Israel offers 3rd dose of COVID-19 vaccine to people over 40
Israel decided to lower the eligibility age for the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from 50 to 40, Israels state-owned Kan TV news reported on Thursday.
The expert committee of the Israeli Health Ministry recommended vaccinating people aged over 40, as well as teachers of all ages due to the recent sharp rise in COVID-19 infections in the country, said the report.
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The decision is expected to take effect by Friday after an approval by the ministry’s director general, Nachman Ash.
So far, nearly 1.25 million people have received the third dose in Israel, out of about 1.9 million aged 50 and over who took the second shot more than five months earlier.
The number of people who have received the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Israel reached nearly 5.88 million, or 63 percent of its total population, while over 5.4 million have taken two doses and nearly 1.25 million have got three jabs.
12.2 mln people in Afghanistan acutely food insecure: UN
“Humanitarian needs are expected to deteriorate further in the second half of the year due to drought,” the OCHA said, adding that the majority of the 12.2 million people acutely food insecure will be further affected by drought.
UN humanitarians said Thursday that the relief crisis in Afghanistan is deteriorating rapidly, with 12.2 million people acutely food insecure.
While thousands of people are reported fleeing, or attempting to flee, through Kabul airport, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 735,000 people returned to the country this year from Iran, Pakistan and other countries and are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Another 550,000 people became internally displaced since January.
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“Humanitarian needs are expected to deteriorate further in the second half of the year due to drought,” it said, adding that the majority of the 12.2 million people acutely food insecure will be further affected by drought.
The humanitarians said severe acute malnutrition increased by 16 percent, impacting 900,000 people and moderate acute malnutrition increased by 11 percent, hitting 3.1 million children.
A below-average wheat harvest is expected, and the livestock yield is forecast to be weak due to poor pastures and feed availability, OCHA said. Conflict and drought reduced agricultural activities by 28 percent, adding to market vulnerability.
Afghan displaced people who fled from their homes during the fights carry their belongings in a public park in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 11, 2021.
Food prices continue at elevated levels. Conflict-related movement restrictions further inflated the price of staples, it said. The cost of wheat, rice, sugar and cooking oil increased by more than 50 percent compared with pre-COVID-19 prices, with monthly increases in 2021 of between 1 percent and 4 percent.
The UN humanitarian response plan for Afghanistan remains just 37 percent funded, OCHA said. The need for emergency shelter and relief items is particularly urgent due to the surge in displacements, but donors only delivered 4 percent of the funds needed.
Haiti was devastated by a quake that killed more than 2,000 people. Heres how you can help.
After Haiti was rocked Saturday by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake – more powerful than the one that left the country in shambles more than a decade ago – communities were left to grapple with the tremors destructive aftermath.
Haiti’s civil protection agency said that 2,189 people had died as of Wednesday night and that more than 12,000 had been injured. The earthquake has affected about 1.2 million people in the Caribbean nation – including 540,000 children – according to UNICEF. The child-welfare organization estimated that 84,000 homes were damaged or destroyed – a situation that will require at least $15 million to respond to urgent needs.
The earthquake is the latest crisis in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. In recent months, Haiti has struggled with a spike in gang violence and kidnappings for ransom. The country was further challenged by the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Those problems come amid a pandemic in which just 0.17 percent of Haiti residents have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to Oxford University’s Our World in Data.
Further complicating the aid, The Washington Post reported, Tropical Storm Grace brought heavy rainfall Tuesday, causing mudslides and floods that damaged temporary shelters for people displaced by the quake. Recovery efforts stalled, and the roads on which aid and patients are transported were blocked.
The United States, the United Nations and a cohort of international aid groups have moved to send help, but their efforts have been slow – in part because of Haiti’s political instability.
Their aid comes in the shadow of mishandled resources after the massive 2010 earthquake. Vast sums of money were lost to corruption and embezzlement, with some of Haiti’s top politicians being suspected of misusing the funds. U.N. peacekeepers infected with cholera were part of an outbreak that led to more deaths. The American Red Cross was accused of mismanaging the half-billion dollars it raised to support the nation, according to ProPublica.
A definitive death toll for the Jan. 12, 2010, 7-magnitude earthquake was not established, but estimates by the United Nations place it at 220,000. About 1.5 million people were displaced.
As hospitals care for survivors and as rescuers comb through the ruins of last week’s earthquake, local and international organizations have been accepting donations – and there are numerous ways to help.
