The White House on Sunday urged computer network operators to take further steps to gauge whether their systems were targeted amid a hack of Microsoft Corp’s Outlook email program, saying a recent software patch still left serious vulnerabilities.”This is an active threat still developing and we urge network operators to take it very seriously,” a White House official said, adding that top U.S. security officials were working to decide what next steps to take following the breach.CNN reported Sunday that the Biden administration was forming a task force to address the hack. The White House official, in a statement, said the administration was making “a whole of government response.”While Microsoft released a patch last week to shore up flaws in its email software, the remedy still leaves open a so-called back door that can allow access to compromised servers and perpetuate further attacks by others.”We can’t stress enough that patching and mitigation is not remediation if the servers have already been compromised, and it is essential that any organization with a vulnerable server take measures to determine if they were already targeted,” the White House official said.A source told Reuters that more than 20,000 U.S. organizations had been compromised by the hack, which Microsoft has blamed on China, although Beijing denies any role.The server vulnerabilities can impact credit unions, town governments and small business, and have left U.S. officials scrambling to reach victims, with the FBI on Sunday urging them to contact the law enforcement agency.Those affected appear to host Web versions of Microsoft’s email program Outlook on their own machines instead of cloud providers, possibly sparing many major companies and federal government agencies, records from the investigation suggest.A Microsoft representative on Sunday said it was working with the government and others to help guide customers, and the company urged impacted clients to apply software updates as soon as possible.Neither the company nor the White House has specified the scale of the hack. Microsoft initially said it was limited, but the White House last week expressed concern about the potential for “a large number of victims.”So far, only a small percentage of infected networks have been compromised through the back door, the source previously told Reuters, but more attacks are expected.
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Month: March 2021
Cameroon Reports Polio Cases Amid COVID Scare
Cameroon says two polio cases discovered in the capital, Yaoundé, three weeks ago are a consequence of people refusing to inoculate their children for fear of being infected by COVID-19. The central African state has redeployed health teams to all towns and villages to ask parents to vaccinate their children.Cameroon says it has dispatched health workers to 360 hospitals as part of an awareness campaign against polio. Tetanye Ekoe, president of Cameroon’s National Polio Certification Commission, said the awareness teams will teach communities to observe hygiene and to intensify routine immunization, and epidemiological surveillance.He said the discovery of two type 2 polio cases in Yaoundé three weeks ago should serve as a wake-up call for people who have turned their backs on polio vaccination. He said it is an illusion to think that the government is hiding behind vaccinations to harm its citizens. Ekoe said he is calling on all Cameroonians to inoculate their children and convince others to take their children to vaccination centers. He said the emergence of polio shows a weak collective immunity.Ekoe said some polio cases may still be undetected because many parents have not been bringing their children to the hospitals out of fear of COVID-19 infection.Cameroon was declared polio-free in 2015, but in 2019, the government of the central African state announced a resurgence on its northern border with Nigeria.The new polio cases were reported in Cameroon in the middle of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.This month Cameroon’s Public Health Ministry reported that the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 had increased from 26,000 to 39,000 between January and February.In December, the government said more than 240,000 children had not received polio vaccines since COVID-19 cases were first reported in Cameroon last March. The government said parents were refusing to take their children to the hospitals for inoculation because of fear of the coronavirus.Ekoe said rumors last month that the government would secretly vaccinate all Cameroonians against COVID-19 further discouraged people who are scared of the vaccine from visiting hospitals.Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute denied in a message Friday that Cameroon is vaccinating all its citizens who visit hospitals against COVID-19. Ngute said Cameroon is still negotiating to buy a million coronavirus vaccine doses, which will not be administered to people who do not want them.”Once this vaccine become available, vaccination shall be voluntary,” he said. “I will like to note that although vaccination is voluntary and not compulsory, the government encourages all Cameroonians to be vaccinated when the time comes in order to acquire the immunity that will enable our community to protect itself against COVID-19 for a return to normalcy.”On Aug. 25, the World Health Organization announced that wild poliovirus had been eradicated from Africa after four consecutive years without any reported cases and massive efforts to immunize children. The WHO said polio-free Africa was a historic moment, moving the world closer to achieving global polio eradication.The WHO statement said only Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to see wild poliovirus transmission.Polio affects mostly young children. Cameroon did not say if the new cases were detected in children or adults.
