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September
Afghanistan crisis shows EU must seek greater military autonomy -Michel
Written by Nur Yasmin
The European Union must take action to be better prepared for military evacuations of its citizens in situations such as occurred in Afghanistan in recent weeks, EU Council President Charles Michel said on Wednesday.
"In my view, we do not need another such geopolitical event to grasp that the EU must strive for greater decision-making autonomy and greater capacity for action in the world," he told the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia.
Western nations scrambling to get their citizens out of Kabul after the Taliban takeover were dependent on the U.S. military to keep the airport running during airlifts. (Reuters)
August
Australia in vaccine swap pact with Singapore as COVID-19 cases surge
Written by Nur Yasmin
Australia will receive 500,000 doses of Pfizer's (PFE.N) COVID-19 vaccine from Singapore this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday, after Canberra agreed to a swap deal in a bid to curtail surging coronavirus infections.
The agreement, which will see Australia return the same amount of Pfizer vaccine doses to Singapore in December, will allow Canberra to accelerate its vaccination program as daily cases near record levels for the country.
"That means there are 500,000 doses extra that will happen in September that otherwise would have had to wait for several months from now, accelerating our vaccination program at this critical time as we walk towards those 70% and 80% targets," Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
While Australia had managed to successfully contain the coronavirus with a system of strict lockdowns and quarantine, a slow vaccination rollout has made the country vulnerable to the highly infectious Delta variant.
With just under 28% of Australia's population fully vaccinated, compared with 80% in Singapore, several states and territories have had to implement strict lockdowns as cases soared, hitting businesses and the domestic economy.
Capital city Canberra on Tuesday extended its hard lockdown by a further two weeks, and Victoria, the country's second-most populous state, is expected to soon follow suit.
Canberra has been in lockdown for three weeks after a spate of cases believed to have spread from New South Wales, the epicenter of Australia's COVID-19 outbreak.
"We are bending the curve down and are getting on top of the outbreak. However, it is a slow process and it will take more time," Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Andrew Barr told reporters in Canberra.
On Tuesday, Canberra reported 13 new cases in the past 24 hours. New South Wales reported 1,164 new infections, down slightly from a record 1,290 cases the day prior.
Victoria, which has been in lockdown for five weeks, on Tuesday reported 76 new locally acquired coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, up marginally from 73 cases reported the previous day.
State Premier Dan Andrews said too many people remain unvaccinated to significantly ease restrictions, but that Victoria would outline a plan on Wednesday to reduce curbs as vaccination levels rise.
Australia has recorded nearly 54,000 COVID-19 cases and 1,006 deaths since the start of the pandemic, still lower than the caseload and death toll in most comparable nations. (Reuters)
August
Germany's Merkel says some 10-40,000 left in Afghanistan with right to German residence
Written by Nur Yasmin
Germany estimates there are still between 10,000 and 40,000 local staff working for development organizations in Afghanistan who have a right to be evacuated to Germany if they feel they are endangered, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a Berlin news conference with her Austrian counterpart, Merkel said most of those working for the German armed forces and police were already outside Afghanistan, but that, since development aid to Afghanistan had not been stopped, many staff in that field remained in the country.
"For us, the focus at the moment is local staff and that's not 300 people, that's probably more like 10-40,000 people, and we will have to see how many of them want to leave the country and how many not," she said.
"As we've seen, nobody takes the decision to leave their home lightly." (Reuters)
August
UK says it is too early to decide how to work with the Taliban
Written by Nur Yasmin
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday it is too early to decide if, and how, the government will work with the Taliban on tackling the Islamic State in Afghanistan.
The spokesman said this will partly depend on whether Taliban upholds pledges on issues such as respecting human rights.
"At this stage it is too early to dictate if and how we would work with the Taliban going forward," the spokesman said. "A lot will depend on their actions from now. As we have said throughout, we intend to put pressure on them to uphold these standards and claims." (Reuters)
August
Taiwan expects much-anticipated first BioNTech vaccines to arrive soon
Written by Nur Yasmin
Around 900,000 doses of BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine are expected to arrive in Taiwan soon, the health minister said on Tuesday, the first delivery of a highly politicised, much-anticipated order whose tortured progress has transfixed the island.
Taiwan has blamed China, which claims the island as its own territory, for nixing an order from the German firm earlier this year - charges Beijing has angrily denied.
Taiwan's government subsequently allowed major Apple Inc (AAPL.O) supplier Foxconn - formally Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (2317.TW) - as well as its high profile billionaire founder Terry Gou, along with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (2330.TW), to negotiate on its behalf for the shot.
A $350 million deal for 10 million shots was inked last month, which will be donated to the government for distribution.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung, asked whether the first of BioNTech SE's (22UAy.DE) vaccines would arrive on Wednesday, told reporters he was not able to give an exact timetable, "but the time mentioned is very close".
"The number is around 900,000 doses," he added.
BioNTech, which jointly developed the vaccine with Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), declined to comment.
Chen said that the arrival of the vaccines had "great meaning" for Taiwan, and he would definitely go to the airport to receive them.
"I'll only go when the aircraft arrives," he said.
Taiwan is getting the shots earlier than expected as a delay in regulatory approval of the shot for use in mainland China made a surplus available for the island. The vaccine is approved for use in Chinese-run Hong Kong and Macau.
While a relatively small domestic coronavirus outbreak is well under control in Taiwan, only around 5% of its 23.5 million people are fully vaccinated, though the government has millions of vaccines on order.
More than 10 million vaccine doses have arrived in Taiwan to date, split between Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) and AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L), while local developer Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp's (6547.TWO) shots have also started to be administered. (Reuters)
August
Britain denies pushing to leave Kabul airport gate open before blast
Written by Nur Yasmin
Britain coordinated closely with the United States and did not push to keep a gate open at Kabul airport where a suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. troops and scores of Afghan civilians, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Tuesday.
A Politico report on Monday said American forces decided to keep the Abbey Gate open longer than they wanted to allow Britain to continue evacuating personnel.
"We got our civilian staff out of the processing center by Abbey Gate, but it's just not true to suggest that, other than securing our civilian staff inside the airport, that we were pushing to leave the gate open," Raab told Sky News.
He said Britain had taken mitigating action, including warning people not to come to the airport.
"We also shifted the civilian team that we had in the Baron Hotel to the airport, because (being) a stone's throw away from where the terrorist attack took place, it clearly wasn't safe, but none of that would have required or necessitated Abbey Gate to be left open," he told BBC News.
Raab defended his response to the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan, dismissing reports he failed to do enough to prepare.
Raab, who was on holiday as the Taliban swept through Afghanistan, did not call the Afghan or Pakistani foreign ministers in the six months before the crisis, the Sunday Times reported.
"Politics is a rough game," he said. "Anyone taking out time during a crisis to give a totally inaccurate, skewed set of reporting, I am afraid lacks any credibility and is probably involved in buck-passing themselves."
He said Britain had secured safe passage for 17,000 people, including around 5,000 British nationals since April, with the numbers remaining in Afghanistan in the "low hundreds". (Reuters)
August
Taliban government will decide on Kabul airport charter flights - Germany
Written by Nur Yasmin
Germany will wait for the Taliban to install a new government to see if the Islamists will honour their pledge to allow civilians to leave Afghanistan on flights from Kabul airport, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Tuesday.
"The Taliban have promised, but in the coming days and weeks we will find out whether we can count on that," Maas said during a news conference in Islamabad with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
"The Taliban want to install a new government, and this will give us an indication whether our request that it be inclusive is met," he added. (Reuters)
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