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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40011253

Tonga’s Nuku’alofa airport remained closed because workers were unable to finish clearing ashfall. Ships sailing from Australia and New Zealand would take six to eight days to arrive in a Tonga port, a UN official said.

Relief efforts following the Tonga volcano eruption face the challenge of severed communications, falling ash closing the major airport and strict anti-COVID measures, UN officials said on Tuesday.

They said the casualty toll remained at three dead and an unknown number of people injured.

“Needs assessments by the Tongan authorities are ongoing and should provide a better estimate of what is required of the international community,” said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “We are on standby with teams and emergency supplies, and stocks in Tonga are being readied for distribution once humanitarian needs are identified.”

“Our staff there are working to assist coordination and response efforts in-country,” he told a regular press briefing. There are 23 UN workers in Tonga — 22 local hires and one international staffer.

In a video conference, Jonathan Veitch, the UN acting resident and humanitarian coordinator for Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, spelled out challenges following Saturday’s eruption.

Aerial photo taken on Jan. 17, 2022 by a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion aircraft shows the view of main island of Tonga after volcano eruption. (New Zealand Ministry of Defense/Handout via Xinhua)

Communications within the 36 inhabited of the nation’s 169 islands were limited to satellite phones, as was the capital Nuku’alofa and between Tonga and the outside world.

The major submarine communications cable was severed, cutting voice, video and internet services. Still, Veitch said, “I’m able to send basic messages by SMS (Small Message Service –text) to our colleagues through satellite systems, and we hope that soon phones will be back up and running.”

While the natural choice for humanitarians is to fly in relief, Veitch said the Nuku’alofa airport remained closed because workers were unable to finish clearing ashfall. He said ships sailing from Australia and New Zealand would take six to eight days to arrive in a Tonga port.

He also said there is a question of just how the authorities would handle people coming to Tonga when it has extremely strict protocols against COVID-19. No cases have been reported in the nation. Authorities are keen to keep the country COVID-free, especially in light of past Pacific island populations wiped out by rampant disease.

While there are no casualties among the 23 UN workers, there are an unknown number of injuries on outlying islands, Veitch said.

He said damage reports from those islands are coming in slowly. The coordinator said it is possible that damage on the outlying islands may not be as severe since they are further from the volcano. The eruption occurred only 65 km from the main island of Tongatapu, home of the capital.

“We are concerned about the water situation,” Veitch said. “I haven’t heard that people have run out of water which would be obviously an emergency situation. Of course we have heard that shops are running out of food and also there has been quite a lot of … mass purchasing as always happens in these circumstances, including of water and of food supplies too.”

Technicians are examining a desalination plant on the main island to see if it is ready to go back online. The expected ships carry water, food, emergency supplies and even desalination plants.

The sooner, the better to get the supplies, the coordinator said. “It is urgent.” 

Published : January 19, 2022

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40011252

A total of 9,452,491 child COVID-19 cases had been reported across the country as of Jan. 13, and children represented 17.8 percent of all confirmed cases, according to a report.

Nearly 9.5 million children in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, and child COVID-19 cases have “spiked dramatically” across the country, according to the latest report of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association.

A total of 9,452,491 child COVID-19 cases had been reported across the country as of Jan. 13, and children represented 17.8 percent of all confirmed cases, according to the report published Tuesday.

The overall rate was 12,559 cases per 100,000 children in the population.

Nearly 1 million child cases were reported in the past week ending Jan. 13, four times the rate of the peak of last winters’ surge, according to the AAP.

The weekly case count is a 69 percent increase over the 580,000 added cases reported the previous week, and a tripling of case counts from the two weeks prior, according to the AAP.

This marks the 23rd week in a row child COVID-19 cases in the United States are above 100,000. Since the first week of September, there have been over 4.4 million additional child cases, according to the AAP.

Children accounted for 1.7 percent to 4.4 percent of total reported hospitalizations, and 0 to 0.26 percent of all COVID-19 deaths, according to the report.

“There is an urgent need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as potential longer-term effects,” said the AAP in the report.

“It is important to recognize there are immediate effects of the pandemic on children’s health, but importantly we need to identify and address the long-lasting impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of this generation of children and youth,” said the report.

