotiate with Moscow over missile deployment and troop exercises in Eastern European countries closest to Russia.
A day of talks between Ukraine and Russia ended Thursday without progress. These talks are an attempt to end the eight-year conflict between Ukraine forces and pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The failure to reconcile each side’s interpretations of the Minsk accords, a 2015 agreement that attempted to end fighting in eastern Ukraine, was seen as a setback to defusing the wider crisis.
“I hope that we will meet again very soon and continue these negotiations. Everyone is determined to achieve a result,” Ukraine envoy Andriy Yermak said, adding that both sides agreed to keep talking.
Britain on Thursday urged Russia to take a “diplomatic route that avoids conflict and bloodshed” while warning against any Russian moves that undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty.
“Fundamentally, a war in Ukraine would be disastrous for the Russian and Ukrainian people and for European security. And together, NATO has made it clear that any incursion into Ukraine would have massive consequences and carry severe costs,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said as she met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Western governments have been calling on Russia to take steps to de-escalate the crisis and vowed to impose swift and severe economic sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine.
Lavrov said Thursday that only “mutually respectful dialogue” can lead to normalized relations.
“Ideological approaches, ultimatums, threats — this is the road to nowhere,” Lavrov said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson traveled Thursday to Brussels to discuss the crisis with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg before heading for more meetings with leaders in Poland.
Johnson called the situation the “biggest security crisis that Europe has faced for decades” as he urged solidarity with NATO allies. He told reporters he does not think that Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet decided whether to invade Ukraine, but added, “Our intelligence remains grim.”
Stoltenberg told reporters he sent a letter to Lavrov inviting Russia for more rounds of meetings to “find a diplomatic way forward.”
“We are prepared to listen to Russia’s concerns and ready to discuss ways to uphold and strengthen the fundamental principles of European security that we all have signed up to,” Stoltenberg said.
He added, “Renewed Russian aggression will lead to more NATO presence, not less.”
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters.
BOGOTA COLOMBIA). Wednesday, February 9, 2022 (RPTV NEWS AGENCY). Exercising journalism in Colombia is not an easy task, according to figures from the Foundation for Press Freedom in 2021 there were more than 700 attacks against communicators throughout the national territory.
“167 threats, a murdered journalist, the case of Marcos Efraín Montalvo in the city of Tuluá, and all this ends up making Colombia the second most violent country in Latin America after Mexico,” said Jonathan Bock, director of Flip.
During the first week of 2022, at least 7 journalists from Arauca have received pressure and threats in the midst of confrontations by the FARC and Eln dissidents.
“This deep crisis is added to other events that have also occurred such as the economic crisis in the media and the lack of independence of the public media,” added Jonathan Bock, director of Flip.
For these reasons, FLIP and the media continue to make an urgent call to the authorities to protect the daily work carried out by journalists in the different regions of the country.
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The Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) determined that hea Regional Autonomous Corporation of the Atlantic (CRA) is not complying with the regulations related to the management of solid waste problems on the beaches of Puerto Colombia and the management has not been efficient.
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“The CRA has not earmarked investments in plans, programs and/or projects to solve such problems,” the CGR underlines in a statement.
The entity recalled that the CRA signed a contract to develop a pedagogical strategy for citizens on the subject, but the purpose of the contract does not correspond to a Project or Program focused on what is required: to solve the problem of solid waste on the beaches of Colombian Port.
(Be sure to read: The story behind the Barranquilla signal that generated controversy in Soledad)
As a result of the audit, the control body constituted three administrative findings, one of them with an alleged disciplinary incidence and which has to do with the fact that the CRA has not carried out the control and sanction actions corresponding to the problem. of solid waste, in the Comprehensive Regional Solid Waste Management Plans (PGIRS) of the riverside municipalities to the Magdalena river located in your jurisdiction.