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US Senator Joe Manchin Play Key Role on Vital Legislation
A key centrist U.S. Democratic lawmaker, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, helped broker passage of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, but declared Sunday that he remains opposed to eliminating the filibuster in the Senate to ease passage other progressive legislation. In the politically divided chamber, with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, Manchin played a center-stage role in shaping the virus relief aid. He agreed to keep the $300-a-week national government payments to jobless workers at their current level rather than raise the figure to $400 and to cut off tax relief for the unemployed if they had annual family income above $150,000. “We targeted where help was needed,” Manchin told CNN. “This is one tremendous piece of legislation. It’s going to help a lot of people.”Key Facts About the $1.9T COVID Bill Legislation still needs final passage in House, president’s signature But until Manchin reached agreement with his more progressive Democratic allies in the Senate who wanted bigger financial assistance for the unemployed, passage of the relief aid remained in doubt. The House of Representatives is expected to approve the Senate version of the relief package in the coming days and send it to Biden for his signature, his first major legislative victory since taking office in January. No Republican voted for the legislation in either chamber. In the Senate, that left Manchin, perhaps the most conservative of the 50-member Democratic caucus, with an outsized role in reaching agreement with his fellow Democrats even as he rejected overtures from Republican lawmakers to join them in approving a much-reduced coronavirus spending package.”My Republican friends are my friends. They’re not my enemies,” he told the “Fox News Sunday” show. “And my Democrats are my colleagues, they’re not my enemies either. That’s my caucus.”But Manchin told Sunday talk shows he maintains his opposition to ending the legislative filibuster in the Senate, which some progressive Democrats want to do away with in order push through Biden’s legislative agenda on 51-50 votes if need be, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.Senate Passes $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Bill50-49 vote falls along party lines in 100-member chamber While simple majorities are enough to approve legislation in the House, 60 votes are often necessary in the Senate to end debate on controversial issues and move forward to a vote. If the filibuster is eliminated to thwart opponents from blocking key legislation, a Democratic majority, as is currently the case with the Harris tie-breaking vote, could pass legislation with a simple majority.Manchin, however, says he won’t accede to other Democrats wanting to change the Senate rules to end use of the filibuster, although he is open to make it more difficult to use, such as renewing the tradition from years past when filibustering lawmakers were required to hold the floor during Senate debates by speaking for hours without a recess. “I’d make it harder to get rid of the filibuster, I’m supporting the filibuster, I’m going to continue to support the filibuster,” Manchin said on Fox. “I think it defines who we are as a Senate. I’ll make it harder to get rid of it, but it should be painful if you want to use it.”Manchin noted that in recent years it has become much easier to use the filibuster.”It really should be painful, and we’ve made it more comfortable,” he said.The rules of Senate debate could come into play in the coming weeks over several Biden initiatives, including debate over a House-approved measure that would set national standards for the conduct of elections that Republicans oppose and whether to raise the U.S. minimum wage for workers from $7.25 an hour to $15.Manchin on CNN said there is “not one senator opposed to increasing the minimum wage,” although the debate centers on by how much and how quickly low-wage workers would be paid more. But a Biden bid to gradually raise the wage to $15 an hour was stripped from the coronavirus relief deal when several Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the provision.
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Pope Prays Amid Ruins of Iraqi Churches Destroyed by IS
Pope Francis arrived in northern Iraq on Sunday where he prayed in the ruins of churches destroyed by the Islamic state and will later celebrate an open-air Mass.His first stop Sunday was in Mosul, once a stronghold of the Islamic State. He prayed for Iraq’s war victims in a city square, among the ruins of several churches decimated by the militants.After Mosul, Francis headed for Qaraqosh, an ancient Christian town that had been overrun by Islamic State forces, where he met with members of the local community at the Church of the Immaculate Conception.The pope will celebrate an open-air Mass at the Franso Hariri stadium in Erbil before heading back to Baghdad. Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, attendance will be limited to 10,000 people.On Saturday, the 84-year-old pope met with the reclusive Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani at the 90-year-old Muslim leader’s modest home in Najaf.Sistani is one of the most important figures in Shiite Islam and wields considerable influence in Iraq and beyond.The Christian presence in Iraq dates to the first centuries of the religion, but only a few hundred thousand Christians remain today.Iraqi Christians are hoping Francis’ message of coexistence will help ease their lives in the mainly Muslim country where they find themselves frequently under attack from Shiite militia members.This is the pope’s 33rd trip outside Italy and his first in the last 15 months due in most part to COVID-19.The pontiff is scheduled to return to Rome on Monday morning.
