Kashmir.Watch

Category: World

  • China calls on U.S. to pay its debts to the United Nations

    As of May 14, the total unpaid assessments under the U.N. regular budget and peacekeeping budget amount to 1.63 billion and 2.14 billion U.S. dollars respectively,’ the Chinese statement said

    AFP

    China on Friday issued a statement calling on all U.N. member states to “actively fulfill their financial obligations to the United Nations,” stressing that Washington owes the organization more than $2 billion.

    “As of May 14, the total unpaid assessments under the U.N. regular budget and peacekeeping budget amount to 1.63 billion and 2.14 billion U.S. dollars respectively,” the Chinese statement said, citing a report from U.N. Secretary-General’s office and a meeting held on Thursday.

    Including arrears that stretch back several years, “the United States is the largest debtor, owing 1.165 billion and 1.332 billion U.S. dollars respectively,” China added.

    The U.S. is the biggest contributor to the U.N. budget, paying 22 percent of its annual running costs, a bill which adds up to around $3 billion, and 25 percent of its peacekeeping operations, which amount to some $6 billion a year.

    Officially, Washington is meant to pay 27.89 percent of the peacekeeping budget, but a decision made by Congress and implemented by President Donald Trump in 2017 cut that payment to 25 percent, meaning Washington runs up an annual shortfall of $200 million.

    The United States also has a fiscal year that runs from October to October, which can make it look like an even bigger debtor at certain times of the year.

    There was no immediate response from the U.S. mission to China’s statement.

    The payment of contributions by member countries for peacekeeping operations has a direct impact on the reimbursements the U.N. p.ays to countries that contribute troops to the 15 or so missions around the world.

    In a report on May 11, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “there may be significant delays towards the middle of the year, unless the cash position across missions improves significantly.” On Thursday, around 50 of the 193 member states, including China, paid their contributions in full, which Beijing — the second largest contributor, far behind the United States — noted in its statement.

    China pays around 12 percent of the U.N.’s running costs and around 15 percent of the peacekeeping budget.

  • China reports 15 new coronavirus cases

    PTI

    Beijing: China has reported 15 new COVID-19 cases, including 11 asymptomatic ones, taking the total number of coronavirus infections in the country to 82,933, health authorities said on Friday.

    According to China’s National Health Commission (NHC), four new confirmed coronavirus case, all locally transmitted from Jilin province, were reported on Thursday.

    Among the new cases, 11 are asymptomatic infections, upping their total to 619, including 492 in its first COVID-19 epicentre Wuhan, it said.

    China has already imposed strict control measures in Jilin city to halt the spread of the virus.

    Wuhan, where six new confirmed cases were reported early this week prompting the government to launch massive drive to test over 11 million of its population, has reported no new cases, according to the local health commission.

    Fears of a second wave of the pandemic has gripped the city as it has also reported 492 asymptomatic cases.

    The NHC said 619 asymptomatic cases, including 35 from overseas, were under medical observation.

    Asymptomatic cases refer to people who are tested COVID-19 positive but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat. However, they pose a risk of spreading the disease to others.

    China has opened up the country fully after the coronavirus cases declined.

    The businesses and factories of the world’s second-largest economy have fully opened and are functioning.

    China has also restored intercity travel with COVID-19 negative health certificates.

    Altogether, 4,633 people have died of the disease in China and the country so far reported 82,933 cases, including 91 patients still undergoing treatment.

  • Hong Kong shop offers ‘tear gas’ flavor ice cream in ‘solidarity with pro-democracy movement’

    AP

    HONG KONG — Tear gas is among the new flavors at a Hong Kong ice cream shop.

    The main ingredient is black peppercorns, a reminder of the pungent, peppery rounds fired by police on the streets of the semi-autonomous Chinese city during months of demonstrations last year.

    “It tastes like tear gas. It feels difficult to breathe at first, and it’s really pungent and irritating. It makes me want to drink a lot of water immediately,” said customer Anita Wong, who experienced tear gas at a protest. “I think it’s a flashback that reminds me of how painful I felt in the movement, and that I shouldn’t forget.”

    The flavor is a sign of support for the pro-democracy movement, which is seeking to regain its momentum during the coronavirus pandemic, the shop’s owner said. He spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid repercussions from the pro-Beijing government.

    “We would like to make a flavor that reminds people that they still have to persist in the protest movement and don’t lose their passion,” he said.

    He tried different ingredients, including wasabi and mustard, in an effort to replicate the taste of tear gas. Black pepper, he said, came closest to tear gas with its throat-irritating effects.

    “We roast and then grind whole black peppercorns and make them into gelato, the Italian style. It’s a bit hot, but we emphasize its aftertaste, which is a sensation of irritation in the throat. It just feels like breathing in tear gas,” the 31-year-old owner said.

    More than 16,000 rounds of tear gas were fired during the protests, according to Hong Kong authorities, many in densely populated districts where narrow streets are filled with small restaurants and apartment blocks.

    The protests began over proposed legislation that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China to face charges. While the bills were withdrawn, demonstrations continued over concerns Beijing is eroding the civil liberties granted to the former British colony when it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

    Continue reading the main story
    The ice cream shop also provides a space for people to express their views about the movement, including the use of sticky notes that featured in the “Lennon walls” that appeared throughout the territory at the height of the demonstrations.

