Cincunri Sakia

Kamis, 10 Juni 2021

'Europe is not the EU!' Guy Verhofstadt torn apart for deluded reaction to damning poll - Daily Express

The Belgian MEP acknowledged the results showed that a majority of EU citizens are disappointed with the bloc as it is today. But Mr Verhofstadt clung to the result that saw a majority of respondents believing Europe needs more co-operation.

The latest Eurobarometer published this week revealed that just 23 percent of all EU27 citizens surveyed chose: “I’m in favour of the European Union as it has been realised so far” - a drop of four percent compared with the previous survey.

For some countries, the results were even worse - in Italy and Greece for example, just 15 percent of respondents chose the option.

Just six percent were optimistic about the bloc’s future, with almost half - 49 percent - thinking it was going in the wrong direction.

There was further bad news in relation to the bloc’s much-criticised coronavirus response.

Only 48 percent of EU citizens were satisfied with the measures taken by Brussels, with less than half even knowing what the EU has been doing about it.

Just 44 percent of EU citizens were satisfied with the degree of cooperation between member states in combating Covid.

When asked about what the EU should prioritise in tackling this crisis, nearly 40 percent of EU citizens identified rapid access to safe and effective vaccines as the most crucial issue.

Meanwhile 29 percent said the EU should put more money into the development of treatments and vaccines.

There were also no questions related to the impact of Britain’s decision to quit the bloc, despite the UK having represented 13 percent of its population and having contributed 15 percent of its GDP.

A press release commenting on the results and issued by the European Commission last week said: “Eight out of ten respondents know what the EU is doing to tackle the pandemic’s consequences, while citizens put public health, the fight against poverty, supporting the economy and jobs as well as tackling climate change at the top of their priorities for the European Parliament.

“Overall, the European Parliament’s spring Eurobarometer survey shows robust support for the European Union as well as broad consensus that global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic are best tackled at EU level.”

A total of 26,999 EU citizens from 27 EU countries were interviewed between March 16 and April 12 for the Eurobarometer survey.

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"Citizens are disappointed with the European Union institutions after the pandemic, but they still believe strongly in European cooperation.

"This is why the Conference on the Future of Europe is so important.

"Destroy the EU, never!

"Reform the EU, so it can act, absolutely!"

His comments sparked the fury of social media users who took to Twitter to respond to the Belgian politician.

One person said: "And cooperation happened before and will continue to happen after your superstate.

"Europe is not the EU!"

And another: "People believe in cooperation, not in German exploitation and domination."

Someone else added: "Even the UK believed in European cooperation but not Federalism!"

Another user said: "There is no future for Europe while the EU cartel bullies try to continue with their failed political project."

Finally, someone lashed out: "Eurocrats are spiteful, threatening, bitter and hostile towards anyone who seeks to leave them, yet claim to be democratic?!

"Look how the EU is now treating Switzerland.

"The anti-democratic EU ignored Danish, Dutch, Irish, French, Greek referendum results against EU treaties.

"I respect democracy so if other Europeans are happy in the EU then that's their democratic choice.

"But I'm sceptical of the honesty and accuracy of the pie charts shown by Verhofstadt given the large rise of Eurosceptic party votes in nations such as France and Finland, etc."

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2021-06-10 10:58:12Z
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India sees biggest spike in COVID deaths after state revises toll - Al Jazeera English

India has reported its highest ever single-day death toll from COVID-19 – 6,148 deaths – after an eastern state sharply raised its figures to account for people who succumbed to the disease at home or in private hospitals.

The health department of Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, revised its total COVID-related death toll on Wednesday to more than 9,400 from about 5,400.

The United States recorded 5,444 COVID-19 deaths on February 12.

India’s total COVID caseload now stands at nearly 29.2 million after rising by 94,052 in the past 24 hours, while total fatalities are at 359,676, according to data from the health ministry.

The country has recorded fewer than 100,000 daily new COVID cases for three straight days. Active cases stand at nearly 1.17 million, according to the ministry.

A total of 242.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered nationwide, including 3.4 million over the last 24 hours, the health ministry said.

India has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world after the US. It stands third behind the US and Brazil in terms of COVID deaths.

Why Bihar revised its numbers?

Bihar revised its toll after the regional High Court asked for an audit of casualties during the second wave of the coronavirus in April and May.

The court’s order followed allegations that the state government was hiding the scale of infections and deaths.