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Africa’s Pandemic Year Full of Tragic Twists, Turns and … Now, Hope
In recent weeks, as Africa prepared to mark the milestone of one year since the coronavirus reached its shores, millions of doses of long-awaited vaccine finally began to arrive across the continent. Most were provided by the global COVAX Facility, which distributes vaccine to lower income countries.That, officials say, has flipped this tale from one of despair to one of optimism.And, says South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Africans played a valuable part in turning the tide.“South Africa’s scientists and research institutions have made an important contribution to these efforts and have contributed to global knowledge about the disease, including on the emergence of new variants,” he said this week, addressing his nation on television. “And in this regard, our scientists who we should be proud of, have really led the way and they are recognized globally.”Ramaphosa, who held the rotating head of the African Union in 2020, was also instrumental in establishing a continental plan to acquire vaccines. He and other African leaders have repeatedly stressed the importance of global vaccine equity and urged access for poorer nations.In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, officials this month received their first delivery of 1.7 million vaccine doses through COVAX.Village Reach is an aid organization that focuses on remote, rural low-income countries. Their DRC country director, Freddy Nkosi, told VOA that while African nations appear to have a lower proportion of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, the pandemic has still hit hard here.“Yes we are as affected as the rest of the world, in different proportion,” he said via Google Hangouts, from Kinshasa. “We have to continue to protect ourselves through all the protective measures, but also we have to get vaccinated so that we are all protected.”Dr. Richard Lessells, one of South Africa’s top viral researchers, says the continent’s largest vaccine drive, in South Africa, looks promising after fits and starts.The country was set to distribute 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but reversed course last month after researchers found it to be less effective against a variant that accounts for the majority of the nation’s new cases.South Africa has since switched to the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, but the process still delayed the vaccination campaign.Lessells says that as the continent stares down this anniversary, it needs one thing: time.“Once we get beyond that first priority group of the health care workers and start delivering it to the other vulnerable groups within the population,” he said. “We then get a much better sense of how we’re doing here in South Africa.”So, what is year two of the pandemic going to look like in Africa? On this, everyone seems to agree: hopeful.
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Africa’s Pandemic Year Was Full of Tragic Twists, Turns and Now, Hope
Africa’s year with the pandemic has been a challenging one, full of suspense and surprises. VOA’s Anita Powell looks back at the continent’s bout with the virus, which has infected at least 2.8 million people and killed about 72,000, according to the World Health Organization. She reports from South Africa.
Camera: Zaheer Cassim
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Whither the GOP?
Host Carol Castiel and Ian Kelly speak with Peter Wehner, Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, New York Times Contributing Opinion Writer, and Contributing Editor for The Atlantic about the current state and future of the Republican Party. Wehner, who has worked for three Republican administrations, confirms that the GOP has been taken over by former President Donald Trump and suggests ways it can return to its conservative roots and values.
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Europe Staggers as Infectious Variants Power Virus Surge
The virus swept through a nursery school and an adjacent elementary school in the Milan suburb of Bollate with amazing speed. In a matter of just days, 45 children and 14 staff members had tested positive.Genetic analysis confirmed what officials suspected: The highly contagious coronavirus variant first identified in England was racing through the community, a densely packed city of nearly 40,000 with a chemical plant and a Pirelli bicycle tire factory a 15-minute drive from the heart of Milan.”This demonstrates that the virus has a sort of intelligence. … We can put up all the barriers in the world and imagine that they work, but in the end, it adapts and penetrates them,” lamented Bollate Mayor Francesco Vassallo.Bollate was the first city in Lombardy, the northern region that has been the epicenter in each of Italy’s three surges, to be sealed off from neighbors because of virus variants that the World Health Organization says are powering another uptick in infections across Europe. The variants also include versions first identified in South Africa and Brazil.Europe recorded 1 million new COVID-19 cases last week, an increase of 9% from the previous week and a reversal that ended a six-week decline in new infections, WHO said Thursday.”The spread of the variants is driving the increase, but not only,” said Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, citing “also the opening of society, when it is not done in a safe and a controlled manner.”50% more transmissibleThe variant first found in the U.K. is spreading significantly in 27 European countries monitored by WHO and is dominant in at least 10 countries: Britain, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Spain and Portugal.It is up to 50% more transmissible than the virus that surged last spring and again in the fall, making it more adept at thwarting measures that were previously effective, WHO experts