Category: General

Thailand opened its borders to vaccinated visitors for the first time in 18 months this week, as the country struggles to boost an economy still languishing due to the pandemic.

Visitors from more than 60 countries considered “low risk” are now allowed to visit the Southeast Asian nation, with quarantine essentially scrapped.

Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said Thailand had been preparing for the country’s reopening for tourism with the opening of travel lanes such as the Phuket Sandbox. He said opening the borders is to ensure Thailand remains in “competition” to draw tourists, adding that imposing quarantines will deter visitors elsewhere.

Thailand is heavily reliant on tourism, which before the pandemic accounted for around one-fifth of the country’s GDP and 20% of its overall employment, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

But experts and business owners remain cautious about the reopening.

Pravit Rojanaphruk, a journalist who works for the Bangkok-based news website Khaosod English, said the reopening could create setbacks for advances made in Thailand’s battle against the pandemic.

The journalist noted that COVID test kits are not readily available, telling VOA that some visitors “will also likely disregard COVID-19 prevention measures such as social distancing and for foreign tourists the wearing of sanitary masks.”

Also, Thailand’s reopening comes as anti-government protests continue in Bangkok. Protesters have been calling for reform, targeting the role of the monarchy and criticizing the government’s handling of the pandemic. Many have called for Prayuth Chan-o-cha, Thailand’s prime minister, to resign. He refuses to do so.

Demonstrations that initially erupted in August of last year sometimes led to violence and skirmishes between protesters and riot police. The current demonstrations, which are much smaller in size, often occur in the district of Din Daeng, the city’s second-largest slum community.

Vaccinations allow reopening

Health experts say Thailand initially did well in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 but that a surge of cases caught officials by surprise in April, prompting authorities to call for months of restrictions, lockdowns and curfews. During its third wave, Thailand was seeing more than 20,000 infections per day.

With a population of nearly 70 million, Thailand has vaccinated around 54% of its people, according to government figures. Overall, 1.9 million people have been infected, with nearly 20,000 deaths.

Although restrictions remain, the speed of the country’s vaccine rollout in recent months, sometimes exceeding 1 million per day, made it easier for the Thai government to reopen its borders.

Visitors must take a COVID-19 test upon arrival and wait for the results in a pre-booked hotel. If the results are negative, they are free to travel to a wide range of destinations throughout the country, authorities say. Unvaccinated visitors are still subjected to a seven-day quarantine in an approved hotel.

Forty-six nations were initially listed for November’s reopening, but at the last minute, more were added. Rojanaphruk says the decision was to attract more visitors to support the ailing economy.

“Many people [have been] severely affected by COVID-19’s impact on the economy, [and] will definitely be focused on how successful the reopening of Thailand would be and whether the benefits will trickle down to the working class,” he said.

“The government cannot choose to keep shutting the country from foreign tourists indefinitely as tourism income constitutes around 20% of the GDP. Adding more countries to the list in the last minute definitely has to do with attempts to get more foreign tourists,” he said.

Thani Thongphakdi, the permanent secretary of the Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs, signed the notification adding 17 more countries after “further consideration into the global situation of the spread of COVID-19 virus in parallel with health and socio-economic parameters.”

But the Rojanaphruk believes strict restrictions could be enforced once again if Thailand experiences a surge in cases.

“The government has alluded to the fact that if the situation gets out of control, they are willing to re-impose a lockdown and that the situation will be assessed on a weekly basis,” he said.

Rungrueng Kitphati, Thailand’s Minister of Public Health spokesman, said in August that herd immunity is not far away, because vaccines continue to be administered in large numbers each day, local media reported.

Thailand was used to seeing around 40 million international arrivals each year. But it was reported that in 2020 alone, arrivals dropped by 83%.

The islands of Phuket and Koh Samui have already been open to visitors. The “Phuket Sandbox” was launched four months ago on July 1, while the “Samui Plus” scheme followed in August. Both schemes are initiatives started by the Tourism Authority of Thailand and have allowed fully vaccinated visitors to skip hotel quarantine.

