The United States recorded a 10.3% decline in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 2020 as economic activity contracted due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released Tuesday by the Rhodium Group, which noted the single largest drop in annual emissions in the post-World War II era.“The hardest-hit economic sectors — including transportation, electric power, and industry — are also the leading sources of US GHG emissions,” the report said.The transportation sector saw GHG emissions plummet 14.7% compared to 2019 levels, while the power sector saw a similar decline to the national average of 10.3%, the report said.Industry, on the other hand, saw mixed impact as activity levels fluctuated from the onset to the peak of the pandemic. Between April and March, emissions fell 16%, the researchers noted.The changes were attributed to reduced economic activity across America as a whole, including measures put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19 such as shelter-in-place orders and travel restrictions.Additionally, changes in the demand for goods and services as well as record-high unemployment contributed to falling emissions levels, the report said.Last year’s decline in GHG emissions eclipsed a 6.3% drop recorded during the deep U.S. economic recession of 2009.The researchers underscored that the factors leading to the decline are temporary and driven by the pandemic, adding that the 2020 reduction does not constitute “a down payment toward the U.S. meeting its 2025 Paris Agreement target of 26-28% below 2005 levels.”President-elect Joe Biden has said the United States will rejoin the Paris Agreement once he takes office January 20 and that he intends to put America on a course to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.According to the Rhodium Group, even if the pandemic had not occurred and economic activities were at full throttle, U.S. emissions would have declined by around 3% during 2020, mainly driven by the decline of coal-fired power generation and in part by a reduction in heating demand due to warmer winter weather.
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Month: January 2021
A top British police official Tuesday said officers have issued about 45,000 fines for violations of COVID-19 restrictions and that they will issue more to keep the infection from spreading. The chair of Britain’s National Police Chiefs’ Council, Martin Hewitt, made the comments at a news conference, along with Home Secretary Priti Patel. Hewitt said he makes no apology for the fines levied because too many people were still choosing not to abide by the rules. He warned there would be more officers out on patrol to catch those who he said were “endangering us all.” Britain is among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic and is in the midst of a third national lockdown to stop rapidly spreading infections. The nation reported 1,243 more deaths Tuesday, bringing the current number of fatalities to 83,203. Patel described the figures as “horrifying” and stressed the “absolutely critical” need for people to follow the rules. Patel said she supported the efforts of police officers, and that a minority of people were putting the entire nation at risk by not following the rules. She said, “Our ability to get through the coming weeks and months depends on each and every one of us contributing to what is truly a national effort.”
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Pakistan is concluding its phase three human trials of a Chinese company’s coronavirus vaccine. Health officials say the test of CanSinoBio’s vaccine are nearly complete and show promise. Pakistan is one of seven countries testing the Chinese vaccine. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.Camera: Malik Waqar Ahmed
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The attack on the U.S. Capitol has reignited criticism of social media and its alleged role in inciting violence. While Facebook and Twitter have banned President Trump, there are questions about the future of online speech. Tina Trinh reports.Producer: Matt Dibble
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China says a team of scientists from the World Health Organization will arrive this week in Wuhan to begin its investigation of the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Tuesday that the 10-member team will leave from Singapore this Thursday and fly directly to Wuhan, the central city where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019. The virus eventually spread to nearly every corner of the globe, leading to more than 1.9 million fatalities out of nearly 91 million infections.
China has sought to change the narrative over the virus’s origins, with officials eagerly pushing theories that it first emerged in other nations.
Dr. Mike Ryan, the head of WHO’s emergencies program, told reporters in Geneva Monday the agency is simply “looking for the answers here that may save us in the future. Not culprits and not people to blame.”
Ryan said if blame exists, “we can blame climate change. We can blame policy decisions made 30 years ago about everything from urbanization to the way we exploit the forest,”
A health expert affiliated with WHO has said that expectations should be “very low” the mission will lead to a conclusion about the origins of the virus that causes the COVID-19 illness.
The United States, which has accused China of having hidden the original outbreak’s extent, has called for a “transparent” WHO-led investigation and criticized its terms, which allowed Chinese scientists to do the first phase of preliminary research. President Donald Trump has accused the agency of being a puppet of China.
