Europe
EU reaches major climate deal ahead of Biden climate summit
The European Union reached a tentative climate deal that should make the 27-nation bloc climate-neutral by 2050, with member states and parliament agreeing on the targets on the eve of a virtual summit that U.S. President Biden will host.
“Our political commitment to becoming the first climate neutral continent by 2050 is now also a legal commitment. The Climate Law sets the EU on a green path for a generation,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen early Wednesday.
Under the provisional deal reached after officials negotiated through the night, the EU also commits itself on an intermediate target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
“It was high time for the agreement, as Europe has to show where it stands in view of the positive developments in the USA and China,” said MEP Peter Liese, the negotiator for the EPP Christian Democrat group.
Also Read: Calls for immediate action to tackle climate change
Up to now, the 2030 target had been 40% but under the pressure of increasing evidence of climate change and a more environmentally-conscious electorate that target was pushed up, even if the EU legislature had wanted at 60% target.
The Greens specifically complained that too many accounting tricks had been used to reach the level of 55% while in reality the reduction would be lower.
The United States, the world’s second-biggest polluter after China, is preparing to announce its new target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Under Biden, the United States has returned to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and all global partners will be meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, to push for strong targets.
Both Washington and Brussels are aiming to go “carbon neutral” by midcentury, a goal scientists say needs to be achieved to keep average global temperatures from rising above 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) by the year 2100. The Paris accord’s more ambitious target of capping global warming at 1.5 C (2.7 F) by the end of the century compared with pre-industrial times would likely require even more drastic worldwide cuts in emissions.
Wednesday’s EU deal still needs to be officially approved by the member states and the legislature but should be little more than a rubber stamp.
Watchdog: Media freedom has deteriorated during pandemic
There’s been a “dramatic deterioration” of press freedom since the pandemic started to tear across the world, Reporters Without Borders said in its annual report published Tuesday.
The group’s new World Press Freedom Index, which evaluated the press situations in 180 countries, painted a stark picture and concluded that 73% of the world’s nations have serious issues with media freedoms.
It says countries have used the coronavirus pandemic, which erupted in China in late 2019, “as grounds to block journalists’ access to information, sources and reporting in the field.”
Also read: Media Freedom Coalition concerned over Myanmar military’s efforts to muzzle media
This is particularly the case in Asia, the Mideast and Europe, the media group said.
“Journalism is the best vaccine against disinformation,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “Unfortunately, its production and distribution are too often blocked by political, economic, technological and, sometimes, even cultural factors. In response to the virality of disinformation across borders, on digital platforms and via social media, journalism provides the most effective means of ensuring that public debate is based on a diverse range of established facts.”
Also read: Bangladesh drops one notch in World Press Freedom Index
Issues have also arisen from a drop in public trust in journalism itself. The group said 59% of people polled in 28 countries claimed that journalists “deliberately try to mislead the public by reporting information they know to be false.”
EU agency links J&J shot to rare clots, says odds favor use
The European Union’s drug regulatory agency said Tuesday that it found a “possible link” between Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine and extremely rare blood clots and that a warning should be added to the label. But experts at the agency reiterated that the vaccine’s benefits outweigh the risks.
The European Medicines Agency made those determinations after a very small number of blood clot cases in people who had gotten the vaccine were reported in the United States. The agency said a warning about the blood clots should be added to labels for the Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine and that these rare blood disorders should be considered “very rare side effects of the vaccine.”
The EMA, which oversees the use of pharmaceutical products in 27 countries with a combined population of about 448 million, also recommended a label change for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after finding a link between it and rare blood clots. In both cases, the agency said the benefits of being immunized against COVID-19 still outweighed the very small risks of recipients developing the unusual clots.
Last week, Johnson & Johnson halted its European roll-out of the vaccine after U.S. officials recommended a pause in the vaccine, when they detected six very rare blood clot cases among nearly 7 million people who had been vaccinated.
European officials said they considered all currently available evidence from the U.S., which consisted of eight reports of serious cases of rare blood clots associated with low blood platelets, including one death. All of the cases occurred in people under age 60, but the EMA said that it hadn’t been able to identify any specific risk factors.
