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January
Indonesia-Russia Partnership Crucial to Address Strategic Changes
Written by Wenny ZuliantiIndonesian Ambassador to Russia and Belarus Jose Tavares attached importance to the bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and Russia to address the current global strategic environmental changes.
Addressing lecturers and students of the Indonesian Christian University (UKI) during a webinar on Friday, Tavares highlighted the long-standing relations between both nations and their common vision to address global issues, including strengthening the UN system.
"The world is currently facing uncertainty and experiencing strategic environmental changes. Indonesia and Russia need to respond to them by intensifying bilateral partnership," he noted in a statement of the Indonesian Embassy in Moscow, a copy of which was available to ANTARA in Jakarta on Saturday.
In fact, Indonesia received support since its early days, including through diplomatic support, weaponry supplies, and military adviser in the 1960s when the country had attempted to regain West Irian, now Papua, he pointed out.
Tavares admitted to the highs and lows in the relations between both nations.
"The bilateral relations had witnessed downs from the late 1960s to the 1980s during the Cold War. The bilateral relations normalized when the then president Suharto met with then president Gorbachev in 1999. Since then, relations have continued to be good until now," he stated.
"Under the bilateral framework, there is vast potential to enhance cooperation, especially in the fields of trade, investment, and tourism as well as Russia serving as a place to study science and advanced technology," he remarked. (antaranews)
January
Biden to sign executive orders on Day 1, amid high alert for inauguration
Written by Wenny ZuliantiJoe Biden's top aide said Saturday the incoming president would sign about a dozen executive orders on his first day in office, as police fearing violence from Trump supporters staged a nationwide security operation ahead of the inauguration.
Authorities in Washington, where Wednesday's inauguration will take place, said they arrested a man with a loaded handgun and more than 500 rounds of ammunition at a security checkpoint, underscoring the tension in the US capital which is resembling a war zone.
However, the man said it was "an honest mistake," and that he was a private security guard who got lost on his way to work near the Capitol.
Incoming Biden chief of staff Ron Klain said in a memo to new White House senior staff that the executive orders would address the pandemic, the ailing US economy, climate change and racial injustice in America. "All of these crises demand urgent action," Klain said in the memo.
"In his first ten days in office, President-elect Biden will take decisive action to address these four crises, prevent other urgent and irreversible harms, and restore America's place in the world," Klain added.
As he inherits the White House from Donald Trump, Biden's plate is overflowing with acute challenges (jakarta post)
January
US COVID-19 vaccine supplies strain to meet wider eligibility, second doses
Written by nuke
Dr Richard Dang, assistant professor USC School of Pharmacy administers COVID-19 vaccine to Ashley Van Dyke (left) as mass-vaccination of healthcare workers takes place at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, US, Jan 15, 2021. (Photo: Irfan Khan/Pool via REUTERS)
Scattered shortages of COVID-19 vaccines persisted on Saturday (Jan 16) under pressure from growing demand, as previously inoculated Americans returned for their required second shots and millions of newly eligible people scrambled to get their first. The supply gaps, coming as the US vaccination effort enters its second month, prompted some healthcare systems to suspend appointments for first-time vaccine seekers and one New York healthcare system to cancel a slew of existing ones.
Northwell, New York's largest healthcare provider, offers appointments only as it gets more vaccines, and only after allocating doses to people scheduled for their second shots, Kemp said.
Although the supply flow has been sporadic, Northwell expects to offer appointments in the coming week, he added.
Both approved vaccines, one from Pfizer and BioNTech and the other from Moderna, require a booster three to four weeks after the first shot to maximise their effectiveness against the coronavirus.
While healthcare workers and nursing home residents and staff got first priority, eligibility for the vaccines has since widened, with some states opening it to healthy people aged 65 and up and people of any age with pre-existing conditions.
Besides New York, signs of vaccine supply strains appeared in Vermont, Michigan, South Carolina, New Jersey and Oregon.
In Oregon, Governor Kate Brown said vaccinations for seniors and educators would be delayed, while Vermont Governor Phil Scott said the state would focus exclusively on its over-75 population because of "unpredictable” federal supplies//CNA
January
Canada's Trudeau embraces Biden in bid to turn page on Trump era
Written by nuke
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (R) shakes hands with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during a meeting in Trudeau's office on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, December 9, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's swift embrace of US president-elect Joe Biden illustrates the degree to which Canada, one of America's closest allies, is looking forward to turning the page on the Donald Trump era.