The WHO team’s journey to Wuhan comes a week after Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment with China’s failure to grant final permission to the delegation to enter the country, although the plans had been jointly arranged between the two sides.
Beijing dismissed Tedros’s criticisms, calling the delay a “misunderstanding.”
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The World Health Organization is warning that mass vaccinations against the novel coronavirus will not produce herd immunity this year. WHO chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan told reporters Monday that it takes time to produce and administer enough doses of a vaccine to finally stop the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Swaminathan stressed the need for countries to continue observing mitigation efforts such as mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing. In a related story, Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine should provide immunity for at least a year.FILE – Boxes containing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped at the McKesson distribution center in Olive Branch, Miss., Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, Pool)According to Reuters news agency, the company said during the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference Monday it was confident the messenger RNA technology it used was well suited to deploy a vaccine based on the new variant of the coronavirus which has emerged in a handful of countries. Dr. Bruce Aylward, a WHO senior advisor, said Monday the agency is hoping to begin providing COVID-19 vaccines to the world’s poorest countries in February, but said “we cannot do that on our own” as he urged vaccine makers to prioritize deliveries to the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX. FILE – A woman wearing a face mask to protect against the novel coronavirus walks on a street in Lagos, Nigeria, Dec. 31, 2020.COVAX is an alliance of WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, an organization founded by Bill and Melinda Gates to vaccinate children in the world’s poorest countries. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said nearly 9 million Americans had been given their first COVID-19 vaccination dose as of Monday morning. That is less than one-third of the total doses distributed to states by the U.S. government, signifying the sluggish distribution efforts across the nation which experts have blamed on a lack of a national strategy and a national distribution system.FILE – A public health information sign is seen with St. Paul’s Cathedral seen behind amidst a lockdown during the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, London, Britain, Jan. 7, 2021.The CDC also said Monday that at least 72 cases of a more contagious variant of the coronavirus first identified in Britain has now been discovered across 10 U.S. states. California has the most with at least 32 cases, followed by 22 in Florida, with the remaining spread across Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, New York state, Pennsylvania and Texas. The British variant is one of three that have emerged from the original coronavirus, with the third just recently detected in Japan in travelers from Brazil. The Brazil variant is different from the British and South African variants, but the three share a common mutation. While the variants are worrisome, they are not unexpected, according to scientists. The coronavirus has made thousands of tiny modifications since it was first discovered, researchers say. Malaysia’s king has declared a national state of emergency as part of an effort to curb the growing numbers of novel coronavirus infections. FILE – A doctor collects a swab sample from a man to be tested for the coronavirus disease outside Clinic Ajwa in Shah Alam, Malaysia.The royal palace announced Tuesday that King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah issued the decree after meeting with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Prime Minister Muhyiddin had issued a two-week lockdown for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, and five surrounding states Monday as the number of total COVID-19 cases has grown over 138,000, including 555 deaths, with the number of daily new cases rising to well over 2,000 in recent weeks. And New Zealand will require that international travelers from most countries show proof of a negative COVID-19 test before boarding flights to the country. Travelers from Australia, Antarctica and some Pacific island nations will be exempted from the rule. There are nearly 91 million global coronavirus infections, including over 1.9 million deaths. The United States leads the world in both categories with 22.6 million infections and 376,280 deaths. India is second in total COVID-19 infections with more than 10.4 million cases and Brazil with 8.1 million, with both nations are in reverse order in fatalities — Brazil trails the U.S. with 203,580 deaths, followed by India with 151,327.
