VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia-UK Interdisciplinary Sciences Forum: Enabling Global Health Security - UK Embassy 

Indonesian Embassy in UK host a virtual event on Thursday (25/02/21) with the theme Indonesia-UK Interdisciplinary Sciences Forum: Enabling Global Health Security. Recently Indonesia and the UK have struck an agreement to strengthen research partnership between the two countries and for the first time a collaboration of six major universities, the UK-Indonesia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Sciences (UKICIS), motored by Indonesian diaspora academics in the UK has been established to build global resilience against pandemics. 

"Our partnership with Indonesia is very special one, delighted to learn that the UK has become one in the top five partners in research and innovation. And the partnership created between our researchers will serve our communities incredible well. And I also welcoming the sigining of memorandum of understanding on sciences collaboration today. The extraordinary impact of covid-19 and the global response to the pandemic has demonstrated the vital importants of research collaboration and the significance of science and research on the heart of government to government cooperation. And despite the chalanging context in wich we will all be working on sometime the United Kingdom is committed in supporting research and science in our international partnership" UK’s Minister of state, foreign, commonwealth and development office (FCDO), Nigel Adams said.  

"This type of international collaboration has been one of our strategy to improve research quality and promoting more innovation in Indonesia. We are already develop some collaboration with other countries also with several universities but I think the UKICIS scheme is quite unique because it is innitiated by the Indonesians who happens to be diaspora in three universities in UK and they are collaborating with their counterpart in Indonesia and thankfully today we can witnessed the signing for this understanding and we hope the UKICIS will function fully when is already in effect" Indonesian technology and research Minister, Bambang Brojonegoro stated. 

On the similar event, UK Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor Leste, Owen Jenkins reveal that Indonesia and UK partnership on research and innovation is strong and fundamental to the development of both countries in combating covid-19 pandemic. On the other hand Indonesian Ambassador to UK, Desra Percaya said that this partnership is a new era in science and innovation and priority of the ambassadorship as mandated by President Joko Widodo to accelerate Indonesia’s human capital development in achieving sustainable economic growth as well as contributing to address global challanges//NK-VOI

Britain to offer all adults a COVID-19 vaccine by end of July - BBC

All adults in Britain will be offered a first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of July, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday (Feb 20) ahead of a planned announcement on the cautious reopening of the economy from lockdown.

Johnson will set out a roadmap to ease England's third national lockdown on Monday, having met a target to vaccinate 15 million Britons from higher-risk categories by mid-February.

Britain now aims to give a first dose to all over-50s by Apr 15, the government said, having previously indicated it wished them to receive the shot by May.

If all adults receive a dose by the end of July, it will be well ahead of a previous target that they would receive a vaccine by autumn.

After suffering the world's fifth-worst official COVID-19 death toll and a series of mishaps in its pandemic response, Johnson's government moved faster than much of the West to secure vaccine supplies, giving it a head start.

Johnson cautioned that there was a need to avoid complacency, adding that lockdown would only be lifted slowly.

"We will now aim to offer a jab to every adult by the end of July, helping us the most vulnerable sooner, and take further steps to ease some of the restrictions in place," Johnson said in a statement.  

"But there should be no doubt - the route out of lockdown will be cautious and phased, as we all continue to protect ourselves and those around us."

So far, the United Kingdom has given a first dose of vaccine to 17.2 million people, more than a quarter of its 67 million population and behind only Israel and the United Arab Emirates in vaccines per head of population.

Two vaccines - one made by Pfizer and BioNTech, and another developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca - are being rolled out, and UK officials have advised that there can be a 12 week gap between doses//CNA

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison receives a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the Castle Hill Medical Centre in Sydney on Feb 21, 2021 - Strait Times

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was injected on Sunday (Feb 21) with the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, as the nation started its inoculation program a day ahead of schedule.

Up to 4 million Australians are expected to receive a COVID-19 vaccine voluntarily by March, with Morrison and Paul Kelly, the country's chief medical officer, among a small group of Australians receiving the first inoculations.

"We're here making some very important points," Morrison said moments before cameras captured the first person being injected at a medical centre in Sydney. "That it is safe, that it's important, and we need to start with those who are most vulnerable and on the frontline."

Doses of the Pfizer inoculations, which need to be kept at temperatures well below freezing, were still being distributed to 16 vaccine hubs around Australia in preparation for the broader rollout of the vaccines on Monday.

A small number of older Australians at the Castle Hill Medical Centre in the western part of Sydney, aged-care staff, and frontline nurses and workers were among the group injected on Sunday, officials said.

The country is enjoying a second day without a single new COVID-19 transmission in the community, officials said. The vast majority of its population will be injected with the AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of October.

On Saturday, thousands of people attended anti-vaccine rallies in major Australian cities to protest what they incorrectly believed to be mandatory vaccinations.Australia has reported just under 29,000 COVID-19 cases and 909 deaths since March 2020. The country has ranked among the top 10 in a COVID-19 performance index//CNA

UN Security council to meet on global warming impact on world peace - UN

The UN Security Council will hold a summit of world leaders on Tuesday (Feb 23) to debate climate change's implications for world peace, an issue on which its 15 members have divergent opinions.

The session, called by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and conducted by video-conference, comes just days after the United States under President Joe Biden formally rejoined the Paris climate change accord.

Johnson, whose country now holds the Security Council's rotating presidency, will address the forum, as will US climate czar John Kerry, French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the prime ministers of Ireland, Vietnam, Norway and other countries, diplomats say.

The meeting will serve as a test for US-China relations, one UN ambassador said on condition of anonymity, alluding to one of the few issues where the two big powers might agree. But this is not a given.

Traditionally, the ambassador said, "you know that the Russians and the Chinese will immediately say (climate change has) 'nothing to do' with the council's issues".

Today, however, "the Chinese are more liable to be slightly open to that discussion", which "leaves the Russians pretty much on their own".

Russia does not see climate change as a broad issue for the Security Council to address. Moscow prefers dealing with climate questions on a case-by-case basis, diplomats told AFP.

Tuesday's meeting "will be focused on the security aspects of climate change", a second ambassador said, also on condition of anonymity.

Some non-permanent members of the council including Kenya and Niger have clearly expressed their concerns about climate change's impact on national security.

Others do not want to "turn the Security Council into another organ which is looking just at the issues more broadly around finance, adaptation, mitigation and negotiations," the second ambassador said.

Last year, Germany, which then had a seat on the council, drafted a resolution calling for the creation of a special UN envoy post on climate-related security risks.

One goal of the job would be to improve UN efforts involving risk assessment and prevention.Today, with the new US approach, that draft resolution has a chance of being approved//CNA