WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden announced Thursday the US will donate 75 percent of its unused COVID-19 vaccines to the UN-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing program, acting as more Americans have been vaccinated and global inequities have become more glaring.
Of the first tranche of 25 million doses, the White House said about 19 million will go to COVAX, with approximately 6 million for South and Central America, 7 million for Asia and 5 million for Africa. The doses mark a substantial — and immediate — boost to the lagging COVAX effort, which to date has shared just 76 million doses with needy countries.
Overall, the White House aims to share 80 million doses globally by the end of June, most through COVAX. But 25 percent of the nation’s excess will be kept in reserve for emergencies and for the US to share directly with allies and partners.
“As long as this pandemic is raging anywhere in the world, the American people will still be vulnerable,” Biden said in a statement. “And the United States is committed to bringing the same urgency to international vaccination efforts that we have demonstrated at home.”
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the US “will retain the say” on where the doses distributed through COVAX ultimately go.
“We’re not seeking to extract concessions, we’re not extorting, we’re not imposing conditions the way that other countries who are providing doses are doing; we’re doing none of those things,” said Sullivan. “These are doses that are being given, donated free and clear to these countries, for the sole purpose of improving the public health situation and helping end the pandemic.”
The remaining 6 million in the initial tranche of 25 million will be directed by the White House to US allies and partners, including Mexico, Canada, South Korea, West Bank and Gaza, India, Ukraine, Kosovo, Haiti, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as for United Nations frontline workers.
Vice President Kamala Harris informed some US partners they will begin receiving doses, in separate calls with Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador, President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Prime Minister Keith Rowley of Trinidad and Tobago. Harris is to visit Guatemala and Mexico in the coming week.
The long-awaited vaccine sharing plan comes as demand for shots in the US has dropped significantly — more than 63 percent of adults have received at least one dose — and as global inequities in supply have become more glaring.
Scores of countries have requested doses from the United States, but to date only Mexico and Canada have received a combined 4.5 million doses. The US also has announced plans to share enough shots with South Korea to vaccinate its 550,000 troops who serve alongside American service members on the peninsula. White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said that 1 million Johnson & Johnson doses were being shipped to South Korea Thursday.
The growing US stockpile of COVID-19 vaccines is seen by many overseas and at home not only as a testament to America’s achievement but also its global privilege.
Tom Hart the, acting CEO of The ONE Campaign, called the Thursday announcement a “welcome step” but said the Biden administration needs to commit to sharing more doses. “The world is looking to the US for global leadership and more ambition is needed.”
Biden has committed to providing other nations with all 60 million domestically produced doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has yet to be authorized for use in the US but is widely approved around the world. The US-produced doses have been held up for export by an ongoing safety review by the Food and Drug Administration, said Zients.
The White House says the initial 25 million doses will be shipped from existing federal stockpiles of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. More doses are expected to be made available to share in the months ahead.
As part of its purchase agreements with drug manufacturers, the US controlled the initial production by its domestic manufacturers. Pfizer and Moderna are only now starting to export vaccines produced in the US to overseas customers. The US has hundreds of millions more doses on order, both of authorized and in-development vaccines.
The White House also announced Thursday that it is lifting restrictions on sharing vaccines produced by AstraZeneca, as well as Sanofi and Novavax, which are also not authorized in the US, allowing the companies to determine for themselves where to share their doses.
Biden announces international COVID-19 vaccine sharing plan
https://arab.news/wnw7e
Biden announces international COVID-19 vaccine sharing plan
- 6 million in the initial 25 million will be directed by the White House to US allies and partners, including the West Bank and Gaza, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen
- The initial 25 million doses will be shipped from existing federal stockpiles of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines
Poland to try suspect in alleged Russian plot to assassinate Zelensky
Prosecutors said he had declared his readiness to act for Russia’s military intelligence
WARSAW: Polish authorities have indicted a man charged with planning to help Russian foreign intelligence services prepare a possible attempt to assassinate Ukraine’s president, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The man, identified as Pawel K., was arrested in April 2024 after cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors, and faces up to eight years in prison.
According to prosecutors, he had declared his readiness to act for the military intelligence of the Russian Federation and established contacts with Russians who were directly involved in the war in Ukraine.
“The activities were to help, among other things, in the planning by the Russian special services of a possible assassination attempt on the life of ... the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky,” the prosecution said in a statement.
Pawel K.’s tasks included collecting and providing information on security at the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland, prosecutors said.
Poland, a hub for Western military supplies to Ukraine, says it has become a major target of Russian spies, accusing Moscow and its ally Belarus of trying to destabilize it — accusations which the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.
PKK urges Turkiye to ease leader’s solitary confinement for any peace talks
- The disbanding mechanisms are unclear yet
- Hiwa said the PKK has shown “seriousness regarding peace,” but “till now the Turkish state has not given any guarantees”
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has said Türkiye should ease prison conditions for its founder Abdullah Ocalan, declaring him the group’s “chief negotiator” for any future talks after a decision to disband.
The Kurdish group, blacklisted by Ankara and its Western allies, announced on May 12 it had adopted a decision to disarm and disband after a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that cost more than 40,000 lives.
The group’s historic decision came after an appeal by Ocalan, made in a letter from Istanbul’s Imrali prison island where he has been held since 1999.
