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https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/international/40009276

BRUSSELS -The European Commission recommended Thursday that member countries apply more travel restrictions to people who are unvaccinated in the 27-nation blocs latest attempt to curb the recent surge of cases across the continent.

The commission’s health authorizing agency also approved vaccines for children as young as 5 – a milestone that could help Europe improve vaccination rates at a time when cases and deaths from the virus are up. The commission travel recommendations did not apply to unvaccinated children under the age of 6.

The ability to easily travel between countries in the European Union is a core value of the bloc, and the commission’s latest recommendations attempt to strike the balance between upholding that freedom and implementing restrictions that could slow the spread of the virus.

People who have a European Union covid certificate – which means they are fully vaccinated, have proof that they recovered from the virus or recently tested negative – should not have any travel restrictions, according to the recommendations. Everyone else should quarantine or be tested when they travel to a country in the bloc.

The commission also said travelers coming into the bloc should not be considered vaccinated if they received their doses more than nine months ago and have not yet received a booster.

Countries do not have to adopt the commission’s recommendations.

“The travel rules need to take into account this volatile situation,” Didier Reynders, European commissioner of justice, said at a news conference announcing the recommendations.

Across Europe, countries are applying lockdowns and restrictions to contain the latest wave of the pandemic – and hopefully bring case numbers down ahead of the Christmas holidays. Reported deaths in Europe reached nearly 4,200 a day last week – twice the number since the end of September, according to the World Health Organization, which counts 53 countries as part of Europe.

The Netherlands ordered restaurants and bars to close at 8 p.m., while Slovakia implemented a two-week lockdown on Wednesday, in which people can only leave home for work, grocery shopping or to get vaccinated. Austria also is under a lockdown that could last for 20 days.

“We need to convince more people to get vaccinated,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a taped message to the public that also encouraged people to get a booster shot six months after their initial vaccination. “A quarter of E.U. adults are still not fully vaccinated. If you are unvaccinated you are more at risk of having severe covid symptoms. Vaccinations protect you and the others.”

While the European Commission issued its recommendations Thursday, the French government announced that booster shots would be available for all adults beginning Saturday. Boosters are already available to residents 65 and older.

France’s health minister said that vaccination certificates of people who do not get the booster will start expiring in mid-January. Earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron introduced a similar rule for those over 65, with a deadline in mid-December.

Proof of vaccination can help people enter restaurants, bars and other entertainment venues in France.

At a news conference on Thursday, Health Minister Olivier Véran appealed to the French to respect distancing measures and mask mandates.

“We have to pull ourselves together,” he said. “These small daily constraints are the keys to our freedom.”

Published : November 26, 2021

By : The Washington Post

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/international/40009275

PARIS – Less than a day after at least 27 migrants died while trying to cross from France to Britain by boat, in the worst migrant tragedy in the English Channel in years, the two countries were sparring Thursday over who was to blame and what should be done in the future.

Britain reiterated calls for joint patrols along the French coast in hopes of preventing migrants from starting the perilous journey across the channel, and France demanded more support from its neighbors. “Yesterday was the moment that many of us have feared for many years,” British Home Secretary Priti Patel told Parliament.

In a letter to his French counterpart on Thursday evening, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for the establishment of “joint patrols” by Britain and France or by “private security contractors.” Johnson also called for a pact that would allow migrants to be deported back to France.

Previous British proposals of joint patrols had raised concerns in France over sovereignty. The French government accuses Britain of a lack of action against traffickers as well as businesses that employ undocumented migrants. On Thursday, the French called for more European and British support for their efforts to combat human trafficking in the channel.

In a phone call with Johnson on Wednesday evening, French President Emmanuel Macron “underlined the shared responsibility” and urged Britain to “refrain from exploiting a dramatic situation for political purposes,” the Élysée presidential palace said early Thursday.

Speaking on French radio Thursday morning, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said “pregnant women, children died” in the tragedy in the channel. A local prosecutor told Agence France-Presse that 17 men, seven women and three presumed minors are known to have died. Efforts to identify the victims and their countries of origin were underway.

