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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 |UK and EU strike historic post-Brexit trade deal
Britain and the European Union agreed Thursday on new Brexit trading arrangements more than four years after the U.K. voted to leave the bloc, narrowly avoiding a potentially disastrous no-deal scenario.
The two sides reached a “zero tariff-zero quota deal” which will help smooth the trade of goods across the channel. It will bring relief to exporters on both sides that had been facing higher tariffs and costs had a deal not been reached.
The trade agreement still has to be ratified by the U.K. and EU parliaments in the coming days, with a vote in Westminster due Wednesday.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised the deal.
“The arguments with our European partners were at times fierce but this, I believe, is a good deal for the whole of Europe,” Johnson said at a press conference.
Top 2 |Turkish parliament extends law for troop deployment to Libya
Turkey’s parliament extended for 18 months a law that allows the deployment of Turkish troops to Libya.
The bill renewed a one-year mandate that came into force in January following a security and military agreement with the U.N.-backed administration in Tripoli, in western Libya.
The Turkish decision Tuesday comes in the wake of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire in Libya that was declared in October. The cease-fire deal envisioned the departure of foreign forces and mercenaries within three months.
Opposition parties voted against the extension but the combined votes of Turkey’s ruling party and its nationalist allies allowed the bill to pass.
Libya descended into chaos following the 2011 uprising that ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
The oil-rich North African nation is now split between the Tripoli government and its rival administration in the east. Both sides are backed by regional and foreign powers and numerous local militias.
Top 3 |Senate and House pass COVID-19 relief bill, measure heads to Trump's desk
The Senate approved the COVID-19 relief package and omnibus spending bill late Monday night by a vote of 92 to 6.
The bill now heads to President Donald Trump's desk for his signature.
Sen. and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris appeared on the Hill to cast a vote in favor of the bill.
Georgia Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are both facing closely watched runoff races in Georgia next month that will determine the power balance of the Senate, also made it back to the Capitol to vote yes on the measure.
Before the vote on the omnibus bill/relief package, the Senate passed a seven-day stopgap spending bill to allow time for the "enrollment" of the omnibus bill.
Earlier in the evening, the House passed the $900 billion COVID-19 rescue package in an overwhelming vote, 359-53, Monday night.
The COVID-19 relief bill was attached to a must-pass $1.4 trillion spending bill. The total cost of the package is $2.3 trillion, making it the second-largest economic stimulus in U.S. history.
Top 4 |WHO says no need for major alarm over new coronavirus strain
The World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned against major alarm over a new, highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain, saying this is a normal part of a pandemic's evolution.
WHO officials even put a positive light on the discovery of the new strains that prompted a slew of alarmed countries to impose travel restrictions on Britain and South Africa, saying new tools to track the virus were working.
"We have to find a balance. It's very important to have transparency, it's very important to tell the public the way it is, but it's also important to get across that this is a normal part of virus evolution," WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan told an online briefing.
"Being able to track a virus this closely, this carefully, this scientifically in real-time is a real positive development for global public health, and the countries doing this type of surveillance should be commended."
Top 5 |US Forces Reportedly 'Steal' Syrian Crude Oil 'On Daily Basis'
Earlier in the week, reports emerged suggesting that a convoy of US military vehicles had left Syria's oil-rich Hasakah province and crossed the country's border with Iraq, reportedly filled with stolen oil.
US forces, in collaboration with the militias of Qasad (Syrian Democratic Forces), "continued to steal Syrian oil" from the fields of the al-Jazira region after having laid pipelines across the Tigris River in the Semalka area into Iraqi territory, Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported on Sunday, citing civil sources in the al-Malikiyah region,
According to the report, before transporting the "stolen" oil barrels to Iraqi territory, US forces took them "by tankers from Karachuk fields in the northeast of Rumailan".
The sources also said that the US forces send "dozens of tankers" loaded with the reportedly stolen oil to the Iraqi lands through what is described as "the illegal crossings created for this purpose such as Al-Walid crossing in al-Ya’rubiyah countryside".
Top 6 |EU-UK trade talks floundering over fish as cutoff day nears
Deep into a crucial weekend of negotiations, a breakthrough on fishing rights remained elusive for the European Union and Britain, leaving both without a trade agreement that would dull the edge of a chaotic, costly economic break on New Year’s Day.
With hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake throughout the economy, the tiny sector of fisheries continued to drive a wedge between the 27-nation bloc and the U.K., highlighting the animosity that drove them to a Brexit divorce over the past four years. Britain left the bloc in January but a 11-month economic transition period ends on Dec. 31.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said Sunday that the EU is “continuing to make demands that are incompatible with our independence. We cannot accept a deal that doesn’t leave us in control of our own laws or waters.”
Top 7 |India’s virus cases cross 10 million as new infections dip
India’s confirmed coronavirus cases have crossed 10 million with new infections dipping to their lowest levels in three months, as the country prepares for a massive COVID-19 vaccination in the new year.
Additional cases in the past 24 hours dropped to 25,152 from a peak of nearly 100,000 in mid-September. The epidemic has infected nearly 1% of India’s more than 1.3 billion people, second to the worst-hit United States.
The Health Ministry on Saturday also reported 347 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities to 145,136.
Dr. Randeep Guleria, a government health expert, said India is keeping its fingers crossed as the cases tend to increase in winter months.
Top 8 |Trump signs bill to keep government open amid relief talks
President Trump on Friday signed a stopgap funding measure that will keep the government funded for another 48 hours while lawmakers attempt to finalize an agreement on an economic relief bill.
Trump signed the bill just after 10 p.m., according to the White House.
The House passed the continuing resolution (CR) by a vote of 320-60, while the Senate passed it unanimously. Government funding would have expired at midnight had Congress not passed the stopgap measure.
Congressional leaders are planning to attach the coronavirus relief to a massive spending package to keep the government funded through the rest of the fiscal year. Lawmakers have in recent days insisted they are close to a final agreement on the relief package, but it has been held up by thorny issues.
Democrats have balked at language supported by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) that would wind down the Federal Reserve's authority to set up credit lending facilities.
Top 9 | Virus-stricken Macron at presidential retreat with fever
As French President Emmanuel Macron rides out the coronavirus in a presidential retreat at Versailles, critics on Friday called out slip-ups in his virus protection behavior, from a close-quarters handshake to repeated big-group meals over the past week.
It’s seen as a bad example and unfair to his compatriots, just as France sees a new uptick in infections and doctors are warning families to stay cautious this holiday season — especially at the dinner table.
While Macron usually wears a mask and adheres to social distancing rules, and has insisted that his virus strategy is driven by science, the 42-year-old president has been captured on camera in recent days violating France’s own guidelines.
He shook hands and half-embraced the head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Angel Gurria, at a meeting Monday. Both were masked, but Macron’s office acknowledged Friday the move was a “mistake.”
Top 10 | U.S. Vice President Pence, wife get vaccinated live on television
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen publicly received the COVID-19 vaccine at the White House on Friday, in an attempt to build confidence among the American people on the vaccine's safety and efficacy.
Live on television, the couple was vaccinated and joined by Surgeon General Jerome Adams.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will receive a public vaccination next week.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
