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Iran appears to have been responsible for a drone attack last week on a U.S. outpost in Syria, suggesting that a new front could be opening in the low-level conflict that has simmered since the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear accord in 2018.

No U.S. casualties were reported in the attack on the isolated U.S. outpost at Tanf near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders, according to the U.S. military. But pro-Iranian media trumpeted it as a “victory,” and it was the first major attack on U.S. troops in Syria by Iran.

It also marked the biggest and most sophisticated strike against the relatively small U.S. force in Syria, which was deployed in 2015 to support Kurdish-led forces in the fight against the Islamic State.

At a news briefing Monday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby refused to directly blame Iran for the barrage of rockets and exploding drones that caused considerable damage to the base, according to photographs circulating on social media. He described it as “a complex, coordinated and deliberate attack” and noted that similar attacks have been carried out by Iranian-allied Shiite militias against U.S. troops elsewhere.

News outlets affiliated with Iran have not attempted to downplay the likely involvement of Tehran and its allied militias, however, touting the attack in commentaries in recent days as a major success and hinting that more strikes against U.S. troops in Syria will follow.

They attributed the attack to a little known group called Allies of Syria, which earlier this month issued a statement threatening “harsh” retaliation for an Israeli airstrike against an Iranian base outside the Syrian city of Palmyra on Oct. 14. The Israeli strike, the statement said, was launched from the direction of Tanf.

The attack demonstrated “a great deal of boldness and strength” on the part of the Allies of Syria that will change the balance of power in Syria, said Iran’sFars News Agency, which is run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military branch that oversees Iran’s extensive network of militias in the region.

The al-Ahed website, affiliated with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, said the attack heralded the start of “a new phase in the confrontation” in which Iran and its allies would seek to liberate Syria from U.S. troops. It noted that the American withdrawal from Afghanistan “happened only under the pressure of military operations and not political or diplomatic pressure.”

U.S. troops in neighboring Iraq have come under frequent rocket attacks over the past four years, and at least three similar attacks involving drones have been reported in the past year. The United States has retaliated with airstrikes against Iranian-allied militias in both Syria and Iraq, most recently in February, and it might respond to this one, too, Kirby said.

Until recently, the estimated 900 U.S. troops scattered thinly across a vast swath of northeastern Syria and at their lone outpost farther south at Tanf had been largely ignored by the Iranian troops and their militia allies backing President Bashar al-Assad.

That began to change over the summer with a series of largely unreported rocket attacks against U.S. bases in the Kurdish-controlled northeast, said Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He attributed the shift to a decision by Iran to order its allies to refrain from attacking U.S. troops in Iraq to ensure stability in the run-up to parliamentary elections held earlier this month.

The escalation at the Tanf garrison is likely tied to the dimming prospects for a resumption of negotiations to renew the Iran nuclear accord, according to Ali Alfoneh, an Iran expert at the Arab Gulf States Institute.

So far, Iran’s new hard-line government has shown no inclination to return to the talks, and Robert Malley, the U.S. special representative to Iran, warned Monday that the effort to persuade it to do so has entered a “critical phase.”

Speaking in a conference call with reporters after consultations with allies in Europe and Arab states in the Persian Gulf, he described a “shared impatience” with Iran and said he discussed with allies “other tools” that might be used to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon should Tehran continue to refuse to resume the talks.

Alfoneh said Iran may be seeking to secure leverage over the terms under which it returns to the talks by demonstrating its destructive capabilities against U.S. troops in the region. Other attacks may occur, he said, but “nothing major because it’s not in Iran’s interest to escalate too far.”

“This is part of the negotiation. Iran cannot negotiate without military pressure because the U.S. holds all the cards,” he said.

But the Tanf outpost, where a small number of U.S. troops are garrisoned in isolation from the bulk of the American force farther north, has long been a source of frustration to Iran as well as the government in Damascus. It straddles a key crossing on the Syrian-Iraqi border and cuts off a major trade route between Iran, Iraq and Syria, the reports in Iranian-affiliated news outlets noted.