Also read: Fauci says he expects J&J vaccine to resume later this week
Last week, J&J halted its European rollout of its one-dose vaccine after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended officials pause its use while the rare blood clot cases are examined. Officials identified six cases of the highly unusual blood clots among nearly 7 million people who were immunized with the shot in the U.S.
Johnson & Johnson advised European governments to store their doses until the EU drug regulator issued guidance on their use; widespread use of the shot in Europe has not yet started.
The delay was a further blow to vaccination efforts in the European Union, which have been plagued by supply shortages, logistical problems and concerns over unusual blood clots also in a small number of people who received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Experts worry the temporary halt on J&J’s shot could further shake vaccine confidence and complicate worldwide COVID-19 immunization efforts.
Last week, South Africa suspended its use of the vaccine in the wake of the U.S. pause, and countries including Italy, Romania, the Netherlands, Denmark and Croatia put their J&J doses into storage.
The blood clots linked to the J&J vaccine are occurring in unusual parts of the body, such as veins that drain blood from the brain. Those patients also have abnormally low levels of blood platelets, a condition normally linked to bleeding, not clotting.
Aso read: J&J vaccine to remain in limbo while officials seek evidence
In its statement, the EMA said the cases it reviewed of unusual blood clots in people who received the J&J shot “were very similar to the cases that occurred with the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca.”
With the AstraZeneca vaccine, scientists in Norway and Germany have suggested that some people are experiencing an abnormal immune system response, forming antibodies that attack their own platelets.
It’s not yet clear if there might be a similar mechanism with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But both the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines, as well as a Russian COVID-19 vaccine and one from China, are made with the same technology. They train the immune system to recognize the spike protein that coats the coronavirus. To do that, they use a cold virus, called an adenovirus, to carry the spike gene into the body.
“Suspicion is rising that these rare cases may be triggered by the adenovirus component of the AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines,” said Eleanor Riley, a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh. She said that while more data was needed, “it remains the case that for the vast majority of adults in Europe and the USA, the risks associated with contracting COVID-19 far, far outweigh any risk of being vaccinated.”
Aso read: Australia won’t buy J&J coronavirus vaccine
On Monday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 5 million new cororavirus cases were confirmed worldwide last week, the highest-ever number in a single week. He noted that cases and hospitalizations among younger people were “increasing at an alarming rate.”
The European Medicines Agency, which regulates drugs used in European Union member nations, said last month there was a “possible link” between the AstraZeneca vaccine and rare blood clots but said the benefits of vaccination far outweighed the risks of COVID-19. It noted the risk is less than the blood clot risk that healthy women face from birth control pills.
The European Union ordered 200 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson for 2021 and EU officials had hoped the one-shot vaccine could be used both to boost the continent’s lagging vaccination rates and to protect hard-to-reach populations, like migrant workers and the homeless.
Last month, the African Union announced it signed a deal to buy up to 400 million doses of the J&J vaccine. Johnson & Johnson also has a deal to supply up to 500 million doses to the U.N.-backed COVAX initiative that helps get vaccines to the world’s poor.
Aso read: Company at heart of J&J vaccine woes has series of citations
Any concerns about the J&J vaccine would be another unwelcome complication for COVAX and for the billions of people in developing countries depending on the program. COVAX recently was hit by supply issues after its biggest supplier, the Serum Institute of India, announced it would delay exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine for several months due to a surge of cases on the subcontinent.
Harry, William seen chatting together after royal funeral
A year after they last saw one another, Prince William and his brother Prince Harry put their fraught relationship aside as they said farewell to their grandfather at his funeral on Saturday.
The brothers were somber and silent as they walked together in a procession behind Prince Philip’s coffin before his funeral at Windsor Castle along with their father, Prince Charles, and other close relatives. They were seen chatting and walking together after the service concluded.
It was the first time the brothers had been together in public since Harry stood down from royal duties and moved to the U.S. with his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and their son Archie in early 2020.
Tensions between Harry, 36, and William, 38, came to the fore after Harry and Meghan gave a revealing interview to U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey last month. The couple portrayed the royal family as indifferent to Meghan’s mental health struggles, and Harry described his relationship with William as “space at the moment.”
