Economic

Google cries foul after EU unveils new laws challenging ‘gatekeeping’ supremacy of tech giants

US firm Google has complained that proposed new EU laws aimed at curbing tech giants’ dominance target only a “handful of companies,” the search provider included. The way Europe sees it, that’s the point. The proposals troubling Google were unveiled by the European Commission earlier on Dec 15. Two laws, one concerning content and the other market behaviour, could dramatically curb the power of Google and fellow Silicon Valley giants such as Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Facebook, and more. The first law, the Digital Services Act (DSA), would require tech companies with more than 45 million EU users to flag and remove illegal content, reveal how their algorithms suppress and boost content, undergo independent audits, and allow researchers access to “key data” for their platforms. Failure to do so could see these companies fined up to six percent of their annual revenue. In Google’s case, six percent of annual revenue would amount to nearly $10 billion. The second law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) would designate the most economically influential and entrenched tech firms as “gatekeepers,” and subject them to a host of new requirements. Click here to read...

US labels Vietnam & Switzerland ‘currency manipulators,’ puts China, India and others on watchlist

The US Treasury Department has designated Vietnam and Switzerland as “currency manipulators,” while placing China, India, and several other countries on its “monitoring list.” The designation greenlights a set of manoeuvers, envisioned under the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, including calls for bilateral talks between the US and “manipulator” countries, as well as a complaint to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The “currency manipulator” designations is based on three criteria; a $20 billion-plus trade surplus with the US, current account surplus exceeding two percent of GDP and currency intervention exceeding two percent of GDP. Both Switzerland and Vietnam meet the criteria, with the latter boasting a trade surplus of a whopping $57 billion, which has triggered repeated accusations from Washington that it is deliberately undervaluing its currency. China, which was labelled a “currency manipulator” last August amid the heated trade war with the US, remains on the monitoring list. Beijing’s designation, which was not backed by the IMF, was withdrawn early this year, days before it reached a trade deal with Washington. Click here to read...

Thanks to China's move on Ant, FinTech firms may look like banks soon

There’s an interesting global debate about the role of FinTech companies in loans and credit – whether they should be regulated and, if so, to what end. Their platforms were immune to regulations, however, because it connected people with money to people who needed money instead of loaning money themselves. The idea behind P2P lending is to unleash the power of technology to minimise the interest rate spread between saver and borrower. A bank takes deposits and lends them through buildings with humans; a P2P lender does the same, but through software, servers and an algorithm. However, as FinTech firms mushroomed across the world, countries soon realised P2P lending had to be regulated like any other form of financial service and credit: You have to ensure the risk is adequately covered. Changing attitudes in China illustrate this risk of contagion when trust is broken. China’s P2P lending market grew massively during the early 2010s after a tightening of bank credit but saw the collapse of many players in the last decade, forcing the government to subsequently place stringent curbs on such lending activities. This sparked a larger fear of FinTech platforms, culminating in the Chinese government’s recent halting of Ant Financial’s IPO. Click here to read...

Global hydrogen industry to become highly competitive

Many countries have been pledging to aim for carbon neutrality as a key environmental strategy and among efforts they are making to achieve this the use of hydrogen as a renewable resource for energy and transportation. Some industry watchers are pointing out that Korea needs to form "hydrogen alliances" with such countries in order to enhance its competitiveness. According to a Korea Automotive Technology Institute (KATECH) industry trend report, demand for clean and renewable energy in the future will continue to increase, and that for hydrogen is expected to surge tenfold by 2050. Last January, the government unveiled a roadmap to create a hydrogen economy aiming to create 43 trillion won in added value and 420,000 new jobs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 27.2 million tons by 2040. According to the report, the country's hydrogen production, storage, transportation and charging is at around 60 percent to 70 percent compared to other leading countries investing in the technology. "To establish a competitive hydrogen industry, we need to form hydrogen alliances through international cooperation," Yoo Yong-ho, a senior researcher at KATECH said. Click here to read...

Ban on Australian coal worsens China’s power cuts

Factories across China are falling silent and office workers are being forced to climb the stairs of high-rise buildings as a ban on Australian coal worsens a power shortage that is hitting everything from streetlights to lifts. In recent weeks, more than a dozen Chinese cities have imposed restrictions on electricity use as growing demand for energy owing to the country’s post-coronavirus economic recovery collides head on with a shortage of thermal coal. The shortage underscores the dilemma Chinese authorities face in balancing their muscular approach to international diplomacy with the needs of the economy. Chinese energy and industrial groups have said the problem is partly due to an embargo on Australian coal imports, which many power plants in the country depend on, as tensions between Beijing and Canberra simmer. Official data show Chinese plants obtained about 3 per cent of their thermal coal from Australia last year. The ratio, said an official at trade association the China Electricity Council, could exceed 10 per cent in more developed provinces that are drawn to the high quality of Australian coal. Click here to read...