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– Local organizations
Hopital Bernard Mevs is the largest emergency hospital in Port-au-Prince. Although not directly affected by the earthquake, it is “over capacity” with patients who have been airlifted or driven to its premises. Some of its nurses and doctors are stationed in shelters in the southwestern part of Haiti, near the earthquake’s epicenter. In partnership with Project Medishare, the hospital organized a GoFundMe campaign to help victims in Les Cayes and Jeremie.
Prodev is a Haitian-led nonprofit organization that supports the education of impoverished children. After the 2010 earthquake destroyed nearly 80 percent of the country’s schools, Prodev supported rebuilding efforts and established a school in a community where displaced children had been relocated. The institution is accepting contributions.
When Hurricane Michael ravaged Haiti in 2016, Fokal – a 25-year-old nonprofit that works with local small businesses and groups – initiated a relief campaign by distributing funds through its network of organizations, including “smallholder farmers, cocoa growers, dairy farmers and women who run micro agro businesses, all of which are crucial in the region’s food production.” Its disaster program was again set in motion and is accepting donations.
– U. S. based initiatives
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Based in Naples, Fla., Hope for Haiti is a nonprofit organization established to reduce poverty in the island nation. Since its founding in 1990, it has responded to natural disasters including the 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Michael in 2016. It is providing medical services and clean water in its infirmary in Les Cayes. The organization is accepting contributions for its relief efforts.
In 2008, a group of Haitian Americans established Project St. Anne to “maintain the future of Haiti by investing in our greatest asset, our children,” according to the education-focused organization’s website. It has a team at Camp-Perrin – a commune 26 miles south of the epicenter – delivering food and water to survivors. It is accepting donations.
In Miami’s Little Haiti, the largest such diaspora enclave in the country, some members of Notre Dame D’Haiti Catholic Mission lost relatives on the island. Reginald Jean-Mary, the parish administrator, told The Post that his cousin – who is a priest in Les Anglais – helped pull congregants out of the rubble when his church collapsed Saturday. Jean-Mary said Notre Dame D’Haiti is collecting financial contributions online or over the phone at 305-751-6289.
Operation Helping Hands is a joint effort of United Way of Miami-Dade and the Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald that was launched in the aftermath of hurricanes Mitch and Georges in 1998. It has been reactivated since in emergencies and natural disasters, including the Surfside condo collapse outside Miami. The operation is supporting victims’ short- and long-term recovery by collecting donations.
Nonprofit organization Sow a Seed, which says its mission is to provide humanitarian aid to impoverished children in the Caribbean, launched an earthquake relief campaign for medical supplies, food, water, clothing and baby items. It is accepting donations.
– International organizations
Partners in Health “delivers health care to the world’s poorest places,” according to its website – including Haiti, where it is known as Zanmi Lasante. In the aftermath of the earthquake, a team of clinicians was sent to Les Cayes and surrounding areas to support the transportation of trauma victims and to provide emergency care, according to a news release. The organization is accepting donations for its earthquake response.
Since Sunday, José Andrés’s World Central Kitchen has served meals to victims and first responders. The organization has deep roots in Haiti – it was established after the renowned chef visited the country after the earthquake 11 years ago, and it has since opened a culinary school in Port-au-Prince. It’s accepting financial contributions.
An estimated half-million Haitian children have “limited or no access to shelter, safe water, health care and nutrition,” according to Bruno Maes, UNICEF’s representative in Haiti. The organization has mobilized its team to deliver medical supplies to hospitals. It has also distributed tarps for emergency shelter, latrines, hygiene items and water-treatment tablets, and is collecting donations.
Man claiming to have bomb near U.S. Capitol is in custody after standoff, police say
WASHINGTON – For the third time in nine months, Washington was brought to a standstill as the seat of the U.S. government came under the threat of violence Thursday, this time from a man who parked a truck near the Capitol, demanded to speak with President Joe Biden about a range of grievances and threatened to destroy two blocks of the nations capital with an explosive device.
Congressional office buildings and nearby homes were evacuated as authorities negotiated with the man, identified by law enforcement as Floyd Ray Roseberry, of North Carolina. Roseberry surrendered to authorities after about five hours and will face criminal charges, U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said.
Before he was taken into custody, he delivered a tirade over a Facebook live video – watched by tens of thousands of people – in which he assailed Biden and other Democrats, called for a revolt against the U.S. government and claimed there were other “patriots” waiting in vehicles elsewhere in D.C.
Law enforcement officials said Thursday afternoon there were no indications Roseberry was acting with accomplices, and they couldn’t say yet whether he actually had explosives in his vehicle. In his video, Roseberry claimed his explosive device was sound-activated and would go off if his truck windows were broken.
