The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is calling on the world community to make sure Africa gets a fair share of COVID-19 vaccines.
Ahead of a visit to the Central African Republic, one year after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported there, ICRC President Peter Maurer said in a statement Friday that “[i]t is a moral imperative that Africa’s access to needed vaccines is drastically improved, but also that COVID vaccination campaigns do not come at the cost of other key health concerns.”
He said as new COVID-19 variants start to spread, “[n]o one is safe until everyone is safe,” adding that “equitable access to its vaccine today is a critical step towards more equitable access to vaccines more generally.”
The World Health Organization said this week that the UN-led COVAX initiative aims to start shipping about 90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa this month. It said the immunization rollout will be the continent’s largest ever mass vaccination campaign.
Most of the doses will be of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The ICRC said as more vaccines become available, it is of paramount importance that authorities give high priority to displaced people, migrants and refugees, people in detention, and to communities in areas under non-government control, the statement said.
“Vaccinating vulnerable groups across the globe makes economic sense,” Maurer said.
The ICRC, in close cooperation with Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies and other partners, is ready to help with vaccine roll outs, Maurer said.
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Month: February 2021
Australian Open Begins Under COVID Lockdown
The Australian Open in Melbourne is underway, but without any spectators. Instead of enjoying the tournament, tennis fans and the millions of people who live in Victoria state are under a five-day snap shutdown, following a coronavirus outbreak at a quarantine hotel in Melbourne, Victoria’s capital. Tennis players have been classified as essential workers. Germany is banning travel from its Czech border regions and Austria’s Tyrol because of an alarming COVID surge in the two locations. The restrictions go into effect Sunday.Missionaries in some remote areas of Brazil have convinced some Indigenous people that the COVID-19 vaccine is not good for them. The residents of one Amazon village picked up bows and arrows to fight off healthcare workers set on inoculating the region’s residents. Brazil has 9.7 million COVID-19 cases, coming in third place in the world’s infections, behind only India with 10. 8 million and the U.S. with 27.3 million cases. There are more than 107 million global infections. FILE – Packages of protective face masks are show after being donated to Miami-Dade Transit employees during a news conference April 24, 2020, in Miami.In US, N95 mask shortage
In Washington, the White House is working with mask manufacturers and medical supply companies to ensure that frontline workers have the N95 masks they desperately need. U.S. President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator read in The New York Times about the disconnect between mask makers, supply companies and hospitals and has begun facilitating connections. Jeffrey D. Zients said in a statement, “We will do all we can to get frontline workers the personal protective equipment they need, including breaking down barriers for N95 manufacturers.”“The COVID-19 pandemic has been a stark reminder of the importance of integrating mental health into preparedness and response plans for public health emergencies,” said Dévora Kestel, the World Health Organization’s director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use at a recent executive board meeting. “The inclusion of this issue at the next session of the World Health Assembly is an important next step towards being better prepared to provide people with the support they need for their mental health during future public health emergencies.”The COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 2.3 million people worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
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Experts Worry About Pandemic’s Impact on Malaria Progress in Nigeria
A warning by the World Health Organization that the COVID-19 pandemic could harm efforts to eradicate malaria appears to be coming true in Nigeria. Nigerian officials say people are refusing to get treatment for fear of catching the virus at a clinic.Fatima Mohammed is in her home at a camp for displaced people in Abuja, tending to her two sons who are currently down with malaria.She says she’s can’t afford huge hospital bills and is afraid that taking them to the hospital could potentially expose them to COVID-19 or result in a misdiagnosis.”I don’t have money to take them to the hospital — and, again, at the hospital, they’ll easily call it coronavirus,” she said. “I don’t have money for that.”Malaria and COVID-19 present similar symptoms, but fear and stigma attached to the pandemic are reasons many like Fatima are seeking alternatives to hospital treatment.Health experts say in-hospital visits for malaria declined significantly in Nigeria since reporting the coronavirus in February 2020.The World Health Organization’s World malaria report 2020 suggested the pandemic is threatening years of progress made against malaria and warned that death rates from the mosquito-borne disease could double.WHO malaria consultant Lynda Ozor says disruption of preventive measures is to blame.”The use of long-lasting insecticidal nets, seasonal malaria chemo prevention and prevention of malaria in pregnancy were interrupted,” she said. “So, assuming all these preventive interventions were interrupted, then it was expected, and the model shows that there will be very negative effects.”Nigeria accounts for about a quarter of malaria cases worldwide, and about 23% of deaths globally.Even before COVID-19 hit, many Nigerians took malaria less seriously, says Adeboyega Adeyogo, who heads pharmaceutical operations at WellaHealth, a Nigerian health company focusing on eliminating malaria.”Due to advances in health and technology, many people resolve malaria within days,” Adeyogo said. “So, you see that many Nigerians now take it with a lot of levity because of the ease of treatment. But if they decide to avoid it, then it becomes a major issue and you now start seeing the serious complications associated with malaria.”Nigeria’s National Malaria Elimination Program planned to provide 31 million people with free mosquito nets, anti-malaria drugs and malaria testing last year. But disruptions caused by COVID-19 meant they reached only half of their goal.That has increased concern that malaria, along with COVID-19, will remain a threat to Nigerians for years to come.
