politicodiary

Photo courtesy: The New York Times After a two-year break, children were just getting ready to go back to school when Philippines has been hit with another disaster. A terrible storm has devastated life, stopped transportation, curtailed movement and lead to close down of schools, again. The archipelago is said to be hit by frequent storms in the year, but this one has been a little too much, owing to the devastating effects of Covid-19 induced lockdowns and mutation troubles. The tropical storm has affected northern Philippines more severely this time. This has been termed as the Storm Ma-on. On instructions of President Ferdinand Marcos (Jr), classes were suspended for public schools and government work mostly in the densely populated capital region and also in the six outlying provinces as a precautionary measure. It is worth noting that millions of children would again be left homebound after a chance to enjoy face-to-face classes. The provincial capital Tuguegarao was dren...

An online Hajj permit service has been launched by Al Hosn National Health System on its Al Hosn app in co-operation with the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments (GAIAE). The Al Hosn National Health System is affliated to the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP). The service aims to facilitate Hajj procedures,  and in turn save precious time for pilgrims'. This service will also help them and enhance their confidence in the efficiency and development of national health procedures.  Additionally, it will also support the ongoing efforts of the two entities that have been trying to enter the digitisation arena; as they can now shift from paper based permits to digitised versions of them.     Al-Hosn System has clarified that an electronic Hajj permit is mandatory for any individual leaving the country for Hajj, even if he has received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and a booster shot. "There are several procedures and mechanisms that everyo...

In a strange occurrence, North Korea has suddenly stopped import of Covid-19 prevention and control products from China. It still isn’t out of the woods, but it decided to do the same. While this is the case, Covid-19, according to the local media has been contained within the country. Earlier North Korea was sourcing face masks, thermometers, rubber gloves, ventilators or vaccines  from China. Meanwhile the US and South Korea had offered to provide help, including vaccines, but Pyongyang has not responded. Earlier on, North Korea had imported more than 10.6 million masks, nearly 95,000 thermometers and 1,000 non-invasive ventilators from China. This was between January-April of 2022. As the country refuses to share any statistics on this with the world, the WHO has a feeling the cases of infection are much higher in the real sense of the word. It is also worth noting that the exports from China to North Korea has slumped a lot since May. Overall, China’s exports to North Kor...

Rapper Nicki Minaj has landed her foot in her mouth as she went on twitter to say that her friends had actually become impotent after taking the Covid-19 shot.    “My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied (sic),” her tweet read. She has been slammed on the social media for making such claims, while parts of the world are getting ready to take the jabs again. The young artist who has some 22 million followers has been embarrassed by making such false claims. Meanwhile, an American Senate Bill 866 now allows minors to receive vaccinations without permission from their parents has passed the California Assembly Judiciary Committee, and is headed to the Assembly. Its ironic when a youth has now got the right to go ahead and get hims...

Stretched over two three-day weekends, the Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival returned to epic styles after a literally two year break. Blame it all on the pandemic. Hundred and thousands of music fans could be seen flocking the Californian desert and no one was complaining about the heat. Those who were worth mentioning at the electric place included Billie Elish, Harry Styles, The Weekend and of course the EDM stars Swedish House Mafia. Concerts and performances have not been the same since the pandemic stopped gatherings due to evident fear of mass transmissions. Style quotients were high and there is undeniable excitement around what celebrity artists are honing on the stage these days. For starters was Harry Styles : The former One Direction star made his Coachella debut in oh-so-glamorous fashion, rocking a black fur coat on stage, which he removed during his opening number, As It Was, to reveal a low-cut, silver sequined catsuit. He was joined on stage by country l...

The EU African Summit has some major targets to achieve. The event is to take place today in Brussels. Everyone is vying for the African pie now; more so as China eyes making this continent also grateful and indebted to it. But plans to organize a more conducive summit have been firming for the last two years between Europe and Africa. There are plans to unveil six initiatives at the Summit, including three investment packages, as part of what EU calls a ‘Prosperous and Sustainable Partnership’.   There is obviously sense of power at play, but not as stark and bad as China’s mind over sovereignty control. In a public statement, EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has confirmed that investments will be the ‘heart’ of the summit. Africa should be feeling happy and elated. But it needs to move ahead with caution as well.   The promising Global Gateway is said to be comprised of an investment plan worth more than €150 billion for Africa. France is playing its own...

 The new Finance minister of Turkey, Mr. Nureddin Nebati, was in news last month for his surprising reply during a TV interview. When asked by a reporter, regarding the economic situation of Turkey, Nebati replied by saying “I won’t give a number now,” he told a surprised television interviewer. “Can you look into my eyes? What do you see?... The economy is the sparkle in the eyes.” Considering the selection of Nebati by president, Erdogan his response sounded rather unconventional to all. Turkey is facing high rates of inflation, erratic currency rates and high interest rates. Nureddin Nebati was selected by the President Tayyip Erdogan as the finance minister to drive the new economic policy in a rather unconventional way. He has completed six weeks in the role of Minister of Finance and Treasury, in Erdogan’s cabinet. The remarks of 58-year-old minister, during the TV interview has created  a stir in the market. Two weeks, ago, justifying his efforts, Nebati, said on th...

