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January
Portuguese brave COVID-19 lockdown for presidential polls
Written by nuke
Portuguese brave COVID-19 lockdown for presidential polls - AFP
Portuguese voters have been asked to venture out despite the country's pandemic lockdown on Sunday (Jan 24) for a presidential election widely expected to see centre-right incumbent Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa win another term.
Polls point to a first-round win for Rebelo de Sousa, a former political commentator turned approachable head of state known for candid moments like queuing at the supermarket in shorts, plunging into the sea to help girls whose canoe had capsized or sharing a meal with homeless people.
Portugal has been under a second national lockdown for the past 10 days aimed at braking a surge in coronavirus cases.
The country recorded its worst daily coronavirus death toll and number of new infections on Saturday bringing fatalities to more than 10,000.
More than 80,000 infections were reported in the past week to Friday, the highest rate worldwide in proportion to its 10.8 million people, according to an AFP tally based on government figures.
Almost every new day brings a fresh record in case numbers, and the government has now shut schools for two weeks on top of shops and restaurants//CNA
January
UK will be the president of the G7 in 2021, hosting the leaders’ summit in Cornwall in June
Written by nuke
UK will be the president of the G7 in 2021, hosting the leaders’ summit in Cornwall in June
Prime Ministers and Presidents from the world’s leading developed, democratic nations will come together in Cornwall in June to address shared challenges, from beating coronavirus and tackling climate change, to ensuring that people everywhere can benefit from open trade, technological change and scientific discovery. The summit will be held in Carbis Bay, Cornwall from 11-13th June 2021. Australia, India and South Korea invited as guest countries, meaning summit participants will represent 2.2 billion people and over half of the world’s economy.
“The G7 is a unique international forum, bringing the world’s leading open, developed, outward-looking democratic nations together to respond to the latest global challenges. Indonesia is a crucial partner for all G7 members, with dialogue with the world’s fourth most populous country making crucial contributions to action on key issues on the G7 agenda, such as climate change and sustainable recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The G7 can achieve results as a small and informal group, allowing leaders to be honest and open with each other" British Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor Leste, Owen Jenkins said on the press release received by Voice of Indonesia on Saturday.
"In past years the G7 has taken action to strengthen the global economy, save 27 million lives from Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria and supported the education of millions of children in the poorest countries. In 2016 its members led the way in helping secure the historic Paris Climate Agreement to limit global emissions. The G7 has an opportunity to lead the global recovery from coronavirus: protecting peoples’ health, creating quality jobs and tackling climate change. Our role as President allows us to direct the G7 agenda – so we can tackle our big shared challenges like coronavirus and climate change.” Ambassador Jenkins explain.
The UK Prime Minister will use the first in-person G7 summit in almost two years to ask leaders to seize the opportunity to build back better from coronavirus, uniting to make the future fairer, greener and more prosperous.
The UK will also host a number of meetings throughout the year between Government Ministers from the G7, both virtually and in different locations across the UK – ensuring many areas of the country experience the benefits of the UK’s G7 Presidency.
These ministerial summits will cover economic, environmental, health, trade, technology, development and foreign policy issues//NK
January
Hong Kong orders thousands to stay home in 2-day COVID-19 lockdown
Written by nuke
A medical worker in a protective suit helps a resident to register outside at a residential area at Jordan where residents have been placed in a lockdown to contain a new outbreak of the COVID-19. (Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu)
Thousands of Hong Kong residents were locked down Saturday (Jan 23) in an unprecedented move to contain a worsening outbreak in the city, authorities said.
The order bans anyone inside multiple housing blocks within the neighbourhood of Jordan in Kowloon from leaving their apartment unless they can show a negative test.
The government said in a statement there are 70 buildings in the "restricted area".
Sewage testing in the area had picked up more concentrated traces of the virus, prompting concerns that poorly built plumbing systems and a lack of ventilation in subdivided units may present a possible path for the virus to spread.
The Jordan district covers a small but densely populated part of Kowloon.
“Persons subject to compulsory testing are required to stay in their premises until all such persons identified in the area have undergone testing and the test results are mostly ascertained,” the government said in a statement.
