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Europe banks on vaccines as countries push ahead with reopening

European governments are pushing ahead with reopening their economies, banking on a mix of vaccinations, hygiene guidelines and common sense to let life return toward normal amid a surge in covid-19 cases.

Despite concerns about the rapid spread of the delta variant, officials are bowing to public frustration and pleas from businesses, and moving further away from the strict lockdowns of 2020. The view, summed up by a French minister, is that it’s time to “live with the virus.”

In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to confirm that mandatory curbs will end as planned on July 19, including the legal requirement to wear masks in indoor settings.

But Johnson’s announcement will include a cautionary note, warning of a surge in virus cases and advising people to act sensibly. He’s counting on that, along with the country’s vaccination rollout, to limit the spread of the disease. More than half of the U.K. population is fully vaccinated, compared with an average of 40% among EU countries.

“Vaccines are fantastic but you have to give them time to work,” Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College, said on BBC radio. “In the meantime keeping up all those measures which we’ve learned do reduce transmission is, to me, really vital.”

One trend in the latest figures is that the increase in cases is being linked to large social gatherings of mainly younger non-vaccinated adults.

That means while governments are ruling out another round of lockdowns, a number of countries are being forced to reintroduce, or at least consider, other curbs.

Portugal has broadened its nighttime curfew to more municipalities. The limits already apply in Lisbon and some locations in the southern Algarve region that are popular with tourists. France could reintroduce limits on the number of people allowed in bars, restaurants and other venues, junior minister for European Affairs Clement Beaune said on Europe 1 radio Sunday.

“We must live with the virus, and this means we don’t close everything again and positions aren’t as hard as they used to be, because we have the vaccine,” Beaune said.

President Emmanuel Macron will make a televised address later on Monday, when he’s expected to announce measures including mandatory vaccination for health care workers, as well as the new measures flagged by Beaune.

Greece’s government is expected to issue an update on its virus measures early this week, which may include new restrictions after a jump in cases.

In Cyprus, which is now one of Europe’s virus hotspots, authorities have set a limit of 50% capacity at indoor venues such as theaters and cinemas. From July 21, the capacity can increase to 75% as long as patrons are fully vaccinated or were infected with covid-19 in last six months.

Italy is also considering its options, and could raise its risk level to “yellow” from “white” if current trends continue, according to local media, which could lead to tougher restrictions in bars and restaurants.

One consistent amid the array of rules is the plea from governments to get vaccinated amid signs that the inoculation drive is slowing.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief spokesman, Steffen Seibert, warned Monday that the experience of some of Germany’s neighbors shows that infections can “quickly explode again.”

“Of course vaccination has changed the overall picture and facilitated significant progress but we’re not yet adequately equipped if the number of cases really rises strongly again,” Seibert said at a regular news conference in Berlin.

Health Minister Jens Spahn pointed out that vaccine rates have fallen back to the lowest since February and renewed his call for citizens to get themselves inoculated.

Johnson will make a similar plea when he addresses the U.K.

“Cases will rise as we unlock, so as we confirm our plans today, our message will be clear,” Johnson will say, according to a statement from his office. “Caution is absolutely vital, and we must all take responsibility so we don’t undo our progress.”

Published : July 13, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Fergal O’Brien

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Sydney daily delta cases spike to 112 as outbreak worsens

Sydney recorded 112 new coronavirus cases on Monday — a 45% spike from the previous day — as the locked-down Australian city battles its largest outbreak since beating back the first wave of the pandemic more than a year ago.

“We just want people to stay at home,” New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney on Monday. “The virus won’t spread if people don’t leave home. That is the bottom line.” At the weekend, Australia’s most-populous city recorded its first death since April after the delta-strain leaked into the local community in mid-June.

The city of 6 million people has been in lockdown since June 26, and faces being increasingly isolated from the rest of the nation after Berejiklian indicated that the current stay-at-home orders may need to be extended beyond Friday. On Sunday, Victoria state implemented a hard border with its neighbor, and plans for an Australia-Singapore travel bubble have been delayed until at least the end of the year.

