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December
U.N. chief urges leaders of every country to declare 'climate emergency'
Written by Nur YasminU.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on every country to declare a “climate emergency” on Saturday, as world leaders marking the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate accord made mostly incremental pledges relative to the scale of the crisis.
Guterres made his call at a summit aimed at building on momentum behind the Paris deal, buoyed in recent months by renewed commitment from China and the prospect of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden bringing the United States back into the pact.
Nevertheless, the dozens of leaders who spoke mostly offered tweaks to existing commitments or promises of bolder moves before crucial talks in Glasgow in late 2021, rather than breakthrough new policies to hasten the end of fossil fuels.
“Can anybody still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency?” Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister who has made climate change his signature issue, said via video.
“That is why today, I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a State of Climate Emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached.”
With the impacts of climate change increasingly stark since the Paris deal was struck - ranging from wildfires in Australia and California to collapsing ice sheets - popular pressure has grown on leaders to listen to warnings from scientists.
Britain, co-hosting the summit, made one of the clearest new commitments, announcing late on Friday it would stop direct government support for overseas fossil fuel projects.
Campaigners hailed the move for putting pressure on other G7 economies to restrict support for oil and gas companies.
Renewed pledges to back Paris from countries such as India, Germany and France were welcomed less in terms of substance and more for keeping alive hopes of faster action to meet the monumental challenge of halving global emissions by 2030 in line with the Paris deal.
DISAPPOINTMENT ON COAL
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who surprised many in September when he announced the world’s biggest producer of climate-warming emissions would become carbon neutral by 2060, and unveiled targets to speed the expansion of wind and solar power.
“China always honours its commitments,” Xi said.
But China showed no signs of bowing to calls from Guterres and campaigners to wind down finance for new coal-fired power plants, a major source of emissions.
Japan and South Korea, which both pledged in October to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, likewise made no commitments on coal finance - though they did pledge to submit more ambitious emissions targets under the Paris accord.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, by contrast, drew praise for saying the country “will not have any more power based on coal”. It was not immediately clear what the pledge would mean for Pakistan’s existing plans to build coal plants under a deal with China.
Argentina, Barbados, Canada, Colombia, Iceland and Peru were among 15 countries who shifted from “incremental” to “major” increases in their emissions pledges, the U.N., British and French co-hosts said in a statement.
Climate negotiators say that the Paris process has begun to look far stronger than it did even six few months ago, with countries representing around 65% of global carbon emissions now expected to have committed to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions or carbon neutrality by early next year.
But campaigners pointed to the gulf that still yawns between the pace of action and the Paris goals of capping rising global temperatures quickly enough to avoid catastrophic impacts.
“It is the melting of permafrost; forest fires that hit closer to the home of the climate crisis deniers; droughts that ransack living beings of their resources; floods that reminded many of us that we have no escape,” Selina Neirok Leem, a campaigner from the Marshall Islands, told the summit.
Major emitters Australia and Brazil did not make ambitious enough pledges to qualify to speak, diplomats said.
“TURN THE CORNER”
Guterres said economic recovery packages in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic were an opportunity to act on climate - but said G20 countries had so far spent 50% more of their stimulus on sectors linked to fossil fuels than on cleaner energy.
“This is unacceptable,” Guterres said. “The trillions of dollars needed for COVID recovery is money that we are borrowing from future generations.”
The European Union, which plans to spend 30% of its 1.8-trillion-euro ($2.2 trillion) budget and COVID-19 recovery fund on climate action, boosted its own 2030 climate pledge on Friday, aiming to cut emissions at least 55% by 2030, from 1990 levels.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the world to cooperate to tackle the “toxic tea cosy” of greenhouse gases now quilting the planet, while investors and businesses underscored their support for action.
“We call on companies and governments around the world to do all we can to make 2021 the year we turn the corner for good,” said Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook. (Reuters)
December
Morocco joins other Arab nations agreeing to normalize Israel ties
Written by Nur YasminIsrael and Morocco agreed on Thursday to normalize relations in a deal brokered with U.S. help, making Morocco the fourth Arab country to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past four months.
It joins the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in beginning to forge deals with Israel, driven in part by U.S.-led efforts to present a united front against Iran and roll back Tehran’s regional influence.
In a departure from longstanding U.S. policy, President Donald Trump agreed as part of the deal to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara, a desert region where a decades-old territorial dispute has pitted Morocco against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a breakaway movement that seeks to establish an independent state.