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Parts of the world ravaged by outbreaks of Ebola can now heave a small sigh of relief thanks to the stockpile of vaccine, the International Coordinating Group (ICG) announced Monday. The single-dose vaccine will allow affected countries, particularly those in Africa, to better contain the deadly virus during future outbreaks. “This new stockpile is an excellent example of solidarity, science and cooperation between international organizations and the private sector to save lives,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said in a Tuesday FILE – Health workers begin their shift at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 16, 2019.The vaccine, which is recommended by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization for use in Ebola outbreaks, will be managed by UNICEF although the ICG will be “the decision-making body for its allocation and release,” the press release said. “We are proud to be part of this unprecedented effort to help bring potential Ebola outbreaks quickly under control,” Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director, said in the press release. Fore said “when it comes to disease outbreaks, preparedness is key.” She said the vaccine stash is a “remarkable achievement” that will allow vaccines to be delivered to those who need them in a timely manner. Countries that make requests for vaccines should receive a response in 48 hours. The vaccines will then be shipped from Switzerland in temperature-controlled packages. The statement said the target is to make “overall delivery time from the stockpile to countries” in seven days. An initial 6,890 doses are now available for outbreak response with additional quantities to be delivered into the reserve this month and throughout 2021 and beyond. It could take between two to three years to reach the SAGE-recommended level of 500,000 doses in the emergency stockpile. Unlike COVID-19, Ebola is rare and unpredictable, hence the need to create a reserve in the absence of a “natural market for the vaccine.” In this case, vaccines are available in limited quantities, and therefore they are reserved for health and front-line workers and when there is an outbreak. IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain said in the release, “through each outbreak, our volunteers have risked their lives to save lives.” Chapagain hopes “the impact of this terrible disease will be dramatically reduced” with the vaccine. “An Ebola vaccine stockpile can increase transparency in the management of existing global stocks and the timely deployment of the vaccine where it’s most needed, something MSF has called for during recent outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Dr. Natalie Roberts, Program Manager, MSF Foundation, said in the release. Meanwhile, the WHO, UNICEF, Gavi, and vaccine manufacturers are continuously monitoring the situation and will increase supply should demand soar. The current vaccine is manufactured by Merck, Sharp & Dohme (MSD) Corp. and developed with financial support from the United States.
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President-elect Joe Biden rolled up his sleeve and received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Monday at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, to complete his inoculation against the deadly disease. The process was livestreamed to reassure Americans the vaccines are safe. Global cases of the coronavirus have topped 90 million, as the number of deaths approaches 1.9 million. In the United States, more than 375,000 people have died from the virus. The number of cases is now more than 22 million, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The president-elect, who responded to questions after his inoculation, said the increasing number of deaths is “wrong, and we can do a lot to change it.” Vaccinations across the United States have been uneven and have not gone according to the Trump administration’s plans. Biden’s transition team plans to vaccinate as many people as possible with their first shot, rather than save the vaccine for second doses. This, his team believes, will give some protection against the virus to people who would otherwise not have any. Experts have advised, however, against this approach, citing inadequate data on holding back second doses. FILE – A vial contains doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.In response, Biden’s team said plans are in place to ensure second doses are produced and delivered to Americans on time. Two vaccines now in circulation require a second dose for optimum efficacy. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires a second shot about three weeks after the first, while Moderna’s has a four-week interval. There are currently no one-shot vaccines approved for use in the U.S. Biden, who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, said he is optimistic his administration will be able to inoculate as many Americans as possible once he is sworn in office January 20. The incoming administration has promised to distribute 100 million vaccinations in its first 100 days in office. “My No. 1 priority is getting the vaccine in people’s arms … as rapidly as we can, and we’re working on that program now,” Biden said, adding he would have an announcement on Thursday. Biden admitted it will not be easy to bring the virus under control but is hopeful measures such as wearing masks, social distancing and frequent handwashing, coupled with rapid vaccination, will help. He chided Republican lawmakers who were seen without masks during the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol last week. Democratic Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware distributed face masks to lawmakers during the siege, but many Republican lawmakers refused them. “The Republican colleagues wouldn’t take the mask. Irresponsible,” Biden said. “And so, we all have to make sure it’s not a political issue. It’s an issue of public safety. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