Strangely, influencers in social media are spreading fake news about the Covid-19 spread and this is influencing people’s minds against the vaccination. Fake news about Covid-19 vaccines has played a major role in preventing people from trusting the vaccine process can save their lives. Since the start of the pandemic, rumors and conspiracy theories have been rife, unsettling many people and making vaccination campaigns more difficult. Religious leaders are saying that vaccines can affect fertility, breastfeeding abilities or lead to death too. The WHO has found that the majority of fake news is spreading in North America, Australia, and Russia and elsewhere in Europe. From there, they also reach African social media channels. The global health body is fighting this kind of misinformation on the continent of 1.3 billion people. Since December 2020, the WHO has been working with 20 partners in Africa. They formed the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance, whose aim is to debunk dange...

Policeman in Italy are checking regularly the green health pass of passengers of public transport. They have suspended profile of 17 online sellers, offering fake COVID certificates. As per a statement from the Italy’s finance Police, the action for suspension of 17 public and private messaging channels has happened due to sale of illegal Covid-19 vaccine certificates. Fake Covid Pass is offered in paper format or digital medium to the customers. As of now, nine private profiles and eight public have been caught by Police. These certificates are sold ranging from €100 to €500. Discount is also available for purchases made in bulk or ‘family package’ deal. As per the investigating agencies, payments were also done by cryptocurrencies, in few cases. The online sellers make an assurance of the pass being “fully reliable” with a confirmation of “QR” code to pass the checks by competent authorities, also post sales service, in case of any problems later. While, at one end there has be...

The Education minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Berhanu Nega has asked to close all the secondary schools for a week. This announcement was made to allow students help in harvesting crop fields left behind by civilians who enlisted in the military. Government officials shared that the fighting has destroyed hundreds of schools and more  than 1.2 million students were out of school due to the ongoing conflict in the north. A six-month state of emergency was announced in November to contain a Tigrayan rebel advancement towards the capital, Addis Ababa. Due to the current situation arising in the north and centre of the country caused by rebel  forces, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has made a call to join the armed forces to defeat the  uprising rebel. Thousands of people have answered his call to join the army. He called on “all patriotic Ethiopians” to join him in frontline combat against forces loyal to  the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Recently P...

  The new variant of Corona virus is now being called Omicron and it is being suspected that it is resistant to the current lot of vaccines doing rounds worldwide. However pharmaceutical companies are now determined to improvise the current vaccine to create a shield of protection against the new fast mutating variant. Named by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the health organization says that classified it as a highly transmissible virus of concern, the same category that includes the predominant delta variant, which is still a scourge driving higher cases of sickness and death in Europe and parts of the United States. The new variant started its spread from South Africa, due to which UK has already banned travel from four of its countries. The actual risks are still to be ascertained about the new highly infectious fast mutating variant. But early evidence suggests it carries an increased risk of reinfection compared with other highly transmissible variants. That mean...

World Health Organisation’s special envoys are now going all out to gather support for a pandemic preparedness treaty. Owing to a fifth wave of high infections and transmission, several countries are still looking at ways of getting back on their feet. It has been two years of combatting the Covid-19 virus.   Maximum deaths are coming through in the low- and middle-income countries. This has been communicated by special envoys appointed by the WHO. The Director-General appointed six Special Envoys on Covid-19 on February 21, 2020. The intend was to provide strategic advice and high-level political advocacy and engagement in different parts of the world.   The Special Envoys will work in close collaboration with WHO Regional Directors and country offices to coordinate the global response to COVID-19. In a specialized report given by the special envoys, it states, “The trends are seen both in nations with adequate doses of vaccine, as well as in those with very tight sup...

China is making good use of Cambodia in every which way. Earlier it was bringing down the US build facilities without notifying or discussing the same with Washington. Then it was constructing Chinese facilities on the same structures. It seems China is expanding its reach and the Cambodian PM had nothing to say but that they had a right to protect their own turf without having to give an explanation to Washington.   Now, it seems, Cambodia is being used as a vaccine storage facility by China too. Strangely, almost all of the vaccines used to date in Cambodia are Chinese (Sinovac and Sinopharm). Political analysts believe there are political, diplomatic and financial reasons behind this decision.Indeed, it isn’t wrong to say that vaccine diplomacy has been aptly given free rein in the kingdom of Cambodia. Washington has had an eye on Cambodia ever since it razed the US facility at its Ream Naval Base. There are reasons that it feels that Prime Minister Hun Sen has sought to posit...

