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If the Bulgarian government is not formed by the GERB party the country will lurch from crisis to crisis, outgoing prime minister and GERB leader Boyko Borissov said on Monday.

Borissov is convinced that his political opponents in parliament cannot make decisions, are afraid to take responsibility for the government, and that such uncertainty will lead the country into a string of new crises.

Borissovs party, GERB, won the parliamentary elections in April but failed to obtain the majority required to form the next government. The party has already returned the mandate and early elections will probably take place in July.

You will now see the credit agencies ratings will start going down, interest rates will rise and we will not enter the Eurozone, then we will all regret it bitterly, Borissov warned. We saved them from the Greek crisis, from the migrant crisis, from the pandemic, he added.

According to Borissov, the goal of the new parties in parliament is to provoke a series of elections so that a caretaker government appointed by the president will run until the presidential election in the autumn.

GERB announced that the newly-elected MPs are new barbarians. The main topic of GERBs criticism was of changes to the Electoral Code passed by lawmakers late last week even though the PMs party opposed them.

(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)

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Borissov warns that without the GERB party, Bulgaria will enter crisis mode - EURACTIV

Adequate responses to migration flows have been increasingly hampered in Europe by policies that limit freedom of movement and foster stigmatisation of humanitarian assistance. [1,2] These policies are based on a restrictive interpretation of refugee laws, overuse of detention centres, limitation of access to health services, and criminalisation of migrants. [3-5] Even if most legal instruments recognise the right to health for all, including people on the move, the health needs of migrants remain neglected. [6] Furthermore, organisations conducting lifesaving search and rescue operations often face accusations of colluding with human traffickers. [7]

This scenario has become even more complex after the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. Firstly, border controls and measures for restricting mobility have been tightened as part of the pandemic response, with a severe impact on refugees and migrants access to adequate healthcare services and information. [7-9] Secondly, inadequate living conditions, such as overcrowded and informal housing in the countries of transit or arrival, increase the risk of contracting covid-19 as well as other infections. [10] Thirdly, pandemic-related logistical constraints caused a slowdown of search and rescue operations in the central Mediterranean Sea and formed an obstacle to provide humanitarian help for asylum seekers. Based on our experience at Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF), search and rescue operations and health assistance during the migration journey are essential for an adequate response to migrant flows and for adequately tackling migrants health needs, including those related to the pandemic, as part of a coordinated public health approach.

Health and human rights along during migration journeys

From 3 May 2015 up to 31 December 2019, 339,476 migrants had been rescued in the central Mediterranean Sea by different stakeholders such as institutional organisations, NGOs, commercial actors including fishermen, coordinated by the Italian Coast Guard. [11] Of these, 81,186were either rescued or transferred by MSF vessels. [12] Between 1 January and the 30 September 2018, MSF rescued 3,184 people and conducted 1,385 on-board consultations. [13] The most common problems were benzene, chemical burns (86/1,385; 6.2%), wounds (70/1,385, 5.1%), hypothermia (62/1,385, 4.5%), and violence related injuries (39/1,385, 2.8%). Out of 3,184 individuals, 464 (14.6%) belonged to pre-specified categories of vulnerability: 81/464 (17.5%) were unaccompanied minors, 216/464 (46.6%) were victims of torture/ill treatment, 121/464 (26.1%) were survivors of sexual violence and 27/464 (5.8%) were possible victims of sexual trafficking. Most of them had transited via Libya, a key country for migration routes.

The EU and some member states have adopted policies that delegate the control of migrant flows, by making neighbouring countries such as Libya act as Europes de facto border guards. [14] These policies have prompted cruel detention systems and created unprecedented human suffering, with people subject to long-term detention in centres run by the Libyan interior ministry or local militias, often in inhuman conditions. [15-18] For example, it is reported that between 1 September 2018 and 31 of May 2019, at least 22 people died in Zintan and Gharyan detention centres. [19] Nutritional screening undertaken by MSF at the Sabaa detention centre (Tripoli) among 205 individuals in February 2019, found that one in four people were malnourished or underweight. [20] In 2018, MSF helped 1,783 migrants who had reached Italy after having been exposed to torture during their journey. [21] It is very likely that those forcibly returned to Libya will re-enter the same cycle of violence.

