The World Health Organization (WHO) Europe on Friday called for schools to stay open – with appropriate measures in place – as the region reported four straight weeks of growing COVID-19 transmission.

The WHO said the Europe region, extending from Greenland in the northwest to the Russian Far East, accounted for 57% of new cases worldwide in the third week of October.

"Last year's widespread school closures, disrupting the education of millions of children and adolescents, did more harm than good, especially to children's mental and social well-being. We can't repeat the same mistakes," said Dr. Hans Kluge, regional director for WHO Europe.

Last week, with winter approaching, more than half of the European region's 53 countries reported a marked increase in COVID-19 infection rates across all age groups.

While new cases rose 18% in the region, WHO's five other regions reported a decline.

A total of 45 countries and territories recommend that schools remain open for in-person learning with infection prevention and control.

Seven countries opted for full or partial school closures, either at a national or sub-national level, while two recommend distance learning.

Last closed, first open

WHO Europe said if and when restrictions are imposed to decrease or control transmission, schools should be the last places to shut their doors and the first to reopen.

"To reduce the impact of COVID-19 in the coming months, it is vital that decisions by governments and the public alike are based on data and evidence, with the understanding that the epidemiological situation can change and that our behavior must change with it," said Kluge.

"Science must trump politics; the long-term interests of children must remain a priority, especially now that several countries are seeing a spike in transmission. We have more efficient tools to address this spike than closing schools."

WHO Europe quoted Julie Green, a head teacher who works with children age 4 to 11 in Lancashire, England, who supported Kluge's stance.

"Returning to school with face-to-face learning from their teachers has been the one certainty for many children during an uncertain time," said Green.

"As an educator and a mother, I believe that children learn best in the classroom."

She said the pandemic is not over, and measures to keep children and teachers as safe from the virus as possible must stay in place, but schools should remain open for the sake of children's learning and overall development.

The WHO recommends the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children age 12-17. For children under 12, WHO will issue further guidance on the use of vaccines as and when new evidence from vaccine trials emerges.

To date, 76 million cases of COVID-19, and 1.4 million deaths, have been reported in the WHO European Region.

Worldwide, WHO said it has recorded nearly 245 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and is approaching 5 million deaths, while 6.69 billion vaccine doses have been administered./aa

The PKK/YPG terrorist group aims to create an atmosphere of “chaos and disorder” with its bomb attacks mostly against civilians in northern Syria, according to a report published by an Ankara-based policy think-tank.

Turkey’s Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) published the report titled “The Logic of YPG Car Bomb Attacks in Syria - A Strategy of Chaos and Disorder” by analysts Omer Ozkizilcik and Kutluhan Gorucu.

The report examined 26 suicide attacks and 51 car bombings by the PKK in Turkey between 2014-2018 as well as 192 car bombings by the YPG in areas controlled by the Syrian interim government between 2018-2021.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is its Syrian branch.

According to the report, in the 192 YPG car bombings in Syria, a total of 372 people were killed and 1,287 others were wounded. Only 25 YPG car bombings occurred without any casualties, while the peak in deaths was recorded in April last year, with 42 casualties, the report added.

3 goals of terrorist attacks

“The use of car bombs has been a concerted YPG strategy since Operation Olive Branch was conducted by the Syrian National Army and the Turkish Armed Forces,” the report said.

“The strategy of the YPG terror campaign aims to create chaos and disorder,” it noted.

According to the report, by doing so, the YPG has three goals.

First, it aims “to force the governing body to implement harsher security measures and drive the people away from governance.”

The second is “to prevent the return of Syrians to Syria in order to preserve their prospect of a Marxist Kurdish statelet in northern Syria reaching from Iraq to the Mediterranean.”

And lastly, it aims “to portray their areas as relatively more secure than the areas held by the Syrian interim government.”

The report also highlighted that “to understand the reasoning and motives of the YPG attacks against the areas of the Syrian interim government in northern Syria, one has to look into the reasoning behind the PKK’s attacks in Turkey.”