warned. Scientists have concluded that it is also more deadly.”That is why health systems are struggling more now,” Kluge said. “It really is at a tipping point. We have to hold the fort and be very vigilant.”In Lombardy, which bore the brunt of Italy’s spring surge, intensive care wards are again filling up, with more than two-thirds of new positive tests being the U.K. variant, health officials said.After putting two provinces and some 50 towns on a modified lockdown, Lombardy’s regional governor announced tightened restrictions Friday and closed classrooms for all ages. Cases in Milan schools alone surged 33% in a week, the provincial health system’s chief said.The situation is dire in the Czech Republic, which this week registered a record-breaking total of nearly 8,500 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Poland is opening temporary hospitals and imposing a partial lockdown as the U.K. variant has grown from 10% of all infections in February to 25% now.Two patients from hard-hit Slovakia were expected to arrive Saturday for treatment in Germany, where authorities said they had offered to take in 10 patients.Rate of decline slowingKluge cited Britain’s experience as cause for optimism, noting that widespread restrictions and the introduction of the vaccine have helped tamp down the variants there and in Israel. The vaccine rollout in the European Union, by comparison, is lagging badly, mostly because of supply problems.In Britain, the emergence of the more transmissible strain sent cases soaring in December and triggered a national lockdown in January. Cases have since plummeted, from about 60,000 a day in early January to about 7,000 a day now.Still, a study shows the rate of decline slowing, and the British government says it will tread cautiously with plans to ease the lockdown. That process begins Monday with the reopening of schools. Infection rates are highest in people ages 13-17, and officials will watch closely to see whether the return to class brings a spike in infections.While the U.K. variant is dominant in France, forcing lockdowns in the French Riviera city of Nice and the northern port of Dunkirk, the variant first detected in South Africa has emerged as the most prevalent in France’s Moselle region, which borders Germany and Luxembourg. It represents 55% of the virus circulating there.Austria’s health minister said Saturday the U.K. variant is now dominant in his country. But the South Africa variant is also a concern in a district of Austria that extends from Italy to Germany, with Austrian officials announcing plans to vaccinate most of the 84,000 residents there to curb its spread. Austria is also requiring motorists along the Brenner highway, a major north-south route, to show negative test results.The South Africa variant, now present in 26 European countries, is a source of particular concern because of doubts over whether the current vaccines are effective enough against it. The Brazilian variant, which appears capable of reinfecting people, has been detected in 15 European countries.WHO and its partners are working to strengthen the genetic surveillance needed to track variants across the continent.The mayor of Bollate has appealed to the regional governor to vaccinate all 40,000 residents immediately, though he expects to be told the vaccine supply is too tight.Bollate has recorded 3,000 positive cases and 134 deaths — mostly among the elderly — since Italy was stricken a year ago. It took the brunt in the resurgence in November and December and was caught completely off guard when the U.K. variant arrived, racing through school-age children before hitting families at home.”People are starting to get tired that after a year there is no light at the end of the tunnel,” Vassallo said.
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Twitter Founder’s Auction of First Tweet Draws $2 Million Bid
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is selling his first tweet at auction, with bidding Saturday reaching $2 million in a sign of the appetite for virtual objects authenticated through blockchain technology.”just setting up my twttr,” Dorsey tweeted on March 21, 2006.On Friday he posted a link to “Valuables @Cent,” an online marketplace for tweets where, the site says, investors or collectors can “buy and sell tweets autographed by their creators.”The top bid Saturday for Dorsey’s tweet — $2 million — came from Justin Sun, the founder of TRON, a platform for blockchain, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies. He also heads the BitTorrent streaming platform.”The creator of a tweet decides if they would like to mint it on the blockchain, creating a 1-of-1 autographed version,” Valuables explained.Buying ‘a digital certificate’Buying a tweet means purchasing “a digital certificate of the tweet, unique because it has been signed and verified by the creator,” according to Valuables.In Dorsey’s case, the tweet itself remains visible to all, so long as he and Twitter leave it online.The approach is much like the online sales of dramatic digital “moments” from National Basketball Association games; the short video sequences remain visible for free on the internet but a blockchain-backed “Non-Fungible Token” (NFT) is generated to guarantee the identity, authenticity and traceability of the video, confirming its value.Thus, a 10-second clip showing a spectacular sequence by basketball superstar LeBron James fetched $208,000 on the NBA Top Shot site late last month.Top Shot has generated more than $200 million in transactions this year, according to Dapper Labs, which partnered with the NBA to create Top Shot.In 2019, Sun paid $4.6 million in a winning bid to have lunch with billionaire Warren Buffett. Sun reportedly tried but failed to convince the elderly investor of the value of bitcoins.NFTs have soared in popularity, to the point that prestigious auction house Christie’s last month sold an entirely digital artwork.
