Global Developments and Analysis: Weekly Monitor, 21 June - 27 June 2021

Economic

US-China relations: American efforts to reshore supply chains blasted as ‘empty talk’ by former minister

Washington’s effort to bring manufacturing from China to the US – so called reshoring – is nothing but “empty talk” and the US will become increasingly dependent on the world’s second largest economy for the foreseeable future, according to a top former Chinese economic official. The declining presence of the US manufacturing sector in the American economy would be hard to reverse, despite efforts from both the Biden and Trump administrations to rebuild US supply chains, said Wei Jianguo, a former vice commerce minister. “After three years of the trade war, China has become more confident, but the US is facing unceasing trouble, while new contradictions have emerged on top of structural issues,” Wei told an online forum held by the Beijing-based think tank China Centre for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE) June 25. “The US will become increasingly dependent on China in economic and trade terms in the next five years,” he added. China’s trade surplus with the US rose to US$31.78 billion in May from US$28.11 billion the previous month, according to Chinese customs data.
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US-China tech war: mainland universities rush to expand semiconductor programmes in drive for self-sufficiency

Universities across mainland China are rushing to set up new schools and departments focused on semiconductors, in a push to develop more skilled talent to support Beijing’s strategic goal of chips self-sufficiency amid the country’s intense hi-tech rivalry with the United States. Shenzhen Technology University, an institution of higher education established in 2018 by southern Guangdong province and the coastal city known as China’s Silicon Valley, announced last week that it has set up a school focused on integrated circuits (ICs) in cooperation with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, the mainland’s largest and most advanced chip foundry. Those initiatives have come amid the Ministry of Education’s move upgrading IC science and engineering as a priority academic programme, which has encouraged the country’s universities to establish new schools dedicated to that field. There were almost 512,000 people working in China’s semiconductor industry at the end of 2019, which would hardly meet the sector’s demand for a workforce of 745,000 by 2022, according to a white paper from the China Centre for Information Industry Development.
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CPC shepherds a booming economy in China: official

China's economy has kept booming, with its size soaring by 189 times since 1949, thanks to the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Han Wenxiu, an official with the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, said on June 28. When the People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949, the country even could not manufacture a tractor, now China has become the only country in the world that obtain all the industrial categories listed in the UN industrial classification, with the output of over 220 industrial products, including cars and computers, leading globally, Han said at a press conference held to mark the 100th anniversary of the CPC. Over the past 70-odd years, China's economy surged by about 189 times, with the total economic size having exceeded 100 trillion yuan to become the second largest economy in the world, Han said, noting that the country's economy accounts for over 17 percent of global economic output.
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Fuxing bullet train debuts on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, covers all 31 mainland provinces

The Lhasa-Nyingchi railway in Tibet Autonomous Region started operation on June 25, marking China's most advanced Fuxing bullet train to run on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau for the first time, to better connect Tibet to other provinces and regions and will boost the local economy, observers said. The line is 435.48 kilometers long, and the train has a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour. It passes through the Yarlung Zangbo River16 times and 90 percent of it are 3,000 meters above sea level. The Fuxing train now reaches all 31 mainland provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. Technically, the Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway addresses the limitations in existing modes of transportation, which were vulnerable to the plateau's climate, a further improvement to the region's transportation network, according to CNRG. Economically, the railway will further enhance Tibet's status in the national railway network, help it become a driving force in the region's economic development, and greatly promote the opening of Chengdu and Chongqing to the west, Sun Zhang, a mass transit expert and professor at Shanghai Tongji University, told the Global Times on June 25.
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Red tourism booms ahead of CPC's centennial

Red tourism, a new way of holidaying in which people visit sites that have a modern revolutionary legacy of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has been growing rapidly over the past two decades. However, in the recent months, red tourism in China has seen an unprecedented boom as the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC approaches. According to Trip.com, one of the biggest travel agency platforms in China, the number of tickets booked on the platform to red tourism sites increased 208 percent in the first half of this year. Compared to the pre-pandemic level in 2019, it has also increased by 35 percent. Some of the most popular red tourism cities include Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai, and the most popular sites include the Tiananmen Square, the National Museum of China, and the memorial hall of the first National Congress of the CPC, which was newly renovated and opened to public earlier this month.
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Interest payments consume one-third of Pakistan's budget

