The Cupertino tech juggernaut is jumping into the connected fitness space. Should Peloton be worried?
Authorities have received some reports of adverse events arising from the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, said a Singapore health official.
Camped out in bare offices, President Joe Biden's new White House team has spent its first three days scrambling for things like binder clips and IT support -- oh, and trying to save the country from multiple crises.
In the Upper Bracket, Burmese Ghouls pulled off a huge upset over Bren Esports while RRQ Hoshi defeated Omega Esports in a thriller of a series.
Canada said its officials have met online with former diplomat Michael Kovrig, who has been held in China for more than two years in a case related to an executive of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. Canada’s Foreign Ministry said officials led by Ambassador Dominic Barton were given “on-site virtual consular access” to Kovrig on Thursday. Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor have been confined since Dec. 10, 2018, just days after Canada detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecommunications equipment giant.
The tiny clinking vials supervised by silent PPE-wearing technicians belie the excitement inside the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, a major player in the fight against coronavirus.
These four companies (including two banks) are starting 2021 well. The post 4 Growth Stocks In Singapore [24 Jan 2021] AEM Holdings (SGX: AWX); Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (SGX: BS6); DBS Group Holdings (SGX: D05); OCBC (SGX: O39) appeared first on DollarsAndSense.sg.
The US government’s top infectious disease expert said on Friday that former president Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic “very likely” cost lives.“I don’t want that job to be a sound bite but … you could see that when you’re starting to go down paths that are not based on any science at all, and we’ve been there before, I don’t want to rehash it, that is not helpful at all,” Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN in an interview.Fauci, made a senior adviser to President Joe Biden on Covid-19, blamed a lack of coordination between federal and state authorities for allowing infections to spread throughout the country. The US has already registered more than 400,000 coronavirus-related deaths and is on track to exceed half a million by the end of February.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, whom the Senate confirmed on Friday, made pandemic assistance his first priority to address the mounting loss of life.“What we saw a lot of was saying, ‘OK, states, do what you want to do,’ and states were doing things that clearly were not the right direction,” Fauci said.Many US states, he added, “want to have the capability of making their own decisions, but they also need resources, and they need help”.Fauci spoke as US health authorities confront thousands of Covid-19 deaths a day and face the possibility that the numbers will escalate as new, possibly more contagious, variants of the coronavirus that causes the disease emerge in the country.Throughout the pandemic, Trump, who left office on Wednesday, played down its severity and often insisted that the contagion was dying out. He refused to promote mask-wearing, which Biden addressed in his first full day in office with an executive order requiring the wearing of masks in all federal buildings and on public transport. Dr Fauci’s 2021 Covid-19 forecast for AmericaTrump also promoted unproven scientific remedies, including the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.In a bid to speed up vaccination in the US, Biden plans to mobilise the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard to set up as many as 100 sites around the country within the next month to deliver the shots, The Washington Post reported, citing a draft document by the administration.US vaccinations started nearly six weeks ago, but fewer than six doses have been administered for every 100 people as of Friday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.“We must help the federal government move further and faster to eradicate the devastating effects of the coronavirus,” Austin said in his “Day One Message to the Force”.“To that end, we will also do everything we can to vaccinate and care for our workforce and to look for meaningful ways to alleviate the pressure this pandemic has exerted on you and your families.”In another break from Trump, Fauci also said this week that the US would not withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN’s health agency, as the Trump administration had intended.Trump and many of his allies in Congress had accused the WHO of bungling its early response to the outbreak because it was too deferential to China.More from South China Morning Post: * Joe Biden orders masks, travel quarantine in new US war on Covid-19 * Dr Anthony Fauci ‘sure’ coronavirus vaccinations will be mandatory in hospitals and schools * Trump: Americans will develop ‘herd mentality’, coronavirus vaccine weeks away * Joe Biden plans immediate executive actions as Donald Trump era endsThis article Top US medical adviser Fauci says Trump’s coronavirus approach ‘very likely’ cost lives first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
Western Sahara's pro-independence Polisario Front bombarded the Guerguerat buffer zone under Moroccan control in the far south of the desert territory in an overnight attack Rabat described as part of a "propaganda war".
Rafa Benitez abruptly left as coach of Chinese Super League side Dalian Pro on Saturday, saying it was for family reasons because of the coronavirus pandemic.
India's huge coronavirus vaccination drive is behind schedule, with a third of recipients not showing up for appointments because of safety fears, technical glitches and a belief that the pandemic is ending.
