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August
Thai PM faces parliamentary grilling as protests persist
Written by Nur Yasmin
Thai lawmakers began a censure debate against Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on Tuesday, as opponents threatened to intensify street protests fueled by frustration at his government's handling of a COVID-19 crisis.
The political opposition accuses the former army chief and five of his cabinet ministers, including deputy prime minister and health minister Anutin Charnvirakul, of corruption, economic mismanagement, and of bungling the coronavirus response.
Prayuth has weathered two previous censure motions and is expected to survive a no-confidence vote scheduled for Saturday, owing to his coalition's clear parliamentary majority.
But the motion is unlikely to appease the youth-led anti-government groups that sought Prayuth's removal last year and have returned with renewed support from Thais angered by lockdowns, record COVID-19 deaths, and a haphazard vaccine rollout.
Demonstrators have threatened nationwide protests while the opposition grills Prayuth in parliament.
"Every seven minutes a Thai person died because of the blundered management of the COVID-19 situation," opposition leader Sompong Amornwiwat of the Pheu Thai Party said in opening the debate.
"There are economic losses of 8 billion baht ($247.60 million) per day from a lack of management and lockdown measures that have failed."
Prayuth told parliament the government was always working for the public interest.
"For those who suffered, I have introduced assisting measures," he said.
"The government has increased domestic spending, investment, and built healthcare. For you to tell me that I have nothing to show for my performance I'd say look again."
Staunch royalist Prayuth took power in a 2014 military coup and remained prime minister after a 2019 election, making him the longest-serving Thai leader since the end of the Cold War.
The protests against him, which are outlawed under coronavirus restrictions, have gathered steam in recent weeks, despite frequent, at times violent clashes with police who have responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannon. (Reuters)
August
New Zealand COVID-19 cases drop for second day amid lockdowns
Written by Nur Yasmin
New Zealand's government on Tuesday reported that new COVID-19 cases fell for a second day, down to 49, amid the tight lockdown the country undertook during the latest outbreak this month.
Except for a small number of cases in February, New Zealand was mainly coronavirus-free for months, until an outbreak of the Delta variant imported from Australia prompted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to order a snap nationwide lockdown on Aug. 17.
The total number of cases in the outbreak is at 612, with 597 in New Zealand's largest city of Auckland and 15 in the capital Wellington.
The declining number of daily cases signals that the social restrictions are reducing the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant, Ardern said in a news conference.
"We have a second day where our numbers have declined. We want the tail of this outbreak to be as short as possible," Ardern said.
Around 1.7 million Aucklanders will remain in strict level 4 lockdown for another two weeks, while restrictions for the remainder of the country will ease slightly from Wednesday.
Police placed checkpoints at the outskirts of Auckland to ensure no non-essential movement was allowed into the city.
Police also said they had arrested 19 people on Tuesday following anti-lockdown protests around the country.
There are now 33 people in hospitals from the latest Delta outbreak, the Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said, with eight cases in stable condition in intensive care.
"It is sobering to see six cases in the outbreak are under the age of one," he said.
But he added that the public health measures in place were slowing the spread of the virus and cases will continue to decline.
Ardern's lockdowns, along with closing the international border from March 2020, were credited with reining in COVID-19.
However, the government now faces questions over a delayed vaccine rollout, as well as rising costs in a country heavily reliant on an immigrant workforce.
Just over a quarter of the population has been fully vaccinated so far, the slowest pace among the wealthy nations of the OECD grouping. (Reuters)
August
UK's Johnson defends Kabul airlift as criticism grows
Written by nuke
UK military personnel departing Kabul, Afghanistan. (Jonathan Gifford/MoD via AP) -
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended Britain's airlift out of Kabul on Sunday (Aug 29) and praised the troops for their mission after criticism grew that the government had been "asleep on watch" in Afghanistan.
Britain's last military flight left Kabul late on Saturday, ending a chaotic two weeks in which soldiers helped to evacuate more than 15,000 people from the crowds who descended on the capital's airport, desperate to flee the Taliban.
Johnson said Britain would not have wished to leave Afghanistan in this manner following its near 20-year presence there, but he said the armed forces should be proud of their achievements none the less.
"I thank everyone involved, and I believe they can be very proud of what they've done," he said in a video online.
Richard Dannatt, former chief of staff of the British army, said the government now needed an inquiry to establish why it was so ill-prepared for the rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
"It is unfathomable why it would appear that the government was asleep on watch," he told Times Radio. "We've had this chaotic extraction, we should have done better, we could have done better."
