Category: NEWS

(Xinhua)09:10, December 01, 2020

BRUSSELS, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — The European Union (EU) Monday launched a forum devoted to exchanging ideas on how to build a stronger and more resilient Schengen area, which saw itself breaking down during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first months of the pandemic showed us what happens when Schengen stops functioning: Europe grinds to a halt, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the on-line forum, which gathered members of the European Parliament and the EUs home affairs ministers.

It may sound like a paradox, but this experience made me very confident in the future of Schengen. It is too precious for us all, she added.

The participants discussed possible ways to improve the current Schengen rules, and to ensure that any possible reintroduction of controls at internal borders will be proportionate, used as a measure of last resort and for a limited period of time.

Introducing modern digital tools in managing exterior borders and enhancing police cooperation to secure the internal borders were also among the topics discussed.

The Schengen area comprises 26 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders, enabling the free and unrestricted movement of 420 million people. The Schengen Agreement was signed on June 14, 1985 by five of the ten EC member states in the town of Schengen, Luxembourg.

Challenges in recent years have strained Schengen. Between 2006 and 2014, internal border checks were reintroduced 35 times, but since 2015, in less than five years, internal border checks were reintroduced 205 times, mentioned von der Leyen.

This is a significant increase, she stressed, adding that it is necessary to understand the reasons behind it and address them urgently. Fact is that the challenges Schengen faces today are not the same as 25 years ago. We should confront these challenges head on.

(Xinhua)09:14, December 01, 2020

BRUSSELS, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — Eurozone finance ministers decided on Monday to proceed with the reform of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the permanent euro bailout fund established in 2012 amid the European debt crisis.

The ESM will play a role as a common backstop to the Single Resolution Fund (SRF), a reform the ministers agreed to push into force by the beginning of 2022, revealed a Eurogroup statement following the ministers video conference.

The SRF was created in 2014 to resolve failing banks in the eurozone and shore up the whole financial system.

The statement added that the ministers will sign the revised ESM Treaty in January before launching the ratification process.

These decisions mark another important step towards completing the Banking Union, said the statement.

Since its establishment, the ESM, with a lending capacity of up to 500 billion euros, aims to play the role of permanent firewall to provide financial assistance to euro area countries experiencing or threatened by severe financing problems, as well as to provide loans for the recapitalization of troubled banks.

(Xinhua)09:21, December 01, 2020

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — The U.S. state of Arizona on Monday certified its election results, confirming President-elect Joe Bidens victory over incumbent President Donald Trump and granting the states 11 electoral votes to the former vice president.

The certification was signed by the states secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, who was accompanied by Republican governor and attorney general, Doug Ducey and Mark Brnovich, and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel.

This was a historic election for a several reasons. Preparing for any election is an immense undertaking, even in normal circumstances. The complexity this year has been compounded by the pandemic. In spite of this, we had an extremely well-run election and saw historically high voter participation, Hobbs said.

Ducey also expressed confidence in the election process. We do elections well here in Arizona. The system is strong and thats why I bragged on it so much, he said.

The certification also confirmed Democrat Mark Kellys win in the Senatorial race, beating incumbent Republican Senator Martha McSally.

Arizona is one of the states where the Trump campaign has challenged the election results. The campaign filed a lawsuit earlier this month seeking to review the ballots cast on Election Day, but later withdrew the complaint after it became clear that Bidens margin of victory could not be overcome.

(Xinhua)09:29, December 01, 2020

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — Hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients in the United States reached an all-time high of 93,238 on Sunday, according to the latest data of the COVID Tracking Project.

The number surpassed Saturdays record of 91,635 hospitalized patients.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have gone up on a daily basis recently. Hospitals and healthcare workers are overwhelmed by the surge in cases across the country.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 152,608 new cases nationwide on Sunday, the 22nd consecutive day that the daily case count had surpassed 100,000.

The CDC predicted that the number of newly reported COVID-19 deaths will likely increase over the next four weeks, with 10,600 to 21,400 new deaths likely to be reported in the week ending Dec. 19.

The CDCs national ensemble predicted that a total of 294,000 to 321,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by Dec. 19.

The United States has recorded more than 13.45 million cases with over 267,400 related deaths as of Monday afternoon, according to the real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

(Xinhua)09:49, December 01, 2020

HOUSTON, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — With the Thanksgiving holiday weekend over, U.S. Texas health officials on Monday urged everyone to get a COVID-19 test.