The outbreak is highlighting the problems nation’s tardy vaccine roll-out, which has been hit by supply-chain hold-ups from contracted drug-makers amid accusations from political rivals that Prime Minister Scott Morrison failed to secure enough doses from a wide-enough range of suppliers.

Alongside other so-called “Covid-zero” nations such as China and Singapore, the persistent outbreaks show the limits of Australia’s strategy to beat the pandemic with closed international borders and rigorous testing. The Labor opposition says the delta variant is responsible for more than 20 virus leaks out of the nation’s quarantine hotels.

The Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker shows Australia has administered enough doses for just 17.8% of its population, compared with the U.K. with 60.4% and the U.S. with 52.2%

In a bid to encourage more Australians to get the jab, Morrison’s government has launched an televised advertising campaign featuring a young female actor struggling to breath. Bill Bowtell, an adjunct professor in infectious diseases at the University of New South Wales, described the ad — which has received a barrage of criticism on social media — as “not honest or truthful or authentic.”

“We are facing a terribly serious problem in Sydney — the worst health crisis in 120 years,” Bowtell told an Australian Broadcasting Corp. interview Monday. He’s calling for tougher stay-at-home restrictions to be imposed in Sydney so the city can exit lockdown sooner, similar to what Melbourne endured last year in one of the world’s longest and most stringent lockdowns. “Businesses are being smashed. People are being laid off.”

Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney, agreed that the repercussions of the lockdown to businesses were going to be serious, with New South Wales the nation’s economic engine room.

“It’s going to be the longest lockdown we’ve had since Victoria back in the middle of last year,” he said in an interview Friday. “The longer they go on, the more permanent economic damage they do — businesses having to close and people changing their behavior and it then takes longer to recover from that.”

The testing, tracing and quarantining system in New South Wales, which accounts for 32% of national gross domestic product, is being heavily tested by the delta variant, HSBC Global Research said in a note on Monday.

“The lockdown in Greater Sydney will weigh significantly on economic activity for as long as it is in place, at least initially mostly impacting” the third quarter, it said, adding that New South Wales Treasury estimates that each week of lockdown wipes A$850 million ($637 million) from the growth.

Berejiklian said her state was in negotiations with Morrison’s government to announce more financial support for businesses “in the next few days.”

Published : July 13, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Jason Scott

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Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan steps down, marking a symbolic end to 20 years of war

KABUL – The top U.S. general in Afghanistan stepped down on Monday, marking a symbolic end to 20 years of American military involvement here as an ascendant Taliban threatens to topple the central government.

Army Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, who has overseen the war effort for nearly three years, relinquished his responsibilities in a small ceremony at the U.S. military’s headquarters inside Kabul’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

“Our job now is just not to forget,” Miller said in brief remarks, citing sacrifices by Americans, Afghans and other allies. “With the families that have lost people across this conflict, it will be important to know that someone remembers, that someone cares, and that we’re able to talk about it in the future.”

Hours later, Miller departed in a Black Hawk helicopter. It thumped away over a constellation of diplomatic compounds and security checkpoints, his first step on a journey home that is expected to include a stop in Washington where he will meet with President Joe Biden and senior Pentagon leaders, said two U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity.

Monday’s ceremony came three months after Biden announced he was ending the U.S. military’s mission begun in the aftermath of 9/11, leaving behind a force of about 600 troops to protect the U.S. Embassy and international airport a few miles away. Biden said last week that the American withdrawal will end formally on Aug. 31, but effectively it is complete now, with Miller’s departure one of only a few pieces that had been remaining, defense officials said.

Miller departs Afghanistan as the war’s longest-serving senior U.S. officer. A former commander of the elite Delta Force, he oversaw a tumultuous period that included the Trump administration’s 2020 deal with the Taliban that set the stage for withdrawal and the final call by Biden to remove all troops.