More than 6,000 international arrivals entered Thailand Monday, while the Tourism Authority of Thailand, or TAT, forecast that 1 million foreign visitors would enter the country from now until March 2022, reported the Bangkok Post, the country’s English-language daily newspaper.

Some Thai businesses have been eager for foreign arrivals to return, but caution remains for others on life after the reopening.

Vons Sochi, an Australian expatriate who owns VonsFitness247 gym in Bangkok, says the pandemic has crippled a lot of businesses. He thinks it is understandable why people are cautious.

“It relies a lot on tourists. COVID-19 has taken away a lot of disposable income. Everyone is holding onto their money, in case of another lockdown,” he said.

Nicolas Ziade, owner of Mulligans Bar on Bangkok’s Khao San Road, voiced optimism about the reopening.

“I’m relieved. It’s going to take time probably around three months to see people walking Khao San Road during the day. I expect to see an increase in foreigners which will be great and will increase daytime trade.

“It has been very difficult. I lost my job and had no income for six months,” he added.

Pratchaya Julapun, marketing manager at the Bandara Group, which runs furnished apartments in Bangkok and Phuket, said there are concerns over future restrictions but believes the worst is over for Thailand.

“We are quite certain the situation will be better than last time. We believe it’s time to start travel again with a new normal life,” he told VOA.

Source: Voice of America

Animal welfare advocates in Kenya are campaigning against the battery cage system of poultry management for commercial purposes. The system has been banned in Europe out of concern for the birds’ welfare, but it is beginning to gain popularity in Africa.

Grace Achieng’s 1,400 hens have been her source of income for a year now. Achieng says friends who also keep such birds introduced her to this system of wire cages for hens.

The system is called battery cages, from the arrangement of rows of identical cages linked together, as in an artillery battery.

To farmers like Achieng, these cages are the easiest way to raise chickens, as opposed to the traditional free range.

“You can imagine the stress of walking, picking eggs in between the birds or even if they have, where they are producing, laying eggs, you might even find some which are dirty, they have pooped on it. So yes, birds are supposed to be left to free range, but those experts, again, should realize that there is technology coming, and so that is the battery cage,” she said.

However, animal welfare groups are campaigning against battery cage technology for what they say is violating the birds’ welfare.

Africa Network for Animal Welfare’s program manager Dennis Bahati told VOA that the technology that is fast gaining popularity in Kenya is compromising the health of the birds.

“So, these birds are placed in an area where they cannot express their natural behavior, and because of that, some of their natural behavior, like flapping their wings, is actually restricted to a bigger extent," he said. "The other aspect, because of confinement and these birds not being able to exercise, they are prone to a condition called osteoporosis, where their bones are very fragile, and they are actually prone to fracture anytime.”

Kenya’s poultry sector has not been clearly regulated, but state officials say a poultry farming bill that aims to ensure poultry welfare is adhered to is due to be law in six months.

Mwangi Kiai is the assistant director of the Kenya Veterinary Service.

“The regulation also gives guidelines on how birds should be transported from the source to the market, even to the slaughter point. Along those operations, a government inspector will be placed along the chain,” he said.

In June, the European Parliament voted to ban the battery cage system of poultry management within the next six years.

Kenyan officials and animal welfare advocates face tough times ahead in convincing hundreds of poultry farmers like Achieng to drop the technology.

Source: Voice of America

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), one of the world's largest chipmakers, has announced plans to build a new plant in Japan, a move experts say may help revive Japan's declining chipmaking sector and bolster its economic security.

The new plant is slated to begin operation in 2024, said CEO C.C. Wei,

who announced the expansion. The operation will expand TSMC's worldwide production while fostering Taiwan's economic ties to Japan, according to Yukan Fuji, a Japanese newspaper.

The move comes as Japanese manufacturers and others eye Beijing's intentions toward Taiwan, where most TSMC plants are located. Any disruption in Taiwan affecting TSMC production could strain the global supply chain to the snapping point.

"We have received strong commitment to supporting this project from our customers and the Japanese government," said Wei.

The Japanese government intends to subsidize about half of TSMC's roughly $8.81 billion project, according to TechTaiwan.

