Author Archives: Reuters News Agency

Pro-Beijing ‘patriots’ sweep Hong Kong election with record low turnout

By Edmond Ng and Sara Cheng

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Pro-Beijing candidates swept to victory in an overhauled “patriots”-only legislative election in Hong Kong that critics described as undemocratic, with turnout hitting a record low amid a crackdown on the city’s freedoms by China.

The 30.2% turnout, about half that of the previous poll in 2016, was seen by pro-democracy activists as a rebuke to China after it imposed a broad national security law and sweeping electoral changes to bring the city more firmly under its authoritarian grip.

Almost all seats were taken by pro-Beijing and pro-establishment candidates, some of whom cheered at the vote counting center and chanted “guaranteed win.”

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam told a news conference on Monday the turnout was indeed low but that she was not able to give specific reasons.

“But 1.35 million coming out to vote – it cannot be said that it was not an … election that did not get a lot of support from citizens,” Lam said.

Political analysts say the turnout is a barometer of legitimacy in an election where pro-democracy candidates were largely absent, and a crackdown under the security law and other legislation has jailed scores of democrats who had originally wanted to run, and forced others into exile.

Asked if the low turnout meant her party lacked a public mandate, Starry Lee, head of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong that won half of the directly elected seats, said the patriots-only rules would improve governance.

“It needs some time for people to get adapted to this system,” she told reporters.

The election – in which only candidates vetted by the government as “patriots” could run – has been criticized as undemocratic by some foreign governments, rights groups, and mainstream Hong Kong pro-democracy parties, which did not participate in the polls.

Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand issued a joint statement noting the election outcome and expressing grave concern over the erosion of democracy. It said the changes in Hong Kong’s electoral system had “eliminated any meaningful political opposition”.

“Protecting space for peaceful alternative views is the most effective way to ensure the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong,” it said.

Most of the dozen or so candidates who called themselves moderates, including former democratic lawmaker Frederick Fung, succumbed to pro-Beijing rivals.

“It’s not easy to push people (to vote). I think they are feeling indifferent,” Fung told Reuters.

Democrat Sunny Cheung, who moved to the United States to escape prosecution under the security law, said most of Hong Kong had “consciously boycotted the election to express their discontent to the world”.

The previous record low turnout for a legislative election held after the city’s 1997 return from British to Chinese rule was 43.6% in 2000. About 2% of the votes cast on Sunday were invalid, a record high, according to local media.

‘DEMOCRACY WITH HONG KONG CHARACTERISTICS’

China’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong described the election as “successful practice of democracy with Hong Kong characteristics”.

The Hong Kong branch of China’s foreign ministry said the electoral system was an internal affair and urged “foreign forces” not to interfere.

In a 57-page white paper published on Monday, the Chinese government said it had provided constant support to Hong Kong in developing its “democratic system” and criticized the often-violent 2019 pro-democracy protests.

Lam, who visits Beijing this week for her annual report to state leaders, said the document was a timely rebuttal of criticism of the elections by foreign governments and media.

Under the electoral shake-up announced by China in March, the proportion of directly elected seats was reduced from around half to less than a quarter, or 20 seats.

Forty seats were selected by a committee stacked with Beijing loyalists, while the remaining 30 were filled by professional and business sectors such as finance and engineering, known as functional constituencies.

Turnout for these professional groups fell to 32.2% from 74% in 2016. Some sectors whose voters have traditionally leaned pro-democracy, including education, social welfare, and law, had the lowest rates.

In 2019, the last major citywide election for district council seats, the turnout was 71% with around 90% of the 452 seats won by democrats.

(Additional reporting by Jessie Pang, James Pomfret, William James and David Brunnstrom; writing by James Pomfret and Marius Zaharia; Editing by Stephen Coates, Toby Chopra and Giles Elgood)

At least eight dead in Malaysia floods as rescue effort stumbles

By Rozanna Latiff and Ebrahim Harris

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – At least eight people have died in floods that have ravaged Malaysia, authorities said on Monday, as the government faced criticism from the public and opposition lawmakers over its rescue efforts.

Floods are common on the eastern coast of Malaysia during the annual monsoon season between October and March, but unusually heavy rainfall that started on Friday has put a strain on emergency services across the country.

Malaysia has mobilized its army and other security agencies across seven states, with the worst flooding in Selangor, the country’s wealthiest and most populous region.

Selangor police reported eight people found dead in the floods on Monday, according to state news agency Bernama.

