The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • Brazil’s health minister quits after less than a month in office

    Brazil’s health minister quits after less than a month in office

    Agency Reporter

     

    Brazil’s health minister Nelson Teich resigned on Friday after less than a month in office, reportedly amid differences with President Jair Bolsonaro over handling the country’s growing coronavirus outbreak.

    The minister’s office said he had handed in his resignation and would hold a press conference later in the day.

    Mr Bolsonaro has been pushing in recent days for wider use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus, something Mr Teich rejected. There are doubts over its effectivness and safety.

    The right-wing president is a vocal critic of the stay-at-home measures.

    They have also disagreed on the pace of kick-starting the economy.

    Last week, the minister said he was not consulted before Mr Bolsonaro issued a decree allowing gyms, beauty parlours and hairdressers to open for business.

    His resignation came a day after Brazil’s confirmed cases of the virus passed 200,000, with more than 14,000 deaths.

    Read Also: Jimi Solanke, Jesse King gear up for Brazilian Descendants festival

    Mr Teich took office on April 17 after Mr Bolsonaro sacked former health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, whose support for lockdown measures went against the president’s wishes to keep the economy going.

    “Life is priceless, but the economy and employment need to return to norm,” Bolsonaro said at the time.

    Mr Teich, an oncologist and senior consultant at medical services company Teich Health Care, said at a press conference to announce his appointment that he and the president were “completely aligned”.

     

    (www.newsnow.co.uk)

  • Trump says he doesn’t want to talk to Xi, mulls cutting U.S.-China ties

    Trump says he doesn’t want to talk to Xi, mulls cutting U.S.-China ties

    Agency Reporter

     

    U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he does not want to talk to his Chinese counterpart, and mused about ending the world’s largest trading relationship, amid rising tensions about the coronavirus pandemic.

    Speaking in an interview with Fox Business Network, Trump said he had a “very good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but “right now, I don’t want to speak to him.”

    “There are many things we could do,” Trump said. “We could cut off the whole relationship.”

    Trump, who has sought to blame China for being the source of the pandemic, even as his own handling of the crisis in the US has come under fire, said he was “very disappointed” in Beijing for its failure to stop the virus at the source.

    “It was either stupidity, incompetence or it was deliberate,” he said.

    The president reiterated he was not interested in reopening talks on the phase-one trade deal agreed with Beijing earlier this year, which had served as a ceasefire in a brewing trade war.

    Read Also: China calls for talks with US to strengthen bilateral ties

    The Trump administration, which has been mulling ways to punish or seek compensation from Beijing for the damage caused by the pandemic, is examining Chinese companies that trade on U.S. stock exchanges but do not follow U.S. accounting rules, Trump said.

    The president also complained about China’s apparent attempts to steal U.S. research on coronavirus vaccines and treatments.

    The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Wednesday warned that hackers linked to the Chinese government were targeting U.S. organisations working on a virus response.

    “The United States condemns attempts by cyberactors and non-traditional collectors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to steal U.S. intellectual property and data related to COVID-19 research,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Thursday, calling on Beijing “to cease this malicious activity.”

    “The PRC’s behavior in cyberspace is an extension of its counterproductive actions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said, accusing China of continuing to “silence scientists, journalists, and citizens, and to spread disinformation, which has exacerbated the dangers of this health crisis.”

    Pompeo has continued to pursue a theory that the virus came from a Chinese laboratory, even without presenting any evidence, and experts saying it does not appear to be man-made.

    Peter Navarro, a key economic advisor to the president, said China spawned the virus, “probably in that weapons lab in Wuhan.”

    Beijing hid the virus “for two months behind the shield of the WHO,” “vacuumed up” all the personal protective equipment across the world and “hoarded it,” “killing people” and “profiteering” from it, he told broadcaster Fox News. (dpa/NAN)

  • China calls for talks with US to strengthen bilateral ties

    China calls for talks with US to strengthen bilateral ties

    Agency Reporter

     

    China on Friday (May 15) urged the United States to meet it halfway and strengthen cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic after President Donald Trump threatened to severe bilateral ties.

    Relations between the world’s two largest economies have deteriorated in recent weeks, with both sides trading barbs over the origins of the virus that has killed more than 300,000 people.

    “To maintain the steady development of China-US relations is in the fundamental interests of the people in both countries, and is conducive to world peace and stability,” said foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at a press briefing.

    “At present, China and the US should continue to strengthen cooperation against the epidemic, defeat the epidemic as soon as possible, treat patients, and restore economy and production. But it requires the US to meet halfway with China.”