Kazuto Suzuki, a University of Tokyo professor who focuses on public policy, told VOA Mandarin that it is "very important" that "Sony and Toyota's parts manufacturer Denso is also invested in the joint construction. … Furthermore, TSMC's products are tailored to demand. With Sony's vast customer base, TSMC can establish a model of close communication with customers and create products with higher customer satisfaction."

TSMC's plans to build a new plant in Japan are part of its global expansion.

The chipmaker is already building a $12 billion facility in the U.S. state of Arizona, where production is expected to begin in 2024. The plant is slated to produce 5-nanometer chips, the latest in semiconductor technology.

Decreasing reliance on China

Expanding into Japan will bolster that country's chipmaking. "We expect our country's semiconductor industry to become more indispensable and self-reliant, making a major contribution to our economic security," Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters on October 14, after TSMC's announcement.

"The increasingly tense relationship between Taiwan and China has increased geopolitical pressure on the supply chain, so the world is rebuilding the supply chain to break away from dependence on China," Ruay-Shiung Chang, chancellor of Taipei University of Commerce, told VOA Mandarin.

"From the perspective of risk management, Western countries and China will inevitably be polarized in the future, and many industry standards may become interchangeable," he added.

Suzuki believes that TSMC's plan will make the company an "economic and trade friendship ambassador" to Japan as the economic link between Tokyo and Beijing deteriorates.

"Since the Trump administration, exports of semiconductors to China have been restricted. For example, Japan no longer cooperates with Huawei," he said, referring to the Chinese tech multinational targeted by the U.S. for its close ties to Beijing. "So regardless of whether TSMC enters Japan or not, the semiconductor industry ties between Japan and China are a big problem, and there is currently no solution."

Impact on other chipmaking countries

Nikkei Asia reported that if TSMC accepted financing from the Japanese government, South Korea and other countries could file complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO), citing the loss of semiconductor exports to subsidized plants in Japan.

"How about South Korea's subsidies for its own domestic [chipmakers]?" Chang said. The South Korean government said in May that it plans to offer tax incentives and state subsidies worth a combined $453 billion to chipmakers to meet the government's goal of becoming a global leader in chip production, according to Yonhap, the South Korean news agency.

Chang pointed out that because TSMC is establishing a factory in Arizona, the U.S. would likely not support South Korea's filing against Japan at the WTO.

However, a country seeking to file a complaint with the WTO often encounters difficulty proving the connection between its projected losses and the subsidies provided by the possible defendant countries, Chang added. Without that direct link, an action cannot proceed.

"The U.S. and EU (European Union) regarded China's massive subsidies to support the semiconductor industry as a major issue, but they still failed to lodge a complaint with the WTO due to difficulties in producing evidence, " said Chang.

"From a global perspective, TSMC's establishment of a factory in Japan is of great help in increasing semiconductor supply capacity," Suzuki said.

Companies manufacturing chips solely for use in their own products is a model that market forces will eliminate, he added, and this will give TSMC, which makes chips usable by many manufacturers, a long-term advantage.

"However, the factory will not be fully operational until 2024, and there will be no immediate impact in the short term. The important thing is that Japan is not very dependent on Samsung's [chips] because they are designed and manufactured for Samsung's own products. Sony, Mitsubishi, Hitachi and other products rely on TSMC … more than Samsung, so the impact is very limited, " Suzuki said.

Source: Voice of America

The COP26 climate summit is taking place against the backdrop of an ongoing global pandemic. As richer nations begin to reopen, thanks to rapid vaccination programs, most people in developing countries are still waiting for their first dose, despite global pledges to distribute more vaccines.

Analysts say distrust between richer and poorer nations could hamper climate negotiations at the COP26 summit.

In most high-income countries, more than 70% of the population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. But in low-income countries, the figure is less than 4%, according to figures from the University of Oxford.

“If this level of vaccine inequity remains in place, 5 million people will die unnecessarily next year,” said Robert Yates, director of the global health program at Chatham House.