Marine Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, who leads U.S. Central Command, has assumed Miller’s responsibilities. He attended Monday’s ceremony after flying overnight from his headquarters in Tampa and is expected to oversee the remaining security mission from there, with a two-star Navy SEAL, Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, leading the troops at the embassy and airport.

McKenzie acknowledged the ongoing bloodshed and promised that the United States would continue to provide financial and technical assistance from afar.

“You can count on our support in the dangerous and difficult days ahead,” McKenzie said. “We will be with you.”

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Monday refused to discuss any recent airstrikes carried out by the United States in support of Afghan forces under Taliban threat, citing operational security during the drawdown.

McKenzie told reporters traveling with him over the weekend that the U.S. military had launched one strike at the Taliban in recent days while the Afghan air force had conducted 14. He added that, while for now the U.S. military retains the ability to attack the Taliban, doing so is limited by a lack of intelligence and U.S. personnel on the ground who would help identify whether an airstrike may cause “collateral damage,” a military term for civilian casualties.

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“It’s a very high standard for us,” the general said.

Before the ceremony, McKenzie told reporters that he believes the Taliban is pursuing a “military victory” over the Afghan government, citing its recent battlefield victories. But he predicted the militants will encounter significant resistance in Kabul, noting how much larger and more complex the city of 6 million people and its defenses are now than when the Taliban ruled it in the 1990s.

“I think, certainly, the provincial capitals are at risk, and we’ll see how that shakes out over the next few weeks,” McKenzie told reporters aboard a military aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean. “I think the Afghans are determined to fight very hard for those provincial capitals.”

In a separate interview after Monday’s ceremony, McKenzie said that while he believes the Taliban has presented its battlefield gains on social media in an attempt to persuade people its rise is inevitable, he doubts it is true.

“It is not prescribed in stone that the Taliban are going to win,” McKenzie said.

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The rapid disintegration of security amid the withdrawal has put both Biden and the Afghan government on the defensive.

Last week, Biden said in remarks at the White House that he and his advisers anticipated problems but that focusing on them has been used for years as a rationale to extend the military mission while U.S. troops remained in harm’s way.

“Let me ask: How many more – how many thousands more Americans, daughters and sons – are you willing to risk?” Biden said. “I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome.”

On Monday, Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan’s national security adviser, sought to reassure fellow Afghans. In remarks to reporters after the U.S. military ceremony, Mohib said that recent incidents in which the Afghan government could not resupply its soldiers fighting the Taliban were “unfortunate.”

“The problem was being able to reach them,” Mohib said. “Our air assets were not enough to reach every place throughout the country. So we’ve been working on strategizing where we need to defend the most, and reaching them.”

Mohib said the U.S. withdrawal has left some vacuums, and that Afghan forces are trying to fill them.

McKenzie said the United States is “no longer in the business” of carrying out military logistics for the Afghans. “We’re not going to be there at the lower levels to do it for them,” he added. “It’s just not going to happen.”

The war’s costs have been staggering. About 2,400 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan, with an additional 20,000 wounded, according to Pentagon statistics. Nearly 800,000 service members have rotated through Afghanistan on assignment at least once, with nearly 30,000 of them deploying at least five times each, according to Pentagon data provided to The Washington Post.

Some 47,245 civilians, 66,000 Afghan soldiers and police, and 51,000 opposition fighters also have been killed, according to a study released by Brown University this year.

Numerous unresolved questions about the American withdrawal have not been fully addressed yet. They include a promise to evacuate thousands of interpreters who worked alongside U.S. troops and now are fearful of being targeted by the Taliban.

The Biden administration also plans to continue carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan as needed. However, without access to bases there, the military is expected to fly from installations several hours away in the Persian Gulf, putting strains on what U.S. troops can do. Administration officials are seeking new agreements with neighboring countries from which to carry out the strikes, but to date no deals have been announced.

The military’s departure from Afghanistan, along with the deterioration of security throughout the country, also is expected to degrade the United States’ ability to monitor events on the ground.