President-elect Joe Biden, due to succeed Trump on Jan. 20, will face a decision whether to accept the U.S. deal on the Western Sahara, which no other Western nation has done. A Biden spokesman declined to comment.
While Biden is expected to move U.S. foreign policy away from Trump’s “America First” posture, the Democrat has indicated he will continue the pursuit of what Trump calls “the Abraham Accords” between Israel and Arab and Muslim nations.
Trump sealed the Israel-Morocco accord in a phone call with Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Thursday, the White House said.
“Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed to full diplomatic relations – a massive breakthrough for peace in the Middle East!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Mohammed told Trump that Morocco intends to facilitate direct flights for Israeli tourists to and from Morocco, according to a statement from Morocco’s royal court.
“This will be a very warm peace. Peace has never - the light of peace on this Hanukkah day has never - shone brighter than today in the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to a Jewish eight-day holiday starting on Thursday night.
Palestinians have been critical of the normalization deals, saying Arab countries have set back the cause of peace by abandoning a longstanding demand that Israel give up land for a Palestinian state before it can receive recognition.
Egypt and UAE issued statements welcoming Morocco’s decision. Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979.
“This step, a sovereign move, contributes to strengthening our common quest for stability, prosperity, and just and lasting peace in the region,” Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, wrote on Twitter.
But Senator Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Armed Services Committee, denounced Trump’s “shocking and deeply disappointing” decision to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. Inhofe said people living in the area should vote in a referendum to decide their future.
“The president has been poorly advised by his team. He could have made this deal without trading the rights of a voiceless people,” Inhofe said in a statement.
A senior U.S. official said Trump knew about Inhofe’s opposition to recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. But Inhofe’s argument lost ground with the president when the senator refused to hold up the annual defense spending bill when Trump demanded it be used to repeal a law granting liability protection to tech companies, the official said.
The Morocco deal could be among the last that Trump’s team, led by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and U.S. envoy Avi Berkowitz, will negotiate before giving way to Biden’s incoming administration.
Kushner told reporters on a conference call it was inevitable that Saudi Arabia would eventually strike a similar deal with Israel. A U.S. official said the Saudis were not likely to act until after Biden takes office, and even then there would be strong internal opposition that could block such a move in the near term. (Reuters)
December
South Korean ultra-cold warehouse prepares to store Pfizer's vaccine
Written by Nur YasminSome of the rooms in Korea Superfreeze Inc’s coldest warehouse are so frigid that a cup of warm water thrown into one will immediately turn into snow.
Located 65 km (40 miles) below Seoul and boasting temperatures frostier than an Antarctic winter, the facility would be the best, perhaps only, place in South Korea suitable for bulk storage of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, says company CEO Kim Jin-ha.
“As soon as we heard about the Pfizer vaccine, we started getting ready... other options wouldn’t work,” Kim told Reuters, adding that the warehouse’s use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to keep temperatures cool trumped electricity.
Warehouses which use electricity would have difficulty maintaining the -70 degrees Celsius (-94 F) required by the vaccine for storage and carry the risk of the temperature rising during a power blackout, he said.
The company, which is backed by Goldman Sachs and SK Holdings Co Ltd, has been in talks with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency since early November and while nothing is yet decided, expectations are high it will land a contract.
The agency has asked Korea Superfreeze to provide plans and cost estimates for storing and distributing vaccines, including how it would handle a scenario where vaccines would be shipped to 260 different locations, Kim said.
South Korea has arranged to buy 20 million doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
The country also has deals for 20 million doses each for the vaccines developed by Moderna Inc and AstraZeneca Plc/Oxford University and for another 4 million doses from Johnson & Johnson.
In total, that would be enough to inoculate 34 million people in a country of 51.8 million and shipments are expected to begin no later than March.
Kim said, however, it was not clear to him if the agency would tap the company for vaccines other than Pfizer’s which have less onerous cold storage requirements. Moderna’s vaccine can be stored for up to six months at -20 C while AstraZeneca’s vaccine needs only normal fridge temperatures.
To accommodate Pfizer’s vaccine, Korea Superfreeze is planning a dedicated passageway and elevator so there is no interference from outside temperatures. Once it confirms it has a contract, it will begin construction which may take 2-3 months.
The warehouse also has 220 closed-circuit cameras that monitor resting cargo round the clock, Kim said.
He added that South Korea and Japan were the only countries with LNG-powered facilities which can offer storage at these temperatures and that the warehouses in Japan were much smaller and more remotely located due to earthquake risks.