At the G-7 summit in June, leaders of the world’s richest nations pledged to share 1 billion vaccine doses with poorer countries — half from the United States. In total, the U.S. has now pledged to share 1.1 billion doses through 2022.

Yet, while many Western nations are offering a third booster shot for fully vaccinated adults, most people in developing nations still await their first dose.

As negotiations on combating climate change continue at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, trust between poorer and richer nations is fragile, Yates said.

“You can very much see countries, particularly in the South, saying, ‘Well, why should we cooperate with you on this issue which is happening now but is going to get worse — on the situation around climate change — when you’re patently not helping us at sufficient scale on something of a much, much more immediate nature that can threaten millions of people's lives next year?’”

COP26 organizers offered free vaccines to registered delegates unable to get them in their home countries. However, high travel costs, a lack of hotel rooms and concerns over high COVID-19 infection rates in Britain have kept some participants away.

Musonda Mumba, director of the Rome Center for Sustainable Development, part of the United Nations Development Program, chose not to attend the summit. She recently spoke to VOA from Nairobi.

“Climate change is not just a climate issue, it's a climate justice issue. And so, you see an intersection on the COVID side of things and on the climate change side of things, as well, really converging. The issue of trust and empathy and transparency has come up over and over and over again. And I think this will be the test case. This will be a testing moment for the world, this Glasgow COP,” she said.

Scientists say the world is facing two emergencies at once. At the COP26 summit, there is a recognition that countries must work together to tackle the existential threat of climate change. But many of the delegates will return home to countries still gripped by the coronavirus pandemic in urgent need of lifesaving vaccines.

Source: Voice of America

The White House COVID-19 response team said Monday it is anticipating final approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is prepared to administer the first vaccines to U.S. children ages 5-11 later this week.

Last Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave emergency approval for the distribution of children’s doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC’s advisory committee will consider the children’s doses of the vaccine for approval on Tuesday.

But during the White House COVID-19 briefing Monday, response coordinator Jeff Zients said the White House has been preparing for this moment for weeks. He said almost two weeks ago officials reached out to states and took their initial orders for the vaccine.

The FDA’s announcement Friday prompted the White House to begin sending the children’s doses of the vaccine to pediatricians, pharmacies and community health centers all over the country. Zients said, pending CDC approval, the first children will get their initial vaccinations perhaps as early as Wednesday, and certainly by the end of the week.

He said by this time next week - the week of Nov. 7 - the children vaccination program will be fully up and running across the country. Zients said again, the White House has procured 28 million children’s doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough for every child between the ages of 5 and 11 in the United States.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky offered assurance the CDC advisory committee will conduct a comprehensive, fair and open review of the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine for children. She said the vaccine, once approved, will be an important tool for protecting children from the virus that causes COVID-19. Walensky added that the best protection for children is surrounding them with vaccinated adults.

Walensky said that while, as of Monday, 70 percent of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated, there are still 60 million U.S. residents who are unvaccinated. She urged anyone who has not yet been vaccinated to do so.

Source: Voice of America

The COVID-19 pandemic global death toll has hit the 5 million mark, according to the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The tally comes a little more than four months after 4 million deaths from COVID-19 were recorded in June.

The milestone arrives as some countries struggle to get one vaccine into their citizens' arms, while other countries have begun inoculating their population with booster shots.

“The current vaccine equity gap between wealthier and low resource countries demonstrates a disregard for the lives of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable,” the World Health Organization recently said in an open letter to the leaders of the G-20 nations who are meeting in Rome.“For every 100 people in high-income countries, 133 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, while in low-income countries, only 4 doses per 100 people have been administered.”

The WHO letter also warned, “Vaccine inequity is costing lives every day, and continues to place everyone at risk. History and science make it clear: coordinated action with equitable access to public health resources is the only way to face down a global public health scourge like COVID-19. We need a strong, collective push to save lives, reduce suffering and ensure a sustainable global recovery.”

Source: Voice of America

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is less than 4,000 short of the 5 million mark. The 4 million tally was reached a little more than four months ago.