Fiscal sustainability has become a major issue among political and economic analysts after Pakistan revealed early this month that servicing debt accounts for more than one-third of its federal budget. Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen in the National Assembly on June 12 announced the fiscal 2021 federal budget of 8.48 trillion rupees ($54 billion). Interest payments on debt, which are expected to grow by 3.9% from the ongoing fiscal year, account for 3.06 trillion rupees, or 36% of budget expenditures. In contrast, the government is only spending 600 billion rupees on subsidies and 100 billion rupees for COVID-19 vaccinations and emergencies. The budget also reveals a deficit of 3.99 trillion rupees. The federal government plans to borrow 3.74 trillion rupees to finance this deficit, which makes up 94% of the deficit. Pakistan's reliance on debt is a violation of the country's Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act 2005, which states that the government must limit debt to 60% of gross domestic product. Currently, the ratio stands at 78% of Pakistan's $303 billion GDP.
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Japan aims to double foreign executives to spark investment

Japan hopes to remake itself as a nation full of foreign executives that overseas businesses are eager to pour money into. To that end, the government aims to roughly double the number of senior foreign executives in the country by 2030. The number of foreigners working in Japan under a business manager visa will be raised to about 200,000 from around 95,000 in 2019. By bringing in more foreigners with managerial and technical knowhow, Japan also seeks to double foreign direct investment to 80 trillion yen ($726 billion) by 2030 from 2020 levels. Hoping to revitalize local economies, overseas companies will be encouraged to set up shop in cities outside major metropolitan areas. Roughly 3,200, or 43%, of foreign companies based their Japanese operations in the capital in 2016. The government wants to more than double the number of those outside Tokyo to 10,000 by 2026 and will support research partnerships and joint ventures between Japan's regional companies and overseas players. It will also consider setting up online visa applications for newly established businesses to lower the hurdle for foreign companies to set up shop in Japan.
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Raisi faces a do or die economic dilemma

Speculation is rife in Iran over who will steer the economy under President-elect Ebrahim Raisi, the conservative cleric and judicial head who clinched an easy victory in the June 18 election. The challenges Raisi faces are severe and experts are already casting doubt on his ability to remedy the economy given his limited statecraft experience and the ambiguity surrounding his plans for post-Covid economic recovery, taming hyperinflation and incentivizing investment. By any measure, Iran is in the throes of a cataclysmic economic recession, aggravated by the global pandemic and the economic sanctions since former US president Donald Trump scrapped the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018. The US has since waged full-scale economic warfare on the Islamic Republic, warning countries worldwide they would forego their US links if they did business with Iran or purchased its oil. Talks are now underway in Vienna to resurrect the nuclear deal, which may allow Iran’s economy to breathe a certain sigh of relief after years of stagnation unleashed by Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign.
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Gulf states show ‘limited’ progress kicking oil & gas dependency

The clock is ticking for Gulf economies to end their overreliance on fossil fuels, as more countries around the world pour resources into accelerating their transitions to green energy and a low carbon future. But a report released on June 21 from credit ratings agency Moody’s found that despite Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states announcing ambitious plans to kick their crude habits, economic diversification efforts have yielded only “limited” results, and further progress could be held back by lower oil prices and too many blueprints targeting the same non-oil sectors. “While we expect the diversification momentum to pick up, it will be dampened by reduced availability of resources to fund diversification projects in a lower oil price environment and by intra-GCC competition in a relatively narrow range of targeted sectors,” said Moody’s. The credit ratings agency also said plans to expand hydrocarbon capacity in the region, combined with “government commitments to zero or very low taxes”, do not bode well for the Gulf to significantly lessen its heavy dependency on fossil fuel revenues.
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Strategic