Published : January 19, 2022

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40011251

The massive eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in Tonga has lately sent tsunami sweeping across the shore of the South Pacific island country, and multiple countries nearby have reported rising water levels or issued tsunami warnings.

As eruptions may continue, countries have voiced concern over disaster-hit Tonga and a potential climate fallout, while pledging aid for the country. Take a look at the damage from deadly volcanic eruption revealed in satellite images.

Satellite images show TongaSatellite images show that there are lots of pumice stones caused by volcanic lava around the Hunga Ha

Satellite images show Tonga

Published : January 19, 2022

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40011232

The United States is bracing for “tough weeks” ahead in many parts of the country as the Omicron surge has not yet peaked, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has warned.

In an interview with CNN, Murthy spoke of the good news of the plateaus and drops in known cases in the Northeast, especially in New York City and New Jersey, while noting that challenges remain ahead, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

“The challenge is that the entire country is not moving at the same pace,” he said, adding “we shouldn’t expect a national peak in the coming days,” the report said.

“We have seen incredible challenges in our health care network,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told CBS in an interview as the Omicron variant had overwhelmed hospitals in his city. “It is a substantial concern.”

Medical workers take nasal swab samples for COVID-19 testing in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Jan. 13, 2022. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

Published : January 18, 2022

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40011227

As high-altitude winds make for a brisk morning, people in Tibet board trains to return home, carrying heavy luggage and high anticipation. Their palpable delight marks the start of this years Spring Festival travel rush in the plateau region.

At 8 a.m. and 8:20 a.m. on Monday, two advanced Fuxing bullet trains running in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region departed from the region’s capital city of Lhasa for the cities of Xigaze and Nyingchi, respectively carrying 680 and 219 passengers.

“I’ve been working in Lhasa for three years. This is the first time I have taken a bullet train back to my hometown,” said Dondrup, who is from Nyingchi’s Mirig Township.

“For the past few years, I had to take bus home, a very long and strenuous journey. Now, the train takes three and a half hours, which not only saves time but is also safer,” Dondrup said.

The opening of the railway from Lhasa to Nyingchi in June 2021 provided southeastern Tibet with access to rail services for the first time in the region’s history. With a designed speed of 160 kilometers per hour, the 435-kilometer railway is the first electrified railroad operating in Tibet.

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Pumo Anyi, a 23-year-old from Nyingchi’s Puchu Township, became a security inspector at the Nyingchi railway station after graduating from college.

She said that the opening of the railway brought many jobs to her village.

“More than 40 people in our village work at the Nyingchi and Shannan railway stations, with monthly salaries ranging from 2,500 yuan (about 393 U.S. dollars) to 3,200 yuan,” Anyi said.

Since the railway opened six months ago, three trains, two of which are bullet trains, have linked Lhasa, Nyingchi, Shannan and Xigaze. A train leaving Lhasa can arrive in Shannan after 70 minutes, and in Nyingchi after 3 hours and 29 minutes.

The Lhasa-Nyingchi railway had handled 621,000 passenger trips and carried over 7,900 tonnes of cargo by the end of 2021, according to the China Railway Qinghai-Tibet Group Co., Ltd.

Staff at the Lhasa railway station are strengthening their COVID-19 prevention and control work, and the station and trains are operating smoothly with nearly 500 cameras monitoring the whole railway line.

Station head Wang Fu said that the station is expected to handle 200,000 passenger trips during China’s largest annual travel rush this year, with an average daily passenger trip volume of approximately 5,000.

Published : January 18, 2022

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40011197

Hu Manli, an auxiliary police officer, was on duty on January 1, 2022 at Xinjiekou subway station in downtown Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province.

Xinjiekou Station, as the interchange station of lines 1 and 2, is the busiest subway in Nanjing, handling the largest number of passenger trips. Therefore, it requires more efforts to maintain the order of the line and deal with various kinds of things including trifles or even incidents possibly occurred at the station.

A day’s work is always tiring. Hu, like all the other metro policewomen, has received strict training. She is always well prepared for handling any emergent things.

“Safeguard the station, love the city is my mission,” Hu said. “My duty is to ensure the stable and safe running of this interchange station. This is also my contribution to safeguarding the peace and security of the city as a whole.”

