#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40006614

NEW YORK – Meng Wanzhou, a top Huawei Technologies executive detained for nearly three years in Canada, can return home to China after striking a deal with U.S. Justice Department officials in which she acknowledged helping to conceal the companys direct dealings in Iran, which violated U.S. sanctions.

While Meng admitted illegal conduct to satisfy the terms of the agreement, she did not have to plead guilty as part of the deferred prosecution agreement.

Her criminal case and detention have had major geopolitical implications, further souring relations between Beijing and both Washington and Ottawa.

Western officials decried China’s subsequent arrest of two Canadian nationals in December 2018 as a flagrant display of “hostage diplomacy.”

Meng, Huawei’s chief financial officer, made a virtual appearance in a Brooklyn courtroom Friday afternoon to formalize the agreement, conceding to a statement of facts that laid out her involvement in misleading a financial institution regarding Huawei’s relationship with Skycom, which functioned as an arm of Huawei in Iran.

The bank has been identified in other court proceedings as HSBC, which started as a smaller institution in China but has grown to operate globally.

Through Skycom, Huawei conducted transactions in U.S. currency with HSBC in the amount of more than $100 million between 2010 and 2014, according to prosecutors. A portion of that amount, at least $7.5 million, supported Huawei’s business dealings in Iran, officials said.

Federal prosecutors say that Skycom was operated by Huawei and that its transactions violated U.S.-imposed sanctions on Tehran. Meng, in signing the agreement, admitted to being involved in efforts to cover up the true relationship.

“Meng’s admissions confirm the crux of the government’s allegations in the prosecution of this financial fraud,” Nicole Boeckmann, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.

Meng’s attorney, Reid Weingarten, did not return calls for comment after the hearing.

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In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kessler said the Justice Department would move to dismiss the charges against Meng when the deferral period ends on Dec. 21, 2022, provided she is not charged with a crime before then.

Meng, through an interpreter, told U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly she understood the terms of the deal and agreed to it.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Vancouver, B.C., in December 2018 and later charged with bank and wire fraud. The Justice Department alleged that Huawei and Meng tricked HSBC into clearing millions of dollars in transactions with Skycom in violation of U.S. sanctions prohibiting business dealings with Iran.

China has cast the charges against Meng as political, part of a U.S. plot designed to stunt the country’s rise. Then-President Donald Trump told Reuters he would intervene in the case if it would help broker a trade deal with China. After being released from jail on $8 million bond, Meng was allowed to stay at one of her two mansions in Vancouver, wearing a GPS monitor and under surveillance by a court-appointed security company.

The case is one of several points of contention between the United States and Huawei, one of China’s largest tech companies and the world’s largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The Trump administration placed Huawei on an export blacklist in 2019. That move and a subsequent tightening of the restrictions stopped Huawei from buying many types of high-tech semiconductors, hurting the Chinese company’s ability to manufacture.

U.S. officials have also called Huawei’s aggressive push into the global 5G telecommunications equipment market a national security threat, warning that Chinese authorities could tap into the gear to spy on or disrupt communications. Huawei and China have rejected that concern, but the United States has essentially banned the use of Huawei network equipment domestically and pressured allies not to use it.

Meng’s arrest thrust Canada into the middle of the tense U.S.-China standoff and created a foreign policy nightmare for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a time when he hoped to deepen economic ties with Beijing. China later detained two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, and banned imports of some Canadian crops, including canola.

The “two Michaels,” as they are known in Canada, faced separate, secret trials in March on vague charges of spying and stealing state secrets. A Chinese court found Spavor guilty in August and sentenced him to 11 years in prison. A verdict for Kovrig has not yet been announced.

Trudeau, who won a third term this week with a minority government after a snap election, has been roundly criticized for his handling of the dispute.

His chief opponent, Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole, attacked Trudeau’s China policy at a leaders debate during the campaign, saying he had “let the Michaels down.”

Other prominent Canadians, including several former foreign ministers, urged Trudeau to let Meng go, hoping that would spur China to release the two Canadians. Trudeau had resisted those calls, saying that releasing her would endanger other Canadians around the world.