Suicide attacks and car bombings in Turkey between 2014-2018

According to the report, “the two suicide attacks by female YPG members Arin Mirkan and Avesta Khabur are significant events that indicate a change in the PKK/YPG’s strategy.”

The report points out that Mirkan detonated herself with a grenade as she ran towards Daesh/ISIS militants during clashes between the YPG and Daesh/ISIS in 2014.

In 2018, “to stop the offensive by the Syrian National Army and the Turkish Armed Forces, Avesta Khabur infiltrated a military position and blew herself up.”

“Before the suicide attack by Mirkan, the PKK had not used the method of suicide terror for two years,” the report noted. “The last suicide attack by the PKK in Turkey or anywhere else before Mirkan’s suicide attack was recorded on Sept. 9, 2012. However, with Mirkan, the PKK restarted to employ suicide terror methods and car bomb attacks.”

Supported by statements from various news outlets that both actions were praised and exemplary attacks by the PKK/YPG, the report shared the information that the PKK carried out 26 suicide attacks and 51 car bombings in Turkey between 2014 and 2018.

The report also shared information from news sources on how the two attacks were praised by the terrorist group and added that the PKK conducted 26 suicide attacks in Turkey between 2014-2018.

“In these attacks, the PKK killed 45 soldiers, 62 police officers, two village guards and 77 civilians and wounded 149 soldiers, 260 police officers and 617 civilians,” it added.

The report also pointed out that in June 2018, “shortly after Khabur’s suicide attack and the resolution of the military situation in Afrin with the successful conclusion of Operation Olive
Branch, the YPG started to employ car bomb attacks as a strategy.”

According to the report, since Khabur’s attack, the “PKK has not conducted or been able to conduct a single terrorist attack with a car bomb, a suicide vest, or suicide car bombing in Turkey.”

Attacks in places where internally displaced people settled

The report focuses on attacks in northern Syria between 2018-2021.

The YPG carries out bomb attacks almost every six days in the region. “This timeline of car bomb attacks saw its peak in July 2019. In a single month, the YPG conducted 18 car bomb attacks,” the report said.

“When it comes to the geographical density and geographical targets of the car bomb attacks, one notices first that the attacks are limited to the areas of the Syrian interim government where the Syrian National Army and the Turkish Armed Forces launched three separate military operations,” according to the report.

“Among the most preferred target sites are Afrin, al-Bab, Ras al-Ayn, Azaz and Jarablus,” it added. “The focus on these four towns is an additional indicator that the YPG is behind these attacks.”

According to the report, “from the 192 attacks, 177 targeted the civilian/social sphere. While seven targets remain unknown, only eight were against the military, police or Syrian officials.”

These attack locations draw attention as places where internally displaced people are densely settled.

The report also called on the international media “to take responsibility.”

“The YPG is a terror group that values its international image and explicitly targets the international media with its propaganda,” it said.

“Until now, the international media have either ignored the car bombs or have described them as acts without culprits. Media coverage without naming those responsible or media ignorance on this topic has encouraged the YPG to continue its terror campaign.”/aa

Facebook announced Thursday it is changing its name to Meta as it continues to face a growing litany of controversies.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the change at a company tech event, noting Meta will unite Facebook's apps and technologies, including Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook and its Oculus virtual reality division in what he described as a "metaverse."

"Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses," the firm said in a statement.

"The metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together — and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world," it added.

Zuckerberg emphasized the virtual reality nature of the metaverse in a letter shared by Meta, saying, "The next platform will be even more immersive — an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it."

The metaverse, Zuckerberg wrote, "will touch every product we build."

"You’ll move across these experiences on different devices — augmented reality glasses to stay present in the physical world, virtual reality to be fully immersed, and phones and computers to jump in from existing platforms," he said. "This isn’t about spending more time on screens; it’s about making the time we already spend better."

The name change and emphasis on virtual reality come as the company finds itself in the thick of damning revelations being exposed in what has become known as the Facebook Papers.

The trove of documents leaked by a former staffer have exposed repeated instances where the company turned a blind eye to problems its platforms have caused or worsened worldwide, from teenage anxiety and depression to misinformation.