An audit of deaths revealed that while 1,600 people died of COVID in Bihar between March 2020 and March 2021, the number of deaths from April to June 7 this year was a staggering 7,775, about six times more, India’s NDTV reported.

State capital Patna bore the brunt of the outbreak, accounting for a total of 2,303 deaths, media reports said.

The discovery of thousands of unreported deaths in Bihar lends weight to suspicion that India’s overall death tally is significantly more than the official figure.

Indian hospitals ran out of beds and life-saving oxygen during a devastating second wave of coronavirus in April and May and people died in parking lots outside hospitals and at their homes.

Many of those deaths were not recorded in COVID-19 tallies, doctors and health experts say.

The newly reported deaths had occurred last month and state officials were investigating the lapse, a district health official said, blaming the oversight on private hospitals.

“These deaths occurred 15 days ago and were only uploaded now in the government portal. Action will be taken against some of the private hospitals,” said the official, who declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

‘Under-reporting a widespread problem’

Health experts say they believe both coronavirus infections and deaths are being significantly undercounted across the country partly because test facilities are rare in rural areas, where two-thirds of Indians live, and hospitals are few and far between.

Many people have fallen ill and died at home without being tested for the coronavirus.

As crematoriums struggled to handle the wave of deaths over the past two months, many families placed bodies in the Ganges river or buried them in shallow graves on its sandbanks.

Those people would likely not have been registered as COVID victims.

“Under-reporting is a widespread problem, not necessarily deliberate, often because of inadequacies,” Rajib Dasgupta, head of the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Reuters news agency.

“In the rural context, whatever states may say or claim, testing is not simple, easy or accessible,” Dasgupta said.

The New York Times estimated deaths based on death counts over time and infection fatality rates and put India’s toll at 600,000 to 1.6 million.

The government dismissed those estimates as exaggerated. But the main opposition Congress party said that other states must follow Bihar’s example and conduct a review of deaths over the past two months.

“This proves beyond a doubt government has been hiding COVID deaths,” said Shama Mohamed, a spokeswoman for Congress, adding that an audit should also be ordered in the big states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

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2021-06-10 07:01:47Z
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Rabu, 09 Juni 2021

US to donate 500m doses of Pfizer's Covid vaccine - Financial Times

The US will purchase 500m Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer to donate to other countries, Joe Biden will announce on Thursday, a significant expansion of the country’s efforts to help increase inoculation rates around the world.

The Biden administration had agreed to buy 200m doses this year and 300m in the first half of next year to send to other countries, according to a person familiar with the deal, who confirmed an earlier report by The Washington Post.

The agreement is a big increase on the 80m vaccine doses already pledged by the Biden administration to other countries, following criticism that the US is hoarding doses instead of helping those in need.

The White House did not comment, while Pfizer did not immediately respond to a request to do so. The US president is expected to make the announcement in the UK, ahead of the G7 summit this weekend in Cornwall.

The US has overseen one of the fastest vaccine rollouts in the world, providing at least one dose to just over half of its population. But demand for doses has slowed in recent weeks, and just over 1m people are now receiving vaccinations each day — down from about 3.5m a day in April.

Biden previously promised to donate 80m doses from the country’s stockpile, the first 25m of which were allocated last week. That pledge has been deemed inadequate by some experts, who warn that more will be needed to help countries like India, which has seen a devastating second wave of the disease in recent months.

All 500m doses would be allocated through the Covax scheme backed by the World Health Organization, according to the person briefed on the details, and given to 92 countries.

Covax has promised to deliver 2bn doses around the world by the end of the year, but has been hampered by the Serum Institute of India’s decision to stop exporting doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine it has made while the country battles its second wave.

The US government’s side of the negotiations was spearheaded by Jeff Zients, the head of Biden’s Covid-19 task force, the person added. Administration officials did not say how much the doses would cost.

US officials said they were also looking at how to increase production in other countries, especially of mRNA vaccines such as those made by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna, which have represented the bulk of the US rollout.

But some campaigners want the administration to go further, and force vaccine makers to hand over their technology to companies in other countries to help kickstart production outside the US.

Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines programme at consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement: “We have yet to see a plan from the US government or the G7 of the needed ambition or urgency to make billions more doses and end the pandemic.

“President Biden and other leaders underestimate their power to set terms with the vaccine makers and co-ordinate immediate production at massive scale.”