Two people, from Iraq and Somalia, survived and were treated for hypothermia, according to Darmanin.

In a mayday call obtained by Sky News, the French coast guard can be heard putting out an alert to “all ships” in the area. Charles Devos, a regional manager of the life boat association in Calais, told the broadcaster that when he arrived on the scene, “it was a bit like the film Titanic when you saw all these people plunged into the water, drowning.”

During their call Wednesday, Macron and Johnson agreed to step up Anglo-French cooperation and to do all they could to stop those trafficking migrants, according to Downing Street. But it was also clear that the leaders had different ideas about how to proceed.

French officials have in the past repeatedly accused Britain of responsibility for a surge in migrant crossings in the channel. Darmanin recently singled out British nongovernmental organizations in northern France that “prevent the police and the gendarmerie from working.”

He has also faulted Britain as not acting decisively enough against trafficking networks based in Britain and attracting migrants by allowing “irregular workers” to be “employed at low cost.”

Meanwhile, charities and aid agencies on both sides of the channel have long called on the British government to open safe routes to the country for asylum seekers. Currently, the migrants who are in France can apply for asylum in Britain only if they are physically there – meaning they have to take deadly risks in rickety boats with traffickers.

But speaking to Parliament on Thursday, Patel did not suggest changes to the British immigration system and reiterated an offer to “put more officers on the ground” and “do absolutely whatever is necessary to secure the area so that vulnerable people do not risk their lives by getting into unseaworthy boats.”

She also did not rule out tough new tactics to push boats back toward France.

Speaking to The Washington Post on Thursday, Bruno Bonnell, a French lawmaker for Macron’s party, said joint patrols are “probably a good idea,” partly because they may ease British-French tensions and “finger-pointing.”

But Bonnell said that the patrols should be only the “tip of the iceberg of the solutions” and that an adjustment of immigration policies may be needed on both sides of the English Channel “to help people to legally enter” and “to protect them from the smugglers.”

Nearly three times as many migrants have crossed by sea this year compared with last year as authorities have clamped down on other routes, including crossings by train and cargo trucks. Successful crossings have encouraged a growing number of migrants to attempt the journey via the Dover Strait. But the route, which uses the channel’s narrowest point, also crosses one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and is highly dangerous for people in small, flimsy boats, especially when strong currents and high winds prevail.

Some policymakers in France dismissed the British proposal for joint patrols. Pierre-Henri Dumont, a lawmaker for Calais, told the BBC that it would not work as there was a “question of sovereignty. I’m not sure the British people would accept it the other way round, with the French army patrolling the British shore.”

He said also that such an undertaking was not practical on the long coastline.

“It only takes 5 to 10 minutes to take a boat and put it at sea filled with migrants, so I’m not sure it is only a question of money and question about the number of [personnel],” he said, echoing reports from French police officers who say they operate under tight rules. French authorities say they are allowed only a limited time window in which to try to prevent crossing attempts – usually after migrants reach the dunes and before the boats are underway.

“If you have the impression that some policemen don’t look at a specific boat, it’s because they usually look at other boats on the other side of the beach,” said Bonnell, the French lawmaker, responding to photos that appeared to show police standing by Wednesday as a group of migrants hurried toward the channel, carrying an inflatable boat.

French police regularly clear makeshift migrant camps on France’s northern coastdrawing complaints of heavy-handedness from migrants and human rights groups. Dumont, the French lawmaker, said one solution was not only to close the migrant camps around the coast, but also to move their occupants into “welcoming centers” where they can apply for asylum in France – or in Britain, where many want to go.

Aid groups say that most migrants who come to Europe remain on the continent, but a minority tries to reach Britain because of family or other ties or because they speak English.

The number of asylum applications to Britain is relatively small in comparison with the numbers received by countries of similar size in Europe. In the third quarter of 2021, 17,400 people applied for asylum in Britain; in France in that same period, 31,000 people applied.

Rob McNeil, a spokesman for the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said that most migrants arriving in Britain on boats are from countries where claims for asylum in Britain are typically approved. Those countries include Eritrea and Syria, where 90% of applications are successful as a result of the danger people face in those places, he said.