    Such expressions date back to the 2014 Occupy Central protests, when a major stairway leading to the Hong Kong government headquarters was plastered with thousands of notes carrying messages of support.

    At about $5 a serving, tear gas ice cream has been a hit. Prior to social distancing regulations over the coronavirus outbreak, the shop’s owner said he was selling 20-30 scoops per day.

    The demonstration have mostly died away as the city fights the coronavirus, but there are widespread expectations that larger actions may emerge during the summer. Already, police have been out in force to deter large gatherings and the government is pressing ahead with legislation that would make it a crime to mock the Chinese national anthem.

  • U.S. says Islamic State conducted attack on Kabul hospital

    But it was unclear if the U.S. declaration would be enough to bolster the peace effort and reverse a decision by the Kabul government to resume offensive operations against the Taliban.

    Reuters

    The United States on Thursday blamed Islamic State militants — not the Taliban — for a gruesome hospital attack in Afghanistan this week that killed two newborn babies, and it renewed calls for Afghans to embrace a troubled peace push with the Taliban insurgency.

    But it was unclear if the U.S. declaration would be enough to bolster the peace effort and reverse a decision by the Kabul government to resume offensive operations against the Taliban.

    Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ordered the military on Tuesday to switch to “offensive mode” against the Taliban following the hospital attack in Kabul and a suicide bombing in Nangarhar province that killed scores of people.

    U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad blamed Islamic State for both attacks in a statement issued on Twitter, saying the group opposed any Taliban peace agreement and sought to trigger an Iraq-style sectarian war in Afghanistan.

    “Rather than falling into the ISIS trap and delay peace or create obstacles, Afghans must come together to crush this menace and pursue a historic peace opportunity,” Mr. Khalilzad said.

    “No more excuses. Afghans, and the world, deserve better.”

    An affiliate of the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the Nangarhar bombing, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. No one has claimed the hospital attack.

    The Taliban denied involvement in either attacks, but the government accused the group of fostering an environment in which terrorism thrives or of working with other militant groups who could have been involved, straining U.S. efforts to bring the insurgents and Afghan government together.

    The attacks were another setback to U.S. President Donald Trump’s stalled plans to bring peace to Afghanistan and end America’s longest war.

    A Feb. 29 U.S.-Taliban deal called for a phased U.S. troop withdrawal and for the Afghan government and Taliban to release some prisoners by March 10, when peace talks were to start.

    Intra-Afghan peace talks have yet to occur and there is some bitterness within the Afghan government, which was not a party to the Feb. 29 deal, that the United States undercut their leverage by negotiating directly with the Taliban.

    Mr. Ghani’s decision to revive offensive operations is supported by many opposition figures, who believe Washington’s sole focus is to keep the U.S. troop withdrawal plan on track to help Trump win a second term in the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election.

  • Coronavirus | China rejects U.S. charge of vaccine research theft

    Hackers are trying to steal data on COVID-19 cures’

    Agence France Press

    Beijing accused the U.S. on Thursday of smearing China after Washington alleged Chinese hackers were attempting to steal research on developing a vaccine against the coronavirus (COVID-19).

    The claims have added fuel to tensions between the global superpowers, who have traded barbs over the origin of the pandemic that has killed 3,00,000 people.

    U.S. authorities said on Wednesday that Chinese hackers were trying to obtain coronavirus data on treatments and vaccines, warning the effort involved Chinese government-affiliated groups and others.

    ‘Significant threat’

    The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said China’s efforts posed a “significant threat” to the U.S. response to COVID-19.

    “China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to such smearing,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular press briefing.

    “Judging from past records, the U.S. has carried out the largest cybertheft operations worldwide,” Mr. Zhao told reporters.

    He stressed that Beijing has significant achievements of its own in the fight against the pandemic.

    China is “also leading the world in COVID-19 vaccine research and treatment”, and therefore has more reason to worry about cyber espionage itself, Mr. Zhao said.

    He added that the country has cracked down on cyber-hacking, and that any cyber attack hindering the global fight against the pandemic should be condemned by people around the world.

    Responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s reference to COVID-19 as the “Plague from China”, Mr. Zhao said the U.S. should stop blaming and discrediting others, and focus on their own prevention and control work.

  • Pakistan awards ₹442bn Diamer-Bhasha dam contract to joint venture between Power China and FWO

    PTI

    The contract signed on Wednesday covers construction of a diversion system, main dam, access bridge and the 21MW Tangir hydropower project.

    Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government has signed a whopping ₹442 billion contract with a joint venture of a Chinese state-run firm and a commercial arm of Pakistan’s military for the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam.

    Chinese state-run firm China Power holds 70% and the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), a commercial arm of the Armed Forces of Pakistan, 30% share in the consortium, Dawn newspaper reported.

    The contract signed on Wednesday covers construction of a diversion system, main dam, access bridge and the 21MW Tangir hydropower project.

