Russia and China have opposed a candidate from Fiji seen as a staunch human rights defender to lead the top U.N. rights body, diplomats and observers say, creating a deadlock just as Washington may seek to rejoin the forum it quit in 2018.

The Human Rights Council presidency rotates annually between regions and is usually agreed by consensus, with any contests typically resolved quickly and cordially, diplomats say.

The impasse means the council, the only intergovernmental global body to promote and protect human rights worldwide, is set to resume work in Geneva next week with no leader for the first time in its 15-year history.

While its decisions are not legally binding, they carry political weight and can authorise probes into violations.

The infighting points to a high-stakes game where powers are seeking to pre-emptively counter future influence of the United States, which could rejoin the body under President-elect Joe Biden, Marc Limon of the Universal Rights Group think-tank said.

“Neither China nor Russia want a human rights-friendly country to hold the presidency in a year where the U.S. will probably re-engage with the council,” he said.

Russia, China and Saudi Arabia — sometimes acting through proxies — have opposed the selection of Fiji’s ambassador, Nazhat Shameem Khan, or thrown their weight behind other last-minute candidates, observers and two diplomats said.

“It’s understood that Saudi Arabia, China and Russia were all supportive of a Bahraini candidacy and opposed to a Fijian candidacy,” said Phil Lynch, director of the International Service for Human Rights, citing Fiji’s record, with Khan backing probes into abuses in Belarus and Yemen last year.

The NGO is accredited to the council and takes part in debates.

A Chinese diplomat said on Friday he would be “happy to see any of these candidates as president”.

The diplomatic missions for Fiji, Russia and Saudi Arabia did not respond to requests for comment.

Khan has not stepped aside and alternative candidates from Bahrain and Uzbekistan put forward since December have also faced opposition, diplomats said.

“This mess potentially strengthens those voices that argue HRC is anti-democratic, dysfunctional etc, and U.S. should not re-engage (or insist on big reforms as price for doing so),” said the International Crisis Group’s Richard Gowan.

A review that could prompt reforms of the forum is pending.

Currently, members have to be elected onto the 47-member council to vote in it – but that may be one of the subjects considered in any reform. China and Russia both return to the council this year.

The council president has limited powers although some say the role has become increasingly political.

The president does, however, appoint independent experts, such as the one who led an inquiry into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Attempts by Oman, last year’s Asia-Pacific group coordinator, to resolve the matter via secret ballot hit Qatari opposition, creating a deadlock one diplomat called “a mess”.

One way to resolve the impasse might be a vote at the council next week, diplomats say. (Reuters/NAN)

London declared emergency on coronavirus on Friday, as its hospitals were at risk of being overwhelmed by a highly transmissible variant of the virus racing “out of control” across the UK.

Britain has the world’s fifth worst official death toll from COVID-19 at over 78,000, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has shuttered the economy and rushed out vaccines faster than its neighbours in a bid to stem the pandemic.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, from the opposition Labour Party, said hospital beds in the capital would run out within the next few weeks because the spread of the virus was “out of control”:

“We are declaring a major incident because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point.”

London, which vies with Paris for the status of Europe’s richest city, has a population of over 9 million.

The designation of “major incident” is usually reserved for attacks or grave accidents, notably those likely to involve “serious harm, damage, disruption or risk to human life or welfare, essential services, the environment or national security”.

London’s last “major incident” was the Grenfell Tower fire in a high-rise residential block in 2017, when 72 people died.

Khan said there were parts of London where 1 in 20 people had the virus. The pressure on the ambulance service, which was now dealing with up to 9,000 emergency calls a day, meant firefighters were being drafted in to drive vehicles, and police officers would follow.

The Office for National Statistics estimated that 1.1 million people in England had the coronavirus in the week to Jan. 2, the equivalent of one person in 50.

Britain, the first country to approve vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca, on Friday approved Moderna’s shot, hoping to begin administering it this spring.

It also agreed to purchase an additional 10 million doses.

However, minister for transportation, Grant Shapps said there were fears that some vaccines might not work properly against a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in South Africa.

“This is a very big concern for the scientists,” he told LBC radio.

A laboratory study by the U.S. drugmaker Pfizer, not yet peer-reviewed, indicated that the vaccine it is making, developed by Germany’s BioNTech, does work against one key mutation in the new variants found in Britain and South Africa. (Reuters/NAN)

Gail Halvorsen, the U.S. pilot who was known and loved by German children in the late 1940s as the Candy Bomber, has mostly recovered from the coronavirus, his daughter said.

