WHO officially declares China malaria-free #SootinClaimon.Com

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40002655

WHO officially declares China malaria-free


From 30 million malaria cases in the 1940s, China brought down that number over the last decades, to finally achieve no cases in the last four years, the WHO said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday officially granted China a malaria-free certification as a token of celebration of the country’s successful elimination of the disease after 70 years of its struggles against malaria.

From 30 million malaria cases in the 1940s, China brought down that number over the last decades, to finally achieve no cases in the last four years, the WHO said.

“Today we congratulate the people of China on ridding the country of malaria,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Their success was hard-earned and came only after decades of targeted and sustained action,” he added.

China’s efforts against malaria started in the 1950s, as the disease was rampant in the southern part of the country, close to other hotspots in mainland Southeast Asia.

The “523 Project” — a research program launched in 1967 — allowed Chinese Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou to discover artemisinin, one of the most effective antimalarial drugs nowadays, according to the WHO.

Over the last two decades, China ramped up its efforts and reduced the number of cases in the 1990s from 117,000 to 5,000 annually by providing staff training, laboratory equipment, antimalarial medicines and new methods to control mosquito propagation.

The “1-3-7” strategy — one day to report a case, three days to confirm a case and seven days to prevent further spread of the disease — was also a tool of success and is still used nowadays for travelers coming from malaria-infected countries.

No cases were reported in China in the last four years, warranting the malaria-free credential by the WHO.

“Over many decades, China’s ability to think outside the box served the country well in its own response to malaria, and also had a significant ripple effect globally,” said Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme. 

Published : June 30, 2021

By : Xinhua

Ash clouds belched as far as 2,000 m to the southeast from Indonesias Mount Merapi #SootinClaimon.Com

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40002628

Ash clouds belched as far as 2,000 m to the southeast from Indonesias Mount Merapi


Indonesias most active volcano Merapi has belched ash clouds as far as 2,000 m to the southeast, the Geological Disaster Technology Research and Development Center (BPPTKG) said Tuesday.

The hot clouds erupted at 11:32 a.m. local time with an amplitude of 60 mm, a duration of 152 seconds, and winds moving to the west.

Based on monitoring from midnight to 12:00 a.m. local time, seismographs recorded the 2,968-meter-high mountain, located on the border between Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces, also emitted lava eight times to the southwest as far as 1,500 m, and five times to the southeast as far as 500 m.

The Indonesian authorities have urged people not to move to the dangerous areas and to stay alert to possible eruptions, especially when it rains around Merapi.

Published : June 30, 2021

By : Xinhua

Asean sees over 38,400 new cases #SootinClaimon.Com

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40002615

Asean sees over 38,400 new cases


The number of Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asia crossed 4.85 million, with 38,483 new cases reported on Tuesday – lower than Monday’s tally of 39,463 – while new deaths were 739, increasing from Monday’s 614 and taking total coronavirus deaths across Asean to 93,674.

Indonesia reported 20,467 patients and 463 deaths on Tuesday, bringing cumulative cases in that country to 2,156,465 patients and a total 58,024 deaths.

The government is preparing to impose stricter disease control measures in Java and on Bali starting July 3 as infections in these areas are climbing.

Laos meanwhile reported 25 new cases on Tuesday, taking its cumulative cases to 2,101 patients. Of these, 1,958 people have been cured and discharged.

The government is concerned that workers who are returning from Thailand will carry the Delta variant and urged all agencies to be extra cautious.

Published : June 30, 2021

By : THE NATION

John McAfees death complicates U.S. efforts to seize his assets #SootinClaimon.Com

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40002612

John McAfees death complicates U.S. efforts to seize his assets


John McAfees death last week in a Spanish prison complicates the U.S. governments intent to recover millions of dollars it says the software tycoon owed in taxes and allegedly ill-gotten gains from promoting cryptocurrencies.

John McAfee during a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong on Sept. 20, 2017. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Anthony Kwan.

McAfee, who decades ago founded the anti-virus company that bears his name, was found dead in his cell just hours after Spanish courts approved his extradition to the U.S. to face charges of tax evasion. U.S. prosecutors accused McAfee of not filing tax returns from 2014 to 2018 even as he earned millions from “promoting cryptocurrencies, consulting work, speaking engagements and selling the rights to his life story for a documentary,” according to an indictment last June in a U.S. court in Tennessee, where he once lived.