India’s prime minister told world leaders at the G-20 summit in Rome that India will produce 5 million COVID-19 vaccines by the end of next year for use in his country and around the world.

Narendra Modi said Saturday, however, that the 5 million doses would be easier to produce if the World Health Organization were to approve India’s Covaxin vaccine and place it on the WHO’s emergency use list. Covaxin is produced by India’s Bharat Biotech.

Meanwhile, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, told the summit Saturday, via a video platform, that China has already produced more than 1.6 billion COVID-19 vaccines that have been distributed around the world.

New York City municipal workers rushed last week to receive COVID-19 vaccines to fulfill the requirements of a mandate that they show proof of being inoculated with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Friday. One in six, or more than 26,000 workers, however, remain unvaccinated. The unvaccinated workers will be placed on unpaid leave.

Source: Voice of America

The latest round of climate talks are getting under way Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland. They are billed as the most important since the Paris conference six years ago. Here are some of the main goals of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26.

Keep 1.5 alive

Negotiators pledged in Paris that they would aim to keep the planet from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

Scientists have warned that the goal is slipping out of reach without drastic cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming greenhouse gases.

The planet is already more than 1 degree warmer than it was in the late 1800s, producing more intense heat waves, stronger storms, deeper droughts, bigger wildfires, rising sea levels and more. The higher global temperatures go, the worse things will get, scientists say.

The plans that countries have submitted will not keep the world below the 1.5-degree goal. According to the latest United Nations Emissions Gap Report, current pledges put the world on a path to a disastrous 2.7-degree temperature increase.

Some experts are cautiously optimistic, however.

While 2.7 degrees of warming is dangerous, the world was headed for 3.7 degrees or more before the Paris conference, they note.

Plus, dozens of countries have pledged that by 2050 they will produce "net-zero" emissions. That means slashing carbon-generating sources and balancing the remaining emissions with carbon-absorbing measures such as planting trees.

Following through on these pledges would limit warming to about 2.2 degrees, according to the U.N. report — still too much, but getting closer.

"The Paris agreement is working, but it was never meant to work in one step," Kaveh Guilanpour, vice president for international strategies at C2ES, a climate policy analysis nonprofit, said in a call with reporters.

Under the agreement, countries update their plans every five years, with the expectation that they will make deeper cuts. After a COVID-19-induced delay, COP26 will be the first chance since Paris to formally revisit those plans.

Most countries have increased their ambitions, with some important exceptions. China has not submitted a new plan. Nor has India, the world's third-biggest greenhouse gas emitter. Russia's new plan is no more ambitious than its old one. And Mexico and Brazil backslid.

Guilanpour does not expect negotiators to get to 1.5 degrees by the end of Glasgow. But all is not lost. "COP26 will be an important step, but not the last one," he said.

Pay up

Developing countries are angry that industrialized nations have fallen short on a 12-year-old pledge to help them fight climate change.

They say they have little to do with warming the planet but are suffering the effects. Since industrialized nations caused the problem by burning fossil fuels as they developed, they say, these nations should take responsibility by helping developing nations pursue a low-carbon development path and adapt to a warmer planet.

Back in 2009, developed countries agreed. They pledged to commit $100 billion per year to developing countries.

They have not. Funding reached $79.6 billion in 2019, according to the latest available data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"These failures to deliver on the commitments agreed to by developed countries undermines trust and confidence in the multilateral system," said a sharply worded statement from a group of 24 developing countries including China, India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

Last week, developed nations announced a plan to reach $100 billion by 2023, which did not satisfy critics.

Developing countries are also calling for additional financing to cover loss and damage from extreme weather disasters and other climate impacts.

The United States has vigorously opposed any language that suggests liability.

Other developed countries oppose separate funding, too. The European Union prefers to include it under adaptation. It's not clear that there will be any movement on this front in Glasgow.

Can the US deliver?

U.S. President Joe Biden will be attending the World Leaders Summit at the start of COP26. Biden aims to present a much different approach than his predecessor, Donald Trump, who withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement.

Biden rejoined the agreement on his first day in office. He has quadrupled the U.S. commitment to climate finance. And he has pledged that the United States will be at net-zero emissions by 2050.