“The revolution is on, it’s here, it’s today,” he said in his live stream. “America needs a voice. I’ll give it to them.”
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Roseberry voiced disgust with Biden’s Afghanistan policy and called on Democratic senators to step down, saying they were “killing America.” He demanded to speak with the president.
By about 4 p.m., D.C. police said the bomb threat had been cleared, lifting road closures and allowing residents to return to their homes.
Congress is not in session this week. But many legislative aides and other government employees were working, and the threat of violence and rushed evacuation evoked memories of the violent storming of the Capitol just over eight months ago by a mob seeking to overturn the electoral defeat of former President Donald Trump.
In the aftermath of that riot, the seat of the U.S. government became in essence a quasi-militarized zone, with barriers erected around the Capitol to protect against further attacks. In April, a Capitol police officer was killed when a man rammed his car into a barricade outside the building. The fortifications were removed just last month.
“I’ve been on the Hill for six years last month,” Jordan Wilson, the director of operations and emergency coordinator in Virginia Republican Rep. Rob Wittman’s office, said Thursday. “And I can’t tell you how many people have left in the last six, eight, nine months, in both parties, just because these things are hard to go through. And it does beg the question, is it worth it?”
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With each security alert, it’s Wilson’s job to make sure the staff is safe and accounted for, to lock the doors and identify the nearest evacuation route if that becomes necessary. And with each security alert it grows more emotionally draining, Wilson said. His mom reached out to him while watching the situation unfold on the news, just as she did after Jan. 6.
“And again today she asked, why are you still working here?” he said. “That’s a hard question to answer.”
On Thursday, about 50 employees of National Capital Bank, who had been evacuated from their building, gathered in Seward Square around 11:30 a.m.
Chris Reddick, the bank’s vice president of residential lending, said it was the third time he had been evacuated from the building this year since Jan. 1. As he stood in the shade under a tree, wearing a green plaid face mask, traffic from multiple road closures sat snarled near him.
“It’s upsetting, and it scares my wife,” Reddick said.
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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI and D.C. police assisted Capitol Police with the incident. Metro trains on the Orange, Blue and Silver lines bypassed the Capitol South station.
Authorities had disclosed little information about Roseberry on Thursday afternoon.
Roseberry spoke with his son and his son’s fiancé on Wednesday and did not mention his plans to head to the U.S. Capitol and threaten to detonate a bomb, said Courtney Foster, who said she is engaged to Roseberry’s son and considers Roseberry a father.
Roseberry often talked about politics with his family, Foster said, sharing his dislike for Biden’s policies, support for former Trump and skepticism about vaccines.
“We didn’t know that he was going to do any of this. We didn’t know anything” Foster, 20, of Grover, N.C., said in a telephone interview. “He is just a good old farmin’ country man that has just kind of had enough, I guess, and you know, kind of reached his breaking point.”
In a telephone interview, his ex-wife, Crystal Roseberry, said their 10-year marriage – which ended about a decade ago – had been stormy because of his volatile temper. But she was still shocked when she saw her former husband’s face on social media Thursday.
Her phone had been ringing all day, she said, as friends and family expressed similar disbelief.
“He’s never done nothing like this before,” she said.
Two North Carolina State Highway Patrol cars were blocking the road to an address associated with Roseberry in the Grover area on Thursday afternoon. State Trooper Russell Corry said they had been directed to shut down the road while officials cleared the residence.
“We’re just using precaution because he said he had an explosive device,” Corry said.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremism and terrorist groups, said Roseberry’s social media was full of pro-Trump material, although Roseberry said in his live stream Thursday not to be motivated by political partisanship.
“I’m here for a reason, Joe Biden. I’m here for the American people. And if you want to take me out, take me out. But when the patriots come, your a– is in trouble,” Roseberry says in the video. “So if you blow my truck up man, it’s on you, Joe. I’m ready to die for the cause.”
He said he had a wife, whom he had told he was going fishing through Sunday, as well as two children and a grandchild. At one point, he showed piles of coins in the back of the truck and said he threw $3,000 in cash onto a sidewalk.
Members of Congress – many of them away in their home districts – expressed a mix of concern and incredulity at yet another threat to their place of business.
“Today, once again, the Capitol Police, FBI and other law enforcement dealt with a potential threat to the Capitol Hill community,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “The immense gratitude of the Congress is with all law enforcement officers who today and all days sacrifice to keep the Capitol Complex and those within it safe.”