More recent data suggest that fewer search and rescue operations were conducted in 2020 than in previous years, both before and after the adoption of pandemic containment measures. The 2,300 people held in detention centres across Libya up to July 2020 were reportedly kept in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions, with poor access to food and water and no possibility to adopt covid-19 containment measures, such as physical distancing. Furthermore, visits by humanitarian organisations to detention centres have been reduced because of pandemic related movement restrictions and insecurity. [22]

Living conditions also tend to be inadequate in the European countries of transit or arrival. A survey carried out in 2015 among an estimated 10,000 migrants living in 27 informal settlements in Italy indicated that 11 settlements lacked running water, 13 electricity, two drinking water and six even toilets. The public health consequences of such situations will only be magnified during a pandemic, as essential public health measures such as social distancing, hand hygiene and self-isolation can hardly be implemented under such circumstances.

Figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, now known as UN Refugee Agency) suggest that fewer people died or went missing in the central Mediterranean Sea in 2020 (473) vs 2019 (750), with a decrease of reported death rates from 3.7% (750/20,506 departures) in 2019 to 1.4% (473/33,953 departures) in 2020. [23,24] However, this may be subject to serious underreporting because of difficulties in collecting data on migrant deaths in 2020. [25]

The decrease in humanitarian search and rescue operations, combined with the lack of any EU led activities, results in an increasingly dangerous void in the central Mediterranean, where the numbers of individuals attempting to make the journey from Libya to Europe dramatically increased in 2020 according to the UNHCR. [26,27] Furthermore, inadequate health assistance during and after the journey, either in reception centres or in informal settlements, makes it impossible to prevent, diagnose, and cure various treatable conditions and it even prevents the adoption of adequate measures to contain the pandemic. The pandemic is providing further evidence that a migrant inclusive health access approach is urgently needed in Europe. Everybody should have access to essential medical services; and during epidemics and pandemics, nobody should be left out of the outbreak response plans. Furthermore, the moral imperative of saving lives should be acknowledged by all stakeholders and policy makers and they should support efforts to rescue those attempting to reach Europe.

As European medical staff and public health specialists serving patients and communities within our own borders and beyond, we should take an ethical stand by speaking out against policies that threaten health, lives and public health, and by combating misinformation. Today more than ever, in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic, solidarity needs to reach beyond national borders. The systematic collection, analysis, sharing, and dissemination of robust and ethical data will be essential for shaping public health and human rights oriented policies, and for contributing to building an inclusive society, able to adequately respond to medical needs including in global emergencies. [28]

Claudia Lodesani, president of MSF Italy. She is an infectious disease specialist and has been working with MSF since 2002. She has coordinated the MSFs intervention for covid-19 in Italy. Twitter: @claudialode

Silvia Mancini, has been working with MSF in many developing countries carrying out epidemiological and public health evaluations. She holds a masters in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Raffaella Ravinetto, is a senior researcherand policy adviser at the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (Belgium), and a former president of MSF Italy. Twitter: @RRavinetto

Favila Escobio, family and community medicine specialist. He has been working with MSF since 2013.

Zeno Bisoffi, PhD on Medical Sciences at the University of Antwerp. Since 1 December 2017 he has been associate professor of infectious and tropical diseases, under an agreement with IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar (Verona).

Competing interests: none declared.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Gianfranco De Maio (1960-2020) for supporting and inspiring us in our work related to humanitarian medicine.

The authors thank Marco Bertotto and the team of Mdecins Sans Frontires/Doctors Without Borders (operational centre Amsterdam) for providing data on search and rescue activity and medical consultations on board.

References:

1. Policy Department for Citizens Rights and Constitutional Affairs Directorate General for Internal Policies of the Union. Fit for purpose? The Facilitation Directive and the criminalisation of humanitarian assistance to irregular migrants: 2018 Update. Brussels: European Parliament; 2018. Available: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/608838/IPOL_STU(2018)608838_EN.pdfAccessed 3 January 2020.

2. United Nation Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR). Italy: UN experts condemn bill to fine migrant rescuers. Geneva: United Nations; 2019.Available: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24628&LangID=EAccessed 3 December 2019.