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Microsoft Backs Search Engines Paying for News Worldwide
Microsoft on Thursday lobbied for other countries to follow Australia’s lead in calling for news outlets to be paid for stories published online, a move opposed by Facebook and Google.Microsoft last week offered to fill the void if rival Google follows through on a threat to turn off its search engine in Australia over the plan.Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement the company fully supports proposed legislation in Australia that would force Google and Facebook to compensate media for their journalism.”This has made for an unusual split within the tech sector, and we’ve heard from people asking whether Microsoft would support a similar proposal in the United States, Canada, the European Union and other countries,” Smith said in a blog post.FILE – This combination of file photos shows a Google sign and the Facebook app. “The short answer is, yes.”Facebook and Google have both threatened to block key services in Australia if the rules, now before Parliament, become law as written.The situation raises the question of whether U.S. President Joe Biden will back away from his predecessor’s objection to the proposal in Australia.”As the United States takes stock of the events on January 6, it’s time to widen the aperture,” Smith said, referring to a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol building by a mob of Trump supporters out to overturn the election results.”The ultimate question is what values we want the tech sector and independent journalism to serve.”Smith argued that internet platforms that have not previously compensated news agencies should now step up to revive independent journalism that “goes to the heart of our democratic freedoms.”“The United States should not object to a creative Australian proposal that strengthens democracy by requiring tech companies to support a free press,” Smith said. “It should copy it instead.”Bing goes big?The proposed law in Australia would govern relations between financially distressed traditional media outlets and the giants that dominate the internet and capture a significant share of advertising revenues.Microsoft’s search engine Bing accounts for less than 5% of the market in Australia, and from 15% to 20% of the market in the United States, according to the tech giant based in Washington State.”With a realistic prospect of gaining usage share, we are confident we can build the service Australians want and need,” Smith said.”And unlike Google, if we can grow, we are prepared to sign up for the new law’s obligations, including sharing revenue as proposed with news organizations.”Under the proposed News Media Bargaining Code, Google and Facebook would be required to negotiate payments to individual news organizations for using their content on the platforms.Australia’s biggest media companies, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Nine Entertainment, have said they think the payments should amount to hundreds of millions of dollars per year.If agreement cannot be reached on the size of the payments, the issue would go to so-called “final offer” arbitration where each side proposes a compensation amount and the arbiter chooses one or the other.Google and Facebook, backed up by the U.S. government and leading internet architects, have said the scheme would seriously undermine their business models and the very functioning of the internet.Both Facebook and Google have insisted they are willing to pay publishers for news via licensing agreements and commercial negotiations, and both have signed deals worth millions of dollars with news organizations around the world.Google has said the bargaining code should focus on facilitating these kinds of negotiations, but it rejected the idea of mandatory “final offer” arbitration.