Iran revives contentious anti-money laundering legislation

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has approved the revival of bills that for years were the subject of political infighting between the country’s moderates and hardliners. According to Laya Joneydi, Iran’s vice president for legal affairs, President Hassan Rouhani requested that the Expediency Council – Iran’s arbitration body – be tasked with reviewing the legislation, which would bring the country into compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF is a Paris-based global watchdog on anti-money laundering and combatting “terrorism” financing. Iran and North Korea are the only two countries on the FATF blacklist. Passing the bills is crucial for the establishment of international banking ties, notably with Europe. Joneydi told the Iran newspaper in an interview published on Dec 14: “It will exceedingly limit our business and financial transactions, increase the cost of transactions, and affect business growth, employment and economic growth” – if Iran remains on the FATF blacklist. Click here to read...

Google hires new personnel head amid rising worker tensions

Google has hired a top executive from pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca to oversee its personnel policies amid ongoing tensions with many employees who are upset with the company's policies. The hiring of Fiona Cicconi also comes while Google sets up plans to allow people to continue to work from home for at least eight more months. Google has seen its relationship with its workforce change dramatically in the past few years as more employees have become convinced that it has strayed far away from the "Don't Be Evil" motto that co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin embraced in its early years. In 2018, thousands of Google employees walked off the job and staged public protests in a backlash spurred by concerns about how the company had been handling sexual harassment claims against top executives and managers. Google has also faced employee outrage about potential bids on military contracts and, more recently, the murky circumstances surrounding the abrupt departure of a respected artificial intelligence scholar, Timnit Gebru. After a dispute over a research paper examining the societal dangers of an emerging branch of artificial intelligence, Gebru said Google fired her earlier this month. Click here to read...

U.S. Senate majority leader says Congress has reached deal on COVID-19 relief

U.S. Congress has just reached an agreement on the long-awaited COVID-19 relief package, and lawmakers will pass the bill as soon as possible, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Dec 20 afternoon. "Congress has just reached an agreement. We will pass another rescue package ASAP," the top Republican in the upper chamber said in a tweet. "More help is on the way." The 900-billion-USD relief plan under negotiation was set to include another round of direct payments for individuals, federal unemployment benefits, and more funding for Paycheck Protection Program to support small businesses. McConnell announced the agreement without offering details of the final package. Lawmakers could move to vote on the proposal as soon as Dec 20 night, along with a full-year government spending bill, according to a CNBC report. Amid COVID-19 spikes, U.S. economic recovery seems to be losing momentum, but Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been deadlocked for months over the size and scope of the next round of relief package. Click here to read...

Airlines warned over safety as jets return from pandemic storage

Regulators, insurers and experts are warning airlines to take extra care when reactivating planes left in extended storage during the COVID-19 pandemic, citing potential pilot rustiness, maintenance errors and even insect nests blocking key sensors. The unprecedented number of aircraft grounded as coronavirus lockdowns blocked air travel - at one point reaching two-thirds of the global fleet - has created a spike in the number of reported problems as airlines return them to service. The number of "unsterilized" or poorly handled approaches has risen sharply in 2020, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Such mishaps can result in hard landings, runway overshoots or even crashes. Worried by IATA's data, insurers are questioning airlines about whether they are doing extra pilot training to focus on landings, said Gary Moran, head of Asia aviation at insurance broker Aon PLC. "They want to know about the circumstances of the training," he said. Click here to read...

With eye on China, Japan refuses to ease TPP rules for new members

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Dec 15 stressed that the TPP-11 sets high standards for regulations on e-commerce, intellectual property and state-owned enterprises. "We need to ensure that any new member is prepared to meet these standards," he said. Sticking to the TPP-11's existing standards will test China's commitment to joining the deal. For example, the bloc bans special treatment for state-owned enterprises to ensure fair competition -- partly a response to the global glut of steel and other products caused by aggressive capital investments by China's state-owned manufacturers. The ban on forced source-code disclosures will also be a difficult pill for China to swallow. "Japan must make it clear that it will not ease the TPP-11's existing standards for China," said Yorizumi Watanabe, a professor at Japan's Kansai University of International Studies. "Japan should approach the situation ready to turn China down if it cannot meet the standards." Click here to read...