Police checks and patriotic flowers: Beijing leaves nothing to chance ahead of Party centenary

Behind roadblocks and hundreds of police in the Chinese capital of Beijing on June 25, fireworks resembling the national flag bloomed over the city as part of secretive and tightly choreographed rehearsal for the 100th anniversary of China’s Communist Party. Beijing has shut down traffic, decked streets in patriotic flower arrangements and national flags, and ramped up surveillance and security this week in preparation for the centenary event on July 1. The covert rehearsals represent the final stages of a yearlong planning effort, designed to glorify Party history and cement domestic loyalty to China’s socialist system. “Without the Communist Party, there is no new China,” read new propaganda posters throughout the city. Plans for the event haven’t been fully revealed, though state media and government agencies have hinted at a large-scale theatrical event in Tiananmen Square. A performance is scheduled for June 28 at the Bird’s Nest stadium, built for the 2008 Olympics. The anniversary has been preceded by a clampdown on potential dissident activity, including a spate of arrests this year under a law banning the defamation of national heroes, and an online venue for citizens to report “historical nihilists,” a phrase referring to those sharing unsanctioned versions of Party history.
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US remains the world’s dominant power in cyberspace but China is catching up, report says

The United States remains the world’s pre-eminent cyber power and is likely to retain that position ahead of China at least until 2030 with the help of similarly advanced Western allies, according to a new report by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS). Although China has made significant progress bolstering its cyber capabilities since 2014, it has been “nowhere near enough to close the gap” with the US, said Greg Austin, the lead author of the report titled “Cyber Capabilities and National Power: A Net Assessment”. The report, released on June 28, assessed 15 countries’ cyber power across seven indicators including core intelligence capabilities, leadership in global cyberspace affairs, security and resilience as well as offensive capabilities. “The main reason [for US superiority] is the relative standing of the two nations’ digital economies, where the US remains far advanced despite China’s digital progress,” said Austin, a senior fellow with IISS. Austin noted the US has been building its dominance in cyberspace since the mid-1990s, and its power was amplified by its highly sophisticated intelligence-sharing networks, including with its partners in the Five Eyes alliance.
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China, Russia extend friendship treaty after Biden-Putin summit

Beijing and Moscow have moved to consolidate ties by renewing a 20-year-old friendship treaty, weeks after the Russian and US leaders met in what was seen as part of efforts by Washington to drive a wedge between them. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met by video link on June 28 for a second time in a month, agreeing to extend the Treaty of Good Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation. Xi praised the China-Russia relationship as a “model example of a new type of international relations” that added “positive energy” to the world, according to state news agency Xinhua. He said extending the treaty was a “vivid practice of building a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind”. Putin had signed the treaty in the Kremlin with former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin back in July 2001, the two neighbours agreeing to resolve their historical border disputes and laying out strategic cooperation in areas including military and defence. It was due to expire next month.
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Pacific deterrence budget creates rift between Biden and Congress

U.S. President Joe Biden's budget request for a fund aimed at deterring China in the Indo-Pacific has come under fire from lawmakers arguing that his administration's priorities are off target. The friction with Congress -- including some members of Biden's own Democratic Party -- over the Pacific Deterrence Initiative underscores confusion in the administration over how to handle the Pentagon's pivot to China. The program was set up earlier this year to fund base infrastructure and joint exercises with allies to ensure American forces can avoid and counter Chinese attacks. Among the biggest complaints about the fiscal 2022 budget request for the initiative is a dearth of funding for missile defense in Guam, the program's top priority. Building an Aegis Ashore facility on Guam would relieve three guided-missile destroyers of missile defense work and make them available for other naval operations, the then-head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Philip Davidson, had said in March. The Biden administration's fiscal 2022 budget, released in late May, requests almost $5.1 billion for the PDI. This includes nearly $120 million for missile defense in Guam – a third of what was requested by the Indo-Pacific Command.
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Belt and Road projects in limbo as Bangladesh cuts budgets

