World cinema is back at the French Riviera, as the city of Cannes is all geared up to host the COVID-safe 74th edition of the famed Cannes Film Festival with masked-up film personalities ascending the steps of the iconic Palais des Festivals.

After it was forced to host a scaled-down version last year amid the global lockdown, the festival is set to unveil its full itinerary of events including a new section called Cannes Premiere from July 6-17. American actor and director Jodie Foster will be the guest of honor kickstarting the opening ceremony.

This year, a total of 24 films are in the official competition vying for the prestigious Palme d'Or award. The competition will be judged by a jury that includes Mati Diop, Mylene Farmer, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hausner, Mélanie Laurent, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Tahar Rahim and Song Kang-ho and presided over by American director and actor Spike Lee, who was named president of the jury for the 2020 festival, which was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Over the weekend, the official poster of the festival graced by Lee’s upward bespectacled gaze surrounded by the ubiquitous palm trees that line the streets of Cannes was launched at the Palais des Festival theater, where the majority of the films are screened. Lee is the first black figure to be designated as the president of the jury. He arrived in the city on Sunday.

The festival, which is annually attended by over 45,000 people, is expected to witness lower attendance this year. Several international media and film professionals from Asia, Africa and Latin America are likely to miss the festival due to ongoing pandemic restrictions. The French government has classified the entry of tourists in the country based on vaccination and health conditions. Vaccinated citizens from Europe, the UK and the US can gain entry with ease, whereas nationals from India, Bangladesh, Brazil, Russia and South Africa, classified in the high-risk red list, will find it difficult to travel to Cannes.

The glitz and glamour at the iconic red carpet will also be a subdued affair, as for the first time in the history of the festival, film personalities will have to pose for the shutterbugs in masks. Keeping in mind the health restrictions and the progression of the Delta variant in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region, organizers have made masks obligatory for all participants at the festival in the entire festival premises, including inside theaters.

Participants are also required to carry a health pass -- a proof of vaccination or negative PCR/antigen test not older than 48 hours -- at the entrances to the Palais, either with a printout or using the French government’s Tousanticovid health app. The festival will also have a dedicated high-capacity laboratory onsite offering free PCR tests for all festival goers in case they fail to provide the valid form of proof of negative COVID-19 results. The negative test will need to be renewed every 48 hours while at the festival.

In addition to the official events and films at the Palais theater, Plage Mace beach on the Croisette will be the site of beach cinema, screening movies every evening for free for tourists and festival enthusiasts./aa

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed Monday that the lifting of nearly all remaining coronavirus restrictions in England will go ahead on July 19 despite a surge in the number of cases and warnings from senior scientists that doing so would threaten a deadly variant wave. 

Speaking at a press conference at Downing Street, Johnson announced that the government will change its position on how to advise the population in regards to the pandemic and instead of relying on social distancing rules to govern people’s behavior, it will allow people to decide for themselves on how to navigate the pandemic in social and public settings.

“As we come to the fourth step, we have to balance the risks -- the risks of the disease which the vaccines have reduced but very far from eliminated, and the risks of continuing with legally enforced restrictions that inevitably take their tolls on people’s lives, livelihoods, health and mental health. We must be honest with ourselves that if we can’t reopen our society in the next few weeks, when we will be helped by the arrival of summer and the school holidays, then we must ask ourselves when will we be able to return to normal?” Johnson said.

“To those who say we should delay again, the alternative to that is to open up in winter, when the virus will have an advantage, or not at all this year. And so again without pre-empting the decision on 12th July, let me set out today our five-point plan for living with COVID in the hope that it will give families and businesses time to prepare.”

Changes that will follow on Monday, July 19 include the allowance of fully vaccinated adults to travel to amber-list countries without having to self-isolate when they return, making the mandatory wearing of masks voluntary except in hospitals and other health care settings, no requirements for fully vaccinated adults to self-isolate if they have come into contact with an infected individual, and the ditching of the school bubble system which allowed pupils to quarantine at home if their peers tested positive for the virus.

Furthermore, customers at restaurants and pubs will no longer be required to check in on an NHS app and scan its QR code as per the track and trace system and the one-meter rule will no longer apply. Johnson also announced that all businesses can reopen in two weeks' time and workers will no longer be told to work from home.