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What You Need to Know About the $1.9T COVID Bill
U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday came one step closer to his first major political victory: passage of his coronavirus economic relief package.What is it? A $1.9 trillion bill that Democrats said would help the country defeat the coronavirus and repair the economy. Republicans say it is more expensive than necessary. The measure follows five earlier virus bills totaling about $4 trillion that Congress has enacted since last spring.What is the latest? The Senate approved the pandemic relief package over Republican opposition Saturday by a party-line vote of 50-49.What’s next? The Senate made several changes to the bill, which was passed earlier by the U.S. House. Now the bill returns to the House for final passage, which could come early next week.How does it fight the pandemic? The bill contains about $14 billion to help distribute vaccines faster and get shots into arms quicker. It also provides $46 billion to expand federal, state and local testing, and enhance contact tracing.What’s in it for jobless Americans? It would extend the expanded unemployment benefits from the federal government through September 6 at $300 a week. The first $10,200 of jobless benefits would be nontaxable for households with incomes of less than $150,000.What about health care? It would provide a 100% subsidy of COBRA health insurance premiums through September so that laid-off workers can remain on their employer health plans. It also would increase subsidies for insurance through the Affordable Care Act through the end of 2022.Will there be subsidy checks? Yes, a direct payment of $1,400 for a single taxpayer, or $2,800 for a married couple who file jointly, plus $1,400 per dependent. Individuals earning up to $75,000 would get the full amount, as would married couples with incomes up to $150,000. The size of the check would shrink as incomes rise, with a hard cutoff at $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for married couples.What about schools? The bill calls for about $130 billion in additional help to schools for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The money would be used to modify classrooms to allow more social distancing, install ventilation systems and buy personal protective equipment. The money could also be used to increase the hiring of nurses and counselors and to provide summer school.Will businesses receive help? It offers $25 billion in a new program aimed at restaurants and bars hurt by the pandemic. It also has $7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, and it allows more nonprofits to apply for loans that are designed to help borrowers meet their payroll and operating costs and can potentially be forgiven.Can it help renters and homeowners? It provides about $30 billion to help pay the rent and utilities for low-income households and people who are unemployed, and to provide vouchers and other support for people who are homeless. States and tribes would receive an additional $10 billion for homeowners who are struggling with mortgage payments because of the pandemic.
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US Researchers Say COVID-19 Antiviral Shows Promise
Pharmaceutical giant Merck and an American laboratory announced progress Saturday in the design of an oral drug against COVID-19. Their antiviral has shown positive effects in reducing the viral load in current tests.”Knowing that there is an unmet need for antiviral therapy for SARS-CoV-2, we are encouraged by these preliminary results,” Wendy Painter, chief drug officer at Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, said in a statement.Merck interrupted its work on two potential COVID-19 vaccines at the end of January but continues its research on two treatments against the disease, including molnupiravir, developed with the American company Ridgeback Bio.The drug significantly reduced the viral load in patients after five days of treatment, the company said Saturday in a meeting with infectious-disease specialists.Phase 2a of the test — the trials have three phases before possible marketing — was carried out on 202 out-of-hospital patients who had COVID-19 with symptoms. There was no alert in terms of safety, and “of the four serious incidents reported, none was considered in connection with the drug studied,” the laboratory said.Influenza drugs like oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) are sometimes prescribed for seasonal flu, but research is struggling to find an antiviral for COVID-19.The results of this study, “namely a more rapid decrease in the viral load in individuals with COVID-19 in the initial phase and who have received molnupiravir, are promising,” assured William Fischer, one of the directors of the study and professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina.”If they are reinforced by additional studies, they could have important consequences in terms of public health, as the virus continues to spread and evolve in the world.”Merck is also working on a treatment called MK-711. The first results of clinical trials show a reduction of more than 50% in the risk of death or respiratory failure in hospitalized patients with moderate to severe forms of COVID-19, the group said at the end of January.
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African American Poet Amanda Gorman Says She Was ‘Tailed’ by Security Guard
African American poet Amanda Gorman said in a Twitter post that she was “tailed” by a security guard Friday night as she walked to her home in the city of Los Angeles with the guard saying “you look suspicious.”
Gorman, who is 22, drew national attention by becoming the youngest poet ever to be invited to speak at an inauguration, when U.S. President Joe Biden was sworn into office in January.
