South Asia
Bhutan has successfully administered the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate to over 80% of its 800,000 citizens in just one week. This gives it one of the fastest and most comprehensive vaccination programmes across the world. The only two nations to have achieved a higher coverage are Israel and Seychelles, who have respectively inoculated 95.1% and 94.1% of their populations. However, both these countries achieved these numbers over a span of months. [Hindustan Times]
Amidst an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases, India has blocked the export of Remdesivir, a drug being used in the treatment of more serious patients. Seven Indian companies have been granted the license to produce the drug by the American company M/s. Gilead Sciences and have a combined production capacity of over 3,880,000 units per month. [Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Through a referendum on Sunday, voters in Kyrgyzstan approved new constitutional changes that widen the powers of the president. After 90% of the ballots were counted, it was found that 79% of voters voted in favour of the new changes. Voter turnout was recorded at around 35%, slightly above the 30% threshold required to make the referendum valid. The new constitution will reduce the size of the parliament by 25%, give the president power to appoint judges as well as law enforcement officials, and allow the president to seek re-election for a second term. [RFE/RL]
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a Paris-based media rights watchdog, has urged Russia to end the information “black hole” in Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian peacekeepers, who have been controlling access to the region since February this year, has denied entry to foreign journalists in the disputed area. [RFE/RL]
East and Southeast Asia
On Sunday, China’s top health authority called for vaccinations to be voluntary as several cities in China rushed to achieve the country’s goal of vaccinating 560 million people by June by making vaccination compulsory. Officials and experts stressed that “the country’s principle is to encourage those in need to get vaccinated while respecting their wishes.” [Global Times]
Myanmar’s military coup, which has now claimed the lives of 614 civilians, is facing tough times as the economy grapples with sanctions from the West. According to projections made by the World Bank, Myanmar’s economy will shrink by 10% in 2021, which will make it the biggest economic contraction in Asia as countries rebound from a pandemic-induced slump. [The Straits Times]
Europe
Despite Russia increasing its military presence along its border with Ukraine and escalating conflict between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declared, “Of course, nobody is planning to move toward war and in general, nobody accepts the possibility of such a war.” He added, “Nobody also accepts the possibility of civil war in Ukraine,” and said, “Russia is making every possible effort to help resolve this conflict. And we will continue to explain this tirelessly.” [The Moscow Times]
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin warned citizens in Northern Ireland to refrain from “spiralling back” into the “dark place of sectarian murders and political discord”. This comes amid an uptick in violence and unrest in Belfast, where 88 police officers were injured last week. [Al Jazeera]
Latin America and the Caribbean
Two of Cuba’s five vaccine candidates are now in phase 3 trials, meaning that the heavily-sanctioned Caribbean island nation could produce enough vaccines to innoculate its entire population without relying on foreign donations and deliveries. Roughly 200,000 people will be vaccinated with the Soberana 2 vaccine, including 150,000 healthcare workers. It is said that the vaccine differs from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in that it uses “synthesised coronavirus proteins to trigger the body’s immune system.” [NBC News]
An exit poll in Peru has reported that leftist candidate Pedro Castillo is in the lead in the country's second round of voting with 16.1% of votes, ahead of Keiko Fujimori and Hernando de Soto who are both tied in second place with 11.9% of votes. Meanwhile, centre-right candidate Yohny Lescano is in fourth with 11% of votes, while Rafael Lopez trails in fifth with 10.% of votes. The fact that no one candidate has gathered even 20% of the vote indicates the instability and lack of unity among citizens in the country and also the unpopularity of the candidates. [Telesur]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has selected the first Arab woman to train as an astronaut, as the country looks to expand its space sector. 27-year-old Nora al-Matrooshi will be joining NASA’s 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class in the United States (US). In February, the UAE Hope probe successfully orbited Mars, in what was the first Arab inter-planetary mission. The Gulf country also plans to launch a lunar rover by 2024 and has an ambitious vision for a Mars settlement by 2117. [Reuters]
Saudi Arabia has executed three soldiers for “high treason” and “cooperating with the enemy”, according to a statement by the country’s Defence Ministry. The statement also said that the soldiers were executed in the military’s Southern Command, which is situated close to the Yemeni border. However, the Ministry has not clarified who the “enemy” is, nor has it provided details on how the men committed “treason.” [Al Jazeera]
North America
Following his trip to India, United States President Joe Biden’s Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry arrived in Bangladesh on Friday, where he then held meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, and other Cabinet ministers. The two countries discussed how the US can aid Bangladesh’s response to climate change. To this end, Kerry announced the launch of USAID’s $17 million project called Bangladesh Advancing Development and Growth through Energy (BADGE), which aims to “expand Bangladesh’s access to affordable clean energy, support clean energy entrepreneurship, foster transparent and efficient energy markets, and advance innovation.” [US Department of State]
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in an interview that without the stimulus packages passed under both President Trump and Biden, the US economy “would’ve been so much worse.” He said, “Congress, in effect, replaced people’s incomes. Kept them in their homes, kept them solvent, kept their lives together with what they did in the CARES Act. It was heroic.” In fact, the Labor Department reported that 916,000 were created in March, while the unemployment rate also dropped to 6% after hitting almost 15% last April. [The Hill]
Oceania
The Australian government has been forced to rescind its target of giving all citizens their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by October due to a slow roll-out process. On Sunday, Cabinet minister Dan Tehan said that the government was now targetting vaccinating all citizens by the end of the year, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison clarified on his Facebook page that the government had “not set, nor has any plans to set any new targets for completing first doses.” [news.com.au]
On Sunday, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne released a joint statement with Minister for International Development and the Pacific that announced $7 million in emergency aid to Timor-Leste to assist in the country’s recovery from floods over the Easter Weekend as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. The emergency fund comprises food supplies, personal protective equipment (PPE), temporary shelter, and critical household items. [Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs]
Sub-Saharan Africa
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who was thrust into the role last month after the sudden death of John Magufuli, conducted her first foreign trip on Sunday, when she travelled to Uganda to meet with President Yoweri Museveni. The two leaders discussed signing a deal to launch the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, which will connect the two countries. [Africa News]
On Sunday, Chad held its presidential election, in which incumbent leader Idriss Déby, who has been in power since 1990, is expected to win and secure a sixth term. Many voters and political experts consider this to be a sham election, considering that there is no real opposition. Three opposition politicians withdrew from the race over concerns of legitimacy and credibility, while seven others had their candidacy rejected by the Supreme Court. [Radio France Internationale]
Djibouti President Ismail Guelleh, who has been in power since 1999, was re-elected for a fifth term after securing 97% of votes. Guelleh succeeded his uncle to become Djibouti’s second president in 1977. The election was marred with controversy, after several opposition candidates withdrew from the race over concerns of legitimacy. In fact, Guelleh ran against just one another candidate, Zakaria Ismail Farah, who won just 2% of the votes. [Africa News]
World News Monitor: 12 April, 2021
A quick look at events from around the globe.
April 12, 2021
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov SOURCE: REUTERS