“President Biden has asked to be able to speak with President Macron to talk about the way forward, to talk about his deep commitment to the U.S. alliance with France,” a senior Biden administration official said.
U.S. President Joe Biden is seeking to hold a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, U.S. officials said on Monday, an effort to reduce tensions caused by a controversial submarine deal.
A diplomatic rift emerged between Washington and Paris over the announcement that the United States and Britain will support Australia to develop nuclear-powered submarines, depriving France of a contract to provide conventional submarines to Australia.
Outraged by the abrupt move without notice, France recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia for consultations on Friday.
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“President Biden has asked to be able to speak with President Macron to talk about the way forward, to talk about his deep commitment to the U.S. alliance with France,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters in a call briefing on Monday.
“We understand the French position, we don’t share their view in terms of how this all developed,” said the official. “We think that will be an important moment and opportunity for the two leaders to speak directly with one another.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in a briefing later Monday that the call would take place “in the coming days,” while noting officials are still working on scheduling it.
Under the new security partnership unveiled on Wednesday between Australia, Britain, and the United States, known as AUKUS, Australia will build nuclear-powered submarines with U.S. and British technology.
On Thursday, Australia announced it would scrap the deal with France signed in 2016 to purchase 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines.
French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian on Thursday called the trilateral move a “stab in the back.” “We had established a relationship of trust with Australia. This trust has been betrayed,” he said.
“The American behavior worries me; this unilateral and brutal decision is very similar to what Mr. (Donald) Trump was doing,” he added.
“Its the developed world that over 200 years has put the carbon in the atmosphere that is causing this acceleration of climate change and, say, it really is up to us to help them,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday that COP26 UN Climate Change Conference is “a turning point” for the world.
“I think the Glasgow COP26 is a turning point for the world. And it’s the moment when we have to grow up and take our responsibilities,” Johnson told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York following the closing of the Informal Leaders Roundtable on Climate Action.
Calling on the rich countries to honor their pledge to provide each year 100 billion U.S. dollars for the climate action in the developing countries, the prime minister said that “it is the developing world that is bearing the brunt of catastrophic climate change in the forms of hurricanes and fires and floods and the real long-term economic damage that they face.”
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“It’s the developed world that over 200 years has put the carbon in the atmosphere that is causing this acceleration of climate change and, say, it really is up to us to help them,” he added.
Earlier, Johnson told the roundtable that “history will judge” the world’s richest nations if they fail to deliver on their pledge to commit 100 billion dollars in annual climate aid ahead of COP26. He placed the chances of securing the money before November at “six out of 10.”
“We cannot let climate action become another victim of coronavirus. Let us be the leaders who secure the very health of the planet for our children, grandchildren and generations to come,” Johnson said at the event.
The prime minister also assured his country “will lead by example, keeping the environment on the global agenda and serving as a launch pad for a global green industrial revolution.”
However, he warned that “no one country can turn the tide, it would be akin to bailing out a liner with a single bucket.”
The roundtable follows the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, signaling a “code red for humanity,” and comes less than six weeks before the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.
The roundtable addresses the gaps that remain on the actions urgently needed from national governments — especially the G20 — on mitigation, finance and adaptation.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks to reporters after attending the Informal Leaders Roundtable on Climate Action at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 20, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern partially eased a lockdown in Auckland, but urged people in the nations largest city to stay at home and avoid social contact as the government struggles to stamp out a delta coronavirus outbreak.
Auckland will move to Alert Level 3 at midnight Tuesday, allowing some businesses to reopen, Ardern said Monday in Wellington. But it will remain at that level for at least two weeks and the rest of the country will stay at Level 2, requiring social distancing and mask wearing in indoor public spaces.
“We are not stepping out of Level 4 because the job is done, but nor are we moving because we don’t think we can achieve the goal of stamping out Covid-19,” Ardern said. “We are moving because Level 3 still provides a cautious approach where we continue to stamp out Covid-19.”