Strategic

China & Russia listed as main rivals in new US maritime strategy aimed at shaping ‘balance of power for the rest of the century’

The US Navy will adopt a more ‘assertive’ approach to China and Russia, according to the country’s new maritime strategy, which says that actions taken in the next decade will determine power dynamics for the rest of the century. Titled ‘Advantage at Sea’, the document, authored by the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, calls for greater integration of US naval forces in order to counter “determined rivals” Beijing and Moscow. Describing the nations as “the two most significant threats to this era of global peace and prosperity,” the maritime strategy prioritizes competition with China due to the country’s “growing economic and military strength,” as well as its alleged efforts to “remake the international order in its favour.” US naval forces should “accept calculated tactical risks and adopt a more assertive posture in our day-to-day operations” in order to ensure a long-term strategic edge over both “rivals,” the Pentagon plan states. The strategy warns that the next 10 years will be decisive in determining the global order for the next 80 years. Click here to read...

EU member states agree to set up first European Defence Fund

The European Union has announced its 27 nations will set up the first ever fund to support the bloc’s defense research and development programs and enhance efficiency and innovation in the military sphere. The 7.95 billion euro ($9.67 billion) European Defence Fund (EDF) is being established for the 2021-2027 period, and around a third of the money will be used on research projects. The rest of the funds will be allocated to develop defense technologies, according to a statement by the European Council. The German presidency of the council said on Dec 14 it had reached a provisional political agreement with the European Parliament’s representatives on a regulation establishing the EDF in the context of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027. The fund will give the EU better financial and legislative instruments to promote “the competitiveness, efficiency and innovation capacity of its defense, technological and industrial base.” Initially, around 13 billion euros were earmarked for the fund, but the EU had to change its entire budget to help fund the recovery of member states’ economies due to the coronavirus pandemic. Click here to read...

Iran ‘stands with’ Turkey after US slaps it with sanctions for buying Russian weapons – FM Zarif

Iran condemns US sanctions against regional rival Turkey and stands “with its people in government” in the face of Washington’s pressure, the foreign minister said. Ankara was punished for buying Russian anti-aircraft missiles. In a tweet on Dec 15, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the US showed its “addiction to sanctions and contempt for international law” by targeting Turkey and expressed support for the country. It was a rare gesture of solidarity between two neighbours that rarely get along. Iran and Turkey are on opposing side of Islam’s sectarian divisions and have clashed on a range of issues, most visibly in Syria, where they support competing parties of the protracted civil war. The US announced sanctions against Turkey on Dec 14, citing Ankara’s “significant transactions with Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors,” and in particular the purchase of the S-400 systems. The US has already punished Turkey for its defense dealings with Russia by kicking it out of the F-35 fighter jet program. Washington claimed that the Russian weapons could be used to spy on the warplane if it is deployed in Turkey. Click here to read...

Joe Biden's team vows sanctions over cyberattacks

Joe Biden's chief of staff on Dec 20 suggested that the US president-elect, once in office, would take a much stronger line against Russia for its suspected cyberespionage operations, saying the US response would go beyond sanctions. "Those who are responsible are going to face consequences for it," Ron Klain told US network CBS. "It's not just sanctions. It's also steps and things we could do to degrade the capacity of foreign actors to repeat this sort of attack or, worse still, engage in even more dangerous attacks." The Kremlin has denied any role in the hacking. The attackers infiltrated over 40 federal agencies, including the departments of Treasury, Energy and Commerce, as well as government contractors.Officials and cybersecurity professionals across the US are still struggling to determine the scale of the hacking campaign, which managed to breach computer networks using enterprise management network software made by the Texas-based IT company Solar Winds. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Dec 18 said it was "pretty clear" that Russia was behind the hacking campaign. However, President Donald Trump has played down the cyberattacks and suggested, without evidence that China, instead of Russia, could be behind the hacks. Click here to read...

Japan calls on Germany to send warship to East Asia

The Japanese government has called on Germany to send a warship to East Asia in the year ahead as Tokyo looks to bolster international support for its vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region. Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi held online talks on Dec 15 with his German counterpart, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, and expressed hope that a German vessel would take part in joint exercises with units of Japan's Self-Defense Forces in 2021. More significantly, Kishi suggested it would assist the international community's efforts to ensure the right of passage of vessels through the South China Sea if the German warship would traverse waters that have effectively been seized by Beijing in recent years, in defiance of rival claims to reefs, islands and waters from surrounding nations. The United States and Australia have both sent military vessels through the South China Sea, which Beijing effectively began annexing at the start of the decade. China initially insisted that it would not deploy military units to the islands, but large-scale reclamation work has been undertaken on a number of the larger islands, with missile emplacements and runways constructed for fighter aircraft. Click here to read...