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New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick announced Monday night that he will not accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying “remaining true to the people, team and country I love outweigh the benefits of any individual award.” In a one-paragraph statement, the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach did not say explicitly that he had turned down the offer from President Donald Trump, whom he has called a friend. Instead, Belichick explained, “the decision has been made not to move forward with the award” in the wake of last week’s deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol. FILE – Annika Sorenstam, Dec. 7, 2019.Trump announced Saturday, three days after the riots, that he would be awarding Belichick the nation’s highest civilian honor, part of a late flurry of presentations that also included golfers Annika Sorenstam, Gary Player and the late Babe Zaharias. FILE – Gary Player, Dec. 20, 2020.Sorenstam and Player accepted their awards in a private ceremony the day after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Five people died in the mayhem, including U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. Belichick was to be honored Thursday. “I was flattered … out of respect for what the honor represents and admiration for prior recipients,” the coach said in a statement, which was forwarded to The Associated Press by the Patriots. “Subsequently, the tragic events of last week occurred and the decision has been made not to move forward with the award. Above all, I am an American citizen with great reverence for our nation’s values, freedom and democracy. I know I also represent my family and the New England Patriots team.” Although he describes himself as apolitical, Belichick has waded into politics on occasion. The architect of the Patriots dynasty wrote Trump a letter of support that the candidate read aloud the night before the 2016 election at a rally in New Hampshire, a bastion of the team’s fandom. Although Trump said the letter offered “best wishes for great results” on Election Day and “the opportunity to make America great again,” Belichick said it was it was merely to support a friend.Belichick also wore an Armenian flag pin to the White House in 2015 when the team celebrated its fourth Super Bowl victory — believed to be a sign of support for the team’s director of football, Berj Najarian, who is of Armenian descent. Last month, Belichick called on the U.S. government to take action against Turkey and Azerbaijan for “unprovoked and violent attacks against Armenians.”In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death this summer, Patriots players praised Belichick for providing an open forum for them to express their feelings on race and social injustice in America. In his statement on Monday, Belichick called that “one of the most rewarding things in my professional career.” “Through the great leadership within our team, conversations about social justice, equality and human rights moved to the forefront and became actions,” he said. “Continuing those efforts while remaining true to the people, team and country I love outweigh the benefits of any individual award.”
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Facebook has shut down several accounts of a network in Uganda linked to the country’s Ministry of Information. The social media company accused the network of using fake accounts to promote the ruling party and the president.The Facebook accounts shut down were allegedly linked to the “Citizens Interaction Center” at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.In a statement, Facebook accuses the account holders of using fake and duplicate accounts to manage pages, comment on other people’s content, impersonate users and re-share posts in groups to make them appear more popular than they were.Duncan Abigaba, the deputy head of the center, said the accounts were targeted because of their support for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement or NRM.Abigaba said the action by Facebook is unfair since members of the opposition National Unity Platform party, led by singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine, have been using social media to promote Wine’s presidential candidacy.“So, NRM had to try and sell our candidate as well in the social media space. By selling the candidate, it means you have to employ different tactics including you put out content. And this content you must share it in different groups for it to have as much reach as possible,” said Abigaba.The Uganda Communications Commission wrote to Facebook and Twitter late last year, demanding it shut down several accounts it said were being used wrongly by members of the opposition National Unity Platform.FILE – Uganda’s president and presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni of the ruling party National Resistance Movement waves to his supporters as he arrives at a campaign rally in Entebbe, Feb. 10, 2016.Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo says the commission received a response from Facebook, saying it would investigate the claims.But instead, said Opondo, without any due process, accounts of NRM supporters have been shut down.“They have not told us the nature of the complaint. They have not written even to say we are going to switch you off. And so, it’s a double standard. And that ties very well with what our intelligence is telling us that some of the opposition is working with foreign interests,” he said.The Ugandan government is already disabling some social media platforms. Currently, unless one is using a virtual private network, videos on Facebook cannot be played.The Uganda Communications Commission has also ordered app stores to block over 100 virtual private networks being used by citizens to bypass the blockage.Joel Ssenyonyi, the National Unity Platform spokesperson, denies the party has a hand in the account shutdowns.“We actually wish we had a hand in it. We would actually love to see all the government accounts blocked, because they are using them to justify all the ills that are happening. You know that people get killed and then you see government officials and regime apologists and functionaries go on social media and they justify the killing of people and so on,” said Ssenyonyi. Ugandans go to the polls Thursday with Museveni seeking to extend his 34-year run as president. Bobi Wine has called off his final campaign appearances, due to multiple arrests and police breaking up his rallies.
