NATION AND WORLD/IN BRIEF
Civil rights pioneer seeks expungement
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Months before Rosa Parks became the mother of the modern civil rights movement by refusing to move to the back of a segregated Alabama bus, Black teenager Claudette Colvin did the same. Convicted of assaulting a police officer while being arrested, she was placed on probation yet never received notice that she’d finished the term and was on safe ground legally.
Now 82, Colvin wants a court in Montgomery to wipe away a record that her lawyer says has cast a shadow over the life of a largely unsung hero of the civil rights era.
“I am an old woman now. Having my records expunged will mean something to my grandchildren and great grandchildren. And it will mean something for other Black children,” Colvin said in a sworn statement.
Her attorney, Phillip Ensler, said he was seeking all legal documents to be sealed and all records of the case erased.
Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey later said he agreed with the request to clear Colvin’s record, removing any doubt it would be approved.
Senate confirms McCain, Flake
WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed two prominent anti-Trump Republicans to serve in the Biden administration on Tuesday with former Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona approved to serve as the ambassador to Turkey and Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Sen. John McCain, approved to serve as the ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture.
The Senate also voted to confirm former Democratic Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico to serve as ambassador to New Zealand and Victoria Reggie Kennedy of Massachusetts, the widow of former Sen. Ted Kennedy, to serve as ambassador to Austria.
The nominations were approved through voice vote, a process that can be used so long as no senators object. Republicans, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, RTexas, are requiring the vast majority of Biden’s other State Department nominees to go through a much more extensive and time-consuming process.
Cyberattack closes gas stations in Iran
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A cyberattack crippled gas stations across Iran on Tuesday, leaving angry motorists stranded in long lines.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which rendered useless the government-issued electronic cards that many Iranians use to buy subsidized fuel.
It bore similarities to another attack months earlier that seemed to directly challenge Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the country’s economy buckles under American sanctions.
State television quoted an unnamed official in the country’s National Security Council acknowledging the cyberattack, hours after it aired images of long lines of cars waiting to fill up in Tehran. The Associated Press also saw lines of cars at Tehran gas stations, with pumps off and the station closed.
State TV said Oil Ministry officials were holding an “emergency meeting” to solve the problem. Some gas stations that accept only cash and are not in the subsidy card network continued pumping fuel.
Senators put social media on defensive
WASHINGTON — Senators put executives from YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat on the defensive Tuesday, questioning what they’re doing to ensure young users’ safety on their platforms.
Citing the harm that can come to vulnerable young people from the sites — ranging from eating disorders to exposure to sexually explicit content and material promoting addictive drugs — the lawmakers also sought the executives’ support for legislation bolstering protection of children on social media. But they received little firm commitment.
The subcommittee recently took testimony from a former Facebook data scientist, who laid out internal company research showing that the company’s Instagram photo-sharing service appears to seriously harm some teens. The subcommittee is widening its focus to examine other tech platforms, with millions or billions of users, that also compete for young people’s attention and loyalty.
Moderna to supply Africa with shots
NAIROBI, Kenya — Moderna on Tuesday said it will make up to 110 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine available to African countries, which local officials called a breakthrough on the world’s least vaccinated continent.
The announcement said Moderna is prepared to deliver the first 15 million doses by the end of this year, with 35 million in the first quarter of 2022 and up to 60 million in the second quarter. It says “all doses are offered at Moderna’s lowest tiered price.”
If the full contract with Moderna is activated, African nations can reach the goal of vaccinating 450 million people by September 2022, said Strive Masiyiwa, the African Union special envoy on COVID-19. That’s half of the target of vaccinating 70 percent of the continent’s population, or 900 million people.
Africa and its 1.3 billion people remain the least-vaccinated region of the world against COVID-19, with just over 5 percent fully vaccinated.
Sudan’s new leader has powerful allies
CAIRO — The general leading Sudan’s coup has vowed to usher the country to an elected government. But Abdel-Fattah Burhan has powerful allies, including Gulf nations and a feared Sudanese paramilitary commander, and he appears intent on keeping the military firmly in control.
Burhan first gained prominence in 2019, when he and other top generals toppled Omar al-Bashir, under pressure from mass demonstrations against the autocrat’s 30-year rule.
He remained in charge until international pressure forced the military to reach a power-sharing deal with protesters. That established a joint civilian-military Sovereign Council headed by Burhan that was supposed to rule until elections in 2023.
On Monday, Burhan, 61, swept away the vestiges of civilian government. Civilian control would not only undermine the military’s political power, but also threaten its extensive financial resources and could lead to prosecutions for rights violations.
Burhan has been backed in recent years by Egypt and Gulf countries, particularly the United Arab Emirates.
Those countries avoided criticizing Monday’s coup.