Author Archives: Reuters News Agency

U.S. Capitol Police says ‘robust security’ planned for Sept 18 rally

By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Capitol Police on Wednesday said it is enacting strong security measures ahead of a Sept. 18 rally in which supporters of former President Donald Trump intend to show support for people arrested for participating in the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

“We have a robust security posture planned for September 18th,” the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. “All available staff will be working.”

Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger will provide a security briefing to top lawmakers on Monday, Sept. 13, a source familiar with the meeting said.

The source said U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has invited three top congressional leaders — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy — to the security briefing, which will be held in Pelosi’s office.

Citing an internal Capitol Police memo, CNN reported on Wednesday that law enforcement officials are bracing for potential clashes and unrest during the Sept. 18 rally, which is being planned by a right-wing group.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Alistair Bell)

U.S. oil losses from Hurricane Ida rank among worst in 16 years

By Sabrina Valle and Arpan Varghese

HOUSTON (Reuters) -Hurricane Ida’s damage to U.S. offshore energy production makes it one of the most costly since back-to-back storms in 2005 cut output for months, according to the latest data and historical records.

Ida’s 150 mile-per-hour (240 kph) winds cut most offshore oil and gas production for more than a week and damaged platforms and onshore support facilities. About 79% of the region’s offshore oil production remains shut and 79 production platforms are unoccupied after the storm made landfall on Aug. 29.

Some 17.5 million barrels of oil have been lost to the market to date, with shutdowns expected to continue for weeks. Ida could reduce total U.S. production by as much as 30 million barrels this year, according to energy analysts.

Offshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico wells produce about 1.8 million barrels of oil per day, 16% of the daily U.S. total.

“There could be volumes that are offline for a considerable amount of time,” said Facts Global Energy (FGE) consultant Krista Kuhl. “It’s just too early to tell.”

The losses are reducing U.S. exports at a time when oil prices are trading at about $70 a barrel because of continued curbs by producing-nations group OPEC and market expectations for demand.

At least 78% of Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas were offline on Tuesday, nine days after Ida hit the Gulf Coast, causing wind and water damages to platforms and refineries, government data showed.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 remain the worst hit to Gulf Coast energy facilities. The back-to-back storms caused production losses that continued for months, removing about 162 million barrels of oil over three months, FGE said.

Production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico that year dropped 12.6%, to 1.28 million barrels per day (bpd), from the prior year, according to data for the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Total U.S. oil production fell 4.7%, EIA data showed.

Restoring output after Ida will hinge on the time needed to repair a key offshore oil and gas transfer facility. Royal Dutch Shell on Monday said it continued to assess damage to its West Delta-143 offshore platform, which transfers about 200,000 barrels of oil and gas per day from three offshore oil fields.

A group of thunderstorms in the south-central Gulf of Mexico was expected to move northeast. The storms have a 30% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next two days, the National Hurricane Center said on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Sabrina Valle in Houston and Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Aurora Ellis)

Statue of Confederate commander Robert E. Lee removed in Virginia capital

By Brendan O’Brien

(Reuters) -A statue of Confederate commander Robert E. Lee was removed from its base in Richmond, Virginia’s capital, early on Wednesday after a yearlong legal battle over a monument that has been the focus of protests over racial injustice.

As onlookers watched, crews secured the 21-foot (6.4-meter) bronze statue of the U.S. Civil War leader to a crane that hoisted it off its 40-foot (12.2-meter) granite pedestal and placed it on the ground.

Since 1890, the towering memorial has stood at its location on Monument Avenue in Richmond, the former capital of the pro-slavery Confederacy, a group of Southern states that fought against Union forces in the 1861-65 Civil War.

The Robert E. Lee statue is one of the largest still standing in the United States. Memorials that honor leaders of the Confederate side have become targets of protests against racism. Defenders of the statues say they are tributes to the bravery of those who fought to defend the South.

Officials have said workers will move the statue of Lee, dressed in military attire and mounted on top of a horse, to a secure, state-owned storage site until a decision on its future is finalized.

The hoisting of the statue was captured on the Twitter feed of Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, who announced plans to remove it in June 2020, 10 days after a white Minneapolis policeman killed George Floyd, who was Black, sparking nationwide protests.

During the last six years, more than 300 symbols of the Confederacy and white supremacy have been taken down, while some 2,000 still stand, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Streets around the statue were closed on Tuesday evening as crews prepared a viewing area for the public to watch the statue’s removal.

On Thursday, workers will remove plaques from the monument’s base and replace a time capsule believed to be at the site with a new one. The base will remain in place as the community reimagines Monument Avenue.