3. Estevens J, Migration crisis in the EU: developing a framework for analysis of national security and defence strategies. Comparative Migration Studies. Issue 6. October 2018. doi: 10.1186/s40878-018-0093.

4. Esposito F, Ornelas J, Arcidiacono C. Migration-related detention centres: the challenges of an ecological perspective with a focus on justice. BMC International Health and Human Rights. 2015. 15:13doi: 10.1186/s12914-015-0052-0. Pmid: 26048135.

5. Prez Efren, Xenophobic Rhetoric and its political effects on immigrants and their co-ethnics. American Journal of Political Sciences. 30 December 2014. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12131.

6. United Nations General Assembly (2016). New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. New York: United Nations; 2016. Available: http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/71/1 Accessed 6 August 2019.

7. Financial Times, EU border force flags concerns over charities interaction with migrant smugglersAvailable: https://www.ft.com/content/3e6b6450-c1f7-11e6-9bca-2b93a6856354and Frontex, Annual Risk Analysis 2017. Available https://frontex.europa.eu/assets/Publications/Risk_Analysis/Annual_Risk_Analysis_2017.pdfAccessed 1 April 2021

8. Kluge HHP, Jakab Z, Bartovic J, DAnna V, Severoni S, Refugee and migration health in the Covid-19 response. The Lancet. 31 March 2020. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0140-6736(20)30791-1.

9. Orcutt M, Patel P, Burns R, Hiam L, Aldridge R, Devakumar D, Kumar B, Spiegel P, Abubakar I, Global call to action for inclusion of migrants and refugees in the Covid-19 response, The Lancet. 23 April 2020. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0140-6736(20)30971-5.

10. World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe Interim Guidance for Refugees and Migrants Health in relation to Covid-19 in WHO European Region. March 2020. Available: https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/434978/Interim-guidance-refugee-and-migrant-health-COVID-19.pdf. Accessed 23 July 2020.

11. Italian Coast Guard. Search and Rescue. Rome: Italian Coast Guard ; 2019.Available: https://www.guardiacostiera.gov.it/attivita/Pages/Ricerca.aspx Accessed 30 January 2020.

12. Mdecins sans Frontires (MSF) Saving Lives at Sea. Interactive map charts and data about MSFs search and rescue activities in the Mediterranean. Available: http://searchandrescue.msf.org/it/Accessed 20 January 2020

13. Mdecins sans Frontires (MSF)/ Doctors Without Borders (operational Centre Amsterdam) routinely collected data on Libya mission and Search and Rescue activities (SAR) 2018.

14. De Gouttry A, Capone F, Sommario E. Dealing with migrants in the Central Mediterranean Route: a legal analysis of bilateral agreements between Italy and Libya. International Migration. Volume 56. Issue 3. P. 44-60. 2017 September 26. doi: 10.1111/imig.12401.

15. Van Aelst H, The Humanitarian Consequences of European Union Immigration Policys Externalisation in Libya: The Case of Detention and its Impact on Migrants Health. BSIS -Brussels School of International Studies Journal of International Studies, Vol 8, 2011.

16. Akkerman M, Expanding the fortress. The policies, the profiteers and the people shaped by EUs border externalisation programme. Transnational Institute and Stop Wapenhandel. Amsterdam: May 2018 Available: https://www.tni.org/en/publication/expanding-the-fortress Accessed 3 December 2019.

17. European Union External Action (EEAS). EU-Libya relations. Brussels: EEAS ; 2019. Available: https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage_en/19163/EU-Libya%20relationsAccessed 30 January 2020.

18. United Nations Support Mission in Libya and United Nation Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR). Desperate and Dangerous: Report on the human rights situation of migrants and refugees in Libya. Marrakesh: United Nations; 2018.Available: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/LY/LibyaMigrationReport.pdfAccessed 7 January 2020.

19. United Nations News. Libyas migrants and refugees with tuberculosis left to die in detention centres. UN news. June 2019. Available: https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/06/1040011Accessed 30 January 2020.

20. Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF). Libya report on nutrition screening findings in Sabaa detention centre. Tripoli; March 2019. Available: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/sites/default/files/2019-03/Libya_Nutrition_Findings_Report.pdf Accessed 12 December 2019.

21. Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF). Medical Activity Report 2018. Available: https://msf.lu/sites/default/files/2018_medical_activity_report.pdf Accessed 10 September 2019.

22. Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF). Search and rescue in the time of COVID-19 MSF briefing paper. London: MSF; 2020.Available:https://www.msf.org.uk/sites/uk/files/msf_briefing_paper_search_and_rescue_in_the_time_of_covid-19.pdf Accessed 7 August 2020.

23. UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency. Europe Dead and missing at sea.Available: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean/location/5205 Accessed 7 October 2020.

24. UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency. Mediterranean Situation.Available: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean. Accessed 5 October 2020.

25. Migration data portal. Available at https:// migrationdataportal.org/de/themes/migration-data-relevant-covid-19-pandemic.

26. Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF). Search and rescue in the time of COVID-19 MSF briefing paper. London: MSF; 2020. Ibidem.

27. UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency. Mediterranean Situation. Ibidem.

28. Consensus Conference for establishing a European level Migration Health database. University of Pecs. Hungary. 7-8 October 2019.Available: https://www.mighealth-unipecs.hu/component/attachments/download/4Accessed 9 October 2019.

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European migration policies should prioritize health needs and life saving strategies - The BMJ - The BMJ

(The Center Square) Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday asked counties to report their calculated fiscal burdens associated with the immigration crisis on the southern border so that the state can send a reimbursement request to the federal government.

Abbott said in a statement that border security is a responsibility of the federal government and the current crisis on the southern border is a direct result of federal policies, therefore state and local governments should be paid back for any costs they've incurred.

"Securing the border is the federal governments responsibility, but the current crisis has placed a costly burden on the State of Texas and on our local governments," Abbott said. "I have heard from many counties about the challenges they are facing from the surge in illegal border crossings. Several counties have declared local disasters. Other counties have been working around the clock in response to the federal government opening migrant facilities in their counties."

Under Abbott's request, county judges across the state are asked to send an estimate of costs incurred and expected in response to the surge in illegal crossings.

The current crisis has placed a costly burden on the State of Texas and on our local governments. I strongly believe that your county, our state, and our fellow Texans should not be forced to shoulder these costs, and that the federal government should reimburse us in full, theletterwritten to county judges reads.

The state has filed eight lawsuits against the federal government since President Joe Bidens inauguration regarding immigration and executive orders impacting the oil and gas industry. The most recent suit was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week in conjunction with nine other states against the Biden administration's executive order requiring federal agencies to measure thesocial costs emissions.

Paxton has estimated that Texans spend more than $850 million each year on illegal immigration, and the recent surge could cause those costs to rise to over $1 billion.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection counted 172,000 illegal immigrant crossings in March, burdening state taxpayers with hefty costs for housing, food, transportation and health care.

National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said they are witnessing the biggest surge that weve ever seen in the history of the Border Patrol.

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Abbott to request that feds reimburse Texas for immigration crisis - The Center Square

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We have the experience and the expertise to process 125,000 refugees per yeareasily, Eskinder Negash told me this week. Thats eight times more than the historic low number the Biden administration recently said itd allow into the country,before quickly backtracking in the face of pushback from allies and promising to announce a higher level of refugee admissions by May 15.

Much of the reason, it claimed, was that apparentlyit couldnt walk and chew gum at the same timesince the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is part of Health and Human Services, handles both the countrys refugee program and sheltering and placing unaccompanied migrant minors. As President Joe Biden explained last week, The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people. We couldnt do two things at once. But now we are going to increase the number.

But, as Negash told me, that argument doesnt really make that much sense. He would know: Now the president and CEO for the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Negash ran ORR under President Obama, from 2009 to 2015a tenure that saw what became known as the child migrant crisis of 2014, in which the number of unaccompanied minors at the border jumped almost 80 percent from the previous year, with more than 68,000 children and teens in US custody. Negash is also a refugee himself, and was welcomed to the US after fleeing Ethiopia in his 20s.

I spoke with him earlier this week about ORRs division of labor, the differences between the 2014 crisis and what were seeing now, and what changes still need to be made when dealing with unaccompanied migrant children. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Could you start by sharing a bit about your own personal story and connection to working with refugees?

