Global Developments and Analysis: Weekly Monitor, 18 January - 24 January 2021

Economic

China was largest recipient of FDI in 2020 — UNCTAD report

China was the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in 2020 as the coronavirus outbreak spread across the world during the course of the year, with the Chinese economy having brought in $163 billion in inflows. China’s $163 billion in inflows last year, compared to $134 billion attracted by the United States, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a report released on Jan 24. In 2019, the United States had received $251 billion in inflows and China received $140 billion. China’s economy picked up speed in the fourth quarter, with growth beating expectations as it ended a rough coronavirus-stricken 2020 in remarkably good shape and remained poised to expand further this year even as the global pandemic rages unabated. The world’s second-largest economy has surprised many with the speed of its recovery from the coronavirus jolt, especially as policymakers have also had to navigate tense US-China relations on trade and other fronts. Overall, global FDI had collapsed in 2020, falling by 42% to an estimated $859 billion, from $1.5 trillion in 2019, according to the UNCTAD report. Click here to read... [2]

A China With More Clout Awaits Biden at the WTO

President Biden has said he plans to work with allies to keep pressure on China, but at the World Trade Organization the U.S. will be facing a rival in Beijing that has become a more dominant force in recent years. Skepticism toward the WTO in successive U.S. administrations translated into policies, such as blocking judges to its top court, that have largely gutted its ability to serve as an international arbiter of trade disputes. At the same time, Beijing has cast itself as a defender of the WTO and its top court, fuelling its stature within the organization. That has helped China to blunt calls for changes to its state-controlled economy, which other members say distort the market. Mr. Biden’s team has said that he would lift the U.S. blockade on judges but that the pandemic and U.S. economic recovery could take precedence over trade. A delay would be a mistake, said James Bacchus, a former Democratic congressman from Florida who served twice as the chairman of the WTO’s Appellate Body, its top court. “The rest of the world is not going to wait for the U.S.,” he said. Click here to read... [3]

Silicon Valley CEOs can’t decide laws and rules, EU Commission president says

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has sent a message to US tech companies ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, warning that Silicon Valley CEOs can’t decide their own laws and rules. During a speech delivered in the European Parliament, von der Leyen laid out a series of areas in which the European Union (EU) is hoping to work with the incoming Biden administration, including climate change and the regulation of American-based tech companies that have an international reach. The EU has been working to introduce global standards for digital companies that provide a clear set of rules and responsibilities for the way they operate and the content that is distributed via their sites. However, rebuffing suggestions from tech giants to allow them to moderate themselves, von der Leyen was clear that governments must now intervene. This is not the first time that the EU has sought to control the power of social media companies and tech giants. Google has been a target of the EU’s antitrust body in recent years, with the search engine having been hit with over $9 billion of fines, and further investigations are underway. Click here to read... [4]

Google threatens to block Australia from search engine

US tech giant Google on Jan 22 threatened to block its services in Australia if the government proceeds with plans to make it and Facebook pay media companies for news content. The mandatory code of conduct proposed by the Australian government aims to make Google and Facebook pay local media companies for the right to use their news content in search results or news feeds. "If this version of the code were to become law, it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google search available in Australia,'' Mel Silva, managing director of Google Australia and New Zealand, told a Senate inquiry into the bill.According to Silva, 95% of internet searches in Australia are done through Google.Facebook has also threatened to remove news content from its site in Australia. Google's threat to cut off services in Australia came just a day after it reached a content-payment deal with French news publishers as part of a three-year, $1.3 billion (€1 billion) push to back French publishers. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, however, slammed the tech giants for their positions, saying the country doesn't "respond to threats." Click here to read... [5]

Why China plans to tax the booming digital economy

Now that digital commerce accounts for more than a third of its economy, China is looking for ways to more effectively tax domestic e-commerce titans like Alibaba, Tencent and Didi Chuxing. This is no simple matter, according to tax accounting professionals. The rapidly expanding digital economy has increased the difficulty of tax collection and administration, resulting in unfair competition, tax experts said. While Chinese authorities are also moving to update antitrust law and crack down on anti-competitive behaviour by tech titans, it is also necessary to more effectively tax the digital economy to create a level playing field, alleviate a tight fiscal balance and narrow the gap in income distribution, they said. Levying a digital tax is not simply a matter of setting a tax rate and a tax base, Wang Yongjun, professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, told Caixin. It also would involve a rebalancing of interests among different sectors, requiring a complete consideration of the effects on the economy, society and the fiscal system, Wang said. Click here to read... [6]