Meng’s attorneys had been fighting her extradition from Canada to the United States. On Friday, the Justice Department withdrew its extradition request and a judge in Vancouver dismissed the pending proceeding.

Published : September 25, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40006590

Southeast Asia saw an increase in new Covid-19 cases and deaths on Thursday, collated data showed.

Asean countries reported 61,465 new cases on Thursday, higher than Wednesday’s 60,416, while deaths were higher at 1,292 from Wednesday’s 1,095.

The number of Covid-19 cases in the region crossed 11.71 million, with 256,616 deaths.

Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is considering closing several Covid-19 field hospitals as the city is seeing fewer patients needing to be hospitalised. Buildings that have been modified for treatment and isolation of Covid-19 patients will return to their original purposes as currently patients being treated at home account for around 40 per cent of all existing cases in the city. The country reported 9,472 new cases and 236 deaths on Thursday, bringing cumulative cases in the country to 728,435 patients with 18,017 deaths.

Meanwhile, Cambodia’s Phnom Penh administration office has announced the extension of disease control measures in the city for another 14 days or until October 7. Under these measures, high-risk social activities will be prohibited while both public and private schools will continue to shut down.

Cambodia reported 638 new cases and 22 deaths on Thursday, bringing cumulative cases in the country to 106,619 with 2,176 deaths.

Published : September 24, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40006587

The Biden administration is taking steps to mitigate the impacts of a potential government shutdown on U.S. pandemic response, economic recovery, or other priorities, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

The Joe Biden administration is preparing for a possible government shutdown in the event that current funding runs out on Sept. 30, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday.

“It’s consistent with longstanding practice across many administrations for OMB to simply remind agency senior staff of the need to review and update orderly shutdown plans,” Psaki said at a press briefing, referring to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

“This is not formal guidance being given, it’s just a reminder, we’re seven days out, and we need to be prepared, of course, in any event of any contingency. So we see this as a routine step and one just to be prepared in any event of what could happen,” she said.

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Psaki noted that the Biden administration is taking steps to mitigate the impacts of a potential government shutdown on U.S. pandemic response, economic recovery, or other priorities.

“The fact is shutdowns are incredibly costly, disruptive, and damaging. Direct public health efforts can generally proceed during a shutdown because they’re exempt, and that is certainly our intention,” she said.
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Psaki’s comments came after the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday night passed a bill that would prevent a federal government shutdown and suspend the debt limit on government borrowing into December 2022.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where the Senate Republicans have vowed to block it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled on Monday that Republicans would help pass a short-term government funding bill only if Democrats separate it from a plan to suspend the debt limit.

“Depending on what happens there, we will keep government open by September 30th, which is our date, and continue the conversation about the debt ceiling,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday at a press conference, adding Congress will find a way to avert a government shutdown next week.

Published : September 24, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40006586

As the Gaza Strip witnesses an increase in the number of cases of COVID-19 infections, the Health Ministry there is seeking to raise the percentage of vaccination in the hope of achieving herd immunity.

The Palestinian coastal enclave has been witnessing for weeks a significant increase in the number of cases of COVID-19 infections, Gaza-based medical officials said.

There are more than 255 critical cases of the Delta strain across the Gaza Strip, and the majority of those cases are young people and pregnant women, according to officials.

Rana al-Namrouti, a 39-year-old pregnant woman, is one of those patients in a critical condition and she was transferred to the intensive care unit in the European Gaza Hospital for weeks after her health condition deteriorated.

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The mother of four told Xinhua that her infection with the new strain of the virus caused severe complications that put her in a coma that lasted 25 days.

Connected to a ventilator, she can hardly talk, but she explained that her severe infection caused two clots in the lungs and feet, in addition to stomach bleeding. She recalled what happened to her was “in a state of death and came back to life.”

A medical worker prepares a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination campaign in Gaza City, on Sept. 23, 2021.(Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

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Yousef al-Akkad, director of the European Gaza Hospital, told Xinhua that “the weakness of the Gazan health system caused by the 14-year Israeli blockade is a major dilemma in facing the spread of the new strain and the increasing number of injuries in hospitals.”