“It (the CRA) did not develop an efficient and articulated institutional management with Cormagdalena and the territorial entities of its jurisdiction, which make up the riverside municipalities of the Rio Grande de la Magdalena, causing the problem of solid waste on the beaches of Puerto Colombia”, warns the CGR in its report.
Origin of the problem in Puerto Colombia
For several years the problem of solid waste on the beaches of Puerto Colombia has been presented periodically.
However, it became much more visible from May 31, 2019 with the appearance of a garbage agglomeration of 1,710 tons floating in front of the beaches, which caused a serious environmental emergency in the coastal municipality, which affected both the quality of the water and marine biodiversity.
The rubbish carried by the Magdalena River reaches the beaches of Puerto Colombia.
Photo:
Carlos Capella/ CEET
The situation spread to two of its districts (Salgar and Sabanilla), as well as the municipalities of Juan de Acosta y Tubara.
The cause of the problem lies in the fact that the Magdalena River transports all the waste that is dumped by the populations of the municipalities that are located from its source in the Colombian massif in the Cordillera de los Andes and by those that are located along its course.
(Also: Cerrejón returns to Barranquilla: it will move its offices during 2022)
This waste reaches Puerto Colombia and ends up stagnant on its beaches, as a result of its proximity to Mouths of Ash (the point where the river empties).
“The lack of control of cormagdalena and the Autonomous Corporations with jurisdiction in this area, where the modification of the riverbanks by agro-industrial exploitation and extensive livestock farming is not being taken into account, has made the situation more complex”, indicates the CGR.
Likewise, the control body indicates that the intervention of relief areas of the river such as pipes and interior swamps has not been controlled, “with which the speed of the tributary and its capacity of erode the shores and devastate them, dragging with them the vegetal layer”.
“That garbage is not generated here”: CRA
About the Comptroller’s report Jesús León Insignares, General Director of the CRA., indicated that they have been developing in a timely and efficient manner, the obligations imposed by the regulations and took the opportunity to clarify that the solid waste present on the beaches of the municipality of Puerto Colombia, is not generated in this population, nor in the department of Atlántico, these come from 728 territorial entities with influence in the Magdalena river basin.
This is a country problem, since the Department of Atlántico, being located in the lower basin of the Magdalena River, receives all the waste and dumping
“This is a country problem, since the Department of Atlántico, because it is located in the lower basin of the Magdalena River, receives all the waste and discharges that this body of water drags, which are generated and come from the municipalities located on the most of 1550 kilometers in length of the river, where only 117 kilometers, say 7.5%, are in the jurisdiction of the Department of the Atlantic”, specified the official.
This was the reason, he added, why Puerto Colombia was included as a non-riverside municipality in the jurisdiction of Cormagdalena, so that this corporate entity assumes the costs derived from the contamination of the Magdalena River that affect the beaches of said municipality. , and the damages and expenses caused by the contamination derived from this important fluvial artery are compensated.
(Be sure to read: The Registrar of Public Instruments of Barranquilla is suspended)
According to the CRA, the problem is the product of the hydraulic dynamics and natural processes of undermining that occur on the slopes of the Magdalena River, such as at its mouth, which, added to the phenomenon of marine currents, end up dragging the waste until it is deposited in the beaches known by the names of Punta Roca, Salgar, Sabanilla and Puerto Colombia.
The official insisted that public sanitation service providers must redouble their efforts in the collection, transportation, storage and final disposal of this waste: “they are responsible for the efficient provision of public sanitation services,” said the Environmental Authority.
The most senior U.S. military officer warns Russia will end up blazing a path of death and devastation, for all sides, should it decide to resolve its differences with Ukraine by using military force.
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley issued the blunt admonishment Friday during a rare news conference at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, where both men insisted tragedy could be avoided if Moscow was willing to pull back from the brink.
“Given the type of forces that are arrayed, the ground maneuver forces, the artillery, the ballistic missiles, the air forces, all of it packaged together, if that was unleashed on Ukraine, it would be significant, very significant,” Milley told reporters.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, face reporters asking questions about Russia and Ukraine during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Jan. 28, 2022.