French officials also called for more support from within the European Union in response to Wednesday’s incident.

In his radio interview Thursday, Darmanin named Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany as countries that are also linked to trafficking networks, adding that one of five people suspected as traffickers involved in Wednesday’s crossing attempt had bought boats in Germany. The five were among more than 1,500 smugglers the French government says it has caught in the region since the beginning of the year.

“We need to stop being effectively the only ones who are able to act against traffickers,” he said.

Wednesday’s tragedy did not deter others from trying to reach England. In the early hours on Thursday, the BBC reported, two boats made the journey across the channel and landed at Dover with about 40 people wearing life jackets and wrapped in blankets.

Published : November 26, 2021

By : The Washington Post

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009253

“Regional and global growth, sustainable development and prosperity cant be achieved by unilateralism and protectionism, so multilateralism is very important,” said Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia.

“It’s hoped that the ASEM13 will reinforce Asia-Europe partnership to ensure that multilateralism can bring about global growth that is not only sustainable but can also be shared.”

Post-COVID-19 socio-economic recovery, multilateralism and connectivity are expected to be high on the agenda for the 13th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit (ASEM13), which is due to be held via video link on Nov. 25 to 26, Cambodian experts said on Wednesday.

The summit will be chaired by Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and participated by the heads of state/government and high-level representatives of 51 ASEM countries from Asia and Europe, the President of the European Council, the President of the European Commission, and the Secretary-General of ASEAN.

Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said the pandemic and multilateralism will remain the top agenda during the ASEM13, adding that fighting against the disease requires joint efforts from all countries.

Aerial photo taken on Nov. 15, 2020 shows the construction site of the first expressway in Cambodia in Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia. (Photo by Li Zhen/Xinhua)

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“Regional and global growth, sustainable development and prosperity can’t be achieved by unilateralism and protectionism, so multilateralism is very important,” he told Xinhua. “It’s hoped that the ASEM13 will reinforce Asia-Europe partnership to ensure that multilateralism can bring about global growth that is not only sustainable but can also be shared.”

Commenting on China’s engagement with ASEM countries, Phea said as a global great power and the world’s second-largest economy, China’s presence at the ASEM13 is very important and will greatly contribute to the success of the summit.

“Beyond the Asia and Europe continents, China has played a crucial role in the establishment of a new multi-polar world, in promoting multilateralism and win-win cooperation for inclusive and sustainable growth and development, and in the fight against COVID-19,” he said.

A man sanitizes his hands at a market

Mey Kalyan, chairman of the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, said as the world is facing so many existential problems such as COVID-19, unilateralism, and climate change, the ASEM13 has come at the right time to tackle these challenges.

“Over the past two years, COVID-19 has turned the world upside-down, so it is expected that the ASEM countries will reaffirm their commitment to address issues caused by COVID-19, to revitalize multilateralism for global peace and stability, and to accelerate their cooperation in science and technology, tourism, trade, and investment, among others to rebuild a resilient Asia-Europe future,” he said.

“In summary, people in Asia region expect to see a stable and predictable good relation between the two continents, Asia and Europe,” he added.

“In a multipolar world today, China represents an important role in Asia on the world affairs,” Kalyan said. “Without a stable relation between Asia and Europe poles, not much good outcome and development can be expected,” he added.

Joseph Matthews, a senior professor at the BELTEI International University in Phnom Penh, said there is no doubt that post-pandemic economic recovery strategy, multilateralism, and green development will top the agenda at the summit.

“The impacts of COVID-19 have reached every part of our societies and its recovery will surely be a long and difficult process,” he said. “This summit has the potential to highlight the collective actions to promote multilateralism in a more effective way to move slowly but surely towards a post-pandemic recovery period.”

Matthews said China’s participation shows its commitment to multilateralism, inclusive development, connectivity through digitalization, and infrastructure development both in Asia and Europe.

He said China’s state policy of non-interference in other countries’ domestic and internal affairs, co-existence, and mutual respect to all neighbors and non-neighbor states has made China a trustworthy friend for all continents in the world.