Auckland has already been in lockdown for more than a month. While the restrictions have managed to contain the outbreak, new cases continue to be detected every day. Three new infections just outside the Auckland border — one a child who attended school while infectious — prompted the government to today impose a snap lockdown in that area for five days.
For Auckland, Level 3 doesn’t mean lockdown is lifted. It allows businesses to resume contactless operations but people are still asked to stay at home and work remotely if possible. Schools, daycare centers, shops and public venues are largely closed, and gatherings are restricted.
In a boost for the hospitality sector, Ardern said the gathering limit for the rest of the country under Level 2 has been raised to 100 from 50.
North Korea on Monday condemned a new defense pact by the United States, Australia and Britain, and a plan to share nuclear submarine technology with Australia, saying the deal could trigger a nuclear arms race and upset the balance in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Biden administration announced the three-nation pact, called AUKUS, on Wednesday. The surprise decision to share sensitive nuclear submarine technology with Australia has already prompted a swift backlash from China – the apparent target of the pact – and set off a diplomatic spat with France by scuttling an earlier deal in which Australia would have purchased 12 French diesel-powered submarines.
“These are extremely undesirable and dangerous acts which will upset the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region and trigger off a chain of nuclear arms race,” North Korean state news media Korean Central News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying. “It is quite natural that neighboring countries including China condemned these actions as irresponsible ones of destroying the peace and stability of the region and the international nuclear nonproliferation system and of catalyzing the arms race,” the official added.
The North Korean condemnation comes just days after Pyongyang test-fired a pair of ballistic missiles and a new long-range cruise missile, stoking tensions in the first public testing activity in months amid a prolonged deadlock in nuclear talks with Washington. North Korea has so far not responded to outreach efforts by the Biden administration.
State media reported that North Korea developed the cruise missiles over two years, fulfilling key defense goals set by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – a claim that hinted at the possible nuclear capability of the missiles. KCNA described the missiles as a “strategic weapon of great significance.”
South and North Korea have both been developing increasingly sophisticated weapons amid stalled efforts to ease tension on the peninsula. South Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile on Wednesday. In a commentary published Monday by state media, the chief of a North Korean military think tank, Jang Chang Ha, derided the South’s effort as “clumsy.”
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In a statement on its defense plans last week, South Korea said that “the military will work to ensure security and peace on the Korean Peninsula by achieving powerful deterrence capabilities through the development of missiles that are stronger, and can go further and with more precision.”
Responding to news of the trilateral security pact on Monday, the unnamed North Korean ministry official described the United States as “the chief culprit toppling the international nuclear nonproliferation system,” adding that its “double-dealing attitude” was threatening “world peace and stability.”
The official said that North Korea will “certainly take a corresponding counteraction in case it has even a little adverse impact on the security of our country.”
Australia said last week it has “no plans to acquire nuclear weapons” and that the submarine proposal will “remain consistent with Australia’s long-standing commitment to nuclear non-proliferation” – a global stance Prime Minister Scott Morrison said all three nations are committed to upholding.
Nuclear-powered submarines have a longer range, and they can travel underwater at a higher sustained speed, than their diesel-electric-powered equivalents. That could offer advantages in a head-to-head confrontation with the Chinese military, which has significantly grown its navy in recent years and plans to expand its fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.
WASHINGTON – The White House announced on Monday that it would be lifting blanket travel restrictions on visitors from Europe, Britain and other countries that had been imposed at the start of the pandemic.
Under rules to take effect in early November, fully vaccinated travelers from anywhere in the world would be able to fly to the United States, though they would also be subject to new testing and contact-tracing procedures, Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said in a call with reporters.
Zients said the new system “follows the science” to keep Americans and international travel safe and would be “relying on individuals, rather than a country-based approach, so it’s a stronger system.”