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Social media platform Parler has sued Amazon in response to being removed from Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s web hosting services. Calling the deplatforming a “death blow,” Parler said Amazon engaged in antitrust violations, breached its contract with Parler and interfered with the company’s business relationship with its users. Specifically, the complaint said Amazing breached its contract by not providing Parler 30 days’ notice before cutting it off from its servers. The suit asked a federal court for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Amazon. “Without AWS, Parler is finished, as it has no way to get online,” according to the complaint. “And a delay of granting this TRO by even one day could also sound Parler’s death knell as President (Donald) Trump and others move on to other platforms.” Parler, a social network service popular with conservatives, went offline Monday after Amazon suspended it for allowing posts that encourage violence. Before the site went down, Parler CEO John Matze accused Amazon and other tech giants of a “war on free speech.” Google banned Parler’s smartphone app from its app store on Friday, also citing Parler’s allowance of posts that seek to incite violence in the United States. Apple instituted its own Parler ban on Saturday. The two-year-old Parler saw an increase in users in recent months as social media giants Facebook and Twitter stepped up enforcement of posts that violated their policies. Both Facebook and Twitter suspended Trump’s accounts last week after some of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
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Thousands of girls in Canada have been married before turning 18, researchers said Monday, warning that a rise in unofficial child marriages could make the practice harder to prevent and call into question the country’s global leadership.More than 3,600 marriage certificates were issued to girls younger than 18 in Canada between 2000 and 2018, found a study from McGill University in Montreal.Yet that number is just the tip of the iceberg, as more and more child marriages in recent years have been common-law unions, informal arrangements that provide fewer rights, it found.At least 2,300 common-law partnerships, defined legally as relationships where a couple has lived together for at least a year, involved children under 18 as of 2016, the study showed.The findings contrast with Canada’s positioning as a global leader in the United Nations-backed drive to end child marriage worldwide by 2030, said Alissa Koski, co-author of the study.”Our results show that Canada has its own work to do to achieve its commitment to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (on ending child marriage),” the university professor said.”All the while it is advocating for an end to child marriage elsewhere, the practice remains legal and ongoing across Canada,” Koski said.Canada’s Office of the Minister for Women and Gender Equality was not immediately available for comment.The country committed at least $62.5 million to tackle child marriage worldwide from 2011 to 2016 and has led or supported several U.N. resolutions on the issue in recent years, according to Girls Not Brides, a global campaign group.Girls who marry young are often pulled out of school and are at higher risk of marital rape, domestic abuse and pregnancy complications, activists have said.Canadian law permits children to marry from the age of 16 with parental consent or a court order.About 95% of child marriages in Canada were informal as of 2016, compared with less than half in 2006, the study found.The shift could be in response to growing public disapproval of children entering wedlock, according to the authors, who said informal unions could be more harmful than formal marriage as they offered less social, legal and economic protection.In Quebec, individuals in common-law unions are not entitled to alimony or property if the union ends, the authors said.”This raises questions about how best to address the issue,” the authors said in a statement. “Preventing common-law unions among children will require different and innovative approaches that address the deeper motivations for this practice.”Worldwide, an estimated 12 million girls are married every year before the age of 18 – nearly one girl every three seconds.U.N. experts have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to an extra 13 million child marriages over the next decade.
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India will roll out an ambitious nationwide vaccination drive against COVID-19 on Saturday, aiming to inoculate 300 million people, or nearly one quarter of the population, by July.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday that with the upcoming immunization drive, which would be the world’s largest such program, the country is entering into a “decisive phase” in the fight against the pandemic.
In the first phase, 30 million health care and frontline workers such as police personnel will be vaccinated. The vaccines will then be administered to about 270 million people above the age of 50 and younger people with serious health problems, according to the Health Ministry.
Modi underlined India’s two major advantages – the two vaccines that have been approved for emergency use are being manufactured domestically, giving it access to millions of doses.
“This is a matter of pride for us,” said the prime minister.
In an interaction with chief ministers on the vaccination drive, Modi also noted Indian vaccines are more cost effective than others in the world.
The price for the first 100 million doses of the British developed AstraZeneca vaccine will be manufactured by an Indian company and is expected to be around $ 2.75 per dose for the government. The vaccine cost will be much higher when it is made available in the private market.
India is hoping its experience in running huge vaccination drives will come in handy as it gears up to launch the COVID-19 immunization program. Every year the government inoculates nearly 55 million infants and pregnant women against diseases such as polio and measles.A health worker pretends to administer a shot of a COVID-19 vaccine to a volunteer during a mock vaccination drill at a school in Dharmsala, India, Jan. 11, 2021.But health experts warn that reaching a far bigger adult population poses much greater challenges — India will need to administer 600 million shots to meet its target of reaching 300 million people over the coming months.