During the pandemic, China is the biggest vaccine and medical equipment donor to developing and poor countries in Asia, Africa, and South America, he added.

“In my perspective, China, in the post-pandemic era, will have a very important role to play in both continents,” he said. “China will be a driving force in economic recovery, infrastructure building under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), inclusive development, and connectivity in both continents.”

Aerial photo taken on March 11, 2021 shows the eighth Cambodia-China Friendship Bridge across the Mekong River, connecting Kampong Cham province and Tboung Khmum province in southeastern Cambodia. (Shanghai Construction Group/Handout via Xinhua)

Published : November 25, 2021

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009251

Nearly 400,000 migratory birds have flown to Beidagang Wetland in north Chinas Tianjin Municipality since the beginning of autumn this year, Beidagang Wetland administration said Wednesday.

“We have spotted over 130 kinds of birds in the wetland, including more than 60 oriental white storks, which are under highest-level protection in China, said Mo Xunqiang, from the Tianjin Normal University.

Tianjin is an important transit point for migratory birds from East Asia and Australasia. In addition to the Beidagang Wetland, other wetlands and nature reserves in the municipality are also expected to see migratory birds.

In recent years, Tianjin has attached great importance to the building of ecological civilization and continuously strengthened wetland protection.

The ecological environment of wetlands and nature reserves has seen continuous improvements, attracting more and more migratory birds, noted the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources.

According to the bureau, more migratory birds are expected to fly to Tianjin until the end of December, with the total number of migratory birds exceeding 1 million by then. 

Published : November 25, 2021

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009250

Bangladesh, Laos, and Nepal are invited to prepare, during the five-year period, their national smooth transition strategy, with the support of the UN system and in cooperation with their bilateral, regional and multilateral development and trading partners.

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday affirmed the graduation of Bangladesh, Laos, and Nepal from the least developed country (LDC) category.

In a resolution, the General Assembly decides to provide the three countries, on an exceptional basis, with a five-year preparatory period leading to graduation as the countries would need to prepare for graduation while planning for a post-COVID-19 recovery and implementing policies and strategies to reverse the economic and social damage incurred by the COVID-19 shock.

The standard preparatory period is three years.

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The resolution does not rule out the extension of the preparatory period, pending the result of the 2024 triennial review by the Committee for Development Policy, which is responsible for the review of the LDC list every three years.

The three countries are invited to prepare, during the five-year period, their national smooth transition strategy, with the support of the UN system and in cooperation with their bilateral, regional and multilateral development and trading partners.

The resolution reaffirms that graduating from the category of least developed countries should not result in a disruption or reversal of development plans, programs and projects for the three countries.

The Committee for Development Policy uses three criteria to determine LDC status: per capita income, human assets, and economic vulnerability.

Published : November 25, 2021

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009249

Anthony Fauci, U.S. President Joe Bidens chief medical adviser, says that the “overwhelming majority” of vaccinated Americans should receive a booster dose, adding the definition of a full vaccination could expand to include three doses of an mRNA vaccine such as those from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, or two doses of the J&J vaccine.

As families prepare to gather over the Thanksgiving holiday, COVID-19 cases are once again rising in most parts of the United States after a steady decrease since mid-September, with new cases hiking by 25 percent nationally in the past two weeks and 40 percent or more in 14 most-affected states.

“Some of the biggest spikes have been in the Midwest, a region where COVID-19 cases hit an all-time high around this time last year. Michigan and Minnesota, which had only modest waves during the late-summer surge, are now seeing the most cases per capita in the country,” reported The New York Times (NYT) on Wednesday.

“Some hospitals across the country are being overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases and staffing shortages, and surges tied to holiday gatherings could make it worse. Hospitals in the cold Upper Midwest, especially Michigan and Minnesota, are also filled with COVID-19 patients who are mostly unvaccinated,” reported USA Today on Wednesday.