    The comments came after Trump further hardened his rhetoric towards China, threatening to cut ties with the rival superpower completely as relations have steadily deteriorated over the pandemic.

    “There are many things we could do … We could cut off the whole relationship,” Trump said on Thursday in an interview with Fox Business News. “You’d save US$500 billion (S$711 billion) if you cut off the whole relationship.”

    Trump said that his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping is “very good” but added: “right now I just don’t want to speak to him”.

    Read Also: Chinese-born Researcher arrested in US for spying

    The threat came a week after a trade call between US and Chinese trade negotiators in which both sides stressed their commitment to the Phase One trade deal reached in January.

    However, fulfilment of the deal looks increasingly tenuous in the face of the pandemic and a looming global economic downturn.

    In the pact signed in January, China agreed to buy US$200 billion more in US goods over two years than it did in 2017 – before the trade war erupted and triggered tariffs on billions of dollars of two-way trade.

    Tensions have ratcheted up between Washington and Beijing as they traded barbs over the origin of the pandemic that first appeared in late 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, which Trump has dubbed the “Plague from China.”

    (www.newsnow.co.uk)

  • Firm reverses plan as France, EU resist idea of U.S. getting COVID-19 vaccine first

    Firm reverses plan as France, EU resist idea of U.S. getting COVID-19 vaccine first

    FRENCH pharmaceutical firm Sanofi plans to make any vaccine it develops against the novel coronavirus available to all, the company’s director-general, Paul Hudson, explained in a tweet yesterday.

    This came as France and European Union (EU) said it would be “unacceptable” for Sanofi to prioritise the U.S. market if it develops the vaccine.

    “The vaccine against COVID-19 will be made available to the public at large, regardless of nationality,” Hudson said.

    The message came after Hudson, in an interview with Bloomberg, said the United States (U.S.) would have priority because they were the first in line to fund the company’s research.

    “The U.S. government has the right to the largest pre-order because it invested in taking the risk,” Hudson told Bloomberg.

    In April, Sanofi and the pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, said they wanted to work together on a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

    If tests are successful, a vaccine could be available in the second half of 2021.

    Sanofi said in its Wednesday tweet that its teams are making efforts to accelerate the development of a vaccine.

    French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said access for all was “non-negotiable”.

    Many labs worldwide are involved in research to find a Covid-19 vaccine. Vaccines usually take years to develop.

    “For us, it would be unacceptable for there to be privileged access to such and such a country for financial reasons,” Deputy Finance Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher told France’s Sud Radio.

    The prime minister later tweeted that a vaccine should be for the benefit of everyone worldwide. President Emmanuel Macron said recent efforts proved that a vaccine should not be subject to market forces, the Elysée Palace said. He is due to meet top Sanofi officials next week.

    Earlier this month, the EU chaired a global online summit to boost coronavirus research, and secured pledges of $8bn (£6.5bn) from some 40 countries and donors. The funding is aimed at developing a coronavirus vaccine and treatments for Covid-19.

    The UK co-hosted the summit but the U.S. and Russia did not take part.

    The EU insisted on Thursday that all countries should get equal access to a vaccine.

    But in recent years, Sanofi has received tens of millions of euros in tax credits from the French government to help its research.

  • Trump pushes for schools to reopen against expert’s caution

    Trump pushes for schools to reopen against expert’s caution

    UNITED States (U.S.) President Donald Trump has deepened his rift with top medical advisor Anthony Fauci over loosening coronavirus restrictions, saying they “totally” disagree on whether to keep schools closed.

    The issue of whether students should return to schools and universities in September is emerging as a flashpoint in the standoff between the White House and medical experts over how quickly to reopen the country.

    Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said he found Fauci’s latest call for a highly cautious reopening “not acceptable”.

    “We’re opening our country, people want it open, the schools are going to be open,” Trump said.

    Fauci, an internationally respected expert on infectious diseases and a key advisor to Trump throughout the pandemic, testified in Congress on Tuesday that ending the lockdown too quickly could bring “really serious” consequences.

    “There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control,” Fauci said.

    This was starkly at odds with Trump’s push to put the health emergency behind him and focus on getting the US economy back open. That view is gaining momentum as businesses struggle to stay solvent and millions of Americans register for unemployment relief.

    Fauci warned that opening too early could allow the highly contagious and deadly virus to resume spreading and this “could even set you back on the road to trying to get economic recovery”.

    Adding to the high stakes is the November election, in which Trump is arguing he will steer the country back to healthy economic times, while his Democratic opponent Joe Biden accuses the Republican of mishandling the pandemic and worsening the fallout.