China has withdrawn funding for Belt and Road infrastructure projects in Bangladesh after the recipient country re-evaluated the programs and downwardly revised their costs. At least two rail projects are now uncertain, with another also feared to be in limbo. They are three of many projects listed in a memorandum of understanding signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Bangladesh's capital in 2016 that also face delays due to China's newfound reluctance. After re-evaluation reports of several infrastructure projects came out in October, the Prime Minister's Office proposed cutting rail project costs. The expected $1.045 billion in costs for the Joydebpur-Ishwardi dual-gauge double-line rail were to be trimmed by 12.91%, and the $1.272 billion budget for the Akhaura-Sylhet dual gauge rail was to be reduced by 20.8%. Total savings would come to nearly $572 million. In response, the Chinese government said it would not fund the Joydebpur-Ishwardi double-line project, and Chinese contractors for the Akhaura-Sylhet dual gauge project said they would not do the work. Ahsan H. Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, noted that the countries' relationship first became strained when Bangladesh opted for an India-made COVID-19 vaccine rather than a made-in-China alternative.
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Nepal's top court removes most of cabinet in blow to caretaker PM

Nepal's Supreme Court delivered a fresh blow to embattled communist Prime Minister K.P.Sharma Oli by removing 20 recently appointed ministers, pending a ruling on whether a caretaker premier can make such sweeping cabinet changes. "This is an interim order, and the court will give its final verdict later," court official Bhadrakali Pokharel told Reuters on June 23, a day after the decision by a two-judge bench. With the Himalayan country struggling to contain a deadly second wave of coronavirus infections and beset by political turmoil, Oli lost a vote of confidence in May as a result of factional infighting within his Communist Party of Nepal (UML). Oli dissolved parliament and ordered fresh elections for November, while staying on as caretaker prime minister until the elections are held. In a bid to hold onto power and ditch opponents within his own party, Oli ealier this month dropped most ministers from his cabinet, and named 20 replacements, who were mainly members of a junior coalition partner. The court's removal of the 20 ministers means the cabinet is left with just five members, including the prime minister.
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Myanmar junta chief woos Russia with Moscow trip

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Moscow on June 21 to meet with senior Russian military and government officials, looking to bolster ties with a crucial partner amid growing international backlash against his regime. Myanmar's commander-in-chief met with Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council and a close aide to President Vladimir Putin. They discussed cooperation on national security as well as recent political developments in the Southeast Asian country, a Myanmar military spokesperson said. The junta chief met separately with an executive from a Russian state-run arms exporter. Though Myanmar's military also considers China among its biggest backers, some members worry about allowing the neighboring superpower too much clout over domestic issues. They think the junta is less likely to encounter conflicts of interest with the more distant Russia. Moscow regards Myanmar as a key country in Russia's push to expand its influence in Southeast Asia. Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin visited Myanmar in March to attend the annual Armed Forces Day parade.
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Census shows population drops in 38 prefectures over 5 years

Only nine of Japan’s 47 prefectures have had population increases since 2015, a demographic trend that will lead to a significant reapportionment of Lower House seats, according to preliminary figures from the 2020 census. The latest census was conducted in October 2020, and the preliminary results were released on June 25. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Japan’s total population in 2020 was 126,227,000, a decrease of 868,000, or 0.7 percent, over the 2015 census. Tokyo’s population was 14,065,000, the first time the figure in the capital topped 14 million and representing a surge of 549,000 residents over the 2015 census, the largest increase for any prefecture. The other eight prefectures that recorded population gains were Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba, which all neighbor Tokyo, as well as Aichi, Fukuoka, Okinawa, Osaka and Shiga. However, the increase in Shiga Prefecture was only 1,000, while Osaka Prefecture’s population rose by just 3,000. The 38 prefectures that lost population were mainly rural areas. Hokkaido had the largest decrease at 153,000. Population declines were also recorded in 1,416, or 82.4 percent, of Japan’s 1,719 municipalities.
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North Korea ridicules U.S. hopes for talks as allies rethink approach

