AP Journalist

Sydney has declared an emergency due to ongoing Covid-19 outbreak while the government has now extended a ban on the travel bubble across the nation for atleast eight weeks.  This means it has suspended all travel from Australia too.

The Delta variant is said to be spreading precariously everywhere. A formal statement by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says that “We have always said that our response would evolve as the virus evolved. This is not a decision we have taken lightly, but it is the right decision to keep New Zealanders safe.”

The travel bubble was a concept that has been used in Asia and UK as well. It has now been paused for New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia too.

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Scheduled airline capacity between Australia and New Zealand had gone up by 44 percent in 2019, according to authentic data shared by aviation analytics firm Cirium. This was well below the initial forecasts of more than 70 percent.

Initially, the travel bubble was introduced as a test free and quarantine free arrangement between the countries. But with New Zealand introducing the testing requirements, the travel plans have become expensive to and fro.

The New Zealand government said for the next week there will be managed return flights for New Zealanders from all Australian states and territories that will require proof of a negative pre-departure test. Passengers arriving from Sydney will be required to spend two weeks in government-managed quarantine. The new Delta variant is becoming tougher to deal with and is spreading much faster than the previous ones. Air bubble travel arrangements have not yielded the results as expected as countries have changed and altered travel guidelines frequently. Travel link between Singapore and Hong Kong, first mooted last year, has never actually gotten underway. Talks between Australia and Singapore are still ongoing as well.

 Cuba’s communist government had imposed severe crackdown on anti-government protests, threatening human rights of the protesters in the biggest demonstrations in the country in decades. United States of America has imposed sanctions at Cuban security minister and an interior ministry special forces unit for carrying out human rights abuses against backdrop of protests.

This is also the first major step taken by Biden administration to pressurize Cuba’s government, reiterating calls from Cuban American community and US lawmakers to support the protests across island.

Biden in no mood to go softer on Cuba

The sanctions and the rapidity of them is indicative that Biden may not go easy on Cuba, very much like his predecessor Donald Trump. “This is just the beginning,” Biden said in a statement.

“The United States will continue to sanction individuals responsible for oppression of the Cuban people,” he said.

Bruno Rodriguez, Foreign Minister of Cuba, took on to Twitter to share his displeasure on US’s action. He expressed his rejection of sanctions calling the allegations “unfounded and slanderous”. He in turn asked US to apply the sanctions on itself for “systematic repression and police brutality”.

I refute the unfounded & slanderous US gov. sanctions against Army Corp Gral Alvaro López Miera and the National Special Brigade.

It should rather apply unto itself the Magnitsky Global Act for systematic repression & police brutality that took the lives of 1021 persons in 2020.

— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) July 22, 2021

The sanctions have been imposed on an entire interior ministry security unit and on Gen Alvaro López Miera, minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. The US treasury department described him as leader of an entity “whose members have engaged in serious human rights abuse”.

White House said that it is looking at ways to ease humanitarian plight of people of Cuba. On Thursday President Biden said that the government is looking ways to help Cuban people regain access of internet services after Havana restricted social media and messaging platforms access.

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“We will work closely with our partners throughout the region, including the Organization of American States, to pressure the regime,” Biden said.

Cuba’s historic protests against communist government

Last week thousands of Cubans took on to streets protesting against economic crisis in the country led by power outages and lack of basic goods. Hundreds of activists were detained as they also protested over curbed civil freedom in the country.

The sanctions are imposed under Global Magnitsky Act that is used to punish violators of human rights. The sanctions include freezing of US assets and ban on travel to US.

 Following longest electoral count in 40 years, Peru has its next President. Pedro Castillo, a teacher in rural Peru turned politician has been declared the winner of Presidential election in the South American country.

President-elect Pedro Castillo addressed the country in his first comments after the win and called for unity on a national front. He said, “I ask for effort and sacrifice in the struggle to make this a just and sovereign country.”

The final vote count of presidential election was declared in a televised ceremony on Monday, a month after the election was conducted nationwide. Castillo defeated Keiko Fujimori, the right wing politician, by 44,000 votes. After the final declaration of Castillo’s win, his supporters came out on the streets chanting “Yes, we could.” Castillo had major support from the rural and poor citizens of Peru.

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On July 28, Pedro Castillo will officially take the office as leader of Peru, the world’s second largest producer of copper, for five year term.

Castillo – Representative of Peru’s common man

Pedro Castillo, 51 year old former school teacher, emerged as the voice of Peru’s common man and rural population. As he decided to run for the presidential election, his one of the main agenda was to redraft the country’s constitution as well as increase taxes for the mining firms. But as he neared win and in weeks leading to formal announcement of results, his outlook turned into a more market friendly approach.

Castillo during his campaign popularized the phrase “No more poor in a rich country”. Peru’s economy has witnessed increasing downfall during the coronavirus pandemic. Poverty in the South American country has reached to cover one-third of population. Castillo has also promised to utilize revenues from mining industry to improve public services like health and education.

Castillo is the first ever peasant to be elected as President of Peru. Until now Indigenous people were the people at least receiving end of already depleted public services.

Fujimori said on Monday that she would accept the official election result. “I am going to recognise the results because it is what the law and the constitution that I have sworn to defend, mandates. The truth is going to come out anyway,” she said.

It started in 2016 and has now emerged as a dangerous health hazard- the Havana Syndrome. Recent reports claim that the Havana Syndrome is again affecting people in the US adversely, especially CIA operatives and others connected to the government and allied bodies.

Working through energy devises, the syndrome leaves people listening to high- and low-pitched sounds apart from feeling other strange physical symptoms. It has led to unexplained brain injuries to diplomats, spies and other government workers at home and abroad. Biden administration is trying to ascertain why the victims were potentially targeted, according to one current and two former officials?

Some US officials feel the Havana Syndrome which has till date affected 200 people, could be an unintentional byproduct of intelligence gathering tactics from other countries. However, a leading theory is saying that strong electromagnetic waves travelling through devices that extract information from mobile phones or laptops could be adversely affecting US citizens.

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The vast majority of the victims were overseas when they came down with the unusual symptoms. But in a previously undisclosed case, a former Defense Department employee came forward in the past month reporting symptoms that developed late last year while the person was in the Washington area, according to the officials.

Some 130 people have recently come forward with symptoms of hearing impairment, mental disturbance, brain injuries and disorientation. Of these 60-80 of them were all from the U.S. Defense Department. There are possible indications that Russia could be behind these attacks over civilians, but there isn’t any conclusive evidence to prove so.

In the most recent attempt by lawmakers to address the situation, the Senate on Monday passed legislation titled the Havana Act that would authorize the CIA and the State Department to make financial payments to workers who suffer related injuries to the brain. Among the sponsors of the legislation are the Democratic and Republican co-chairs of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has received classified briefings from administration officials about the ongoing threat.

The newly established CIA’s Havana Syndrome task force will be led by the man who was instrumental in hunting down Bin Laden. According to an official statement the intelligence veteran “will bring that same intensity” to the hunt for the source of the health incidents that have plagued diplomats.