U.S. says China is resisting nuclear arms talks

 

China is resisting bilateral talks with the United States on nuclear weapons, the U.S. disarmament ambassador told a U.N. conference on Tuesday, as Washington seeks to advance efforts to reduce nuclear arms stockpiles.

"Despite the PRC's dramatic build-up of its nuclear arsenal, unfortunately it continues to resist discussing nuclear risk reduction bilaterally with the United States," said Robert Wood, referring to the People's Republic of China.

"To date Beijing has not been willing to engage meaningfully or establish expert discussions similar to those we have with Russia. We sincerely hope that will change," he added.

In an apparent rebuttal, China's envoy later told the same virtual U.N. meeting that Beijing was prepared for dialogue.

"We stand ready to carry out positive dialogue and exchange with all parties to jointly explore effective measures to reduce nuclear risk and to contribute to global strategic security," Ji Zhaoyu said.

The exchange came at a discussion on the Prevention of Nuclear War at the 65-member U.N. Conference on Disarmament based in Geneva. The body, which makes decisions by consensus, has not reached a major agreement in decades but is often the theatre for tense rhetorical exchanges between superpowers.

Earlier this year, Russia and the United States agreed to extend the New START arms control treaty for five years, preserving the last treaty limiting deployments of the world's two largest strategic nuclear arsenals.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden are set to discuss arms control and security issues at a meeting and strategic nuclear stability will be on the agenda. read more Wood said on Tuesday he hoped that such bilateral discussions may lay the groundwork for nuclear disarmament and future arms control treaties.

Tauktae update: Cyclone moving northward, may cross Indian Gujarat

 

Global Weather News - India

By Edward E. Barbacena

Tauktae update: Cyclone moving northward, may cross Indian Gujarat night of May 17

Cyclone Tauktae has moved northward and now lies at a distance of 1,000 kilometres south to southeast of Karachi, the Pakistan Meteorological Department said, in its latest advisory on Sunday night.

“The Very Severe Cyclonic Storm “TAUKTAE” has moved Northward at a speed of 15 kmph during last 12 hours and now lay centered at 2000 PST of 16 May 2021 near latitude 16.8N and longitude 72.4E, at a distance of about 1,000 km south-southeast of Karachi,” read the advisory.

According to PMD, the maximum sustained winds around the system centre are 150-170 kmph, gusting to 190 kmph.

The system is likely to move further north to northwest and cross Indian Gujarat by the night of May 17, morning of May 18, PMD said.

It said that based on the current environmental and meteorological conditions, dust and thunderstorm along with isolated incidents of moderate to heavy rainfall with gusty winds of 40-60 kmph are likely to occur in Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Tharparker, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Sanghar districts from May 17 to 19.

Karachi, Hyderabad, and Shaheed Benazirabad districts will likely experience hot to very hot weather with gusty winds during the next two days.

Sea conditions will remain rough to very rough and fishermen are advised not to venture in the sea till after May 19.

Mainland China reports first local COVID-19 cases in more than 3 weeks

 

Mainland China reports first local COVID-19 cases in more than 3 weeks

Global News - China

By Edward E. Barbacena

Mainland China reported seven new COVID-19 cases on May 13, including its first local transmissions in more than three weeks, the country's national health authority said on Friday.

Two of the new cases were local infections in the eastern province of Anhui, the National Health Commission said in a statement. The cases were the first local transmissions since April 20, when China recorded two local infections in the southwestern province of Yunnan, where a city on the border with Myanmar reported a new cluster in late March.

China's official Xinhua news agency reported that one of the local cases, surnamed Li, had travelled to Anhui on May 1 from Dalian, a port city in China's northeastern Liaoning province.

The other case, surnamed Zhang, was in close contact with Li during a training class Li led in the city of Luan, near Anhui's provincial capital Hefei, Xinhua reported.

Another local infection was newly reported on Friday in Feixi county, under Hefei's jurisdiction, according to the city government. The case, surnamed Lu, had shared a hotel room with Li.

Two areas in Luan city and one part of Feixi county were declared "medium-risk" regions by local authorities in response to the cases. State media reported mass testing being carried out in main urban area in Luan and some areas in Hefei.

The other five cases announced Friday were imported infections originating overseas. The health commission had reported nine cases a day earlier, all imported.

The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, rose to 22 from 14 cases a day earlier.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mainland China now stands at 90,815, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,636.

British scientists gave woes over Indian corona virus variant

 

The British News

Published by Angelo Locsin

LONDON - British officials could declare one of the new coronavirus strains first found in India a "variant of concern", the BBC said on Friday, as scientists flagged evidence that it spreads more quickly than the original version of the virus.

Scientists have recommended that one version of the variant first found in India, known as B.1.617.2, is designated a "variant of concern", the BBC said, adding more than 500 cases of the variant had been recorded, up from 202 last week.

Public Health England (PHE), which postponed publication of its weekly data on variants on Thursday, had no immediate comment on the report.

Jeff Barrett, Director the Wellcome Sanger Institute COVID-19 Genomics Initiative, said that high numbers of cases of B.1.617.2 in Britain and around the world were "consistent with this one being more transmissible than older versions of the virus from last year".

"(It's) possibly as transmissible as the B.117 Kent variant that is very widespread in the UK," Barrett said on BBC radio, referring to the strain found in south-east England which fueled Britain's second COVID-19 wave.

The original India variant, B.1.617, was first detected in October, but Public Health England (PHE) has categorized three different subtypes, all with slightly different mutations.