Hong Kong was one of the first places to be struck by the coronavirus after it burst out of central China.
It has kept infections under 10,000 with about 170 deaths by imposing effective but economically punishing social distancing measures for much of the last year. Saturday's move is the strongest lockdown yet in the city.
Over the last two months the city has been hit by a fourth wave of infections with authorities struggling to bring the daily numbers down.
More than 4,300 cases have been recorded in the last two months, making up nearly 40 per cent of the city’s total.
The restrictions are expected to end around 6am on Monday to allow residents to start getting to work, the government said.
It appealed to employers to exercise discretion and avoid docking the salary of employees who have been affected by the restrictions and may not be able to go to work//CNA
January
Australian PM Morrison reluctant to commit to medium-term climate goals
Written by nuke
Scott Morrison, Australia's prime minister, removes his protective face mask after arriving for a signing ceremony with his Japanese counterpart Yoshihide Suga at the latter's official residence in Tokyo, Japan Nov 17, 2020. (Photo: Kiyoshi Ota/Pool via REUTERS)
Australia's government is in no rush to sign up to a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, although it recognises the importance of working towards that goal, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in an interview published on Saturday (Jan 23).
Morrison's conservative government, in a surprise change of policy last month, said it would achieve its 2030 carbon emissions pledge under the Paris climate agreement without counting carbon credits from over-achieving on its previous climate targets.
"It is about whether you can produce hydrogen at the right cost, it is about whether (carbon capture and storage) can be done at the right cost, it is whether we can produce low emissions steel and aluminium at the right cost," the newspaper quoted Morrison as saying.
"That is how you actually get to net zero. You don't get there by just having some commitment. That is where the discussion has to go, and I think the (US President Joe) Biden administration provides an opportunity to really pursue that with some enthusiasm."Australia's emissions are now projected to be 29 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, compared with its Paris accord target of cutting carbon emissions by between 26 per cent and 28 per cent, based on recent growth in renewable energy and what could be achieved under an A$18 billion (US$14 billion) technology investment plan the government outlined in September.
"We all want to get there," Morrison said. "It is not about the politics anymore, it is about the technology."
He added that the timeline to commit to a zero-net-emissions target will depend on "where the science is at and where our assessment is based on the technologies"//CNA
January
Sri Lankan health minister tests positive for COVID-19 after endorsing sorcery
Written by nuke
Sri Lanka is in the grip of a coronavirus surge, approving the emergency use of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University on Friday. (Photo: AFP/Ishara S KODIKARA)
Sri Lanka's health minister, who publicly endorsed sorcery and magic potions to stop surging coronavirus infections in the island, has tested positive and will self-isolate, officials said on Saturday (Jan 23).
Pavithra Wanniarachchi had publicly consumed and endorsed a magic potion, later revealed to contain honey and nutmeg, manufactured by a sorcerer who claimed it worked as a life-long inoculation against the virus.
She also poured a pot of "blessed" water into a river in November after a self-styled god-man told her that it would end the pandemic.
The island nation of 21 million on Friday approved the emergency use of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University only hours after Wanniarachchi tested positive, officials said.
"Her antigen test returned positive on Friday and she has been asked to isolate herself," a health ministry official said.
"All her immediate contacts have been quarantined."
A junior minister who had also taken the potion made popular by Wanniarachchi tested positive for the virus earlier this week.
Doctors in the island nation have said there is no scientific basis for the syrup, and there is no known cure for COVID-19.
But thousands defied public gathering restrictions to swamp a village in central Sri Lanka last month to obtain the elixir, made by carpenter Dhammika Bandara.
Pro-government media gave widespread publicity to the holy man, who claimed the formula was revealed to him by Kali, a Hindu goddess of death and destruction.
But the government has since scrambled to distance itself from Bandara, whose preparation was approved as a food supplement by the official indigenous medicine unit.
Sri Lanka is in the grip of a coronavirus surge, with the number of cases and deaths soaring from 3,300 and 13 in early October to nearly 57,000 infections and 278 dead this week//CNA
January
Biden seeks five-year extension of New START arms treaty with Russia
Written by Nur YasminU.S. President Joe Biden will seek a five-year extension to the New START arms control treaty with Russia, the White House said on Thursday, in one of the first major foreign policy decisions of the new administration ahead of the treaty’s expiration in early February.