Rockets fired at US embassy in Baghdad

The US embassy in the Baghdad Green Zone was targeted in a rocket attack on Dec 20, according to early reports. Iraqi security officials told AP on condition of anonymity that the embassy's C-RAM defense system shot down the rockets mid-air causing damage to a residential complex and parked cars. There were no reports of casualties. "The US Embassy confirms rockets targeting the International Zone (Green Zone) resulted in the engagement of embassy defensive systems," a statement released by the embassy said, adding that the compound suffered some minor damage. "We call on all Iraqi political and governmental leaders to take steps to prevent such attacks and hold accountable those responsible,'' the statement said. The attack took place in the run-up to the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, which was directed by Washington. The US withdrew some staff from its Baghdad embassy earlier in December in expectation of reprisals. Dec 20's attack was the third apparent violation of a truce agreed in October by Western and Iraqi authorities with hard-line and pro-Iran groups. Click here to read...

Japan sets record US$52 billion military budget with stealth jets, long-range missiles

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's government approved a ninth consecutive rise in military spending on Dec 21, funding the development of an advanced stealth fighter and longer-range anti-ship missile to counter China's growing military power. The Ministry of Defense will get a record 5.34 trillion yen (US$51.7 billion) for the year starting in April, up 1.1 per cent from this year. With Suga's large majority in parliament, enactment of the budget is all but certain. China plans to raise its military spending 6.6 per cent this year, the smallest increase in three decades. A planned jet fighter, the first in three decades, is expected to cost about US$40 billion and be ready in the 2030s. Japan will spend US$323 million to begin development of a long-range anti-ship missile to defend its south-western Okinawa island chain. Other big purchases include US$628 million for six Lockheed F-35 stealth fighters, including two short-takeoff and vertical-landing (STOVL) B variants that will operate off a converted helicopter carrier. The military will also get US$912 million to build two compact warships that can operate with fewer sailors than conventional destroyers, easing pressure on a navy struggling to find recruits in an ageing population. Click here to read...

Putin's Press Conference: What He Said and Didn't Quite Say

At his year-end press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated long-standing complaints about the West and avoided direct answers to several questions, steering clear of even uttering the name of poisoned Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny. But he did address that issue and others, including a report that chipped away at the secrecy surrounding his own family, the future of ties with the incoming U.S. administration, and prospects for arms control. He also gave a full-throated defense of his man in Chechnya, accused rights abuser Ramzan Kadyrov, and fielded questions ranging from “are we in a new cold war” to “what is the secret of family happiness?”Asked how he expected Moscow would get along with the Biden administration, Putin offered scant praise for Biden, who travelled to Moscow many times over his career as a senator and then as vice president. "This depends to a significant degree on the new administration,” Putin said. "I'll repeat once again, he is a very experienced man; he's been in politics all his life. But, you know, there's a well-known saying: it’s the entourage that makes the king," he said. Click here to read...

John Kerry’s powerful climate job risks complicating US foreign policy

When John Kerry was US secretary of state during the second term of the Obama administration, his deputy was Antony Blinken, a Washington veteran steeped in the foreign policy establishment. Now Mr Kerry is coming back into government as special presidential envoy on climate change, a role in which he will be subordinate to Mr Blinken, who has been picked by president-elect Joe Biden as secretary of state. There is little doubt that Mr Blinken is the most senior of the pair: he will be the first cabinet member in the presidential line of succession behind Kamala Harris, the vice-president, and two others. Yet Mr Kerry has been afforded a level of prestige that is unusual for a presidential envoy. He will attend White House meetings with fellow national security principals, an arrangement designed to make climate change — and Mr Kerry — central to US foreign, security and economic policy. Mr Kerry might also be given an office on the lavish seventh floor of the department, which is normally reserved for top officials and the secretary of state, according two people briefed on the arrangements. Click here to read...