Taiwan says realistic about U.S. trade deal, but one will happen eventually

Taiwan is under no illusions it can quickly sign a long hoped for free trade deal with the United States but feels when the time is right "success will flow naturally", the island's chief trade negotiator said on Jan 22. Taiwan has long sought a bilateral trade deal with the United States, the Chinese-claimed island's most important international backer and supplier of arms. Last year, the government lifted a ban on the import of pork containing a leanness-enhancing additive, ractopamine, removing a major stumbling block to an agreement with Washington. But President Joe Biden has only just assumed office, and his nominee for treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, told lawmakers this week they would prioritise domestic investment in workers and infrastructure before embarking on any new free trade agreements. Minister without portfolio John Deng, who leads trade talks, told Reuters Taiwan's government well knew that for the United States to sign free trade agreements with anyone was a major issue, especially with a new government in office. Click here to read... [7]

Crown prince announces new 5-year strategy for Kingdom’s economy

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Jan 24 launched a new five-year strategy for the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund as Saudi Arabia drives toward achieving its Vision 2030 goal to diversify the economy away from dependence on oil. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) will pump at least $40 billion a year into the local economy, double its assets to $1.07 trillion, contribute U$320 billion to non-oil GDP and create 1.8 million jobs by 2025, said the crown prince, the fund’s chairman. “We’ve launched many vital sectors and investment projects in Saudi Arabia and the private sector is a strategic partner for the PIF,” he said. “The new strategy comes to represent a major pillar in achieving the aspirations of our country and aims to achieve the concept of comprehensive development.” The 2021-2025 strategy will focus on launching new sectors, empowering the private sector, developing the PIF’s portfolio, achieving effective long-term investments, supporting the localization of sectors and building strategic economic partnerships. Click here to read... [8]

Biden announces return to global climate accord, new curbs on US oil industry

US President Joe Biden on Jan 20 announced America’s return to the international Paris Agreement to fight climate change, the center piece of a raft of day-one executive orders aimed at restoring US leadership in combating global warming. The announcements also included a sweeping order to review all of former President Donald Trump’s actions weakening climate change protections, the revocation of a vital permit for TC Energy’s Keystone XL oil pipeline project from Canada, and a moratorium on oil and gas leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that Trump’s administration had recently opened to development. Biden has promised to put the United States on a track to net-zero emissions by 2050 to match the steep and swift global cuts that scientists say are needed to avoid the most devastating impacts of global warming, using curbs on fossil fuels and massive investments in clean energy. Biden’s orders also require government agencies to consider revising vehicle fuel efficiency standards and methane emissions curbs, and to study the possibility of re-expanding the boundaries of wilderness national monuments that had been reduced in size by the Trump administration. Click here to read... [9]

Biden seeks to reinforce 'Made in America' approach favoured by Trump

President Joe Biden will sign an executive order onJan 25 giving priority to US companies and products in contracts with the federal government, pushing a "Made in America" approach favoured by predecessor Donald Trump. The order, senior White House officials said, aims to boost national production and save industrial jobs by increasing investments in manufacturing industries and workers in order to "Build Back Better". Less than a week after his inauguration, Biden is pushing his priorities through with executive orders, even though his Cabinet is not fully in place, with the roles such as Secretary of State still to be approved. The new executive order should reduce the possibility of skirting rules requiring federal authorities to prioritise buying US-made products. Biden wants to limit the way federal agencies stamp the products they buy as "Made in America" in order to eliminate legal loopholes used by companies that often manufacture in the US only a small portion of the products offered to the government. Click here to read... [10]

Biden Team Promises New Look in Trade Policy

Leading members of the Biden administration are promising a very different approach to international trade. No longer would American negotiators focus on opening markets for financial-service firms, pharmaceutical companies and other companies whose investments abroad don’t directly boost exports or jobs at home. Those making the case include President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and members of his transition team who are likely to get senior trade jobs. The new thinking is becoming mainstream among Democrats. Trade policy should “involve a laser focus on what improves wages and creates high-paying jobs in the United States, rather than making the world safe for corporate investment,” Mr. Sullivan wrote with a former Obama administration official, Jennifer Harris, in an article early in the presidential campaign. “Why, for example, should it be a U.S. negotiating priority to open China’s financial system for Goldman Sachs?” Administrations dating back to at least the Clinton years have promised something similar. The Trump administration’s trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, asserts he already created a worker-centered policy. Click here to read... [11]

Strategic

China Pushes for High-Level Meeting to Ease Tension With U.S.