“It would result in a significant amount of casualties. And you can imagine what that might look like in dense urban areas,” he said. “It would be horrific. It would be terrible. And it’s not necessary.”
The U.S. warning Friday comes as the standoff between Russia and Ukraine appears to have reached a tipping point.
Putin’s call with Macron
Senior U.S. defense officials cautioned that Russia had amassed sufficient firepower to launch a full-scale invasion at any time, while Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron that the West had failed to adequately address Moscow’s security concerns.
Putin, according to the Kremlin, told Macron that the most recent Western diplomatic responses did not consider Russia’s concerns about NATO expansion such as stopping the deployment of alliance weapons near Russia’s border and rolling back its forces from Eastern Europe.
FILE – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin speaks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron during a video conference call at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, June 26, 2020. (Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via Reuters)
Separately, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian radio stations Friday that Russia did not want war with Ukraine but that it would protect its interests against the West if necessary.
“If it depends on Russia, then there will be no war. We don’t want wars,” Lavrov said. “But we also won’t allow our interests to be rudely trampled, to be ignored.”
Escalating tensions and rhetoric
But the U.S. defense secretary pushed back, telling Pentagon reporters Friday that no one has done anything to lead Russia to encircle Ukraine with more than 100,000 troops.
“There was no provocation that caused them to move those forces,” Austin said Friday at the Pentagon, calling out Moscow for a new wave of disinformation campaigns.
“Indeed, we’re seeing Russian state media spouting off now about alleged activities in eastern Ukraine,” he said. “This is straight out of the Russian playbook. And they’re not fooling us.”
Austin also painted Moscow’s saber-rattling as counterproductive.
“A move on Ukraine will accomplish the very thing Russia says it does not want — a NATO alliance strengthened and resolved on its western flank,” he said.
But with no sign of give from any side — U.S. and NATO officials have repeatedly rejected Russia’s demands — there are growing concerns that fear or hysteria could spread, making an already fragile situation more perilous.
“We don’t need this panic,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told a news conference in Kyiv on Friday, accusing U.S. leaders of talking up the possibility of conflict.
“Are tanks driving here on our streets? No. But it feels like this (reading the media),” he said. “In my opinion, this is a mistake. Because those are signals of how the world reacts.”
Despite the disagreement over rhetoric, U.S. and European officials said they continue to hold out hope that diplomacy can prevail.
One senior U.S. administration official, talking to reporters on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss developments, said remarks like those Friday by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov are a positive sign.
“We welcome the message,” the official said. “We need to see it backed up by swift action.”
The official added that Monday’s United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine will be “an opportunity for Russia to explain what it is doing, and we’ve come prepared to listen.”
Ramping up military preparations
While Russia and the U.S. and its allies have spent much of the past week trading demands, both sides have also ramped up military preparations.
Russia has launched military drills involving motorized infantry and artillery units in southwestern Russia, warplanes in Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, dozens of warships in the Black Sea and the Arctic, and Russian fighter jets and paratroopers in Belarus.
Ukraine’s military held artillery and anti-aircraft drills in the country’s southern Kherson region Friday near the border with Russian-annexed Crimea.
Soldiers take part in an exercise for the use of NLAW anti-aircraft missiles at the Yavoriv military training ground, close to Lviv, western Ukraine, Jan. 28, 2022.
And the U.S., which has been providing Kyiv with anti-tank missiles, grenade launchers, artillery and ammunition, said another shipment arrived Friday to help bolster Ukrainian defenses.
Also Friday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance has already bolstered its troop presence in Eastern Europe and continues to watch Russia’s military movements, including the positioning of aircraft and S-400 anti-aircraft systems in Belarus, closely.
“The aim now is to try to reduce tensions,” Stoltenberg said, speaking online from Brussels at a Washington think-tank event.
“We urge Russia, we call on Russia to engage in talks,” he said, adding that opting for the use of force will not work out well for Moscow.