Iran may also be eyeing a deadline for the departure of U.S. combat troops from Iraq at the end of December, which could provide another trigger for renewed pressure on U.S. forces in the region, Knights said.

“Toward the end of the year when the troops are supposed to leave Iraq and with the nuclear agreement not going that well, we’re going to see the temperature rise,” he predicted.

Published : October 27, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40008023

A draft law in Australia seeks to require social media platforms such as Facebook to seek parental consent for children and teens under 16 years old and to strengthen the protection of peoples personal information – or face hefty fines.

Seventeen million Australians use social media, but the existing privacy law “doesn’t provide specific protections against the misuse of Australians’ personal information by social media and other online platforms,” according to the proposed bill.

The draft law sets out an Online Privacy Code with the goal of strengthening the protection of users’ personal information, further protect children and vulnerable groups, and enhance penalties and enforcement mechanisms.

This new privacy code, if adopted, will apply to “organizations providing social media services,” which would include social media sites such as Facebook, dating sites such as Bumble, video-gaming platforms, videoconferencing services and online messaging platforms such as Zoom or WhatsApp, according to the bill’s explanatory paper.

It would also cover “organizations providing data brokerage services” (for instance, companies such as Nielsen and Experian) and “large online platforms” with at least 2.5 million users in the country, which would apply to companies such as Apple, Amazon and Google.

For children and vulnerable groups, the law would require companies that provide social media services to “take all reasonable steps to verify the age of individuals who use the social media service” and “obtain parental and guardian express consent before collecting, using or disclosing the personal information of a child under 16.”

Companies that breach these stipulations could face fines of up to $7.5 million.

Australia has adopted a raft of Internet regulations over the past year, including a law that pushed Facebook and Google to pay for news content and penalize executives over the streaming of violent images.

The negative effects of social media sites on children and teens has been in the spotlight since Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, blew the whistle on the company’s internal practices. A series published by the Wall Street Journal revealed that internal research by Instagram detailed the negative effect the social media platform – which is owned by Facebook – had on the body image of teenage girls.

David Coleman, Australia’s assistant minister to the prime minister for mental health and suicide prevention, said in a statement that the landmark legislation will lead the world in its efforts to protect children from social media platforms. He pointed to a 2018 survey conducted in the country among over 4,000 people between the ages of 12 to 25 in which social media platforms were mentioned as the main cause behind the decline of mental health among young people.

“We’ve been actively calling for privacy regulation and understand the importance of ensuring Australia’s privacy laws evolve at a comparable pace to the rate of innovation and new technology we’re experiencing today,” Mia Garlick, Facebook’s director for public policy for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands, said in a statement.

“We have supported the development of international codes around young people’s data, like the UK Age Appropriate Design Code,” she said. “We’re reviewing the draft bill and discussion paper released today, and look forward to working with the Australian government on this further.”

Published : October 27, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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WASHINGTON – More than 10 months after U.S. adults started receiving coronavirus vaccines, the nations younger children moved significantly closer to getting a shot of protection when advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday endorsed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The advisory committee found that the benefits of the shot outweighed the risks of a rare cardiac side effect and voted 17 to 0 with one abstention to back the vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old, a group that numbers 28 million. While the advice is not binding, the agency is all but certain to grant emergency authorization for the vaccine, perhaps as soon as this week.

A pediatric vaccine has been eagerly anticipated by many parents who want to ensure their children’s safety at school and holiday gatherings. Experts say the immunizations will represent a milestone in a pandemic that has killed more than 737,000 people in the United States.

“To me, it seems that it is a hard decision but a clear one,” said Patrick S. Moore, a University of Pittsburgh microbiologist and committee member. He noted that 94 children between 5 and 11 have died of covid-19, and “all have names. All of them had mothers.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s outside immunization advisers are scheduled to meet Nov. 2 to recommend how to use the vaccine. Once CDC Director Rochelle Walensky signs off, providers would be able to give the two-dose regimen as soon as the first week of November.

