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December
Biden meets Ecuador's president as immigration crisis grows
Written by Nur Yasmin
President Joe Biden met Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso on Monday to discuss efforts to stem the flow of migrants to the United States as the White House faces increased pressure over its immigration policies.
The Biden administration is required this week to lift Title 42, a public health order first issued under former President Donald Trump that allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection to rapidly expel migrants to Mexico or back to their home countries to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus in U.S. holding facilities.
Lifting the order, as required by a judge who said it was "arbitrary and capricious" and violated federal regulatory law, could lead to thousands of asylum-seeking migrants being released in border state communities and a greater influx of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Biden and Lasso sat beside each other in the Oval Office to begin their discussions.
"Today we're going to keep building on the progress we've made. Together we've made historic strides on migration," Biden told reporters.
Lasso said he and Biden would affirm democratic values of liberty and respect for human rights. After the meeting, he told reporters that migration did come up in their talks.
"We have talked about migration and migration as a consequence of the economic problems of many countries in Latin America. We have ratified our commitment to continue supporting, as we have done, the migration phenomenon, especially (migrants) from Venezuela in Ecuador," he said.
U.S. lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, on Sunday pressed Biden to take action to manage an expected wave of asylum seekers at America's southern border.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, appearing on the CBS News "Face the Nation" program on Sunday, urged Biden to ask for an extension of Title 42.
"The president needs to find a way," Manchin said.
Lasso visited the White House after former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd, who is Biden's special adviser for the Americas, extended an invitation on the president's behalf during a recent visit to Ecuador.
Lasso attended the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles last summer after a number of key presidents opted to skip it and send delegations instead.
The Biden administration has sought to tackle what it calls the "root causes" of immigration, including poor economic conditions and political instability.
"We are obviously invested in Ecuador's success and the president of Ecuador, democratically elected as he is, is working hard to deliver prosperity and security for his people," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a call with reporters on Friday. (Reuters)
December
UK extends support for high loan-to-value mortgages
Written by Nur Yasmin
Britain's government announced late on Monday that it would extend a programme that encourages lenders to offer 95% loan-to-value mortgages to first-time buyers, as the housing market heads into a downturn.
The Mortgage Guarantee Scheme was launched in April 2021 and had been due to stop at the end of this year but instead will continue until the end of 2023. More than 24,000 households have obtained mortgages under the programme.
The extension comes as lenders report falling house prices in the face of rising mortgage interest rates and a squeeze on buyers' disposable income. In October, inflation hit a 41-year high.
"Extending this scheme means thousands more have the chance to benefit, and supports the market as we navigate through these difficult times," deputy finance minister John Glen said.
Last week mortgage lender Halifax forecast house prices would drop 8% next year, and in November it recorded the largest monthly drop in house prices since 2008.
Under the mortgage guarantee scheme, the government receives a fee from lenders in exchange for covering almost all the extra risk of a 95% loan-to-value mortgage, compared to one that is made at 80% loan-to-value. The fee is intended to cover expected losses and administration costs.
British house prices surged by more than a quarter after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, making it hard for most first-time buyers to find a deposit greater than 5%.
The mortgage guarantee scheme can be used to finance house purchases costing up to 600,000 pounds ($731,000).
The Bank of England has warned that people with mortgages are likely to come under greater financial pressure over the coming year but are in a stronger position than before previous recessions in 2008-09 and the early 1990s. (reuters)
December
World Bank approves $1.69 bln for Pakistan flood relief projects
Written by Nur Yasmin
The World Bank has approved financing of $1.69 billion for flood relief projects in Pakistan, it said in a statement on Monday.
Pakistan's already stressed economy took a further hit after severe floods earlier this year submerged large swathes of the country, killing nearly 1,700 people, damaging farmlands and infrastructure.
The World Bank financing is aimed at relief projects in the south-eastern Sindh province, which it said was worst-affected by the floods. (reuters)
December
Australia seeks to resolve China trade woes as foreign minister heads to Beijing
Written by Nur Yasmin
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday she will push China to lift trade sanctions and for consular access to two detained Australians during a trip to Beijing that's aimed at mending strained diplomatic ties.
But Wong, who is expected to meet counterpart Wang Yi on Wednesday, tempered expectations of any immediate breakthrough.