The announcement came as President Joe Biden prepared to meet face-to-face this week with world leaders and diplomats at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. It also comes at a time of tense relations between Washington and Europe.
European leaders have voiced frustration with the administration’s handling of the pullout from Afghanistan, while France is enraged by a U.S. deal to sell nuclear submarines to Australia that undercut its own agreement.
The travel ban – though a low-profile issue in the United States – had been particularly galling to Europeans, with one British newspaper dubbing it “Kafkaesque.”
“Over the past few months the travel ban went from a minor irritant in the transatlantic relationship to an existential threat to Biden’s Europe policy. There was simply no scientific justification for it after European vaccination rates exceeded those of the United States,” said Thomas Wright, director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution.
The ban on entry to travelers who had been almost anywhere in Europe in the previous 14 days was first imposed by the Trump administration, by executive order, more than 550 days ago. It has been kept in place under Biden, even as the coronavirus picture improved in Europe and worsened in the United States.
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Though exceptions were made for U.S. citizens and permanent residents, along with a small number of visa holders, the strict rules had stopped millions of potential travelers, costing businesses and leading to profound personal disruption for Europeans, many of whom missed major life events, from births to deaths.
In total, the travel restrictions had impacted 33 nations, including Britain, India and China. The White House announcement on Monday applies to all travelers from outside the United States arriving via air.
However, the most vocal reaction was from Europe, which accounts for a large portion of visitors to the United States and where diplomats had become increasingly outspoken over the restrictions.
“Travel ban lifted!” tweeted Stavros Lambrinidis, the European Union’s Ambassador to Washington, who only hours earlier had said that E.U. member states had been “working diligently” to help get the ban lifted.
Many on the continent had expected the United States to lift the restrictions over the summer, in return for their own relaxation of restrictions on travelers from the United States in June. But no reciprocal move was forthcoming.
Some diplomats fumed that while the restrictions were once understandable, they had become nonsensical, with few restrictions on U.S. travelers who could carry the virus, even when they were coming from countries with low rates of vaccination and high rates of daily cases.
Although the European Union had initially lagged behind in vaccinations, it overtook the United States this summer. As of last week, about 60 percent of the 27-nation bloc was fully vaccinated, compared to 53 percent in the United States, where pockets of anti-vaccination sentiment have helped slow early success.
“The issue had been rising among public opinion in Europe, and European leaders were increasingly under pressure to impose reciprocity on Americans,” said Benjamin Haddad, senior director of the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council.
Monday’s announcement appeared to mark an abrupt U-turn in thinking from the Biden administration. Last week, citing the spread of the delta variant, Zients told a meeting with representatives from the U.S. travel industry that the administration was “maintaining the existing travel restrictions at this point,” and the White House stated there was no imminent policy change.
It is unclear if heightened political tensions in the U.S.-EU relationship ultimately pushed the United States to drop the ban.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a long discussion about the travel ban on Friday with the French ambassador to Washington, Philippe Etienne, just before Etienne was ordered to return to Paris due to France’s anger over a U.S.-UK-Australia submarine deal, said a senior State Department official familiar with the matter.
When asked if the decision to lift the ban was aimed at restoring relations with Europe after recent such setbacks, Erica Barks-Ruggles, a State Department official at the Bureau of International Organizations, said the decision was “driven by the science.”
Some details of the new rules may also need to be ironed out. It is not yet clear if vaccines that have not been authorized in the United States, such as the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot or vaccines made by China and Russia, will be accepted.
Under the new rules, vaccinated travelers to the United States will have to test negative for the virus within three days before departure. The new policy also requires that airlines collect passenger information, including a phone number and email, to improve contact-tracing efforts.
Federal health officials sought to impose such a requirement early in the pandemic, but the effort stalled. In February, seven U.S. carriers announced they would collect passenger information from international travelers on U.S.-bound flights. However, it was up to individuals to voluntarily provide the information. Under the White House’s new policy, international travelers will be required to provide their details.