On Saturday, William and Harry walked in silence on either side of their cousin, Peter Phillips, as they joined other senior royals in Philip’s funeral procession. At one point Phillips fell behind slightly to allow the brothers to walk side by side — a visual echo of the moment the pair, as boys in 1997, walked behind the coffin of their mother Princess Diana in another royal funeral televised around the world.
The brothers sat opposite each other in St. George’s Chapel for the funeral, which was attended by only 30 people because of coronavirus restrictions. While William sat next to his wife Kate, Harry was on his own because Meghan is pregnant with their second child and was advised by her doctor not to make the long trip.
Afterwards, Harry, William and Kate strolled together outside the chapel. Moments later, the brothers walked together alone while Kate spoke to Zara Tindall, another of Queen Elizabeth II’s eight grandchildren who is William and Harry’s cousin.
Rumors of a rift between the brothers — William, the heir, and Harry, the “spare” — have rumbled at least since 2019. That’s when Harry and Meghan separated from the Royal Foundation, originally set up as the brothers’ joint charitable venture, to set up their own platform. That year, Harry said he loved his brother dearly but they were “on different paths” and have “good days” and “bad days.”
Many believe that William was angered and hurt by Harry’s decision to speak so publicly about the royal family’s issues during the Winfrey interview. In one explosive allegation, they said a family member — not the queen or Philip — had expressed “concerns” about Archie’s possible skin color before he was born. Meghan has a Black mother and a white father.
Days after the interview aired, William insisted “we are very much not a racist family,” and said he had not spoken to Harry since the broadcast.
It’s unclear whether the passing of their grandfather will help the brothers heal their rift. It wasn’t immediately clear how long Harry, who has been self-isolating in line with the U.K.’s coronavirus restrictions since arriving from California early this week, will stay in his home country.
Saturday’s funeral was limited to only 30 people, who all had to wear masks, sit in family bubbles and remain socially distanced in the same church that had hosted hundreds of people for Harry and Meghan’s royal wedding in 2018. And Britain’s continued coronavirus restrictions may limit how much opportunity the brothers will get to smooth over their differences.
“Because of the restrictions of COVID, it’s difficult to get down to decent conservations,” said royal biographer Penny Junor. “It’s probably quite difficult to sit down as they normally would over a beer and discuss things.”
Russia to expel 10 US diplomats in response to Washington
Russia on Friday responded in kind to a barrage of new U.S. sanctions, saying it would expel 10 U.S. diplomats and take other retaliatory moves in a tense showdown with Washington.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said Moscow will add eight U.S. officials to its sanctions list and move to restrict and stop the activities of U.S. nongovernment organizations from interfering in Russia’s politics.
He said the Kremlin suggested that U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan follow the example of his Russian counterpart and head home for consultations. Russia will also move to deny the U.S. Embassy the possibility to hire personnel from Russia and third countries as support staff.
The moves follow the sanctions on Russia announced this week by the Biden administration.
While the U.S. wields the power to cripple the Russian economy, Moscow lacks levers to respond in kind, although it potentially could hurt American interests in many other ways around the globe.
Lavrov noted that while Russia could take “painful measures” against American business interests in Russia, it wouldn’t immediately move to do that
Russia has denied interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and involvement in the SolarWind hack of federal agencies — the activities punished by the latest U.S. sanctions. The Russian Foreign Ministry warned of an “inevitable” retaliation, charging that “Washington should realize that it will have to pay a price for the degradation of bilateral ties.”
The U.S. on Thursday ordered 10 Russian diplomats expelled, targeted dozens of companies and people, and imposed new curbs on Russia’s ability to borrow money. Pundits had predicted that while Moscow would respond in kind to the expulsions, it would refrain from any other significant moves to avoid a further escalation.
Russia’s economic potential and its global reach are limited compared with the Soviet Union that competed with the U.S for international influence during the Cold War. Still, Russia’s nuclear arsenal and its leverage in many parts of the world make it a power that Washington needs to reckon with.
Aware of that, President Joe Biden called for de-escalating tensions and held the door open for cooperation with Russia in certain areas. Biden said he told Putin in Tuesday’s call that he chose not to impose tougher sanctions for now and proposed to meet in a third country in the summer.
Lavrov said the summit offer was being analyzed.