Photo taken on Nov. 23, 2021 shows the vehicles near the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

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VACCINATION CALLS

For the holiday, “We would encourage people who gather to do so safely after they’ve been fully vaccinated, as we’ve been saying for months now,” said Rochelle Walensky earlier this week, who is director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The overall vaccination rate is higher in the United States now than it was during the summertime wave, meaning more people are protected from severe disease, but waning immunity could also play a role, Lauren Ancel Meyers, an epidemiologist at The University of Texas, told NYT.

“We may have higher levels of immunity in many U.S. communities, acquired through a combination of primary vaccines, booster doses and recent infections,” said Meyers. “However, waning immunity means that people who were infected early in the pandemic or received their last dose of vaccine more than six months ago may once again be vulnerable to severe infections.”

Other senior health officials are also repeatedly calling for Americans to get vaccinated, and get their booster shots, as cases tick back up across the country and the approaching holiday season brings with it more indoor, maskless gatherings, reported The Washington Post (WP) on Wednesday.

Anthony Fauci, U.S. President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said on Tuesday in an interview that the “overwhelming majority” of vaccinated Americans should receive a booster dose, adding the definition of a full vaccination could expand to include three doses of an mRNA vaccine such as those from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, or two doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

As of Wednesday morning, 230,669,289 people had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, making up 69.5 percent of the whole U.S. population. Fully vaccinated people stood at 195,973,992, accounting for 59 percent of the total. A total of 36,640,102 people, or 18.7 percent of the fully vaccinated group, according to CDC data.

COUNTER ATTACK

The Biden administration on Tuesday filed an emergency court motion that sought the immediate reinstatement of its rules requiring many employers to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly against COVID-19, a counter attack with much hope to help change the bleak pandemic picture during this holiday season.

The Justice Department filed the request with the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which last week was designated as the court that would decide legal challenges filed around the country to the vaccine-or-testing rules.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) earlier this month formally issued the requirements, which apply to businesses with 100 or more employees. The rules cover roughly 84 million workers and are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 4.

The rules reflected “OSHA’s judgment that these measures are necessary to mitigate COVID-19 transmission in the workplace, and the grievous harms the virus inflicts on workers,” the Justice Department said in Tuesday’s court filing.

The mandate is expected by OSHA to save more than 6,500 worker lives and prevent more than 250,000 hospitalizations over the course of the next six months. However, Republican lawmakers and governors, some employers, as well as labor unions across the country, look determined to take on the White House insistence.

“Many lawsuits challenging the rules, including from Republican-led states and some employers, argue OSHA is engaged in unlawful government overreach. Other challenges, including from labor unions, are based on a belief that the mandate doesn’t go far enough to protect workers,” reported The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

Published : November 25, 2021

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009247

Despite multiple vaccine options being widely available, the countrys vaccination campaign has slowed down. Last month, Germanys vaccination rate increased by two percent only and stood at 68.1 percent on Tuesday.

Germany ramped up its COVID-19 measures as the so-called 3G rule, which stands for geimpft, getestet, genesen (vaccinated, tested, recovered) and applies in the workplace and in public transport, came into force on Wednesday.

Passengers who wish to use public transport without a vaccination or recovery certificate “must carry proof of a negative coronavirus test,” the government said, stressing that self-tests will not be accepted.

According to an ongoing survey conducted by the market research institute YouGov, 74 percent of the country’s citizens are in favor of the 3G rule in public transport.

Meanwhile, the daily number of new COVID-19 infections reported to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases once again hit a new record of 66,884, an increase of more than 14,000 over last week’s figure.

People queue to receive COVID-19 vaccines outside a vaccination center in Berlin, capital of Germany, Nov. 12, 2021. (Photo by Stefan Zeitz/Xinhua)

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The nationwide seven-day incidence rate rose above 400 for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the RKI. Within one week, the incidence rate climbed from 319.5 to 404.5 on Wednesday.

The number of COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care increased by around 80 to 4,070 on Wednesday, according to the online registry of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine.

Acting Health Minister Jens Spahn criticized those who refused vaccination because they thought the virus could not harm them. “What else must happen for you to get it? ” Spahn asked in the Rheinische Post newspaper on Wednesday.

Despite multiple vaccine options being widely available, the country’s vaccination campaign has slowed down. Last month, Germany’s vaccination rate increased by two percent only and stood at 68.1 percent on Tuesday, according to the RKI. 