 The Kingdom plans to include women in top leadership positions in times to come As Afghanistan pushes back women emancipation into the dark ages, Saudi Arabia is going one step further to ensure they get their due. At the DSEI trade fair in London, Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) CEO Walid Abukhaled has indicated that he sees a woman leading the company in the near future.  Mr. Abukhaled especially advocated for a female engineer and the fact that its time the Kingdom could bring back its female workforce back to its roots. He referred to the fact that many talented women are working abroad. “Attracting the best and brightest to work in the industry was key to hitting the 50-percent goal, and that included tempting back female Saudis who are employed abroad,” said the CEO emphatically.   The 50percent goal has been set by the government to see its spending be invested in defence equipment.  While hinting that the change may not happen immediately, but i...

  The long-awaited Tokyo Paralympics 2020 is going to be massive movement for the rights and acceptance of sportsmen with disabilities. Called the campaign Wethe15 has been launched as a heartfelt campaign for the equal representation of athletes with disabilities. The global campaign is aimed at ending discrimination towards the world’s 1.2 billion people with disabilities. It was initiated today in Tokyo spearheaded by Paralympic chiefs and backed by the art and culture fraternity worldwide. The Tokyo Paralympics opens from August 24. The campaign will be a loud clarion call against any kind of discrimination and sanctity of human life, whether its Black Lives Matter or the #Metoo campaign. The visual representation this time is using the colour purple. More than 125 landmarks around the world, from the New York’s Empire State Building to Rome’s Colosseum would be lit up with the colour purple from today onwards. There is a decade plan for the campaign in mind, with eac...

There is good news on Covid-19 findings over cures ... According to the American Chemical Society, researchers have found a protein that can create a layer of immunisation against the SARS-Cov-2 virus aka the Covid-19 carrying virus. By immunising mice, they have found that  the proteins' nanoparticles can mimic SARS-CoV-2 by displaying multiple copies of the receptor binding domain (RBD) antigen. The findings on their protein-based vaccine have been published in ACS Central Science. The team has been able to make nanoparticles similar in size to SARS-CoV-2 and further decorated them with many RBDs. This formula was then injected into mice, along with separate nanoparticles containing an adjuvant, in two doses three weeks apart. For comparison, they immunised another group of mice with polymersomes that encapsulated the RBD, along with the nanoparticles containing the adjuvant. Although both groups of mice produced high levels of RBD-specific antibodies, only the surface-decorated ...

  Its Cuba too up and arms against the government that has let it down. For the first time in 30 years, the Cuban population took to the streets and protested throughout the country, over shortage of food and electricity. Protests broke out simultaneously in all parts of Cuba. Several hundred protesters marched through the capital Havana chanting, "We want liberty," with a heavy military and police presence deployed after demonstrators massed outside the Capitol building. Protestors were beaten down with plastic pipes and tear gas was used to calm the crowds down, which was in thousands and hundreds flocking the streets. According to the data journalism site Inventario, the only ones authorized to gather in Cuba are normally Communist Party events. But these protests have been called rare as they gathered in 40 different spots across the nation.   Several thousand protesters, mainly young people, took to the streets of San Antonio de los Banos, a town 30 kilometers (20 ...

 Lebanese Army is struggling to keep itself in shape and trying other resorts to stay afloat   While the country is still reeling under immense financial pressure to pay off its huge debts, it army has started an innovative way of making some revenue. It is using its helicopters to give tourist rides in the city in a way to make some revenue and encourage the culture of tourism too.  The Covid-19 pandemic has crippled their options of using tourism as a revenue generator anyway. Its pound has already lost all its importance as a currency of trade. Its resources are dwindling and its government has not been able to keep the country afloat, without borrowing hugely from other countries.  Smuggling of petrol and other things has become rampant across the borders too. Army apparently, has had to scrap meat from its soldier meals to save on their meagre resources. According to official source, soldiers are earning one-tenth of their monthly wages; with the figure falling ...

As a large population, India will have to be vigilant to be not caught in the third wave too soon   According to a AIIMMS Director, Randeep Guleria has warned that the third wave will come in quicker than expected, unless we keep our security net tight and immunization happens far and wide. Many countries have prevented the spread and now controlled it to an extend that they can now go mask free. But that has taken some careful planning, strict hygiene protocols to be maintained and no social crowding at all. India, due to the virtue of having a large population has found it difficult to control the widespread infection in the second wave. We lost an unprecedented number of lives. The medical system could not handle to mass spread and the country’s medical infrastructure had come to a jolting halt. We cannot afford another such wave again. Apparently, children are at more risk this time that before. Vaccine candidates are trying to get clearance from the WHO to be administere...

  Netherland feels confident about ditching the mask. The world is trying to come back to the normal, without masks, but is it too early for this.... Netherland is confident about going without the mask that its outgoing PM Mark Rutte made a public appearance on local television showing how to maintain social distance and be without the mask. No new limits are also going to be set on the number of guests that can be allowed in stores, bars and restaurants.  It might after all be business as usual. Most limit on group sizes are also being relaxed from June mid, as cases of Covid-19 infections start to fall. There are chances of a beautiful summer but there is word of caution as Autumn arises. Other countries are dwindling between whether to open restrictions or not, as the Covid-19 refuses to die and continues to emerge with mutating forms in one or the other continent.  Netherlands is happy about the robust speed at which their vaccination programme rolled out, making the...