Frances Haugen, the ex-Facebook-product-manager-turned-critic who leaked the internal documents to the Wall Street Journal, told lawmakers on Oct. 5 that "congressional action is needed" to rein in the firm.

"Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy. The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won't make the necessary changes, because they've put their astronomical profits before people," she said in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

"The choices being made inside Facebook are disastrous for our children, for our public safety, for our privacy, and for our democracy. And that is why we must demand Facebook make changes," she added./agencies

US President Joe Biden unveiled details of his $1.75 trillion Build Back Better framework for social and climate spending bill at a news conference Thursday at the White House.

"After months of tough negotiations, we have a strong and historic economic framework," he said, which will create millions of jobs, grow the economy, invest in people and turn the climate crisis into an opportunity to win the economic competition of the 21st century.

"It's fiscally responsible, it's fully paid for. 17 Nobel prize winners in economics have said it will lower the inflationary pressures on the economy. Over the next 10 years, it will not add to the deficit at all. It will actually reduce the deficit," he added.

Biden said American infrastructure used to be considered the best in the world, but it is ranked 13th today by the World Economic Forum.

American education is ranked 35th of 37 major countries by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in early childhood education.

"We need to build America from the bottom up and the middle, not from the top-down," he said.

Biden said millions of Americans are in "the so-called sandwich generation," who feel financially squeezed by raising a child and caring for an aging parent.

"About 820,000 seniors in America and people with disabilities have applied for Medicaid to get home care," he said. "We are going to expand services for seniors."

Biden noted that the US used to rank seventh among advanced economies 30 years ago in the share of working women, but today it is 23rd.

"Today, there are nearly two million women in America not working simply because they cannot afford childcare," he said, noting that families spend on average $11,000 - $14,500 per year on childcare.

"We are going to make sure all families earning less than $300,000 a year will pay no more than 7% of their income in childcare. And, for a family making a $100,000 a year, that will save them more than $5,000 in childcare," he said.

The president said studies show that when 3- and 4-year-olds are put through school, the chances to earn a college degree, regardless of background, is increased to 47%.

On climate change, Biden said his framework will reduce more than 1 billion metric tons of emission, which will provide up to a 52% emission reduction by 2030.

It will include tax credits for individuals to use less energy at home, solar panels and help businesses produce more clean energy, he said.

"Ninety-five percent of the 840,000 school buses in America run on diesel. Every day, more than 25 million children and thousands of bus drivers breathe polluted air on the way to and from their schools from diesel exhaust. We are going to replace thousands of these with electric school buses," he said. "We will build the first-ever national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations all across the country.”

In addition to electric vehicles, other environmental measures include solar panels, wind farms and credits for manufacturing, he said.

Biden stressed that extreme weather events cost the US $99 billion in damages last year.

Regarding transportation infrastructure, Biden said there are 45,000 bridges and 173,000 miles of roads that are in poor condition.

He said his framework will not increase taxes for anyone making less than $400,000 a year and argued that it would instead reduce the deficit.

"All I am asking is pay your fair share," he said, as he leaned toward the podium and repeated the phrase three times.

"Right now, many are paying virtually nothing. Last year, 55 most profitable corporations in America paid zero federal income tax of about $40 billion of profit," he said.

Biden said his framework will have a minimum tax of 15% on large corporations, noting that the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans are estimated to have evaded $160 billion annually in federal taxes.

"For much too long, working people of this nation and the middle-class of this country have been dealt out of the American deal. It is time to deal them back in," he said.

Details of framework

"For too long, the economy has worked great for those at the top, while working families continually get squeezed,” the White House said in a statement. "After hearing input from all sides and negotiating in good faith with Senators (Joe) Manchin and (Kyrsten) Sinema, Congressional Leadership, and a broad swath of Members of Congress, President Biden is announcing a framework for the Build Back Better Act," it said.

It said Biden is confident that the framework can pass both houses of Congress and he looks forward to signing it into law, adding he called on Congress to take up the bill, in addition to the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as quickly as possible.