“I have checked in with my DC-based staff and they are all safely away from the Capitol Complex,” Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., wrote on Twitter. “I thank Capitol police and first responders for their response and pray everyone remains safe.”
Fear and sadness – but not necessarily surprise – were also voiced by those who found themselves near the Capitol as the standoff unfolded.
Victoria Cowens and Courtney Mahugu had recently moved to the District for their freshman year at Howard University. They were trying to visit the Supreme Court when the bomb threat came through.
“It’s disappointing, as a country,” Cowens, of Rochester, N.Y., said.
“The fence was just lowered a couple months ago and it felt like progress,” said Mahugu, of Kansas. “It makes you fearful to see all these cop cars.”
In the chaos, they never made it to the Supreme Court.
Around 3 p.m., tourists and onlookers continued to enjoy the sites near the Capitol. One couple, pulling a purple suitcase, said they’d just arrived from Atlanta and hadn’t heard of the bomb threat. Neither did a pair of women smoking cigarettes near a small reflecting pool.
Police yelled at a runner in black athletic shorts and yellow sneakers, oblivious to the afternoon’s events as he jogged down First Street NW toward a closed-off area, ear buds in.
After Roseberry had been arrested, Rebecca Adeyanju, 35, and her husband, Ken, 40, walked with their two daughters – 5 years old and 6 months old – toward the Capitol. The family had stopped in the District on a family road trip to Texas from their home in Maine. They had just learned of the bomb scare.
They had wanted to get a photo. On a road trip from their home in Maine, the Adeyanjus had stopped in the District on their way to Texas. A woman on the street had told them of the bomb scare.
“It’s all terrible, and it needs to stop,” Rebecca said. “I could say so much, but really it just needs to stop.”
“It’s not right,” said Ken Adeyanju, who held their infant daughter. “It’s just insane. I don’t know why this keeps happening.”
Published : August 20, 2021
By : The Washington Post · Lizzie Johnson, Ellie Silverman, Antonio Olivo, Peter Jamison
Singapore vaccinated travel easing starts with Germany
Singapore will pilot quarantine-free travel lanes for vaccinated passengers next month from Germany and Brunei and open up to visitors from Hong Kong and Macau in its first big move yet to lift border restrictions that have been in place since early in the pandemic.
In what are the highly anticipated first steps of the city’s reopening, travelers from Germany and Brunei can enter Singapore from Sept. 8 without the need to have a purpose for visiting and controlled itinerary or sponsor requirements, officials said during a press briefing in the city-state Thursday.
While Singapore is easing restrictions on inbound travel from Hong Kong, the two financial hubs won’t go ahead with plans for an air travel bubble, the governments said. Their strategies for containing Covid have diverged — Hong Kong is still pursuing a Covid-zero eradication path, while Singapore seeks to reopen with a backstop of one of the world’s best vaccination rates.
Germany and Brunei were chosen as places where Singapore could test its confidence in vaccinated travel lanes, with Covid infections in both places at manageable levels. Though Brunei limits foreign tourism, travelers from Singapore were already allowed to enter Germany with minimal restrictions.
“As the saying goes, we are feeling the stones as we cross the river,” said Lawrence Wong, the finance minister and a co-chair of the nation’s Covid task force. “Each time we make a move we will monitor the data, we will look at the evidence and ensure that our hospital system is able to cope with the infection situation before we take the next step.”
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Singapore is the first among the group of places with a zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19 to start pivoting its approach from strict containment to treating the pathogen as endemic. While the reopening comes as a relief to residents and businesses, the highly limited nature of the first steps indicates that the process will move more slowly than some hoped.
Singapore Airlines welcomed the easing, calling the move an “important step in the safe and calibrated reopening of the Singapore air hub, on the back of robust vaccination rates in Singapore.” The airline plans to operate vaccinated travel lane (VTL) flights from Frankfurt and Munich to Singapore from Sept. 7.
Elise Becker, vice president Asia-Pacific for Lufthansa Group, said in a statement that the airline was “delighted” by the easing to Germany. “It will not only help people reunite safely with family, friends and loved ones but may also be a role model for other Asia-Pacific countries to follow.”
The travel lane underscores Singapore’s plan to differentiate between those who get vaccinated and those who don’t. Short-term visitors aren’t allowed from Germany and Brunei if they’re not fully vaccinated. And the travel lane won’t extend to children too young for the jabs, even if their parents are vaccinated.
Singapore is eyeing a third round of vaccine as booster shots for some fully-vaccinated individuals, especially the severely immunocompromised. Recommendations are expected shortly.
