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December
Oil prices fall amid worries over new coronavirus strain
Written by Nur YasminOil prices slid in early trade on Monday as a fast-spreading new coronavirus strain in the United Kingdom raised concerns that tighter restrictions there and in other European countries could stall a recovery in the global economy and its need for fuel.
Brent crude dropped 97 cents, or 1.9%, to $51.29 a barrel by 0103 GMT after rising 1.5% and touching its highest since March last Friday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 83 cents, or 1.7%, to $48.27 a barrel after also climbing 1.5% on Friday to its highest level since February.
Monday’s declines came after oil prices marked seven straight weeks of gains last week as investors focused on the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
“A new variant of the coronavirus in Britain and tighter travel restrictions in Europe sparked fears over slower economic recovery, prompting investors to unwind long positions,” said Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at commodities broker Fujitomi Co.
“The oil market has been on a bull trend in the past month or so, ignoring negative factors, amid an optimism that a widening vaccine rollout would revive global growth, but investors’ rosy expectations for 2021 have suddenly vanished,” Saito said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair an emergency response meeting on Monday to discuss international travel, in particular the flow of freight in and out of Britain as COVID-19 cases surged by a record number for one day. The headache comes as Johnson also seeks to hammer out a final accord on Brexit.
The variant, which officials say is up to 70% more transmissible than the original, also prompted concerns about a wider spread, forcing several European countries to begin closing their doors to travellers from the United Kingdom.
The negative sentiment also overshadowed a weekend deal among U.S. congressional leaders for a $900 billion coronavirus aid package.
Adding to pressure, the oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose by eight to 346 in the week to Dec. 18, the highest since May, Baker Hughes said on Friday, as producers keep returning to the wellpad with crude prices trading above $45 a barrel since late November. (Reuters)
December
Macron tests positive for COVID-19, European leaders rush for tests
Written by Nur YasminPresident Emmanuel Macron tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, prompting a track-and-trace effort across Europe following numerous meetings between the French leader and EU heads of government in recent days.
Macron, who will turn 43 on Monday, is running France remotely and has gone into quarantine at the presidential retreat of La Lanterne close to the Palace of Versailles, the presidency said.
A presidential official described Macron as tired and having a cough. His wife Brigitte tested negative but was also self-isolating, staying at the Elysee palace in central Paris.
In the early evening, Macron spoke to a conference on French foreign aid policy via video link. Dressed in a roll-neck sweater and suit jacket, the president sat behind a desk and wore a facemask, showing no visible sign of the illness.
“This diagnosis was made following a PCR test performed at the onset of the first symptoms,” Macron’s office said, declining to give further details of his condition or the symptoms he had.
Macron will cancel all upcoming trips including a Dec. 22 visit to Lebanon where he has led international efforts to resolve a deep-rooted political crisis.
Closer to home, Macron’s COVID-19 infection spurred other leaders to take their own tests.
Macron joined all but two of the European Union’s 27 leaders at a summit in Brussels late last week to discuss climate change, the EU budget and Turkey.
The presidential official said it was almost certain Macron was infected at the summit given the timing of his symptoms. (reuters)
December
South Korea and Indonesia sign deal to boost trade, investment
Written by Nur YasminSouth Korea and Indonesia on Friday signed an economic partnership agreement aimed at boosting investment and trade between the two countries, in areas ranging from automobiles to apparel, officials said.
South Korea is among Indonesia’s top ten trading partners and investors, but the economic relationship still did not reflect the true potential, Indonesian Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto said at a signing ceremony broadcast online from Seoul.
Under the agreement, South Korea will eliminate more than 95% of its tariff lines and Indonesia eliminate over 92% and give preferential tariffs to support Korean investment, Indonesia’s trade ministry said in a statement.
The comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) will not only impact industries such as automobiles but also technology, South Korea’s Industry Minister Sung Yoon-mo said.
“This CEPA will also facilitate exchanges of professionals in area such as science, technology, software and robotics, promoting cooperation in high-tech industry,” Sung said.
In 2019, trade between the two countries was worth $15.65 billion and between 2015-2019 South Korean companies invested nearly $7 billion in Indonesia, Indonesian trade ministry data showed.
Indonesia aimed to start implementing the deal next year, Minister Agus said.