“Inside the hospital, there are 109 cases of coronavirus out of the designated 150 that we can receive,” he said, adding that “the existing cases are classified as critical and dangerous and in need of support for various artificial respirators.”

A medical worker works at a testing lab for COVID-19 at Al-Rimal Clinic in Gaza City, on Sept. 23, 2021. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

He noted that the hospital has started preparing the fourth section in light of the high epidemiological trend in the sector, expressing his hope that the coming days will witness a flattening of the curve and then a return to decline and refraction.

Despite his optimism, the population’s preventative measures are still absent in the Strip. Yet, the Hamas-run government in Gaza said they will not resort to closure unless necessary or unless the health system collapses, according to Salama Maarouf, the government’s spokesman.

Maarouf said that medical and technical indicators say that the peak of the current wave is from the middle to the end of September. So by the end of this month, the number of infected, including critical cases, is expected to decrease.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry in Gaza is seeking to raise the percentage of people vaccinated to 70 percent, in the hope of achieving herd immunity.

Ashraf al-Qedra, a spokesman of the ministry, told Xinhua that the percentage of those vaccinated increased from 10 to 35 percent after authorities organized a vaccination campaign with financial rewards.

The vaccinations were taken in sports clubs, local institutions, and universities. It also allocated 40 field medical teams to visit population facilities to facilitate access to them.

Earlier on Thursday, the Health Ministry reported 1,534 new cases infected with the new virus, raising the total number to 160,733 cases. In addition, eight fatalities were recorded, increasing the total number of deaths in Gaza to 1,319.

A Palestinian man receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination campaign in Gaza City, on Sept. 23, 2021. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Published : September 24, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40006585

“We will continue to work with the U.S. side, as long as there are opportunities for cooperation. However, the cooperation between the two countries must be conducted in the principle of mutual respect,” said Chinese Ambassador Qin Gang.

China is sincere in starting a dialogue with the United States to deescalate bilateral tensions on the basis of mutual respect, Chinese Ambassador Qin Gang said here on Wednesday.

“We will continue to work with the U.S. side, as long as there are opportunities for cooperation. However, the cooperation between the two countries must be conducted in the principle of mutual respect,” said Qin in respond to questions after delivering a speech at a virtual conversation jointly held by the Carter Center and the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations.

“And the United States should not expect China’s cooperation in areas where only the U.S. has demand and interests, while neglecting or even undermining China’s interests at the same time, in particular on these core issues concerning China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.

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“To be frank, what I worry about is that the United States uses competition to define China-U.S. relations, while competition on the U.S. side often takes the form of confrontation, especially on major issues concerning China’s core interests,” he said.
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“If this does not change, it will undermine China’s efforts to promote our mutual trust and cooperation. There is not any example in the history of international relations where the political relationship between two countries is in competition or even confrontation, but other spheres remain safe and sound,” he said.

Containers of China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited are seen at the Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles County, the United States, Feb. 27, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Ying)

“A very important thing between China and the United States is mutual respect. China is open and inclusive. We welcome and readily accept various suggestions or criticisms, as long as they are objective, truthful, well-intentioned and constructive, and we will make improvements according to them,” said the ambassador, adding that “a very important job of mine is to communicate and listen.”

“However, we do not accept baseless slander and disinformation. We do not accept condescending lecturing. And we do not accept words or deeds that undermine China’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity. Citizens must abide by the law. Likewise, countries must abide by the basic norms governing international relations. U.S. law prohibits secession and racial hatred, but why do some Americans want to treat China in this way?” said Qin.

Published : September 24, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40006583

Apple may have to redesign its iPhones to use USB-C charging ports under draft rules from the European Union aimed at cutting waste and simplifying life for consumers owning multiple devices.

The European Commission said Thursday it wants a single type of charging port to be used for all smartphones and tablets as well as equipment such as cameras, some headphones, portable speakers and handheld video consoles.

“With more and more devices, more and more chargers are sold that are not interchangeable or not necessary,” said Thierry Breton, the EU’s industry chief, in an emailed statement. “We are putting an end to that.”