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2021-06-09 19:56:29Z
CAIiEFd_L523JHIAbnQ-DCKUIeEqFwgEKg8IACoHCAow-4fWBzD4z0gwwtp6

COVID-19: America to give 500 million Pfizer coronavirus jabs to poorer countries - Sky News

The US is to distribute half a billion shots of the Pfizer vaccine to nearly 100 poorer countries.

Some 200 million doses will be given out this year and 300 million in 2022.

It comes as US President Joe Biden said before leaving for the G7 summit in Cornwall that he would be announcing a vaccine strategy for the world.

The US will pay for the doses at a "not-for-profit" price, according to the New York Times, which said the plan could be officially announced on Thursday.

The shots will go to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union, but Pfizer and the White House have so far not commented.

America is well advanced in its vaccine rollout but campaigners have called for richer countries to do more to help protect developing nations.

The half a billion jabs will be distributed via the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Covax scheme, which is trying to fix so-called "vaccine apartheid" by working with governments and manufacturers to ensure an equitable distribution of jabs.

It aims to deliver two billion doses in 2021, and 1.8 billion doses by early 2022.

Only 2% of Africa's population have received at least one dose of a vaccine, while globally it's 24%, says the WHO.

In the UK, the figure is about 60%, and around 50% in America.

The urgency is highlighted by a recent 20% increase in COVID cases in Africa compared with the previous fortnight.

In a statement last week, the WHO said the pandemic was trending upwards in 14 countries on the continent - but that vaccine shipments were continuing to slow down.

The Biden administration had already pledged to share 80 million vaccine doses globally by the end of June, with the first shipments due in the next few weeks.

Along with jabs for its own population, the New York Times said the new pledge would take the Pfizer-BioNTech shots bought by the US to 800 million.

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2021-06-09 19:30:00Z
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Donald Trump-era ban on TikTok dropped by Joe Biden - BBC News

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President Joe Biden has revoked an executive order from his predecessor Donald Trump banning Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat in the US.

The ban faced a series of legal challenges and never came into force.

Instead, the US Department of Commerce will now review apps designed and developed by those in "the jurisdiction of a foreign adversary", such as China.

It should use an "evidence-based approach" to see if they pose a risk to US national security, Mr Biden said.

TikTok did not offer comment on the news.

Mr Trump ordered the ban on new downloads of the viral video app TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm Bytedance, in 2020.

He described it at the time as a threat to national security.

A proposal was produced that would have seen Oracle and Walmart owning a US entity of the service, and taking responsibility for handling TikTok's US user data and content moderation.

But a series of legal challenges, and the fact Mr Trump was due to leave office shortly afterwards, meant neither the ban nor the involvement of the US companies ever came to fruition.

Data collection

In his new executive order, President Biden said that the federal government should evaluate threats posed by China-based apps and software through "rigorous, evidence-based analysis", and should address "any unacceptable or undue risks consistent with overall national security, foreign policy, and economic objectives".

He acknowledged that apps can "access and capture vast swathes of information from users".

"This data collection threatens to provide foreign adversaries with access to that information," he said.

TikTok is used by about 80 million Americans every month.

Ashley Gorski, a senior lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), welcomed the decision to overturn the ban.

"President Biden is right to revoke these Trump administration executive orders, which blatantly violated the First Amendment rights of TikTok and WeChat users in the United States," she said.

"The Commerce Department's review of these and other apps must not take us down the same misguided path, by serving as a smokescreen for future bans or other unlawful actions."

Next week, President Biden is due to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and the two are expected to announce a partnership around technology and trade, in an attempt to push back on China's rise as a technology superpower.

It is likely the partnership will include joint standards around emerging technologies, as well as commitments to take firmer action policing the internet, and to act on the critical supply chain issues that have arisen during the Covid pandemic.

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2021-06-09 17:02:17Z
52781656101055

Donald Trump-era ban on TikTok dropped by Joe Biden - BBC News

Getty Images

President Joe Biden has revoked an executive order from his predecessor Donald Trump banning Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat in the US.

The ban faced a series of legal challenges and never came into force.

Instead, the US Department of Commerce will now review apps designed and developed by those in "the jurisdiction of a foreign adversary", such as China.

It should use an "evidence-based approach" to see if they pose a risk to US national security, Mr Biden said.

TikTok did not offer comment on the news.

Mr Trump ordered the ban on new downloads of the viral video app TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm Bytedance, in 2020.

He described it at the time as a threat to national security.