Last Thursday, the Virginia Supreme Court unanimously ruled in two cases that Northam could remove the statue. In summer 2020, the removal was challenged by nearby residents and a descendant of the family that transferred ownership of the statue to the state.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago and Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Jonathan Oatis)

Exiled Ghani apologizes to Afghan people

(Reuters) – Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled Kabul as Taliban forces reached the outskirts of the city last month, apologized on Wednesday for the abrupt fall of his government but denied that he had taken millions of dollars with him.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Ghani said he had left at the urging of his security team who said that if he stayed there was a risk of “the same horrific street-to-street figting the city had suffered during the Civil War of the 1990s.”

“Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her 6 million citizens,” he said.

The statement largely echoed a message Ghani sent from the United Arab Emirates in the immediate aftermath of his departure, which drew bitter criticism from former allies who accused him of betrayal.

Ghani, a former World Bank official who became president after two bitterly disputed elections marred by widespread allegations of fraud on both sides, dismissed reports that he had left with millions of dollars in cash as “completely and categorically false.”

“Corruption is a plague that has crippled our country for decades and fighting corruption has been a central focus of my efforts as president,” he said, adding that he and his Lebanese-born wife were “scrupulous in our personal finances.”

He offered appreciation for the sacrifices Afghans had made over the past 40 years of war in their country.

“It is with deep and profound regret that my own chapter ended in similar tragedy to my predecessors – without ensuring stability and prosperity. I apologize to the Afghan people that I could not make it end differently.”

(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Alistair Bell)

Biden administration plans tougher action to rein in meat prices

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Biden administration plans to take a tougher stance toward meatpacking companies it says are causing sticker shock at grocery stores.

Four companies control much of the U.S. meat processing market, and top aides to President Joe Biden blamed those companies for rising food prices in a blog on Wednesday.

As part of a set of initiatives, the administration will funnel $1.4 billion in COVID-19 pandemic stimulus money to small meat producers and workers, administration aides said in the blog post. They also promised action to “crack down on illegal price fixing,” White House aides said in the blog post.

Four companies slaughtered about 85% of U.S. grain-fattened cattle that are made into steaks, beef roasts and other cuts of meat for consumers in 2018, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The big four processors in the U.S. beef sector are: Cargill, a global commodity trader based in Minnesota; Tyson Foods Inc, the chicken producer that is the biggest U.S. meat company by sales; Brazil-based JBS SA, the world’s biggest meatpacker; and National Beef Packing Co, which is controlled by Brazilian beef producer Marfrig Global Foods SA.

The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Shares of Tyson briefly dipped in higher-volume trade after the Reuters report.

Price increases in beef, pork and poultry have driven half of the increased prices Americans have paid for food they eat at home since December, the White House said. And the administration sees those companies collecting too much profit after the stimulus helped prop up demand for their products.

“We’ve helped sustain this market, and it’s frustrating to see these companies turn around and raise prices,” Bharat Ramamurti, the deputy director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said in an interview. “What we see here smacks of pandemic profiteering and that is the behavior the administration finds concerning.”

Rising inflation has posed a serious threat to Biden’s efforts to get a grip on the COVID-19 pandemic – his top priority as president – and engineer an economic recovery from the recession it caused.

The Biden administration has responded to these issues partly by ramping up efforts to crack down on what it sees as anticompetitive and monopolistic behavior that could be increasing prices. A meeting of a new White House Competition Council created by Biden is set for Friday.

USDA and the Department of Justice have already been conducting an investigation into price-fixing in the chicken-processing industry.

“The goal of that over time is to bring these prices down,” said Ramamurti.

U.S. lawmakers are seeking increased oversight of the beef sector as concerns about anticompetitive behavior increase after the pandemic and a cyberattack on JBS USA.

The administration is “encouraged” by bipartisan legislation that could aid more price negotiation in the meat market, it said in the blog.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, Additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Democrats will not raise debt limit in $3.5 trillion bill -Pelosi

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats will not include a provision to raise the federal government’s borrowing limit in a $3.5 trillion “reconciliation” spending measure they hope to pass this autumn, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday.

Pelosi said the $28.5 trillion debt limit must be raised, but told a news conference she would not say whether this would be included in a must-pass bill to keep the government running, expected at the end of September.

“I am not here to talk about where” the debt limit would be raised, “but it won’t be in reconciliation,” she told reporters. Democrats are currently crafting the reconciliation package, a sweeping social spending bill, and hope to pass it in the coming weeks.