"Many of the hard issues in the relationship will take time to resolve in our interests," Wong said during a media briefing in Canberra before leaving for China. "This will take time, but I do see this visit as another step in the road."
Wong's visit is the first by an Australian minister since 2019 and will mark the first formal talks in Beijing between the two nations' top diplomats since 2018.
Bilateral relations crumpled after Canberra banned Huawei Technologies from its 5G broadband network in 2018 and called for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Beijing responded with tariffs on several Australian commodities.
The Labor government, which in May returned to power after nine years, has been seeking to repair its relationship with its top trading partner. A meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali last month signalled some thawing in ties.
Australia has been seeking consular access for journalist Cheng Lei and writer Yang Hengjun, who are detained in China and awaiting sentences after closed-door national security trials.
A spokesperson for Australia's foreign affairs department said the federal government had not received advice from Chinese authorities about "any imminent judicial outcomes" for the two.
Wong will also attend the sixth Australia–China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue in Beijing, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. (Reuters)
December
Taiwan seeks quick progress on long-stalled EU investment deal
Written by Nur Yasmin
Taiwan wants progress to be accelerated on a long-stalled bilateral investment agreement with the European Union, the island's President Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday.
The EU included Taiwan on its list of trade partners for a potential bilateral investment agreement in 2015, the year before Tsai became Taiwan's president, but it has not held talks with Taiwan on the issue since.
While they are Taiwan's largest source of foreign investment, the EU and its member states do not have formal diplomatic ties with the democratically ruled island due to objections from China, which considers Taiwan one of its provinces.
Meeting a delegation from the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade, Tsai said Taiwan and the EU should build a "resilient democratic alliance".
"Taiwan seeks to enhance bilateral economic and trade exchanges, strengthen supply chain security and accelerate progress on the Taiwan-EU bilateral investment agreement, which would instil confidence in businesses on both sides to expand investments," she told the group, in comments carried live by the presidential office.
The European Union has been courting Taiwan, a major semiconductor producer, as one of the "like-minded" partners it would like to work with under the European Chips Act unveiled in February.
Delegation leader Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou told Tsai that the EU and Taiwan shared common values like democracy and human rights.
"The EU recognises that our partnership in trade and investment with Taiwan is a strategic relationship with geopolitical implications," Asimakopoulou said.
"My colleagues and I in the European Parliament have called on the (European) Commission to launch without delay an impact assessment, a public consultation and a scoping exercise for the bilateral investment agreement between the EU and Taiwan," she added.
While Taiwan and the EU held-high level trade talks in June, less than a week after that meeting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) (2330.TW), said it had no concrete plans for factories in Europe.
TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker and Asia's most valuable listed company, flagged last year that it was in the early stages of reviewing a potential expansion into EU member Germany but there appears to have been no substantive progress since then. (reuters)
December
Thailand races to find missing marines after navy vessel capsizes
Written by Nur Yasmin
Thailand deployed aircraft, boats and rescue teams off its central coast on Tuesday in a race against the clock to locate 30 missing marines, who abandoned a warship that sank at the weekend in choppy waters.
The HTMS Sukhothai warship, a U.S.-made corvette in use since 1987, capsized in the Gulf of Thailand after being knocked over by four-metre (13 ft) waves and strong winds.
The vessel suffered an engine malfunction as it took on water and went down just before midnight on Sunday about 20 nautical miles off the coast, said navy spokesperson Admiral Ruth Manthatpain.
The boat was carrying 105 military personnel, of whom 75 were rescued but dozens more had to abandon ship in rafts and wearing life jackets.
Vice Admiral Pichai Lorchusakul, the regional navy commander, said finding the men on Tuesday would be critical given the time they had been exposed to the elements.
"Life jacket, life buoy and their floating technique allow us 48 hours to save their lives," he said late on Monday. "We will try to do as much as we can to save them."
Weather conditions were better on Tuesday, he added, as the navy and air force deployed several ships, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and helicopters to locate the 30 marines still missing.
One of the men was found late on Monday in waters off Prachuap Khiri Khan province, clinging to a buoy.
"He was floating in the water for 10 hours. He was still conscious, so we could take him out of the water safely," said Captain Kraipich Korawee-Paparwit, commander of the HTMS Kraburi, one of the warships involved in the search mission.