Political realities are complicating his goals, however.

Congress has stripped key provisions from a major bill addressing climate change. The bill is still under negotiation.

The mood going into Glasgow is fairly downbeat.

"Progress on these issues will not be easy," Lorena Gonzalez of the World Resources Institute Finance Center told reporters. Many of the agenda items "have been put off in years past because they're among the most complex issues that negotiators are trying to tackle."

Source: Voice of America

The G-20 Summit hosted by Italy kicked off Saturday in Rome, where leaders from the world’s major economies discussed issues of mutual concern, including pandemic recovery and climate change.

The red carpet was rolled out at “La Nuvola,” Rome’s convention center, as Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden and other leaders amid strict COVID-19 protocols.

This weekend’s summit is the leaders' first face-to-face meeting in two years, following last year’s virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia. Notably absent are Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. They will join virtually, citing pandemic concerns at home.

Global minimum tax

On day one, G-20 leaders voiced their support for a global corporate minimum tax deal agreed to by finance ministers from 136 countries earlier this month after four years of negotiations led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The deal would mean a sweeping overhaul of international tax rules. Under the deal, countries will apply a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15% for companies with annual revenues of more than $870 million, while large multinational companies must pay taxes where they operate, not just where they are headquartered.

“The president emphasized the importance of this historic deal during his intervention,” a senior administration official said.

“G-20 members are right to celebrate this deal,” said Matthew Goodman, senior vice president for economics at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. The question is whether and how soon G20 members can implement the agreement within their respective domestic legal frameworks.

“That's going to be, frankly, quite challenging in the United States and several other countries,” said Goodman.

Pandemic response and prevention

On Friday, G-20 health and finance ministers released a communique committing to bringing the pandemic under control globally as soon as possible, and strengthening collective efforts to prepare for, prevent, detect, and respond to future pandemics. The communique says the G-20 will take all necessary steps needed to advance global goals of vaccinating at least 40% of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-2022, as recommended by the World Health Organization.

The ministers announced the formation of a new panel to improve the global response to future pandemics but did not specify any funding for the task force. They could not reach agreement on a separate financing mechanism proposed by the U.S. and Indonesia to prepare for future pandemics.

“We’re looking for not the ultimate final product of a financing mechanism or the ultimate final product of a taskforce or a board that would operate as kind of a global coordinating body going forward,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told VOA aboard Air Force One on Thursday. “So the hope is to have in the communiqué a statement of intent that we will work towards these two outcomes.”

Climate change

On Sunday, G-20 leaders will shift their focus to climate change. From Rome, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the summit an opportunity to “put things on track” ahead of the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow that G-20 leaders will participate in following their Italy meeting.

“There is a serious risk that Glasgow will not deliver,” Guterres said. “The current nationally determined contributions — formal commitments by governments — still condemn the world to a calamitous 2.7-degree increase,” he said referring to the pledge made at the 2015 Paris Climate Accord to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, ideally to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Countries are expected to announce more emissions reduction pledges to reach the target of net-zero emissions by around mid-century. But some analysts are skeptical of these voluntary commitments that come without enforcement mechanisms.

“There'll be pledges, the best-case scenario something along the lines of what we saw in Paris,” said Dalibor Rohac, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Rohac added that to make progress on climate change, the world needs tangible actions. “Rather than to proceed with this habit of looking for a Big Bang multilateral solution, to pursue sound domestic policies that accelerate decarbonization.”

A key issue to watch is whether G-20 members can agree on coal. The U.N. has called for wealthy countries to phase out coal by 2030, but G20 environment ministers have failed to agree on a timeline.

Guterres also called on wealthy nations to uphold commitments to provide funding to help developing nations mitigate the impacts of climate change. Under the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, wealthy nations pledged a minimum of $100 billion per year in climate funding to lower-income countries. Much of that money has not been delivered. enario something along the lines of what we saw in Paris,” said Dalibor Rohac, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Rohac added that to make progress on climate change, the world needs tangible actions.