Sajid Javid, the newly appointed health secretary, claimed that it would be impossible to fully stamp out the virus and, like the flu, people would have to learn to live with and find ways to cope with the virus.

Backlash, accusations of negligence

Scientific advisers and experts have reacted with shock and bewilderment over the government’s plans to reopen the country despite a rampant surge in the number of cases brought on by the deadly and highly transmissible Delta variant which are at the highest levels since January this year.

Stephen Reicher of Scotland's University of St. Andrews and a member of the government’s subcommittee on behavioral science spoke of the importance of having to wear a mask especially in settings where there are crowds and bad ventilation such as public transportation, busy shops and restaurants as well as nightclubs and festivals and has called out Javid for casually comparing the coronavirus to the flu.

“It is frightening to have a ‘health’ secretary who still thinks COVID is the flu. Who is unconcerned at levels of infection. Who doesn’t realize that those who do best for health also do best for the economy. Who wants to ditch all protections while only half of us are vaccinated,” Reicher said, as quoted by The Guardian.

Susan Michie, director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London (UCL) and a member of the same subcommittee as Reciter, accused the government of allowing a further surge in cases by reopening the country, arguing that the ditching of social distancing rules would aid in the building of “variant factories” across the country.

Speaking to Times Radio, Dr. Nikki Kanani, medical director of primary care of NHS England, has defended the continued use of wearing face masks and has argued that they have been effective in preventing the transmission of cases in public and social settings.

“One of the things that we know is masks work. If there is advice to keep wearing masks, I know I will, and I’ll be encouraging others to do so as well,” Kanani said./aa

Another hyper-violent weekend in the US city of Chicago has left 14 people dead and another 67 people wounded by gunfire, with yet hours to go before the three-day holiday ended.

By mid-day Monday, the total number of those shot included a 5-year-old girl and a 6-year-old shot in the same south-side neighborhood just hours apart.

In both instances, as it was most of the shootings, the victims were innocent bystanders in outdoor gatherings, caught in the crossfire of gang-related shootings on a very hot weekend.

Police Superintendent David Brown briefed reporters late Sunday night.

"As we've seen too many times," he said, "tragically, someone else is being targeted and the unintended target, an innocent child, is struck."

Also shot were two Chicago police officers who were trying to disperse a large crowd that had gathered to watch fireworks. The injuries to both officers were considered minor.

All this comes on the heels of the previous, shorter weekend, in which 77 people were shot, including 17 people shot in two mass shootings, and seven deaths.

Chicago has struggled with gang-and-gun violence for years, but the number of shooting victims, fatal or non-fatal, has jumped 12 % since this time last year, and data shows that more people in outdoor crowds are being shot than in previous years. Chicago police have been trying to balance how to leave outdoor crowds alone, against dispersing them out of shooting fears.

And even with some of the most restrictive guns laws in the nation, Chicago is plagued by illegal guns that flow from the neighboring, more permissive gun state of Indiana, right on its border.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is also blaming a pandemic-related slowdown in the justice system that allowed more gun offenders to slip through the legal cracks. And last week, she bemoaned the constant cycle of gang members on the hunt for quick "street justice" whenever there is a previous shooting, rather than letting the legal system play itself out.

"Their thirst for revenge," she said, "has no sense of decency."/agencies

A top terrorist of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) in Central Asia was nabbed abroad in an operation by Turkish intelligence, Turkey’s president said Monday.

Including Orhan Inandi, the latest capture, over 100 FETO terrorists have been brought back from abroad since the group’s defeated 2016 coup in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after a three-hour-plus Cabinet meeting at the presidential complex in the capital Ankara.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated July 15, 2016 coup in Turkey, which left 251 people dead and 2,734 injured.

Ankara accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

Turkey will continue efforts to fight and eliminate the FETO terror group, along with the terrorist PKK/YPG and Daesh/ISIS, Erdogan added.

“We have uncovered all the private structures and archives of the (FETO) organization in strategic institutions one by one,” he stressed.

Although the terror group stepped up its search for support abroad and campaigns against Turkey to stop its members from panicking, Erdogan said there is no safe place in the world for FETO terrorists.

Praising the efforts of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, he said several top Daesh/ISIS members have recently been arrested and sensitive documents captured.