Looking to reset the troubled U.S.-China relationship, Beijing is pressing for a meeting of its top diplomat with senior aides to President Biden to explore a summit between the two nations’ leaders, according to people with knowledge of the initiative. Beijing raised the idea starting in December of dispatching Yang Jiechi, a member of the Politburo, the Communist Party’s top decision-making body, to Washington. The proposal, made soon after President Xi Jinping congratulated Mr. Biden on his election victory, was through letters by the Chinese ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, and through conversations with intermediaries.Beijing is planning a different message for Mr. Yang to bring to Washington than it had delivered during the Trump administration, when trade issues were Washington’s priority. Now, with Mr. Biden emphasizing climate change and the pandemic, Mr. Yang plans to also focus on those issues, as well as getting in train an initial meeting between Messrs. Biden and Xi.Chinese officials have asked for the meeting in back-channel outreach buthaven’t made a formal request to the Biden national security team, which is just getting set up in the White House, and other government agencies. Click here to read... [12]

Pompeo’s successor says Trump was right to be tough on China as Beijing dismisses Washington’s ‘lies’ about Uighur repression

US President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to be the secretary of state has said Trump’s tough approach on China was right, but claimed he disagreed with the tactics of the outgoing president. Speaking on Jan 19, Antony Blinken told Congress he supported Trump’s hardline stance on China, citing Beijing’s intention to become the dominant world power and undermine American interests. “I think what we’ve seen in recent years, particularly since the rise of Xi Jinping as leader, has been that the hiding and biding has gone away,” Blinken told lawmakers during his Senate confirmation hearing. “I also believe that President Trump was right in taking a tougher approach to China … I disagree very much with the way that he went about it in a number of areas, but the basic principle was the right one, and I think that’s actually helpful to our foreign policy,” he added. Earlier on Jan 19, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said China’s repression against the Uighur people in the far-western Xinjiang region amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. Asked if he agreed with Pompeo’s comments, Blinken responded: “That would be my judgment as well.” Click here to read... [13]

Biden administration calls China sanctions on Trump officials 'unproductive and cynical'

China's move to sanction former Trump administration officials was "unproductive and cynical", a spokeswoman for President Joe Biden's National Security Council said on Jan 20, urging Americans from both parties to condemn the action.Around the time Biden was sworn in as president on Jan 20, China announced sanctions against "lying and cheating" outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and 27 other top officials under former President Donald Trump, a striking repudiation of its relationship with Washington under Trump. China's foreign ministry said Pompeo and the others had "planned, promoted and executed" moves that had interfered in its internal affairs. It banned the ex-officials and immediate family members from entering China, and restricted companies associated with them from doing business in the country. "Imposing these sanctions on Inauguration Day is seemingly an attempt to play to partisan divides," Biden's National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement to Reuters. Click here to read... [14]

France’s main Muslim organization slams three Islamic groups for not signing up to anti-extremism charter

The President of the French Council of the Muslin Faith (CFCM) has criticized three Islamic groups in the country over their decision to refuse to sign up to an anti-extremism charter proposed by President Emmanuel Macron. The Faith and Practice movement, Committee for Coordination of Turkish Muslims in France (CCMTF) and Milli Gorus Islamic Confederation (CMIG) jointly announced on Jan 20 evening that they will not sign the charter that has been proposed, in the wake of Islamic terrorist attacks across Europe during 2020. The three organizations reportedly refused to sign the charter over their concern about the way that it defines foreign interference in religion and the Islamic faith. President Macron proposed the charter towards the end of 2020, as well as implementing a crackdown on mosques and organizations that push extremism, after a teacher was beheaded by an Islamic extremist over a lesson where he showed pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as part of a discussion on free speech. Click here to read... [15]