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Rights Groups Urge Boycott of 2022 Winter Games in China
More than 180 human rights groups are calling for diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games to protest Beijing’s abuses of racial and ethnic minorities. The coalition of FILE – International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound, Nov. 1, 2010.”The games are not Chinese Games, the games are the IOC Games,” FILE – Extending gloved hands skyward in racial protest, U.S. athletes Tommie Smith, center, and John Carlos stare downward during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in the 1968 Mexico City Games.Since then, South Africa was expelled from the 1970 Games for the country’s policy of apartheid. It was not readmitted to competition until the 1992 Barcelona Games. In 1980, 66 countries, led by the United States, boycotted the Moscow Games because of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Daryl Adair, an associate professor of sports management at the University of Technology Sydney, told VOA via email that the IOC has a responsibility to be sure that the principles that underpin the Olympics are appropriately reflected in countries that host the games. “For example, would the IOC and the international sporting community be comfortable with an Olympics hosted by Myanmar, given its treatment of the Rohingya people, followed more recently by a military coup?” he asked.”China is, like Myanmar, a country for which external observers have serious and legitimate concerns – most notably with claims about Beijing’s treatment of some ethnic minorities,” Adair added. Plugged In-Myanmar Democracy in PerilThe United States is levying new sanctions on Myanmar’s military following its takeover of the country’s government on February 1, placing Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest and ending a nearly 10-year experiment in democracy. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren examines the situation with Derek Mitchell, former U.S. ambassador to Myanmar. Airdate: February 10, 2021.Adair said that unless Beijing can demonstrate that such claims are without merit, calls to disallow Beijing from hosting the 2022 Olympics would continue. “And the IOC will be drawn irrevocably into a discussion it seems reluctant to have,” he told VOA. Rule 50 Currently, the International Olympic Committee’s official stance is that it is only a sporting body that does not get involved with politics. The committee points to Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which states, “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” Yet, with athlete activism on the rise, the IOC Athletes’ Commission is now consulting with athletes globally on different ways Olympians can express themselves in a “dignified way,” with a recommendation on Rule 50 expected in early 2021. Jules Boykoff, a political science professor at Pacific University, represented the U.S. on the Olympic soccer team from 1989 to 1992 before turning professional to play for the Portland Pride, Minnesota Thunder and Milwaukee Wave. He told VOA, “The Chinese government’s treatment of the ethnic Uighur Muslim population in Xinjiang province and its tough and brutal crackdown on the dissent in Hong Kong clash mightily with the principles that are enshrined in the Olympic Charter.” FILE – Riot police detain a man as they clear protesters taking part in a rally against a new national security law in Hong Kong, July 1, 2020.Boykoff, the author of Activism and the Olympics, told VOA that the IOC commission’s review of Rule 50 is “absolutely necessary.” “It has long been outdated and it clashes with fundamental human rights principles such as (United Nations) Article 19, which states very clearly that one should be able to speak out with freedom on issues that matter to them,” Boykoff said, adding that curtailing the freedom of speech actually clashes with ideas that are based in the Olympic Charter. Many human rights groups welcome the review. “In the age of social media, it has had to review this rule,” said Richardson, of Human Rights Watch. “We believe that the IOC should simply remove all barriers to peaceful expression.” Yet Adair said there might be a flip side to laissez-faire political speech and gestures on the field of play and during ceremonies if athletes advocate for causes that do not align with themes that the IOC endorses. He took the recent Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement as an example. “Advocating for a cause like BLM is consistent with the Olympic Charter,” he said, “However, if an athlete advocated for white supremacy or ethnic cleansing, that would be inconsistent with the sport participation equity principles underlying the Olympic Movement.” He urged the IOC to provide guidelines consistent with the values it espouses for athlete participation because “this would also have the benefit of deterring political commentary that is not about human rights or social justice.” Yu Zhou from the VOA Mandarin Service contributed to this report.
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Health Experts Urge Vaccine Equity: ‘No One is Safe Until Everyone is Safe’
Health experts say allocating and delivering adequate supplies of COVID-19 vaccines to the developing world will continue to be a challenge. They add that collective and cooperative solutions will be needed — and failing to provide them will imperil human health worldwide. More with VOA’s Mariama Diallo.
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’Ailey’ Documentary Chronicles Black Experience Through Dance
“Ailey,” a documentary about the life and creative spirit of iconic African American dancer, director and choreographer Alvin Ailey, weaves an immersive portrait of Ailey as a creative genius and a complex individual, who emoted his life experience through movement. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with the filmmaker about how Ailey’s modern dance reflected the Black cultural experience.
