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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015248

According to Maria van Kerkhove from the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, BA.4 and BA.5 have been detected in a number of countries. The WHO is still evaluating the severity of the two new variants.

Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized on Wednesday that vaccines are still highly effective against COVID-19, even new variants of the disease emerging in South Africa and the United States.
 

WHO data shows that global cases of COVID-19 are continually declining, with reported weekly deaths at their lowest level since March 2020. However, the Organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned at a press briefing on Wednesday that these trends don’t tell the full story.

“Driven by Omicron sub-variants, we are seeing an increase in reported cases in the Americas and Africa. The South African scientists who identified Omicron late last year have now reported two more Omicron sub-variants, BA.4 and BA.5, as the reason for a spike in cases in South Africa,” he said.

“It’s too soon to know whether these new sub-variants can cause more severe disease than other Omicron sub-variants, but early data suggests vaccination remains protective against severe disease and death,” he added.

Technical lead for the WHO

According to Maria van Kerkhove from the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, BA.4 and BA.5 have been detected in a number of countries. The WHO is still evaluating the severity of the two new variants.

However, van Kerkhove said it is not yet possible to confirm whether BA.4 and BA.5 have resulted in increased hospitalizations, as any rise in numbers could be due to a general spike in case numbers in South Africa. Nevertheless, she emphasized: “Vaccines still work incredibly well against preventing severe disease and death.”

She also called for monitoring of, and testing for COVID-19 to continue in order for the WHO to be able to provide the public with the most accurate information and advice possible. 

A health worker displays the COVID-19 vaccine at Sotiria Hospital in Athens, Greece, Dec. 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

Published : May 05, 2022

By : Xinhua

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015239

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday (May 4) raised its overnight interest rate by half a percentage point, the biggest jump in 22 years, and the U.S. central bank’s chief made an appeal to Americans to hang tough while officials take the hard measures to bring it under control.

In a widely expected move, the Fed set its target federal funds rate to a range between 0.75% and 1% in a unanimous decision, with further rises in borrowing costs of a perhaps similar magnitude likely to follow.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, however, told reporters that a rate increase of as much as three-quarters of a percentage point is not something officials are “actively considering.”

The Fed also said it would start next month to reduce the roughly $9 trillion stash of assets accumulated during the coronavirus pandemic in another lever to bring inflation under control.

U.S. stock markets moved sharply higher after the announcement, extending gains after Powell poured cold water on the idea of hiking rates by three-quarters of a percentage point in the near future.

Yields on government bonds moved lower.

The dollar weakened against a basket of major trading partners’ currencies.

Published : May 05, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015233

France’s Socialist party and the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party have reached an agreement in principle to ally the June parliament vote, LFI politician Adrien Quatennens said on Franceinfo radio on Wednesday (May 4).

The coalition deal, shaped under the leadership of hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, is an attempt to deprive Macron of a majority in parliament in the June 12-19 vote and block his pro-business agenda.

Melenchon, a radical eurosceptic, has managed to unite the Greens, the Communists and the Socialists under a new banner that could raise eyebrows across the EU, as its platform aims to challenge the main tenets of the bloc’s economic policies.

A source in the Socialist Party said that there was a deal on who would run in what constituency and on the overall strategy, but negotiators still needed to finalise a deal on the programme itself.

The deal would then need to be approved by the Socialist Party’s national committee.

LFI earlier made similar deals with the French Greens and the Communists, creating a united front under the leadership of Melenchon. The deal, if confirmed, will unite parties that have run separately in elections since the left-green coalition deal of 1997-2002.

The latest Harris Interactive poll showed the two sides are neck and neck, with both a united left and an alliance between Macron’s party and the conservatives seen garnering 33% of the legislative vote. However, in France’s two-round election system, projections show this could still translate into a majority of seats for the president.

Policies of the new alliance, which will run under the “Social and Ecological People’s Union,” also include plans to lower the retirement age to 60, raise the minimum wage and cap prices on essential products.

Published : May 04, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015223

Countries should not impose indiscriminate sanctions on Russia, the investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta’s editor-in-chief and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Dmitry Muratov said on Tuesday (May 3).