Halvorsen, who lives in the western state of Utah and turned 100 years old earlier this year, has a cough but is otherwise doing “very well,” Denise Williams said on Thursday.

“He seems almost back to his normal 100-year-old self,” she said, adding that he was grateful for all the get-well messages, including many from Germany.

He caught the virus in December.

Halvorsen became famous a few years after the end of World War II, when Soviet troops cut off ground access to West Berlin and its two million residents.

From June 1948 to May 1949, U.S, British and Allied pilots made nearly 280,000 deliveries of groceries and supplies by air.

That included candy.

It was Halvorsen’s idea to drop sweets for the children during the Soviet blockade, and he soon became the face of the Berlin Airlift.

The idea came to him after encountering a group of children gathered behind a barbed-wire fence at the city’s Tempelhof Airport.

He gave them chewing gum and, seeing them share it, promised to drop enough for all of them.

He tied together chocolate bars and chewing gum in small bundles attached to handkerchiefs that fell like parachutes.

Planes were landing every two minutes, but as a sign, he wiggled the wings of his aircraft.

Word of the drops spread quickly through bombed-out Berlin, earning him the nickname Uncle Wiggly Wings, or the Candy Bomber.

Halvorsen’s sweet gesture was the best advertisement for the Berlin Airlift and helped promote German-U.S. friendship.

He and his comrades dropped more than 23 tons of chocolate and candy over several months. (dpa/NAN)

Impeachment
U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin have discussed invoking the 25th Amendment of the U.S. constitution to impeach outgoing President Donald Trump, CNBC reported, citing sources.

On Thursday, U.S House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for Trump’s removal from the office by invoking the 25th Amendment for inciting violence at protests on Capitol Hill the day before.

This procedure requires the involvement of the vice president and most cabinet members.

According to CNBC, citing three sources, Pompeo and Mnuchin have discussed the matter with their respective agencies and came to the conclusion that the process would take longer than Trump is supposed to remain in the office before Joe Biden is sworn in, so no immediate effect should be expected.

“The general plan now is to let the clock run out,” the broadcaster quoted a former senior administration official aware of the discussions as saying.

“There will be a reckoning for this president, but it doesn’t need to happen in the next 13 days.”

Additionally, it is not clear whether the secretaries in an acting capacity would be let cast a vote in the process, it was reportedly pointed out at the exploratory talks.

According to the report, Pompeo and Mnuchin also had concerns that forcing Trump from office now could make him a hero of the far-right, doing more long-term harm than short-term good.

The 25th Amendment allows for a temporary or permanent transfer of power from the U.S. president to vice president if the majority of cabinet members certify to the congress that the president is unable to perform his duties. (Sputnik/NAN)

The U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) has confirmed the death of the officer who was injured during a violent riot in support of President Donald Trump at the Capitol building on Wednesday.

CNN previously reported, citing sources, that an officer involved in dispersing the pro-Trump riot had died, however USCP initially refuted this information.

“At approximately 9:30 p.m. [02:30 GMT on Friday] this evening (January 7, 2021), U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty.

“Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday, Jan. 6, at the U.S. Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters,” the statement said.

This is the fifth victim related to the protests in Washington.

Earlier, it became known that U.S. Air Force veteran Ashley Babbitt, a strong supporter of Trump, had been fatally shot by police during the raid on the Capitol.

Trump’s supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday in a bid to prevent Congress from certifying the election results.

The protesters attacked police with metal pipes and chemical irritants, damaged property, seized the inauguration stage and occupied the rotunda inside the Capitol building.

The attack came after Trump urged his supporters to keep fighting to overturn the election results.

On Thursday, Trump said that he was “outraged” by the violent riot at the Capitol and confirmed that he was working to ensure a smooth transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden and his administration. (Sputnik/NAN)

Outgoing U.S President Donald Trump said he was “outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem” after a group of his supporters stormed the Capitol and forced a halt to a Congressional joint sitting.

Trump said demonstrators “defiled the seat of democracy” and added “to those who broke the law, you will pay,” in a video posted on Twitter.

Trump did not acknowledge his role in riling up his supporters with with baseless allegations of election fraud and encouraging them to march to the Capitol.