They include four in Taman Sri Muda, a neighborhood in the district of Shah Alam, where many people are still believed to be trapped in homes and apartment buildings as rescue efforts were hampered by a lack of boats and manpower.

More than 32,000 displaced people from Selangor have been moved into temporary shelters as of Monday, the state’s chief minister said on Twitter.

But it is unclear how many more remain to be rescued with communication lines cut off in many parts of the state.

Opposition lawmakers on Monday lambasted authorities for the delay in response.

“Tonight will be the third night, people are still screaming for boats,” lawmaker Hannah Yeoh of the Democratic Action Party told reporters in parliament.

“We want (the government) to activate assistance immediately so that we no longer find bodies.”

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a statement on Monday he had ordered all agencies to conduct “more aggressive” operations to help those affected in Taman Sri Muda.

Taman Sri Muda resident Sazuatu Remly, 43, and her family were rescued by friends on Monday, after being trapped in their home for more than two days.

“Help from the government never came for us, we only got help from the parents of the children I was taking care of,” she told Reuters.

“I really hope authorities can act more quickly, and they give more attention to the people here.”

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff and Ebrahim Harris; Editing by John Geddie)

Philippines grapples with typhoon aftermath as death toll tops 300

By Karen Lema and Enrico Dela Cruz

MANILA (Reuters) – More than 300 people have been in killed by a powerful typhoon in the Philippines that destroyed homes, flooded towns, severed power and communications lines and displaced hundreds of thousands in its central and southern regions.

Military airplanes and naval vessels were dispatched on Monday to carry aid to areas devastated by Typhoon Rai, as the country grappled with the strongest of 15 such storms to hit the archipelago this year.

“We are still assessing the damage, but it is huge,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters on Monday. “The first thing we are doing is address the food and water (supplies) and medical care of the injured.”

Lorenzana told the armed forces to deliver relief goods using all available assets, and send in more troops if necessary.

The number of storm-related deaths climbed throughout Monday as rescue efforts continued in hard-hit areas.

As of 1000 GMT, the death toll from Rai has risen to 375, the police said in a report, making it one of the deadliest typhoons to have struck the Southeast Asian nation. The number of injured has climbed to 500, while 56 people were missing.

The count, which according to the police was subject to validation, far outstripped the 58 deaths recorded by the national disaster agency, which said it was still checking reports from affected areas.

The majority of the deaths reported by police were in the central region of Visayas, home to dive spots in Bohol province, among some of the most popular tourist destinations, and the Caraga region in northeastern Mindanao.

Provincial governor Arthur Yap told broadcaster CNN Philippines he feared the death toll could rise further, as a lack of mobile telephone links made it hard to gather information.

Rai, which made landfall as a category 5 typhoon on Thursday, revived memories of the devastation brought in 2013 by Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, which killed 6,300 people in the Philippines.

Rai displaced nearly 490,000 people in the Philippines before moving toward the South China Sea over the weekend.

It left a trail of destruction in the provinces of Cebu, Leyte, and Surigao del Norte, including Siargao, which is popular with surfers, and the Dinagat Islands.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who visited typhoon-stricken areas over the weekend, promised funds of about 2 billion pesos ($40 million) to help in recovery efforts.

(Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz and Karen Lema; Editing by Ed Davies and Clarence Fernandez and John Geddie)

Florida man who threw plank, extinguisher at police gets longest Capitol riot sentence

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal judge sentenced a U.S. Capitol rioter to more than five years in prison on Friday on charges that he threw a wooden plank and a fire extinguisher at police during the Jan. 6 attack on the seat of government.

The Department of Justice said Robert Scott Palmer of Largo, Florida, was sentenced to 63 months for assaulting law enforcement with dangerous weapons during the assault, which took place as Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress met to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Palmer is the first Jan. 6 defendant to be sentenced on the charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous or deadly weapon. It is the longest sentence imposed so far in the investigation of the events of Jan. 6.

According to court documents, Palmer, 54, was among rioters outside the Capitol. While there, he threw a plank at Capitol police and Washington police officers. Two minutes later, he sprayed the contents of a fire extinguisher at the officers and then threw it at them.

Palmer was arrested on March 17. He pleaded guilty on Oct. 4. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan also ordered Palmer to pay $2,000 in restitution, and he must serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.