German right-wing AfD party goes to court ahead of reported designation as ‘suspected’ extremist group

Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has filed two lawsuits against the nation’s domestic security service that is reportedly about to designate it a “suspected” extremist group ahead of national elections. The party has filed two legal complaints and two emergency motions against the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – a domestic security agency known as BfV – the German dpa news agency reported. The move followed a series of media reports suggesting that BfV could formally declare the whole party a suspected extremist organization. Such status would allow security officials to put all party members under covert surveillance through informants as well as monitor all of the party’s communications if it gets parliamentary approval. The AfD also argues that such status would discourage the voters from supporting that party and would greatly harm its election results as Germany heads towards the national and regional parliamentary votes in September. According to the German Der Spiegel weekly, the Interior Ministry is currently examining the BfV’s opinion since it should greenlight the move before the designation would be made public. Click here to read... [16]

US foreign broadcasters get new chiefs under Biden

US authorities named new leaders of three federally funded international broadcasters on Jan 24, after firing the appointees of the Donald Trump administration. Kelu Chao, the acting CEO of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), said the broadcasters "now have leadership that will promote democracy and other American values abroad." Chao replaced controversial Trump-appointee Michael Pack as the new head of the agency that oversees these media outlets, including the VOA. Pack, a one-time associate of former Trump adviser and far-right ideologue Steve Bannon, was forced to resign just hours after Joe Biden took office as president.Chao dismissed the directors of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) late on Jan 22. Daisy Sindelar will be the acting president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, replacing Ted Lipien until a permanent president is named. Bay Fang returns to her post as president of Radio Free Asia, taking over from Stephen Yates. Kelley Sullivan will be the acting head of Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), replacing Victoria Coates. Click here to read... [17]

China and Pakistan fall out over Belt and Road frameworks

The first JCC meeting was held in August 2013 and the last in November 2019. The 10th JCC was scheduled for early 2020 but remains postponed. Asad Umar, Pakistan's minister for planning, development and special initiatives, told local media in November that the 10th JCC would be held the following month. However, officials in the Planning Commission of Pakistan, who asked not to be named, recently told Nikkei that the meeting will not take place for at least three months -- by far the longest JCC gap to date. ML-1 is the largest CPEC project and worth $6.8 billion. China is expected to lend $6 billion of this, which Pakistan wants to borrow at a concessional interest rate of less than 3%. "China is reluctant to lend money for ML-1 because Pakistan has already sought debt relief to meet G-20 lending conditions and it is not in a position to give sovereign guarantees," Nasir Jamal, a senior journalist in Lahore covering business and the economy, told Nikkei. He said Beijing's appetite for lending money for large infrastructure projects has diminished because these projects are vulnerable to local politics that delay returns on investment for China. That has hindered agreement on the finance framework for ML-1. Click here to read... [18]

Biden faces first foreign policy test with Russian balancing act

On only its first full day in office, the Biden administration was facing its first big foreign policy test in the same place that hung over its predecessor for four years: Russia. Living up to a campaign commitment, the White House said on Jan 21 it wanted a straight extension of a nuclear arms control agreement with the Kremlin that faces imminent expiry, an overture former president Donald Trump long resisted. But the invitation from President Joe Biden to extend the so-called New Start agreement for five years was offered even as incoming officials have condemned what analysts view as some of the Kremlin’s most aggressive anti-western actions in years. In the days leading up to Mr Biden’s inauguration, US security services uncovered a massive cyber-espionage attack on US government computers they have blamed on Russia, and Moscow at the weekend arrested Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who has accused Russian spies of nearly killing him in August. Click here to read... [19]

US warns Beijing over incursion into Taiwanese air defence zone

The US has urged China to stop intimidating Taiwan after Chinese fighter jets and bombers flew into the country’s air defence zone, in the second warning to Beijing since Joe Biden became US president on Jan 20. “We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan's democratically elected representatives,” the US state department said. Taiwan said four Chinese J-16 fighter jets, six H-6 bombers and one anti-submarine aircraft had entered its “air defence identification zone” on Jan 23. On Jan 24, after the US statement, an even larger group of 15 Chinese military aircraft including 12 fighters harassed the country's air defences, according to Taiwan's defence ministry. The warning came three days after the US presidential inauguration, which was attended by Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan’s representative to the US. The invitation marked the first time that a de facto Taiwanese ambassador to Washington had attended an American presidential inauguration. Click here to read... [20]