The Russian journalist was invited to a ceremony to celebrate World Press Freedom Day in Geneva, organised by the Graduate Institute. He attended alongside his colleague from the Philippines who also won the Nobel peace prize last year, Maria Ressa.

Asked about sanctions imposed on his country for waging war against Ukraine, Muratov said they “should not be like Grad ground-to-ground missile.”

“Sometimes, these sanctions were something like a flashmob. People didn’t delve deep into what is what,” he added, citing the example of ill children in Russia who cannot be treated due to sanctions.

“It’s unacceptable, as these people are already between life and death. And to condemn them to die, especially, sorry, children who did not choose Putin… what’s this all about?” he said.

On Tuesday (May 3), the European Union announced that it will slap new sanctions on Moscow targeting the oil industry, more banks and those responsible for disinformation.

Muratov was attacked on a train with red paint on April 7, in an apparent protest at his newspaper’s coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Pictures posted by the newspaper on the Telegram messaging app showed Muratov with red paint on his head and clothes and around his sleeping compartment on a Moscow-Samara train.

“He is connected to an organisation of war veterans, close to various private military companies and military brotherhoods. So, these are proxies,” said Muratov, adding that he didn’t have any information on whether Russian intelligence services were involved in the incident.

Pressure against liberal Russian media outlets has mounted since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February, with most mainstream media and state-controlled organisations sticking closely to the language used by the Kremlin to describe the conflict. Several opposition activists have reported threatening messages painted on the doors of their apartments.

“Some of our staff have left the country. A majority of them remained in Moscow, that’s why, I will, of course, return to Moscow too,” he said.

Published : May 04, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015221

The European Commission is going to submit a plan to replace Russian natural gas with other sources later this month, said European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson on Tuesday.

Speaking at a European Parliament plenary session, Simson said the European Union plans to replace two-thirds of natural gas imported from Russia by the end of this year.

She said the EU had approached all major suppliers to find alternative sources of natural gas. The plan also includes the use of more renewable energy to replace natural gas, as well as a series of energy-saving measures.

For Europe, the consequences of weaning off energy from Russia could be dire, as the continent is relying on Russian energy to heat its buildings, power its industry and generate electricity.

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund slashed its euro-area growth forecast for 2022 by over one percentage point to 2.8-per cent, citing rising global energy prices and energy insecurity.

The EU’s biggest economy, Germany, would not be able to cope with stoppages in Russian gas supplies, as Moscow accounts for 55 per cent of all German gas imports.

The German central bank Bundesbank has warned that an immediate EU ban on Russian gas imports would dent Germany’s GDP by 5 per cent this year.

Published : May 04, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015219

Chinese scientists are establishing a meteorological monitoring station at an altitude of 8,800 meters on Mount Qomolangma, on the China-Nepal border.

The 13 members of the scientific research team started the trek towards an 8,300-meter base camp on Mount Qomolangma from a 7,028-meter camp on Tuesday morning and reached the camp in the afternoon. They went on the last section of the arduous journey up on Wednesday morning.

At about 11:00 on Wednesday, the team reached the location for setting up the weather station.

If the station is established successfully, it will replace the one at an altitude of 8,430 meters set up by the British and U.S. scientists on the south side of the mountain in 2019, to be the world’s highest of its kind, according to the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Including the highest, eight elevation gradient meteorological stations will be set up on Mount Qomolangma, one of the main tasks in China’s new comprehensive scientific expedition on the world’s highest peak at the height of 8,848.86 meters.

Three meteorological stations were established at 7,028 meters, 7,790 meters and 8,300 meters, respectively, earlier this year on the north side of the mountain, bringing the total number of operational weather stations between the altitudes between 5,200 meters and 8,300 meters to seven. Last year, four stations at sea levels of 6,500 meters, 5,800 meters, 5,400 meters and 5,200 meters were set up.

The new comprehensive scientific expedition on Mount Qomolangma is part of China’s second scientific research survey on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which started in 2017.

The eight stations will collect the wind speed and wind direction data, as well as relative humidity on the north side of Qomolangma, and the elevation gradient meteorological station system is of great significance for monitoring the melting glaciers and mountain snow at the high altitudes.

The expedition team will also set up glacier radar and measure the thickness of snow and ice at the summit of the mountain.

Published : May 04, 2022

By : Reuters