Relatives of the missing gathered at rescue centres awaiting news of loved ones.
"I'm very concerned about everything with these weather conditions and wind. It's now been too long (for them to be in the sea) to struggle against the tides and weather," said Malinee Pudphong, aunt of a missing 21-year-old marine, Saharat Esa.
Though military accidents, often with aircraft, are not uncommon in Thailand, incidents involving navy vessels have been rare in recent years. (reuters)
December
China races to bolster health system as COVID surge sparks global concern
Written by Nur Yasmin
Cities across China scrambled to install hospital beds and build fever screening clinics on Tuesday as authorities reported five more deaths and international concern grew about Beijing's surprise decision to let the virus run free.
China this month began dismantling its stringent "zero-COVID" regime of lockdowns and testing after protests against curbs that had kept the virus at bay for three years but at a big cost to society and the world's second-largest economy.
Now, as the virus sweeps through a country of 1.4 billion people who lack natural immunity having been shielded for so long, there is growing concern about possible deaths, virus mutations and the impact on the economy and trade.
"Every new epidemic wave in another country brings the risk of new variants, and this risk is higher the bigger the outbreak, and the current wave in China is shaping up to be big," said Alex Cook, vice-dean for research at the National University of Singapore's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
"However, inevitably China has to go through a large wave of COVID-19 if it is to reach an endemic state, in a future without lockdowns and the economic and political damage that results."
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday the potential for the virus to mutate as it spreads in China was "a threat for people everywhere".
Beijing reported five COVID-related deaths on Tuesday, following two on Monday, which were the first fatalities reported in weeks. In total, China has reported just 5,242 COVID deaths since the pandemic emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, a very low toll by global standards.
But there are rising doubts that the statistics are reflecting the true impact of a disease ripping through cities after China dropped curbs including most mandatory testing on Dec. 7.
Since then, some hospitals have become inundated, pharmacies emptied of medicines, while many people have gone into self-imposed lockdowns, straining delivery services.
"It's a bit of a burden to suddenly reopen when the supply of medications was not sufficiently prepared," said Zhang, a 31-year-old delivery worker in Beijing who declined to give his full name. "But I support the reopening.”
Some health experts estimate 60% of people in China - equivalent to 10% of the world's population - could be infected over coming months, and that more than 2 million could die.
In the capital, Beijing, security guards patrolled the entrance of a designated COVID-19 crematorium where Reuters journalists on Saturday saw a long line of hearses and workers in hazmat suits carrying the dead inside. Reuters could not establish if the deaths were due to COVID.
'GETTING SICK'
In Beijing, which has emerged as the main infection hot spot, commuters, many coughing into their masks, were back on the trains to work and streets were coming back to life after being largely deserted last week.
Streets in Shanghai, where COVID transmission rates are catching up with Beijing's, were emptier, and subway trains were only half-full.
"People are staying away because they are sick or scared of getting sick, but mostly now, I think it’s because they are actually sick,” said Yang, a trainer at a nearly empty Shanghai gym.
Top health officials have softened their tone on the threat posed by the disease in recent weeks, a U-turn from previous messaging that the virus had to be eradicated to save lives even as the rest of the world opened up.
They have also been playing down the possibility that the now predominant Omicron strain could become more virulent.
"The probability of a sudden large mutation ... is very low," Zhang Wenhong, a prominent infectious disease specialist, told a forum on Sunday in comments reported by state media.
Nevertheless, there are mounting signs the virus is buffeting China's fragile health system.
Cities are ramping up efforts to expand intensive care units and build fever clinics, facilities designed to prevent the wider spread of contagious disease in hospitals.
In the past week, major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Wenzhou announced they had added hundreds of fever clinics, some in converted sports facilities.
The virus is also hammering China's economy, expected to grow 3% this year, its worst performance in nearly half a century. Workers and truck drivers falling ill are slowing down output and disrupting logistics, economists say.
A World Economics survey showed on Monday China's business confidence fell in December to its lowest since January 2013.
Weaker industrial activity in the world's top oil importer has capped gains for crude prices and driven copper lower.
China kept benchmark lending interest rates unchanged for the fourth consecutive month on Tuesday. (Reuters)
December
Zelenskiy calls for global peace summit in video message
Written by Nur Yasmin
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday proposed holding a global peace summit this winter, in a video message Kyiv was hoping would be broadcast ahead of the soccer World Cup final in Qatar, although it appeared unlikely FIFA would allow the move.