Trudeau was the first world leader to congratulate Biden when he was declared the winner of the November election, and now hopes to be the first - or one of the first - to meet with the new president after he takes office on Wednesday (Jan 20).
Mired in a long-running diplomatic dispute with China and weighing a possible snap election this year, Trudeau has much riding on his relationship with Biden.
Canada shares a land border only with the United States, which is by far its top export market, and it has often been the first foreign trip for a new US president.Canada's relationship with the United States "went from the very best it probably ever was to near the worst it ever was," said Bruce Heyman, Obama's last ambassador to Canada.Now Trudeau and other allies are counting on Biden to re-engage on the world stage, in part to contain a "more assertive and sometimes problematic China", Trudeau said in Thursday's interview.
Domestic politics is also in play in Trudeau's eagerness to renew US ties with a potential election in 2021.
Trudeau will want "to create a sense among Canadians (that) you've got to keep Trudeau because these guys click, and this is the opportunity to really be engaged with the Americans and kick this to the next level," said Chris Sands, head of the Canada Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center//CNA
January
China steals march on West in developing nations' vaccine rollout
Written by Nur YasminChina is stealing a march on Western drugmakers in the COVID-19 vaccine race in developing nations, with Indonesia and Turkey rolling out huge campaigns with a Chinese shot this week, Brazil due to follow soon, and even EU member Hungary signing up.
Scientists in some Western countries say China has been too slow to publish trial data. Public reports so far about how well its vaccines work have been inconsistent, which the Chinese firms attribute to variations in methodology.
Still, countries with hundreds of millions of people desperate for a vaccine think China’s shots are good enough.
As Western drugmakers struggle to meet demand at home, Beijing has sent millions of doses round the world of CoronaVac, made by Sinovac Biotech, and is also marketing a separate vaccine made by another company, Sinopharm.
The exports come even as China battles its own flare-up in infections, which has put more than 28 million people in lockdown. China has administered 10 million vaccine doses at home.
Though some studies on the Sinovac shot have reported lower effectiveness rates than some Western products, the countries buying them say they appear effective at preventing the most serious, deadly form of COVID-19.
Perhaps most importantly, they are also easy to administer, allowing the quick launch of large-scale programs to save lives and prevent health systems from being overwhelmed.
Turkey launched its program on Thursday with the Sinovac shot, and by late afternoon said it had already vaccinated more than 200,000 people - more in a few hours than France has managed in three weeks. Health workers went first.
“We spent around 10 months in white overalls, supporting people as they struggle for life. Health workers know very well that this situation cannot be taken lightly and that the vaccine is needed,” Surgeon General Nurettin Yiyit said.
Hungary, which has complained about the “scandalously” slow rollout of vaccines bought by the European Union on behalf of its 27 member states, reached a deal on Thursday to buy the Sinopharm vaccine. If approved, it would become the first EU country to authorize a Chinese vaccine. (reuters)
January
WHO countries gears up for massive Covid-19 vaccination campaign
Written by Nur YasminOn this day in 2011, WHO South-East Asia Region reported its last case of wild poliovirus from West Bengal in India. A decade later, countries in the Region are gearing up for massive vaccination campaigns, taking lessons from polio program, but surpassing its scale and size in a bid to end COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are witnessing unprecedented efforts by Member countries to protect their vulnerable population against COVID-19 with vaccines,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia.
Indonesia rolled out COVID-19 vaccination today, while preparations are in full swing in India for one of the world’s biggest vaccination programme beginning 16 January, and in other countries for their campaign in the coming months.
Safe and effective vaccines can be a gamechanger if accessible across the world and to all vulnerable population within the countries.
Vaccines will help to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they won't solve everything by themselves as initially they are bound to be in limited supplies. As the COVID-19 crisis continues, we still need to continue to take all necessary measures - COVID appropriate behavior by one and all - masks, hand hygiene, cough etiquette, physical distancing - and core public health measures by the authorities – detect, test, trace, isolate and treat - to prevent the virus from spreading and causing more disease and deaths.
Community engagement and participation – both for continued COVID-19 appropriate behavior and vaccination – will be critical to curtail the virus transmission.
WHO continues to work with all countries for COVID-19 vaccination planning and roll out, to have a robust National Deployment and Vaccination Plan covering all elements of planning and management needed to deliver a vaccine.
The network of surveillance officers in countries such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Nepal, which was the backbone of polio eradication programme, is now also in the forefront supporting coordination, preparedness and roll out of COVID-19 vaccination down to the district level.