Spanish court documents released last week alleged he owed the U.S. government more than $4.2 million in taxes. Separately, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claimed McAfee promoted investments in initial coin offerings without disclosing he was paid more than $23 million to do so. The U.S. Department of Justice has a similar case against him.

According to the indictment, McAfee managed to avoid paying taxes by routing his payments through bank accounts and cryptocurrency accounts set up in other people’s names and hiding assets like real estate, a vehicle and a yacht also under the names of others.

Such a complex money trail could keep lawyers busy for years. “This will be a long burn,” said Gwynn Hopkins, a forensic accountant at Perun Consultants in Hong Kong.

But the fact that McAfee died before a verdict was reached in his case means any criminal case against him will be dropped, according to legal experts. And, most countries don’t enforce foreign judgments in relation to tax, Hopkins said. “The general position that’s established is that nation states don’t act as tax collectors for sister states unless there’s a treaty.”

Still, while McAfee’s death means he’ll never be convicted, the U.S. can continue its case by going “after his money, not his freedom,” according to federal defense attorney Nick Oberheiden.

The route to potentially recover any of McAfee’s property or assets will now be through suing his estate through a process known as civil forfeiture. The move is uncommon outside of the U.S., according to Evelyn Baltodano-Sheehan, a former prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of Florida, and currently a partner at law firm Kobre & Kim, in Miami. The Department of Justice has been seeking to export the idea to other jurisdictions precisely because of situations like McAfee’s, she said.

“For the most part, in a civil forfeiture case, the government would have to prove the same thing they have to in a criminal case, that someone committed an offense, that the property in question was either derived from or used to commit that offense,” Baltodano-Sheehan said. “A person contesting the forfeiture has the right to force the government to prove his case to a jury. There’s a lot of due process,” she said.

The civil forfeiture process is also an effective way of recouping funds in the form of cryptocurrency, she said. The U.S. government is working with a growing number of private partners to quickly map out where Bitcoin went and in what exchanges funds might be held.

“Their resources and their capabilities in the crypto space are increasingly better,” she said. “Just because it’s crypto doesn’t mean it’s gone and unrecoverable, there’s tons of options that you can have both on the criminal side as well as civil litigation, very fact-specific, very jurisdiction-specific, where, if it’s actually there, there is a good chance that you can get a court to freeze it.”

Before anything else can happen, however, there needs to be a death certificate or proof of death from Spanish authorities, according to legal experts, which hasn’t been produced yet. McAfee’s lawyer, Nishay Sanan, has said that until they receive the documents, nothing will move forward. Spanish authorities have said results of the official autopsy could take as long as several weeks. A preliminary autopsy showed he died by suicide, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais.

Meanwhile, McAfee’s wife and legal team will vigorously defend his estate. The cybersecurity pioneer had argued that the extradition request was politically motivated and therefore wasn’t appropriate. “We were actively working on Mr. McAfee’s case and were preparing to fight for his innocence before the United States courts,” Andrew Gordon, another of McAfee’s attorneys, told USA Today. “John was eager to share his side of the story.”

On Friday, McAfee’s wife demanded a “thorough investigation” of his death, and said that when she last spoke to him earlier in the day he was found dead, her husband didn’t sound like someone who was suicidal. The U.S. State Department said it’s “closely monitoring local authorities’ investigation into the cause of death,” according to the AP.

The U.S. government will now have to weigh the prospects of a lengthy and expensive legal battle with the possibility that there may not be much money left to recoup, if they can even find it. U.S. legal authorities will now likely subpoena information from those responsible for his estate.

Once worth more than $100 million, McAfee’s fortune was reduced to $4 million following a series of failed investments in real estate and stocks, the New York Times reported in 2009. McAfee, who resigned from the security software company he founded decades ago, was also notorious for his drug use, which he has spoken about publicly, and hiring of prostitutes. After losing his fortune in the stock market crash, McAfee moved to Belize. In 2012, local authorities accused him of assembling a private army and he was sought for questioning in connection with the murder of his neighbor Gregory V. Faull. He was never charged with a crime, but fled to Guatemala where he was detained and released before eventually returning to the U.S. McAfee said he was innocent.