Senior congressional Republicans have vowed not to vote for an increase of the debt limit, instead urging Democrats to pass it without their votes through the reconciliation maneuver. Failure to increase the limit could lead to a shutdown of the federal government – something that has happened three times in the past decade.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday again urged Congress to tackle the debt ceiling, saying it was unclear how long Treasury’s efforts to temporarily finance the government would last and citing ongoing economic worries over the pandemic.

The “most likely outcome is that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted during the month of October,” Yellen wrote in a letter to lawmakers.

Leaders of the Democratic-led Senate and House of Representatives are expected to force votes to lift the debt limit in late September.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, also declined to say whether the debt limit will be included in what is called a continuing resolution that must be passed by the end of September to keep government operations funded.

Both Pelosi and Schumer noted that when Donald Trump was president, Democrats supported debt limit increases, and urged Republicans to back one now.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Scott Malone and Andrea Ricci)

U.S. job openings vault to record high as employers scramble for workers

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. job openings raced to a new record high in July while layoffs rose moderately, suggesting last month’s sharp slowdown in hiring was due to employers being unable to find workers rather than weak demand for labor.

The Labor Department’s monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Wednesday also showed a steady increase in the number of workers voluntarily quitting their jobs, a sign of confidence in the labor market.

“This is a super tight job market,” said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. “The ongoing struggle to find the right worker for the right role continues.”

Job openings, a measure of labor demand, jumped 749,000 to 10.9 million on the last day of July, the highest level since the series began in December 2000. The broad increase in vacancies was led by the health care and social assistance, finance and insurance, and accommodation and food services industries.

Job openings rose in the Northeast, South, Midwest and West regions. The job openings rate surged to a record 6.9% from 6.5% in June, driven by medium-sized businesses with 50-249 employees. The rate for large firms with 5,000 or more employees fell.

Hiring slipped 160,000 to 6.7 million, pulled down by decreases in retail trade, durable goods manufacturing and educational services. State and local government education hiring increased, as did federal government employment. The hiring rate fell to 4.5% from 4.7% in June. The hires rate dropped for large businesses with 5,000 or more employees.

LABOR CRUNCH

The JOLTS report followed in the wake of a government report last Friday that showed nonfarm payrolls increased by only 235,000 jobs in August, the smallest gain since January, after surging by 1.053 million in July.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended labor market dynamics, creating worker shortages even as 8.4 million people are officially unemployed.

Lack of affordable childcare, fears of contracting the coronavirus, generous unemployment benefits funded by the federal government as well as pandemic-related retirements and career changes have been blamed for the disconnect.

The labor crunch is expected to ease starting in September, with the government-funded unemployment benefits having expired on Monday. The new school year is underway and most school districts are offering in-person learning.

But soaring COVID-19 cases, driven by the Delta variant of the coronavirus, could cause reluctance among some people to return to the labor force. Employment is 5.3 million jobs below its peak in February 2020.

The JOLTS report also showed 107,000 people voluntarily quit their jobs in July, lifting the total to 4.0 million. That reflected increases in the wholesale trade as well as state and local government education areas.

There were decreases in the number of people quitting in the transportation, warehousing, utilities and federal government categories.

The quits rate was unchanged at 2.7%. It is normally viewed by policymakers and economists as a measure of job market confidence. Some economists said the JOLTS report could put pressure on the Federal Reserve to announce when it would start scaling back its massive monthly bond-buying program.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell last month affirmed the ongoing economic recovery, but offered no signal on when the U.S. central bank plans to cut its asset purchases beyond saying it could be “this year.”

“It takes two to tango and the problem with job creation would appear to be a reluctance to supply labor, not a diminishment of demand, and we would love to hear the economic theory that explains how continued Fed bond purchases encourage workers to return to work,” said Conrad DeQuadros, a senior economic advisor at Brean Capital in New York.

Layoffs and discharges rose a modest 105,000 to 1.5 million. That lifted the layoffs rate to 1.0% from 0.9% in June. There were 83 unemployed workers for every 100 job openings in July.

“Even if demand slows down or even falters, job seekers remain in a relatively favorable bargaining position,” said Nick Bunker, director of research at Indeed Hiring Lab.

(Reporting by Lucia MutikaniEditing by Paul Simao)

World wary of Taliban government, Afghans urge action on rights and economy

(Reuters) – Foreign countries greeted the makeup of the new government in Afghanistan with caution and dismay on Wednesday after the Taliban appointed hardline veteran figures to top positions, including several with a U.S. bounty on their head.

Small protests persisted in Afghanistan, with dozens of women taking to the streets of Kabul to demand representation in the new administration and for their rights to be protected.

