VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

File photo. A pulse oximeter is placed on the hand of a COVID-19 patient at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Sotiria hospital, in Athens, Greece, on Nov 12, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Giorgos Moutafis) - 

Britain called on Sunday (Nov 21) for international action on the issue of medical devices such as oximeters that work better on people with lighter skin, saying the disparities may have cost lives of ethnic minority patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he had commissioned a review of the issue after learning that oximeters, which measure blood oxygen levels and are key to assessing COVID-19 patients, give less accurate readings for patients with darker skin.

"This is systemic across the world. This is about a racial bias in some medical instruments. It's unintentional but it exists and oximeters are a really good example of that," Javid said during an interview with the BBC.

Asked whether people may have died of COVID-19 as a result of the flaw, Javid said: "I think possibly yes. I don't have the full facts."

He said the reason for the discrepancies was that a lot of medical devices, drugs, procedures and textbooks were put together in white majority countries.

"I want to make sure that we do something about it but not just in the UK. This is an international issue so I'm going to work with my counterparts across the world to change this," said Javid.

He said he had already spoken about the issue to his US counterpart, who was as interested in it as he was.

Javid said he had become aware of the problem after looking into why, in Britain, people from black and other minority ethnic backgrounds had been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

He said that at the height of the early stages of the pandemic, a third of admissions for COVID-19 into intensive care units were for ethnic minority patients, which was double their representation in the general population//CNA

China has downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania after Taiwan established a de facto embassy in Vilnius. (File photo: AFP/PETRAS MALUKAS) - 

China downgraded its diplomatic ties with Lithuania on Sunday (Nov 21), expressing strong dissatisfaction with the Baltic State after Taiwan opened a de facto embassy there, escalating a row that has sucked in Washington.

China views self-ruled and democratically governed Taiwan as its territory with no right to the trappings of a state and has stepped up pressure on countries to downgrade or sever their relations with the island, even non-official ones.

Lithuania expressed regret over China's move but defended its right to expand cooperation with Taiwan, while respecting Beijing's "One China" policy, and said its foreign minister would go to Washington to discuss trade and investment projects.

Taiwan, meanwhile, reported that two Chinese nuclear-capable H-6 bombers had flown to the south of the island on Sunday, part of a pattern of what Taipei views as military harassment designed to pressure the government.

Beijing had already expressed its anger this summer with Lithuania - which has formal relations with China and not Taiwan - after it allowed the island to open an office in the country using the name Taiwan. China recalled its ambassador in August.

Other Taiwan offices in Europe and the United States use the name of the city Taipei, avoiding reference to the island itself. However, the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania finally opened on Thursday.

China's Foreign Ministry said in a brusque statement that Lithuania had ignored China's "solemn stance" and the basic norms of international relations.

Beijing said relations would be downgraded to the level of charge d'affaires, a rung below ambassador.

The move "undermined China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and grossly interfered in China's internal affairs", creating a "bad precedent internationally", it said.

"We urge the Lithuanian side to correct its mistakes immediately and not to underestimate the Chinese people's firm determination and staunch resolve to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," China's foreign ministry said.

No matter what Taiwan does, it cannot change the fact that it is part of China, it said.

Lithuania's Prime Minsiter Ingrida Simonyte said on Sunday that the opening of the representative office, which does not have a formal diplomatic status, should not have come as a surprise to anyone.

"Our government's programme says Lithuania wants a more intense economic, cultural and scientific relationship with Taiwan," she said. "I want to emphasise that this step does not mean any conflict or disagreement with the 'One China' policy."

The prime minister of Lithuania's larger EU neighbour Poland said on Sunday that it supported the stance taken by Vilnius.

Taiwan says it is an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name, and that the People's Republic of China has never ruled it and has no right to speak for it.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council denounced China's "rudeness and arrogance", saying Beijing had no right to comment on something that was not an internal Chinese affair and purely a matter between Taiwan and Lithuania.

Taiwan has been heartened by growing international support in the face of China's military and diplomatic pressure, especially from the United States and some of its allies.

Washington rejects attempts by other countries to interfere in Lithuania's relationship with Taiwan, US Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya told a news conference in Vilnius on Friday.

Lithuania Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis will go to Washington on Tuesday where he expects to discuss the opening of the US market to Lithuanian goods and developing common investment projects, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Landsbergis will meet US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jose W Fernandez "to discuss possibilities to expand and deepen mutually beneficial economic ties", it said.

Washington has offered Vilnius support to withstand Chinese pressure and Lithuania will sign a US$600 million export credit agreement with the US Export-Import Bank on Wednesday.

Only 15 countries have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Taipei could lose another ally to Beijing after the Honduran presidential election later this month, where a candidate backed by main opposition parties is leading in opinion polls.

If elected, Xiomara Castro has vowed to establish official relations with China//CNA

FILE PHOTO: A sign reads, "Bitcoin accepted here", outside a store where the cryptocurrency is accepted as a payment method in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sep 24, 2021. (Reuters/Jose Cabezas) - 

El Salvador plans to build the world's first "Bitcoin City" which will be funded initially by bitcoin bonds, President Nayib Bukele said on Saturday (Nov 20), doubling down on the Central American country's bet on the cryptocurrency.

Speaking at an event to mark the close of a week to promote bitcoin in El Salvador, Bukele said the city planned in the east of the country would get its energy supply from a volcano and would not levy any taxes except for value added tax (VAT).

"We'll start funding in 2022, the bonds will be available in 2022," Bukele told a cheering crowd at the event.

Speaking alongside Bukele, Samson Mow, chief strategy officer of blockchain technology provider Blockstream, said El Salvador would initially issue a US$1 billion bond backed by bitcoin to begin raising funds for the planned city.

El Salvador in September became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Oil and gas tanks are seen at an oil warehouse at a port in Zhuhai, China October 22, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo - 

Saudi Arabia held its position as the biggest supplier of crude oil to China for an 11th month in a row in October, with volumes up 19.5per cent from a year ago, customs data showed on Sunday.

Saudi oil arrivals totalled 7.1 million tonnes, or 1.67 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the General Administration of Customs showed, which is 19.5per cent higher than 1.4 million bpd a year and compares with 1.94 million bpd in September.

Inflows from Russia, including pipeline oil, inched up by 1.3per cent from a year ago to 6.6 million tonnes last month, or 1.56 million barrels per day (bpd). That compared with 1.49 million bpd in September.

The growth in Russian supplies, primarily of its flagship oil ESPO blend, followed China's release of fresh import quotas in August and October that allowed independent plants to lift purchases of one of their favourite grades.

Still, China's overall October crude oil imports fell to the lowest in three years amid Beijing's broad cap on independent refiners' imports.

Supplies from Brazil were down 53.2per cent from a year earlier, while those from the United States slumped by 91.8per cent.

Reuters reported China's imports of Iranian oil have held above half a million barrels per day on average between August and October, as buyers judge that getting crude at cheap prices outweighs any risks from busting U.S. sanctions.

Most of these barrels were passed on as exports from Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, weighing on competing supplies from Brazil and West Africa.

Official data has consistently shown China has imported zero oil from Iran or Venezuela since start of 2021, as national oil companies stayed on the sidelines on worries over U.S. sanctions//CNA