I was young when I left home and I went to another country the same way that someone from Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador does. It took me weeks to get to another country, I didnt speak the language, I didnt have any family members, and thats how I ended up being a refugee in Sudan. And then from there, because of the US resettlement program, I came here 40 years ago. So for me, I think I continue to do this work because with those kids or any refugees regardless of where they came from, when I see them, what I see is myself. Their suffering and their journey is really personal for me; its not just a job. I came as a refugee as one of the lucky ones because many people dont make it.

The Biden administration said that one of the reasons they couldnt raise the refugee cap from a historically low one of 15,000 left by the previous administration was that they had to first deal with last months influx of unaccompanied minors at the border. But looking at 2014, for example, when there was a huge increase of unaccompanied minors at the border from the previous year, ORR handled that while keeping its refugee resettlement program operating as usualthe refugee caps for 2014 and 2015 didnt change, they remained at 70,000.

So what is your response to the Biden administrations reasoning for not increasing the refugee cap yet? And could you share insight into how ORRs process works when it comes to managing both programs?

I think the difference between this crisis and when I was there is that the overseas refugee processing was fully staffed, fully funded. Whats different now is for the past four years, we have dismantled the refugee program overseas. In addition to that, we have COVID. Im not trying to give excuses to the administration, Im just being candid with you.

For unaccompanied minors, what we have now is different thanwhen I was there, too. We had the influx then, yes, and we were struggling because we didnt have enough capacity for beds. And to open a shelter you need to get a license issued by the state. So it takes a lot of time, sometimes up to six months in some places. That was a challenge for us because we didnt have enough resources at that time. So I talked with the Obama administration so we could use military bases in Texas, Oklahoma, and California.

[Leading up to the increase of kids] this time, as you know, the number for unaccompanied minors was way, way down because of what the [Trump] administration decided, and then the refugee program was systematically dismantledall the processing overseas, everything was really in shambles. So I think this administrations intention is to bring in as many refugees as possible, but they realize also they have to go through a process. So just to focus on the comparison with the influx of unaccompanied children from 2014: We didnt have COVID and we didnt have the problem of losses to the refugee resettlement programs overseas.

To clarify, if someone works for ORR and their job is to work on the refugee resettlement side of things, they most likely stay on that side. And if somebody works for the unaccompanied children program, they do that workits not like they would need to be responding to both things at once.

No, and they have a lot of people working there. You have the refugees section, where they work with each state and have a relationship with the state government. And its not just only about refugeesthere are also asylees, and special visa holders, and the survivors of torture program. All of that is within the refugees section of ORR. So the refugee section is functioning. And then the unaccompanied minor section is doing its job. So no, theyre not doubling. I think we have the experience and the expertise to process 125,000 refugees per year, easily. I expect the Biden administration to increase the number of refugees by May 15 and then I expect them to make a decision by September on the 125,000 cap for 2022. The other thing is, as you know, the administration decided to withdraw from Afghanistan by September, so that means a number of special immigrant visa applicantsfor Afghans who worked with the US governmentwill be coming in and we need to help them.

Having spent time working in the Obama administration during the influx of 2014,you knew what it was like to have to quickly respond to an increase of unaccompanied migrant children at the border. What do you think people need to understand about what is going on today?

I think people dont understand how the system works and the division of labor between Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security.

As you know, [DHS officials] have to transfer unaccompanied children within 72 hours to HHS. So DHS can project a certain number [of incoming unaccompanied children], but when that projection is wrong and it exceeds that number, thats why we have the influx. It takes time to build that infrastructure for HHS to take them over. And then, we also have to do some checking; we cant just simply release children to anybody who says, Yeah, I will pick them up. We have to vet the people. Thats why it takes sometimes between 30 days and 25 days: We have to contact the sponsor, and if necessary make a visit to make sure the kids are being released to a decent environment.

I think all of usnot just government, all of uscould actually help talking about the issue of how the process works. And I think thats part of the challenge because sometimes the media focuses on DHS sites [run by the Border Patrol] and seeing those picturesand that will be the narrative. But HHS is different. There are close to 200 shelters around the country, and they are licensed by the state, the states health department, the fire department. There are ratios for how many case managers and clinicians per child; its really well organized, and I dont think that gets enough credit.