Germany to send naval frigate to Japan with eye on China

The German government is considering sending a naval frigate to Japan, Nikkei has learned. The ship would sail from Germany as early as this summer, in a rare move for Berlin to send a naval vessel to East Asia. Last fall, the German government approved new Indo-Pacific guidelines at a cabinet meeting. It is now considering detailed policies based on these guidelines, which takes a tougher approach toward China. Germany's parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry of Defense, Thomas Silberhorn, told Nikkei: "We hope to set sail this summer. We have not decided on the details yet, but we are looking at Japan" as a possible port of call, adding, "We want to deepen our ties with our partners in the democratic camp." He stressed that the plan is "not aimed at anyone," but it seems clear that Berlin has China's expansionist policy in mind. According to sources in the German government and the ruling party, a frigate with a home port in northern Germany will stay in the Indo-Pacific region for a while, stopping at Japan, Australia, South Korea and other countries. The frigate is expected to receive supplies and participate in joint exercises in several French territories in the region. There is also a plan to sail in the South China Sea. Click here to read... [21]

China says US military in South China Sea not good for peace

The United States often sends ships and aircraft into the South China Sea to "flex its muscles" and this is not good for peace, China's Foreign Ministry said on Jan 25, after a US aircraft carrier group sailed into the disputed waterway. The US carrier group, led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt and accompanied by three warships, entered the waterway on Jan 23 to promote "freedom of the seas", the US military said, just days after Joe Biden became US president. "The United States frequently sends aircraft and vessels into the South China Sea to flex its muscles," the foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, told reporters, responding to the US mission. "This is not conducive to peace and stability in the region."The carrier group entered the South China Sea at the same time as Chinese-claimed Taiwan reported incursions by Chinese air force jets into the southwestern part of its air defence identification zone, prompting concern from Washington. Click here to read... [22]

Biden administration will review deal with the Taliban -White House

The United States will review the peace agreement reached with the Taliban last year, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told his Afghan counterpart in a phone call on Jan 22, according to a White House statement. Under a February 2020 deal between the United States and the Taliban, U.S. forces are to leave Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for counterterrorism guarantees. Last week the number of U.S troops in Afghanistan went down to 2,500, the lowest level of American forces there since 2001. But violence levels in Afghanistan have surged, hastening international calls for a ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Sullivan told Afghan national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib that the review would assess "whether the Taliban was living up to its commitments to cut ties with terrorist groups, to reduce violence in Afghanistan, and to engage in meaningful negotiations with the Afghan government and other stakeholders," the statement said. Click here to read... [23]

U.S. State Dept says working to conclude Houthi terrorist designation review

The U.S. State Department has initiated a review of the terrorist designation of Yemen's Houthi movement and is working as fast as it can to conclude the process and make a determination, a State Department spokesperson said on Jan 22. President Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week that Washington would take a look at the designation, which U.N. officials and aid groups’ fear is complicating efforts to combat the world's largest humanitarian crisis." As noted by Secretary-Designate Blinken, the State Department has initiated a review of Ansarallah's terrorist designations," the spokesperson said, using another name used for the Houthis. "We will not publicly discuss or comment on internal deliberations regarding that review; however, with the humanitarian crisis in Yemen we are working as fast as we can to conduct the review and make a determination," the spokesperson said. The United Nations describes Yemen as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, with 80% of its people in need. Click here to read... [24]

Antony Blinken: US must act urgently to stop Iran nuclear weapon

A new nuclear deal could address Iran’s aggressive policies in the Middle East, America’s next top diplomat Antony Blinken said on Jan 19. The secretary of state-designate told his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the administration of President-elect Joe Biden would seek a “longer and stronger deal. But he warned that the time needed for Iran to make enough fissile material for a single nuclear weapon had fallen to three or four months from more than a year since Donald Trump took office. Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which Biden had helped negotiate under President Barack Obama. The deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), stemmed Iranian nuclear activity in return for an easing of international sanctions. But it was criticized by Gulf countries and in the US for allowing Tehran to pursue aggressive policies in the region and ballistic missile development. Click here to read... [25]

Turkish defense chief’s Iraqi visit: What to expect?