A construction firm, its director and an engineer have been found guilty of charges relating to the fatal collapse of an expressway viaduct in 2017.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had a stark warning at the agency’s annual board meeting in Geneva this week: the promise of fair access to Covid-19 vaccines was at serious risk.In peril, he said, was the WHO-backed Covax facility – a plan nine months in the making to ensure that those at most risk have access to coronavirus vaccines at the same time, no matter where they live.The programme was being undermined by side deals between wealthier countries and vaccines makers, he said.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.Four days later, Tedros celebrated news that he said would bring Covax “one step closer” to its goal: a pledge from the United States to reverse course and join the programme.The support of the US – historically the biggest donor to global health, but absent from Covax after former president Donald Trump broke with the World Health Organization – is a major vote of confidence in the facility, according to analysts.The move, part of a raft of decisions by US President Joe Biden in his first days in office, comes as vaccine roll-outs are starting worldwide – though Covax has yet to begin delivering its promised doses.“In recent weeks I have heard from several member states who have questioned whether Covax will get the vaccines it needs, and whether high-income countries will keep the promises they have made,” Tedros said on Monday. Covax expects to deliver its first doses next month. Coronavirus: is China ready for the mRNA vaccine revolution?Health analysts said the US decision to add its name to the list of 190 economies in the plan would not ensure Covax would overcome the daunting problems of distributing 2 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses fairly to participating countries this year.But it does give “an injection of credibility and energy into Covax at a time when it desperately needs it”, according to Thomas Bollyky, director of the global health programme at the Council on Foreign Relations in the US.Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva, said the US move would be seen as a vote of confidence in the plan, as some countries without access were anxiously watching vaccinations begin elsewhere and waiting for their first doses via Covax.“By coming aboard without any hesitation from the first day of their new administration, the US sent a clear and positive message that Covax was the right way to help solve all these challenges,” Flahault said. 15 million people given Covid-19 vaccines in China as Spring Festival nearsThe US, with the most coronavirus deaths and cases in the world, is among the countries that have started vaccinations. The government has locked in hundreds of millions of doses for Americans through heavy early investment in vaccine development and advance purchase agreements.Such agreements were one of the factors jeopardising Covax, Tedros said in his address on Monday. The deals between countries and vaccine makers were driving up prices, with the companies prioritising approvals in richer countries, he said.But the US move to join Covax – and approval for US$4 billion Covid-19 funding for Covax administrator Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance last month – makes it a benefactor. Britain, Canada, Germany, Saudi Arabi, and Japan are among other strong backers of the programme, which intends to finance vaccines for the poorest 92 countries through donations, while the rest will buy doses through the facility.“In the biggest global health crisis arguably in the last century, the US really has been absent from global efforts to control the pandemic and distribute the interventions that could make the biggest difference for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people,” Bollyky said. “This is a signal that the US will rejoin that fight.”The US role in Covax is not clear but the Biden administration also said on Thursday that the US, once it had a sufficient supply domestically, would create a framework to donate its surplus doses overseas including through Covax.Announcing the US commitment earlier that day, Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci also said that the US would not withdraw from WHO, the UN’s health agency, as the Trump administration had intended.Trump had accused the WHO of bungling its early response to the outbreak because it was overly deferential to China.Biden has acknowledged that the WHO needs change but that this would be better achieved by the US remaining a member.US Vice-President Kamala Harris also spoke to Tedros that day about Washington’s plans within the organisation.The administration’s decision to join Covax comes as vaccine makers from China and Russia have been quick to supply doses of their own vaccines to developing countries, while their governments include vaccines on diplomatic agendas.Russia has not joined Covax. China signed on in October, though there has been no announcement of any financial support beyond the payment to secure the roughly 15 million doses it is expected to receive through the facility.Adam Kamradt-Scott, an associate professor specialising in global health security at the University of Sydney in Australia, said the US would reap a diplomatic benefit from its role in Covax as Biden seeks to restore American leadership.“It’s a very clear sign that the Biden administration is committed to working with international partners and stakeholders to defeat the coronavirus,” he said, adding that this would also signal US commitment to countries in need of vaccine aid.But Naor Bar-Zeev, deputy director at the International Vaccine Access Centre at Johns Hopkins University in the US, said the administration would also need to stay focused at home as it grapples with distributing vaccines amid its health crisis.“The US needs to get its house in order and support its population,” Bar-Zeev said. Still, when it came to supporting vaccine access overseas, “the US is strong enough to do both”.More from South China Morning Post: * Coronavirus: WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tells rich countries to stop cutting the coronavirus vaccines queue * India starts exporting coronavirus vaccines, as its own inoculation drive fails to meet targets * Coronavirus in China: new film praises Wuhan ahead of lockdown anniversary * Coronavirus: Chinese travellers chafe at tough rural Lunar New Year restrictionsThis article US sign-up for Covax a ‘shot in the arm’ for WHO vaccine scheme first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
When Mike Lindell, better known to TV viewers as the MyPillow Guy, went to the White House last week to try to persuade President Donald Trump to keep pushing bogus theories about the election, he came away disappointed. Unexpectedly, Trump passed him — and his claims about sabotaged voting machines — off on staffers. The president has told him before that he would back his bid for governor of Minnesota, Lindell told The Associated Press.