What can this administration do to set up more permanent or long lasting solutions to this problem, so that in the next administration, or even the next couple years, we dont find ourselves in the same place needing emergency influx shelters?

I think overall the government, regardless of which administration is in charge, needs to think about the reception of vulnerable children. We need to expand and maintain the number of licensed bed capacity to a minimum of 20,000 to 25,000 beds [in HHS facilities] at all timesthat would be much better going forward. [Ed. note: HHS lists its bed capacity at 13,000, including in emergency shelters and state licensed facilities.] Unless the number exceeds 25,000, we should avoid the influx or emergency unlicensed shelters. We just have to accept the fact this is not an easy program to manage.

For post-release services, there also needs to be a follow up of, at a minimum, one year post release to make sure that the kids are fine. We also need to make sure that they get legal services. About 75 percent of kids with attorneys get asylum. So if you have an attorney, your chance of winning asylum is much higher. These are major solutions for future influxes.

More specifically, what should the Department of Homeland Security do?

I think we need to fund facilities that are humane for children. Thats really crucial. We can do better than what we are doing now, as a country. The first reception for children should not be in that kind of cage environment; thats not really the way we want to process them. The other thing is, I think we need to engage back in their home countries with employment and education. We have to understand the level of violence and level of poverty are driving forceswe cant deny that. You know we need to help work with the governments of these countries and civil society. Ive been there many, many times and I can tell you theres a lot we can do there. I dont think anybody wants to leave their country. There is a reason people become refugees, there is a reason why they have to abandon everything they know and go to a country where they dont speak the language or know the culture. I dont think we should assume that just everybody wants to come to the US. Thats just not the case.

The number of unaccompanied minors coming to this country is very high, even when I was working at HHS under Obama. I think during my time we processed 135,000 children. So its not a small number. But you have to look at it also globally: Who are becoming refugees? Women and children. Theyre the highest number, when you look at it globally and see who is moving from one area to another area. I know people focus only on the Central America, but there is a global migration of children, and nobody is really paying attention.

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I Asked Obama's Refugee Chief: The US Really Can Handle Both Unaccompanied Kids and More Refugees Mother Jones - Mother Jones

The Week

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held huge rallies in West Bengal state this spring in a hard-fought race to unseat its chief minister, Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee won handily. After votes were counted Sunday, her All India Trinamool Congress party won 213 of the 292 seats up for grab in the state, according to the Election Commission of India. The BJP won 77 and two went to other parties. Modi congratulated his rival on her victory Sunday night. Modi's BJP won in northeastern Assam state and, in alliance with regional parties, in the federally controlled territory of Puducherry, but lost in two southern states, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The elections were held through March and April, as India's COVID-19 pandemic started spiraling out of control. India recorded a record 3,689 new deaths Sunday and 392,488 new infections, down from Saturday's pandemic-high 401,993 new infections. Both the death and infection numbers are believed to be much higher than the official tallies. In Kolkata, West Bengal's capital, half of all people tested for COVID-19 now test positive. Indian Medical Association national vice president Navjot Dahiya last week called Modi a "super-spreader" for holding the large election rallies in West Bengal and allowing a Hindu religious festival to take place with no restrictions. The Madras High Court in Tamil Nadu also excoriated the Election Commission last week for allowing packed campaign rallies in the middle of the pandemic. "Your institution is singularly responsible for the second wave of COVID-19," Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee wrote for the court. "Your officers should be booked on murder charges probably." Modi's government is "battling a public backlash on their mishandling of the COVID pandemic," political commentator Arati Jerath told The New York Times, but political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay cautioned that the loss in West Bengal will have to be studied to determine what role the BJP's coronavirus response played. "The BJP started running out of steam as the pandemic spread," he told The Associated Press. "The verdict in West Bengal state will definitely weaken Modi's position," but nobody's sure just how much. More stories from theweek.com5 brutally funny cartoons about Giuliani's legal woesWhat the Elon Musk backlash is really aboutA blue state-red state vaccine divide is emerging

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Rep. Biggs: Migrant influx at southern border is 'beyond a crisis' - Yahoo News