She posted on Twitter that the guard wanted to know “If I live there” and “I showed my keys & buzzed myself into my building. He left, no apology. This is the reality of black girls: One day you’re called an icon, the next day, a threat.”
“In a sense, he was right,” Gorman continued on Twitter. “I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, to inequality, to ignorance. Anyone who speaks the truth and walks with hope is an obvious and fatal danger to the powers that be.”In a sense, he was right. I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, to inequality, to ignorance. Anyone who speaks the truth and walks with hope is an obvious and fatal danger to the powers that be. https://t.co/hY9miR0b6J— Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) March 6, 2021Gorman became a sensation after a moving recital of her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration.
In 2017, when she was a student at Harvard, she became the first National Youth Poet Laureate.
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Stop ‘Fussing and Whining’ Over COVID Response, Says Brazil President
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has recorded more than 116 million global coronavirus cases. The U.S. is on the verge of having 30 million infections, followed by India with 11 million and Brazil with 10.8 million.Earlier this week, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had callous words for fellow Brazilians unhappy with the president’s response to the pandemic.“Stop all this fussing and whining,” the president said. “How long are you going to keep on crying?” Bolsonaro was speaking in the Brazilian state of Goiás, where almost 9,000 people have died.Only the U.S. has more COVID deaths than Brazil. According to Hopkins, the U.S. has more than 522,000 COVID deaths, while Brazil has reported more than 262,000.Russia’s statistics agency said Friday more than 200,000 Russians diagnosed with COVID-19 have died, more than double the figure used by the government’s coronavirus task force.The figures released Friday from Rosstat, a government agency that releases coronavirus data infrequently, said it had recorded 200,432 deaths through January. Those figures include nearly 70,000 people who had the virus at the time of death, but whose main cause of death was not deemed to be COVID-19.The tally is significantly more the government’s coronavirus task force’s data, which had recorded 88,285 deaths as of Friday. The government’s task force does not count deaths in which the virus was present but is not ruled the main cause.Using the figures from Rosstat, Russia would have the third most COVID-19 fatalities in the world, behind only the United States and Brazil.Rosstat also reported Friday that Russia has recorded 394,000 more deaths since the start of the pandemic until the end of January than in the previous period — suggesting that coronavirus-related deaths in the country could be even higher.In another development Friday, the World Health Organization said investigators who conducted an inspection in China to determine origins of the COVID-19 virus would release a report on their findings in mid-March.Peter Ben Embarek, who led the mission, clarified at a regular coronavirus news briefing Friday in Geneva that an interim report would not be released as previously reported.“To clarify, there was never a plan for an interim report, first of all,” Embarek said. “It was hoped we would get a summary report out,” but “the director-general [Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus] will receive that report from the team in the near future and we will discuss the recommendations.”The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday the WHO team decided not to release its interim account “amid mounting tensions between Beijing and Washington.”Another international group of scientists has called for the WHO to conduct a new inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. The scientists calling for a new probe said in an open letter Thursday that the WHO team “did not have the mandate, the independence, or the necessary accesses to carry out a full and unrestricted investigation.”The scientists also noted in their letter that the WHO investigators in China were accompanied by their Chinese counterparts.The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.Throughout his term, former U.S. president Donald Trump strongly suggested, without evidence, the coronavirus leaked from a Wuhan laboratory.A global team of inspectors began its four-week investigation in Wuhan in January and finished it last month.Italy on Friday surpassed 3 million confirmed coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. The health ministry reported 24,036 new confirmed cases Friday, the third straight day this week that daily new caseloads exceeded 20,000 cases.The government said it would further tighten coronavirus restrictions in three of its 20 regions after health officials warned of the increase of cases of more contagious variants.France reported 23,507 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, which is down from the previous week, however officials said the number of people in intensive care with COVID-19 reached its highest level this year.Canada’s drug regulator announced Friday that it had approved Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, the fourth such inoculation to get approval. Canada has also approved vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.Mickey Mouse may once again scamper on Disneyland’s streets, according to California officials who said Friday the state’s theme and amusement parks could open as early as April 1.There are, of course, COVID-19 restrictions on the openings. The parks would open under restricted capacity. They would also have to be in a county that is not under certain constraints, designed to slow the coronavirus transmission rate.A purple county has the most restrictions due to its coronavirus rate of infection, under California’s color-code system. Disneyland is in a purple country, but at the present rate of transmission, officials expect the theme park would likely be eligible for reopening sometime in April.