All in all, the Korea Superfreeze rooms capable of storing goods at -70 C add up to 1,600 square metres (17,222 square feet). But just how much of that will be needed remains unclear as the company has not yet ascertained how big the containers carrying the vaccines will be and how much will be shipped to South Korea at a time.
Kim said, however, that some regular customers of the storage facilities might have to be inconvenienced.
“For the tuna and other goods that are being kept here at -60 degrees, we’re going to have to ask their permission, compensate them for it and clear them out of here.” (Reuters)
December
South Korea scrambles to build container hospital beds to combat third COVID-19 wave
Written by Nur YasminSouth Korea authorities scrambled on Thursday to build hospital beds in shipping containers to ease strains on medical facilities stretched by the latest coronavirus wave, which shows little sign of abating with 682 new cases.
The resurgence of infections has rekindled concerns about an acute shortage of hospital beds, prompting Seoul city to begin installing container beds for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Health authorities plan to step up testing by launching temporary sites at some 150 locations across the greater Seoul area.
“We’re in a critical situation where our anti-virus efforts and medical system’s capacity could reach their limits before long,” Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told a meeting, vowing to mobilise all available resources.
“Above all, we will secure sufficient treatment centres and hospital beds for critical cases so that they can receive proper treatment in a timely manner.”
In Seoul, with a population of 10 million, only around 3% of hospital beds were available for severe cases, and 17% for all patients, according to Park Yoo-mi, a quarantine officer at the city government.
The city has dispatched 50 epidemiological investigators to 25 districts to help track down potential patients, in addition to 10 sent from the central government, Park said.
A total of 274 military and police officers and other administrative staff will also be mobilised for epidemiological surveys starting Friday, she added.
Thursday’s 682 new infections came a day after the daily tally hit 686, the second-highest since the country’s first case was confirmed in January, even as tougher social distancing rules took effect this week, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
New cases have been persistently around 600 over the past week, driven by smaller, harder-to-trace clusters around the densely populated capital city of Seoul, whereas the early two waves were centred on a handful of groups or regions.
The governor of South Korea’s most populous province Gyeonggi, with 13.5 million people, said on Wednesday he plans to conduct mass testing in some areas to discover potential cases.
President Moon Jae-in called for buying more COVID-19 vaccines after authorities announced deals with four global drugmakers as part of a drive to inoculate 44 million people, or 60% of the country’s population.
Total infections rose to 40,098, with 564 deaths, KDCA data showed. (Reuters)
December
UK issues anaphylaxis warning on Pfizer vaccine after adverse reactions
Written by Nur YasminBritain’s medicine regulator said anyone with a history of anaphylaxis to a medicine or food should not get the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, giving fuller guidance on an earlier allergy warning about the shot.
Starting with the elderly and frontline workers, Britain began mass vaccinating its population on Tuesday, part of a global drive that poses one of the biggest logistical challenges in peacetime history.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said there had been two reports of anaphylaxis and one report of a possible allergic reaction since the rollout began.
“Any person with a history of anaphylaxis to a vaccine, medicine, or food should not receive the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine,” MHRA Chief Executive June Raine said in a statement.
“Most people will not get anaphylaxis and the benefits in protecting people against COVID-19 outweigh the risks... You can be completely confident that this vaccine has met the MHRA’s robust standards of safety, quality, and effectiveness.”
Anaphylaxis is an overreaction of the body’s immune system, which the National Health Service describes as severe and sometimes life-threatening.
The fuller guidance, clarifying that the main risk was from anaphylaxis specifically, was issued after consulting experts on allergies. The MHRA had initially advised anyone with a history of a “significant allergic reaction” not to take the shot.
Pfizer and BioNTech said they were supporting the MHRA’s investigation.
Last week, Britain’s MHRA became the first in the world to approve the vaccine, developed by Germany’s BioNTech and Pfizer, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) continue to assess the data.
A top U.S. official said on Wednesday that Americans with known severe allergic reactions may not be candidates for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine until more was understood about what had happened.
Canada’s health ministry said it would look at the reported adverse reactions in Britain, but said adverse events were to be expected and would not necessarily change the risk/benefit of the shot after the country approved the vaccine.
ALLERGIC REACTION
MHRA chief Raine told lawmakers such allergic reactions had not been a feature of the Pfizer’s clinical trials.
Pfizer has said people with a history of severe adverse allergic reactions to vaccines or the candidate’s ingredients were excluded from their late stage trials, which is reflected in the MHRA’s emergency approval protocol.
