Tag Archives: WorldNews

Beirut’s devastating blast has not shaken the ruling class’s grip on Lebanon | Gilbert Achcar

Sadly, the needed changes have not yet taken hold.

4928.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=8

Many Lebanese people had hoped for a silver lining to this tragedy of an independent government and new elections

The tremendous blast that shook Lebanon on 4 August will be recorded as a major turning point in the country’s history, no less so than the much less powerful explosion that killed former prime minister Rafik Hariri on 14 February 2005. Judging from the 15 years it took before a UN-appointed tribunal basically admitted its impotence on the latter event, there won’t be any official certainty about the circumstances of the terrible explosion at Beirut’s port in the foreseeable future. A few conclusions can, however. be drawn about this highly traumatic tragedy.

Related: ‘Our stitches ran out’: Beirut’s struggle to deal with injuries from port blast

Continue reading…

China will give priority to providing Covid-19 vaccines to Mekong River countries: China Daily

cd-mekong-250820.jpg?itok=wUpsEQRQ

BEIJING (CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – When Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday (Aug 24) at the third Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting that China will give priority to providing Covid-19 vaccines to the Mekong River countries – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam – and share hydrological information with them, he was driving home the message that China will do its utmost to help these countries better cope with shared challenges.

For thousands of years, the 4,909-kilometre river, called the Lancang in China, has borne testimony to the thriving cultural, trade and human ties in the region.

And although Monday’s meeting was virtual, it provided a platform for the six countries to forge consensuses free of any interference from outside forces.

The focus of the meeting was on strengthening cooperation to address the novel coronavirus that necessitated the meeting being conducted by video links, including ways to promote the region’s sustainable development in the face of the challenges caused by the outbreak.

Mutual respect and win-win cooperation on an equal footing saw the trade volume between China and the other five countries hit more than US$260 billion ($356 billion) in 2018, and China’s investment in these countries has exceeded $45 billion.

China is also a major partner to the five countries in areas such as health, education, technology, security, and various other fronts.

To some extent, it is China’s rise over the past 40 years that has driven the common development of the region, and created space for the countries to tap into their complementarities.

And their thriving cooperation has fostered a strong sense among the six countries that they form a community with a shared future.

This in turn has helped them maintain a peaceful and stable neighbourhood environment that benefits all of them.

Which constitutes a stark contrast with the beggar-thy-neighbour policy some countries have adopted, and the China threat theories some politicians try to peddle around the world.

The agenda of the meeting, which highlighted greater cooperation on public health, environmental and ecological protection and responses to natural disasters, along with the promotion of trade and investment, means all the participating countries have realised the urgency and necessity to upgrade their coordination and cooperation so as to better address these common challenges together.

None of these threats, whether the current pandemic or disasters related to climate change, can be resolved by any of the countries on its own.

As such, this meeting can be regarded as a milestone marking the point at which the close regional cooperation was directed toward addressing non-conventional problems.

In so doing, the region has again set an example of not only how good neighbourhood can be achieved, but more importantly what it can achieve.

China Daily is a member of The Straits Times media partner Asia News Network, an alliance of 24 news media organisations.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Covid-19 outbreak in South Korea Starbucks cafe spared employees who wore masks

af_starbucks_250820.jpg?itok=I8kzyIjV

SEOUL (BLOOMBERG) – After a woman with the coronavirus visited a Starbucks cafe north of Seoul this month, more than two dozen patrons tested positive days later. But the four face mask-wearing employees escaped infection.

The Aug 8 outbreak in the South Korean city of Paju is another example of how rapidly the Sars-CoV-2 virus can spread in confined, indoor spaces – as well as ways to minimise transmission.

With health authorities around the world still debating the evidence around face masks, the 27-person cluster linked to the air-conditioned coffee outlet adds more support for their mandatory use to help limit the spread of the Covid-19-causing virus.

“This speaks volumes about the role masks can play,” said Ma Sang Hyuk, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Changwon Fatima Hospital in South Korea.

“Masks may not provide 100 per cent protection, but there’s nothing out there that’s as effective.”

Guidance on face masks is being issued from Australia to Venezuela to help stem the pandemic, which has infected more than 23 million people and killed at least 810,000 worldwide.

Face coverings will become mandatory in New Zealand for residents using public transport and inside ride-sharing vehicles, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday. Last week, the World Health Organization issued advice on their use in children.

But resistance to mask-wearing remains in some countries like the US, where some people object to being compelled to wear masks when entering shops or restaurants. Misinformation over their effectiveness and safety has also spread.

Officials assume that most patrons didn’t consistently wear masks as they were drinking and eating while in the Starbucks Corp. outlet in South Korea, according to Gang Young-do, a spokesperson for the Paju government. A ceiling-mounted air-conditioning was helping to cool the second-floor outlet, he said.

“The virus may spread where people can’t wear masks while eating or drinking tea, as witnessed at the Starbucks in Paju,” Jung Eun-kyeong, head of the Korea Centres for Disease Control & Prevention, told reporters in Seoul on Sunday.

The Starbucks case is one of “the most important opportunities to study risk factors among a more or less controlled cohort of people,” said Arnold Bosman, director at Transmissible BV, a Netherlands-based developer of training materials for outbreak control.

“This Starbucks event will be a very valuable training exercise for future generations of epidemiologists.”

The Starbucks infections later led to about three dozen more cases outside the coffee shop as of Aug 24. They add to the more than 3,000 this month that have prompted the South Korean government to consider imposing the highest level of physical distancing rules – a blow to an economy that’s managed to avert a steep recession so far.