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International Women’s Day Marks Year of Increased Hardships for Women Worldwide
For more than a century, International Women’s Day has celebrated women’s achievements across the globe, overcoming persistent gender inequality. This year’s observance comes as the UN reports women, particularly women of color, face especially high rates of unemployment. VOA’s Esha Sarai has more.
Camera: Karen Sánchez and Rebaz Majeed
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COVID Plunging Many Kenyans Deeper into Poverty
One year into the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya, thousands of families are struggling with deepening poverty and unemployment. A survey by the charity Twaweza shows 60% of Kenyan families can no longer afford three meals per day. Brenda Mulinya reports from Nairobi.
Camera: Amos Wangwa Producer: Henry Hernandez
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Effort to Curb Ebola in Guinea, DR Congo Gathering Steam
The World Health Organization says it is using every measure it has to curb the spread of parallel Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. One of the biggest lessons learned from the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa — the largest in history — is the critical importance of acting quickly to contain the deadly disease. World health officials began marshaling staff and working on a strategy to combat the disease as soon as the first cases of the Ebola virus were detected in Guinea on February 14. A rapid assessment conducted by the WHO in the country and in the region found the risk level to be very high. WHO Representative in Guinea, Georges Alfred Ki-Zerbo, said the WHO and partners have been stepping up efforts to implement Guinea’s Strategic response plan. FILE – Health workers from the Guinean Ministry of Health prepare forms to register medical staff ahead of their anti-Ebola vaccines at the N’zerekore Hospital, Feb. 24, 2021.That, he said, involves increased surveillance on the ground, accelerating preparedness measures in neighboring countries, and working closely with communities to interrupt the outbreak as soon as possible. “In doing so, we are engaging traditional healers, including also traditional practitioners, and we are going into communities to discuss with them, to listen to them and see what is the understanding of the disease, what is the fears and the preoccupation of the communities so that we can increase the success of our interventions,” Ki-Zerbo said. To date, the WHO reports 18 cases of Ebola in Guinea, including four deaths. Ki-Zerbo said health workers have traced hundreds of people who have come in contact with infected people. So far, he ssaid, more than 1,600 people have been vaccinated against the virus, including high-risk contacts and health workers. Meanwhile, North Kivu province in eastern Congo is experiencing its own fresh Ebola outbreak. Since February 7, the WHO reports there have been 11 cases and four deaths. Another Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo ended just last June. WHO director of strategic health operations, Michel Yao, said dealing with both the COVID-19 and Ebola epidemics is a challenge, especially in countries with fragile health systems. “There are some similar approaches, at least, in some of the components like community isolation, as well as the preventive measures that have to be implemented,” Yao said. “Vaccination is maybe less challenging because this works in different areas. And I think the approach in most of the countries, as with COVID, they will probably start with health workers.” WHO health officials agree it will likely be difficult to get the funding needed to stem the twin Ebola outbreaks. Besides appealing to government donors, they said they also will tap leading financial institutions such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
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White House COVID Team: Take Any Vaccine You Can Get
The White House COVID-19 response team said Friday that all coronavirus vaccines currently available were safe and effective and urged Americans to take whichever one they had access to, after the mayor of Detroit reportedly declined an allocation of the Johnson & Johnson drug.At a news briefing Thursday, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said he was declining a shipment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, adding that while it was a very good vaccine, he felt the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were better and he wanted to get the people of Detroit “the best.”At a virtual news briefing Friday, coronavirus special adviser Andy Slavitt said that the White House reached out to the mayor and that there had been a misunderstanding. It was not Duggan’s intent to refuse the vaccine, said Slavitt, adding, “In fact, he is very eager for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.”National Institutes of Health infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci again said that all three approved vaccines were “extraordinarily” effective in preventing severe disease and death. He advised taking the first available vaccine because the important thing is to be vaccinated.Meanwhile, Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the agency hoped to release its official guidance for people who have been fully vaccinated. She said she understood people were eager to know what they could and couldn’t do, but that the centers wanted to make sure to get the advice right.The CDC guidelines would address a myriad of questions regarding approved activities, such as wearing a mask, flying on an airplane, or patronizing a bar or restaurant.More than 54 million people in the U.S. have received at least one shot; more than 27 million Americans are fully vaccinated.