However the decision came about, many across the Atlantic welcomed it.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is set to meet Biden at the White House on Tuesday, tweeted he was “delighted” with the news. British newspapers had reported Monday morning that he planned to press the issue with his U.S. counterpart.
The prime minister said it was a “fantastic boost for business and trade, and great that family and friends on both sides of the pond can be reunited once again.”
Ylva Johansson, the E.U.’s commissioner for home affairs, said she “welcomes” the decision. Margaritis Schinas, the E.U. Commission’s vice president for promoting the European way of life, called the new policy “sound and long-awaited.”
“When I met my US counterparts in July in Lisbon I told them that mobility cannot be reserved for the elite alone,” he wrote on Twitter. “People need to travel not only officials. Europe the most vaccinated continent in the world.”
The change will mean a big boost to the tourism industry. Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said it will ensure that international travel can resume in a manner that will keep people safe and protect jobs.
“We applaud the Biden administration for announcing plans to reunite families and open travel with strict procedures to ensure transportation doesn’t aid in the spread of the virus,” Nelson said. “International travel is essential to the stability of our jobs and the full recovery of the U.S. airline industry, but recovery is only possible if we remain focused first on safety and health.”
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden, who was welcomed by much of the world as the steady hand who would restore trust in American leadership and repair alliances ruptured by President Donald Trump, has some repair work to do on his own account as he meets world leaders this week.
Biden faces skepticism from many and hostility from a few as he prepares to address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, his first address there as president. The global bill of complaint includes his handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and coronavirus pandemic policies such as alleged vaccine hoarding and the continuation of Trump’s policy to deport most would-be migrants on public health grounds. And Biden’s hopes to link arms with European allies against China were soured by a new, unprecedented breach with ally France in the days leading up to the assembly.
Biden wants to focus on U.S. vaccine donations, efforts to combat climate change and the contest between democracies and autocracies for global preeminence as the United States emerges from the shadow of wars rooted in the 9/11 attacks.
“The president will essentially drive home the message that ending the war in Afghanistan closed a chapter focused on war and opened a chapter focused on purposeful, effective, intensive American diplomacy, defined by working with allies and partners to solve problems that can’t be solved by military force,” a senior U.S. official said Monday, speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House.
He is not likely to be openly mocked, as Trump was, but the global reception is already cooler than Biden might have expected.
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Heading into the session, France’s top diplomat accused Biden of behaving like Trump after his country was cut out of a lucrative new nuclear submarine deal with Australia.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters Monday that the episode is evidence that Europe and the United States may have conflicting objectives in Asia and less common ground than presumed.
“We thought that this [kind] of unilateralism and unpredictability, the brutality of the announcement, of the lack of respect for a partner, we thought these belonged to the past,” Le Drian said.
Biden has proposed a peacemaking call with French President Emmanuel Macron, who is not attending the U.N. meeting in person this year. Le Drian said the call will take place “in the coming days.” Le Drian, though, does not plan to meet with his counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
U.S. officials have sought to play down the significance of the rupture, although France had never before yanked its ambassador from Washington, as it did last week. The United States counts France as its oldest ally.
“We don’t share their view in terms of how this all developed, but we understand their position and we will continue to be engaged in the coming days on this,” the U.S. official said.
The contretemps came atop hurt feelings among some NATO allies who felt sidelined by Biden’s abrupt announcement that all U.S. forces would leave Afghanistan by Aug. 31 – and stung by the chaos of the closing days of a nearly 20-year mission.
As the United States and NATO partners rushed to help people leave ahead of a Taliban takeover, a terrorist attack killed scores of Afghans and 13 U.S. service members. Several NATO nations said they could not get everyone out before Biden’s deadline.
The Pentagon acknowledged last week that it mistakenly tracked and killed an innocent aid worker in Kabul after misidentifying him as a terrorist. The attack also killed nine other civilians, most of them children, and opened questions about Biden’s claim that the United States could keep a lid on terrorism in Afghanistan via remote surveillance.