Turning to the terrorist PKK, Erdogan said, “As a result of Turkey’s successful anti-terror operations, for the first time in its history, the PKK's so-called senior leaders cannot move, gather, or manage the organization in northern Iraq,” referring to a region near the Turkish border where the group often plans attacks.

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

COVID-19

On Turkey’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Erdogan urged everyone to get vaccinated to protect themselves, as well as their loved ones.

Until herd immunity is reached, everyone should follow mask, social distancing, and hygiene rules, he added.

Amid a nationwide fall in virus cases and an expedited inoculation drive, Turkey has entered a new normalization phase, lifting almost all virus-related restrictions.

But seeking to limit the spread of the virus' Delta variant, it has suspended flights from Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, passengers from the UK, Iran, Egypt, and Singapore are required to have a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours prior.​​​​​​​

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.98 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with nearly 184 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.

20% economic growth projected

Estimates for the second quarter indicate that Turkey's gross domestic product (GDP) will grow at an annual rate of around 20% in 2021, Erdogan said.

He said Turkey's export volume rose 40% in the first six months of this year from the same period last year.

Turkey's total exports are projected to climb above $200 billion by the end of 2021, a first in the country's history, he added.

Erdogan said Turkey boosted employment by 2.8 million since the start of the coronavirus outbreak in April 2020 by compensating for lost jobs.

"Direct support payments have surpassed 150 billion liras ($17.3 billion) since the start of the pandemic. We expect this amount to reach 3.5% of our GDP by the end of this year," he said.

"We will not allow those who try to raise the prices of meat, milk, and grain due to the conditions of pandemic and drought," he vowed.

Erdogan said corporate income tax will be lowered to 20% starting in 2023.

"Fighting high inflation requires teamwork. Our Central Bank has a decisive approach to solve this," he added./aa

CHICAGO, United States

With the remaining portion of the Champlain Towers South condominium building now demolished, the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Florida said three additional victims had been pulled from the rubble of the initial collapse on Monday.

The death toll now stands at 27, with 118 still unaccounted for.

About half of the 12-story condo tower collapsed 12 days ago, and since then, only one person has been pulled alive from the rubble, early on the morning of June 24.

Sunday night, around 10:30 p.m. local time, a controlled demolition brought down the remaining half of the building on the opposite side of the rubble from the initial collapse.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cara said the demolition went "exactly as planned... only dust landed on the existing pile".

A little over an hour later, search efforts resumed on that pile.

Search and rescue teams said the standing portion of the building was becoming a roadblock to rescue efforts, since searchers could not get to parts of the existing pile with the threat of a second collapse.

Approaching Tropical Storm Elsa added urgency to the decision to tear down the remaining structure, since high winds might topple it.

The mayor of Surfside, Florida, where the building stood, said the approaching storm was actually a "blessing in disguise" to getting the remaining structure demolished.

The storm is expected to bring heavy winds and rain to the Miami area over the next couple of days, but the bulk of the storm will remain along the western half of the Florida panhandle.

Cava said on Monday that millions of dollars had been raised from around the world -- "overwhelming generosity," she said -- to help those who lost loved ones and their homes and possessions. She said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had been assisting since the beginning of helping victims with insurance claims.

And she praised the "great lengths" fire and rescue teams took to recover any pets that were in the remaining structure before it was brought down.

She said teams conducted full sweeps of the building, including checking under beds and inside closets, using ladders, live animal traps, and drones with thermal imaging, all "at great personal risk to our first responders."/aa

Andy Jassy on Monday officially took over from Jeff Bezos as CEO of e-commerce giant Amazon.

Amazon and Bezos announced the change in leadership back in February. July 5 is the 27th anniversary of the US-based giant.

Bezos previously said that he wanted more time to focus on his personal ventures such as climate change organization Bezos Earth Fund and aerospace company Blue Origin.

Bezos is also the richest person in the world, boasting a fortune of almost $202 billion, according to business magazine Forbes.

According to Amazon's website, Jassy, who joined the firm in 1997, founded and led Amazon Web Services from its inception and served as its CEO from April 2016 until July 2021.

Jassy has a master’s in business administration from Harvard Business School./agencies

Warning against what it said were efforts to politicize the work, China on Monday slammed fresh demands for a new probe into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Those so-called scientists are politicians. True scientists with a neutral position are facing attacks by extreme forces of certain countries,” said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, commenting on calls by some countries and scientists for another investigation to determine the cause of the pandemic.