Camera: Penelope Poulou Produced by: Penelope Poulou
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Biden Asks for Patience While Ramping Up Vaccinations
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday criticized his predecessor’s vaccination program and urged Americans to be patient as he fixed it.”My predecessor — I’ll be very blunt about it — did not do his job in getting ready for the massive challenge of vaccinating hundreds of millions,” Biden said at the National Institutes of Health.”We won’t have everything fixed for a while. But we’re going to fix it,” he added.Biden also announced that the United States had acquired enough vaccines to inoculate 300 million of the 328 million U.S. population by the end of July.President Joe Biden listens as Kizzmekia Corbett, an immunologist with the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, speaks during a visit at the NIH Feb. 11, 2021, in Bethesda, Md. NIH Director Francis Collins is at center.The country is on track to exceed Biden’s goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans within his first 100 days in office.According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 46 million doses of the vaccine have been administered.Earlier Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious-disease expert, said by April, anyone in the United States who wants a COVID-19 vaccination should be able to get one.The United States has recorded more cases and deaths from COVID-19 than any country in the world — over 27 million and over 470,000, respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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Biden Team Seeks Pause in US WeChat Ban Litigation
The Biden administration asked a U.S. court Thursday to suspend litigation connected to former President Donald Trump’s proposed ban on WeChat while it reviews the policy. The Justice Department filed a request with the U.S. Court of Appeals seeking a suspension of the case. That followed action Wednesday in which the department asked a federal court for a pause on proceedings aimed at banning TikTok. Newly installed Commerce Department officials have begun a review of the prior administration’s actions on WeChat, including “an evaluation of the underlying record justifying those prohibitions,” the DOJ said in the filing. “The government will then be better positioned to determine” whether “the regulatory purpose of protecting the security of Americans and their data continues to warrant the identified prohibitions,” the filing added. Trump issued an executive order last August declaring both WeChat and TikTok as threats to national security because of data collection practices affecting Americans. However, U.S. courts have blocked the bans from going into effect, leading to appeals lodged in the final months of the Trump administration seeking to override the lower courts. The DOJ said the Commerce Department “remains committed to a robust defense of national security as well as ensuring the viability of our economy and preserving individual rights and data.”
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Chick Corea, Jazz Great With 23 Grammy Awards, Dies at 79
Chick Corea, a towering jazz pianist with a staggering 23 Grammy Awards who pushed the boundaries of the genre and worked alongside Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, has died. He was 79.Corea died Tuesday of a rare form of cancer, his team posted on his website. His death was confirmed by Corea’s web and marketing manager, Dan Muse.On his Facebook page, Corea left a message to his fans: “I want to thank all of those along my journey who have helped keep the music fires burning bright. It is my hope that those who have an inkling to play, write, perform or otherwise, do so. If not for yourself then for the rest of us. It’s not only that the world needs more artists, it’s also just a lot of fun.”A prolific artist with dozens of albums, Corea in 1968 replaced Herbie Hancock in Miles Davis’ group, playing on the landmark albums “In a Silent Way” and “Bitches Brew.”Wide varietyHe formed his own avant-garde group, Circle, and then founded Return to Forever. He worked on many other projects, including duos with Hancock and vibraphonist Gary Burton. He recorded and performed classical music, standards, solo originals, Latin jazz and tributes to great jazz pianists.He was named a National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master in 2006. He member of the Church of Scientology and lived in Clearwater, Florida.FILE – Chick Corea performs with Eddie Gomez and Brian Blade in Moscow, Russia, May 15, 2017.Drummer Sheila E. took to Twitter to mourn. “This man changed my life thru his music and we were able to play together many times. I was very fortunate to call him my family,” she wrote “Chick, you are missed dearly, your music and brilliant light will live on forever.”Last year, Corea released the double album “Plays,” which captured him at various concerts armed simply with his piano.”Like a runner loves to run because it just feels good, I like to play the piano just because it feels good,” he told The Associated Press at the time. “I can just switch gears and go to another direction or go to another song or whatever I want to do. So it’s a constant experiment.”Own compositions, classics, R&BThe double album was a peek into Corea’s musical heart, containing songs he wrote about the innocence of children decades ago as well as tunes by Mozart, Thelonious Monk and Stevie Wonder, among others.Corea is the artist with the most jazz Grammys in the show’s 63-year history, and he has a chance to posthumously win at the March 14 show, where he’s nominated for best improvised jazz solo for “All Blues” and best jazz instrumental album for “Trilogy 2.”Corea was born in Massachusetts and began piano lessons at 4. But he bristled at formal education and dropped out of both Columbia University and the Juilliard School. He began his career as a sideman.FILE – Pianist Chick Corea reacts to audience applause after performing the national anthem before the start of the New York Knicks’ NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks, Nov. 14, 2016, at Madison Square Garden in New York.Corea liked inviting volunteers onto the stage during solo concerts, sitting them down near his piano and creating spontaneous, entirely subjective tone poems about the person. “It starts as a game — to try to capture something I see in music,” he told the AP. “While I play, I look at them a couple of times like a painter would. I try to see if, while I’m playing, are they agreeing with what I’m playing? Do they think that this is really a portrait of them? And usually they do.”Late last year, Corea had two commissions: a trombone concerto for the New York Philharmonic and a percussion concerto for the Philadelphia Orchestra. “I get interested in something and then I follow that interest. And that’s how my music comes out,” he said then. “I’ve always followed my interest. It’s been my successful way of living.”Online instructorHe also started teaching online, creating the Chick Corea Academy to offer his views on music, share the opinions of others, take questions and chat with guests. He said he hoped his students would explore their freedom of expression and think for themselves.”Does everyone have to like what I like? No. And it’s what makes the world go around that we all have different likes,” he told the AP. “We come together and we collaborate.”Corea is survived by his wife, Gayle Moran, and a son Thaddeus.