A senior North Korean official ridiculed American hopes for talks on June 22, as the United States and South Korea agreed to consider scrapping a controversial working group established to coordinate their policy toward Pyongyang. Kim Yo Jong, a senior official in the ruling party and sister of leader Kim Jong Un, released a statement in state media on June 22 saying the United States appears to be interpreting signals from Pyongyang in a way that would lead to disappointment. She was responding to U.S. National Security adviser Jake Sullivan, who on June 20 said he saw as an “interesting signal” in a recent speech by Kim Jong Un on preparing for both confrontation and diplomacy with the United States. “It seems that the U.S. may interpret the situation in such a way as to seek a comfort for itself,” she said in a statement carried by KCNA. “The expectation, which they chose to harbor the wrong way, would plunge them into a greater disappointment.” Kim’s statement came during a visit to Seoul by recently appointed U.S. special representative for North Korea Sung Kim.
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Help never arrived for ‘betrayed’ Afghan troops

Their mission was fairly straightforward, if not daunting. Recapture Dawlat Abad, a district center in northern Afghanistan’s Faryab province, that had been overrun by Taliban forces. The group of 50 elite Afghanistan special forces were to be backed up by 170 troops from the army, police and intelligence agency, who would follow up to secure it and fend off counterattacks, Stars & Stripes reported. The day started well. The special forces defeated a small Taliban force and captured the district center around 6 a.m. June 23, a military official said. But a much larger Taliban unit surrounded Dawlat Abad soon afterward and shelled the commandos, destroying their Humvees with mortar fire, he said. The trapped soldiers called for ground and air support, but neither materialized. Most of the 170 troops who were supposed to back up the elite fighters stayed put out of fear that the operation had been leaked to the Taliban, the report said. At least 21 members of Afghanistan’s special forces would die in the ensuing battle, which also saw no help from US forces, who are preparing their withdrawal from the country.
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US-Philippines arms deal aims at South China Sea

In a move with likely long-term strategic implications, the US State Department cleared a multi-billion-dollar arms package to the Philippines on June 24, which includes up to 12 state-of-the-art multirole fighter jets. According to the proposed deal, the Pentagon is set to provide up to 10 F-16C Block 70/72 aircraft and two F-16D Block 70/72 aircraft manufactured by Lockheed Martin Co as well as long-term training and assistance with maintenance of the aircraft. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has also cleared the sale of 24 Raytheon Technologies AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder air-to-air missiles worth US$42.4 million and 12 Boeing AGM-84L-1 Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles worth $120 million. Amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana emphasized how his country “needs this [multirole fighters] especially that the situation in this part of the world is deteriorating.” If approved, the $2.43 billion deal would be the largest of its kind in the history of the two allies, marking a dramatic elevation in bilateral defense cooperation.
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Iran-Backed Militias Threaten Revenge After U.S. Airstrikes in Iraq, Syria

Iran-backed militias vowed revenge on June 28 for U.S. airstrikes overnight in Iraq and Syria, underscoring Baghdad’s struggles to rein in these groups that have attacked American troops. The U.S. strikes, which the paramilitaries said killed four of their members, highlight the challenge facing the Biden administration as it attempts to deter attacks on American and allied forces in Iraq without provoking an escalation with the militias or their main sponsor, Iran. “The Americans believe only in the language of force, and they and their agents must have their noses put in the mud,” tweeted Faleh al-Khazali, an Iraqi lawmaker affiliated with the militias. The U.S. and Iran are in talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal that placed limits on Tehran’s nuclear activity in exchange for lifting international sanctions. Iran funds and arms militant groups throughout the Middle East, and its influence has expanded in recent years, despite U.S. pressure. A spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi condemned the U.S. airstrikes, calling them “a blatant and unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty and Iraqi national security.” Iraq’s military spokesman also issued a rare condemnation of the strikes.
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World powers meet in Berlin to discuss Libya crisis