McAfee’s case has some parallels with another high-profile fraud case where the defendant died. In 2001, Kenneth Lay, the former chief executive officer of Enron Corp., was charged with 10 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud and bank fraud that led to the second-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at the time. He was convicted in May 2006 and died of a heart attack two months later.

A federal judge tossed out the original verdict on grounds that Lay hadn’t had a chance to appeal it before he died. The U.S. government filed a civil forfeiture action against Lay’s estate, seeking to strip it of $12.7 million in allegedly ill-gotten gains. In April 2013, the U.S. government settled with Lay’s estate and was awarded $2.7 million in cash after Lay’s widow was forced to sell the couple’s penthouse.

Published : June 30, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Monica Greig, Jamie Tarabay

Asean reports over 39,000 Covid-19 cases for fourth consecutive day #SootinClaimon.Com

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40002578

Asean reports over 39,000 Covid-19 cases for fourth consecutive day


Southeast Asia reported 39,463 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, higher than Sunday’s 39,054, but deaths were lower at 614, down from the previous days 665.

The number of Covid-19 cases crossed 4.81 million across Asean, while the death toll rose to 92,935.

Indonesia reported more than half the cases in the region with 20,694 and 423 deaths on Monday, taking cumulative cases in the country to 2,135,998 patients and the death toll to 57,561. Indonesia’s medical association said that since the outbreak had started 405 doctors and 326 nurses have died due to Covid-19. The province that has reported the most deaths of both professions is East Java, with 69 doctors and 117 nurses dying.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian prime minister announced a 150-billion ringgit (THB1.15 trillion) aid package to help those affected by the outbreak after the government extended the countrywide lockdown indefinitely. The package includes a wage subsidy programme, cash aid, loan moratoriums, tax breaks, grants, subsidies and other measures. The government will also spend an additional 1 billion ringgit to ramp up the inoculation programme, including 400 million ringgit to buy more vaccines.

Published : June 29, 2021

By : THE NATION

Canada sets record temperature of over 114 degrees amid heat wave, forecasts of even hotter weather #SootinClaimon.Com

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40002576

Canada sets record temperature of over 114 degrees amid heat wave, forecasts of even hotter weather


Lytton, a village in British Columbia, became the first place in Canada to ever record a temperature over 113 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday – and experts are predicting even hotter weather to come.

The temperature in Lytton soared to just under 115 degrees Sunday, according to Environment Canada, a government weather agency.

That’s just one degree lower than the all-time record in Las Vegas. The previous records for hottest temperature, both 113 degrees, were set in Yellow Grass and Midale in Saskatchewan on July 5, 1937.

“It’s warmer in parts of western Canada than in Dubai. I mean, it’s just not something that seems Canadian,” Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips told CTV News on Saturday.

Even in the metropolitan hub of Vancouver, parks, beaches and pools have been flooded with residents eager to cool off as the temperature hit 89 degrees at the local airport on Sunday – a record in a coastal city that usually has mild weather.

This year, Canada’s record comes amid a severe heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, where Portland and Seattle have set records: 112 degrees and 103 degrees, respectively.

Lytton’s record may not stand for long. In a tweet, Environment Canada suggested that as more readings from Sunday come in, new records could be set.

And the heat wave is expected to continue for several more days. CTV News reported that predictions for Tuesday suggest Lytton could reach almost 117 degrees.

The high temperatures in the region have been blamed on a “heat dome” – a sprawling area of high pressure – currently sitting over western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. Experts say climate change can make extreme weather events like this more common.

Air conditioning is not standard in British Columbia, and Canadian outlets reported that locals were having a hard time finding air conditioners and fans over the weekend.

Environment Canada has issued heat warnings for a variety of people, including young children, pregnant women, the elderly and those with chronic illnesses.

BC Hydro, the main electric utility company in British Columbia, warned Monday that electricity demand was also setting records. “Extreme heat leads to record-breaking electricity demand for a second day in a row,” the company said on Twitter.

Published : June 29, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Adam Taylor

UN human rights chief calls for reparations to address systemic racism around the world #SootinClaimon.Com

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40002575

UN human rights chief calls for reparations to address systemic racism around the world


Two days after the sentencing of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, which sparked a global reckoning over racism and policing, the United Nations Human Rights Council released a report calling on countries to adopt a “transformative agenda” to fight systemic racism.