Sherri Onyiego, director of Nutrition and Chronic Disease Prevention for Texas Harris County Public Health, expressed her concern that people who spent holiday with family and friends may be infected with the virus. She recommended waiting five days after possible exposure to get tested.

Testing too soon, as you pointed out, could certainly lead to false negatives and individuals could in error take that negative result and potentially go and infect others unknowingly, local media quoted Onyiego as saying.

The expert also recommended avoiding other people before the test and while waiting for the results.

Sylvester Turner, mayor of Houston, on Monday said that November was the second busiest month in terms of COVID-19 testing in the countrys fourth largest city.

According to Turner, 90,877 people got tested between Nov. 1 and Nov. 28. I want to thank everyone for getting tested before making your holiday plans, he tweeted.

Turner said that Houston reported 685 new cases on Monday, bringing the total to 97,703. The positivity rate was 8.2 percent as of Sunday.

(Xinhua)10:31, December 01, 2020

BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — The fifth presidium meeting of the BRICS Media Forum was held via video link Monday, with members pledging joint efforts to improve the forum mechanism and step up post-COVID-19 exchanges and cooperation among BRICS media.

In the fight against COVID-19, media organizations from BRICS countries have actively fulfilled their social responsibilities, chronicling BRICS joint fight against the pandemic and facilitating the mutual assistance and support between peoples of BRICS countries, said He Ping, executive chairman of the BRICS Media Forum.

Amid momentous changes never seen in the last hundred years, BRICS media outlets should grasp the trend of history and act as facilitators for peaceful development, said He, also president and editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency.

He urged BRICS media outlets to be aware of the general trend of global development and be narrators of the BRICS story, follow the evolution trends of media and be leaders in innovative development, and give full play to the advantages of BRICS collaboration and be pursuers of pragmatic cooperation.

Xinhua is willing to strengthen cooperation with media from other countries to provide spiritual impetus for defeating the pandemic, reviving the economy and building a community with a shared future, He added.

Jose Juan Sanchez, president of Brazils CMA Group; Sergey Kochetkov, first deputy editor-in-chief of Russias Rossiya Segodnya; Narasimhan Ram, director of The Hindu Publishing Group of India; and Iqbal Surve, executive chairman of Independent Media of South Africa, attended the event as co-chairpersons of the forum. In their speeches, they expressed the hope to further deepen the cooperation among BRICS media, to facilitate the development of the relations among BRICS countries and to help build a better world.

The year 2020 will be remembered by history books for the COVID-19 pandemic, Jose Juan Sanchez said in his speech, adding that BRICS media should strengthen information exchanges and experience sharing to contribute to building a better world after the pandemic.

Sergey Kochetkov said that even though the pandemic has impeded international exchanges, it also provided media with new growth opportunities and new paths for cooperation.

Narasimhan Ram said uncertainties will be a new kind of normal faced by media under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling on BRICS media to give full play to their advantages in fact-checking and take active use of new technologies like artificial intelligence in the fight against disinformation.

Iqbal Surve said the exchanges and cooperation among media in BRICS countries have never been this important due to the pandemic, calling for joint efforts from BRICS media in the post-COVID future to overcome difficulties including poverty and inequality and promote fair distribution of vaccines after development.

The BRICS Media Forum was proposed by Xinhua News Agency and jointly initiated with mainstream media outlets from Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, with the forum presidium as its top decision-making body.

(Xinhua)10:34, December 01, 2020

LONDON, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday that coronavirus is back under control in Britain as the month-long national lockdown is due to end on Wednesday.

Weve got this virus back under control, he said during a virtual press briefing at the Downing Street.

According to the latest official figures, Britains coronavirus reproduction number, known as the R number, has fallen to between 0.9 and 1. If the R number is above one, it means the number of cases will increase exponentially.

Hancock said that the lockdown, which is the second of its kind since the COVID-19 outbreak in the country and due to end on Dec. 2, brought coronavirus under control in England. It means people could have greater freedoms in tiers from Wednesday, he said.

However, Hancock warned that continued vigilance is needed as a tougher tiered system is set to replace the lockdown once it ends.

We dont have much headroom. We cant risk letting cases rise again, especially into Christmas and with the flu season around the corner, he said.

Earlier Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the new tiered system ahead of a vote in the House of Commons (lower house of parliament) on the measures on Tuesday.

We cant afford to take our foot off the throat of the beast, to take our foot off the gas. We cant afford to let it out of control again, he said.

The tiering system is tough, but its designed to be tough and to keep it under control, he said.

Another 12,330 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 1,629,657, according to official figures released Monday.