Biden is expected to earn some goodwill from European allies with his decision Monday to ease travel restrictions on fully vaccinated foreign visitors, starting in November. Thousands of foreign nationals with families in the United States, many European, have been unable to see them through much of the past 18 months.
The political tension with France may have helped speed the decision. Blinken discussed the travel ban at length with the French ambassador to Washington, Philippe Etienne, just before Etienne was ordered to return to Paris, officials said.
More than 80 presidents and prime ministers and their entourages planned to be in Manhattan this year for the return the U.N. General Assembly – often called the “Super Bowl of diplomacy” – after last year’s all-virtual gathering featuring taped speeches from world leaders.
Biden’s schedule in New York is brief. He is holding only one meeting with a fellow leader, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, after his General Assembly address instead of the typical round of sideline meetings jokingly known as “diplomatic speed dating.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet with Biden later Tuesday back at the White House, and Biden is leading a U.N.-related virtual meeting on the pandemic on Wednesday, from Washington.
The risk that the influx of visitors might create a new rash of coronavirus infections is a concern for U.S., U.N. and New York City officials, who have placed restrictions on the size of traveling delegations. There is also a “vaccination van” outside the U.N. building that will provide free testing and single-dose shots of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“We need to take all measures to ensure that it does not become a superspreader event,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said at a news conference Friday.
The United Nations has adopted an “honor system” for leaders to attest they are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
One test of the city and United Nations’ pandemic protection plans is likely to come Tuesday, when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is slated to open the marquee portion of the event, when world leaders speak one after the other against an iconic green marble backdrop.
The populist Bolsonaro, a Trump ally who contracted the virus last year, as recently as last week said publicly that he does not need to be vaccinated, because he has naturally acquired antibodies. A member of his delegation’s advance team has already tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Brazilian media.
The return of lanyard-wearing diplomats and hordes of staffers is a welcome sign for a city that was economically ravaged by the pandemic and is just now reopening its premier tourist attractions, including Broadway.
U.N. officials also said the diplomatic benefits are myriad when world leaders can meet face-to-face in discreet settings rather than stale videoconferences.
“For 75 years, the General Assembly has benefited from impromptu meetings and corridor discussions that can carry huge importance in solving bilateral and multilateral issues,” Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, said in an interview.
“We want to find the right balance between being extremely safe and cautious and also being able to engage in face-to-face diplomacy,” he said.
After Biden leaves, most of that diplomacy will be in the hands of Blinken, whose Dutch and British counterparts were fired or demoted amid complaints about the management of the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Blinken, who fielded criticism over the Defense Department’s rushed withdrawal and evacuation while appearing before a Senate panel last, told lawmakers he did not offer the president his resignation over the crisis.
Biden has lost some international goodwill this year, but he’s still a more welcome guest here than his predecessor ever was, U.N. watchers said.
“Generally, I think Biden will get a warm reception, as he isn’t Trump,” said Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert at the International Crisis Group.
A lower dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine – one-third the amount given to adults and teens – is safe and triggered a robust immune response in children as young as 5 years old, the drug companies announced in a news release Monday.
The finding, eagerly anticipated by many parents and pediatricians, is a crucial step toward the two-shot coronavirus vaccine regimen becoming available for younger school-aged children, perhaps close to Halloween.
The highly transmissible delta variant has collided with school reopening to reveal why children could benefit from a vaccine. Nearly 30 percent of cases in the first week of September were among children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Although children rarely suffer severe illness, when they do it can be devastating. A vaccine could protect against rare cases of severe illness, cut the risk of long-haul covid and tamp down outbreaks.
The companies still must prepare and submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration, a process they expect to complete by the end of September. Then, the full data – which is not yet published or peer reviewed – will be scrutinized by regulators to ascertain that the vaccine is safe and effective. That could take weeks, or up to a month.