The new head of Hong Kong’s Bar Association has called the arrest of 55 opposition figures an attempt to intimidate the city’s democratic movement, and warned against attacks on his colleagues in pro-Beijing media.Just hours after Paul Harris became the group’s new chairman, an editorial in Ta Kung Po on Friday accused the veteran human rights barrister of having a political mission to fulfil, after he called for the national security law to be amended.In a wide-ranging interview with the Post, Harris expressed concern over the sweeping Beijing-imposed law, and said he was keen to rebuild a dialogue with the mainland, as he set out his vision for the association’s future.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.Police arrested 55 opposition figures this month for taking part in an unofficial primary race to determine who would run in the Legislative Council elections, and alleged the polls amounted to subversion because one of the founders, former university law scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting had suggested the ultimate aim was to force the government to resign.But Harris disagreed, and said it was “fairly obvious” the arrests were an abuse of the law, adding common sense would suggest those who took part in the polls did not necessarily endorse Tai’s views. Some, he noted, had even spoken out against the plan.“So to arrest them all was, to my mind, deliberate intimidation of the democratic movement,” he said, adding the city should have a better system to handle complaints following the anti-government protests in 2019.But Harris also described himself as a “rule of law man”, and “very much against violent demonstrations”.Immediately after being elected unopposed on Thursday, Harris said he intended to lobby the Hong Kong government to change some of the provisions in the security law. Outgoing Bar Association chairman calls for renewing of contacts with BeijingWhile he did not dispute that every place should have a national security law, Harris said he found some of the provisions incompatible with the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.“I found the national security law profoundly offensive because it said certain people’s actions can’t be challenged in the court of law,” said Harris, referring to the exemption for mainland law enforcement agents from the local court’s scrutiny when they are exercising their duty.“I believe that the essence of the rule of law is that whoever you are, the law is above you,” he said.The law also stripped people in Hong Kong of their rights to a jury trial in serious cases, and allowed them to be sent to the mainland for court proceedings.Harris said he had not had a chance to speak to other Bar Council members, but he would try his best to bring them on board. While the decision ultimately lies with Beijing, he believed the Hong Kong government and pro-Beijing figures could help start a dialogue.The new chairman was part of the Bar’s delegation that visited Beijing in 2008, but its relationship with the mainland has deteriorated rapidly over the past three years.He noted any resumption of ties would be in Beijing’s hands, and noted that his predecessor, Philip Dykes, “tried really hard. He was met with a great wall”.Harris also spoke against attacks on judges, calling those assaults “cowardly and disgusting”, and said those found in some pro-Beijing newspapers – including one which suggested a judge had ruled against the police because he was friendly with the barrister of the other party – were “preposterous”.As attacks from the pro-Beijing side have also begun to mount on lawyers, including the Bar Association, he feared that could be one reason they had turned to him to take up the chairman post.Harris was worried the pressure had deterred some people, who were Hong Kong Chinese, to throw their hats in the ring. Bar Association questions Beijing’s legal power to enact national security lawHailing from the same discipline as Dykes, Harris has defended some of the most vulnerable asylum seekers and activists in the city’s courts.When the Oxford-educated barrister was chairing the human rights committee for the English Bar in the 1990s, Dykes reached out to set up a watchdog in Hong Kong.Since then, he had moved his practice to Hong Kong while working on setting up the advocacy body on the side.In 1995, Harris founded the Human Rights Monitor, a major advocacy organisation.More from South China Morning Post: * Hong Kong national security law: 53 former opposition lawmakers, activists arrested; authorities accuse them of plot to ‘overthrow’ government * Hong Kong national security law: four big questions raised by mass arrests of 53 opposition figures * Mass arrests point to Hong Kong’s quickening transition to a second-tier Chinese cityThis article Arrest of Hong Kong opposition figures a ‘fairly obvious’ abuse of law, says new head of city’s Bar Association first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
The Ministry of Health has confirmed 48 new cases of COVID-19 infection – all imported – in Singapore as of noon on Sunday (24 January).
"I'm an American!" a young Russian under the username Neurolera exclaims in English on the popular video-sharing app TikTok as she explains how to impersonate a tourist to avoid arrest at a street demonstration.