The wide-ranging report, ordered last year in the wake of Floyd’s killing, examined deaths by police across nations and legal systems, and found “an alarming picture of systemwide, disproportionate” burdens on Black people in their encounters with police and criminal justice systems internationally. Across borders, the report noted “striking similarities” and patterns, including in victims’ fight for justice, and made sweeping recommendations, mostly without dwelling on specific national circumstances.

“Racial discrimination in law enforcement cannot, as the Human Rights Council recognized, be separated from questions of systemic racism,” wrote U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile, in the report. “Only approaches that tackle both the endemic shortcomings in law enforcement, and address systemic racism – and the legacies it is built on – will do justice to the memory of George Floyd and so many others whose lives have been lost or irreparably damaged.”

Bachelet recommends a whole-of-society, time-bound mechanism to advance racial justice in the context of law enforcement all across the world, identifying a “long-overdue need to confront the legacies of enslavement . . . and to seek reparatory justice.”

The report makes a broad case for reparations. “Reparations should not only be equated with financial compensation,” she wrote, arguing that the concept should also include restitution, rehabilitation, educational reforms, acknowledgment, apologies, memorialization and “guarantees” against further injustice.

In June 2020, the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council adopted unanimously a resolution brought by African nations that condemned discrimination and violence in policing and requested the report on systemic racism.

“It is important to show Africa . . . the Human Rights Council has heard the plight of African and people of African descent calling for equal treatment and application of equal rights for all,” said Ambassador Dieudonné W. Désiré Sougouri of Burkina Faso, who presented the African resolution in 2020.

Bachelet called out governments that deny that racism “is still happening now, as well as what happened in the past” – and emphasized the importance of “debunking false narratives.”

In analyzing 190 police-related fatalities, the report found that in many cases the victims did not pose a threat that would justify the levels of force used.

Across countries, rarely were the law enforcement officers held accountable for apparent overreach or human rights violations, the report said. Reasons given included insufficient investigations, lack of oversight and accountability mechanisms, and a “presumption of guilt” affecting Black people, along with trials without a mechanism to factor in racial discrimination and institutional bias.

The U.N. investigation also looked into disproportionate use of force at anti-racism protests, including in the United States. It found that a large number of protesters were arrested and labeled as “terrorists” and “sick and deranged anarchists and agitators.” Bachelet wrote that such clampdowns should be seen within the broader context of intimidation and reprisals against those standing against racism.

The past year of mobilization against racism internationally has shifted debates toward systemic and institutionally perpetuated racism, the report found, and it says that systemic racism needs a systemic response.

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Published : June 29, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Sammy Westfall

US forces come under fire after airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria, Iraq #SootinClaimon.Com

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40002574

US forces come under fire after airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria, Iraq


U.S. forces said Monday that they came under rocket attack hours after they carried out airstrikes against Iran-backed militia targets in Syria and Iraq in what officials had described as an effort to deter mounting violence by anti-American groups.

Aspokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, Army Col. Wayne Marotto, said that multiple rockets had targeted a facility housing U.S. troops near al-Omar oil field in northeast Syria. No casualties were reported. Marotto said U.S. forces responded in self-defense with artillery fire targeting positions where the rockets were launched.

No one claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks, but video of the assault was shared on Telegram social media channels used by the militias.

U.S. officials have said the American airstrikes carried out a night earlier were meant to stem militia attacks on U.S. forces, but the Iran-backed groups have sworn revenge, raising the prospect of a further escalation.

The Iraqi government condemned the U.S. airstrike against Iranian-linked militias on Iraqi soil early Monday, underscoring how combustible the situation has become. Iraq described the overnight strike as a “blatant” violation of national sovereignty that breached international conventions.

“Iraq reiterates its refusal to be an arena for settling scores,” Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said in a statement, urging both sides to refrain from escalation.

The latest violence comes amid rising U.S. concern over the use of small, explosive-laden drones by Iran-backed groups targeting American and Iraqi personnel in Iraq. U.S. officials describe the emerging drone threat as one of the chief concerns for the small U.S. military mission remaining in the country.