Zagros Hiwa, spokesman for the PKK’s political wing, told AFP on Monday that “we expect that the Turkish state makes amendments in the solitary confinement conditions” to allow Ocalan “free and secure work conditions so that he could lead the process.”
“Leader Apo is our chief negotiator” for any talks with Türkiye, Hiwa added in an interview, referring to Ocalan.
“Only Leader Apo can lead the practical implementation of the decision taken by the PKK.”
The disbanding mechanisms are unclear yet, but the Turkish government has said it would carefully monitor the process to ensure full implementation.
Hiwa said the PKK has shown “seriousness regarding peace,” but “till now the Turkish state has not given any guarantees and taken any measure for facilitating the process” and continued its “bombardments and artillery shellings” against the Kurdish group’s positions.
The PKK operates rear bases in Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdistan region, where Türkiye also maintains military bases and often carries out air and ground operations against the Kurdish militants.
Turkish media reports have suggested that militants who had committed no crime on Turkish soil could return without fear of prosecution, but that PKK leaders might be forced into exile or stay behind in Iraq.
Hiwa said the PKK objects to its members or leaders being forced to leave, saying that “real peace requires integration, not exile.”
Second man in court over arson attacks linked to UK PM Starmer
- Neither of the suspects has been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act
- Police said the first fire involved a Toyota Rav4 car that Starmer used to own
LONDON: A second man to be charged over a series of arson attacks on houses and a car linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared in a London court on Tuesday.
Over five days earlier this month, police were called to fires at a house in north London owned by Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live, and to a blaze involving a car that also used to belong to the British leader.
Last week, Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, was charged in connection with the fires, and on Tuesday Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, who was born in Ukraine, appeared in court accused of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.
“The alleged offense arises from three fires set at locations linked to the prime minister in the last fortnight,” prosecutor Sarah Przybylska said. “At this stage the alleged offending is unexplained.”
Neither of the suspects has been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act which aims to target hostile state activity.
Police said the first fire involved a Toyota Rav4 car that Starmer used to own. Days later, there was a blaze at a property where Starmer once resided and the following day there was an attack on a house in north London that he still owns.
Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister last July, has called the incidents “an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for.”
Wearing a light blue hoodie, Carpiuc, who was arrested on Saturday at London’s Luton Airport, spoke only to confirm his name and address while listening to the proceedings through a translator.
He was remanded in custody until a hearing on June 6 at London’s Old Bailey court when his co-accused Lavrynovych is also due to appear.
The prosecutor said a decision would be taken at this hearing as to whether the case would proceed under the terrorism protocol.
Carpiuc’s lawyer Jay Nutkins said his client had lived in Britain for nine years and had just completed a two-year degree at a university in Canterbury.
“He denies being at the scene of any of these fires,” Nutkins said.
Carpiuc funded himself through construction work, Nutkins said. On a casting website for models and actors, an entry under Carpiuc’s name said he was born in western Ukraine and was seeking work as a model.
On Monday, police arrested a third man in connection with the fires and he remains in police custody.
Russia accuses NATO of ‘aggressive actions’ in Baltic Sea after Estonia tries to seize tanker
- Zakharova said Moscow was closely monitoring events in the Baltic
MOSCOW: Russia on Tuesday accused NATO of carrying out what it called aggressive actions in the Baltic Sea that impeded the freedom of shipping after Estonia tried and failed to seize a tanker.
Estonia said on Thursday last week that Moscow had briefly sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea during an attempt to stop a Russian-bound oil tanker thought to be part of a “shadow fleet” defying Western sanctions on Moscow.
Asked about the matter at her weekly news briefing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow was closely monitoring events in the Baltic and would react to what she called illegal actions by NATO vessels if they caused risks.
A London court sentences an Egyptian man to 25 years for smuggling people from Africa to Italy
- Ahmed Ebid pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration
- Judge Adam Hiddleston said Ebid played a key role in an organized crime group
LONDON: A London court on Tuesday sentenced an Egyptian man to 25 years in prison for smuggling people from North Africa to Italy.
Ahmed Ebid, who arrived in the UK in October 2022 after crossing the English Channel in a small boat, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
Judge Adam Hiddleston said Ebid played a key role in an organized crime group and that his “primary motivation was to make money” from human trafficking.
Since his arrival in Britain and until June 2023, Ebid, 42, was implicated in at least seven separate boat crossings as part of a 12 million-pound ($16 million) operation that carried 3,781 people, including children, into Italian waters from North Africa.
Britain’s National Crime Agency cited some of those who had entered the UK illegally as saying that Ebid even told an associate to kill and throw into the sea anyone onboard caught with a mobile phone.
Ebid “preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats,” said Jacque Beer of the agency.
In one crossing, on Oct. 25, 2022, more than 640 people were rescued by the Italian authorities after they attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea in a wooden boat, the agency said. The boat was taken into port in Sicily and two bodies were recovered.
“Vulnerable people were transported on long sea journeys in ill-equipped fishing vessels completely unsuitable for carrying the large number of passengers,” said Tim Burton, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service.
“His repeated involvement in helping to facilitate these dangerous crossings showed a complete disregard for the safety of thousands of people, whose lives were put at serious risk,” Burton added about Ebid.