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar’s recent visit to Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan has sparked speculation about an imminent joint military operation between Ankara, Baghdad and Irbil inside Iraqi territory against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). On Jan 22, Turkey’s President Erdogan hinted at the looming operation against PKK in Iraq’s Sinjar, saying, “We can come suddenly one night,” using the same sentence he used during previous Syria offensives. Ankara’s military action against the PKK in summertime both from air and ground was widely condemned by Baghdad because of the aerial bombardment of the border villages and the death of two senior Iraqi border officials. Both sides had to spend months on restoring good terms. Since the early 1990s, Turkey has conducted several cross-border operations against the PKK in northern Iraq after its military targets were hit from PKK’s Iraqi bases. Ankara is aiming to conduct an extensive offensive in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar to target hideouts of the PKK, but this time on a tripartite basis rather than a go-it-alone one. Click here to read... [26]

Medical

'Global pandemic alert system not fit for purpose': WHO report critical of China's & its own responses to COVID-19 crisis

China, other governments and the WHO itself didn't act fast and decisively enough against the novel coronavirus, allowing it to become a pandemic, an interim report by an independent WHO panel on the handling of the crisis states. "What is clear to the panel is that public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January," the panel, led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, noted. Tasked with reviewing the global handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, the WHO panel was not only critical of Beijing, but also pointed out that measures aimed at containing the virus elsewhere should have been applied "more rapidly" internationally, "but in far too many countries this signal was ignored." The WHO's own response to the outbreak also raised questions among the authors of the interim report. They said it wasn't clear why the UN body's emergency committee only gathered in the third week of January 2019 over the novel coronavirus, and then didn't declare an international emergency until January 31. Click here to read... [27]

Slow vaccination rollout puts EU strategy under scrutiny

The EU’s vaccine procurement strategy is under scrutiny after member states struggled to roll out rapid vaccinations in the first weeks of the year, falling behind the UK and the US in the early race to inoculate citizens against Covid-19. While the UK has administered more than 10 doses per 100 residents and the US has administered just over six per 100, the EU is languishing at under two doses per 100 residents, according to FT data. The widening gap has sparked growing anxiety in European capitals, especially as already strained supplies of vaccine have suffered further setbacks. In the latest blow to vaccination plans, European officials on Jan 22 said first-quarter deliveries of AstraZeneca’s shot were likely to be cut by more than half because of what the company had warned was reduced capacity in its EU supply chain. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, told France’s Europe 1 radio on Jan 24 that the EU “can turn to all the legal options at our disposal” to ensure that contracts signed with pharmaceutical companies are respected. Click here to read... [28]

Is Covid variant raging through UK more lethal?

Amid good news about Covid-19 vaccination rates increasing and infections beginning to fall in the UK, prime minister Boris Johnson shocked listeners to his press briefing on Jan 22 with an unexpected announcement that the more contagious new variant of coronavirus was more lethal. After scientists first recognised in mid-December that variant B.1.1.7 was outpacing previous versions of the virus with its rapid spread from south-east England and across the UK, they had said it was about 50 per cent more transmissible but seemed not to cause more severe symptoms. The government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) considered studies from three university teams and Public Health England, comparing death rates between people known to have been infected with B.1.1.7 and those with older forms of coronavirus. They corrected as far as possible for other factors that might affect mortality such as age, location and ethnicity. All of the studies found some increase in lethality, though uncertainties about the data resulted in a wide range of estimates. Click here to read... [29]

France tells its citizens: Fabric masks not enough to protect from COVID

The French government is now recommending that people wear surgical masks in public because they offer better protection from COVID-19 transmission than fabric face coverings, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Jan 21. France already requires masks to be worn in public places, but until now has not made recommendations about the type of masks. French authorities are worried they could be hit by new, more contagious variants of the virus. "The recommendation that I make to the French people is to no longer use fabric masks," Veran told French broadcaster TF1.Veran also said it was very unlikely that restrictions on ski resorts -- a hotspot for the virus at the start of the pandemic -- would be lifted next month. That effectively rules out a return to skiing in time for the February school holidays, normally the last peak skiing period of the season. Click here to read... [30]