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Singapore also expects to begin vaccinating children under age 12 sometime in early 2022, after safety and efficacy have been sufficiently studied.
The travel easing decision comes days after Trade Minister Gan Kim Yong told Bloomberg News in an interview that Singapore was considering such travel lanes based on a country’s infection and vaccination rates, and their ability to control outbreaks.
Restrictions will be eased for Singapore residents coming from Hong Kong and Macau from August 21, and further eased for visitors from the two places from August 26. They join New Zealand, most of mainland China and Taiwan as economies with the least entry restrictions to Singapore, or Category I on the city-state’s four-part list.
Australia, Canada, South Korea and China’s Jiangsu province form Category II, where travelers can quarantine for just seven days. The group also includes all travelers from Germany and Brunei who aren’t utilizing the vaccinated travel lane.
Category III, which allows home-based quarantine for 14 days, includes Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland. All other countries for which Singapore hasn’t banned entry form Category IV, which requires 14 days quarantine in a dedicated hotel facility on entry.
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While business and leisure travel is essential to Singapore’s trade-dependent economy, the government to date has restricted movement and applied constrictive domestic measures as a means to control infections. However with nearly 80% of its population now fully vaccinated — one of the highest rates in the world — it’s begun shifting to an approach that tries to treat the disease more like influenza.
In addition to the travel pilot, Singapore on Thursday also eased strict work-from-home rules, allowing as many as 50% of employees who are otherwise able to work at home to return to the office. It also increased the capacity of spaces that see large numbers of patrons, such as malls and cinemas, and ended temperature screenings that have been required to enter public places since early in the pandemic.
Yet even with all the easing, Singapore continues to have stiffer social-distancing rules than most western financial capitals, according to data on local restrictions compiled by Bloomberg. And that may not end anytime soon.
“We should be under no illusion that the road ahead will be an easy one,” Wong said, reiterating that Singapore may need to pause or pull back some measures if clusters grow to the point it strains the city-state’s hospital system.
“The path toward being a COVID resilient nation is going to be long and hard slog,” he said. “Even at very high vaccination rates we are not going to reach herd immunity where the outbreak just fizzles out.”
Published : August 20, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Philip J. Heijmans
Australia sees worst day of pandemic amid delta outbreak
Australia has suffered its worst day since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, with total daily cases surpassing the previous record posted more than a year ago as a delta variant outbreak spreads as far as New Zealand.
New South Wales recorded 681 new cases, Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Thursday in Sydney, where stay-at-home orders have been enforced for almost two months. Meanwhile, Victoria state recorded 57 new infections — more than double from the previous day, and its highest tally since September — as Melbourne endures its sixth lockdown since the pandemic began.
New South Wales, Victoria and Australian Capital Territory recorded a combined 754 cases in their communities on Thursday, surpassing the nation’s previous high of 725 recorded in early August 2020, when Melbourne was in the midst of a lockdown that lasted for three months.
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Authorities are now finding that lockdown strategies that had previously worked to eliminate community transmissions are struggling to contain the spread of the highly-contagious strain, especially as people grow increasingly weary of the stay-home restrictions.
“Everyone will have to learn to live with delta,” Berejiklian said, signaling that her government had abandoned attempts to eliminate the virus. “In New South Wales, we are learning that earlier than” in other states, she said. Ramping up vaccination rates was vital in order to start removing some lockdown restrictions, she added.
Australia’s outbreak has spread to New Zealand, which has entered a strict nationwide lockdown and recorded at least 20 infections. The first community case in New Zealand since February was detected earlier this week, and genome testing has showed a clear link to the delta surge in New South Wales.
Sydney’s outbreak is also increasingly spreading into other areas of Australia, forcing more than half of the country’s 26 million people into lockdown. That’s creating an unprecedented threat to Indigenous communities hundreds of miles from Australia’s most populous city, including in western New South Wales, where more than 150 infections have been detected.
The rapid rise in infections underscores how both nations’ so-called “Covid Zero” strategy — which has seen them rely on restricted international borders and rigorous testing to eliminate community transmission — is under increasing strain.
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The case surge has injected a sense of urgency into Australia’s previously slow vaccine rollout, which has seen Prime Minister Scott Morrison criticized by health experts and political rivals for failing to quickly secure enough shots from a wide range of drugmakers.
As recently as March — when Australia was generally free of the virus — Morrison declared that the inoculation rollout wasn’t a “race.” But the delta variant has flipped the script, with health authorities now trying to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible despite remaining hampered by supply restraints. According to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker, while less than 22% of Australians are fully inoculated, close to 40% have now received at least one dose.