CNN reported on Friday that Zelenskiy had asked world soccer's governing body FIFA to let him share a message of peace before the final.
"We offered Peace Formula to the world. Absolutely fair. We offered it because there are no champions in war, there can be no draw," Zelenskiy said in a video message issued by his office.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February, in what it calls a "special military operation". The conflict has killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions from their shattered homes.
"I announce the initiative to hold a Global Peace Formula Summit this winter. The summit to unite all nations of the world around the cause of global peace. Stadiums’ stands get empty after the match, and after the war cities remain empty," he said.
Zelenskiy had wanted to appear via video link before Argentina take on defending champions France at Doha's Lusail Stadium for the final with an expected global audience of hundreds of millions, CNN reported.
FIFA did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but it appeared unlikely to give Zelenskiy a platform given its stance on political messages at the World Cup.
Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter that FIFA "shows a lack of understanding of the disaster that the Russian federation is dragging the world into by starting a war in Ukraine".
Russia fired more than 70 missiles at Ukraine on Friday in one of its heaviest bombardments since the start of the war, knocking out power in the second-biggest city and forcing Kyiv to implement emergency blackouts nationwide. (Reuters)
December
South Africa's ANC gathers to vote on new leader
Written by Nur Yasmin
South Africa's ruling African National Congress delegates were engaged in last minute horse-trading as voting for a new party leader pitting President Cyril Ramaphosa against former health minister Zweli Mkhize began on Sunday.
The winner, who will run for president under the ANC banner in national elections in 2024, has been more or less guaranteed to become president in the nearly three decades since Nelson Mandela ended white minority rule in the country.
But this is no longer a certainty as the ANC's popularity has waned over that period and the party faces the possibility of losing its majority for the first time.
More than 4,400 delegates at the ANC's five-day conference in Johannesburg must decide which of the two candidates is best placed to revive its fortunes. On Saturday they nominated the two candidates ahead of Sunday's vote.
Their supporters battled in a sing-off in the early hours of Sunday, with Ramaphosa's backers holding up two fingers signalling a second term as leader. Mkhize's supporters meanwhile were chanting "change" and "He (Ramaphosa) is not coming back!"
The ANC's national spokesman Pule Mabe told reporters that the party would investigate allegations of vote buying by some delegates involved in last minute horse trading once they were formally reported to the ANC.
"We have to take action against individuals who do such," Mabe said.
KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo are the three provinces with the highest numbers of voters, which will carry the biggest sway in the voting.
KwaZulu-Natal, with the most registered voting delegates, is backing Mkhize while the Eastern Cape and Limpopo are supporting Ramaphosa.
But members of certain ANC branches from all provinces were making last-ditch attempts to persuade delegates to vote for their candidates.
Ramaphosa had been the favourite to win until he came under pressure to step down over a scandal involving the discovery of a stash of cash at his farm. Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crimes.
Mkhize's backers include former president Jacob Zuma's supporters, who are seeking to use the scandal to oust the incumbent. Ramaphosa suspended Mkhize over corruption allegations into COVID-19 tenders last year, charges the ex-minister denies.
Zuma also faces several corruption investigations relating to his nine years in office before Ramaphosa took over in 2018, all of which he denies.
The 4,426 delegates will also vote for the other top six ANC positions, which include deputy president and national chairperson. (Reuters)
December
Egypt discovers large gas field in Mediterranean, minister says
Written by Nur Yasmin
Egypt has discovered a large gas field in the Nargis block in the eastern Mediterranean, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said on Thursday.
Evaluation is still ongoing to determine the field's reserves, he said in a briefing to a parliamentary committee.
Nargis is one of four offshore exploration blocks in which Chevron (CVX.N) holds operating interests in Egypt along with Tharwa Petroleum Co, according to Chevron's website.
The Middle East Economic Survey reported this month that the size of the new well was 3.5 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Egyptian officials have declined to confirm details of the find.
The find could provide a boost to Egypt's efforts to position itself as an energy hub in the eastern Mediterranean following the 2015 announcement of the discovery by Eni (ENI.MI) of the giant Zohr gas field. (Reuters)