People with face masks visit the Christmas Market in Frankfurt, Germany, Nov. 22, 2021. (Xinhua/Lu Yang)

Published : November 25, 2021

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009229

A popular British birdwatching festival has been canceled because its organizers are concerned about the carbon footprint of participants flying in. The humans, that is.

The Rutland Water Birdfair – dubbed the avian equivalent of the iconic British music festival Glastonbury – has been running for more than 30 years, attracting local and international celebrities as well as conservationists to a nature reserve each August to help raise funds for global wildlife conservation.

But a combination of pandemic disruptions and climate concerns led its organizers to announce Tuesday they’ll stop running the event.

“The current format of Birdfair is heavily influenced by travel and tourism with exhibitors traveling from 80 different countries to attend,” Jamie Perry of the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust said in a statement. “The carbon footprint generated both by the event itself and the activities it promotes does not now fit well with our own strategy towards tackling the climate crisis.”

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated a broader global shift away from in-person events to digital and virtual events, because of border closures and as people weighed the risk of travel.

Increasingly, companies are beginning to take account of the pollution stemming from their employees’ travel, too. Several companies – such as HSBC, Zurich Insurance, Bain & Company and S&P Global – have announced plans to quickly cut business-travel emissions by as much as 70 percent, Reuters reported.

Airlines, cruise ships and travel companies are also promising to go “net zero,” setting deadlines decades into the future for balancing out their emissions in a race to keep the globe from heating to disastrous levels, The Washington Post has reported.

Even so, the decision to cancel a festival that celebrates the natural wonder of sedge warblers, ospreys, redwings and wigeons that are able to take to the skies carbon-free has left many fans crestfallen.

Many were understanding of organizers’ motives.

“I don’t even go to a large supermarket now, so I’d be unlikely to hang around with 000′s of folks from many corners of the globe,” one Twitter user wrote.

“Pleased that the ecological impact of an [event] reliant on promoting global tourism was a key factor in their decision,” wrote another.

The cancellation comes amid a growing global awareness of the impact of overtourism on the environment. Wildlife-tourism companies were among those that had a presence at the event in recent years, drawing concern about their ecological footprint.

Carrie Johnson, the wife of British prime minister Boris Johnson, spoke at the festival in 2019 about her opposition to trophy hunting. She said at the time that politicians and business leaders have a “gigantic responsibility” to change the way they do business, adding: “But so too do scientists, naturalists, campaigners, birdwatchers and all of us individuals.”

The popularity of birdwatching – of the kind that doesn’t require global travel – soared during the pandemic, as housebound people tuned in to the activities of feathered friends in the yard.

The fact that you could do it without going anywhere became one of birdwatching’s major attractions, with bird groups in the United States reporting big spikes in newsletter subscribers and webinar attendance.

The Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust said Tuesday that canceling the global birdwatching festival will allow the trust to “turn all of our attention and efforts to our core mission of saving, restoring and connecting people with wildlife and habitats across Leicestershire and Rutland with the aim of aiding nature’s recovery.”

Published : November 25, 2021

By : The Washington Post

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009227

The Biden administration included Taiwan among the 110 invitees to its upcoming democracy summit, the State Department announced on Tuesday night, a move thats intended to show solidarity with a key regional partner but risks angering China.

Taiwan was invited to join nations, including the U.K. and Japan, at the Dec. 9-10 virtual summit, the State Department said on its website Tuesday. The online gathering is an event Joe Biden vowed to host while a candidate for president last year, with the goal of rallying like-minded countries around efforts to fight corruption and authoritarianism and advance human rights.

The final list leaves out several ostensible U.S. partners such as Turkey, a member of NATO, underscoring the challenge the administration faced in pinning down the invitees.

Including Taiwan may be the most controversial decision the administration has made about the summit, even though the island does have one of Asia’s more vibrant and free-wheeling democracies. That’s because only a handful of nations — the U.S. not among them — recognize it as sovereign.