Authorities have trained thousands of health care workers to administer the vaccines, ramped up cold storage equipment such as freezers and refrigerators and set up vaccination centers through the country.
Most of the initial inoculations are expected to be of the AstraZeneca vaccine that is being produced by the Serum Institute of India.
Covaxin, the second vaccine approved for emergency use, has been developed by a domestic company, Bharat Biotech. It will be administered in “clinical trial mode,” as the final results of trials are still awaited.
Some experts have raised concerns about clearing that vaccine without lack of data showing its efficacy, but the drug regulator has said it is “safe.”
Both vaccines will be given in two doses and can be stored at temperatures of two to eight degrees Celsius.
With 10.5 million infections, India is the world’s second worst hit nation, but its daily count of new cases has fallen to less than 20,000 in recent weeks compared to about 95,000 in September, when infections peaked.
There is optimism that the declining number of infections and the vaccination program will not just bring the pandemic under control but also revive an economy reeling under its worst contraction in 40 years.
“With India about to roll out its vaccination program, the accruals of the economic benefits would be significant, especially to sectors such as hospitality, transportation, entertainment, which were hit hard during the pandemic,” according to Deepak Sood, secretary general of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India.
India’s economy, one of the worst hit by the pandemic, is expected to shrink by 7.5% this financial year which ends in March.
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U.S. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced Monday plans to boost production of its COVID-19 vaccine by 50% percent — 2 million doses — this year to meet the global demand.
BioNTech announced the increased supply as part of a presentation at a health care conference. The company said a new production site in Marburg, Germany, expected to become operational by the end of next month, will be able to make as many as 750 million doses per year. That means a total of six facilities will be producing the vaccine — three in Germany, and three operated by Pfizer in the United States.
The partners have already committed 1 billion doses for delivery. Last week, the European Union announced a deal for an additional 300 million doses of the vaccine, doubling their supply.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week it is continuing negotiations with the companies about securing doses for the vaccine cooperative COVAX, organized by the agency to provide vaccines for low-income nations. No agreement has been reached.
Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern about wealthy nations buying up the supply of vaccines and leaving none for the developing world. He has argued that the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be defeated unless vaccines are distributed equitably.
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Facebook has taken down several accounts linked to the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, saying they were being used to manipulate public opinion ahead of this week’s presidential election.
The U.S.-based social media giant said Monday it linked the network of accounts to the Uganda’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.
Facebook said the ministry “used fake and duplicate accounts to manage pages, comment on other people’s content, impersonate users, re-share posts in groups to make them appear more popular than they were.”
The Associated Press quoted presidential spokesman Don Wanyama as saying Facebook was “interfering in the electoral process of Uganda.” He also said, “If people wanted to have the evidence of outside interference, now they have it.”
Voters in the East African country will cast ballots Thursday in a general election that pits President Museveni against 10 challengers, including popular singer-turned-legislator Bobi Wine.
The lead-up to the vote has been marred by increasing violence, numerous human rights violations, and restrictions imposed on opposition candidates and supporters.
The arrests and detentions in November of Wine and Patrick Oboi Amuriat, another presidential candidate, as well as other members of the political opposition, triggered riots and protests. At least 54 people were killed.
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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has landed on the cover of the February issue of Vogue magazine, but her team says there’s a problem: the shot of the country’s soon-to-be No. 2 leader isn’t what both sides had agreed upon.
Instead of the powder blue power suit Harris wore for her cover shoot, the first African American woman elected vice president is instead seen in more casual attire and wearing Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers, which she sometimes wore on the campaign trail.
Vice President-elect @KamalaHarris is our February cover star! Making history was the first step. Now Harris has an even more monumental task: to help heal a fractured America—and lead it out of crisis. Read the full profile: https://t.co/W5BQPTH7AUpic.twitter.com/OCFvVqTlOk— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) January 10, 2021Harris’ team was unaware that the cover photo had been switched until images leaked late Saturday, according to a person involved in the negotiations over how Harris would be featured on the cover. Harris’ office declined comment and the person spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, Vogue said it went with the more informal image of Harris for the cover because the photo captured her “authentic, approachable nature, which we feel is one of the hallmarks of the Biden-Harris administration.”