McKenzie said that most of the information the U.S. military gets about the Taliban comes from Afghan forces, and that in areas where the Taliban has seized control, it will be more difficult to understand changes as they occur.

“That’s just a fact we’re going to have to recognize,” McKenzie said. “My knowledge of what’s going on in Afghanistan is not nearly what it was 180 days ago.”

Published : July 13, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Dan Lamothe

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Wildfire pushing California toward the brink of blackouts

A wildfire raging uncontrollably across southern Oregon has knocked out three electrical lines so critical to the stability of grids in the western U.S. that California has warned of rotating blackouts and Nevada faced a power emergency.

The fast-moving Bootleg fire crippled a key transmission system known as the California Oregon Intertie that the Golden State has depended on for years for electricity imports.

Making matters worse: The takedown of the intertie has had a knock-on effect on another key import hub known as the Pacific DC Intertie that brings in electricity from the Pacific Northwest, California’s grid operator said in a media briefing Saturday. Power supplies to the area covered by the grid have been reduced by as much as 3,500 megawatts because of the fire.

After days of pushing state residents to limit energy use with the risk of rolling blackouts, Californians got a break Sunday as the grid operator said conditions were expected to be stable. With transmission lines knocked out by the fire still out of service, and high temperatures expected to persist as demand picks up in the new week, another statewide conservation push through a so-called flex alert has been issued for Monday.

“If demand still outstrips supply after a Flex Alert is in effect, the ISO could take the infrequent step of ordering California utilities to spread power outages of relatively short duration to effectively extend available electricity as much as possible,” it said in a statement Sunday.

The fact that a single wildfire has brought America’s most populous and affluent state to the brink of blackouts is among the most powerful demonstrations yet of how vulnerable the world’s power grids have become to the effects of climate change.

Extreme heat, drought and dry conditions globally have shrunk hydropower reserves, driven up electricity demand to record levels and touched off some of the worst wildfire seasons in modern history.

Climate change is “forcing us to do things we never imagined” at this time of the year, said Elliot Mainzer, who took over as chief executive officer of grid manager California Independent System Operator nine months ago. The agency is “anticipating what could be a very long and hot summer,” he said.

California has emerged as the epicenter of climate disasters in the U.S. Wildfires burned an unprecedented 4.3 million acres across the state last year, killing 33 people and scorching nearly 10,500 structures.

Last August California suffered its first rolling blackouts since the U.S. West energy crisis two decades ago because of extremely hot weather. And in a foreshadowing of what was to come: Days before this year’s summer officially began, high temperatures forced the California ISO to make an unusually early call for conservation, allowing the region to duck another round of rotating outages.

“Bottom line is we took everything we learned from last summer, and we still came into this summer thinking our issues were going to primarily be associated with August and September,” Mainzer said, but “we had the first major heat wave four days before the official beginning of summer.”

On Friday evening, the grid operator took the rare step of ordering a Stage 2 emergency — one step away from rotating blackouts — to cope with the loss of import capacity. Energy conservation helped the state avert a crisis. But as temperatures rose yet again and supplies fell off the grid Saturday, Mainzer said, “We’re going to need more. Honestly, I think we are going to need more response than we saw last night.”

The grid operator issued an all-clear late Saturday after issuing a flex alert. Earlier in the day, Gov. Gavin Newsom also signed an order to free up more energy capacity to help alleviate the supply crunch.

California wasn’t the only state facing power woes. Nevada’s power system was among those in the region that also faced emergency levels on Friday evening, said Mark Rothleder, California’s ISO’s chief operating officer. On top of managing California’s grid, the agency serves as a reliability coordinator and is responsible for monitoring conditions across the western region.

Nevada utility NV Energy said it wasn’t forced to resort to blackouts, but the company was calling for customers to conserve over the weekend.

Exactly when the Bootleg fire would subside enough to re-energize the California Oregon Intertie remains to be seen.