Other states and territories have responded to the coronavirus crisis in southeastern Australia by implementing hard borders to try to keep delta at bay. After a request from Queensland state authorities, defense force soldiers will start patrolling its border with New South Wales to enforce non-essential travel restrictions.
In a bright spot, the tropical northern city of Darwin will exit its three-day lockdown on Thursday after managing to control a delta cluster.
Despite the mounting economic and emotional toll the pandemic and lockdowns are having on Australians, the nation’s top banks say the economy is well positioned to rebound once prolonged stay-at-home orders in Sydney and regional lockdowns lift, with households and firms stronger than at the start of the pandemic.
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“The emotional toll is higher this time as there is a lot of anguish around how we get out of it,” said Andrew Hinchcliff, group executive of institutional banking and markets at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. “But the Australian economy is so well positioned, it will come out of this on a relative basis better than most.”
Published : August 20, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Jason Scott, Georgina Mckay
Biden says Taliban in existential crisis over role in world
President Joe Biden said the Taliban are in the midst of an “existential crisis” about their role on the international stage but that he didnt believe the group had fundamentally changed its course.
“Let me put it this way: I think they’re going through sort of an existential crisis about do they want to be recognized by the international community as being a legitimate government,” Biden told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News in an interview that aired Thursday morning. “I’m not sure they do.”
Biden’s comments point to a looming question of whether the U.S. will recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s government after they swiftly took control of the country, including the capital city of Kabul. The U.S. has already taken steps to block money from flowing to the Taliban and could opt to negotiate relief from economic sanctions if they agree to block international terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and protect the rights of women and minorities.
But any dealings with the Taliban will be politically fraught for Biden, who has already faced widespread criticism on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers from both parties are calling for more information about the crisis. The House Intelligence Committee is to receive a classified briefing on Afghanistan on Monday from representatives of several intelligence agencies, according to an official familiar with the plans.
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Biden this week has been defending his high-stakes bet that U.S. voters want to end American’s 20-year war in Afghanistan and will forgive him for the searing images of desperate Afghans looking to flee. In earlier excerpts from the interview that aired Wednesday, Biden said U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan until all Americans are able to leave the country — even if it takes longer than his Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw.
Biden and Pentagon leaders said that American intelligence assessments didn’t foresee such a rapid advance by the Taliban and collapse of the Afghan military, prompting the U.S. to race to evacuate its citizens and Afghans who aided U.S. troops.
Many Americans were shocked by the drama that unfolded this week in Kabul, where desperate Afghans tried to cling to the side of a U.S. military plane as it taxied down a runway, with some plunging to their deaths as it took flight minutes later.
Biden, speaking in the interview, said there had been no consensus in the intelligence community that the Taliban would take over, and no prediction it would happen so fast. He also said he may not have forseen that the Taliban would allow American citizens to evacuate the country safely, citing that as an example of how unpredictable the group could be.
Biden has also faced criticism from European allies, who have expressed frustration over not being consulted as the situation deteriorated. In the interview, Biden said he had since spoken with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and added that he would be speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron.
In the earlier excerpts, Biden repeated that he stood by his decision to withdraw, and said he faced a decision of whether to put more U.S. troops’ lives at risk or pull out.
Published : August 20, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Justin Sink, Jennifer Jacobs
Malaysia caretaker PM Muhyiddin backs former deputy as premier
Malaysias Caretaker Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin endorsed his former deputy Ismail Sabri Yaakob as the next premier, in a bid to ensure policy continuity as the country grapples with rising Covid infections.
Ismail Sabri has the support of 50 MPs from the former ruling Perikatan Nasional coalition to become prime minister, Muhyiddin said in a statement Thursday. Under constitutional law, any lawmaker who can command a majority in the 220-member parliament can stake a claim to form the government, and the king needs to give his assent to formalize the appointment.
“The decision was made to ensure the continuation of the PN government’s policies which focused on efforts to fight Covid-19 and to revive the country” until an election is called at the right time, Muhyiddin said.
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Muhyiddin and his cabinet resigned after more than 17 months in power on Monday, fueling a crisis of leadership in a country beset by a weakened economy and a surge in Covid cases. New cases soared by more than a record 22,000 for a second straight day on Thursday.