However, the allergic reactions may have been caused by a component of Pfizer’s vaccine called polyethylene glycol, or PEG, which helps stabilise the shot and is not in other types of vaccines.
Imperial College London’s Paul Turner, an expert in allergy and immunology, who has been advising the MHRA on their revised guidance, told Reuters: “As we’ve had more information through, the initial concern that maybe it affects everyone with allergies is not true.”
“The ingredients like PEG which we think might be responsible for the reactions are not related to things which can cause food allergy. Likewise, people with a known allergy to just one medicine should not be at risk,” Turner told Reuters.
The EMA said in an email that all quality, safety and efficacy data would be taken into account in assessing the vaccine, including data generated outside the EU.
In the United States, the FDA released documents on Tuesday in preparation for an advisory committee meeting on Thursday, saying the Pfizer vaccine’s efficacy and safety data met its expectations for authorization.
The briefing documents said 0.63% of people in the vaccine group and 0.51% in the placebo group reported possible allergic reactions in trials, which Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said was a very small number.
“The fact that we know so soon about these two allergic reactions and that the regulator has acted on this to issue precautionary advice shows that this monitoring system is working well,” he said.
However, Gregory Poland, a virologist and vaccine researcher with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said that the MHRA and NHS had overreacted initially.
“I would not have broadened to the degree they did,” he said.
“It’s reasonable to let the world know about this, and to be aware of it in terms of people who have had reactions like this to vaccines. I think to say medicines, foods or any other allergies is past the boundary of science.” (Reuters)
December
Turkey calls on EU to act with common sense, says wants to improve ties
Written by Nur YasminTurkey urged the European Union on Tuesday to use “common sense” to end a row over natural gas exploration that has fanned territorial disputes in the eastern Mediterranean and drawn a threat of sanctions from EU leaders.
Speaking at a news conference with his Hungarian counterpart in Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reiterated that Ankara wanted to join the EU as a full member, and said EU statements accusing Ankara of stoking tensions were wrong.
EU member state Greece had continued “provocative” steps despite Turkey’s diplomatic efforts, he said.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers said Turkey had failed to help end the row with member states Greece and Cyprus over potential gas resources, but they left any decision on retaliatory sanctions for an EU summit on Thursday.
“They need to be fair and honest here. If they also think strategically and with common sense, not just at the summit but always, and we achieve a positive atmosphere, we can improve our ties,” Cavusoglu said. “We can only solve our problems with dialogue and diplomacy.
“We want to improve our ties with the EU. We are not saying this because there is a summit or because there are sanctions and other things on the agenda,” he added. “We always wanted to improve our ties on the basis of full membership.”
NATO member and EU candidate Turkey has been at odds with Greece and Cyprus over the extent of their continental shelves in the east Mediterranean. Tensions flared in August when Turkey sent its Oruc Reis survey vessel to waters claimed by Greece.
After withdrawing the Oruc Reis for what it said was maintenance ahead of a previous EU summit in October, Ankara sent it back shortly after, citing unsatisfactory results from the summit. It withdrew the vessel again last week.
European Council President Charles Michel warned Turkey not to play “cat and mouse” by withdrawing ships before EU summits, only to redeploy them afterwards.
France is leading the push in the bloc to sanction Turkey, but President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey would not “bow down to threats and blackmail”, while repeating a call for dialogue.
Cavusoglu and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke by telephone on Tuesday, the two countries’ foreign ministries said in statements after the call.
Le Drien told his Turkish counterpart that a renewed constructive relationship with the EU could only happen if Ankara clarified its position on several subjects, a spokeswoman said, adding that the call was at Turkey’s request.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said the two had discussed regional and bilateral issues, without giving further details.
Earlier, a spokesman for Erdogan’s AK Party said that using the “language of sanctions” against Turkey will amount to “racists and fascists” winning in Europe.
“Using (such) language...is an eclipse of the mind,” Omer Celik told a news conference. “The EU must act with reason.” (Reuters)
December
Passengers confined to cabins after Singapore cruise ship detects COVID-19
Written by Nur YasminHundreds of passengers on a Royal Caribbean ‘cruise-to-nowhere’ from Singapore were told to stay in their cabins until contact tracing was complete after a COVID-19 case was detected, forcing the Quantum of the Seas ship back to port, authorities said.
Royal Caribbean and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said all guests and crew of the Quantum of the Seas who had close contact with the 83-year old infected male guest have subsequently tested negative for the virus.
The remaining passengers and crew will stay onboard in their rooms until contact tracing is complete, Annie Chang, director of the cruise segment at the STB said. They will all undergo mandatory COVID-19 testing before leaving the terminal.