World powers have met in Germany to seek lasting peace in Libya by ensuring the conflict-racked North African country stays firmly on the path towards general elections on December 24. Representatives of Libya’s interim government on June 23 joined US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as well as the foreign ministers of France and Egypt at the United Nations-sponsored talks in Berlin. It is crucial that Libya holds a national election in December as the only way to ensure peace and stability in the North African country, Blinken said. “We share the goal of a sovereign, stable, unified and secure Libya, free from foreign interference,” he said. “For this to happen national elections need to go forward in December. That means urgent agreement is needed on constitutional and legal issues.” The effort to end a decade-long spiral of violence in Libya is the second round in Berlin, after the first attended by the presidents of Turkey, Russia and France in January 2020.
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US government ‘SEIZES’ website of Iran’s Press TV, multiple other media outlets

US authorities have apparently seized the web domains of Iran’s international media outlets Press TV and Al-Alam, along with the Yemeni TV channel Al Masirah, run by the Houthi faction, an Iraqi Shia satellite channel, and others. Visitors to the PressTV.com and a number of other websites were greeted on June 22 with a notice that they were seized under US laws that allow civil and criminal forfeiture of property involved in “trafficking in nuclear, chemical, biological, or radiological weapons technology or material, or the manufacture, importation, sale, or distribution of a controlled substance.” The seizure notice by the US Department of Justice also invokes a law governing presidential authority in dealing with “unusual and extraordinary threat; declaration of national emergency,” which includes the Iran Nonproliferation Amendments Act of 2005 and the ironically named Iran Freedom Support Act of 2006. Launched in July 2007, Press TV is the international English-language service of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Tehran’s state media agency. Al-Alam goes back to 2003 and is broadcast in Arabic, Farsi and English to audiences in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
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Indonesia, U.S break ground on joint strategic maritime centre

Indonesia and the United States have broken ground on a new $3.5 million maritime training centre in the strategic area of Batam, in the Riau Islands, Indonesia's maritime security agency said. Attending the ceremony virtually on June 25, the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, Sung Kim, said the maritime centre would be part of ongoing efforts between the two countries to bolster security in the region. "As a friend and partner to Indonesia, the United States remains committed to supporting Indonesia's important role in maintaining regional peace and security by fighting domestic and trans-national crimes," he said, according to a statement from Bakamla, Indonesia's maritime security agency. The training centre, located at the strategic meeting point of the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea, will be run by Bakamla and houses classrooms, barracks and a launch pad, the agency said. The U.S. collaboration with the world's largest archipelagic nation comes amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, with the Philippines protesting the presence of hundreds of Chinese vessels in the Spratly islands this May.
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South Korea to develop Iron Dome-like interceptor system against North Korea's artillery

South Korea decided June 28 to develop its own interceptor system like Israel's Iron Dome to defend the country's key infrastructure against long-range artillery threats from North Korea. The defense project promotion committee, presided over by Defense Minister Suh Wook, approved the 2.89 trillion-won (US$2.56 billion) project expected to begin in earnest next year and to be completed around 2035, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA). "The project is designed to secure an interceptor system with our own technologies to boost our capabilities of countering enemies' long-range artillery threats so as to protect core facilities and military and security infrastructure," DAPA said in a release. Last year, the defense ministry pledged to build such an air defense system as a longer-term plan. The Iron Dome is designed to detect, identify and destroy incoming threats, such as short-range missiles, artillery shells and unmanned aerial vehicles.
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Secret UK defence documents found in soggy heap at bus stop, says BBC