The Bootleg fire had burned through 143,607 acres of southern Oregon and still zero percent of it was contained as of Sunday, forcing evacuations in Klamath County and shutting sections of a national forest, according to an update from the U.S. Fire Service.

Temperatures across California were forecast to remain high into Monday. After hitting 102 degrees Fahrenheit (39 degrees Celsius) Sunday, Sacramento is expected to slip to a high of 94 degrees on Monday.

Published : July 13, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Lynn Doan, Naureen S. Malik

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Israel starts administering third dose of Pfizer vaccine to at-risk adults

TEL AVIV – Israels Ministry of Health on Monday began offering a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine to severely immunocompromised adults in what health experts say could be the first phase of an experiment to provide coronavirus booster shots for older people and the most vulnerable.

The recommendation, published Sunday by the ministry, said that the goal of the new program was to raise antibody levels among immunocompromised citizens, including cancer patients, recipients of liver transplants, and others who have recently exhibited weakened vaccine protection, according to data. It said that it had still not made a decision on administering third shots for the general adult population.

The decision comes as Israel, which was among the fastest to vaccinate in the winter and then among the first to begin reopening in the spring, is experiencing a surge in new cases, spurred by the prevalence of the highly transmissible delta variant first identified in India. Over the past month, infection rates in Israel have spiked from single digits to more than 400 a day.

Just weeks after lifting most covid restrictions, the government has reinstated the mask mandate for indoor spaces and public transportation. It is expected to introduce stricter quarantines for travelers returning from abroad, rapid testing stations for students, and the recently retired “green pass” system granting vaccinated people broader access to mass public events like concerts and movie theaters.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech sold millions of doses to Israel last year, which were delivered on cargo planes that were greeted with fanfare by then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion international airport. Pfizer views Israel – with its small size, heterogenous population and meticulously digitized national health-care system, which serves as the basis for a data-sharing agreement signed by the Israeli government and the pharmaceutical giant – as a test case for vaccine rollouts in the rest of the world.

Recent studies show that the Pfizer vaccine remains effective against the delta variant in preventing hospitalizations and serious illness, though it also has shown declining effectiveness at preventing milder cases. The company expects to publish data from the current study on booster shots provided to at-risk adults in Israel. It said Thursday that it will ask U.S. and European regulators within weeks to authorize booster shots.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that he has coordinated a fast-tracked delivery of the next batch of Pfizer doses to arrive Aug. 1, to allow the country to replenish its dwindling supplies and continue its campaign to inoculate 12-to-15-year-olds.

Eyal Leshem, an infectious-disease specialist at Sheba Medical Center, said that even though Israel would probably not make a third shot available to the general public any time soon, the move may open the path toward targeting specific vulnerable populations who are known to have reduced protection when compared with the healthy population.

He said that vaccine hesitancy and lack of access to the vaccine around the globe, including in the nearby Palestinian territories, remain persistent challenges that would prevent general booster shots from becoming widespread health policy, but that approaches could continue to change as the virus mutates and countries open up.

“A possible scenario is that as the virus mutates and changes, the vaccines will be modified accordingly, and boosters will enhance immunity against circulating viruses,” he said.

The director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a statement Monday admonished vaccine manufacturers for seeking to push boosters to wealthy countries when many places do not have access to doses.

Published : July 13, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Shira Rubin

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“Worlds smallest” dwarf cow draws crowds in Bangladesh

Hundreds of people have been rushing to a farm in Bangladesh to see Rani, a 20-inch tall dwarf cow whose owner claims it is the worlds smallest cow.

Hundreds of people recently have been rushing to Rani, a 20-inch tall dwarf cow at a farm in Savar on the outskirts of Bangladesh capital Dhaka.

The 23-month Rani, or Queen, was bought by Shikor Agro Industries Limited from another farm in Bangladesh’s northwestern Naogaon district about a year ago.
 

The 26-inch long, 26-kg weigh cow has been applied for the Guinness Book of Records, with its owner claiming it to be the world’s smallest cow.