Britain's defence minister, Ben Wallace, has said around 1,000 people who were eligible to come to Britain, including former staff to the British, were unlikely to get out.
Lisa Nandy, the opposition Labour spokeswoman for the foreign office, said ministers appeared to have been completely unprepared for the speed of events and it was not clear how Afghans could now get to Britain after the airlift had ended.
"It really is an unparalleled moment of shame for this government, that we've allowed it to come to this," she told Sky News.
Johnson said troops and UK officials had worked around the clock and in harrowing conditions to complete a mission "unlike anything we've seen in our lifetimes".
Speaking to the 150,000 men and women who completed a tour of Afghanistan, and the families of the 457 who died there, Johnson said they had succeeded in keeping Britain safe and in improving the livelihoods for locals there.
"It is at the darkest and most difficult moments that the Armed Forces of this country have always performed their greatest and most astonishing feats," he said of the final departure.
One flight carrying troops and London's ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, landed back in Britain on Sunday morning and further flights are expected later in the day//CNA
August
Evacuations, fear in New Orleans as Hurricane Ida grows to Category 4 storm
Written by nuke
This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/GOES satellite handout image shows Hurricane Ida at 9:01pm UTC, on Aug 28, 2021. (Photo: AFP/NOAA/GOES handout) -
Hurricane Ida was upgraded to a Category 4 storm, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Sunday (Aug 29), staying on course to hit New Orleans with sustained winds of 209kmh.
Sunday, when Ida is due to make landfall, marks 16 years since Katrina, the devastating hurricane that flooded 80 per cent of New Orleans, left 1,800 people dead and caused billions of dollars in damage.
"Major Hurricane Ida continues to strengthen ... Now a dangerous Category 4 hurricane," the NHC said on its website.
"Ida is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane when it makes landfall along the Louisiana coast this afternoon," the centre earlier said in its latest advisory when Ida was raised to Category 3.
Shops were boarded up and evacuations were underway on Saturday in the southern US city, with officials warning residents to leave immediately or hunker down to ride out the storm.
"Everybody is scared because it's the anniversary of Katrina and people didn't take it seriously at the time," said Austin Suriano, who was helping board up the windows of his father's watch repair shop.
Category 4 is the second highest on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, with winds rising up to 225kmh.
President Joe Biden warned on Saturday that "Ida is turning into a very, very dangerous storm" when it had built to a Category 2 hurricane.
Earlier in the day, people evacuating from New Orleans and other cities clogged roads heading north as officials warned locals to leave immediately or hunker down.
All Sunday flights were cancelled at New Orleans' airport.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said that Ida would be one of the most powerful storms to hit the state since the 1850s.
In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell warned residents to take Ida with utmost seriousness.
Southern Louisiana was bracing for massive damage and flooding as the fast-intensifying storm roared northward after pummelling western Cuba.
"Extended power loss is almost certain," New Orleans homeland security director Collin Arnold told reporters on Saturday. "I'm imploring you to take this storm seriously."
Biden said that hundreds of emergency personnel had been sent to the region, along with food, water and electric generators.
Shelters were being prepared around the region, but Louisiana has been one of the hardest-hit states by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Biden urged anyone heading to a shelter to wear a mask and take precautions.
The National Weather Service is forecasting a "life-threatening storm surge" - as high as 3.4m near New Orleans and 4.6m around the mouth of the Mississippi River - when the hurricane makes landfall.
It warned of "catastrophic wind damage" and said that Ida could spawn tornadoes.
Louisiana has declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm.
The emergency declaration, approved by Biden, will expedite federal storm assistance to the southern state.
The hurricane made landfall late on Friday in western Cuba as a Category 1 storm, packing winds near 130kmh but causing mostly minor damage.
Scientists have warned of a rise in cyclone activity as the ocean surface warms due to climate change, posing an increasing threat to the world's coastal communities//CNA
August
German region plans tougher restrictions for unvaccinated
Written by nuke
A nurse draws a dose of the BioNtech vaccine against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a vaccination centre at the Dresden Fair, in Dresden, Germany, July 29, 2021. REUTERS/Matthias Rietschel -
At least one region in Germany is planning to impose tougher restrictions on people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 as the country faces a fourth wave of the pandemic, a state official was quoted as saying on Sunday (Aug 29).