Bringing in best practices from polio eradication, WHO has supported countries in the Region with development of operational guidelines and plans for COVID-19 vaccination; training of vaccinators; planning vaccine and logistics management; and monitoring key preparatory activities.
At the global level, the ACT-Accelerator partnership launched by WHO and partners, has supported the fastest, most coordinated, and successful global effort in history to develop tools to fight COVID-19. The vaccine pillar - COVAX - co-led by WHO, Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access. (WHO)
January
WHO team arrives in China's Wuhan to investigate COVID-19 origins
Written by Nur YasminAn international team of scientists led by the World Health Organization arrived on Thursday in China’s central city of Wuhan to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus that sparked the pandemic, state television said.
The team arrived late in the morning on a budget airline from Singapore and was expected to head into two weeks of quarantine. They had been set to arrive earlier this month, and China’s delay of their visit drew rare public criticism from the agency’s chief.
The United States, which has accused China of hiding the extent of its initial outbreak a year ago, has called for a “transparent” WHO-led investigation and criticised the terms of the visit, under which Chinese experts have done the first phase of research.
The team arrived as China battles a resurgence of cases in its northeast after managing for months to nearly stamp out domestic infections.
Peter Ben Embarek, the WHO’s top expert on animal diseases that cross to other species, who went to China on a preliminary mission last July, is leading the 10 independent experts, a WHO spokesman said.
Hung Nguyen, a Vietnamese biologist who is part of the 10-member team, told Reuters that he did not expect any restrictions on the group’s work in China, but cautioned against finding firm answers.
After completing quarantine, the team will spend two weeks interviewing people from research institutes, hospitals and the seafood market in Wuhan where the new pathogen is believed to have emerged, Hung added.
The team would mainly stay in Wuhan, he told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday during a stopover in Singapore.
Last week, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Gheybreyesus said he was “very disappointed” that China had still not authorised the team’s entry for the long-awaited mission, but on Monday, he welcomed its announcement of their planned arrival.
“What we would like to do with the international team and counterparts in China is to go back in the Wuhan environment, re-interview in-depth the initial cases, try to find other cases that were not detected at that time and try to see if we can push back the history of the first cases,” Ben Embarek said in November.
China has been pushing a narrative via state media that the virus existed abroad before it was discovered in Wuhan, citing the presence of the virus on imported frozen food packaging and scientific papers claiming it had been circulating in Europe in 2019.
“We are looking for the answers here that may save us in future - not culprits and not people to blame,” the WHO’s top emergency expert, Mike Ryan, told reporters this week, adding that the WHO was willing to go “anywhere and everywhere” to find out how the virus emerged.
Team member Marion Koopmans, a virologist at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, said last month it was too soon to say whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus had jumped directly from bats to humans or had an intermediate animal host.
“At this stage what I think we need is a very open mind when trying to step back into the events that led eventually to this pandemic,” she told reporters. (reuters)
January
South Korea court upholds jail for ex-president Park, clearing way for chance of a pardon
Written by Nur YasminSouth Korea’s top court upheld on Thursday a 20-year jail sentence for former President Park Geun-hye on graft charges that led to her downfall, bringing an end to the legal process and so for the first time raising the possibility of a pardon.
Park became South Korea’s first democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office when, in 2017, the Constitutional Court upheld a parliament vote to impeach her over a scandal that also landed the heads of two conglomerates in jail.
The daughter of a military dictator, Park took office in 2013 as South Korea’s first woman president. She was brought down after being found guilty of colluding with a confidante to receive tens of billions of won from major conglomerates to help her family and fund non-profit foundations she owned.
Her case has been heard in different courts, including a retrial in July last year, but the Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday to uphold a 20-year jail term and fine of 18 billion won ($16.38 million) exhausts her legal avenues.
Park, 68, who has been in jail since March 31, 2017, has denied wrongdoing. She was not present in court.
The end of the legal process clears the way for a presidential pardon, which her supporters called for.
“President Park Geun-hye is innocent,” the right-wing Our Republican Party said in a statement.
“The members of Our Republican Party want President Park to be freed as soon as possible.”
The chief of the ruling Democratic party, Lee Nak-yon, has floated the idea of a pardon for Park and another ex-president, Lee Myung-bak, also in jail on corruption charges, in the name of national unity.
Park is a divisive figure in a country where old Cold War fault lines between right and left can still define political rivalry.
A top aide to President Moon Jae-in, who is a liberal, said the president would make a decision on the question of a pardon for Park that reflects the will of the people.