Apple opposes a standard connector, saying it risks hurting innovation that can bring more energy efficient products to the market. The draft legislation adds to intense pressure from the EU in recent years with antitrust probes into its app store and payment system adding to a legal row over a massive back-tax order.

Apple is “concerned that strict regulation mandating just one type of connector stifles innovation rather than encouraging it,” according to an emailed statement. The Cupertino, California-based company said it “deeply cares about the customer experience” and shares the commission’s “commitment to protecting the environment.”

The iPhone maker started removing adapters from packaging last year to reduce waste. While the company uses USB-C for some devices, it has its own Lightning cable and magnetic chargers for iPhones and some accessories.

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Breton told reporters in Brussels that Apple wasn’t “necessarily worried” about the draft rules. He said he’s in regular contact with Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook who has never mentioned the issue.

“It’s not aimed at Apple or anyone else,” he said at a press conference. “We are thinking about the 15 to 20 years to come. Apple already uses USB-C in other devices” and “I don’t think it’s going to cause anyone any problems.”

People spend around 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion) annually on standalone chargers not supplied with devices, the EU said. It forecasts a 250 million euro saving every year as consumers avoid buying new chargers. People tend to own as many as three chargers each and find incompatible chargers annoying, it said.

The rules would see all chargers offer the same speed of charging. Phone makers could still be able to sell phones with a charger as long as they also offer models without. They can also sell devices with a cable in the box and without the electric plug. Devices could potentially have multiple ports so long as one was USB-C.

The EU throws away some 11,000 tonnes of chargers every year, some unused, according to the commission. It expects the proposal to reduce that by almost 1,000 tonnes.

The rules could come into force two years after they are agreed by EU lawmakers and governments who can make changes to the draft text.

The EU proposal doesn’t touch on wireless charging. Regulators said they decided not to include earbuds, smartwatches and fitness trackers due to their smaller size.

Published : September 24, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40006578

Moderna chief executive says that the pandemic could be over in a year and that a boost in production will mean enough vaccines for “everyone on this earth” by then.

Producing enough booster shots should be possible, too, to some extent, and even babies will be able to get vaccines, Stéphane Bancel told a Swiss newspaper in an interview published Thursday. Asked whether that could spell “a return to normal” next year, he replied: “As of today, in a year, I assume.”

With the vaccine industry as a whole expanding production, “enough doses should be available by the middle of next year so that everyone on this earth can be vaccinated,” the French billionaire said.

Whether his predictions come true is likely to depend on narrowing the immunity gap between rich countries, which bid high in the contest to buy vaccines, and poorer countries, which rely on trickling donations.

“It is an obscenity” that some governments have hoarded, and sometimes wasted, shots while people elsewhere still wait for their first doses, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres told leaders in New York on Wednesday.

Nearly 80% of people in the world’s wealthier nations already have received first doses. But, in part because of supply problems and biotech firms such as Moderna’s selling most early doses to rich countries, the level of first-dose vaccination falls to 20% in poorer parts of the world.

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President Joe Biden, who like other leaders has faced calls to do more, announced Wednesday that the United States would buy 500 million more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to donate to other countries.

Vaccination rates remain in single digits across most of Africa, whereas the United States and Britain are looking to begin offering their populations booster shots – a step that has become another symbol of pandemic inequality.

The Moderna boss says he expects that boosters will be needed every one to three years. “We will end up in a situation similar to that of the flu,” he said. “You can either get vaccinated and have a good winter. Or you don’t do it and risk getting sick and possibly even ending up in hospital.”

The co-creator of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine also predicts that the covid-19 will end up being an experience closer to the common cold. British scientist Sarah Gilbert told a webinar that the virus probably would not mutate into an even deadlier version that can skirt vaccines.

“We normally see that viruses become less virulent as they circulate more easily,” she said, playing down fears that have sprung from the spread of highly contagious variants.

Other officials have not expressed that level of optimism. England’s chief medical officer warned on Wednesday that unvaccinated children would end up with covid-19 at some point as the virus continues circulating.