As a leading figure in Malaysia’s fight against the pandemic, Ismail Sabri appeared almost daily in televised press briefings to update the public on containment measures. Still, the outbreak worsened, with confirmed cases breaching the one-million mark in late July, as the government oscillated between tightening and loosening restrictions on movements.
The monarch on Thursday met with MPs to verify that they backed Ismail Sabri, according to Ahmad Maslan, the secretary-general of the United Malays National Organisation. This came a day after lawmakers submitted letters to the palace declaring their choice of prime minister candidate.
Once appointed, the new prime minister should face a confidence vote in parliament as soon as possible, the palace said statement on Wednesday.
Still, Perikatan Nasional’s support for Ismail Sabri is conditional, Muhyiddin said.
Ismail Sabri must ensure that his Cabinet members have integrity, are trustworthy and free of criminal charges in court, Muhyiddin said. The PN government under his leadership must continue to respect the principle of separation of powers, independence of the judiciary and uphold the constitutional monarchy, Muhyiddin added.
This rules out the possibility that Ismail Sabri’s party colleagues, former prime minister Najib Razak and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, will be a part of the cabinet. Both are on trial for dozens of charges including corruption. The duo were also instrumental in bringing down Muhyiddin’s administration when they and 13 other UMNO MPs withdrew their support.
Lawmakers from the Pakatan Harapan coalition backed Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister, Fahmi Fadzil, communications director for the People’s Justice Party, told Bloomberg News. The Sabah-based Warisan party, which is not a part of the alliance, supported Anwar as well, according to party leader Mohd Azis Jamman.
The monarch is set to chair a meeting with the royal rulers on Friday to discuss current issues.
Published : August 20, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Anisah Shukry
Taliban meets with Karzai amid efforts to form new govt in Afghanistan
After the takeover, the Taliban said Tuesday it intends to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan and does not want to have any internal or external enemies.
The Taliban on Wednesday met with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai as the group is seeking to form a new government in the war-torn country.
The meeting between the Taliban and the former Afghan leader came after Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani left the country following the Taliban’s takeover of most parts of the country, including the capital city of Kabul, on Sunday.
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After the takeover, the Taliban said Tuesday it intends to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan and does not want to have any internal or external enemies.
Karzai, president from 2001 to 2014, has been leading efforts to ensure a peaceful transfer of power in Afghanistan, according to media reports.
On Wednesday night, Ghani claimed that he “was forced to leave Kabul and decided to leave my country in order to prevent bloodshed.”
Ghani made the statement during a live Facebook broadcast from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which confirmed on Wednesday that it has welcomed Ghani and his family into the country “on humanitarian grounds.”
“If I had stayed, I would be witnessing bloodshed in Kabul,” Ghani said.
He also made a rebuttal of accusations saying he left Afghanistan hastily, stressing that “those who think that I fled should not judge if they don’t know all the details.”
Since the U.S. troops started to pull out of Afghanistan on May 1, the Taliban has been advancing quickly on the battlefield. During the past two weeks, the group has captured most of Afghanistan’s territories.
The fast-evolving situation in Afghanistan has aroused deep concerns in the international community.
Afghan president Mohammad Ashraf Ghani speaks in a televised address in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 14, 2021.
On Wednesday, various countries voiced their call for restraint and peace in the war-battered country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi agreed on the importance of establishing peace and stability in Afghanistan in a telephone call.
“Much attention was paid to the events unfolding in Afghanistan. Willingness to contribute to the establishment of peace and stability in this country was expressed,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey welcomes the “moderate” statements made by the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan.
“We have already stated that we can receive the leaders of the Taliban. We maintain this attitude today. We also welcome the moderate statements made by the Taliban leaders,” Erdogan said during a televised interview.
Turkey is open to cooperation for the peace of the Afghan people, the well-being of the Turkish compatriots living in Afghanistan, and protection of Turkey’s interests, he said.
Meanwhile, in the face of mounting criticism, U.S. President Joe Biden has been defending his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, the president said that the U.S. military could extend its mission in Afghanistan beyond Aug. 31 to evacuate Americans on the ground.
The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid (C, rear) attends a press conference in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Aug. 17, 2021.
S&P Global Ratings lowers its Thailand growth forecast as Covid wreaks havoc in Southeast Asia
S&P Global Ratings has lowered its 2021 growth forecast for Thailand to 1.1 per cent from June’s forecast of 2.8 per cent, saying that emerging Southeast Asian economies are facing intense headwinds from persistent Covid-19 pandemic waves.
“The duration and severity of the pandemic has been more adverse than our previous baseline expectations,” S&P Global Ratings said in a press release from Singapore on Thursday. “As a result, we are revising downward our 2021 growth expectations for a number of emerging Southeast Asia economies.”