More broadly, people urged the new leaders to revive the Afghan economy, which is facing steep inflation, food shortages exacerbated by drought and the prospect of overseas investment disappearing as the outside world eyes the Taliban warily.

The Islamist militant movement swept to power nearly four weeks ago in a stunning victory hastened by the withdrawal of U.S. military support to Afghan government forces.

It has taken time to form a government, and although the posts are acting rather than final, the appointment of a cabinet of hardline veterans has been seen by other nations as a signal that the Taliban are not looking to broaden their base and present a more tolerant face to the world.

The group has promised to respect people’s rights and not seek vendettas, but it has been criticized for its heavy-handed response to protests and its part in a chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Kabul airport.

“The announcement of a transitional government without the participation of other groups and yesterday’s violence against demonstrators and journalists in Kabul are not signals that give cause for optimism,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

The European Union voiced its disapproval at the appointments, announced late on Tuesday in Kabul, but said it was ready to continue humanitarian assistance. Longer term aid would depend on the Taliban upholding basic freedoms.

The U.S. State Department said it was concerned about the “affiliations and track records” of some of the people named by the Taliban to fill top posts.

“The world is watching closely,” a spokesperson said.

The new acting cabinet includes former detainees of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, while the interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is wanted by the United States on terrorism charges and carries a reward of $10 million.

His uncle, with a bounty of $5 million, is the minister for refugees and repatriation.

The Taliban’s sudden victory, which took even its leadership by surprise, has presented the rest of the world with a dilemma.

They want to keep aid flowing and to help those with the appropriate paperwork who want to leave, but they may have to engage with a movement that, until a few weeks ago, was an insurgency blamed for thousands of civilian deaths.

MORE PROTESTS

The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, women were banned from work and girls from school. The group carried out public executions and its religious police enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Taliban leaders have vowed to respect people’s rights, including those of women, in accordance with sharia, but those who have won greater freedoms over the last two decades are worried about losing them.

In Kabul, a group of women bearing signs reading “A cabinet without women is a failure” held another protest in the Pul-e Surkh area of the city. Larger demonstrations on Tuesday were broken up when Taliban gunmen fired warning shots into the air.

“The cabinet was announced and there were no women in the cabinet. And some journalists who came to cover the protest were all arrested and taken to the police station,” said a woman in a video shared on social media.

Zaki Daryabi, head of the daily newspaper Etilaatroz, said some of his reporters had been beaten while covering Tuesday’s protests, which came hours before the new government was revealed.

Taliban officials have said that protests would be allowed, but that they must be announced in advance and authorized.

For many Afghans, more pressing than the composition of the cabinet was the economic fallout of the chaos triggered by the Taliban’s conquest, including its impact on healthcare.

Shukrullah Khan, manager of a restaurant at Qargha Lake, a popular local resort near Kabul, said business had slumped to next to nothing.

“The business and bazaars compared to the previous government, has been decreased by 98%,” he said.

“The banks are closed, there’s no jobs, people no longer spend money. Where does the money come from so that people can have fun here?”

Aid flights have begun to arrive at Kabul airport, but many more will be needed over the coming months.

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) appealed to other humanitarian organizations to return to Afghanistan and for the World Bank to unlock funds to support the tottering healthcare system.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Paris attacks suspect tells trial he’s “an Islamic State soldier”

By Tangi Salaün and Yiming Woo

PARIS (Reuters) -The main suspect in a jihadist rampage that killed 130 people across Paris described himself on Wednesday as “an Islamic State soldier” at the start of the long-awaited trial into the 2015 attacks.

Salah Abdeslam, 31, appeared in court dressed in black and wearing a black face mask, one of 20 men accused of involvement in the gun-and-bomb attacks on six restaurants and bars, the Bataclan concert hall and a sports stadium on Nov. 13, 2015.

Asked what his profession was, the French-Moroccan removed his face mask – obligatory because of the COVID-19 pandemic – and told a Paris court defiantly: “I gave up my job to become an Islamic State soldier.”

Abdeslam is believed to be the only surviving member of the group that carried out the attacks. The other suspects are accused of helping to provide guns and cars or playing a role in organizing the attacks, in which hundreds were also injured.

Responsibility for the attacks was claimed by Islamic State, which had urged followers to attack France over its involvement in the fight against the militant group in Iraq and Syria.

Asked by the court’s top judge to give his name, Abdeslam used the Shahada, an Islamic oath, saying: “I want to testify that there is no god except Allah and that Mohammad is his servant.”

Jean-Pierre Albertini, whose 39-year old son, Stephane, was killed in the Bataclan, told Reuters the reference to being an Islamic State soldier meant “we have in front of us … someone who is at war.”