US Joint Chiefs chairman meets with Taliban on peace talks

The top U.S. general held unannounced talks with Taliban peace negotiators in the Persian Gulf to urge a reduction in violence across Afghanistan. Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met for about two hours with Taliban negotiators in Doha, Qatar, on Dec 15 and flew Dec 16 to Kabul to discuss the peace process with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. "The most important part of the discussions that I had with both the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan was the need for an immediate reduction in violence," Milley told three reporters, including one from The Associated Press, who accompanied him to Qatar and Afghanistan. "Everything else hinges on that." It was Milley's second unannounced meeting with the Taliban's negotiating team; the first, in June, also in Doha, had not been reported until now. Although Milley reported no breakthrough, his Taliban meetings represent a remarkable milestone -- America's top general coming face-to-face with representatives of the group that ruled Afghanistan until it was ousted 19 years ago this month in the early stages of what became America's longest war. Click here to read...

Taliban team in Pakistan as calls grow for Afghan cease-fire

A Taliban team, led by the co-founder of the insurgent movement, arrived Dec 16 in Islamabad for talks with Pakistani government leaders amid growing calls for a reduction in violence in Afghanistan. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and his delegation were summoned to Islamabad from Qatar, where they have been negotiating since September with Afghan government representatives, officials close to the talks said. The visit comes a day after U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad made a quick trip to Pakistan's powerful military in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. The Pakistani military has wielded significant influence over the Taliban and has had links with some of the leaders -- then part of the U.S.-backed mujahedeen -- dating back to the 1980s war and the former Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. Pakistan was the key in getting the Taliban to the negotiation table with the United States in 2018. The deal also paved way for the start of talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, which began in September in efforts to hammer out a roadmap for post-war Afghanistan. Kabul has called for the talks to resume inside Afghanistan while the Taliban insist, they continue in Doha, Qatar, where they maintain a political office. Click here to read...

As Arab States Recognize Israel, Egypt’s ‘Cold Peace’ Points to Challenges Ahead

Egypt was the first Arab country to recognize Israel more than 40 years ago, but the nation’s relationship with it shows the challenges of translating government ties, often driven by mutual security interests, into grass roots goodwill. More than a dozen well-known Egyptians have come under fire for dealing with Israelis in recent years, including the country’s top Muslim and Coptic Christian religious leaders, writers, intellectuals and artists. Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the former head of Cairo’s Al-Azhar, the highest institution of scholarship in Sunni Islam, faced a barrage of criticism for shaking hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres in 2008. Israelis argue that they face fewer challenges to cultural normalization in the Gulf region, in particular the U.A.E., given the lack of past wars between the countries. Thousands of Israelis are traveling to the Emirates as tourists this month, many of them enthusiastic about the new diplomatic relationship. “The Israelis would be worried if there were genuinely elected democratic governments in any of these places. That could threaten those relations,” said Khaled Elgindi, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington and former adviser to the Palestinian leadership on negotiations with Israel. Click here to read...

Russian military build up in Northeast Asia rattles Japan and US

Russia caused a major stir earlier this month when it deployed one of its most advanced air defense systems, the S-300V4, on a disputed northern island claimed by Japan. The build up adds another layer of complexity in a region often preoccupied with territorial friction in the South China Sea -- and presents a challenge to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's incoming administration. Russia says the S-300V4 went live Dec. 1 on Iturup -- known as Etorofu in Japan. The island is one of the four southern links in the Kuril Islands chain claimed by Tokyo, which refers to them as the Northern Territories. This puts sophisticated Russian missiles on the doorstep of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island. Tokyo quickly lodged an official protest and denounced the move as "unacceptable." The deployment followed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's announcement in September that troops in the Far East would receive over 500 units of "new and modernized equipment" before the end of the year. Click here to read...

UK calls on South Korea, India and Australia to attend G-7 summit

The British government has invited South Korea, India and Australia to a meeting of leading industrial countries it will chair next year as "guest nations." The invitation to the Group of Seven summit reflects Prime Minister Boris Johnson's "ambition to work with a group of like-minded democracies to advance shared interests and tackle common challenges," his office said Dec 15 while announcing Johnson will visit India next month. After leaving the European Union this year, the U.K. has been strengthening its ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific, including informal discussions over joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, also known as TPP-11. The invitation to the three countries is an extension of that effort, expanding cooperation with regional democracies and keeping check of China's increased maritime activities in the region. The idea of creating a new "D-10" alliance of the world's 10 largest democracies, by adding Seoul, New Delhi and Canberra to the G-7, has gained traction among Conservative Party members who are increasingly sceptical of China. Click here to read...