Indonesia has been trying to encourage foreign investors including South Korean companies to invest in plants and components for electric vehicles to take advantage of the country’s rich nickel ore reserves, which are used to make batteries.
South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group and LG Chem Ltd are among South Korean companies reported to be considering investments in battery cell manufacturing in Indonesia. (reuters)
December
China welcomes WHO-led trip to investigate COVID-19, WHO official says
Written by Nur YasminThe World Health Organization said on Thursday that China had welcomed an international team of investigators into COVID-19 expected to travel to the country in early January.
Babatunde Olowokure, the WHO’s regional emergencies director in the Western Pacific, told a news conference that the organisation was in talks with Beijing over where the investigators would travel to within the country.
“WHO continues to contact China and to discuss the international team and the places they visit,” Olowokure told the streamed news conference.
“Our understanding at this time is that China is welcoming the international team and their visit...This is anticipated, as far as we are aware, to happen in early January,” he said.
On Wednesday, a WHO member and diplomats told Reuters the international mission led by the WHO was expected to go to China in the first week of January to investigate the origins of the virus that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic.
The United States, which has accused China of having hidden the outbreak’s extent, has called for a “transparent” WHO-led investigation and criticised its terms, which allowed Chinese scientists to do the first phase of preliminary research.
Referring to the ongoing discussions with China over the trip, Olowokure said told the news conference: “These are of course important for us and to get an overall picture of how the investigation will go.”(reuters)
December
OIC condemns mass kidnapping of schoolchildren in Nigeria
Written by Nur YasminSecretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Dr. Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen, has strongly condemned the recent kidnapping of hundreds of schoolchildren in Nigeria, for which extremist group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility.
In a statement received in Jakarta on Wednesday, the OIC General Secretariat called for the unconditional release of the students and for their safe return to their families.
In his statement, Al-Othaimeen reiterated the OIC’s principled position against extremism and terrorism, and expressed solidarity with the efforts made by the authorities in northwest Nigeria to combat the phenomena.
On Tuesday, a man identifying himself as the leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram had released an audio message saying the Islamist group was responsible for the kidnapping of more than 300 students from an all-boys school in the northwestern state of Katsina.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, has waged an insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria since 2009, but has not previously claimed responsibility for any attacks in the area, Reuters reported.
In his message, Abubakar Shekau, the man claiming to be the group's leader, offered no proof to support his claim. Reuters was unable to verify the audio recording, and Nigerian authorities did not immediately comment on the report.
In a region where criminal gangs often rob and kidnap civilians for ransom, gunmen reportedly abducted boys from the Government Science School in Kankara town on Friday. Katsina state authorities said some students managed to escape, but around 320 remained missing. (Antaranews)
December
Record climate disasters in Asia-Pacific push millions to 'breaking point'
Written by Nur YasminAsia-Pacific has faced a record number of climate-related disasters in 2020, affecting tens of millions of vulnerable people already hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Red Cross said on Wednesday.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said it had responded to 24 climate-linked crises this year in the world’s most disaster-prone region - up from 18 in 2019 - including floods, typhoons, extreme cold and drought.
“COVID-19 has of course aggravated these impacts, with a taste of the compound shocks we’re expecting in a changing climate,” Maarten van Aalst, director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“The pandemic has not only complicated evacuations and disaster response, but also aggravates the economic impact of disasters, especially for the poorest people,” he added.
Southeast Asia was the IFRC’s busiest region in 2020, with 15 emergency responses to disasters including severe floods, storms and landslides in the Philippines and Vietnam that affected more than 31 million people.
Jess Letch, the IFRC’s emergency operations manager, said the challenge had been to help communities with relief aid while also taking the steps needed to halt the spread of COVID-19.
Mary Joy Gonzales, a resilience project manager with CARE in the Philippines, said her aid agency had worked to provide additional shelter to enable social distancing after one person contracted COVID-19 in an evacuation centre it was supporting.
Women have suffered a triple blow, she added, with the pandemic fuelling violence at home just as many lost their jobs and had to look after out-of-school children and elderly relatives while the country was pummelled by destructive storms.
The agency expected that such impacts “will get worse due to climate change”, she told journalists earlier this month.