A decision to turn a chilly underground parking garage into an overnight billet for National Guard troops in Washington to protect President Joe Biden's inauguration has stirred an uproar.
Thousands of people in Brazil protested on Saturday against President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, on the anniversary of the Chinese city of Wuhan beginning its 76-day lockdown.
Sri Lanka will conduct an investigation into allegations its troops committed war crimes during a conflict with Tamil separatists, it said Friday, a month before the UN Human Rights Council is due to discuss the island's rights record.
Top Beijing officials have discussed proportionate ways to retaliate against London’s new pathway for Hong Kong residents to acquire British citizenship, as well as overhauling the city’s electoral system ahead of its next leadership race in 2022, the Post has learned.The revelation came as China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), concluded a three-day meeting in Beijing on Friday without formally deliberating or deciding on any Hong Kong issues.According to Tam Yiu-chung, Hong Kong’s sole delegate to the NPCSC, the standing committee endorsed a series of mainland bills, including legislation on animal quarantine and marine police, as well as a resolution on establishing a financial court in the capital.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.“I have not heard about the central government’s plan to take drastic actions on Hong Kong people’s nationality issue … I think Beijing will be very careful about the issue, and tackle it step-by-step after considering various factors,” he said.Tam added that he did not want to speculate on what action Beijing could take.Last week, the Post reported exclusively that Beijing was mulling whether to ban British National (Overseas) passport holders in Hong Kong from public office in retaliation over London’s decision to offer them a visa with a path to the right of abode.Officials were divided, however, on whether they should also call for the more drastic step of denying those with BN(O) status the right to vote in the city.A mainland source said while there was no official report about delegates deliberating on any Hong Kong issue, top officials had discussed the city’s situation on the sidelines of the NPCSC meeting, which kicked off on Wednesday. Those mainland officials represented bodies such as the standing committee, the NPC’s Legislative Affairs Commission, Basic Law Committee, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and Beijing’s Hong Kong liaison office. BN(O) passport holders ‘may face ban from public office in Hong Kong’The source also said Beijing would include both the BN(O) issue and Hong Kong’s electoral shake-up as one package to be scrutinised at the NPC’s plenary session in March, as it could involve amending the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.“The key is to strike a good balance. The shake-up will not bring too many changes to the life of the average Hong Kong person, especially for travelling, but bring politics in Hong Kong back on the right track,” he said.The plenary session will start on March 5, with scrutiny of China’s 14th five-year plan its major task.Last month, sources told the Post that Beijing was planning a drastic revamp of Hong Kong’s 1,200-member Election Committee by abolishing all 117 seats likely to be taken up by opposition district councillors to quash their influence in the 2022 leadership race. Carrie Lam defends value of Hong Kong’s chief executive electionsTam said if the Hong Kong government faced issues it could not handle, it could ask the standing committee for help. But Hong Kong authorities had yet to make such requests, he noted.Asked if it was legitimate for Beijing to take the initiative to reform Hong Kong’s electoral system, Tam pointed to a commentary published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily on January 12.The commentary, titled “Hong Kong elections must not become tools of anti-China forces”, said a “comprehensive and strong barrier must be established to deprive anti-China activists of the opportunities to usurp the governing power of Hong Kong”.Tam said the commentary reflected Beijing’s determination to reform the city’s political system.“It mentioned what are the problems with the election, and when Beijing says something needs to be done, it will get it done,” he warned.Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, a semi-official think tank, said the central government needed to take action to amend laws governing the election of the chief executive and lawmakers because Legco could not do the job.Under the Basic Law, electoral reform packages require a two-thirds majority in the legislature, or the support of 47 lawmakers, to be approved. But after the mass resignation of opposition legislators last year, there are only 43 lawmakers left, he noted.Tam also said that all 36 Hong Kong deputies to the NPC had signed a joint letter for NPC chairman Li Zhanshu, China’s third-ranking state leader, asking Beijing to provide mainland vaccines to help Hong Kong to contain the coronavirus pandemic.Hong Kong has reached purchase agreements for three vaccines, procuring 7.5 million doses of each type.Aside from the Pfizer-BioNTech jabs, supplied by mainland firm Fosun Pharmaceutical, the city has also procured Beijing-based Sinovac’s vaccine and one jointly developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.More from South China Morning Post: * British government blasts Beijing over threat to stop recognising Hong Kong BN(O) passports * National security law: Beijing’s retaliation against London’s BN(O) pathway ‘down to loyalty test’ for Hong Kong public officers * Time for Hongkongers eligible for BN(O) visa scheme to choose where their loyalties lieThis article Retaliation for British BN(O) visa scheme, Hong Kong election overhaul discussed on sidelines of meeting of top legislative body: source first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