The German government currently requires people to be vaccinated, test negative or have a recovery certificate to enter indoor restaurants, visit hospitals and nursing homes and attend events, parties or do sports inside.
The southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg's social ministry has proposed banning unvaccinated adults from restaurants and concerts altogether, and restricting their contacts.
"If it hits the intensive care units, we have to act," Thomas Strobl, Baden-Wuerttemberg's deputy leader, told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
"It would be wrong to hold everyone jointly liable, including the vaccinated. That's why there will be different rules for the unvaccinated than for the vaccinated."
The health minister in neighbouring Bavaria also supports the proposals, the paper said.
The leading candidates vying to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel in a federal election on Sep 26 have pledged there will be no return to the strict lockdowns of last year and earlier this year even as coronavirus infections jump again.
The country reported 8,416 new cases on Sunday and 12 fatalities, bringing the total number of cases to more than 3.9 million and the death toll to 92,130. About 60 per cent of the population has now been fully vaccinated.
Police tussled with protesters demonstrating against COVID-19 restrictions in Berlin on Saturday. More than 100 people were at least temporarily detained, police said.
To nudge more people to get vaccinated, the government has said it will stop offering free tests from Oct 11, except for those for whom vaccination is not recommended, such as children and pregnant women//CNA
August
US in final phase of evacuations from Kabul, Taliban says ready to take over airport
Written by nuke
U.S. Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) process evacuees as they go through the Evacuation Control Center (ECC) during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 28, 2021. U.S. Marine Corps/Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/Handout via REUTERS -
US forces are in the final phase of leaving Kabul, ending two decades of involvement in Afghanistan, and just over 1,000 civilians at the airport remain to be flown out before troops withdraw, a Western security official said on Sunday (Aug 29).
The country's new Taliban rulers are prepared to take control of the airport, said an official from the hardline Islamist movement that has swept cross Afghanistan, crushing the US-backed government.
The Western security official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters a date and time for the end of the operation was yet to be decided.
President Joe Biden has said he will stick by his deadline to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by Tuesday, 20 years after they invaded Kabul and ousted the Taliban government for shielding the perpetrators of the Sep 11, 2001 attacks.
"We want to ensure that every foreign civilian and those who are at risk are evacuated today. Forces will start flying out once this process is over," said the official, who is stationed at the airport.
The Western-backed government and Afghan army melted away as the Taliban entered the capital on Aug 15, leaving an administrative vacuum that has bolstered fears of a financial collapse and widespread hunger.
Under a deal with the United States, the Taliban has said it will allow foreigners and Afghans who wish to leave to fly out. The United States and allies have taken about 113,500 people out of Afghanistan in the past two weeks, but tens of thousands who want to go will be left behind.
A US official told Reuters on Saturday there were fewer than 4,000 troops left at the airport, down from 5,800 at the peak of the evacuation mission. Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters some troops had been withdrawn but declined to say how many remained.
The Taliban official told Reuters the Islamist group had engineers and technicians ready to take charge of the airport.
"We are waiting for the final nod from the Americans to secure full control over Kabul airport as both sides aim for a swift handover," the official said on condition of anonymity.
The Western security official said crowds at the airport gates had diminished after a specific warning from the US government of another attack by militants after a suicide bombing outside the airport on Thursday.
The explosion killed scores of Afghans and 13 American troops outside the gates of the airport, where thousands of Afghans had gathered to try to get a flight out since the Taliban returned to power.
The United States said on Friday it killed two militants belonging to Islamic State - enemies of both the West and Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers - which had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Biden had vowed to hunt down the perpetrators of the explosion and said the strike was not the last.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Saturday the Taliban would take over the airport "very soon" after US forces withdraw and announce a full cabinet in the coming days.
Mujahid told Reuters the group had appointed governors and police chiefs in all but one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and would act to solve the country's economic problems.
The Taliban, facing the loss of billions of dollars of aid for the country, appealed to the United States and other Western nations to maintain diplomatic relations after withdrawing. Britain said that should happen only if the Taliban allow safe passage for those who want to leave and respect human rights.
While Kabul's airport has been in chaos, the rest of the city has been generally calm. The Taliban have told residents to hand over government equipment including weapons and vehicles within a week, the group's spokesman said//CNA
August
UAE says to resume visas for tourists vaccinated against COVID-19
Written by nuke
A visitor walks past a Dubai billboard at the Arabian Travel market exibition in the Gulf emirate, on May 17, 2021 -
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced it will resume issuing visas to all fully vaccinated tourists from Monday (Aug 30), a month before Dubai hosts the delayed Expo 2020 trade fair.