But the magazine said it released both images as digital magazine covers to “respond to the seriousness of this moment in history, and the role she has to play leading our country forward.”
Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, posed in the light blue suit in front of a gold backdrop for the magazine’s cover. She also posed, more casually dressed in slacks, a blazer and sneakers in front of a pink and green background, for photos that were planned for inside the magazine, the person said. Pink and green are the colors of Harris’ college sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
Vogue has released both images online, but the photo of a sneaker-clad Harris is the one that will grace the cover of the fashion bible’s print edition.
The person with knowledge of the negotiations said Harris’ team has expressed to Vogue its disappointment over the magazine’s decision.
The cover also generated outrage on social media as posters expressed disappointment in how the magazine decided to present the nation’s first female vice president on its cover.
Harris is set to be sworn in as vice president on Jan. 20.
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Parler, a social network service popular with conservatives, went offline Monday after its web hosting service Amazon suspended it for allowing posts that encourage violence.
Before the site went down, Parler CEO John Matze accused Amazon and other tech giants of a “war on free speech.”
Google banned Parler’s smartphone app from its app store on Friday, also citing Parler’s allowance of posts that seek to incite violence in the United States.
Apple instituted its own Parler ban on Saturday.
The two-year-old Parler saw an increase in users in recent months as social media giants Facebook and Twitter stepped up enforcement of posts that violated their policies.
Both Facebook and Twitter suspended President Donald Trump’s accounts last week after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
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The World Health Organization is sending a team of international experts to China this week to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.It was not immediately clear, however, if the experts, scheduled to arrive Thursday, will be allowed to travel to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus originally emerged in late 2019.“It’s very important that as the WHO is in the lead in fighting the pandemic, that it also has a leading role in trying to look back at the roots of this pandemic so we can be better prepared for the next one,” United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said about the team’s travel to China.China’s announcement Monday about the WHO team’s imminent arrival came on the same day China announced 103 new COVID-19 cases, the country’s biggest jump in infections in more than five months.China Completes First Round of COVID Testing in Locked-down CityAggressive approach used in Shijiazhuang is being adopted in other Asian-Pacific countriesThe rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States has been fraught with problems, according to an Associated Press report.Gianfranco Pezzino, who was the public health officer in Shawnee County, Kansas, until his recent retirement, told AP, “The recurring theme is the lack of a national strategy and the attempt to pass the buck down the line, lower and lower, until the poor people at the receiving end have nobody else that they can send the buck to.”US Vaccine Rollout Hits Snag as Health Workers Balk at ShotsExperts say are fears of side effects from vaccines that were developed at record speed are unfounded The British variant of the COVID-19 virus, thought by scientists to be much more contagious, has been found in France and Russia, according to news reports Sunday.Russia, which has recorded more than 3 million cases of the virus, had already suspended flights from Britain until January 13 and is mandating a two-week isolation period for those traveling from Britain.Meanwhile, Britain continues to grapple with high numbers of cases and deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, with many hospitals at capacity while lockdowns are in effect.“The stark reality is that we will run out of beds for patients in the next couple of weeks unless the spread of the virus slows down drastically,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said over the weekend.The British variant of the virus has been found in 45 countries and at least eight states in the U.S. Another variant of the virus discovered in South Africa was found in some positive cases in Ireland Sunday.Yet a third new variant has been found in Japan in travelers from Brazil. The Brazil variant is different from the British and South African variants, but the three share a common mutation.British, South African COVID Variants Spreading Around GlobeThe British strain was found in France and Russia, while Ireland recorded a case of the South African versionWhile the variants are worrisome, they are not unexpected. The coronavirus has made thousands of tiny modifications since it was first discovered, researchers say. The African continent confirmed a total of 3 million cases of the virus on Sunday, as many countries are beginning to mark a second wave of infections and impose restrictions. On Sunday, Algeria registered Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus for use, the first African country to do so, Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund said. Algeria’s president was flown to Germany on Sunday for treatment of complications from COVID-19. Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Monday that there are more than 90 million global COVID-19 cases. The U.S. has the most with 22.4 million, followed by India with 10.4 million and Brazil with 8.1 million. Worldwide, nearly two million people have died.
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