“They will get it sooner or later because this is incredibly infectious,” Chris Whitty said. He told lawmakers that vaccines would cut the risk of infection by at least half.

“We’re not going to see a situation where it just sort of stops at a certain point,” he said.

Published : September 24, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40006556

Eight rare baby Siamese crocodiles have been discovered in northeastern Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province, the country’s Environment Ministry and the World Wildlife Fund revealed.

The newborn crocs are presently being watched over by Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary officials.

Cambodia’s Environment Minister Say Sam Al said this is the first discovery in almost a decade.

“This discovery also proves the importance of preserving rare crocodiles and other wildlife species in Cambodia,” he said.

Photo Credit: Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary

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The Siamese crocodile is a medium-sized freshwater croc native to Thailand, Indonesia (Borneo and possibly Java), Brunei, East Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

This crocodile is classified as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, and is listed in Appendix I of CITES.

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Photo Credit: Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary

Its other common names include Siamese freshwater crocodile, Singapore small-grain, and soft belly.

Published : September 23, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40006539

Since the middle of July, Lithuanias COVID-19 infection rate has been steadily increasing. In the past seven days, the average daily number of reported new cases was 1,142 and the average number of deaths was 11 per day

Lithuania has registered 1,402 new COVID-19 infections and nine deaths in the past 24 hours and moved into the worst “black zone” under the color-coded national classification system.

In a “black zone,” the 14-day rate of new coronavirus cases exceeds 500 per 100,000 people and the percentage of positive tests is above ten percent. The number climbed to 504.5 on Tuesday.

Since the middle of July, Lithuania’s COVID-19 infection rate has been steadily increasing. In the past seven days, the average daily number of reported new cases was 1,142 and the average number of deaths was 11 per day.

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Lithuania made the COVID-19 certificate mandatory on Sept. 13 for all people wishing to enter larger shops.

Citizens get off a bus in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sept. 13, 2021. (Xinhua/Xue Dongmei)

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As a result, the country’s larger supermarkets, such as Maxima, Rimi, Norfa and Lidl, reported a drop in revenues as people turned to smaller supermarkets and online shopping instead.

Wearing face masks is still recommended in the country, but the government may reinstate a mask mandate for public indoor spaces at its scheduled meeting on Wednesday. 

Customers dine beside mannequins dressed in creations of local designers in a cafe in the Old Town of Vilnius, Lithuania, on May 21, 2020.(Photo by Alfredas Pliadis/Xinhua)

Published : September 23, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40006538

Chinese researchers have discovered by employing big-data analysis that the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States might have started to spread around in September 2019, earlier than the officially announced date of its first confirmed case.

According to a new article published Wednesday as a preprint in ChinaXiv, a series of previous studies showed that the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Brazil and other countries had shown signs of being hit by the virus before its outbreak in China.   

ChinaXiv is an online publishing service operated by the National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The article, titled “Dating the First Case of COVID-19 Epidemic from a Probabilistic Perspective,” suggested that the qualitative and quantitative analysis of infectious diseases, done by combining mathematical models and artificial-intelligence technology, can reveal the epidemic law of infectious diseases.

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The researchers set up an optimized model using the epidemic transmission model and big-data analysis method, and inferred the dates of the first infection cases in 12 northeastern U.S. states and in China’s Wuhan City and Zhejiang Province, based on published data.

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The result indicated that, for the 12 U.S. states, the possible dates of the first infection, with a probability of 50 percent, fall mostly between August and October 2019, while the earliest is April 26, 2019 on Rhode Island, and the latest is Nov. 30, 2019 in Delaware.

All of the dates indicated by the data are earlier than Jan. 20, 2020, the officially announced date of the first confirmed case in the United States, showing that the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States started to spread around September 2019 with a high confidence probability.

The result also showed that the date of the first COVID-19 case in Wuhan, with a probability of 50 percent, is Dec. 20, 2019, and the date for Zhejiang is Dec. 23, 2019. It infers that the COVID-19 in China is most likely to have started in late December 2019.

The article said this is consistent with the results of the epidemiological investigation, which proves that the calculation method is accurate and reliable. 

Published : September 23, 2021