COVID-19 International Developments: Daily Scan, June 12, 2020

Economic

Coronavirus crisis could see number of extreme poor rise to 1.1 billion worldwide - researchers

The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic could plunge an extra 395 million people into extreme poverty and swell the total number of those living on less than $1.90 a day worldwide to more than 1 billion, researchers said in a report on Friday. The report - published by UNU-WIDER, part of the United Nations University - played through a number of scenarios, taking into account the World Bank’s various poverty lines - from extreme poverty, defined as living on $1.90 a day or less, to higher poverty lines of living on less than $5.50 a day. “The result is progress on poverty reduction could be set back 20-30 years and making the UN goal of ending poverty look like a pipe dream.” Click here to read.... [2]

US tech industry fears new Huawei ban will scare off customers

"Securing new clients in China, or even in Asia, could be more challenging from now on as prospective clients would think twice before they buy American equipment or technologies like ours," an executive at a California-based semiconductor company, who asked not to be named, told the Nikkei Asian Review after new rules were announced. The California company, like many of its peers, has close ties to the Chinese market, which accounted for more than 60% of global semiconductor consumption in 2019, according to a report by Beijing-based market research agency Daxue Consulting. Click here to read.... [3]

China faces outcry after premier admits 40% of population struggles

China is facing a public outcry over its claim that Beijing had “basically won” the war against poverty after Premier Li Keqiang admitted that more than two-fifths of the population made less than $140 a month. A week after Mr Li announced the figure, saying it was “hardly enough” to rent a home in a big city, academics and netizens raced to question Beijing’s pledge to eradicate poverty by the end of this year. “Given the current price level, the premier is suggesting 600m Chinese people are having trouble maintaining a basic living standard,” said a Beijing-based policy adviser, who declined to be named. “The poverty relief [campaign] needs to carry on.” Click here to read.... [4]

China's street-stall debate puts Xi and Li at odds

Two of China's richest men sold items on the street earlier in their careers. Ren Zhengfei sold diet pills and fire extinguishers on the street before going on to start China's biggest telecoms equipment maker, Huawei Technologies. Jack Ma Yun sold small goods in Zhejiang before eventually founding e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding. Over the past several years, President Xi Jinping's regime has cracked down on stalls as part of efforts to maintain security and strengthen governance. Li's public endorsement of the street vendors is seen as a policy reversal. Click here to read.... [5]

Governments at varied levels are slashing discretionary spending in China

China's government departments' budgets for purchasing real estate have been slashed this year, including a 40 percent downsizing for investment, according to a statement released by the National Government Offices Administration on Wednesday. Additionally, budgets for government office refurbishment have been cut by 18 percent and the budgets for renovating old office compounds are being reduced by 40 percent. These cuts are in line with a call for governmental organs to tighten their belts, made in the Government Work Report during this year's "two sessions" - NPC and CPPCC. Click here to read.... [6]

A Scramble for Gold Is Redrawing the Map of the Market

New York faces a gold rush after the pandemic threw precious-metal markets into disarray, setting off a scramble by traders to cut their losses. Bullion vaults approved by the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange house a record 29.7 million troy ounces, according to FactSet data back to 2013. Almost three quarters of that gold weighing as much as nine, fully loaded Boeing 737-700 airplanes—has arrived in the past three months. The displacement was set off by dysfunction in the market in March and early April, caused by fears of a breakdown in ordinarily frictionless gold supply chains. Click here to read.... [7]

Europe’s Borders to Reopen for Summer, but Not Everyone Is Invited

European Union countries should remove borders within the bloc on June 15 and allow citizens from selected countries outside the bloc to return from July 1, the European Commission said Thursday. The July 1 opening is aimed at boosting Europe’s depressed tourism industry in time for the crucial summer season. Tourism is one of the EU’s biggest economic sectors, accounting for around 10% of economic output in the bloc. The commission set out several criteria for allowing citizens from non-regional countries to travel there. One is that non-regional third countries must have opened their borders to EU citizens from all member states. A second is that the pandemic in that country must be comparable with or better than the health situation in Europe and that adequate data are available. Click here to read.... [8]