He urged world leaders to “stop politicizing the COVID-19 origins-tracing work and the public not to be misled by the lies and disinformation,” Chinese daily Global Times reported.

Wang added that a World Health Organization (WHO) team that visited China earlier this year for an investigation had “already released a scientific conclusion.”

A report released after the joint China-WHO study said there was insufficient evidence that the virus had spread in Wuhan before December 2019.

The findings, however, drew criticism from several quarters and many countries, including the powerful G7 nations, have continued to demand a new probe.

At a summit last month, leaders of the G7 states – the UK, US, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, and Japan – called for a “timely, transparent, expert-led and science-based WHO-convened Phase 2 COVID-19 origins study including, as recommended by the experts’ report, in China.”

China has reported 91,869 coronavirus cases, including 4,636 deaths, since the outbreak began in December 2019.

A total of 22 new infections were reported on Monday, including three cases of local transmission in Yunnan province, where authorities have now imposed strict restrictions and launched a widespread testing drive./aa

An environmental official stressed that climate change is "the single greatest threat" to Pacific peoples' livelihoods and security as he highlighted the devastating effects of extreme weather events caused by climate change.

For Asia-Pacific Climate Week 2021 (APCW2021), which will run between July 6-9, Joseph Sikulu, managing director of 350 Pacific, and organizer George Nacewa, spoke to Anadolu Agency about the effects of climate change on Pacific communities.

The APCW 2021, hosted by Japan, will take the pulse of climate action in the region, explore challenges and opportunities and showcase ambitious solutions, according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

"We’ve seen changes in weather patterns, the warming waters have led to the intensifying storms, saltwater inundation, drought -- all these things have made for a very unpredictable environment, one that is different to what our people have known for the thousands of years we’ve lived on the islands," said Sikulu, who is based in Sydney.

Noting that the livelihoods and well-being of the people are inherently dependent on islands and the oceans, he stressed that climate change effects are becoming more destructive and more frequently seen in huge storms.

"I watch the impacts of climate change on our islands through my family. I watch them preparing for cyclones, rebuilding in the aftermath. I watch them trying to find new ways to grow food, find fish that no longer swim in our waters," said Sikulu.

He said the 2019-2020 bushfires in Australia and Cyclone Harold in the Pacific were exacerbated by the climate change.

Watching the effects of climate change on the Pacific islands has practically been like listening to stories of what it used to be like, said Sikulu, who added that communities in the Pacific are facing a triple threat: coronavirus pandemic, its economic effects and an escalating climate crisis.

"The developed world needs to prioritize recovery for a more resilient future where resources flow toward ensuring we build back better for our planet’s long-term sustainability," he said.

'We need more ambitious commitments'

"The continued investment by governments and financial institutions are impacting us in the Pacific through climate impacts such as longer droughts, category 5 cyclones, flash flooding caused by heavy rainfall to name a few," said Suva, Fiji-based Nacewa.

He said when Tropical Cyclone Yasa hit Vanua Levu in the northern region of Fiji in December, villagers who make a living by fishing had to rely on canned foods to survive because they were not able to fish due to damaged corals and murky waters.

“Our leaders here in the Pacific are showing what true climate leadership looks like and are taking the right steps to ensure other global leaders are committing to reducing global warming to 1.5 degrees," he said.

Noting that making an effort to mitigate climate change is a fight that requires everyone's cooperation, he stressed that small island nations like those in the Pacific cannot achieve it on their own.

"We need more ambitious commitments to reduce carbon emission by phasing out fossil fuels and creating a greener, cleaner energy," he noted.

He went on to say that Pacific communities should come before profits in the face of the climate crisis.

"Phase-out the expansion and export of coal cause this expansion and exports and exporting destruction to the Pacific," said Nacewa.

Although the Pacific islands account for a very small percentage of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions, the region is facing the huge effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, warming oceans, drought, ocean acidification as islands are viewed as "extremely vulnerable" to climate change, according to statistics.

"Pacific Small Island Developing States are highly vulnerable to climate-related hazards and extreme climate events, such as tropical cyclones, flooding and drought," said a UN report in November./aa