Sharon Nachman, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Stony Brook Medicine in New York, said a vaccine for children would be a “huge, huge step forward” and that she is “cautiously optimistic” about Monday’s announcement.
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“As most physicians are, I’m very cautious when it comes to the health of children,” Nachman said. “I think it will be critical to have the data presented to a group of experts who are unbiased and have no conflicts of interest.”
Regulators have made clear they are working as fast as possible, but also need to ensure the vaccine meets the highest standards – especially because a rare but concerning vaccine side effect of heart muscle inflammation has been identified, most frequently in the younger males eligible for the vaccines. An FDA analysis estimated that among 16- to 17- year old males, the risk was close to 1 in 5,000.
“You need to do these kind of studies, and it’s going to be important to vaccinate children,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He called the results – that the vaccine triggered a robust immune response in children – somewhat predictable, but important.
With the school year in full swing and cases soaring among children, pediatricians have been inundated with requests to bend the rules and give children a shot now. The new data seems likely to intensify the pressure, even though the existing vaccine is triple the dose tested in the trial. Younger children’s immune systems are not the same as adults, and the companies tested and found a much smaller dose was safe and effective.
Evan Anderson, a professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, said the pediatric trials at his institution had to turn away many families, with 10 times as many people who wanted to participate as they had slots available.
“Parents kind of recognize that their children going off to school is a significant issue for them: The lack of ability to control their exposure, whether in the lunch room or the classroom,” Anderson said.
But experts, including a Pfizer scientist, agreed that parents should be patient for regulators to pore over the details instead of seeking out doses on their own.
“No one should really be freelancing – they should wait for the appropriate approval and recommendations to decide how best to manage their own children’s circumstances,” said William C. Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development, who explained that younger children tend to have more “exuberant” immune responses than older people, both to this vaccine and others.
“Nature has equipped us, particularly when we are young, to respond very well to an assortment of things we will encounter in nature – and we will use vaccines to accelerate that process and really improve on nature,” Gruber said.
Detailed data from the study in school-aged children was not immediately released Monday.
“Until we look at the data, I can’t comment on this, other than to say: We need a vaccine for children,” said Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who serves on the expert committee that advises the FDA.
The step forward for a children’s vaccine may deepen the rift between families eager for the vaccine and parents who are hesitant. Hospitalizations among children have increased in the delta surge, but children have been far less likely to develop severe illness and death than older people throughout the pandemic, leading to a perception among some that the disease is not harmful to them.
Among 12- to 17-year-olds eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot since May, only about half have received at least one dose, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. More than 5 million cases of covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, have been reported among children and teens, causing 460 deaths since the start of the pandemic. There have been 20,000 hospitalizations among 24 states and New York City. Many families and schools have been navigating disruptive quarantines and at times divisive policies on use of masks.
“We are eager to extend the protection afforded by the vaccine to this younger population, subject to regulatory approval, especially as we track the spread of the Delta variant and the substantial threat it poses to children,” Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said in a statement. “Since July, pediatric cases of COVID-19 have risen by about 240 percent in the U.S. – underscoring the public health need for vaccination.”
In July, the FDA asked Pfizer and Moderna to increase the size of their children’s trials to ensure the safety database was robust. There were nearly 2,300 children between ages 5 and 11 in Pfizer’s trial, two-thirds of whom received the vaccine. The rest received saltwater shots.
The trial showed that children who received the vaccine had equivalent immune responses to teens and young adults who were protected, according to the companies. Two shots of a 10 microgram dose, spaced three weeks apart, were well-tolerated, with side effects similar to young adults.
Gruber said there appeared to be less fever and fewer chills among younger children than in a comparison group of 16- to 25-year-olds, increasing the companies’ confidence they had found the right dose. There were no cases of myocarditis – the heart inflammation condition – in the trial, but because it is a rare event, it may only show up in monitoring as the vaccine is used in larger numbers.