In the meantime, they are being given regular updates and meals are provided directly to their rooms.
“It was defintely not the ending we are looking for,” passenger Rizal Ramli told local broadcaster ChannelNewsAsia from the ship, which docked in Singapore on Wednesday.
“We are just told to wait in our room and they will be giving us further announcements.”
The ‘cruise-to-nowhere’ by Royal Caribbean is one of its first sailings since the company halted global operations in March due to coronavirus. There were with 1,680 guests and 1,148 crew members on board, local newspaper Straits Times reported.
The global cruise industry has taken a major hit from the pandemic, with some of the earliest big outbreaks found on cruise ships. In one case in February off the coast of Japan, passengers were stuck for weeks aboard the Diamond Princess with over 700 guests and crew infected.
Royal Carribbean’s ‘cruise-to-nowhere from Singapore began last week and is open only to Singapore residents, makes no stops and sails just off the city-state. The Quantum of the Seas returned to Singapore at 8 a.m. local time (0000 GMT) on Wednesday, a day before the end of its planned four-day cruise.
The infected passenger had reported to the onboard medical centre with diarrhoea, and underwent a mandatory polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test as part of the onboard protocols. The passenger had taken a mandatory COVID-19 PCR test prior to boarding, and was tested negative, the STB said
The cruises are a part of Singapore’s plans to revive its tourism industry that has been battered due to the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 67.7 million people globally and killed 1,548,575.
Singapore, which has had just over 58,000 cases and 29 deaths, has been reporting less than a handful of local infections in recent weeks.
The case on board is another setback for Singapore after a plan to open a quarantine-free air travel bubble with Hong Kong last month was postponed at the eleventh hour.
Part of the precautions for the resumption of cruises in Singapore involves pre-departure testing and for guests to carry an electronic contact tracing device and to social distance at all times.
The infected case’s close contacts will be placed in quarantine or health surveillance, the Straits Times newspaper reported citing an advisory from the health ministry.
Others will need to monitor their health, while continuing regular activities including going to school or work, and undergo a swab test at the end of a 14-day monitoring period. (Reuters)
December
Farmers protest across India against Modi's liberalisation
Written by Nur YasminFarmers’ protests against new laws liberalising agricultural markets spread across India on Tuesday, as farm organisations called for a nationwide strike after inconclusive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
In eastern and western states, farmers blocked roads and squatted on railway tracks, delaying hordes of people getting to work, and preventing perishable produce from reaching markets.
Farmers from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, neighbouring New Delhi, have been at the vanguard of the agitation since last month, and have set up protest camps in and around the capital.
“We will not allow the government to change the rules because they want to hurt farmers’ income by filling the pockets of big companies,” said Gurwinder Singh, a 66-year-old farmer from Punjab, a state known as the food bowl of India.
The reforms enacted in September loosened rules around the sale, pricing and storage of farm produce that have protected farmers from an unfettered free market for decades.
Assured of floor prices, most currently sell the bulk of their produce at government-controlled wholesale markets, known as mandis.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said the reforms would not hurt farmers’ incomes. More talks between the government and farmer organisations are due on Wednesday.
Meantime, social media has fanned sympathy for the farmers’ cause among the Indian diaspora abroad. During recent days, thousands of people have protested in support of the farmers outside the Indian embassy in central London.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, protest sites around New Delhi have turned into camps, with entire families cooking and sleeping in the open and Sikh religious organisations were providing them with face masks, water and food.
At least 20 regional and national opposition parties backed the call for the strike.
“It’s going to be nightmare if there will be any serious unrest during the pandemic,” a senior home ministry bureaucrat overseeing security told Reuters on condition of anonymity, warning that police had been authorised to use water cannons or tear gas to disperse over-crowded protests. (Reuters)
December
British grandma is first in world to get Pfizer vaccine outside trial
Written by Nur YasminMargaret Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother from Northern Ireland, became the first person in the world on Tuesday to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shot outside of a trial as Britain began vaccinating its population.
An early riser, Keenan received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at her local hospital in Coventry, central England, on Tuesday morning at 0631 GMT, a week before she turns 91.
A video showed Keenan being pushed in a wheelchair out of the ward while nursing staff clad in protective gear lined the corridor to applaud and cheer, in an echo of moving video clips released through the year when COVID-19 survivors finally left hospital.
Britain is the first Western country to start immunising its general population in what has been hailed as a decisive watershed in defeating the coronavirus.