More than 700 people have been arrested in connection with the assault on the Capitol by supporters of defeated Republican President Donald Trump.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

U.S. Postal Service, NAACP reach settlement on election mail

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and NAACP reached a settlement to resolve a 2020 lawsuit over election mail that the Justice Department said would ensure prioritizing delivering ballots in future elections.

USPS agreed for the 2022 mid-term congressional election to take the same extraordinary measures used to deliver ballots in the November 2020 election. The Postal Service also agreed for elections through 2028 to post guidance documents publicly reflecting its “good faith efforts to prioritize monitoring and timely delivery of Election Mail.”

USPS general counsel Thomas Marshall said USPS “agreed to continue to prioritize monitoring and timely delivery of Election Mail for future elections. This will include outreach and coordination with election officials and election stakeholders, including the NAACP.”

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said, “The right to vote and ability to access the ballot is the cornerstone of our democracy. The department is pleased we could facilitate a resolution that reflects the commitment of all of the parties to appropriately handling and prioritizing election mail.”

NAACP President Derrick Johnson said, “No one, including the USPS, should ever stand in the way of our constitutional rights. With the NAACP’s ability to now monitor the performance of the USPS during national elections, we will ensure that the right to vote is protected for of all citizens, including those often suppressed.”

The NAACP sued in the summer of 2020 to ensure timely delivery of mail-in ballots. Several courts ordered USPS to take extraordinary measures to ensure ballot deliveries, especially since a record number of Americans opted to vote by mail during the COVID-19 pandemic,

USPS reiterated that it “continues to believe that none of the Election Mail lawsuits were justified by the facts or supported by the applicable law.”

USPS will provide weekly reports on service performance during the six weeks leading up to general elections.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter)

‘Tidal wave’: Omicron could put U.S. COVID-19 surge into overdrive

By Joseph Ax and Barbara Goldberg

(Reuters) – Two years into the coronavirus pandemic, the United States is confronting another dark winter, with the red-hot Omicron variant threatening to further inflame an already dangerous surge of cases.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 have jumped 45% over the last month, and cases have increased 40% to a seven-day average of 123,000 new infections a day, according to a Reuters tally.

Pfizer Inc, one of the chief vaccine makers, on Friday predicted the pandemic would last until 2024 and said a lower-dose version of its vaccine for children ages 2 to 4 generated a weaker-than-expected immune response, which could delay authorization.

The Omicron variant appears to be far more transmissible than previous iterations of the virus and more agile in evading immune defenses, according to early studies.

Public health officials say it is likely to become the dominant variant in the country, following fast-moving spreads in countries such as South Africa and the United Kingdom, and could strain hospitals still struggling to contain this summer’s Delta variant surge.

“GET BOOSTED NOW. Tidal wave of Omicron likely coming to a hospital near you soon,” Dr. Tom Frieden, former chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), posted on Twitter.

Preliminary data in South Africa suggests Omicron leads to milder illness than the Delta variant, which is still driving much of the current wave. But a British study released on Friday found no difference in severity between the two variants.

Either way, Omicron’s extraordinary level of infectiousness means it could cause many additional deaths, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on Friday.

“When you have a larger number of people getting infected, the total amount of hospitalizations is going to be more. That’s just simple math,” Fauci told CNBC.

Fauci also said officials are discussing whether to redefine what it means to be “fully vaccinated” to include booster shots, which according to early studies significantly improve protection against severe cases from the Omicron variant. President Joe Biden warned on Thursday that unvaccinated Americans face “severe illness and death” in coming months.

The latest surge is creating yet another round of disruptions to daily life, though widespread lockdowns have not been put in place. Several states have hit alarming levels of cases and hospitalizations.

Exhausted hospital workers in Ohio who are in their 22nd month of pandemic response will be getting some help starting on Monday from 1,050 National Guard troops – including 150 nurses, emergency medical technicians and others with medical training – being deployed to hospitals around the state, Governor Mike DeWine told a news conference on Friday.

In New York City, Radio City Music Hall announced that Friday’s four performances of the Rockettes’ iconic Christmas show were canceled due to “breakthrough COVID-19 cases in the production.” Broadway shows have also canceled performances this week after outbreaks among vaccinated cast members.

Both the National Hockey League and National Basketball Association postponed games this week, and the NBA and National Football League imposed heightened COVID-19 restrictions after dozens of players tested positive.

The CDC released a new “test-to-stay” strategy on Friday that allows unvaccinated children to remain in school even if they are exposed to the virus.