A proposal was produced that would have seen Oracle and Walmart owning a US entity of the service, and taking responsibility for handling TikTok's US user data and content moderation.

But a series of legal challenges, and the fact Mr Trump was due to leave office shortly afterwards, meant neither the ban nor the involvement of the US companies ever came to fruition.

Data collection

He acknowledged that apps can "access and capture vast swathes of information from users".

"This data collection threatens to provide foreign adversaries with access to that information," he said.

TikTok is used by about 80 million Americans every month.

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Halo Trust: Afghanistan mine clearance workers shot dead 'in cold blood' - BBC News

At least 10 mine clearers working for Halo Trust in Afghanistan's northern province of Baghlan have been shot dead, and more than a dozen wounded.

Afghan officials blamed the Taliban, saying militants "started shooting everyone" in the compound.

But Halo Trust CEO James Cowan told the BBC that "the local Taliban... came to our aid and scared the assailants off". The Taliban also denied the attack.

Violence has surged since the US began to withdraw its last troops on 1 May.

The departure of international troops comes amid a deadlock in peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Several districts in Baghlan province have seen fierce fighting between the Taliban and government forces.

The workers were killed when masked gunmen burst into their compound at 21:50 (17:20 GMT) on Tuesday, after they had spent a day removing mines from a nearby field.

Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian told reporters that "the Taliban entered a compound of a mine-clearing agency... and started shooting everyone".

But the Taliban issued a swift denial.

"We condemn attacks on the defenceless and view it as brutality," the militant group's spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, tweeted. "We have normal relations with NGOs [non-governmental organisations]. Our Mujahideen will never carry out such brutal attacks."

Mr Cowan of the Halo Trust told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the attackers went "bed to bed" shooting the workers "in cold blood" - but that the local Taliban helped the deminers.

"I think it's important to know that the Taliban have denied responsibility for this, and indeed the local Taliban group came to our aid and scared the assailants off," he said.

"We don't know who the assailants were - we could speculate about that but I won't - but I think we have the capacity as the Halo Trust to operate on both sides of the line in this awful conflict," he added.

Mr Cowan later told the BBC Afghan service that the attackers specifically targeted members of the Hazara ethnic minority group.

Hazaras, Afghanistan's third-largest ethnic group, have faced long-term discrimination and persecution, primarily because of their Shia Muslim faith. In recent years, they have faced abductions and killings at the hands of both the Islamic State group and the Taliban, which are both Sunni Muslim.

"A group of armed men came to our camp and sought out members of the Hazara community, and then murdered them," Mr Cowan said. "This was not expected. The broader security situation [in Afghanistan] is understood, but this kind of cold-blooded killing was not expected."

Attackers unknown but motive clear

Analysis by Inayatulhaq Yasini, BBC Kabul Bureau Editor

Halo Trust and other demining organisations have been working in Afghanistan for more than three decades, freely moving even near frontlines. A fact I have seen for myself.

Halo Trust has 3,000 staff in Afghanistan. Warring factions have been helpful to deminers in the past - however it has been rare for the Taliban or other groups to come forward to help victims of an attack. Halo Trust mostly hires local people, which also creates jobs for local communities.

The organisation's CEO, James Cowan, told the BBC the attackers had "fled to an area which is not controlled by the Taliban". The province of Baghlan where the attack happened has been the scene of fighting between the government and the Taliban for weeks. Anyone can exploit a situation where different local militias and warlords are also active in the province.

It is difficult to know who carried out the attack, but the aim is clear: to incite ethnic tension among Afghans, where 40 years of war has already widely affected unity in the country.

In a clip police in Baghlan shared with reporters, a survivor of the attack also said the gunmen had asked if any of them were from the Hazara minority community before opening fire.

"Five to six armed men came, they took us to a room," he said. "First they took all our money and mobile phones, and then they asked who our leader was. They asked, 'Is any Hazara here among you?' We told them, 'We don't have any Hazara here.'"

He added that he had been shot in the head, but managed to escape through a window.

The UK-based Halo Trust was founded in 1988 to remove ordnance left behind from the almost decade-long Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

It was supported by Princess Diana, as well as by her son Prince Harry.

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2021-06-09 14:58:07Z
52781655846498

Kamis, 10 Juni 2021

Why Bihar revised its numbers?

‘Under-reporting a widespread problem’

Rabu, 09 Juni 2021

More on Covid-19

Data collection

Data collection

Attackers unknown but motive clear