Also read: Sanctioned Russian IT firm was partner with Microsoft, IBM
While the new U.S. sanctions further limited Russia’s ability to borrow money by banning U.S. financial institutions from buying Russian government bonds directly from state institutions, they didn’t target the secondary market.
“It’s very important that there’re no sanctions on secondary debt because that means that non-U.S. persons can buy the debt and sell it to the U.S. persons,” said Tom Adshead, director of research at Macro-Advisory Ltd, an analytics and advisory company.
Tougher restrictions would also hurt Western businesses, inflict significant economic pain on the Russian population and allow Putin to rally anti-U.S. sentiments to shore up his rule.
Ramping up sanctions could eventually drive Russia into a corner and provoke even more reckless Kremlin action, such as a potential escalation in Ukraine, which has recently faced a surge in clashes with Russia-backed separatists in the east and a massive Russian troops buildup across the border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Paris on Friday to discuss the tensions with French President Emmanuel Macron. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was to join them in a call later.
Fyodor Lukyanov, a top foreign policy expert who leads the Moscow-based Council for Foreign and Defense Policies, predicted Putin would likely accept Biden’s invitation to join next week’s call on climate change but could drag his feet on accepting the summit offer.
“There is no way to make any deals,” Lukyanov said. “There is a mutual antipathy and a total lack of trust.”
He charged that the only practical outcome of the summit could be an agreement to launch long and difficult talks on a replacement to the New START nuclear reduction agreement that Russia and the U.S. extended in February for another five years.
Lukyanov noted that the growing U.S. pressure will push Russia and China closer together in the long run.
Also read: Months after hack, US poised to announce sanctions on Russia
“Closer cooperation with China on coordinating actions to contain the United States will develop more quickly now as the Chinese are interested in that,” he said. While Russia lacks tools for a symmetrical answer to the U.S. sanctions, “it has ample capabilities to stimulate changes in the world order,” he added.
Konstantin Kosachev, the Kremlin-connected deputy speaker of the upper house of parliament, said that by hitting Russia with sanctions and proposing a summit at the same time, the U.S. sought to take a commanding stance.
“Russia’s consent would be interpreted as a reflection of its desire to soften the sanctions, allowing the U.S. to secure a dominant position at the meeting, while our refusal to meet would be a convenient pretext for more punitive measures,” Kosachev wrote on Facebook.
He argued that Russia should not rush to accept Biden’s summit offer.
“Revenge is a dish best served cold,” Kosachev wrote. “I believe the saying is quite adaptable to a situation when we talk not about revenge but a due answer to aggressive action by an opponent.”
Some predicted the U.S. sanctions could discourage Russia from cooperating with the U.S. on international crises.
“The Russian position will grow tougher on Syria, the Iranian nuclear deal and other issues,” Ivan Timofeev, program director at Russian International Affairs Council, said in a commentary. Instead of acting as a deterrent, he warned, the sanctions would “only anger Russia and make its policy even tougher.”
However, any attempt by Russia to undermine American interests would dangerously escalate tensions with the U.S. and trigger even harder sanctions — something the Kremlin certainly wants to avoid.
Despite the soaring tensions, Russia and the U.S. have shared interests in many global hot spots. For example, Moscow fears that instability could spread from Afghanistan to former Soviet republics in Central Asia, and it is interested in a political settlement there.
As for Iran, Moscow also doesn’t want to see it with nuclear weapons, despite its friendly ties with Tehran.
Lukyanov said that Russia wouldn’t try to use global hot spots to hurt the U.S. and would wait patiently to see them erode U.S. domination.
“It’s not a matter of playing the spoiler here or there,” he said. “The ongoing developments will help accelerate the process of consolidation of leading powers against the U.S. domination.”
Denmark stops AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine rollout
Denmark on Wednesday decided to entirely cease administering the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, said the country's health authority during a joint press conference with the Danish Medicines.
"Based on the scientific findings, our overall assessment is there is a real risk of severe side effects associated with using the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca. We have, therefore, decided to remove the vaccine from our vaccination program," said Soren Brostrom, director general of the Danish Health Authority.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, the authority also claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic was "currently under control" in Denmark, adding that this had contributed to the decision.
Denmark first suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 11, citing "very rare but severe side effects" discovered during the jab's safety monitoring.