The U.S. airstrikes followed a spate of drone strikes early Saturday in Iraq’s Kurdish region. A congressional aide with knowledge of the Biden administration’s decision-making said the attacks involved Iranian-manufactured drones similar to those that have prompted alarm in Washington as they evade detection systems and strike sensitive targets.

Kadhimi is under pressure from Washington to rein in attacks on U.S.-linked targets. But in practice, Iraq’s network of militia groups, some of them backed by Iran, often hold more power than the prime minister does, experts say, heightening the stakes for any confrontation with them.

As if to underscore the point, thousands of Iraqi paramilitary fighters marched Saturday in the eastern province of Diyala as part of an annual parade, attended this year by Kadhimi, that showcased the range of tanks and rocket launchers in their disposal.

Hours earlier in Iraq’s Irbil province, two of the Iran-linked drones landed roughly a mile from where a new U.S. Consulate is being built, according to the congressional aide and the area’s governor.

In the airstrikes that followed, U.S. forces hit one site used in the launch and recovery of armed unmanned aircraft and another targeted site was a logistics hub, said an official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, an Iran-backed group largely based in Iraq, said that four of its militiamen were killed. Photographs suggested that the youngest among them was in his early 20s.

A U.S. official with knowledge of the strikes said that the deaths appeared to have happened in Syria and that the strike in Iraq had targeted a storage facility with nobody on-site.

Separately, Syrian state media said, without providing evidence, that U.S. strikes hit residential buildings near the border around 1 a.m. local time, killing a child and wounding three residents.

The militia groups that were targeted said they would seek revenge. “We will not remain silent about the continued presence of the American occupation forces,” groups calling themselves the Iraqi Resistance Coordination Commission said in a statement. “We will make the enemy taste the bitterness of revenge.”

During a visit to Rome on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he hoped the U.S. airstrikes would deter future attacks by Iraqi militias. “I think we’ve demonstrated both with the actions taken last night and actions taken previously that the president is fully prepared to act and act appropriately and deliberately to protect U.S. interests, to protect our people, to protect our personnel,” he said, referring to an earlier set of strikes on the Syrian side of the border.

U.S. officials have counted at least six attacks since April that use drones that appear to have been manufactured by Iran or by its proxies.

“President Biden has been clear that he will act to protect U.S. personnel,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. “Given the ongoing series of attacks by Iran-backed groups targeting U.S. interests in Iraq, the president directed further military action to disrupt and deter such attacks.”

Iraqi officials have lobbied their U.S. counterparts to avoid retaliatory strikes on Iraqi soil, arguing that they would complicate the already delicate politics surrounding the remaining U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq.

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That force has been cut in half to roughly 3,000 troops since the start of last year, after the U.S. assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and senior Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis outside Baghdad Airport prompted Iraq’s parliament to urge the expulsion of all U.S. troops.

Despite significant pressure to produce a timetable for the force’s final departure, Iraqi military officials argue that the force’s intelligence and aerial support are still crucial elements in maintaining pressure on Islamic State remnants in Iraq.

The U.S. strikes came after increasingly brazen and sophisticated attacks by Iranian-backed militias on U.S.-linked forces. Officials in Washington say these are probably linked to Kataib Hezbollah, a group that U.S. forces have bombed on several occasions in Iraq.

Increasingly, militiamen are now turning to small, fixed-wing drones that fly too low to be picked up by defensive systems, military officials and diplomats have said. In April, one of the drones hit a CIA hangar in Irbil province, concerning U.S. officials so much that retaliatory military action was briefly considered. A U.S.-led coalition official said that the drone had been tracked to within 10 miles of its target before it strayed into a civilian flight path, making interception too risky.

Fears have been mounting that continuing militia attacks could trigger an escalation in violence between U.S. forces and Iranian-backed groups that operate in the region.

Published : June 29, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Louisa Loveluck, John Hudson, Alex Horton

Japans government on high alert as virus cases rise in Tokyo ahead of Olympics #SootinClaimon.Com

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40002572

Japans government on high alert as virus cases rise in Tokyo ahead of Olympics


Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the government must be on high alert as virus cases begin to rise in the capital, about three weeks before Tokyo hosts the Olympics.