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A Party on Mars Complete with Theme Song and Business of Space on Earth
It’s a busy time on the Red Planet as three Mars missions from three countries converge on their target. Plus, there’s money to be made on what space drops on our planet. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the Week in Space.Camera: NASA/Reuters/AP/CCTVProduced by: Arash Arabasadi
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Tokyo Olympics Chief Reportedly To Quit after Sexist Remarks
The president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organizing committee reportedly will resign after making sexist remarks about women that were disclosed to media.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency and other news outlets, citing unnamed sources, reported Thursday that Yoshiro Mori would step down on Friday after concluding he could not let the ensuing controversy continue.
A committee spokesman declined to comment on the reports.
The former prime minister reportedly said at an Olympics board of trustees meeting on Feb. 3 that “board meetings with lots of women take longer” because “if one member raises her hand to speak, others might think they need to talk, too.”
Mori retracted his comments and apologized the next day, saying he would not resign.
His remarks, which were leaked to a Japanese newspaper, sparked public debate in the country about gender equality.
The 83-year-old’s reported pending resignation has fueled concerns over the feasibility of holding the games later this year.
More than 80% of the Japanese public believe the games should be canceled or postponed, according to recent polls.
A meeting of the organizing committee executive board is planned for Friday.
In an interview with Nippon TV, Mori did not confirm reports he was stepping down, but said he would “explain his thoughts” at the meeting.
The Japanese news outlet TBS News reported that Saburo Kawabuchi, the former mayor of the Olympic village and president of the Japan Football Association, would replace Mori.
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Robert Kennedy Jr. Banned From Instagram for False Posts
The social media platform Instagram has permanently removed the account of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for posting false information regarding vaccines and COVID-19.
In a statement Wednesday, Facebook, which owns Instagram, said, “We removed this account for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.”
Kennedy’s Facebook page, which has carried some of same information and has over 300,000 followers, remains active.
Kennedy is the son of the former senator and U.S. attorney general Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and worked for decades as an environmental lawyer. In recent years, he is better known as an anti-vaccine crusader.
He chairs a nonprofit organization, Children’s Health Defense, which is skeptical about the health benefits of vaccines. Kennedy has lobbied Congress to give parents exemptions from state vaccine requirements for children.
Kennedy has said he is not opposed to vaccines, as long as they are safe, and says he has vaccinated all of his children. Yet, he regularly endorses discredited links between vaccines and autism and has argued that it is safer to contract the coronavirus than to be inoculated against it.
Members of Kennedy’s famous political family have spoken out against his views.
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Fauci: COVID-19 Vaccinations Should Be Ready for All in US by Mid-April
Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that by April, anyone in the United States who wants a COVID-19 vaccination should be able to get one.
In an interview with the NBC morning television program “Today,” Fauci, who also is the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, said projections indicate top priority groups, such as U.S. frontline workers and the elderly, should have received their vaccinations by April.
Fauci said after that, it would be “open season, namely, virtually everybody and anybody, in any category, could start to get vaccinated.” From there, he said, given logistics, it likely would take several more months to get vaccines to all who want them.
Fauci was hopeful that by July or August, “the overwhelming majority of people in the country will have been vaccinated.” He credits new vaccines becoming available and an increased capacity to deliver them with speeding the process.
An Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs poll released late Wednesday indicate 67 percent of U.S. citizens plan to get vaccinated, and about one-third say probably or probably will not. Those who have doubts said vaccine safety was their number one concern.
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Amid Tussle with Twitter, India Warns Social Media Giants
India has warned social media giants to comply with local laws or face action amid an escalating dispute with Twitter over the government’s demand that hundreds of accounts be blocked.
Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told parliament Thursday that “if social media is misused to spread fake news and misinformation, then action will be taken.”
Naming Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and LinkedIn, he said that they were free to do business in India but would have to “follow the Indian constitution.”
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called on Twitter to take down hundreds of accounts and posts for allegedly using provocative hashtags and spreading misinformation about a massive farmers’ protest that erupted in violence on January 26.
India has reacted angrily to Twitter’s failure to comply fully with its directive — while the social media company has acted on some of these accounts, it has not taken down all of them.
Following a virtual call with Twitter’s executives, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said that it had “expressed deep disappointment” over the manner in which the company had “unwillingly, grudgingly and with great delay” complied with only parts of its orders. “Lawfully passed orders are binding on any business entity and must be obeyed immediately,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.FILE – A man reads tweets by Indian celebrities on his mobile phone in New Delhi, India, Feb. 4, 2021.Twitter had earlier said, “In keeping with our principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression, we have not taken any action on accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians.”
India also called out Twitter for “differential treatment,” citing its crackdown on accounts following last month’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington.
“During Capitol Hill, social media platforms stand with the police action and in violence at Red Fort, you take a different stand,” Minister Prasad said in parliament, referring to the storming of a historic building in New Delhi by thousands of farmers during a rally. “We won’t allow these double standards.”
Critics have voiced concern about the government’s intolerance of dissenting voices and accuse it of cracking down on free speech.
Digital rights activists say there is no way to ascertain whether the government’s request to act against hundreds of accounts is legal because the orders “lack transparency.”
“Apart from Twitter which has seen these orders, no one can comment on whether these orders are justified,” according to Nikhil Pahwa, founder of MediaNama, a mobile and digital news portal. “But on the face of it some of these demands appear to be a disproportionate act of censorship,” he said.
Pahwa cites the example of a news magazine, The Caravan, whose account was restored after being briefly blocked. “The Caravan is an award-winning, legitimate news organization and was not even given an opportunity of a hearing.”
Pahwa welcomed Twitter’s move to not take down all the accounts as the government demanded. “I wish more platforms stood up for their users’ speech like this and push back against orders that are in their opinion not lawful,” he said.
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WHO Europe Office, EU, Cooperate on Vaccines for Eastern Europe
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) European office announced Thursday it will partner with the European Union to deploy COVID-19 vaccines in six eastern European nations.Speaking at his headquarters in Copenhagan, WHO Europe Director Hans Kluge said the nearly $50 million program will target Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova.Kluge said the program is intended to ensure equitable access to vaccines throughout Europe. “Vaccines offer a way to emerge faster from this pandemic, but only if we ensure that all countries, irrespective of income level, have access to them,” he said.UK COVID Variant Will Likely ‘Sweep the World,’ British Scientist WarnsScientists will probably be tracking global spread of mutations for at least next decade, Sharon Peacock of COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium saysKluge said the program will focus on vaccine readiness, information campaigns, supplies and training of health workers in the countries. It will complement existing EU sharing programs and the WHO-supported vaccine cooperative COVAX facility designed to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines throughout the world.Kluge also noted, with cautious optimism, that overall case incidences of COVID-19 in the 53-country WHO Europe region has declined for four straight weeks and said COVID-19-related deaths have fallen in each of the last two weeks. He said hospitalization rates have also declined.But he cautioned that the decline in cases conceals increasing numbers of outbreaks and community spread involving COVID-19 variants of concern, “meaning that we need to watch overall trends in transmission carefully and avoid rash decisions.”Kluge said the vaccination news in Europe is also mixed. He noted in the region, the total number of vaccination doses given has surpassed the number of reported COVID-19 cases — with some 41 million doses administered compared to 36 million reported cases.But he said, in 29 out of the 37 countries currently vaccinating in the European region today, 7.8 million people have completed their immunization series. That is equivalent to only 1.5% of the population of those 29 countries.”