The protocol is intended to replace automatic quarantines, which have required tens of thousands of students to miss school days this fall.

“If exposed children meet a certain criteria and continue to test negative, they can stay at school instead of quarantining at home,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters.

Dr. Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University, on Friday praised the test-to-stay school policy change but said implementation would still be a challenge, in part due to persistent testing shortages.

“I’m not sure how we’re able to literally implement this test-to-stay when we don’t even have enough testing for people who are symptomatic,” she told CNN.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax in Princeton, New Jersey, and Barbara Goldberg in Maplewood, New Jersey; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose, Carl O’Donnell, Susan Heavey, Caroline Humer, Mrinalika Roy, Leroy Leo and Frank Pingue; Editing by Howard Goller)

U.S. schools boost security after online posts warn of Friday violence

By Julia Harte

(Reuters) – U.S. schools and law enforcement authorities responded to vague warnings of violence at schools on Friday with bulletins to parents, heightened security and, in a few cases, canceled classes.

The bulletins to parents largely referred to postings on the social media app Tik Tok.

One of the nation’s largest school districts, in Florida’s Palm Beach County, said in its letter on Friday that local police were aware of a “video circulating on Tik Tok nationally, encouraging violence in schools.”

Tik Tok said on Friday that it had been unable to find any credible threats on its platform, only “alarmist warnings” of rumored threats. Palm Beach County Schools did not respond to a request for details about the alleged video.

“We continue to aggressively search for any such content on our platform, but we are deeply concerned that the proliferation of local media reports on an alleged trend that has not been found on the platform could end up inspiring real world harm,” Tik Tok said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement posted to Twitter on Friday that it did not have information indicating any specific, credible threats to schools either, but encouraged communities to “remain alert.”

The warnings began circulating this week as the United States was reeling from the deadliest school shooting of 2021, a November shooting at a Michigan high school that left four students dead and seven people wounded. It was the latest in a decades-long string of lethal American school shootings.

Most schools and law enforcement officials noted in messages to parents on Thursday and Friday that this week’s warnings of attacks were not specifically directed at their school, nor were they credible.

Multiple schools around the country canceled classes on Friday, though it was unclear whether the cancellations were connected to the perceived Tik Tok threats.

In Gilroy, California, the superintendent of the unified school district announced online that classes at Gilroy High School would be canceled on Friday because of threats of violence directed at the high school on “several social media accounts.”

Gilroy High School did not respond to questions about the threats.

Other schools did not cancel classes but heightened security. The Fitchburg, Massachusetts, public school system said in a Thursday news release that police would be present at each school in the district on Friday as an added precaution because of an alleged Tik Tok post threatening “every school in the USA even elementary.”

The Fitchburg public school system did not respond to questions about the post.

(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Howard Goller)

U.S. offers $1.5 billion to help provide school meals during supply chain crunch

By Christopher Walljasper

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. Agriculture Department is providing up to $1.5 billion to help school meal programs weather the supply chain crunch, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Friday.

Procuring large amounts of food has become difficult because of delays in shipments, a lack of certain products, high food costs and labor shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic.

USDA is tapping the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) for funding, providing $1 billion for schools to purchase food for their meal programs and another $500 million for the purchase of local foods to be distributed to schools, Vilsack said.

“This will result in a 5% increase in what school districts normally have available,” Vilsack said at Gourmet Gorilla, a food service company that prepares 40,000 meals to schools in the Chicago area.

The 1930s-era CCC has generally been tapped to provide subsidies for farmers, and gives USDA broad authority to make direct payments to growers when crop prices are low.

The number of Americans without enough food to eat remains higher than before the pandemic, and the Biden administration has sought to ramp up funding for food stamps and school meal programs.

The funds should be available starting in January.

(Reporting by Christopher Walljasper; Writing by Caroline Stauffer and Mark Porter)

CDC releases new guidance to allow children exposed to coronavirus to attend school

By Nandita Bose and Carl O’Donnell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new strategy called “test-to-stay” that allows unvaccinated children to stay in school even if they have been exposed to the coronavirus, agency Director Rochelle Walensky said on Friday.

“If exposed children meet a certain criteria and continue to test negative, they can stay at school instead of quarantining at home,” Walensky said during a press briefing.

Some states are already advising their schools to use “test-to-stay” strategies in order to keep more children in class.

Schools must test their students twice a week to implement the test-to-stay strategy, Walensky said, adding that many schools already meet that standard.