Two men measure a dwarf cow called Rani at a farm in Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh

The current world record holder, the smallest cow from Indian state Kerala, is nearly 24.1 inches tall, said Tanvir Hasan, manager of the company.

“Our veterinarians have confirmed that Rani has two teeth already and is now 23 months old. She will not grow anymore,” he said.

Photo shows a dwarf cow called Rani (front) at a farm in Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh,

Md Mamun is a cowherd at the dairy farm, who has been taking care of Rani for 11 months.

“Rani is the most distinct type of cow, but it interacts with other cows,” he said.

“All other cows eat more food but Rani eats not much. Every day she eats 100 grams of food grains in the morning and 100 grams of food grains in the afternoon.”

“Rani is bathed every morning and cleansed in the afternoon, as she would be annoyed if there is dirt,” Mamun said, adding that Rani especially likes to be with people.

“I have a close relationship with her, my presence makes her always happy and I like to serve her very much,” he added.

Kamrul Hasan, director of the Signature Group, said since Rani came to their farm they have been handling a lot of visitors.

“We are giving the opportunity to the visitors to see Rani in accordance with the health rules during the epidemic, every day from noon to four in the afternoon.”

Some visitors even offered to buy the cow for sacrificing in the upcoming Muslim festival of animal sacrifice, Eid al-Adha, at as much as 1500,000 takas (about 17,000 U.S. dollars), the dairy farm officials said, adding that they have rejected.

To curb the virus transmission, Bangladesh imposed a strict one-week COVID-19 lockdown on July 1, which has subsequently been extended till July 14.

People take photos of a dwarf cow called Rani at a farm in Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Published : July 12, 2021

By : Xinhua

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Heat wave sweeps across North Macedonia

A heat wave swept across North Macedonia recently, with temperatures reaching up to 40 degrees Celsius. Zookeepers have been feeding animals such as giraffes with iced food to keep them cool in the Skopje Zoo of the countrys capital.

A zoo worker feeds iced food to a giraffe in Skopje Zoo in Skopje, North Macedonia on July 9, 2021.

A zoo worker feeds iced food to a giraffe in Skopje Zoo in Skopje, North Macedonia on July 9, 2021.

Published : July 12, 2021

By : Xinhua

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Virgin Galactic completes first fully crewed test spaceflight

Space tourism company Virgin Galactic completed its first fully crewed test flight of its spacecraft on Sunday, making a giant leap toward commercial suborbital spaceflight.

“Ihave dreamt about this moment since I was a child, but going to space was more magical than I ever imagined,” Richard Branson tweets after the flight.

The mission, dubbed “Unity 22,” was the company’s fourth crewed spaceflight, and the 22nd flight test for the company’s spacecraft VSS Unity.

It was also the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, including founder of Virgin Galactic Richard Branson, who was testing the private astronaut experience.

The crew took off from the company’s homeport of Spaceport America in U.S. state of New Mexico Sunday morning. The spacecraft, VSS Unity, achieved a speed of Mach 3 after being released from the mothership, VMS Eve, and reached space at an altitude of 53.5 miles.
 

One and a half hours after take-off, the spaceship touched down safely at Spaceport America.

Photo released by Virgin Galactic on July 11, 2021 shows “Unity 22” crew at zero gravity. (Virgin Galactic/Handout via Xinhua)

The four mission specialists on board were Richard Branson; Beth Moses, chief astronaut instructor at Virgin Galactic; Colin Bennett, lead operations engineer at Virgin Galactic; Sirisha Bandla, vice president of government affairs and research operations at Virgin Galactic. The two pilots were Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci.

The “Unity 22” mission focused on cabin and customer experience objectives, including evaluating the commercial customer cabin with a full crew, demonstrating the conditions for conducting human-tended research experiments, and confirming the training program at Spaceport America supports the spaceflight experience, according to the company.