The move comes amid a drop in COVID-19 cases in the oil-rich Gulf country, after it reported less than 1,000 cases per day last week for the first time in months.
The UAE's decision to reopen its doors to tourists from all countries was taken in order "to achieve sustainable recovery and economic growth", the official WAM news agency reported on Saturday.
Those eligible would have to be fully inoculated with one of the COVID-19 vaccines approved by the World Health Organization, which include AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinopharm and Sinovac.
"The decision applies to citizens of all countries, including those arriving from previously banned countries," WAM said.
"Passengers arriving on tourist visas must take a mandatory PCR test at the airport," it added.
The UAE is made up of seven emirates including the capital Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
While life in the country has largely returned to normal amid the coronavirus pandemic, it continues to enforce strict rules on wearing masks and social distancing.
Dubai was last year counting on the six-month Dubai Expo 2020 - delayed a year by the health crisis and now set to open in October - to attract millions of visitors and boost the economy.
Heavily reliant on tourism, the emirate was one of the first destinations to open its doors to travellers, accepting tourists in July last year, just a few months after the pandemic took hold.
Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, has been more cautious, opening up to some visitors only in December.
The UAE as so far recorded more than 715,000 cases of COVID-19, including 2,036 deaths//CNA
August
Australia's COVID-19 cases hit new record as 'reopening' debate heats up
Written by nuke
People form long queues outside a COVID-19 vaccination centre in Melbourne on Aug 27, 2021. (Photo: AFP/William West) -
Australia logged a record 1,323 local COVID-19 cases on Sunday (Aug 29) as debate rages on whether the country should start living with the virus in the community, after initially being successful with suppressing coronavirus.
Australia's most populous state New South Wales (NSW), the epicentre of the nation's Delta-fuelled outbreak, reported 1,218 cases as authorities there are set to slightly ease restrictions after nine weeks in lockdown. The lockdown is scheduled to last until the end of September.
NSW state Premier Gladys Berejiklian vowed to reopen the state once 70 per cent of those 16 and older get vaccinated.
"No matter what the case numbers are doing ... double-dose 70 per cent in NSW means freedom for those who are vaccinated," Berejiklian said.
On Sunday, she said the state has reached the halfway point of achieving the target.
In Victoria, the country's second most populous state which is in its sixth lockdown since the start of the pandemic, there were 92 new infections on Sunday, the highest in nearly a year.
Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said his state's lockdown, due to end on Thursday, will be extended, but would not say for how long.
"We see far too many cases today for us to seriously consider opening up later on this week," Andrews said.
The Australian Capital Territory, home to the national capital Canberra, had 13 new cases.
Australia has faired much better than most developed nations, posting just over 50,100 COVID-19 related cases and 999 deaths.
After the national government closed international borders early in the pandemic, its six states and two territories have used various combinations of state border closures, lockdowns and strict social distancing measures to combat COVID-19.
But the national government now insists that the COVID-zero strategy, which had been successful in suppressing earlier outbreaks, is unrealistic after the highly contagious Delta variant reached its shores and is harmful to the economy.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been urging states to reopen their borders once a vaccination target of 70 per cent of those 16 and older is reached, but virus-free Queensland and Western Australia states have hinted they may not follow.
Nationally, just 33.7 per cent of those eligible have been fully vaccinated, although in recent weeks Australia has been racing to inoculate its population. At current rates, 80 per cent could be vaccinated by mid-November.
"Learning to live with the virus is our only hope," The Age newspaper cited Australia Treasurer Josh Frydenberg as saying on Sunday. "To delay and deny that fact is not only wrong but incredibly unrealistic."
Victoria supports the federal reopening plan, but the state authorities believe the current outbreak, now at 778 active cases, can be suppressed with a strict lockdown, which involves a nightly curfew for Melbourne, Victoria's capital.
The June quarter economic growth figures due to be released on Wednesday may hint whether Australia would enter its second recession in as many years, as the September quarter to be released later in the year is broadly expected to show a contraction, reflecting the current outbreaks and lockdowns//CNA
August
US airlifts food, tents to quake-ravaged southern Haiti
Written by nuke
Police officers monitor a crowd as earthquake victims receive supplies during the distribution of food and water at the "4 Chemins" crossroads in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug 20, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Reginald Louissant Jr) -
US military aircraft are now flying food, tarps and other material into southern Haiti amid a shift in the international relief effort to focus on helping people in the areas hardest hit by the recent earthquake to make it through hurricane season.