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Yellen Eyes Innovation to Battle Cryptocurrency Misuse, Narrow Digital Gaps
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday warned about an “explosion of risk” from digital markets, including the misuse of cryptocurrencies, but said new financial technologies could also help fight crime and reduce inequality.In remarks to a financial sector innovation roundtable, Yellen said such technologies could be used to stem the flow of dark money from organized crime and fight back against hackers, but also to reduce digital gaps in the United States.She said passage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act in December would allow the Treasury Department to rework a framework for combating illicit finance that has been largely unchanged since the 1970s.”The update couldn’t have come at a better time,” Yellen told policymakers, regulators and private sector experts. “We’re living amidst an explosion of risk related to fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and data privacy.”The COVID-19 pandemic had triggered more — and more sophisticated — cyberattacks aimed at hospitals, schools, banks, and the government itself, she said.Cryptocurrencies and virtual assets offered promise, but they had also been used to launder the profits of online drug traffickers and to finance terrorism.Innovation in the sector could help address these problems while giving millions of people access to the financial system, she said.Yellen, who has promised to prioritize fighting inequality and disparities, said the pandemic had exposed huge problems, including the dearth of broadband access in many areas of the country.She said responsible and equitable innovation could make a big difference.”Innovation should not just be a shield to protect against bad actors. Innovation should also be a ladder to help more people climb to a higher quality of life,” she said.
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Twitter Suspends Some Indian Accounts Amid Farmer Protests
Twitter said Wednesday it had suspended some accounts in India after New Delhi served the social media giant several orders to block accounts amid civil unrest. The announcement comes after months of unrest in India over changes to agriculture bills in the country. Protesting farmers have been met with internet cuts and social media blocks, which New Delhi has said are necessary for security. In a FILE – Security officers push back people shouting slogans during a protest held to show support to farmers who have been on a monthslong protest, in New Delhi, India, Feb. 3, 2021.Just last week, Twitter blocked hundreds of accounts in India — many of them belonging to news professionals and activists. Twitter said that two orders served by the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) were “emergency orders,” and that while they were initially complied with, Twitter later restored the accounts, arguing that blocking them was against India’s own free speech laws. “After we communicated this to MeitY, we were served with a non-compliance notice,” the blog post said. Twitter relented, to some degree, after the order, as the company was told its local employees could face up to seven years in prison under an Indian information technology law. After more the two months of protests and campaigns against the new “farm bills,” which protesters say would leave them at the mercy of corporations, the demonstrations have experienced a resurgence and received international attention over the last week.
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Ugandan Government Restores Social Media Sites, Except Facebook
Ugandan authorities restored access to the internet Wednesday, a month after blocking it ahead of the January 14 elections. The government said the disruption was needed for security, while critics say it was intended to cut off communication among opponents of President Yoweri Museveni. “Internet and social media services have been fully restored,” Ugandan Minister for Information and Communications Technology Peter Ogwang tweeted Wednesday, adding, “We apologize for the inconveniences caused, but it was for the security of our country.” A tweet by Peter Ogwang, Ugandan Minister for Information and Communications Technology, announces the restoration to access to social media websites. (Screenshot from Twitter)Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said the shutdown was a method of war against elements that were a threat to the credibility of the elections. Since those threats have been greatly neutralized, he said, the government has restored access to social media websites, with the exception of Facebook. “We have released elements of social media — Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp — because we think to a less extent, those are not as lethal as Facebook,” Opondo said. “So, we shall examine going forward, their posture on these other social media platforms that have been released. And that will inform how soon Facebook is restored.” Before the January 14 elections, Museveni ordered the blocking of Facebook following reports that the company had shut down 220 accounts linked to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. Facebook said the accounts were fakes or duplicates being used to make posts by Museveni and his son, Lieutenant General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, appear more popular than they were. Some posts from the accounts also targeted the opposition National Unity Platform Party and its presidential candidate, Bobi Wine. National Unity Platform Party spokesperson Joel Senyonyi says Facebook was right to shut down the accounts. “Government continues to have a grip on social media because they want to control free speech,” he said. “Because they know that Ugandans pretty much have social media as the avenue for their free expression. And that’s why Facebook did carry out its investigations, because there was a lot of propaganda churned out by those government-run social media accounts.” A message from service providers to consumers after the Ugandan government restored access to social media websites. (Screenshot)Michael Niyitegeka, an information technology expert, says the shutdown of Facebook is hurting many Ugandans’ livelihoods because they rely on the social media site for marketing. “Because they don’t have the resources to go to radio, they don’t have the resources to go on TV. So, their business largely depends on the Facebook market,” he said. Dorothy Mukasa, chief executive officer of Unwanted Witness, a digital rights organization, is calling for lawmakers to establish rules on internet access. “What we should be doing as Ugandans is to continue to put the government to account,” she said. “You know, why did they shut down the internet? And also, ask institutions like parliament or judiciary to put in place guidelines. Because this is bound to happen over and over. Can we have guidelines in place or even a law that really stipulates, when should the internet be disrupted?”In the meantime, Ugandans continue to use virtual private networks to access Facebook without paying a social media tax introduced by the government in July 2018.