The authorization of the first pediatric vaccine would open the latest chapter in an extended effort to immunize the population of the United States against the coronavirus – an endeavor that began last December with the distribution of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for certain adults.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech are expected to have immunity and safety data for children 2 to 4 years old this fall and results for children 6 months to 2 years old shortly thereafter. It is anticipated shots for the youngest children will become available in 2022.

The vote came after a vigorous debate over the safety of the vaccine, which has been linked to rare heart-related complications, such as myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. Some members of the committee questioned whether the shot should be used for all children, or just those at higher risk because of underlying medical conditions. Several expressed discomfort about making the decision without more information, while others said the data on safety and efficacy were strong enough to move ahead.

“So, I guess for me it’s always nerve wracking, I think, when you’re asked to make a decision for millions of children based on studies of only a few thousand children,” said Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “I think I know enough to move forward with the yes vote, but, you know, it’s always never when you know everything, it’s when do you know enough?”

Amanda Cohn, a vaccine expert at the CDC and member of the panel, argued the data clearly showed the vaccine “will prevent deaths, will prevent ICU admissions and will prevent significant long-term adverse outcomes in children.”

But Michael G. Kurilla, an infectious-diseases expert at the National Institutes of Health who abstained from voting, was more skeptical.

“There are high-risk individuals, and I think they do need to be attended to. We do need to provide a vaccine for them,” Kurilla said. “But for many others, one dose or no dose, even. If they’ve had prior covid infection, they may not need anything more.”

Other panel members also said they would have preferred to make more specific recommendations to emphasize that high-risk children with underlying conditions or suppressed immune systems should get the vaccine, but healthy children may hold off.

James E.K. Hildreth Sr., chief executive of Meharry Medical College, said he hoped the CDC’s vaccine advisers, in their meeting next week, would “prioritize the vaccine in some way” for children who face the most risk from the virus. He said he voted to recommend the shot primarily because he wanted “to make sure that the children who really need this vaccine, primarily the black and brown children in our country, get the vaccine.”

Arnold Monto, a University of Michigan epidemiologist who is acting chairman of the panel, reminded other committee members that their vote was just the first step toward making the vaccine available. The CDC may be able to craft more clear guidelines for parents of children 5 to 11 years old, he added.

Cody Meissner, a pediatrician at Tufts Medical Center, said he was worried a broad authorization of the vaccine would lead to vaccine mandates at schools. He said he opposes them until more safety data is available.

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been associated with myocarditis and pericarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart lining, after the second dose, particularly in adolescent boys and young men. The problem did not turn up in the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric clinical trial, which experts say was too small to detect such a rare complication.

Much of the debate focused on the FDA’s use of statistical modeling to try to answer the key question for an emergency authorization: Do the vaccine’s benefits outweigh the risks?

Hong Yang, senior adviser at the FDA’s biostatistics office, told the committee the agency estimated how many hospitalizations caused by covid might be prevented by the vaccine compared with how many hospitalizations might occur because of vaccine-related heart complications.

The agency concluded the benefits outweighed the risks in almost all scenarios, except possibly when there are very low levels of viral transmission. Even then, the FDA said, the benefits might exceed the risks because vaccine-related myocarditis cases have tended to be mild, while covid can lead to serious illness and death.

Some panel members suggested, however, that the FDA assumed there would be more covid cases than will actually occur, considering the number of cases is declining. Such an overestimate would inflate the benefits of the vaccine.

But Monto cautioned that scientists have assumed in the past that the pandemic was waning and “been caught flat-footed as the rates again went up. So I think thinking that this is going to be the end of the wave permanently is maybe a little overly optimistic.”

William C. Gruber, senior vice president for vaccine clinical research and development at Pfizer, told the panel the vaccine could have salutary effects beyond preventing illness, including allowing more in-person school and reducing the transmission of the virus – an argument that resonated with several panel members.