“I have dreamt about this moment since I was a child, but going to space was more magical than I ever imagined,” Branson tweeted after the flight.

Photo released by Virgin Galactic on July 1, 2021 shows Virgin Galactic “Unity 22” crew (from L to R) chief pilot Dave Mackay, lead operations engineer Colin Bennett, chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, founder of Virgin Galactic Richard Branson, vice president of government affairs and research operations Sirisha Bandla, and pilot Michael Masucci, posing for a photo in the United States.

Following this flight, the team will complete inspections of the vehicles and an extensive data review. Two additional test flights are planned before the company expects to commence commercial service in 2022.

Virgin Galactic is not alone in trying to build space flight business. Blue Origin is also planning a manned flight to space on July 20 that will include its founder Jeff Bezos.

Unlike SpaceX or Blue Origin, which put passenger capsules atop vertically launched rockets, Virgin Galactic uses a custom carrier aircraft that totes its rocket-powered spaceplane to an elevation where it is released. Then the rocket plane’s motor ignites and blasts its way toward space.

Published : July 12, 2021

By : Xinhua

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Indonesia reports over a 1,000 deaths on Sunday as Asean battles Covid-19 pandemic

Southeast Asia reported nearly 1,400 deaths on Sunday, one of the highest on a single day since the Covid-19 outbreak, collated data showed.

Asean reported 67,221 new cases on Sunday, higher than Saturday’s 66,710, and 1,396 patients died, up from the previous day’s 1,199.

The total number of Covid-19 cases crossed 5.52 million, while the death toll in the region hit 106,152.

Indonesia reported over 1,000 deaths on a day for the second time in a week, prompting the public health ministry to closely monitor the hospitals’ bed occupation rate and reserves of medical oxygen, especially in 43 provinces in the red zone including Jakarta, Java and Bali islands that have been under lockdown since July 3, which will last until July 20.

Meanwhile, the US has donated 2 million doses of Moderna vaccine to Vietnam to combat the spread of Covid-19 in the country which is currently at its worst level with almost 2,000 new infections reported on Sunday. The vaccine is a part of the total 80 million doses that President Joe Biden had received from US manufacturers and will be donated to countries in need worldwide under the Covax programme.

Published : July 12, 2021

By : THE NATION

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A timeline of the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse

Several weeks before they were arrested in the July 7 assassination of the Haitian president, 13 Colombian nationals – some of them former military – traveled to the Dominican Republic, the country that shares an island with Haiti, according to Colombian police.

The men arrived in two groups. A group of two traveled through Panama in early May, and a group of 11 traveled directly from Bogota on June 4, according to flight records released by the Colombian police.

At least two of the men visited a popular tourist destination in the capital city Santo Domingo, according to images the police released. Those photos, along with images of the same location from one of the suspect’s social media accounts, are the earliest known images showing the alleged mercenaries were in the same location before the attack.

The Washington Post gathered photos and videos of the suspects and of the hours before and after the assassination to assemble a timeline of how the brazen attack unfolded.

It remains unclear who organized the attack on the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse. The detained suspects include two U.S. citizens of Haitian descent, identified as Florida residents James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55, according to Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s minister of elections and interparty relations. An official who interrogated the pair said Solages claimed he was hired as an interpreter for “foreigners” after applying for the job online. The men and some of their family members claim that they didn’t know the president was going to be assassinated.

Solages told the official they were acting on an order to arrest the president authorized by a judge. He admitted to meeting with the foreigners for about a month, eating at the restaurant inside the Royal Oasis Hotel, 10 minutes from the president’s residence where the assassination took place.

Officials have not yet provided evidence of the detainees’ involvement in the assassination, and questions remain about who launched the attack and why. As of July 10, officials have said that 28 alleged assailants were involved, with 20 captured, three killed and five still on the run.