“We have seen the trend in the past 10 years: typhoons have been becoming stronger and we have lost thousands of lives already,” she said.
Last year, more than 94 million people in the Asia-Pacific region were hit by climate-related disasters, with the area experiencing twice as many emergencies as the Americas or Africa, according to the IFRC’s latest World Disasters Report.
The total number of people affected in 2020 has not yet been released. (Reuters)
December
Europe set to approve COVID-19 vaccine in Christmas week
Written by Nur YasminEuropeans are set to start getting coronavirus vaccines before the new year after the regional drug regulator accelerated its approval process following the launch of immunisation campaigns in the United States and Britain.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said an expert panel would convene on Monday Dec. 21 to evaluate the vaccine made by U.S. company Pfizer and German partner BioNTech. It had previously said the meeting could be as late as Dec 29.
While EMA’s mandate is to issue recommendations on new medical treatments, the European Commission has the final say on approval and typically follows EMA’s advice.
EMA said its expert meeting was brought forward after the companies had provided more data, as requested, and the EU Commission would fast-track its procedures to rule on approval “within days”.
Germany should start giving coronavirus shots 24 to 72 hours after the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine gets EU approval and could begin as soon as Christmas, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Tuesday.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen echoed those sentiments by saying on Twitter “(It is) Likely that the first Europeans will be vaccinated before end 2020.”
Germany, France, Italy and five other European states will coordinate the start of their vaccination campaigns, the countries’ health ministers said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
The countries will promote “the coordination of the launch of the vaccination campaigns” and will rapidly share information on how it is proceeding, said the statement, released by Italy.
The statement was also signed by the health ministers of Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and EU neighbour Switzerland. (Reuters)
December
U.N. chief proposes new envoys to mediate Libya, Mideast
Written by Nur YasminUnited Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed new envoys to mediate conflicts in Libya and the Middle East, who could be given the greenlight by the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday after months of delay, diplomats said.
Guterres put forward his current Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov to become his Libya special envoy - replacing Ghassan Salame who stepped down in March due to stress - and named veteran Norwegian diplomat Tor Wennesland to succeed Mladenov as the U.N. mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.
If there are no objections by any of the 15 Security Council members by Tuesday evening then the appointments will be approved, ending months of bickering sparked by a U.S. push to split the Libya role to have one person running the U.N. political mission and another focused on conflict mediation.
The Security Council agreed to that proposal in September. Guterres then proposed Bulgarian diplomat Mladenov for the Libya role last month and on Friday named Wennesland, currently Norway’s special envoy on the Middle East peace process, to replace Mladenov, according to letters seen by Reuters.
Mladenov has been the U.N. Middle East envoy since 2015.
Libya descended into chaos after the NATO-backed overthrow of leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. In October, the two major sides in the country’s war - the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) and Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) - agreed a ceasefire.
Haftar is supported by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, while the government is backed by Turkey.
In the Middle East, the Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. (Reuters)
December
Singapore to open business travel bubble for all countries from January
Written by Nur YasminSingapore will open a new segregated travel lane for a limited number of business, official and high economic value travellers from all countries, the government said on Tuesday, as part of efforts to revive its key travel and hospitality sectors.
Singapore has spent billions of dollars in a bid to shield its economy from its worst-ever downturn and is trying to reopen international travel as it prepares to host the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering of political and business leaders next year.
The first travellers will be able to arrive from the second half of January through the new lane, which will be open to those who are coming for short-term stays of up to 14 days, the ministry of trade and industry said in a statement.
It will complement other arrangements that Singapore has for business travel including with China, Germany and Indonesia.
Travellers under the latest arrangement will have to stick to strict health and testing protocols, and will need to stay within a “bubble” at segregated facilities.
For example, while travellers will be allowed to meet with local visitors, there will be floor-to-ceiling dividers separating them. (Reuters)
December
New Zealand agrees on 'travel bubble' with Australia early next year
Written by Nur YasminNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that the cabinet has agreed in principle to allow travel with Australia without quarantine in the first quarter of 2021.
Ardern said this was subject to decisions by Australian governments, and more preparations were still needed to finalise the “travel bubble”, adding that intends to name a date in the New Year once remaining details are determined. (Reuters)