Private consumption and services will be hit hardest by the pandemic. While the new lockdowns this year have been less costly as economies adapted to reduced mobility, the longer durations have meant that the economic costs are rising. Meanwhile, external demand will provide a buffer against further outlook deterioration, it said. International trade remains strong due to healthy demand for goods as global economies open up.
“A fresh slump in demand in emerging Southeast Asia is hitting sectors that have already faced a challenging year,” said Vishrut Rana, Asia-Pacific economist at S&P Global Ratings.
“As the pandemic drags on, balance sheets will deteriorate for households, small and midsize enterprises, banks and the wider economy, leading to more medium-run economic scarring,” Rana added.
Policy settings across the region are likely to remain steady. Central banks are wary of easing further. The US Federal Reserve’s next policy change is likely to be a tapering of quantitative easing, and policy easing from Southeast Asian central banks could increase capital outflows in the region.
The central banks are already deploying a range of tools, including loan moratoriums and acquisition of public securities. Meanwhile, core inflation and broader inflationary pressures are subdued amid weakening domestic demand; so central banks are unlikely to tighten policy further, the press release said.
New fiscal stimulus measures announced this year by Southeast Asian countries have been more limited in scope, given that the fiscal policy space was significantly eroded during the initial pandemic escalation in 2020. Overall public spending is still set to support growth during the year based on previously announced measures and government budgets for the year, the statement added.
Forecast revisions
“We have revised our 2021 growth forecast for Thailand lower to 1.1 per cent from our June forecast of 2.8 per cent. The current Covid-19 escalation in Thailand is the most severe so far, after the country had successfully limited the spread in 2020.
“The escalation has led to reduced mobility, with tight lockdowns in place across 29 out of 77 provinces in August, and more moderate lockdowns in the rest of the country. Overall mobility was about 27 per cent lower than normal in August, according to Google Community Mobility data, which will slow down domestic activity,” the press statement said.
“In addition, the pandemic escalation has pushed back the likely timelines for greater normalisation of domestic activity and a gradual resumption of tourism,” it went on to say.
“The services and informal sectors in Thailand have been under strain from the absence of tourism,” Rana said.
“The additional strain from a pandemic-related drop in domestic demand will weaken these sectors further.”
S&P Global Ratings said it also lowered its 2021 growth forecast for the Philippines to 4.3 per cent from 6.0 per cent in June, and forecasts growth of 7.7 per cent in 2022 compared with its earlier forecast of 7.5 per cent.
Intermittent lockdowns have been weighing on economic activity, and a fresh escalation driven by the Covid-19 Delta variant has led authorities to re-impose more stringent lockdowns in a number of major cities, the press release said.
“The combined hit to activity from floods in parts of the Philippines and fresh lockdowns to contain the pandemic have significantly eroded what would have been a highly favourable base effect for the country,” said Vincent Conti, senior economist, Credit Markets Research at S&P Global Ratings.
“The longer downturn will cause even more economic scarring. By 2025, the Philippines’ GDP will likely be 12 per cent below where it would have been without the pandemic.”
The credit rating agency said it lowered its growth forecast for Malaysia to 3.2 per cent in 2021 from 4.1 per cent earlier.
Strong international trade is providing a sizeable buffer for growth this year. However, domestic demand is looking much weaker. Lockdowns to manage the pandemic wave have now been in place for around three months, the statement said.
The deeper downturn has cut activity in the services sector and is resulting in sizable job-losses – in June the unemployment rate jumped to 4.8 per cent from 4.5 per cent in May.
Malaysia now has a relatively high vaccination coverage, with about 52 per cent of the population having received at least one dose, according to the agency.
This will enable a gradual re-opening of the economy over the next several months.
Vietnam had largely managed to contain the pandemic until earlier this year, but cases escalated noticeably in July. Since then, tight lockdowns have been enforced across wide parts of the country to contain the spread of Covid-19, S&P Global Ratings said.
The pandemic has disrupted manufacturing supply chains in that country as various factories have had to cut production and capacity. “Overall, we forecast growth of 4.8 per cent in 2021, down from our June projection of 7.3 per cent,” the agency’s press release concluded.
Afghan displaced people who fled from their homes during the fights carry their belongings in a public park in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 11, 2021.
Afghan president Mohammad Ashraf Ghani speaks in a televised address in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 14, 2021.
The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid (C, rear) attends a press conference in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Aug. 17, 2021.
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