Pfizer and BioNTech are seeking emergency use authorization as they continue to accumulate data to support an application for full approval in children.
Data on children younger than 5 is expected by the end of the year. Moderna is also conducting a trial with children as young as six months.
The urgency for the littlest children is just as great, in part because they may not be old enough to wear masks, or may struggle to use them consistently.
“We have school-aged children, and they do have masks and they’re able to follow rules,” Nachman said. “Little kids in day care have more trouble following rules.”
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The SiriHub Investment Token is the first real estate-backed ICO to have obtained approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand (SEC). The initial offer price is THB10 per token. A limit of 240 million tokens is offered on a first-come, first-served basis. The total to be raised is THB2.4 Billion.
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2) SiriHubB offers 80 Million tokens valued at 800 Million Baht. Holders of SiriHubB will receive returns from a quarterly revenue share of up to 8.0% per year and revenue sharing from the sale of the property after the project’s end, from the surplus of THB1.6 billion.
One of the highlights of this real estate-backed token is that the investment is within a single asset. This way, investors will be able to know the project they are investing in full detail as specified in the white paper, unlike investments in such vehicles as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), in which the assets in the fund can be changed. Funds raised from the SiriHub Token issuance will be used to secure the Revenue Sharing from the rental income of Siri Campus Office Building and to also acquire the rights to be the Asset via shares of Siripat Four Company Limited. Located within T77, a lifestyle community in a prime location of the Sukhumvit area. The Siri Campus Office Building is the headquarters of Sansiri Public Company Limited (Sansiri PCL, SIRI), which is the sole tenant for the 100% area. With the long-term lease of 12 years, investors are assured that the project will receive continued revenues from the rental fee from Sansiri PCL throughout the four-year project period where the income after expenses will be arranged as quarterly revenue sharing distributed to token holders. Within 12 months prior to the end of the project, the token issuer will also arrange disposal of the assets in order to distribute profit sharing from net-asset-sale proceeds as the final portion of revenue to token holders.
As per the asset valuation reports from appraisers approved by the SEC, the value of the Siri Campus Project will likely rise to THB2.6 billion in the next four years in accordance with an analysis by the Agency for Real Estate Affairs (AREA) that reports the summary of changes in land prices in the vicinity of the On Nut BTS Station, which is near the Siri Campus. In 2021, the average price of land in the area was THB1.1 Million per square wah (4 square meters) and the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) has increased from 2015 to 2021 at a rate of around 10% per annum. This shows that the property’s location has great potential and relatively high growth prospects in the future.
In addition to the ease of accessing this investment platform, Mr. Asavanund went on to explain the many inherent safeguards employed by XSpring Digital in its investment system.
“The Sirihub Token has a mechanism to fully protect investors. XSpring Digital is the ICO portal, certified by the SEC, and there is protection provided under the trust and trustee structure. The SiriHub Investment Token offering runs on the Tezos blockchain system, the world’s most advanced blockchain technology developed to support digital fundraising with a real-estate-backed ICO. The blockchain provides greater security in accordance with Anti-Money-Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism(AML/CFT) measures using three high-security features:
1.Know Your Customer (KYC) standards. Only approved registrants can be put on the white lists to trade the digital tokens.
2. The system also has real-time Clawback: This is a feature for returning stolen tokens to the token holder’s wallet.
3.Private Capitalization Table (Cap Table): Personal information will not be listed so as to protect the privacy of token holders but the issuer will have the ability to know in real time who owns the tokens similar to a share registry.
For the process of subscription and trading of the SiriHub Investment Token, a total of 240 million tokens will be initially offered at THB10 per token, which divides into a 160-million-token offering of SiriHubA and an 80-million-token offering of SiriHubB. The subscription period will run between September 21 and October 4, 2021. Investors can subscribe 24/7 on their mobile devices. In addition, XSpring Digital is collaborating with ERX Company Limited in the distribution of SiriHub Tokens. ERX has outsourced its sales functions to four leading securities companies in Thailand – KTBST Securities, Finansia Syrus Securities, Krungthai Zmico Securities, and Asia Plus Securities – to support the sale of SiriHub Tokens.