China has assailed nations, companies and international organizations that treat the island as an independent entity. Most recently, Beijing downgraded ties with Lithuania’s government after Taiwan opened a diplomatic office in the Baltic nation.

“China firmly opposes the invitation by the U.S. to the Taiwan authorities to participate in the summit for democracy,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Wednesday at a regular press briefing in Beijing.

“There is only one China in the world and the government of the PRC is the sole legal government representing the whole of China,” he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China, which is the formal the name of the mainland’s government.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Digital Minister Audrey Tang and representative to the U.S. Hsiao Bi-khim will represent Taipei at the summit.

Taiwan’s inclusion follows a series of steps the Biden administration has taken in recent weeks to demonstrate its support for a key ally even as it seeks to ratchet down tensions with Beijing, which claims the self-governing island as its own territory. China has increased military flights near Taiwan and some analysts have warned that President Xi Jinping may be preparing for an invasion in coming years.

Biden’s planning for the summit proved to be a challenge as the administration has grappled with questions over which other countries to invite and which to leave out. The final guest list reflects that challenge: Invitees included Brazil, the Philippines and Poland, all countries that have seen democratic backsliding.

In the end, some countries that were invited appeared to be on the list more as an inducement to institute more democratic principles rather than because they fit neatly into the category of “democracy.” Angola, Pakistan and Serbia also made the list.

Another sore spot was the Middle East, where the U.S. struggled to find any invitees aside from Israel. In the end, Iraq was also included.

Biden has frequently characterized democracies’ battle against autocracies as an essential geopolitical challenge of the 21st century. In a speech to Congress in April, he said the U.S. must push back against Xi and other leaders who seek to show that their system of government is better for their people.

“He’s deadly earnest about becoming the most significant, consequential nation in the world,” Biden said at the time, referring to Xi. “He and others — autocrats — think that democracy can’t compete in the 21st century with autocracies because it takes too long to get consensus.”

Yet after developments, including former President Donald Trump’s continuing refusal to accept his re-election defeat and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by some of his supporters, critics have questioned the state of American democracy.

The Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance issued a report Monday that said the U.S. “fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself, and was knocked down a significant number of steps on the democratic scale.”

Published : November 25, 2021

By : Bloomberg

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40009226

Swedens first female prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, got the worst possible start to her tenure when she was forced to resign only hours after her historic appointment.

The resignation was triggered after a junior partner to Andersson’s Social Democrats left her government over the loss of next year’s budget vote. The 54-year-old former finance minister, who had to step down to get another go at securing the top seat, said she is still ready to lead a one-party cabinet and will now face a new vote.

The latest turbulence shows how the rise of the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats has made it extremely difficult to form viable coalitions. Long seen as a two-horse race between a relatively unified center-right and a bloc of left-leaning parties led by the Social Democrats, the country’s political landscape has been upended by the nationalists, whose popularity is fed by worsening gun crime and tensions over immigration.

“I understand that this may look very messy, and what has happened is completely unique,” Andersson said as she announced her resignation less than 8 hours after being appointed. “Despite the fact that the parliamentary positions appear unchanged, the issue should be tried anew. I don’t want to lead a government whose legitimacy might be questioned.”

The government briefly collapsed once already this year because of opposition to a plan to ease rent controls on new apartments. Andersson’s predecessor Stefan Lofven quit in June before being reinstated, and then surprised by announcing a resignation in August. The former union leader, a figure that was able to cobble together impossible alliances, had banked on cooperating with the center-right to keep the Sweden Democrats out of power.

Now, with an election less than 10 months away, the rising political instability may help the nationalists finally get a shot at power. Still, current opinion polls indicate no clear winner.

While the junior partner, the Green Party, said it won’t be part of Andersson’s cabinet, it said it won’t block her appointment.

A center-right party that has previously supported the government refused to back Andersson’s budget in a parliamentary vote earlier on Wednesday, sealing the fate of the government’s bill in favor of a competing proposal by conservative parties.

The amendment means some of the government’s key reforms, such as an extra week off for families, are ditched in favor of more spending on the justice system and a gasoline tax cut.

Published : November 25, 2021

By : Bloomberg