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Every weekend, Asia Pacific Daily will provide you with a run-down of the latest hot news.
This week, the following hot news you should know:
Top 1 | Lavrov Says Russia-India High-Level Talks Possible in 2021 Despite Pandemic
"We hope that the epidemiological situation would allow us to organise a bilateral summit in 2021. The dates of next sessions of the Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation, Inter-Governmental Commission on Military and Technical Cooperation and Inter-Parliamentary Commission are under consideration," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Hindustan Times, ahead of Tuesday talks with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
The Russian foreign minister pointed out that considering the need to overcome the consequences of the pandemic, Russia’s priorities include intensification of cooperation with India in areas such as trade, energy, agriculture, transport, finance and banking, science and technology, as well as humanitarian ties.
"Russia is satisfied with the vigorous political dialogue with India on all levels that keeps on actively developing despite serious restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, we managed to successfully organise several events in face-to-face and online formats," Lavrov said, adding that Russia intends to continue cooperating with India in various formats, on different international platforms.
Lavrov and Indian officials are expected to assess approaches to interaction between Moscow and New Delhi in the international arena, including at the United Nations, BRICS, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Top 2 | Merkel backs tougher COVID lockdown in Germany
Chancellor Angela Merkel supports demands for a short, tough lockdown in Germany to curb the spread of the coronavirus as infection rates are too high, a German government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Germany is struggling to tackle a third wave of the pandemic and several regional leaders have called for a short, sharp lockdown while the country tries to vaccinate more people.
“Every call for a short, uniform lockdown is right,” deputy government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer told reporters, adding Germany was seeing a growing number of intensive care patients.
She also said that the government was looking at whether nationwide, rather than regional, measures were needed.
Top 3 | Modi gets 2nd vaccine dose as India hits record
India’s prime minister received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as the country hit another peak Thursday with 126,789 new cases reported in the past 24 hours.
“Vaccination is among the few ways we have to defeat the virus. If you are eligible for the vaccine, get your shot soon,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted. He received his first vaccine shot on March 1.
India started its vaccination drive in January. So far, more than 90 million health workers and Indians older than 45 have received at least one shot. Only 11 million of them have received both doses as India tries to build immunity to protect its nearly 1.4 billion people.
Top 4 | Violence Must Stop: Leaders Call for End to 'Street Disorder' in N Ireland as Unrest Enters 6th Day
Northern Ireland's leaders are due to discuss the ways to resolve the ongoing violence in the country, following a Wednesday incident in Belfast where a bus was hijacked and set on fire during the sixth consecutive night of unrest.
The country's Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said on Thursday that the executive would be briefed on the "violence and street disorder which is causing huge distress in local communities at this time".
She pointed out that "those involved in violence, criminal damage, manipulation of our young people and attacks on the police must stop".
O'Neill was echoed by Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster who tweeted that there's "no justification for violence", describing protesters as "an embarrassment" to the country, who Foster claimed aims "to take the focus off the real law breakers in Sinn Fein".
Top 5 | New Zealand to open quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Tuesday that her country will open a travel bubble with Australia in less than two weeks.
Quarantine-free travel between the neighboring nations, separated by the Tasman Sea, will commence at 11:59 p.m. New Zealand time on April 18.
"This is an important step forward in our COVID response and represents an arrangement I do not believe we have seen in any other part of the world," Ardern said at a press conference Tuesday, "that is safely opening up international travel to another country while continuing to purse a strategy of elimination and a commitment to keeping the virus out."
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed Ardern's announcement.
Top 6 | Britain to deploy Moderna COVID-19 shot from third week of April - minister
Britain will begin the rollout of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in mid-April, vaccine deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Tuesday, adding the vaccination programme was on track to meet government targets.
Asked if deployment of the shot was on track to begin in mid-April, Zahawi said “very much so.”
“It’ll be in deployment around the third week of April,” he told BBC TV, adding he was confident that the government would meet a target of offering all adults a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of July.
Top 7 | Singapore to accept COVID-19 digital travel pass from next month
Singapore will next month accept visitors who use a mobile travel pass containing digital certificates for COVID-19 tests and vaccines, its aviation regulator said on Monday, becoming one of the first countries to adopt the initiative.
Singapore will accept the International Air Transport Association (IATA) mobile travel pass for pre-departure checks, where travelers can get clearance to fly to and enter Singapore by showing a smartphone application containing their data from accredited laboratories.
The pass was successfully tested by Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI). More than 20 carriers, including Emirates, Qatar Airways and Malaysia Airlines, are also testing the pass.
Top 8 | China refutes EU criticism over BBC reporter's departure
There was no so-called pressure or threats against BBC reporter John Sudworth, said a spokesperson for the Chinese Mission to the European Union (EU) on Saturday, refuting claims by the reporter and EU.
The remarks came after the EU criticized China earlier this week for a lack of freedom of speech and press that led to Sudworth's departure from Beijing.
The spokesperson noted in a statement that if Sudworth has not engaged in spreading disinformation as he claims, there is no need for him to worry about litigation for his reporting.
Top 9 | Sweden Aborts Bill Gates-Funded Experiment Aiming to Blot Out the Sun to Fight Climate Change
The project that aimed to release aerosols into the atmosphere to dim the Sun proved too controversial and stoked staunch opposition from environmental activists and indigenous Sami people alike. The Swedish Space Corporation stressed that the scientific community itself is divided on the appropriateness of such experiments.
The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) has cancelled a controversial geoengineering experiment to determine whether releasing a cloud of aerosols to block the Sun could stop or reverse global warming.
Laid out by researchers at Harvard University and funded, among others, by Bill Gates, the so-called Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (or SCoPEx), planned to launch a high-altitude balloon into the atmosphere that would later release a cloud of calcium carbonate (more commonly known as chalk dust) in order to study its effects on sunbeams reaching Earth.
Top 10 | Biden’s ‘Jobs Cabinet’ to sell infrastructure as GOP resists
President Joe Biden is setting about convincing America it needs his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, deputizing a five-member “jobs Cabinet” to help in the effort. But the enormity of his task is clear after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s vowed to oppose the plan “every step of the way.”
Speaking in Kentucky on Thursday, McConnell said he personally likes Biden and they’ve been friends a long time. But the president will get no cooperation from the GOP, which objects to the corporate tax increases in the plan and says they would hurt America’s ability to compete in a global economy.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain said the key to any outreach is that the proposal’s ideas are already popular. Americans want smooth roads, safe bridges, reliable public transit, electric vehicles, drinkable water, new schools and investments in manufacturing, among the plan’s many components, he said.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