“While there is a downward trend across the country as a whole, there is a slight upward trend in the capital region,” Suga told reporters Monday. “We must be on a high state of alert in dealing with the virus.” He added that he would be nimble in adjusting policies to deal with the situation.

Case numbers in Tokyo have been creeping up over the past week, since Suga lifted a state of emergency imposed to rein in infections. Any sharp increase could mean the emergency is reintroduced, further restricting residents’ activities even while the games are taking place.

The seven-day moving average of new virus infections recorded in Tokyo rose to 477 on Sunday, compared with 388 the previous week.

Suga’s comments came as the capital’s government announced Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike would take a few more days away from public duties on the advice of a doctor, extending an already week-long absence.

Koike had been expected to return to work Monday, after taking time off to recuperate from fatigue. She was taken to a hospital last Tuesday, Kyodo News reported, without saying whether she had received a specific diagnosis.

Koike, 68, has led Tokyo’s response throughout the coronavirus crisis, often appearing to adopt a more cautious stance than Suga’s government. She has retained relatively strong public backing, with 57% of respondents to a poll of Tokyo residents published by the Asahi newspaper on Monday saying they supported her.

Koike said on June 7 she had received her first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

The political veteran has stepped out of the spotlight at a critical time, just before local elections in Tokyo on July 4. Koike’s term as governor has three more years to run, but she must work closely with the victorious parties in the assembly, which may include Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party.

Controversy continues to rage over the Olympics, which are set to open July 23. About 58% of respondents to a Mainichi newspaper survey published on Monday said they opposed the games. Japan’s Imperial Household Agency even weighed in, saying last week Emperor Naruhito may have concerns the Olympics could cause coronavirus infections to rise.

About 55% of respondents to the Asahi survey said they approved of Koike’s handling of the virus, compared with 35% who said they didn’t. Asked about her handling of the Olympics, voters were evenly divided, with 42% saying they approved and the same percentage disapproving.

Koike, a former TV news anchor, defense and environment minister, left her seat as a Liberal Democratic Party member of parliament in her successful bid to become the first female governor of Tokyo in 2016. Her party challenged then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s LDP unsuccessfully in parliamentary elections the following year.

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Published : June 29, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Isabel Reynolds

Iceland ends covid restrictions with 87% getting shots #SootinClaimon.Com

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40002571

Iceland ends covid restrictions with 87% getting shots


Iceland is abolishing all domestic covid-19 restrictions, with officials saying 87% of those 16 and older have received at least one vaccine dose.

The island nation, with a population of about 369,000, has seen 6,637 cases, with 30 deaths. About 48% of the population is fully vaccinated, which puts the nation in line with the rate in the U.K. and just above the U.S. rate, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.

Iceland could be one of the first European countries to end restrictions, Iceland Health Minister Svandis Svavarsdottir said in announcing the move in a news briefing Friday. The limits will officially end on Saturday.

“The incredible thing that has happened is that vaccinations are happening fast and surely,” Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said at the briefing. In this respect, she added, “the situation here is among the best in the world.”

Thorolfur Gudnason, the nation’s epidemiologist, has — much like Anthony Fauci in the U.S. — taken a highly public role in combating the disease, appearing regularly in televised meetings that have helped keep Icelanders informed and the vaccination effort running smoothly.

“The information flow was immensely important,” Jakobsdottir said, “because this result cannot be reached without the participation of the public. And the public does not take part unless they understand the measures, believes they are wise and understands their reasoning.”

Iceland is still mandating that visitors to the country be tested upon arrival. Those who aren’t vaccinated need to quarantine for 5 days before being tested again. Starting in July, vaccinated passengers and children will be exempt from testing.

Jakobsdottir also credited the Nordic welfare system for the success, saying it helped boost the public’s trust. “I am relentless in speaking for a health system where everyone has equal access,” she said.

Gudnason, meanwhile, referred to Iceland’s lifting of restrictions as an “incremental victory” with the pandemic still ongoing in other countries. In Iceland “everyone has been rowing in the same direction,” he said, “and that is the reason we have had the results we have.”

A lesson learned from the battle against covid is that the system for reacting to such a medical cataclysm should not be “too complicated,” he said, adding that there needs to be clear roles for parties directly involved.

Published : June 29, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Ragnhildur Sigurdardottir