The coronavirus-related deaths in Britain rose by 205 to 58,448, the data showed.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States are racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines.

(Xinhua)10:36, December 01, 2020

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for greater inclusion of persons with disabilities in society, including in COVID-19 response and recovery.

The UN chief was addressing countries that are parties to the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which he stressed can only be fully implemented by tackling the obstacles, injustices and discrimination that this population experiences.

Realizing the rights of persons with disabilities is crucial to fulfilling the core promise of the 2030 Agenda: to leave no one behind, he said, referring to the global action plan to bring about a more just and sustainable world.

In all our actions, our goal is clear: a world in which all persons can enjoy equal opportunities, participate in decision-making and truly benefit from economic, social, political and cultural life. That is a goal worth fighting for.

The 13th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention is taking place ahead of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, commemorated annually on Dec. 3.

Like most UN events this year, it is being held in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, with participants meeting both in person and online.

The pandemic has deepened pre-existing inequalities affecting the worlds 1 billion persons with disabilities, the secretary-general said. Even under normal circumstances they were already less likely to access education, healthcare and jobs, or to be included in their communities.

The chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities echoed this assessment. Danlami Umaru Basharu was concerned that structural barriers, exclusion and discrimination have worsened during the crisis.

While I celebrate that there now 182 parties to the convention, the pandemic has made evident that there is still a long way to go in fully understanding the human rights model of disability enshrined in the convention, and therefore in fully implementing its provisions, Guterres said in a video message.

In May, the UN chief issued a policy brief highlighting the disproportionate impact COVID-19 is having on persons with disabilities.

He has called for pandemic response and recovery to be more disability inclusive, starting with recognizing and protecting the human rights of persons with disabilities.

We must also ensure that the vision and aspirations of persons with disabilities are included and accounted for in a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 world, he said.

The top UN official further emphasized that securing the rights of persons with disabilities is necessary for upholding the values and principles that underlie the UN.

Last year, Guterres launched a UN-wide Disability Inclusion Strategy, aimed at bringing about lasting and transformative change across the organization and its operations.

(Xinhua)10:49, December 01, 2020

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Monday unveiled his economic team, nominating Janet Yellen, former Federal Reserve chair, to lead the Treasury Department.

If confirmed by the Senate, Yellen would be the first woman to serve as U.S. treasury secretary in the departments 231 years of history. She would also be the first person to have served as treasury secretary, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, and chair of the Federal Reserve.

Biden also selected Neera Tanden, who currently serves as president CEO of the Center for American Progress, as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and named Cecilia Rouse, dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, to lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

The two selections also will make history, as Tanden would be the first woman of color and first South Asian American to lead the OMB, and Rouse would become the first African American woman to lead the Council of Economic Advisers.

The president-elect also selected Wally Adeyemo, president of the Obama Foundation, as deputy secretary of the Treasury. If confirmed, Adeyemo would be the first Black deputy secretary of the Treasury.

Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey were appointed as members of the Council of Economic Advisers. Bernstein served as chief economist to then-Vice President Biden in the Obama-Biden Administration before joining the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Boushey is a long-time economic counselor to Biden and currently serves as president CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris have chosen an accomplished, crisis-tested team, made up of historic trailblazers and representing a broad diversity of backgrounds and lived experiences, who will get to work on day one to build our economy back better – and ensure that every single American is in on the deal, Biden said in a statement.

(Xinhua)10:49, December 01, 2020

NEW DELHI, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Monday underscored the importance of further deepening cooperation to develop a transparent, open, inclusive, fair, non-discriminatory multilateral trading system and to promote an open world economy.

Today humanity is faced with unprecedented challenges in all spheres of life, the severity of which is steadily increasing due to the ongoing spread of coronavirus infection, said a joint communique issued after the 19th meeting of the Council of Heads of Governments of SCO member states.

High turbulence persists in global politics and economy, said the communique, adding that the process of economic globalization is hampered by the growth of unilateral and protectionist measures, instability of financial markets and other risks for the international trade.

The communique stressed that one of the primary tasks of the SCO is to improve the welfare and living standards of the population, and it is important to continue the consistent implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals until 2030 and to strengthen cooperation in various areas of mutual interest.

The announcement noted the relevance of reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO), including by improving its key functions-negotiation, monitoring and dispute resolution functions.

When reforming the WTO, it is necessary to ensure that the key values and fundamental principles of the WTO are preserved, said the communique.

The 19th meeting of the Council of Heads of Governments of SCO member states, chaired by Indian Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, was held Monday in a videoconference format.