Also read: UK advises limiting AstraZeneca in under-30s amid clot worry
Denmark's decision on Wednesday to ditch the AstraZeneca shot came on the heels of the European Medical Agency's (EMA) recent verdict that "the benefits of using the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca continue to outweigh the risks for people who receive it."
The Danish Health Authority agrees with the EMA's general findings, Brostrom said, adding that
"In the midst of an epidemic, it has been a difficult decision to continue our vaccination program without an effective and readily available vaccine against COVID-19."
However, the authority referred to further comments by the EMA that the "use of the vaccine during vaccination campaigns at the national level should also consider the pandemic situation and vaccine availability in each individual country."
Also read: EU agency: Rare clots possibly linked to AstraZeneca shot
"We are basically in agreement with the EMA's assessment regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine. That is why it is important to emphasize that it is still an approved vaccine," said Brostrom.
"But if Denmark were in a completely different situation and in the midst of a violent third outbreak ... and if we had not reached such an advanced point in our rollout of the vaccines ... then I would not hesitate to use the vaccine, even if there were rare but severe complications associated with using it."
According to the Statens Serum Institut's (SSI) updated overview, 149,884 people in Denmark have received at least one shot and 596 both shots of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine.
"Those who have received the first injection with AstraZeneca will later receive an invitation to vaccination with another vaccine," the health authority said.
Also read: What we know about AstraZeneca blood clot reports
Meanwhile, Denmark continues to administer the vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
In total, 995,672 Danes have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, which corresponds to 17 percent of the population, the SSI said on Wednesday.
Paris police hunt for gunman who killed person near hospital
Paris police are hunting for a gunman who opened fire Monday near a hospital in the wealthy 16th district of the French capital, killing one person and injuring another. Witnesses at the scene suggest it could be a case of tragic score-settling, while authorities have not made any links with terrorism.
Paris police, who opened a murder inquiry Monday, said the shooter fired several shots before fleeing on a two-wheeled vehicle. Police had no other immediate details.
Noura Berrahmouni, DSPAP Alliance, said the injured person, a woman, was a security agent for the hospital.
Also read:Student fires at officers at Tennessee school, is killed
“It was so fast we suppose it was a score settling … If not, we think there would be more victims,” she said.
The shooter wore a hood, fired several times, according to witnesses on BFM-TV.
Prince Philip vs Philip of 'The Crown': Fact and fiction
“The Crown”: In 1969, Philip is immersed in TV coverage of the first moon landing and faults his life in comparison. After prosaic royal engagements at dental and textile facilities, the trained flier has the opportunity to take the controls of a private jet.
He pushes the plane toward the edge of space and, as the pilot protests that the trembling aircraft is at its limit, Philip responds: “Perhaps. But look, we’ve also lived. Just for a minute.”
Also Read: Bangladesh, British Bangladeshi community lost a true friend with Prince Philip's demise: PM
Meeting with the U.S. astronauts when they visit England as part of a victory lap, Philip tells them his position and marriage kept him from “the things I would’ve liked to, as a man, as an adventurer.”
In reality: During World War II, Philip saw action while serving on battleships and destroyers, was decorated and, at age 21, achieved the rank of first lieutenant in the Royal Navy.
While he carried out a full schedule of royal duties and headed hundreds of charities, he learned to fly in the 1950s and was an avid polo player and yachtsman, as well as painter and art collector. Still driving at 97, he flipped his Land Rover in a crash.
MAN OF FAITH
“The Crown”: Philip is asked to allow a spiritual retreat to be created on Windsor Castle’s grounds for clergy in need of midlife inspiration. He ridicules the plan as “hot air” but agrees to it, and ends up finding solace in its version of a men’s therapy group.
″‘How’s your faith?’” he recalls his mother asking him with concern, then tells the gathering and its dean, ”I’m here to admit to you I’ve lost it ... I come to say, ‘Help.’”
In reality: Robin Woods, the then-dean of Windsor, proposed the founding of St. George’s House in 1966 and Philip became its co-founder and an enthusiastic fundraiser, according to a companion book to “The Crown” by historian Robert Lacey. The center fosters discussion of contemporary issues, its website says.