Society appears split down the middle.
A survey by the pollster Realmeter last week found 47.7% of respondents in favour of a pardon and 48% against.
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee faces a final court ruling on Monday on whether he returns to jail on charges he bribed an associate of Park. (reuters)
January
Interpol red notices issued for ship captain, owner over Beirut blast - Lebanese state media
Written by Nur YasminBEIRUT, (Reuters) - Interpol has issued red notices for the captain and owner of the ship that carried the chemicals which devastated Beirut in an explosion in August, killing 200 people, Lebanon’s state media said.
Five months since one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts on record, big questions remain about the ammonium nitrate that detonated after being stored at the port for years.
The Interpol notices, which are not international arrest warrants, ask authorities worldwide to provisionally detain people pending possible extradition or other legal actions. Interpol issues them at the request of a member country.
State news agency NNA said on Tuesday that Interpol also issued a notice for a Portuguese trader who examined the cargo at Beirut port in 2014, without giving a name or futher details.
The Interpol global police coordination agency says it does not confirm or deny red notices that are not publicly available on its website. An Interpol spokesperson said if there was a notice and it was not published online, that meant it was for law enforcement only.
Lebanese officials have faced accusations of negligence, with some port and customs employees detained in connection to the blast, which injured thousands of people. Families of the victims are still waiting for results of the investigation.
Lebanon’s public prosecution asked Interpol in October to issue arrest warrants for two people it had identified as the Russian captain and owner of the Rhosus ship which arrived in Beirut in 2013, security and judicial sources said.
Their names did not appear on the public list of Red Notices on Interpol’s website on Wednesday.
Boris Prokoshev, the captain at the time, has said the chemicals ended up in Beirut after the ship’s owner told him to divert to pick up extra cargo, and that Lebanese authorities had paid little attention to the nitrate.
“I am shocked,” he told Reuters when asked about the report of an Interpol red notice on Tuesday. “I do not understand at all what could be the basis for my arrest.” (Reuters)
January
North Korea's Kim urges stronger military capabilities as party congress ends
Written by Nur YasminSEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for increased military power and greater nuclear war deterrence, state news agency KCNA reported on Wednesday, as a rare ruling party congress came to a close after eight days of policy discussions.
The Eighth Party Congress occurred less than two weeks before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office and amid a prolonged gridlock in talks aimed at ending the North’s nuclear and missile programmes in return for U.S. sanctions relief.
“We must do everything we can to increase nuclear war deterrence even further as we build the strongest military capability,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying at the conclusion of the congress.
Since announcing a self-declared moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in 2018, Kim has called for continued production of nuclear weapons for his arsenal, launched a series of smaller missiles, and unveiled what would be North Korea’s largest ICBM yet at a parade in October.
Separately, Kim Yo Jong, the leader’s sister and a member of the party Central Committee, criticised South Korea’s military for monitoring a parade in Pyongyang. The move was an expression of the South’s “hostile approach” towards the North, she said in a separate statement carried by KCNA.
South Korea’s military said on Monday it had detected signs that North Korea held a nighttime military parade on Sunday for the congress.
Kim’s remarks come after South Korean President Moon Jae-in pledged to help engineer a breakthrough in stalled denuclearisation talks.
Kim Yo Jong has been serving as her brother’s “de facto second-in-command,” and her remarks ignoring Moon’s call for dialogue is a proof of her role in the regime, said Moon Seong-mook, a former South Korean military official and head of the Unification Strategy Center in Seoul.
“She didn’t mention dialogues with South Korea at all, even though the statement came a day after Moon’s New Year’s speech, which hints that talks or meetings are distant,” he said.
TIGHTENING STATE CONTROL
The results of the congress highlight how Kim Jong Un is continuing to tighten state control over society as well as the economy, said Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein, a North Korean economy expert at the U.S-based Stimson Center think-tank.
“Kim’s report is abundantly clear in stating that he wants the state to be the main planner and decision-maker not just over the general direction of the economy, but on a much more detailed level than that,” he wrote in a report on Tuesday.
Recent policies have exerted greater centralized control of consumer markets in the country, imposed limits on foreign exchange, and crackdowns on smuggling along the border with China.
The congress, which ran for eight days in Pyongyang, is the first since 2016, and just the second since 1980.
On Tuesday, Kim, cemented his power at the congress with his election as party general secretary.
A meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), or parliament, is scheduled on Sunday to discuss adopting a law on the five-year economic plan and state budget, KCNA said. (reuters)