Classified documents from Britain's defence ministry containing details about a British warship and Russia's potential reaction to its passage through the Black Sea have been found at a bus stop in southern England, the BBC reported on June 27. The BBC said the documents, almost 50 pages in all, were found "in a soggy heap behind a bus stop in Kent early on June 22 morning" by a member of the public, who wanted to remain anonymous. The Ministry of Defence said it had been informed last week of "an incident in which sensitive defence papers were recovered by a member of the public". "The department takes the security of information extremely seriously and an investigation has been launched. The employee concerned reported the loss at the time. It would be inappropriate to comment further," a spokesperson said. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova mocked the British government on social media channel Telegram, saying: "London has used a number of lies to cover up the latest provocation. 007 (James Bond) is no longer the same."
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Russia calls for reform of UN Security Council: Lavrov says West has ‘excessive representation’ and it should include more nations

The “excessive representation of the West” in decision-making should be limited to create a more balanced world order, with more input from the global east and south, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Writing for Moscow daily Kommersant, Lavrov said Western nations had too much power on the United Nations Security Council, and the proposed limitations would democratize international relations. The Security Council, made up of 15 countries, includes five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There are no permanent representatives from Africa, southern Asia, or South America. According to Lavrov, this setup favors Western nations. “Efforts to bring more democracy to international relations and affirm a polycentric world order include reforming the UN Security Council by strengthening it with Asian, African, and Latin American countries, and ending the anomaly with the excessive representation of the West in the UN’s main body,” Lavrov wrote. The existing instruments allow the West to “lay down the law” and censure any countries that break the unwritten rules of the so-called “rules-based world order,” he claimed.
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Medical

Japan eyes tougher Olympics rules for Delta variant-hit countries

Japan will impose tougher rules on athletes and staff participating in the Tokyo Olympics from countries hit by the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus including more rigorous testing and restrictions on coming into contact with other people, the government's top spokesman said June 28. The move comes amid concerns the games, set to start July 23, could become a superspreader event as the capital sees infections creep back up just a week after a state of emergency was lifted. Athletes and staff will be required to be tested every day for a week before coming to Japan, during which time they are to be isolated, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a press conference. They will also be forbidden from coming into contact with other people for three days after arriving. "We will take the necessary border measures while also ensuring athletes are treated fairly in terms of nutrition, training facilities," Kato said, adding the government is in talks with the International Olympic Committee and the games organizing committee to finalize the rules. The government's top COVID-19 adviser, Shigeru Omi, and other infectious disease experts have warned the Delta variant is 1.8-times more transmissible than the original strain of the coronavirus.
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EU plans new safety rules for the workplace wherever it is

The European Commission plans to update its rules on worker safety to reflect the shift millions employees made to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic and to reflect the anticipated digital and green recovery. During the pandemic, nearly 40% of workers began to work remotely full time, reducing social contact and increasing their use of IT equipment as meetings and gatherings went online. "For many, the concept of a traditional workplace is disappearing fast. While that brings opportunities, it also brings challenges and risks – health, psychological and social," Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference on June 22. The Commission said it will review EU rules on workplace safety, from emergency exits to ventilation and use of workstations and screens, and will update limits on exposure to insulator asbestos and for lead and cobalt used in renewable energy technology and battery production. In guidelines to protect almost 170 million EU workers over the 2021-2027 period, it will also seek to produce recommendations on mental health at work before the end of 2022.
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Delayed doses of AstraZeneca boost immunity: study

Delayed second and third doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine boost immunity against Covid-19, a study by Oxford University, which developed the jab with the British-Swedish firm, said on June 28. An interval of up to 45 weeks between the first and second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine led to an enhanced immune response, rather than compromising immunity, the study said. Giving a third dose of the jab more than six months after the second dose also leads to a “substantial increase” in antibodies and induces a “strong boost” to subjects’ immune response, said the pre-print study, meaning it has yet to be peer-reviewed. “This should come as reassuring news to countries with lower supplies of the vaccine, who may be concerned about delays in providing second doses to their populations,” said lead investigator of the Oxford trial, Andrew Pollard. “There is an excellent response to a second dose, even after a 10-month delay from the first.” The researchers said the results for a delayed AstraZeneca third dose were positive, particularly as nations with advanced vaccination programs consider whether third booster shots will be required to prolong immunity.
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