There were 2,268 children originally in the Pfizer-BioNTech trial, two-thirds of whom received the vaccine with the rest receiving a placebo. After regulators asked the company to increase the trial size, partly to broaden its safety database, the trial was expanded to about 4,500 children.

The companies reported that the trial showed the vaccine is almost 91 percent effective in preventing symptomatic covid, with 16 cases of covid in the placebo group and three in the vaccine group. The regimen for 5- to 11-year-olds is 10 micrograms, one-third the dose for people 12 and older. As with the older group, children would receive the vaccine in two doses three weeks apart.

Throughout Tuesday, health officials stressed that while children are much less likely to become seriously ill from the virus, they are far from unscathed.

Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said 1.9 million children 5 to 11 years old have been infected by the coronavirus and more than 8,300 have been hospitalized.

During the part of the meeting devoted to public comment, several people argued that the vaccine was not safe, that authorizing it would lead to mandates and urged the advisers to reject it. Others pressed for the vaccine to be cleared.

“We haven’t taken our daughter to eat inside of a restaurant or to the movies or on a plane since covid began,” said Belinda Macauley, an attorney in Thousand Oaks, Calif., who has an 8-year-old daughter, said. “My family is enthusiastically in favor of prompt approval and our daughter will get it the first day it’s authorized.”

Nevertheless, some experts predict there won’t be a huge flood of vaccinations anytime soon. Aaron E. Carroll, a pediatrician and chief health officer of Indiana University, said people are overestimating “how many parents will rush out and get their children vaccinated. Many parents will be conservative, they will want to wait.”

While a large proportion of older people are vaccinated, parents of small children tend to be young, with much lower immunization rates, Carroll noted, adding they are unlikely to get their children immunized if they have not been vaccinated themselves. Only about half of adolescents eligible for a vaccine have received it, with the numbers higher among the older adolescents, he said.

Carroll’s concern is backed up by a Kaiser Family Foundation report issued last month. It found that only about one-third of parents who have children 5 to 11 years old say they would vaccinate their children as soon as possible. Another third said they would “wait and see,” while 24 percent said they would “definitely not” get their children vaccinated. Seven percent say they would do so only if required.

Booster shots of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines became available for some people last week after federal regulators gave their blessing to the additional doses and declared that people who are eligible for an additional shot could get any booster regardless of which vaccine they originally received.

As the authorization of the pediatric vaccine approaches, the Biden administration and Pfizer-BioNTech have been racing to prepare to distribute the vaccine and reduce the potential for confusion among medical providers administering pediatric and adult doses.

Nicholas W. Warne, Pfizer’s vice president of pharmaceutical research and development, told the FDA advisers the company will package the pediatric vaccine with orange vial caps, orange labels, orange boxes and orange shipping cartons to differentiate it from the vaccine given to adults and older children. The higher-dose vaccine for individuals 12 and older comes in a vial with a purple cap.

White House officials have said they have bought enough doses to vaccinate every child in the 5 to 11 age group. They plan to make the specially packaged vaccine available at more than 25,000 pediatricians and doctors offices, hospitals, pharmacies, community health centers, and school- and community-based clinics. They also will conduct a campaign to educate parents more fully about the vaccines.

Published : October 27, 2021

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40008019

TOKYO – When Japanese Princess Mako announced her engagement to college sweetheart Kei Komuro at a 2017 news conference, the couple giggled as they recounted the story of how they fell in love.

On Tuesday, at their first public appearance since, the couple sat at arm’s length and somberly read a joint statement explaining why they registered their marriage earlier in the day. It was a stark a reminder of how much public sentiment had soured over the past four years.

Although their engagement was initially celebrated in Japan, it quickly became divisive when news surfaced about a financial dispute involving Komuro’s mother. Despite it all, the couple stood firm, glancing knowingly at each other on Tuesday as they addressed the public following disparagement ranging from questioning of their integrity to complaints about Komuro’s looks.