Aircraft flying out of the capital, Port-au-Prince, arrived throughout the day Saturday (Aug 28) in the mostly rural, mountainous southern peninsula that was the epicenter of the Aug 14 earthquake. In Jeremie, people waved and cheered as a Marine Corps unit from North Carolina descended in a tilt-rotor Osprey with pallets of rice, tarps and other supplies.
Most of the material, however, wasn't destined for Jeremie. It was for distribution to remote mountain communities where landslides destroyed homes and the small plots of the many subsistence farmers in the area, said Patrick Tine of Haiti Bible Mission, one of several groups coordinating the delivery of aid.
“They lost their gardens, they lost their animals,” Tine said as he took a break from helping unload boxes of rice. “The mountains slid down and they lost everything.”
At the request of the Haitian government, getting as much help to such people as fast as possible is now the focus of the US$32 million US relief effort, said Tim Callahan, a disaster response team leader for the US Agency for International Development.
In the immediate aftermath of the magnitude 7.2 earthquake, which killed more than 2,200 people and damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 homes, the focus was on search and rescue.
That was complicated by heavy rain from Tropical Storm Grace as well as earthquake damage to roads and bridges, in an area where the infrastructure was in bad shape to begin with. The threat of gangs, in a country still reeling from the Jul 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, also made it hard to distribute aid. As a a result, many Haitians had grown increasingly impatient with relief efforts.
“We're just trying to get as much material out to the most affected areas as fast as we can. If you do that, then the frustration level goes down," Callahan said over the roar of helicopters at the Port-au-Prince airport, where US troops and civilian aid workers labored to load aircraft with pallets in the hot sun.
That is where the US military comes into play. Troops under the direction of Miami-based Southern Command have so far delivered more than 265,000 pounds of relief assistance.
Among those troops is the unit from North Carolina, known as the Fighting Griffins and based at the New River Marine Corps Air Station, which allowed Associated Press journalists to come along as they delivered emergency supplies.
Two crews took off from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, flew to Port-au-Prince to pick up supplies, and then made multiple trips across the mountainous southern peninsula to deliver their loads.
It was an upbeat mission, with the flight crew and pilots helping the Haitian aid workers unload the aircraft, then shaking hands as they said their goodbyes.
One crew, which delivered more than 8,500 pounds of goods on Saturday alone, brought along a Marine of Haitian descent from New York City as their interpreter. “It really means a lot to me to do something like this,” said Lance Corporal Lunel Najac.
The US effort is expected to continue at least for several more weeks, though whether it will be enough to get people through the rest of the hurricane season remains to be seen.
“People need food, water, tents, tarps,” said Wilkens Sanon of Mission of Hope Foundation, another of the groups working with the US to channel aid to people who need it most.
“It is very, very bad right now,” he said//CNA
August
New Zealand reports 83 local COVID-19 cases as Delta outbreak grows
Written by nuke
A medical worker administers a COVID-19 test in Auckland, New Zealand on Aug 26, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Fiona Goodall) -
New Zealand reported 83 locally acquired cases on Sunday (Aug 29) of the highly infectious Delta coronavirus variant, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying that some changes on how the outbreak is managed could be announced on Monday.
Ardern on Friday extended the lockdown for the country of 5.1 million until midnight on Tuesday, after which the restrictions were to ease slightly. Auckland, however, which is the epicentre of the outbreak was to remain locked down for longer.
Ardern said her government was seeking more information on the spread of the infections.
"If we need to tighten up our restrictions further, we will," she told a televised briefing.
Of the Sunday cases, 82 were reported in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, and the other was in the capital, Wellington.
New Zealanders had been living virtually virus-free and without curbs until the August outbreak. So far, the country has recorded just over 3,100 confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic and 26 related deaths, according to the health ministry.
Of the current community cases, 34 people were in hospital and two of them in intensive care. Active community cases stand at 511, with 496 of them in Auckland.
"Having positive cases in our communities, along with the impact of lockdowns I know can be hugely unsettling, and that uncertainty can impact everyone's mental health," Ardern said, announcing additional financial resources for mental health and urging people to seek help.
"So, it's OK to feel overwhelmed, to feel upset, or even to feel frustrated because this situation is often all of those things."//CNA