The Seoul metropolitan area has emerged as a virus hot spot, and local government authorities made it mandatory this week for all citizens to wear masks both indoors and outdoors.

Related Stories: 

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Cops Pepper Sprayed Protesters at a Press Conference for Jacob Blake

1598313152672-kenosha-jacob-blake.jpeg?i

Kenosha, Wisconsin, is gearing up for its second night of protests after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, the Black man who was gunned down by local officers Sunday in front of his children. 

Blake is in a stable condition after undergoing surgery Sunday night, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

Hundreds of demonstrators swarmed a boarded-up government building when a press conference that was initially supposed to be held at a public park Monday was suddenly moved indoors with limited access, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The press conference, where Mayor John Antaramian and local civil rights advocates were set to speak about the shooting, was reportedly relocated over the size of the crowd, according to the Sentinel. 

Already, thanks to an authorization from Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, 125 members of the Wisconsin National Guard were heading to Kenosha after Sunday’s demonstrations led to fires at a local car dealership and damage to another county government building.

Antaramian talked to the demonstrators outside the Kenosha County Public Safety Building before ultimately heading inside. One protester said his words were “not even valid,” according to a video of the tense exchange posted to Twitter by The Recount, a news site. Other protesters, meanwhile, called upon the crowd to listen to the mayor, according to videos of his remarks. 

“Kenosha has a history of doing the right thing,” Antaramian told demonstrators, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

“That’s a lie,” a protester responded. 

The crowd wasn’t able to follow him as he eventually retreated to the news conference. Some protesters attempted to block his way indoors, though, according to the Journal. A door to the building was broken off its hinges before officers in riot gear met the protesters with pepper spray, hitting a small group of 5 to 10 people that included photojournalists, according to the Journal Sentinel. 

One person can be heard screaming “you racist bastards!” on a livestream posted by WFLD, a Fox affiliate in Chicago. 

“Our heart goes out to Jacob Blake’s family,” Antaramian said once he was indoors, while also condemning the rioting. “I cannot think of anything that is harder than what just occurred to them.” 

By about 4:30 p.m. local time, the crowd of demonstrators was marching throughout the city, according to the Journal Sentinel. 

The shooting

Blake’s shooting was captured on a bystander cell phone video, which showed two police officers trailing Blake with their guns drawn as he walked toward a silver SUV. Three of Blake’s children were inside the car, Laquisha Booker, his fiance, told WTMJ-TV, a Milwaukee NBC affiliate. 

In the video, one officer appeared to grab Blake by the edge of his white tank top as the 29-year-old reached into the vehicle. Seven gunshots rang out, although it’s unclear whether both officers fired or how many gunshots struck Blake. He was facing away from the officers. 

A woman stood nearby, screaming. 

The camera panned briefly, revealing a third officer standing a few feet away with their gun drawn. That’s where the 18-second video ends. It’s unclear whether other officers were present. Kenosha police officers don’t wear body cameras, according to the Associated Press, although Antaramian said Monday that they’re scheduled to be purchased in 2022. 

Politicians including Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his pick for vice president, Sen. Kamala Harris, quickly pleaded for accountability and investigations into the officers’ actions Monday as the video of Blake’s shooting gained traction nationwide. 

Evers, a Democrat, also said in a news conference Monday that he’d call a special session of the state’s legislature so officials there could push through the slate of “common-sense” police reform policies. Wisconsin ​Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes said in the same news conference that the police shooting was “not an accident” or a result of poor policing. Instead, he said it felt like “some sort of vendetta.” 

Where the case stands 

Ben Crump, the renowned civil rights attorney that’s already representing the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor after nationwide unrest over their deaths at the hands of police, announced Monday that he’d also been hired by Blake’s family. Crump said that Blake was walking away to check on his children before he was shot. 

“We all watched the horrific video of Jacob Blake being shot in the back several times by Kenosha police,” Crump said in a statement. “Even worse, his three sons witnessed their father collapse after being riddled with bullets.”

Both the local police department and state authorities have provided few details about the lead-up to the shooting, though, apart from saying that officers were initially responding to a domestic incident. 

Several witnesses told the Kenosha News that Blake was trying to break up a verbal argument between two women before he was shot, and that officers had attempted to deploy their Tasers on him. It’s unclear, however, whether he was armed, whether he knew the two women, or why the officers were following him to his car in the first place. According to CNN, a dispatcher said in a 911 call that Blake had taken someone’s keys and wouldn’t leave, and that he “wasn’t supposed to be there.” 

According to the Associated Press, the person who recorded the viral video, Raysean White, heard officers tell Blake to drop a knife. White did not see the knife himself. 

Additionally, Blake had been charged with sexual assault, disorderly conduct, and trespassing last month, resulting in an arrest warrant, according to the Associated Press, although it wasn’t clear whether those charges had anything to do with Sunday’s shooting. 

It’s also unclear whether the unnamed officers seen in the video have prior disciplinary records, but they’ve been placed on administrative leave since Blake’s shooting, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which announced an investigation early Monday morning after anti-racism protests swept the majority-white lakeside city of nearly 100,000 people.

It’s up to Kenosha County’s District Attorney to determine what charges, if any, the officers should face over the shooting.

Local police officials and Republicans leaders, meanwhile, have cautioned against a rush to judgement.

“As always, the video currently circulating does not capture all the intricacies of a highly dynamic incident,” Pete Deates, president of the Kenosha Professional Police Association, said in a statement Monday. “We ask that you withhold from passing judgement until all the facts are known and released.”

Cover: People gather in front of the Kenosha County Court House to protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake on August 24, 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)