“When it comes to Ukraine, I am absolutely certain that Russia understands they will have to pay a high price (for invading),” Stoltenberg said. “I am certain President Putin and Russia takes NATO very serious when it comes to our ability to protect and defend all allies.”
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Russia said Wednesday it would not allow Western allies to ‘downplay’ the Kremlin’s demands as tensions continue to escalate on the country’s border with Ukraine.
“There is a distinct trend towards downplaying our proposals and brushing them under the carpet in endless discussions,” foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said at an appearance in the State Duma.
“We will not let this happen. We will not let them emasculate our initiative,” he added.
The United States issued an advisory Wednesday warning of the increased risk of conducting business in Myanmar nearly a year after a military coup in the Southeast Asian country, which is also known as Burma.
The advisory from the U.S. State Department warned it was especially risky for “individuals, businesses and financial institutions and other persons” to be associated with business activity in Myanmar “that could benefit the Burmese military regime.”
The advisory cited the possibility of exposure to illegal financial and reputational risks by doing business there, and using supply chains controlled by the military.
“The coup and subsequent abuses committed by the military have fundamentally changed the direction of the economic and business environment in Burma,” the advisory said.
Former de factor leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) led Myanmar since its first open democratic election in 2015, but Myanmar’s military contested the November 2020 election results, claiming widespread electoral fraud, largely without evidence.
FILE – This handout photo taken May 24, 2021, and released by Myanmar’s Ministry of Information May 26, shows detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, left, and detained president Win Myint during their first court appearance in Naypyidaw.
The military removed the NLD government in a coup on Feb. 1, 2021, detaining Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.
Since then, the military government has used deadly force in clampdowns on protests while escalating efforts to neutralize ethnic minority armies and newly formed militias allied with the NLD government. Wednesday’s advisory said the military “has killed more than 1,400 innocent people” since its takeover.
The advisory said state-owned enterprises were of greatest concern, as well as the gems and precious metals, real estate, construction and defense industries, noting that they have been identified as providing economic resources for the junta.
The advisory was issued after oil giants Chevron Corporation and TotalEnergies said last week the worsening humanitarian situation prompted them to withdraw from the country, where they were working together on a major gas project.
The United States warned Russia Tuesday that it would face faster and far more severe economic consequences if it invades Ukraine than it did when Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
“We are prepared to implement sanctions with massive consequences that were not considered in 2014,” a national security official told reporters in Washington. “That means the gradualism of the past is out. And this time, we’ll start at the top of the escalation ladder and stay there.”
Later, President Joe Biden told reporters he could see himself personally imposing economic sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin if he invades Ukraine.
The security official, speaking anonymously, said the U.S. is “also prepared to impose novel export controls” to hobble the Russian economy.
“You can think of these export controls as trade restrictions in the service of broader U.S. national security interests,” the official said.
“We use them to prohibit the export of products from Russia,” the official said. “And given the reason they work is if you … step back and look at the global dominance of U.S.-origin software technology, the export control options we’re considering alongside our allies and partners would hit Putin’s strategic ambitions to industrialize his economy quite hard, and it would impair areas that are of importance to him, whether it’s in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, or defense or aerospace or other key sectors.”
The U.S. and its allies imposed less severe economic sanctions against Moscow after its Crimean takeover, but they ultimately proved ineffective, and the peninsula remains under Russian control.
The U.S. is also working with energy producers around the world, another security official said, to supply fuel to Western European countries in the event Putin cuts off Russia’s flow of natural gas to the West.
One of the U.S. security officials echoed Biden in saying that the U.S. and its Western allies are “unified in our intention to impose massive consequences that would deliver a severe and immediate blow to Russia over time, make its economy even more brittle and undercut Putin’s aspirations to exert influence on the world stage.”
Tuesday’s White House warning came as Russia said it is watching “with great concern” as the U.S. on Monday put 8,500 troops on heightened alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated to reporters the Russian accusations that the United States is escalating tensions in the crisis along the Russia-Ukraine border, where Putin has deployed an estimated 127,000 troops.