Upon completion of the subscription and the distribution of tokens to investors, the tokens are targeted to trade from October 12, 2021 in the secondary market through ERX, the first digital asset exchange focused on digital token trading licensed by Thailand’s Ministry of Finance and regulated by the SEC.
XSpring Digital is undergoing discussions with more than 10 clients who are interested to raise funds from tokenization in sectors such as real estate, tourism, and entertainment. At present, we are in the process of studying the possibilities afforded by tokenization, the types of tokens, and the protection mechanisms available so that our efforts attain the greatest benefits for both token issuers and investors.
Mr. Asavanund concluded: “An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a key alternative fund-raising method in the digital era – the SEC also supports the adoption of such technology in the capital market. It is an investment suitable for the public and new investors, as well as all major and institutional investors. It is an accessible new opportunity. We are grateful that the SEC has approved the trading of SiriHub Investment Tokens, so we believe these vehicles offer a valuable new dimension to the investment market in Thailand. This new investment is in projects with the high economic growth potential. Investors can conveniently transact via their mobile devices, 24 hours a day, through the XSpring application. Anyone can start to learn about investing in the digital finance world, which will play a key role in our lives.”
Investors interested in investing can learn about investment options and should open an account, verify their identity, and take the Investor Knowledge Test in advance to prepare for the subscription. Investors can download the XSpring apps on both iOS and Android. This will save time and allow investors to complete their subscriptions quickly, conveniently, and securely. The subscription period runs from September 21, 2021 at 00:01 am to October 4, 2021 at 3:30 pm.
On the subscription day, investors who have already opened an account, verified their identities and completed all the required steps, will be able to subscribe to SiriHub Investment Token and complete their purchases using the following process:
• Click on the SiriHub Investment Token project link.
• Read and study the project details.
• Choose the token and amount of investment to subscribe for each token. The system will automatically calculate the number of tokens as per the amount paid.
• Investors have to pay the full amount of investment at the cost THB10 for each token.
• The digital tokens are allocated following successful payment on a first-come, first-served basis
• After the full amount is paid and confirmation is received, investors will receive an email to inform them that their subscription is complete.
Investors will know the allocation of purchased tokens via email after the closing date of the subscription period. Tokens will be distributed to the wallets of investors who have registered and opened accounts with ERX in advance.
For any inquiry, please contact 02-038-5999, or follow the news of digital assets and digital tokens at:
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index fell by 3.49 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 1,599.57 on Tuesday morning.
The volume of total transactions was THB4.16 billion with an index high of 1,605.37 and a low of 1,599.12 in opening trade.
The 10 stocks with the highest trade value were: KBANK, EE, DELTA, SAWAD, CPALL, PTT, SCC, CPF, KCE and TTA.
The SET Index closed at 1,603.06 on Monday, down 22.59 points or 1.39 per cent. Transactions totalled 85.01 billion baht with an index high of 1,620.72 and a low of 1,601.16.
The price of gold peaked by THB150 in morning trade on Tuesday.
AGold Traders Association report at 9.23am said the buying price of a gold bar was THB27,800 per baht weight and selling price THB27,900, while gold ornaments cost THB27,303.16 and THB28,400, respectively.
At close on Monday, the buying price of a gold bar was THB27,650 per baht weight and selling price THB27,750, while gold ornaments cost THB27,151.56 and THB28,250, respectively.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks to reporters after attending the Informal Leaders Roundtable on Climate Action at the UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 20, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
XSpring Digital is delighted to see SiriHub Token attract strong attention A big wave of investors
XSpring Digital is delighted to see SiriHub Token attract strong attention A big wave of investors
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