Also Read: Too much? BBC gets complaints over Prince Philip coverage
Woods and Philip were lifelong friends, and the prince would critique his sermons at Windsor’s St. George’s Chapel. Philip’s funeral will be held there April 17.
Christened in the Greek Orthodox Church — though a practicing Anglican, married to the supreme governor of the Church of England — Philip was a visitor to Mount Athos, a monastic community and religious sanctuary in Greece. Leaders of several faiths in Britain say he took a deep interest in spiritual matters.
His coat of arms bears the motto, “God is my help.”
ON TEAM DIANA
“The Crown”: When Diana Spencer is introduced at a family gathering at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, she and Philip bond over a day of stag hunting and he supports her marriage to Charles.
The relationship turns bitter, and Diana tells Philip she’s considering splitting with Charles and the royal family she finds uncaring. Philip cautions her against the step and faults her perspective: Everyone is an outsider apart from the queen, the “one person, the only person, who matters,” he says.
In reality: In letters between Diana and Philip said to have been leaked, Philip is supportive of Diana and critical of his son’s extramarital affair with now-wife Camilla.
But after Diana’s candid TV interview and a revealing biography, Philip’s tone allegedly turned sterner and he wrote that she must “fit in” or exit the family.
Too much? BBC gets complaints over Prince Philip coverage
The U.K.’s national broadcaster switched instantly into mourning mode when Prince Philip’s death was announced Friday.
The BBC canceled its regular programming and aired special coverage hosted by black-clad news anchors throughout the day. Popular prime-time shows such as the cooking contest “MasterChef” were supplanted, and the network’s music radio stations played instrumentals and somber tunes.
Some Britons saw the BBC’s actions as a fitting mark of respect. For others, it was a bit much.
The broadcaster received so many complaints alleging its reporting was excessive that it set up a special website page for viewers to register objections if they felt there was “too much TV coverage of the death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.” It didn’t disclose how many people had complained by Saturday.
Simon McCoy, a long-time BBC news presenter who recently left the network, suggested the wall-to-wall coverage was inordinate.
Also read: Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, dies aged 99
“BBC1 and BBC2 showing the same thing. And presumably the News Channel, too. Why? I know this is a huge event. But surely the public deserve a choice of programming?” McCoy said on Twitter.
The publicly funded BBC often finds itself under fire from all sides for its treatment of major national events. When the Queen Mother Elizabeth died in 2002, the broadcaster received criticism because the announcer who delivered the news did not wear a black tie.
Britain’s other TV stations also gave extensive coverage to Philip’s death at age 99 and after 73 years of marriage to Queen Elizabeth II. Commercial network ITV aired news coverage and tribute programs all day Friday in place of scheduled programming.
The BBC is under unique pressure, though, because it is taxpayer-funded. Scrutiny and questions about its role have grown in recent years as commercial rivals and streaming services give audiences more choice.
Also read: Philip, in role with no job description, was queen’s bedrock
The BBC has often irked governments with its coverage of their failings and scandals. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative administration has been especially rankled, detecting a liberal bias in the broadcaster’s coverage of issues such as Brexit.
For a time, the government refused to allow Cabinet ministers to appear on major BBC news programs, and it mulled the idea of scrapping the 159 pound ($218) a year license fee that households pay to fund the broadcaster.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie has acknowledged the organization must evolve with changing times, but says it remains essential to British society.
“We have a different purpose” than broadcasters such as Netflix, Davie told U.K. lawmakers last month. “I’m not running a business for profit. I’m running...an organization for purpose.”
Also read: Bangladesh, British Bangladeshi community lost a true friend with Prince Philip's demise: PM
No region in the world spared as virus cases, deaths surge
Hospitals in Turkey and Poland are filling up fast. Pakistan is restricting domestic travel to contain a surge in coronavirus infections. Even Thailand, which has weathered the pandemic far better than many nations, is now struggling to contain a new COVID-19 spike.
The only exceptions to the deteriorating worldwide situation are countries that have advanced vaccination programs, mostly notably Israel and Britain. Even the U.S., which is a vaccination leader globally, is seeing a small uptick in new cases, and the White House announced Friday that it would send federal help to Michigan to control the state’s worst-in-the-nation transmission rate.