“Kei is an irreplaceable person for me. And for the two of us, marriage was a necessary decision in our lives to protect our hearts,” Mako said.

“I love Mako,” Komuro said. “I would like to spend my one and only life with the person I love.”

By marrying a commoner, the princess was required to abdicate her royal status. Addressing the public as Mako Komuro, rather than Princess Mako, she apologized to those who disagreed with their nuptials, and thanked those who supported them.

She also expressed appreciation for her now-husband and the public criticism he has faced – a rare expression of private feelings about the public perception of a member of the royal family, experts said.

“I am thankful that despite harsh public criticism, Kei continued to hold on to his feelings to marry me. If he had given up on the marriage, he wouldn’t have had to face years of relentless hate,” she said.

The couple, both 30, have faced a torrent of criticism online, depicting Komuro as unfit for the princess. Protesters gathered to oppose their marriage, including on their wedding day. Mako has been experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in the face of the public rancor, according to her doctor.

In the end, there was no extravagant wedding ceremony. A staff member of the Imperial Housing Agency submitted their paperwork at the registry office. As Mako left her family estate in Akasaka, a suburb of Tokyo, Mako bowed to her parents and her sister, Princess Kako, who gave her a big hug.

The couple’s plight has drawn attention to the Japanese imperial family’s succession crisis and the laws that alienate its female members.

Women have no path to the throne, and they are barred from marrying outside the royal family. Men are not subject to this restriction. The women who exit the family cannot return, even if they get a divorce, and their male children lose their chance at reigning. There is now just one heir to the throne, Prince Hisahito, who is Mako’s brother.

“Criticism has always been centered on women imperial family members who don’t even have the right to succession,” said Hideya Kawanishi, associate professor at Nagoya University who specializes in Japanese history and the imperial family system. “Unfortunately, I think there is a certain misogynistic aspect to the Japanese imperial family.” Japanese society in general has been characterized by a high degree of discrimination against women, with the World Economic Forum putting it 120 out of 156 countries for gender equality – the worst ranking for a major developed nation. The resignation of the octogenarian head of Olympic Committee after making demeaning remarks about women this year shed further light on sexism in the country.

Mako has set a new bar for imperial family members by bucking historical constraints, said Akinori Takamori, an expert on imperial family at the Kokugakuin University in Tokyo.

“A member of the imperial family has set a precedent by overcoming various obstacles, while following through with her true feelings and beliefs, which will have a positive effect for the imperial family as they continue on in a new age – hopefully, in a more healthy form,” he said.

Mako has declined the $1.35 million taxpayer gift intended to soften the blow of abdicating her title – becoming the first in Japan’s royal family to reject the payment. The couple also announced they would pay for Tuesday’s news conference.

The couple now plans to move to the United States and may live in New York, where Komuro practices law. The former princess is a certified art curator and holds a master’s degree in art museum and gallery studies.

They declined to answer questions about their future. The former princess said she hoped to “have a warm household and live peacefully.”

Published : October 27, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40008018

The number of Covid-19 cases crossed 13.05 million across Southeast Asia, with 27,325 new cases reported on Tuesday (October 26), higher than Monday’s tally at 26,848. New deaths are at 435, increasing from Monday’s number of 380. Total Covid-19 deaths in Asean are now at 276,287.

Indonesia’s Public Health Ministry announced that it is considering the possibility of reducing the cost of PCR test for Covid-19 down to 300,000 rupiah or around Bt700 following the request of President Joko Widodo. The country reported 611 new cases and 35 deaths on Tuesday, bringing cumulative cases to 4,241,090 patients and total 143,270 deaths.

Meanwhile, Cambodia has allowed Thai nationals and foreigners living in Thailand to enter the country without quarantine. The country will also resume international flights with Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines in addition to flights from China, Singapore and South Korea that it currently allows to land. Cambodia reported 112 new cases and three deaths on Tuesday, bringing cumulative cases in the country to 37,018 patients and 56 deaths.
 

Published : October 27, 2021

By : THE NATION