The attack by the alleged assailants that Haitian authorities have described as “commandos” comes amid months of escalating political instability and gang violence that have critically eroded the rule of law in the Caribbean nation of 11 million. Moïse, 53, dissolved parliament in January 2020 and ruled by decree as opponents and protesters demanded that he step down. Armed gangs with unclear allegiances have seized control of growing portions of the country, terrorizing the population with kidnappings, rapes and killings.

Moïse’s assassination has plunged the country into deeper crisis as authorities search for those responsible.

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On Friday, the Colombian police announced that 41-year-old Manuel Antonio Grosso Guarin, a former Colombian soldier, had been detained by Haitian authorities along with 10 other Colombian nationals for their alleged involvement in the assassination. Most were members of the large group that traveled on Flight 252 with Avianca, a Colombia-based airline, and crossed into Haiti by June 6, Colombian police said.

Two Colombian suspects were killed in the attack, Mauricio Javier Romero Medina and Duberney Capador Giraldo. Giraldo and another suspect had flown to Panama from Colombia and then traveled on to the Dominican Republic before continuing into Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, in the first half of May, flight records show.

Colombian authorities said they have launched an investigation into the men’s alleged involvement.

At least 15 images posted to Grosso’s Facebook profile dated June 6, 2021, show the former soldier traveled to the Dominican Republic, where he visited Santo Domingo.

Grosso poses for pictures, often accompanied by a group of men, at popular tourist destinations in the city. In a photo released by Colombian authorities, he is seen at the Columbus Lighthouse in the capital.

An image released by Colombian police shows an individual they did not name but identified as a suspect at the same location as Grosso. The image shows at least six men wearing the same clothing as men seen in images shared by Grosso on June 6.

In the background of the photo a man is seen wearing the same clothing as Grosso in photos posted to Facebook and presented by the Colombian police.

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The attack occurred around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, July 7, according to the Embassy of Haiti, at Moïse’s residence. Haitian authorities, eyewitnesses and videos indicated the alleged assailants were speaking Spanish and English.

Three videos, filmed at night and alleging to be from the morning of the assassination, circulated online. They all have similar characteristics – black frames with dotted white lights and a person talking through some sort of loudspeaker: “This is a DEA operation.” Haiti’s ambassador to the United States, Bocchit Edmond, said “They were screaming ‘DEA operation,’ but we know it was fake. We know they were not DEA agents.”

Solages told investigators that he called out to the president’s guards, claiming to be from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

U.S. officials have strongly denied the claim that the DEA were involved, and Haitian officials dismissed that possibility. Ralph Chevry, a board member of the Haiti Center for Socio Economic Policy in the capital Port-au-Prince, said the audio announcement of a DEA operation “sounded like a ruse, a tactic.”

Video of the security response after the attack shows armed men outside the residence as a car alarm blares. The Journal La Diaspora told Storyful News that one of their reporters filmed the video in the wake of the assassination at the president’s residence.

First lady Martine Moïse was wounded in the attack. She was flown to an airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and is being treated at a hospital in Miami.

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The assassination was followed by firefights between suspects and police. At least three suspects were killed. Photos show two bodies inside a car outside a police station.

Photos also show the detained suspects in the bed of a police truck.

Video footage from the official Facebook account of Haiti’s Prime Minister on Thursday shows Grosso and other alleged mercenaries detained.

In photos of Grosso’s arrest, he is in the same green shirt and jeans as the video and has a mole underneath his right eye. A photo from his Facebook page shows a mole in the same spot underneath his right eye.

In a separate video of Grosso, where he and another suspect, bloodied and with their arms bound, are led by a crowd through a residential area, a tattoo is visible, which matches the location of a tattoo in images posted to his Facebook profile.

Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph announced a nationwide state of siege after Moïse’s death, with security under the control of the armed forces and police. This status provides powers to the government for 15 days to search homes and property, to restrict the right to gather and to control the roads, among other measures. Despite the state of siege, the country faces escalating chaos amid a lack of clarity over who has the authority to lead the country.

Published : July 12, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Dalton Bennett, Sarah Cahlan, Elyse Samuels, Anthony Faiola