China sees 3 areas of cooperation with Biden: foreign minister

On his transition website, President-elect Joe Biden spotlights four areas to tackle from day one: confronting a pandemic, an economic crisis, calls for racial justice, and climate change.China can help with three, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday to the New York-based Asia Society think tank via video. "We have noted the four priorities laid out by President-elect Biden," Wang said. "We believe that at least three -- COVID response, economic recovery and climate change -- provide space for cooperation between our two countries." It marked the first comprehensive speech by a senior Chinese official on Sino-American relations since Biden's election. The diplomat labelled any U.S. efforts to remodel or subvert China "mission impossible" and called on the president-elect to "return bilateral relations to the right track and rebuild mutual trust." Talking about cooperation on the coronavirus pandemic, Wang said China has provided over 40 billion face masks to the U.S. "That is, on average, every American citizen gets over 100 face masks made in China," he said. Click here to read...

Medical

'A bit too transparent'? Pfizer fumes as Belgian official leaks all VACCINE PRICES for EU in 'unintended' Twitter post

The shroud of secrecy over the Covid-19 vaccines' prices was suddenly lifted, when Belgian MP Eva De Bleeker published a tweet detailing how much the EU is paying to six pharma companies for each shot. Brussels has for months been insisting it is legally restricted from revealing any details on the price of the coronavirus vaccines, but that didn't stop the senior official from blowing the lid late on Dec 17. De Bleeker, who is Belgium's State Secretary for Budget and Consumer Protection, quickly realized herblunder and deleted the post with the price list, but it was too late, as local media outlets had already made screenshots of it. The post listed the prices per dose of vaccines purchased by the European Union as follows: Oxford/AstraZeneca: €1.78; Johnson & Johnson: $8.50; Sanofi/GSK: €7.56; BioNTech/Pfizer: €12; CureVac: €10; and Moderna: $18. Click here to read...

WHO vaccination scheme at ‘very high’ risk of failure, leaving poor nations without Covid-19 shots until 2024 – report

Chances are “very high” that the global program to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor countries will flop, forcing billions of people to wait for their shots at least until 2024, internal papers seen by Reuters have revealed. The World Health Organization's COVAX scheme is expected to provide at least two billion vaccine doses to 91 poor and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America by the end of 2021. But it turns out that the very people behind the program don’t have full confidence that they’ll be able to fulfill the task in time. Lack of funds, supply risks and complex contractual arrangements are the main obstacles currently faced by the scheme, according to internal documents from Gavi – an alliance of governments, drug makers, charities and international bodies which co-leads COVAX together with the WHO – have revealed. “The risk of a failure to establish a successful COVAX facility is very high,” read a report discussed by Gavi’s board this week, as cited by Reuters. Click here to read...

Brazil says Beijing ‘not transparent’ when it allowed emergency use of Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine

Brazil’s drug regulator has criticized Beijing for not providing enough information about allowing the emergency use of the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine, currently undergoing trials in Brazil. “The Chinese criteria applied to grant the authorization of emergency use in China are not transparent, and there is no available information on the criteria currently in use by the Chinese decision-making bodies,” Brazil’s National Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) said in a statement. The agency said that allowing the emergency use of the vaccine without the relevant data would pose “risks to the Brazilian population.” Anvisa warned that “geopolitical issues” could potentially affect “national discussions and eventual decisions by foreign authorities in relation to the Covid-19 vaccine.” The vaccine, developed by the Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech, is currently undergoing Phase III trials in Sao Paulo in collaboration with the city’s Butantan Institute. The trial was briefly suspended in November following the death of one of the volunteers. Click here to read...

Why the U.K.’s Mutated Coronavirus Is Fanning Worries

Dubbed the “B.1.1.7 lineage,” the strain has undergone almost a dozen genetic changes from the virus that emerged from Wuhan, China in late 2019 -- way more than typically observed. That includes changes in key areas of the virus involved in its ability to infect people. Preliminary analysis in the U.K. suggests it may be as much as 70% more transmissible than other circulating SARS-CoV-2 strains and may be contributing to a spike in cases in the country. Maria van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead on Covid-19, told the BBC on Dec. 20 that the WHO is working to understand the extent to which the virus may spread more easily, along with other human behavioral factors that may be driving transmission. It’s also looking at whether the mutation causes more severe illness and can evade the antibodies generated by vaccination. Mutations like those that have occurred in the new U.K. strain involve the gene that encodes the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which is associated with viral entry into cells and influences immunity and vaccine efficacy. Click here to read...