The new guidance comes as the Omicron variant continues to spread in the United States. More than 39 states and 75 countries have reported cases of the new variant, which is highly contagious and infects vaccinated people at elevated rates.

“We expect it to become the dominant strain in the United States, as it has in other countries, in the coming weeks, Walensky said.

Some data has suggested that cases of Omicron are less severe than past variants, but top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said the severity of the new variant is “still up in the air.”

Fauci said that third booster shots of currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines provide increased protection against Omicron. He said there has been no decision yet on whether to encourage people to get boosted sooner than six months after their initial inoculations.

(Reporting by Carl O’Donnell and Nandita Bose in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Russia demands NATO roll back from East Europe and stay out of Ukraine

By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Tom Balmforth

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Friday it wanted a legally binding guarantee that NATO would give up any military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine, part of a wish list of security guarantees it wants to negotiate with the West.

Moscow for the first time laid out in detail demands that it says are essential for lowering tensions in Europe and defusing a crisis over Ukraine, which Western countries have accused Russia of sizing up for a potential invasion after building up troops near the border. Russia has denied planning an invasion.

The demands contain elements – such as an effective Russian veto on NATO membership for Ukraine – that the West has already ruled out.

Others would imply the removal of U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe and the withdrawal of multinational NATO battalions from Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that were once in the Soviet Union.

In Washington, a senior administration official said the United States was prepared to discuss the proposals but added: “That said, there are some things in those documents that the Russians know are unacceptable.”

The official said Washington would respond some time next week with more concrete proposals on the format of any talks.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Washington would talk to its allies. “We will not compromise the key principles on which European security is built, including that all countries have the right to decide their own future and foreign policy, free from outside interference,” she said.

NATO diplomats told Reuters that Russia cannot have a veto on further alliance expansion and NATO has the right to decide its own military posture.

“Russia is not a member of NATO and doesn’t decide on matters related to NATO,” Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lukasz Jasina said.

‘SMOKESCREEN’

Some Western political analysts suggested Russia was knowingly presenting unrealistic demands which it knew would not be met to provide a diplomatic distraction while maintaining military pressure on Ukraine.

“Something is very wrong with this picture, the pol(itical) side appears to be a smokescreen,” Michael Kofman, a Russia specialist at Virginia-based research organization CNA, wrote on Twitter.

Sam Greene, professor of Russian politics at King’s College London, said President Vladimir Putin was “drawing a line around the post-Soviet space and planting a ‘keep out’ sign”.

“It’s not meant to be a treaty: it’s a declaration,” he said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean this is a prelude to war. It’s a justification for keeping Moscow’s hair-trigger stance, in order to keep Washington and others off balance.”

Presenting Moscow’s demands, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia and the West must start from a clean sheet in rebuilding relations.

“The line pursued by the United States and NATO over recent years to aggressively escalate the security situation is absolutely unacceptable and extremely dangerous,” he told reporters.

Ryabkov said Russia was not willing to put up with the current situation any longer, and urged Washington to come up with a constructive response fast.

He said Russia was ready to start talks as soon as Saturday, with Geneva a possible venue, but Russian news agency TASS quoted him as saying later that Moscow was extremely disappointed by the signals coming from Washington and NATO.

TROOP BUILD-UP

Moscow handed over its proposals to the United States this week as tensions rose over the Russian troop build-up near Ukraine.

It says it is responding to what it sees as threats to its own security from Ukraine’s increasingly close relations with NATO and aspirations to become an alliance member, even though there is no imminent prospect of Kyiv being allowed to join.

The Russian proposals were set out in two documents – a draft agreement with NATO countries and a draft treaty with the United States, both published by the foreign ministry.

The first, among other points, would require Russia and NATO not to deploy additional troops and weapons outside the countries where they were in May 1997 – before the accession to NATO of any of the former communist states in East Europe that for decades were dominated by Moscow. It would mean NATO abandoning any military activities in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The treaty with the United States would prevent Moscow and Washington from deploying nuclear weapons outside their national territories. That would mean an end to NATO’s so-called nuclear-sharing arrangements, where European NATO members provide aircraft capable of delivering U.S. nuclear weapons.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Osborn, Vladimir Soldatkin and Maxim Rodionov in Moscow, Robin Emmott in Brussels, Joanna Plucinska in Warsaw, Steve Holland in Washington and Trevor Hunnicutt aboard Air Force One; Writing by Mark Trevelyan, Editing by Timothy Heritage)