The World Health Organization said Friday that it’s concerned about infection rates that are rising in every global region, driven by new virus variants and too many nations coming out of lockdown too soon.
“We’ve seen rises (in cases) worldwide for six weeks. And now, sadly, we are seeing rises in deaths for the last three weeks,” Dr. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokeswoman, said at a briefing in Geneva.
In its latest weekly epidemiological update, the WHO said over 4 million COVID-19 cases were reported in the last week. New deaths increased by 11% compared to last week, with over 71,000 reported.
Also read: Countries worldwide hit new records for virus cases, deaths
The increasing infections, hospitalizations and deaths extend to countries where vaccinations are finally gaining momentum. That leaves even bleaker prospects for much of the world, where large-scale vaccination programs remain a more distant prospect.
In Turkey, which is among the badly hit countries, most new cases of the virus can be traced to a variant first found in Britain.
Ismail Cinel, head of the Turkish Intensive Care Association, said the surge was beginning to strain the nation’s relatively advanced health care system and “the alarm bells are ringing” for intensive care units, which are not yet at full capacity.
“The mutant form of the virus is causing more harm to the organs,” Cinel said. “While 2 out of 10 patients were dying previously, the number is now 4 out of 10. And if we continue this way, we will lose six.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eased COVID-19 restrictions in early March to minimize pain to his nation’s ailing economy. The new spike forced him to announce renewed restrictions, such as weekend lockdowns and the closure of cafes and restaurants during Ramadan, which starts April 13.
Also read: Global Covid cases top 132 million
Turkish medical groups say the reopening in March was premature and that the new measures do not go far enough. They have been calling for full lockdowns during the holy Muslim month.
In the U.S. capital, President Joe Biden’s administration outlined how the federal government planned to help Michigan better administer the doses already allocated to the state, as well as expand testing capacity and the availability of drugs. The effort will not include any extra vaccine doses, a move Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sought.
Doses are currently allocated to states proportionally by population. Whitmer has called for extra doses to be shifted to states like hers experiencing a sharp rise in cases.
The death toll in Iran is also rising, prompting new restrictions that will take effect for 10 days in 257 cities beginning Saturday. They involve the closure of all parks, restaurants, confectionaries, beauty salons, malls and bookstores.
Authorities in Pakistan, which is in the middle of a third surge of infections, are restricting inter-city transportation on weekends starting at midnight Friday as part of measures aimed at limiting coronavirus cases and deaths.
Also read: COVAX reaches over 100 economies, 42 days after first international delivery
Elsewhere in Asia, authorities in Thailand on Friday ordered new restrictions in an effort to contain a growing coronavirus outbreak just days before the country’s traditional Songkran New Year’s holiday, when millions of people travel.
Japan, meanwhile, announced tougher measures ahead of the Summer Olympics.
In Germany, Poland and other countries in the 27-member European Union, vaccination programs are finally ramping up after a slow start in the first three months of the year due to delivery shortages.
Thousands of German medical practices joined the vaccination campaign this week. That helped Germany reach its second consecutive daily record on Thursday of almost 720,000 doses administered — meaning that 14.7% of the population has now received at least one dose and 5.8% have received both shots.
Yet German health officials are warning of a steep rise in intensive care patients and are calling for stronger action to contain infections.
Also read: Governments give varying advice on AstraZeneca vaccine
Lothar Wieler, the head of Germany’s disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said nearly 4,500 COVID-19 patients are receiving intensive care, with the number increasing by 700 over the past week — a 20% rise.
Neighboring Poland is also seeing a dramatic spike in deaths, and hospitals have been forced to turn away cancer and other patients as ICU and other hospital beds are taken by COVID-19 patients. Hospitalizations of virus patients there have jumped 20% in the past two weeks.
Harris, from the WHO, said the world knows how to fight these surges. She cited good news from the U.K., where new coronavirus cases dropped 60% in March amid a strong vaccination program, “but we have to do it all.”
“We have to keep on social distancing. We have to avoid indoor crowded settings. We have to keep wearing the masks, even if vaccinated,” she said. “People are misunderstanding, seeming to think that vaccination will stop transmission. That is not the case. We need to bring down the transmission while giving the vaccination the chance to stop the severe disease.”