Thierry Mallet, a Bataclan survivor, said: “I need more to be shocked … I’m not afraid.”

IMPATIENT AND ANXIOUS

Before the trial, survivors and relatives of the victims had said they were impatient to hear testimony that might help them better understand what happened and why it did so, and that they were also anxious.

“It is important that the victims can bear witness, can tell the perpetrators, the suspects who are on the stand, about the pain,” said Philippe Duperron, whose 30-year-old son Thomas was killed in the attacks.

“We are also awaiting anxiously because we know that as this trial takes place the pain, the events, everything will come back to the surface,” said Duperron, who is the president of a victims’ association and will testify at the trial.

The trial will last nine months, with about 1,800 plaintiffs and more than 300 lawyers taking part in what Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti has called an unprecedented judicial marathon. The court’s top judge, Jean-Louis Peries, said it was a historic trial.

The 20 defendants include 11 who are already in jail pending trial. Six will be tried in absentia – most of them are believed to be dead. Most face life imprisonment if convicted.

Police mounted tight security around the Palais de Justice courthouse in central Paris. Defendants will appear behind a reinforced glass partition in a purpose-built courtroom and all people must pass through several checkpoints to enter the court.

“The terrorist threat in France is high, especially at times like the attacks’ trial,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told France Inter radio.

The first days of the trial are expected to be largely procedural, with plaintiffs being registered, though judges may read a summary of how the attacks unfolded.

Victims’ testimonies are set to start on Sept. 28, with one week devoted to the attacks on the Stade de France and cafes, and four to the Bataclan.

The questioning of the accused will start in November but they are not set to be questioned about the night of the attacks and the week before them until March.

A verdict is expected in late May.

(Reporting by Tangi Salaun, Michaela Cabrera, Antony Paone, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Ingrid Melander, Blandine Henault; Writing by Ingrid Melander; editing by Philippa Fletcher, William Maclean and Timothy Heritage)

Tigray forces killed 120 civilians in village in Amhara – Ethiopia officials

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -Rebellious forces from the Tigray region killed 120 civilians over two days in a village in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, local officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

The killings in a village 10 km (six miles) from the town of Dabat took place on Sept. 1 and 2, said Sewnet Wubalem, the local administrator in Dabat, and Chalachew Dagnew, spokesperson of the nearby city of Gondar.

A spokesperson for Tigrayan forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what is the first report of Tigrayan forces killing a large number of civilians since seizing territory in Amhara. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in the region as Tigrayan forces have advanced.

“So far we have recovered 120 bodies. They were all innocent farmers. But we think the number might be higher. There are people who are missing,” Sewnet, the local administrator, told Reuters by phone.

Chalachew, the Gondar city spokesperson, said he had visited the burial area in the village and that children, women and elderly were among the dead.

He said the killings were during the Tigrayan forces’ “short presence” in the area, and it was now under the control of the Ethiopian federal army.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the accounts.

Getachew Reda, spokesperson for the Tigrayan forces, has previously denied to Reuters that the forces have committed crimes against civilians while seizing territory in Amhara over the past month.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

War broke out 10 months ago between Ethiopia’s federal troops and forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the Tigray region.

Since then, thousands have been killed and more than 2 million have fled their homes. Fighting spread in July from the Tigray region into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar, also in the country’s north.

Amid the conflict, relations between the ethnic Amharas and Tigrayans have deteriorated sharply.

During the war, regional forces and militiamen from the Amhara region have sought to settle a decades-old land dispute between the Amhara and Tigray regions.

Amhara forces have seized control of western parts of Tigray and driven tens of thousands of Tigrayans from their homes. Though the Tigrayan forces have seized back most of the Tigray region, they have not taken back the heavily militarized and contested area of western Tigray.

The U.S. government’s humanitarian agency said last week Tigrayan forces had in recent weeks looted its warehouses in parts of Amhara.

Responding on Twitter to the agency’s statement on looting, Getachew Reda, the Tigrayan forces’ spokesperson, wrote: “While we cannot vouch for every unacceptable behavior of off-grid fighters in such matters, we have evidence that such looting is mainly orchestrated by local individuals & groups.”

The U.N. has said a de facto aid blockade on the Tigray region, where some 400,000 people are already in famine conditions, has worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis.

The Ethiopian government has repeatedly denied allegations by the U.N. and Western governments that it is deliberately impeding the delivery of lifesaving assistance. On Sunday, a U.N. convoy of trucks bearing food and other aid was permitted to enter Tigray for the first time since Aug. 20.

(Reporting by Addis Ababa newsroom, Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Jon Boyle and Timothy Heritage)