He promised a smooth transition to president-elect Joe Biden, who defeated him in November’s presidential election.

“Now Congress has certified the results, a new administration will be inaugurated on Jan. 20.

“My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power,” he said.

However, in a message to his “wonderful supporters,” Trump added “I know you are disappointed but I also want you to know that our incredible journey is only just beginning.”

The Democratic leaders in Congress, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, demanded that Vice President Mike Pence remove Trump under the Constitution’s 25th Amendment.

The calls were echoed by a Republican governor, a Republican lawmaker and numerous House Democrats.

“If the vice president and Cabinet do not act, the Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment,” Pelosi told a press conference.

Trump was impeached in 2019, but the Senate cleared him of charges last year.

U.S Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao became the first Cabinet official to announce their resignation following the attack on the U.S Capitol.

Chao, who is the wife of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, said the “traumatic and entirely avoidable event” had “deeply troubled” her.

Deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger quit following the resignations of multiple administration officials.

Late on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany condemned the violence that took place on behalf of President Donald Trump and the entire White House.

Trump had earlier issued a statement via his social media director saying there would be an orderly transition, the first time he made such comments since the election.

Social media giant Facebook banned Trump from his accounts indefinitely, citing his intent to “undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power.”

Twitter had locked Trump’s account on Wednesday, though he was able to post from it nearly 24 hours later.

U.S. lawmakers finally certified Biden’s election win in the early hours of Thursday.

The joint session of Congress had been abruptly halted hours earlier after rioters breached both chambers of the Capitol building, forcing lawmakers to flee and hunker down until the siege ended.

One woman was shot and killed by Capitol police during the assault, the force said in a statement.

Authorities said three others died in separate medical emergencies.

Police say they arrested 68 people.

U.S. Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said some participants in the violence at the U.S. Capitol would charged on Thursday and authorities would make more arrests in the coming days.

The Justice Department would ensure that “those responsible for this attack on our government and the rule of law face the full consequences of their actions under the law,” he added.

The U.S. Attorney’s office, in conjunction with the Justice Department’s counter-terrorism division, had so far charged 40 cases, officials said.

The majority of those deal with unlawful entry on the Capitol grounds, while a small handful are assault cases. Eight of the cases were also firearm cases.

Fifteen federal cases will also be filed later in the day.

One man was arrested by federal agents with a military semi-automatic rifle and 11 Molotov cocktails, according to officials at the Department of Justice.

A 2-metre-tall fence was being erected around the U.S. Capitol as of Thursday and will stay in place for the next 30 days, including for Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

More National Guard troops from other states were being deployed to Washington.

The FBI was seeking tips on identifying rioters.

Amid criticism about how security failures allowed the mob to swarm the building, House Speaker Pelosi said she was seeking the resignation of Capitol police chief Steven Sund.

Sund defended his force, which is dedicated to protecting the Capitol grounds, saying officers’ response was “heroic” in the face of “criminal riotous behaviour.”

They were attacked by the rioters with metal pipes and chemical irritants, he said.

After the House and Senate reconvened, McConnell condemned the ransacking of the Capitol as a “failed insurrection.”

Although several Republican senators who had planned to raise objections to the counting of votes in states won by Biden changed course after the attack, two challenges were still put forward.

The moves caused lengthy delays to the certification process, but both challenges were ultimately rejected.

Longtime Trump loyalists including McConnell and Pence rebuffed the president’s demands to block the certification of the election.

The violence around Congress was criticized by leaders around the world. (dpa/NAN)

The United States (U.S.) reported more than 4,000 Coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths in one day for the first time on Thursday, as health systems struggle to cope with the number of sick and dying patients.

A total of 4,033 people died in connection with the disease within 24 hours, according to the COVID-19 Tracking Project.

The country has seen a total of 365,000 deaths linked to the coronavirus so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins university, out of a population of 330 million people.

On Thursday more than 266,000 new cases were reported, bringing the total tally to not less than 21.6 million cases.

Case numbers are particularly high in the state of California and in Los Angeles County, where more than 1 in 5 test results are coming back positive.

No other country comes close to as many confirmed coronavirus cases in terms of absolute numbers.

In India, there are 10.3 million confirmed cases, while in Brazil, 7.9 million have been counted.

Experts also assume there are a high number of unreported coronavirus cases in most countries. (dpa/NAN)