“Rather than to proceed with this habit of looking for a big-bang multilateral solution, to pursue sound domestic policies that that accelerate decarbonization,” he said.

A key issue to watch is whether G-20 members can agree on coal actions. The U.N. has called for wealthy countries to phase out coal by 2030, but G-20 environment ministers have failed to agree on a timeline.

Guterres also called on wealthy nations to uphold commitments to provide funding to help developing nations mitigate the impacts of climate change. Under the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, wealthy nations pledged a minimum of $100 billion per year in climate funding to lower-income countries. Much of that money has not been delivered.

Source: Voice of America

The World Health Organization has written an open letter to the heads of state gathered in Rome for the G-20 meeting, urging them to increase vaccine supplies for the world's poorest, ensure access to vaccines for all people on the move and support low- and middle-income countries in combating COVID-19 with all available means.

“The current vaccine equity gap between wealthier and low resource countries demonstrates a disregard for the lives of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable,” the open letter said. “For every 100 people in high-income countries, 133 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, while in low-income countries, only 4 doses per 100 people have been administered.”

The WHO letter also warned, “Vaccine inequity is costing lives every day, and continues to place everyone at risk. History and science make it clear: coordinated action with equitable access to public health resources is the only way to face down a global public health scourge like COVID-19. We need a strong, collective push to save lives, reduce suffering and ensure a sustainable global recovery.”

Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, joined WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in signing another open letter to the G-20 leaders, urging them to make good on their promised vaccine donations to poor countries. “When the leaders of the world’s wealthiest nations met at the G-7 Summit in June, they collectively announced that 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines would be sent to low- and low-and-middle-income countries to help vaccinate the world. Pharmaceutical companies have pledged almost the same.

“Yet, as several nations still don’t even have enough vaccines for their own health workers, the world is left asking: Where are the doses?” the letter said. “Of the almost 7 billion doses that have been administered globally, just 3% of people in low-income countries have had a jab so far. Where are the rest? ... Promises aren’t translating into vaccines reaching the people that need them.”

British media has reported that Prime Minister Boris Johns is expected to announce at the G-20 summit that the U.K. will donate 20 million vaccine doses to low-income countries by the end of the year.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Saturday that it has recorded more than 246 million global COVID infections and nearly 5 million global deaths. The center said nearly 7 billion vaccines have been administered.

Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in children 5-11 years old.

The FDA approved doses for children that are one-third the amount that teens and adults receive.

"With this vaccine kids can go back to something that's better than being locked at home on remote schooling, not being able to see their friends," Dr. Kawsar Talaat of Johns Hopkins University said, according to The Associated Press. "The vaccine will protect them and also protect our communities."

Tuesday, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make detailed recommendations, and the CDC director will have the final say.

Approval by the regulatory agencies would make the vaccine available in the coming days to 28 million American children, many of whom are back in school for in-person learning. Only a few other countries, including China, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates, have so far cleared COVID-19 vaccines for children in this age group and younger.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe on Friday called for schools to stay open, provided appropriate prevention and response measures are in place.

The recommendation comes after WHO reported the European region has now seen four consecutive weeks of growing COVID-19 transmission, the only WHO region to do so. The agency said Europe's rising numbers accounted for 57% of new cases worldwide in the third week of October.

In a statement from the agency's website, WHO/Europe says instead of closing educational institutions in response to this latest surge, it recommends a "whole-of-society approach" to reducing transmission through mitigation measures such as physical distancing, cleaning hands frequently, wearing masks and ensuring adequate ventilation.

The WHO regional director for Europe, Dr. Hans Henri Kluge, said, "Last year's widespread school closures, disrupting the education of millions of children and adolescents, did more harm than good, especially to children's mental and social well-being. We can't repeat the same mistakes."

Kluge said that in the coming months, decisions by governments and the public to reduce the impact of COVID-19 should be based on data and evidence, "with the understanding that the epidemiological situation can change, and that our behavior must change with it. Science must trump politics."

The Pacific island of Tonga has recorded its first COVID infection. The fully vaccinated infected person arrived on the island Friday on a commercial flight from New Zealand.

Source: Voice of America