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Rwanda Begins COVID-19 Vaccinations
The east-central African nation of Rwanda began its COVID-19 vaccination program Friday, using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, making it the first African nation to administer the drug. The nation received 102,960 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and 240,000 doses of AstraZeneca through the international vaccine cooperative, COVAX facility earlier this week. Rwandan health authorities began transporting both shots around the hilly nation of 12 million people using helicopters to reach far-flung areas. Earlier this week, Minister of Health Dr. Daniel Ngamije said the nation’s vaccination plan would prioritize high-risk groups first, including the sick and the elderly, as well as front-line medical workers. He said the government’s goal was to vaccinate 30% of Rwandans by the end of 2021, and 60% by the end of 2022. The government of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, which prides itself on efficiency and technological prowess but is often criticized as authoritarian, has installed special infrastructure to keep the Pfizer vaccine at the recommended -80 to -60 Celsius. Last week, after examining research conducted by its manufacturers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, when transported and stored at conventional refrigerator temperatures, can still be effective for up to two weeks.
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US, Japanese Astronauts Take Spacewalk to Complete ISS Repairs, Upgrades
A U.S. and a Japanese astronaut ventured out of the International Space Station (ISS) Friday, in the second of two spacewalks conducted this week to complete upgrades and repairs to the orbiting outpost.
NASA Flight Engineer Kate Rubins and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, have a number of tasks on their agenda, including venting ammonia from the Early Ammonia System and complete installing support frames for new, high-efficiency solar panels, a project begun during a spacewalk Sunday.
Friday’s spacewalk is the fourth for both Rubins and Noguchi in their astronaut careers, and the 236th in the ISS’s 20-year history.
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World Semiconductor Shortage Raises Taiwan’s Bargaining Power with US
U.S. President Joe Biden’s order to secure semiconductor supply chains for high-tech hardware production offers a commercial boost to Taiwan, one of the world’s biggest providers of chips, and gives Taipei new weight in any free-trade talks, analysts say.Biden signed an executive order Feb. 24 for the United States to start overcoming a chip shortage that has hobbled the manufacturing of vehicles, consumer electronics and medical supplies. It will trigger a review process leading to policy recommendations on how to bolster supply chains.Taiwan comes into play as the home of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which spins out more chips than any other contract manufacturer in the world and has some of the most advanced production processes. Those advances generate semiconductors that run on relatively little power without sacrificing the speed of a device.Remote study and telework, two trends that exploded during the 2020 coronavirus outbreak, raised demand last year for chips that run notebook PCs, among other types of consumer hardware. World demand for chips should increase from $450 billion last year to about $600 billion in 2024, market research firm Gartner says.“This is good, and I think at this moment Taiwan finally can offer something concretely and to help the United States somehow, some way,” said Liu Yih-jiun, public affairs professor at Fo Guang University in Taiwan.Taiwan has tried off and on since 1994 to arrange a trade deal with the United States, which is its second-biggest trading partner after China. U.S.-Taiwan trade totaled $90.9 billion in 2020. Americans buy chips, computers and machinery, among other Taiwanese goods, resulting in a $29.3 billion trade surplus for the Asian manufacturing center last year.Starting in January, Taiwan began allowing shipments of American pork from pigs raised on the feed additive ractopamine, and U.S. officials lauded that step as progress in trade relations.The Biden administration has asked Taiwanese officials about pushing their chipmakers to step up semiconductor production amid a shortage of chips for automotive use, Bloomberg reported last month.American demand for semiconductors will help raise Taiwan’s position when negotiators meet again for trade talks, said John Brebeck, senior adviser at the Quantum International Corp. investment consultancy in Taipei.“Because of the [Sino-U.S.] trade war, and because of semiconductors, and because Taiwan did so well on COVID, and it’s a democracy they want to support, I think it moves forward,” Brebeck said.Trade talks will take place “in a much more balanced way” due to Taiwan’s weight in global semiconductors, Liu said.Trade deal or not, Taiwan’s chipmakers will get a surge in business because of the shortage, though they may struggle to prioritize customers, Brady Wang, an analyst in Taipei with the market intelligence firm Counterpoint Research, said.“There’s actually no risk to the companies, but you can say there’s the issue of how much they can spread out production and who they’re going to sacrifice,” Wang said.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. broke ground in 2018 on a $15 billion factory complex in Taiwan with volume production expected to reach full capacity this year. The complex will produce more than 1 million wafers per year and employ about 4,000 people. In December last year the 34-year-old firm got Taiwan government clearance to build a $12 billion factory in the U.S. state of Arizona. That plant will make up to 20,000 wafers per month.The project in Arizona and the new one in Taiwan are “well on track,” a spokesperson from the company’s headquarters said.Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. and United Microelectronics Corp. also make chips in Taiwan. A spokesperson for United Microelectronics said last month his company was doing all it can to meet demand for automotive chips.
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