Strategic

U.S. naval build up in Indo-Pacific seen as warning to China

For the first time in nearly three years, three American aircraft carriers are patrolling the Indo-Pacific waters, a massive show of naval force in a region roiled by spiking tensions between the United States and China and a sign that the Navy has bounced back from the worst days of the coronavirus outbreak. The unusual simultaneous appearance of the three warships, accompanied by Navy cruisers, destroyers, fighter jets and other aircraft, comes as the United States escalates criticism of Beijing’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, its moves to impose greater control over Hong Kong and its campaign to militarize human-made islands in the South China Sea. Click here to read.... [9]

Saudi Arabia considers cancelling hajj for first time in modern history

Saudi Arabia is considering cancelling the hajj pilgrimage season for the first time since the kingdom was founded in 1932, after cases of coronavirus in the country topped 100,000.“The issue has been carefully studied and different scenarios are being considered. An official decision will be made within one week,” a senior official from Saudi Arabia’s hajj and umrah ministry told the Financial Times. Religious pilgrims were expected to generate $12bn for the kingdom before the pandemic struck. Click here to read.... [10]

Sri Lanka delays general election for second time, sets Aug. 5 as new date

Sri Lanka will hold its general election on Aug. 5, the head of the nation’s election commission said at a news briefing on Wednesday, delaying the parliamentary vote for a second time as the country continues to attempt to rein in the coronavirus pandemic.“The parliamentary election that was due on June 20, will be held on Aug. 5,” Mahinda Deshapriya, chairman of Sri Lanka’s Elections Commission, told reporters. Click here to read.... [11]

Nepal ruling party split over US aid threat to China relations

There are widening divisions in the leadership of Nepal's ruling party over a U.S. promise of aid that rivals of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli worry will damage the country's blossoming relations with China. A Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) grant agreed in 2017 has widened splits in the Nepal Communist Party. Oli has been pushing for its parliamentary approval, but influential party members are opposed. Oli has failed to get the agreement ratified twice since a related piece of legislation was put before parliament in July 2019. Click here to read.... [12]

Trump authorizes sanctions over ICC Afghanistan war crimes case

President Donald Trump on Thursday authorized U.S. economic and travel sanctions against International Criminal Court employees involved in an investigation into whether American forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan. In announcing the president’s executive order, Trump administration officials said the Hague-based tribunal threatens to infringe on U.S. national sovereignty and accused Russia of manipulating it to serve Moscow’s ends. Click here to read.... [13]

N. Korea to further develop nuclear arms due to stalled US talks

The North Korean foreign minister said Friday that Pyongyang will press on with the development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, as denuclearization negotiations with the United States remain stalled. Ri Son Gwon's statement, titled "Our Message to U.S. is Clear," was issued through the state-run Korean Central News Agency on the second anniversary of the first meeting between the U.S. and North Korean leaders in Singapore. Click here to read.... [14]

COVID-19: WHO warns pandemic accelerating in Africa

The speed the new coronavirus jumped from 100,000 to 200,000 confirmed cases in Africa shows just how quickly the pandemic is accelerating on the continent, the World Health Organization said on Thursday (Jun 11). According to an AFP tally, Africa topped the 200,000 mark on Tuesday."It took 98 days to reach the first 100,000 cases, and only 18 days to move to 200,000 cases," Doctor Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO's regional director for Africa, told a video briefing hosted by the UN press association in Geneva. "Even though these cases in Africa account for less than three per cent of the global total, it's clear that the pandemic is accelerating." Click here to read.... [15]

Medical

How a vaccine made of mosquito spit could help stop the next epidemic

Building on the work of colleagues and other scientists, Manning, a clinical researcher for the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, believed she could use pieces of mosquito saliva protein to build a universal vaccine. The vaccine, if it pans out, would protect against all of the pathogens the insects inject into humans - malaria, dengue, chikungunya, Zika, yellow fever, West Nile, Mayaro viruses and anything else that may emerge. On Thursday, The Lancet published the initial results of this work with her colleagues: the first-ever clinical trial of a mosquito spit vaccine in humans. Click here to read.... [16]

Japanese drug maker eyes stem cell clinical test for coronavirus treatment

Japanese drug maker Rohto Pharmaceutical Co. said Thursday it plans to launch a clinical trial using stem cells to develop a treatment for severe cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. The Osaka-based company said the trial will use mesenchymal stem cells created from human adipose tissue and the clinical test with stem cells will be the first of its kind in Japan. Rohto plans to examine the efficacy and safety of the treatment after administering stem cells intravenously. It is scheduled to unveil the details of the test at a press conference on June 23. Click here to read.... [17]