The framework includes investment in children to deliver two years of free preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old, and give more than 35 million families a major tax cut by extending the expanded Child Tax Credit.

In the fight against climate change, the framework will cut greenhouse gas pollution well over 1 gigaton in 2030, reduce consumer energy costs and invest in a clean energy economy, from buildings, transportation, industry, electricity and agriculture to climate smart practices across lands and waters.

In health care, it aims to reduce premiums for more than 9 million Americans by extending the expanded Premium Tax Credit, deliver health care coverage for up to 4 million who are uninsured in states that have locked them out of Medicaid, and help older Americans access affordable hearing care by expanding Medicare.

The framework will also make comprehensive investments in affordable housing, expand access to high-quality education and cut taxes for 17 million low-wage workers, advance investments in maternal health, nutrition, community violence interventions, in addition to better preparation for future pandemics and supply chain disruptions.

Biden spoke to the House of Representatives Democratic Caucus early Thursday to provide an update about the Build Back Better agenda and the bipartisan Infrastructure Deal on Capitol Hill, which was closed to the media.

After the president entered the Capitol, he answered "yes" when asked if he had enough support to get progressive Democrats on board, saying "it’s a good day."

When a reporter asked if Senator Bernie Sanders was on board, Biden answered: "Everybody’s on board."

A few protesters outside were holding a sign that read "Biden keep your promises: We want to live."/aa

Victims and family members of a mass shooting at a Black church in 2015 by a white supremacist will receive $88 million in a settlement announced Thursday by the Justice Department.

The FBI admitted Dylan Roof should not have been able to buy a pistol, since he had a prior felony arrest for illegal drug use.

Then-FBI Director James Comey said a paperwork error on a background check when Roof was trying to buy the gun, allowed the sale.

Roof was 21 when participated in a Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in the state of South Carolina.

At the end of the session, he pulled out a pistol and shot 14 people, nine fatally. Roof later told investigators he held white supremacist views and targeted the church specifically because of its historically Black membership.

Then-President Barack Obama performed the eulogy for the victims.

Thursday's settlement will dole out anywhere from $5 million to $7.5 million to those who survived the shootings or the families of those killed.

Roof remains in prison where he is trying to appeal his death sentence.

The Justice Department said it has since strengthened its background check process.

It said the agency "hopes that these settlements, combined with its prosecution of the shooter, will bring some modicum of justice to the victims of this heinous act of hate."/agencies

The British government announced on Thursday that the remaining seven countries on its red travel list would be removed early on Monday.

After the change takes effect at 4 a.m. local time (0400GMT) on Monday, arrivals in the UK from Colombia, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Venezuela, and Ecuador will no longer have to pay to stay in a hotel for quarantine.

Announcing the decision, British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Twitter: "All seven remaining countries on the red list will be removed from Mon 1 Nov at 4am."

"We can also confirm that from Monday, eligible travellers from over 30 new countries and territories including Peru and Uganda will be added to our inbound vax policy, bringing the total number of countries on this list to over 135," said Shapps.

"We will keep the red list category in place as a precautionary measure to protect public health and are prepared to add countries and territories back if needed, as the UK's first line of defence."/aa

Russia uses natural gas as a political weapon against Moldova, the EU’s foreign policy chief said Thursday.

"In global terms, the price increases around the world are not a consequence of weaponization of the gas supply, but in the case of Moldova, yes it is," Josep Borrell said at a joint news conference alongside Moldova's Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita in Brussels.

Noting that Moscow exerts political pressure on Russian energy company, Gazprom, on natural gas prices, Borrell said Moldova and the EU have agreed to strengthen the resistance against the use of energy as a "political weapon.”

“Gas is a commodity, it’s being bought and sold, sold and bought, but it cannot be used as a geopolitical weapon,” he said.

He said the EU is ready to support Moldova to find a way out of the crisis.

Crisis between Moldova, Gazprom

An agreement has not yet been reached between Moldova and Gazprom on the extension of a natural gas contract, which expired Sept. 30.