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Oscars Ceremony Will be Filmed Live from Various Locations, Including Hollywood
The Oscars ceremony, delayed until April 25 due to the coronavirus pandemic that has rocked the entire film industry, will be broadcast live from “multiple sites,” including Hollywood, the Academy announced on Wednesday.Despite the COVID-19 epidemic, which still places restrictions on the Los Angeles area, “the Academy is determined to present an Oscar ceremony like no other, while emphasizing the public health and safety of all the participants,” said a spokesperson for the Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences, which presents the prestigious golden statuettes.”To create the live performance that our global audience wants to see while adapting to the constraints of the pandemic, the ceremony will be broadcast live from multiple venues, including the iconic Dolby Theater” which traditionally hosts the Oscars in the heart of Hollywood, according to the statement sent to AFP.The Academy has not given more details at this stage on the ceremony or the distribution of sites for this 93rd edition, the culmination of a season of film awards upset by the health crisis, between closure of cinemas and postponement of many big productions.This is not the first time that the Oscars ceremony has been held simultaneously in several locations. In the 1950s, the broadcast was from Los Angeles and New York.This is the formula chosen this year by the organizers of the Golden Globes for the award ceremony, which will be held on February 28.Even though the size of the audience drops a little more each year, with an all-time low of 23.6 million viewers last year in the United States, the Academy Awards have traditionally remained one of the most watched events in the country, preceded only by the American football championship Superbowl.This year, the show was entrusted to Steven Soderbergh, director of the visionary film “Contagion,” by the Academy of Oscars, whose leaders believe that this pandemic is an opportunity “to innovate and reimagine” the ceremony.
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WHO Panel OKs AstraZeneca Vaccine Against COVID-19 Variants
A World Health Organization panel of immunization experts Wednesday recommended the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for all ages and in regions where variant strains of the virus are prevalent.The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization made the recommendation from agency headquarters in Geneva. The panel reviewed the vaccine this week after South Africa halted its use Sunday in response to a study by a university there that indicated the drug provided only minimal protection from the variant that was first discovered in that country.FILE – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization speaks in Geneva, Jan. 21, 2021.The panel made the evaluation at the request of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and for the benefit of health care workers around the world who already are administering the vaccine. But the panel recommendation does not signify official WHO approval of the drug for emergency use, which is expected in about a week.So far, the WHO has given emergency use authorization only to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, though other countries and regions individually have authorized other vaccines.WHO, UNICEF Say 130 Countries Yet to Administer Any COVID-19 Vaccine Top UN officials say of 128 million doses administered, more than three-quarters are in 10 rich countries, leaving much of the world at riskWHO chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said, nonetheless, the panel’s decision represents an “important milestone” because the AstraZeneca vaccine requires storage at refrigerator temperatures — not the far colder temperatures required for the Pfizer vaccines, making it easier and less expensive to distribute.The WHO-supported vaccine cooperative COVAX Facility, designed to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are equitably available to all countries, hopes to start shipping hundreds of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine starting later this month.
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China Probe Becomes Second in Two Days to Reach Mars
Chinese state media reported Wednesday a spacecraft known as Tianwen-1 has successfully entered orbit around Mars, the first step in an ambitious mission that includes landing a rover on the surface of the planet. In a statement, China’s National Space Administration said the spacecraft conducted a 15-minute burn of its thrusters, slowing it down enough to be pulled into Mars’ gravity, making it the country’s first artificial satellite orbiting the planet. The space agency says that in May or June, the Tianwen-1 will attempt to land a capsule carrying a 240-kilogram rover onto the surface of Mars, in a massive plain in the northern hemisphere known as Utopia Planitia. If all goes as planned, the rover will conduct a 90-day mission studying soil, looking for indications of water, and searching for signs of ancient life. The Chinese probe arrived after one from the United Arab Emirates swung into orbit around the red planet to study its atmosphere and weather, and just more than a week before a spacecraft from the U.S. space agency, NASA, carrying its own rover — and a small helicopter — is scheduled to arrive. The missions were planned for this time to take advantage of a unique alignment of Earth and Mars. The two newest probes join six other active orbiting spacecraft above Mars launched by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and India.
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