Russia has demanded that NATO reject possible Ukraine membership, but the West has said it won’t give Moscow veto power over who belongs to the 30-country military alliance that has evolved since the end of World War II.
Biden met virtually Monday with key European leaders to discuss the ongoing threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I had a very, very, very good meeting — total unanimity with all the European leaders,” Biden told reporters after hosting a secure video call with allied leaders from Europe, the European Union and NATO.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office released a statement that supported Biden’s summation, saying, “The leaders agreed on the importance of international unity in the face of growing Russian hostility.”
Biden has not decided whether to move U.S. military equipment and personnel closer to Russia. But White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in advance of the meeting with the European officials that the United States has “always said we’d support allies on the eastern flank” abutting Russia.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin placed 8,500 U.S. military personnel on “high alert” of being dispatched to Eastern Europe, where most of them could be activated as part of a NATO response force if Russia invades Ukraine.
“It’s very clear the Russians have no intention right now of de-escalating,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. “What this is about, though, is reassurance to our NATO allies.”
Biden has ruled out sending troops to Ukraine if Russia invades the onetime Soviet republic.
Organizers of next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics slightly eased the strict COVID-19 requirements for participants, a move that means fewer athletes are likely to be tripped up by positive tests, although authorities also warned about seasonal air pollution.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the changes on Monday, which included easing the threshold for being designated positive for COVID-19 from PCR tests and reducing to seven days from 14 days the period for which a person is deemed a close contact.
The changes, which take effect immediately and apply retrospectively, “have been developed in order to further adapt to the reality of the current environment and support the Games participants”, the IOC said in a statement.
The slight relaxing of rules for Games participants comes despite China’s scramble to contain local flare-ups of COVID-19, including in Beijing, with four more Chinese provinces finding infections linked to the Beijing cluster amid the Lunar New Year travel season.
Organizers also began reporting data on positive COVID-19 tests among Games-related personnel, with 177 confirmed cases found among 3,115 international arrivals from Jan. 4 to Jan. 23, just one of which was among an athlete or support staffer, according to Beijing 2022 data released Sunday and Monday.
China’s strict COVID-19 protocols have led some team officials to express fear of athletes, including those who have recovered from coronavirus, being blocked from participating.
The changes mean that now only participants whose PCR results show a Cycle Threshold (CT) of less than 35 will be considered positive. Previously, the more sensitive CT of 40 was the threshold for designating those positive, the Games’ medical chief, Brian McCloskey, said on Sunday.
The Games are set to take place from Feb. 4 to Feb. 20 inside a “closed loop” bubble separating all personnel from the public amid what is effectively a zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy in China that has led it to all but shut its border to international arrivals.
Final preparations are taking place amid the global surge in the highly infectious Omicron coronavirus variant. Organizers said last week that tickets would not be sold to the public.
Smog warning
Meanwhile, the Chinese capital’s notorious smog, which has drastically improved in recent years, emerged as a potential Games irritant on Monday when China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment warned that winter weather was “very unfavorable” for efforts to keep the air clean.
Beijing has been enveloped for days in thick smog, with concentrations of hazardous airborne particles known as PM2.5 at 205 micrograms per cubic meter on Monday morning. The World Health Organization recommends levels of no more than 5.
Since China won the bid for the Winter Olympics in 2015, authorities have raised vehicle fuel standards, shut polluting firms and cut coal consumption in a bid to make the Games “green.”
Authorities will take action against polluters in Beijing and neighboring Hebei province if there are warnings of heavy pollution during the Olympics to ensure that they will be held in a “good environment”, environment ministry spokesman Liu Youbin said on Monday.
In addition to COVID-19 and pollution, preparations for the Games have been clouded by a diplomatic boycott by countries including the United States over China’s human rights record. China says that betrays Olympic principles and denies rights abuses.