    So far, Trump has stuck with Fauci, but the doctor is increasingly in the background as the president pushes his reopening message.

    A whistleblower, who said he was removed from his government post for raising concerns about coronavirus preparedness, Rick Bright, told a congressional hearing yesterday that the United States (U.S.) could face “the darkest winter” of recent times, if it does not improve its response to the pandemic.

    Hours after President Donald Trump railed against him on Twitter, the whistleblower testified to a U.S. House of Representatives panel about readiness for the outbreak.

    Bright was removed last month as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, which is responsible for developing drugs to fight the coronavirus.

  • 75 Boko Haram insurgents killed in border security operations

    75 Boko Haram insurgents killed in border security operations

    Our Reporter

    Nigerian and allied forces from neighbouring states killed 75 Boko Haram insurgents in security operations earlier this week in the region where the borders of Niger, Nigeria and Chad converge, Niger Defence Ministry said.

    The Islamist Boko Haram insurgency erupted in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 and continues to grind on, with attacks frequently spilling over into Chad, Niger and Cameroon a little further to the south.

    Read Also: Police bust three IPOB camps in Delta

    The operations on Monday followed a series of Boko Haram attacks on military positions near the southeastern Nigerien border town of Diffa, the ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday.

    It said 25 insurgents were killed in fighting around 75 km (46.6 miles) south of Diffa and a further 50 in air and artillery strikes by joint Nigerien, Nigerian and Chadian forces in the Lake Chad area.

    It added that weapons were seized and a logistics base used by the insurgents destroyed.

  • Italian minister under fire for shedding tears for irregular migrants

    Italian minister under fire for shedding tears for irregular migrants

    Italy’s far-right opposition on Thursday lashed out at a government minister whose tearful moment while announcing a temporary amnesty for irregular migrants has gone viral on social media.

    The backlash came after the government said it would give migrant workers illegally employed in agriculture, as maids, or as domestic caregivers, the right to apply for a six-month residence permit.

    “For me, for where I come from, it is a fundamental issue,” Agriculture Minister Teresa Bellanova said late on Wednesday, breaking into tears during a news conference announcing the move.

    “From today, with the choice made by this government, the invisibles will become less invisible, the brutally exploited … will be able to have a work permit,” she said.

    The decision is part of a 55-billion-euro (60-billion-dollar) decree to prop up the Italian economy following one of world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks.

    Opposition leader Matteo Salvini, of the far-right League party, was not impressed.

    “Bellanova should be crying for the Italians before crying for clandestines,” he wrote on Twitter, where the hashtag #TeresaBellanova was trending on Thursday.

    Giorgia Meloni of the Brothers of Italy, another far-right opposition party, said she was “stunned” that Bellanova wept for migrants rather than “hundreds, maybe thousands” of Italians fearing for their jobs.

    In a Facebook message, the minister responded to criticism defending the right to show her emotions, and she attacked those who saw her tears as a sign of female weakness.

    “The strength of women, and also of many men, is actually being able to cry: there is no such thing as ‘gender crying,’ because the only gender who knows how to cry is the human one,” she wrote.

    READ ALSO: Italy records nearly 40% more deaths than usual in early 2020

    Bellanova, 61, a former farm labourer and trade unionist, proposed the amnesty to fill labour shortages caused by the epidemic, and free undocumented migrants from the common risk of exploitation.

    Italy has long relied on seasonal workers from Romania, Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries to work as fruit and vegetable pickers, but virus travel restrictions have blocked their arrival.

    However, farming lobby Coldiretti said the amnesty was “not enough” to solve a pressing labour shortage problem, because it would take time to give work permits to undocumented migrants.

    Coldiretti President Ettore Prandini instead proposed simplifying rules for casual work so that the unemployed, pensioners and students could find new work in the fields.

    He also urged the government to work “with countries like Romania” to organise safe corridors for seasonal workers, following the example of Germany and Romania.

    According to Coldiretti, Italy is missing around 200,000 farm workers for the spring harvest season, which started with cherry picking in the south-eastern region of Puglia.

    Italy is stuck in one of the world’s worst novel coronavirus epidemics.

    As of Wednesday, it had reported 31,106 deaths and 222,104 infections.

    (dpa/NAN)

  • Millions more Americans file for employment benefits

    Millions more Americans file for employment benefits

    The global novel coronavirus crisis continues to batter the U.S. labour market, with millions more Americans, including white-collar workers, filing for unemployment benefits last week as the hit from the pandemic spills over into a broader swath of the economy.

    Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totalled a seasonally adjusted 2.981 million for the week ended May 9, the Labour Department said on Thursday.

    While that was down from 3.176 million in the prior week and marked the sixth straight weekly drop, claims remain astoundingly high.

    Economists polled by Reuters had forecast applications for unemployment benefits totalling 2.5 million in the latest week.

    Claims have been gradually decreasing since hitting a record 6.867 million in the week ended March 28.

    The weekly jobless claims report, the timeliest data on the economy’s health, cements economists’ expectations for a third straight month of massive job losses in May.

    The report came a day after Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, warned of an “extended period” of weak growth and stagnant incomes.

    “We are on the back end of the first wave of layoffs, but now we are transitioning from the natural-disaster phase to the recession phase,’’ said Josh Wright, Chief Economist at Wrightside Advisors in New York.

    “That’s why so many white-collar jobs are still being lost.

    READ ALSO: 43% of Americans turn to ‘comfort buying’ in pandemic – Study

    “We effectively amputated a large section of the economy and we are going to limp along afterwards.’’

    The economy lost a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April, the steepest plunge in payrolls since the Great Depression of the 1930s, as businesses were locked down to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus.

    Still, April was probably the trough in job losses during this economic downturn, which has also been marked by the sharpest decline in output since the 2007-09 ‘Great Recession’.

    In addition to workers in industries and jobs not initially affected by the coronavirus shutdowns, economists attribute the continued elevation in claims to the processing of application backlogs, which accumulated as state unemployment offices were overwhelmed by the unprecedented wave of filings.

    Many parts of the country are reopening and states and local governments are laying out plans to restart their economies.

    But with businesses and factories operating well below capacity, and fears of the second round of COVID-19 infections, economists do not anticipate a dramatic improvement in the labour market.

    Some businesses have accessed loans from an almost $3 trillion fiscal package, which could be partially forgiven if they used the credit for employee salaries.

    But many small enterprises are expected to close permanently, leaving some of the 21.4 million people, who lost their jobs in March and April, out of work.

    (Reuters/NAN)

  • China waives VAT fees on film industry against virus impact

    China waives VAT fees on film industry against virus impact

    China’s fiscal and taxation authorities on Thursday announced its decision to temporarily waive the Value-Added Tax (VAT) and some fees on certain film-related businesses to support the sector against the COVID-19 shock.

    Film screening service providers would enjoy an exemption of VAT for the entire year of 2020, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation.

    The authorities have also suspended the collection of construction fees for cultural undertakings for the same period.

    For businesses in the film industry, the arrangement allows them to carry forward this year’s loss for up to eight years instead of five years.

    READ ALSO: China-linked hackers targeting U.S. vaccine research, says FBI

    The authorities would also waive collection of national development fund for the film industry in 2020 in province of Hubei, the hardest-hit region by the COVID-19 epidemic in China.

    In a separate statement jointly released by the finance ministry and the China Film Administration, the waiver would be valid from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31 this year for the rest of China.

    The VAT and the fees can be deducted from the payments in subsequent months or refunded where already collected but eligible to be waived, the statements said.

    (Xinhua/NAN)

  • Lufthansa first to land as Lithuania resumes passenger flights

    Lufthansa first to land as Lithuania resumes passenger flights

    Passenger flights in and out of Lithuania have resumed after a break of more than a month and a half during the coronavirus pandemic.

    German airline Lufthansa had a flight from Frankfurt to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Wednesday afternoon with more than 150 passengers.

    A similar number of passengers flew the other way from Vilnius to Frankfurt later in the evening, local media reported.

    The passengers had to undergo a medical check after landing and wait around 40 minutes before leaving the airport, the reports said.

    They must now quarantine for two weeks.

    Visitors were not allowed to enter the airport, only those with tickets.

    READ ALSO: COVID-19: Female returnee delivers baby aboard emirate airline

    Strict hygiene and clearance rules had to be observed.

    Lufthansa is the first airline to resume regular flights to the Baltic nation and will offer three flights a week between Frankfurt and Vilnius.

    Flights from approved destinations by the government have been allowed to land in Lithuania since May 10.

    The cabinet in Vilnius also allowed Latvian airline Air Baltic to resume flights from Vilnius to Riga (Latvia) and Tallinn (Estonia) on Wednesday.

    According to the head of Lithuanian airports, several other airlines have also made applications.

    Lithuania has so far recorded 1,505 infections with the novel coronavirus and 54 deaths.

    The government had declared a state of emergency and put the country under quarantine until May 31.

    (dpa/NAN)