“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19,” said Keenan, as she received the shot from a nurse originally from the Philippines in front of a photographer and TV crew.
“It’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year.”
Keenan, known as Maggie to her friends, is a former jewellery shop assistant who only retired four years ago. She has a daughter, a son and four grandchildren.
Video footage showed her wearing a light blue mask, a grey cardigan along with a blue t-shirt with a penguin in snow and the message “Merry Christmas” as she received the shot in her left arm from nurse May Parsons.
“WE WILL BEAT THIS TOGETHER”
Parsons, one of many thousands of people from around the world employed in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), where she has worked for 24 years, said the last few months had been tough, but there was now light at the end of the tunnel.
Britain is the worst-hit European country from COVID-19, with over 61,000 deaths. Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to turn the tide against the disease by rolling out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine before the United States or European Union.
The mass inoculation will fuel hope the world may be turning a corner in the fight against a pandemic that has crushed economies and killed more than 1.5 million, although ultra-cold storage and tricky logistics will limit its use for now.
“Thank you to our NHS, to all of the scientists who worked so hard to develop this vaccine, to all the volunteers - and to everyone who has been following the rules to protect others,” Johnson said on Twitter.
“We will beat this together.”
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Stephen Powis, medical director for NHS England, said they both found it very emotional watching the vaccine programme rollout.
The BBC said the second patient to receive the jab in Britain was a man named William Shakespeare from Warwickshire.
Britain has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot. As each person requires two doses, that is enough to vaccinate 20 million people in the country of 67 million.
About 800,000 doses are expected to be available within the first week, with care home residents and carers, the over-80s and some health service workers the top priority to get them. (Reuters)
December
New Zealand's Ardern vows accountability ahead of Christchurch attack report
Written by Nur YasminNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday vowed accountability for the families of last year’s Christchurch mosque attack victims, ahead of the public release of a major report into the country’s worst massacre.
Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant was sentenced to life in prison without parole in August for killing 51 Muslim worshippers and injuring dozens of others at two mosques in the South Island city on March 15, 2019.
The findings of a royal commission inquiry into the attack will be made public in parliament on Tuesday. The inquiry was formed to look at whether there were any failings by government agencies and if the mass shooting could have been prevented.
“I absolutely appreciate the community will want to see accountability in terms of implementation. They will want to see who is responsible for coordinating some of those efforts...and we will be providing that,” Ardern told a regular media briefing.
The 792-page report took about 18 months to finish, and contains interviews with hundreds of people including security agencies, Muslim community leaders, international experts and officials in England, Norway and Australia, along with Ardern.
Ardern received global praise for her compassionate response to the attack and for swiftly banning the sale of the high-capacity semi-automatic weapons used in the attack. She also launched a global movement against online extremism.
However, authorities were criticised for ignoring repeated warnings from the Muslim community that hate crimes against them were escalating. Critics also said security agencies failed to record hate crimes, and ignored the growing threat from white supremacists because they were too focused on the risk of Islamist terrorism.
Ardern met with the family members of victims and some survivors on Sunday and promised immediate action on the royal commission report, but said some recommendations may take time to implement. (Reuters)
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday vowed accountability for the families of last year’s Christchurch mosque attack victims, ahead of the public release of a major report into the country’s worst massacre.
Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant was sentenced to life in prison without parole in August for killing 51 Muslim worshippers and injuring dozens of others at two mosques in the South Island city on March 15, 2019.
The findings of a royal commission inquiry into the attack will be made public in parliament on Tuesday. The inquiry was formed to look at whether there were any failings by government agencies and if the mass shooting could have been prevented.
“I absolutely appreciate the community will want to see accountability in terms of implementation. They will want to see who is responsible for coordinating some of those efforts...and we will be providing that,” Ardern told a regular media briefing.
The 792-page report took about 18 months to finish, and contains interviews with hundreds of people including security agencies, Muslim community leaders, international experts and officials in England, Norway and Australia, along with Ardern.
Ardern received global praise for her compassionate response to the attack and for swiftly banning the sale of the high-capacity semi-automatic weapons used in the attack. She also launched a global movement against online extremism.
However, authorities were criticised for ignoring repeated warnings from the Muslim community that hate crimes against them were escalating. Critics also said security agencies failed to record hate crimes, and ignored the growing threat from white supremacists because they were too focused on the risk of Islamist terrorism.
Ardern met with the family members of victims and some survivors on Sunday and promised immediate action on the royal commission report, but said some recommendations may take time to implement.