Other variants of concern include variants first identified in Kent, south-east England, as well as South Africa and Brazil, and Barrett said that there had been reassuring evidence from real world studies on the effectiveness of vaccines on those.

"That paints a relatively positive picture that the vaccines are going to continue to have efficacy," he said.

"So obviously for new variants like this one, we need to do additional experiments and really get the solid proof one way or the other about that".

Vietnam reports first death in patient who received AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

The Vietnamese News

Published by: Edward Era Barbacena

Vietnam reports first death in patient who received AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine 

Vietnam's health ministry on Friday reported its first death in a patient who received AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine shot, as the country is battling a new outbreak.

A 35-year-old female health worker in the southern province of An Giang died on Friday, one day after she received her first coronavirus vaccine shot, the Ministry of Health said in a statement, adding that she died from allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis.

"This is a very rare case in the vaccination against COVID-19," the ministry said in the statement.

The Southeast Asian country has inoculated around 750,000 people against the coronavirus since it started its vaccination campaign early March, according to the ministry. All of the shots used are from AstraZeneca.

Vietnam has been praised for its record in containing its outbreaks quickly through targeted mass testing and a strict, centralised quarantine programme.

Friday's death comes as the country is battling a new outbreak that began early last week and is spreading rapidly in many parts of the country, including the capital Hanoi.

The ministry reported 47 new infections on Friday, raising the total number of cases in the country to 3,137, with 35 deaths.

The government last week said its COVID-19 vaccine rollout would be expedited, with the aim of administering all of the 928,800 AstraZeneca doses it had received so far by May 15.

Nepal could be the next India --- except worse

 

Nepal could be the next India --- except worse

Nepal is very close to hitting that ominous mark of 10K new cases a day with 9,196 positive RT PCR and RDT tests on Friday, bringing the total active infections across the country to 78,629. There were additional 50 deaths in the last 24 hours.

At the current rate of replication of the virus, the Health Ministry’s projections of the second wave peaking at 15,000 new cases a day by July will fall modest, and soon. It is now evident that the second wave is sweeping Nepal faster than most parts of India and the world at 211 cases per 1 million population.

Meanwhile, according to the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, 91 reporters working in 25 different media houses have rested positive for coronavirus disease, as of Thursday.

Most of them are isolating at home but a few are undergoing treatment in Patan Hospital, Manmohan Memorial, Norvic, Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Centre and Nepal Police Hospital.

Of the total new cases on Friday, nearly half of them (4,106) as have been the cases on a daily basis are from Kathmandu Valley, where doctors are overwhelmed with patients and major hospitals have exhausted their ICUs, ventilators and oxygen cylinders.

The city’s only electric crematorium designed for Covid-19 deaths was unable to handle the increasing number of fatalities. Currently, of the 5,860 people admitted to hospitals, 728 are in ICU and 231 of them are in ventilator support.

But even as the pandemic breaks across the country with devastating consequences, Nepalis are unlikely to get a vaccine anytime soon.

In a press release on Friday, the Health Ministry spokesman Jageshwor Gautam said that Nepal wouldn’t be able to import more vaccines from India at the moment.

“Serum Institute of India has informed us that would deliver the vaccines once they have recovered from the fire and have expanded their capacity, we are not in a situation to buy additional 5 million doses,” he added.

After ordering two million doses of Covishield vaccines, Nepal has begun the procedure to buy additional five million shots and as such prime minister K P Oli had announced that the target population would be inoculated in three months.

But Nepal is yet to receive one million doses it paid for and India is struggling to meet its own demand as it records an excess of 400,000 new cases a day.

Away from the doom and gloom, locked down Kathmandu is abloom in Jacaranda, with the streets leading up to Tundikhel painted in purple.

Just like last year this time during the first shutdown, nature has taken over the usual hustle and bustle of the city, but there are few on the streets to admire the sight.

Japanese town spent COVID-19 relief funds on building a statue of a giant squid

 

The Japanese News

Published by Angelo Locsin

Tokyo— A coastal town in western Japan has drawn ire on social media for using some of the coronavirus relief funds it was given by the government to build a statue of a giant squid in the hopes of boosting tourism.

The town of Noto in Ishikawa Prefecture was awarded 800 million yen ($7.3 million) in grants from the central government as part of an aid program aimed at boosting local economies amid the pandemic, according to domestic media.

From that amount, Noto used 25 million yen ($229,000) to cover part of the cost of building the statue, which is 13 feet high and 29.5 feet long, domestic media reported. Total construction costs were around 30 million yen ($274,000), they said.

Japan is battling a fourth wave of coronavirus infections and the cabinet approved a $708 billion stimulus package in December to help the economy recover from the pandemic-induced slump.

Squid is a local delicacy in Noto and building the statue was part of a "long-term strategy" to raise awareness about the town's fishing industry and increase tourism, a local government official said, according to domestic media.

Reuters called Noto's government but the person who answered was not authorized to speak with the press. Japan's government buildings were closed on Wednesday for annual Golden Week holidays.

The grants were not specifically earmarked for spending related to treating coronavirus patients, and Ishikawa Prefecture's infection rate is low compared with other parts of Japan according to local media.

However, some people took to Twitter to question whether those funds should have been used for other purposes.

"No matter how you look at it, this is wrong. They have to return that money," one Twitter user said.

Construction of the pink cephalopod began in October 2020, and the finished statue was finally moved to its current home in March of this year, local media reported.