January
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday will sign two executive orders aimed at speeding pandemic stimulus checks to families who need it most and increasing food aid for children who normally rely on school meals as a main source for nutrition.
January
U.S., staying in WHO, to join COVID vaccine push for poor nations: Fauci
Written by Nur YasminThe United States under President Joe Biden intends to join the COVAX vaccine facility that aims to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor countries, his chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, told the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday.
Fauci, speaking to the WHO executive board, confirmed that the United States would remain a member of the U.N. agency and said it would work multilaterally on issues from the COVID-19 pandemic to HIV/AIDS.
“This is a good day for WHO and a good day for global health,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“WHO is a family of nations and we are all glad that the U.S. is staying in the family,” Tedros said.
Austria, speaking for the European Union, Britain, Canada, Kenya and South Korea also welcomed the U.S. turnabout and pledged to work together to strengthen multilateral cooperation.
Fauci, speaking from Washington a day after Biden was inaugurated, said: “President Biden will issue a directive later today which will include the intent of the United States to join COVAX and support the ACT-Accelerator to advance multilateral efforts for COVID-19 vaccine, therapeutic, and diagnostic distribution, equitable access, and research and development.”
The first batches of coronavirus vaccines are expected to go to poorer countries in February under the COVAX scheme run by the WHO and the GAVI vaccine alliance, WHO officials said this week, while raising concerns that richer countries are still grabbing the lion’s share of available shots.
”We welcome the decision by the United States to join the COVAX facility, because vaccinating our own populations is not enough scientifically or morally,” Britain’s ambassador, Julian Braithwaite, told the board.
“We need a global vaccination campaign if we are to overcome this global pandemic.”
Austrian ambassador Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger said on behalf of the EU: “It is time to renew joint EU-US efforts aimed at strengthening as well as reforming international organisations such as the World Health Organization.”
DUES AND REFORMS
The United States will “fulfil its financial obligations” to WHO, Fauci said, adding it would work with the other 193 member states on reforms.
Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, halted funding to the WHO, where the United States is the largest donor, and announced a process to withdraw in July 2021 in what was seen as part of a broader U.S. retreat from multilateral organizations.
Trump accused the WHO of being “China-centric” in the initial stages of the outbreak, a charge rejected by Tedros.
Fauci said it was important to have transparency about the early days of the pandemic to prepare for future events.
Regarding a WHO-led mission investigating the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, currently in the central city of Wuhan, where the first cases were detected in December 2019, he said: “The international investigation should be robust and clear, and we look forward to evaluating it.” (Reuters)
January
American 'digital nomad' to be deported from Bali after LGBT and lifestyle tweets
Written by Nur YasminAn American woman and self-described digital nomad will be deported from Indonesia after posting tweets that sparked a social media backlash over perceived western privilege and lack of cultural awareness, after she said Bali was “LGBT friendly”.
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation and its LGBT community has for years faced discrimination and sometimes violent attacks. Only 9% of Indonesians agreed that homosexuality is acceptable, according to a survey by the Pew research centre last June.
In a series of tweets at the weekend, Kristen Gray wrote about the perks of her decision to move to the tropical island of Bali with her girlfriend, describing it as the “perfect medicine”, a place that was LGBT friendly, and where the low cost of living afforded her a luxurious lifestyle.
January
EU's Michel calls on Biden to form new transatlantic pact
Written by Nur YasminThe European Union called on incoming U.S. President Joe Biden to form a “new founding pact” with Europe working on issues such as peace, security, prosperity, freedom and human rights.
“Today is more than a transition. Today is an opportunity to rejuvenate our transatlantic relationship, which has greatly suffered in the last four years. In these years, the world has grown more complex, less stable and less predictable”
“On the first day of his mandate, I address a solemn proposal to the new president. Let’s build a new founding pact for a stronger Europe, for a stronger America and for a better world.”
Michel said the two should work on five priorities - boosting multilateral cooperation, combating COVID-19, tackling climate change, economic recovery with a digital transformation and joining forces on security and peace. (Reuters)