As an official at the Xinjiekou Station said: “Woman is superior to man in handling daily trifles. So policewomen usually do a better job in many aspects including answering passengers’ questions, giving road directions, finding missing people or lost articles, and offering first-aid treatment, among many others.”

Published : January 17, 2022

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40011180

Chinas per capita disposable income stood at 35,128 yuan (about 5,523 U.S. dollars) in 2021, up 9.1 percent year on year in nominal terms, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Monday.

After deducting price factors, per capita disposable income rose 8.1 percent from the previous year.

Separately, urban per capita disposable income came in at 47,412 yuan, up 8.2 percent in nominal terms and 7.1 percent in real terms, while income in rural areas stood at 18,931 yuan, up 10.5 percent in nominal terms and 9.7 percent in real terms.

Monday’s data also showed that China’s gross domestic product expanded 8.1 percent year on year in 2021. 
 

Published : January 17, 2022

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40011176

Residents are warned to remain cautious near the coastline “as lingering strong currents likely exist.”

The tsunami advisory triggered Saturday by a volcanic eruption near Tonga has been canceled in the U.S. state of California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, the National Weather Service said Sunday.

The advisory ended Saturday night for the Bay Area and early Sunday for the rest of the state, the weather service tweeted.

Tsunami advisories can be canceled when wave heights stay below 0.3 meters for three hours, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center protocol.

California officials warned residents to remain cautious near the coastline “as lingering strong currents likely exist,” the weather service said.

Tsunami warnings were also lifted in countries around the Pacific Rim, with the U.S. Tsunami Warning System map showing none in effect Sunday morning, according to a report by San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday.

The underwater volcanic eruption near Tonga triggered tsunami along California’s Pacific coast Saturday, resulting in beach closures, evacuations in Berkeley’s Marina and flooding at the Santa Cruz Harbor, the report said. 

Published : January 17, 2022

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40011175

Moscow is “ready to take countermeasures” if Russia and West cannot reach a consensus, Peskov said.

Russia will station troops on its own territory near the Ukrainian border due to tensions with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday.

“We find it necessary to keep those troops due to a very tense situation and very unfriendly environment,” Peskov said in an interview with U.S. broadcaster CNN.

Russia has to take measures of precaution in response to NATO military build-up, drills and frequent flights of fighter jets and reconnaissance planes near the Russian borders, he said.

However, Russia is not considering a military action even if negotiations with the United States and NATO on security guarantees fail, Peskov stressed.

Nevertheless, Russia is “ready to take countermeasures” if both sides cannot reach a consensus, he said.

Earlier this week, Russian diplomats held talks with the United States in Geneva, with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna, and then with NATO in Brussels. They all ended without any breakthrough.

Peskov told CNN that NATO is reluctant to promise that it will not grant Ukraine membership or deploy offensive weapons on the Ukrainian territory, which are part of Russia’s red lines.

Published : January 17, 2022

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40011172

Under the new law, negative COVID-19 tests will no longer be valid to gain access to public venues. Bars, restaurants and cafes are allowed to verify the identity of vaccine pass holders when in doubt.

The French National Assembly, or the lower house of the Parliament, adopted on Sunday evening a law which will transform the health pass into a stricter vaccine pass in a bid to curb the country’s surging COVID-19 cases.

The National Assembly adopted the law by a vote of 215 for and 58 against and after debates and discussions during the past two weeks.

The French government hopes to adopt the law as soon as possible after the approval of the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest constitutional authority.

A woman wearing a face mask is seen at the Trocadero Place near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, Jan. 5, 2022. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

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Under the new law, negative COVID-19 tests will no longer be valid to gain access to public venues. Bars, restaurants and cafes are allowed to verify the identity of vaccine pass holders when in doubt.

The vaccine pass concerns people over the age of 16. Children between the ages of 12 to 15 are not obliged to have a vaccine pass but must present a health pass.

On Thursday, the French Ministry of Health announced that at least 600,000 people would lose their health pass on Jan. 15 as they have not received their booster shot.

France reported on Thursday 305,322 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours.  
 

Published : January 17, 2022

By : Xinhua