The current agreement has been extended for one month, with Moldova buying 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas at $790 in October. In September, the same amount was purchased for $550.

The Moldovan Parliament approved the declaration of a state of emergency on Oct. 22 due to the natural gas shortage in the country.

Besides Gazprom, the administration in Moldova is negotiating with Romania, Ukraine and other countries on natural gas imports.

The Kremlin on Wednesday denied Gazprom was using gas talks with Chisinau to extract political concessions./aa

The University of California's Hastings law school is wrestling with the history of its founder and his legacy of mass killings of the state's Native Americans.

The reckoning comes amid a New York Times report into Serranus Hastings, one of the richest men in California in the 1800s, and his involvement in the masterminding of at least one trove of massacres against Yuki Indians in the Round Valley.

An analysis of the state's archives found that from the 1840s when California's gold rush began through the 1870s, 5,617 Native people were killed by sanctioned militias and US troops. That figure is an undercount with some deaths likely going uncounted in official records, and thousands more Indians being killed by vigilante groups.

The violent purges were done at the behest of white settlers who coveted the Indians’ land.

“It’s not an exaggeration to say that California state legislators established a state-sponsored killing machine,” Benjamin Madley, a University of California, Los Angeles history professor, told the Times.

Hastings’s state-sanctioned militia expeditions alone resulted in the deaths of at least 283 men, women and children, according to Madley's tally, making it the deadliest of California's two-dozen sanctioned militia campaigns.

Hastings would go on to donate $100,000 in gold coins to found Hastings’ College of the Law, and according to its enactment, the school was "to be forever known and designated as ‘Hastings’ College of the Law."

The school has become one of the most prestigious in the state and has educated high-profile alumni, including Vice President Kamala Harris.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has described the state's treatment of Native American tribes as genocide and formally apologized in 2019 when he formed a Truth and Healing Council.

Investigations into the massacres Hastings committed began in 2017 after John Briscoe, a northern California attorney, published an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle arguing that the Hastings law school should be renamed given its founder's history.

The school has responded in the interim by adopting a number of measures meant to establish some form of restorative justice, including providing pro bono legal assistance to all tribes in California's Round Valley, allocating space for a memorial in the school's main lobby and assisting in the formation of a charitable foundation, the Times reported.

Still, David Faigman, the chancellor and dean of Hastings Law, has resisted calls to rename the school, questioning the value of doing so, according to the Times, while maintaining that the final call ultimately rests with the state’s legislature and governor.

In a message to the school's community, Faigman said the New York Times' story "fairly explores the history of Serranus Hastings and the horrific acts he perpetrated in the 1850s in the Round Valley of Northern California."

"These acts were unforgivable at the time and are unforgivable today," he said.

But Faigman disputed the newspaper’s characterization of his position on changing the school's name, saying it "was not accurately represented in today’s news story."

"I and my colleagues have communicated regularly with elected officials in Sacramento about our efforts ... and made clear that if changing the name is something the College needs to do to bring restorative justice and there is legislative action to facilitate that change, I will engage with that process in earnest," he wrote.

"In the meantime, we continue to put our focus on what actions we can take now, with the direction of the Yuki People and RVIT," he added, referring to the Round Valley Indian Tribes (RVIT).

The Yuki people were eventually subsumed into the RVIT following decades of massacres and intermarriages with white settlers, as well as the forced relocation of seven other tribes to the Round Valley by the federal government, the Times reported.

That has led to disagreements about whom the school should be seeking to make amends -- the Yuki people or the RVIT.

Mona Oandasan, one of the Yuki tribes' leaders, said the school should not be negotiating with the RVIT, but with the tribe alone.

"As with any sovereign nation, there is no one unified voice of the RVIT, just as there is no one unified voice among the Yuki People, even on the issue of what to do with the name of the College," Faigman wrote.

"That said, we have made all efforts to work with the Yuki People and RVIT on restorative justice efforts that can effectuate real change for their communities. All of our efforts are at the pace, readiness, and interests of the Yuki People and, where relevant, the RVIT community," he added./agencies