    The eight Million Acre Feet (MAF) reservoir with 272-metre height will be the tallest roller compact concrete (RCC) dam in the world. It will have a spillway, 14 gates and five outlets for flushing out silt. The diversion system involves two tunnels and a diversion canal — all three having one kilometre length each, the paper said.

    The bridge — a box girder structure — under the contract will be constructed downstream of the dam structure while the 21MW power plant will be built to meet energy requirements of the project during construction.

    Prime Minister Khan was briefed on the progress of the project a couple of days ago. The construction work on dam will begin in a couple of weeks.

    Diamer-Bhasha dam project chief executive officer Amir Bashir Chaudhry and authorised representative of China Power Yang Jiandu signed the agreement on behalf of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and the joint venture, respectively.

    Water Resources Minister Faisal Vawda, Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing, Wate Resources Secretary Mohammad Ashraf, Wapda chairman retired Lt. Gen. Muzammil Hussain, Pakistan Army engineer-in-chief Lt. Gen. Moazzam Ejaz and FWO director general Maj. Gen. Kamal Azfar attended the signing ceremony.

    The Wapda chairman expressed hope that the Diamer-Bhasha dam would be completed as per the timelines to cope with the increasing water and electricity requirements of the country. The dam project with a total financial outlay of about ₹1,406.5 billion would be completed in 2028, he said.

    The total financial outlay includes land acquisition and resettlement, confidence building measures for social uplift of the local people, construction of dam and power houses.

    General Muzammil Hussain said the project would have a gross storage capacity of 8.1 MAF and power generation capacity of 4,500MW. However, the electromechanical and power generation project would be taken up separately at a later stage.

    Wapda has already awarded a ₹27.182 billion contract for dam’s consultancy services to Diamer-Bhasha Consultants Group (DBCG). The consultancy agreement includes construction design, construction supervision and contract administration of the dam project.

    The Council of Common Interests (CCI) had approved the project for construction in 2010, but it suffered delays because of international lending agencies which remained associated with the project but later backtracked because of opposition from India as major part of the dam is located in Gilgit-Baltistan, the paper said.

    The government has already spent about ₹170 billion on the project since then on land acquisition and other expenses.

    In view of the lenders’ resistance, it was decided about four years ago to divide the multi-purpose project into two major components — ₹650 billion worth of dam project to be constructed with the public sector funds and ₹750 billion worth of power project most probably to be developed in independent power producer (IPP) mode at a later stage, the paper added.

    The core project development (dam structure) alone is estimated to cost almost ₹270 billion. The project offers a very attractive internal economic return of 15.7% even at a 12% discount rate, according to project documents.

    The project is designed to serve as the main storage dam of the country, besides Mangla and Tarbela dams, and its storage would be helpful for alleviating flood losses. The dam will have a 6.4 MAF usable water storage capacity.

    The project is estimated to help alleviate acute irrigation shortage in the Indus basin irrigation system caused by progressive siltation of the existing reservoirs, besides substantially contributing to reduce intensity, quantum and duration of floods and reduce magnitude and frequency of floods in the River Indus downstream.

    The project will also have trickledown effects on all sectors of the economy by accelerating development and creating job opportunities, besides improving availability of water and clean energy.

    The completion of the dam would increase the country’s storage capacity from 30 to 48 days and make power generation facilities an attractive future investment by the private sector to add 4,500MW of additional electricity to the national grid, according to Dawn.

  • How the pandemic could bring cash-rich Dubai to its knees

    The financial heart of the UAE faces an uncertain future with the pandemic halting its trade, travel and tourism, pushing it to turn to big brother Abu Dhabi for help.

    TRT World

    Across the chaotic Middle East, Dubai has long been known for its riches. From luxury hotels and glittering real estate to its penchant for gold, the oil money allowed it to build almost anything people dreamed of.

    But the days of lavish spending may soon be over as the deadly coronavirus has struck the city hard. The pandemic has brought its economy to a standstill, severely affecting this commercial hub, which is one among the seven Emirati states comprising the UAE.

    Dubai’s economic activity is largely subservient to shipping, aviation and real estate — the three sectors are generally considered to be coronavirus hotspots. The closure of these sectors have contributed to the sharp decline of oil prices, hitting the UAE hard.

    “Sectors that are likely to be most affected by the pandemic account for over half of the UAE’s total GDP (and just under half of the non-oil GDP) and an even greater share of Dubai’s GDP,” said a report prepared by Moody’s, one of the ‘big three’ credit rating agencies of the world.

    The shutdown has stopped almost all commercial flights to Dubai International, one of the world’s most active airports prior to the pandemic, hurting the Emirate at a time when holiday season was around the corner.

    The deadly pandemic has also forced Dubai to delay its long-planned Expo 2020, which was expected to generate essential investment and much tourism, pulling in 25 million visitors according to estimates, from its scheduled month of October to a year later, cutting much-needed revenue avenues to the Emirate.

    “Dubai is the most vulnerable of the economies in the Middle East and North Africa to the economic damage from such [lockdown] measures,” Capital Economics, a leading economic research company based in Britain, reported in late April.

    “We think that Dubai’s economy could contract by at least 5-6 percent this year if these measures last into the summer,” the report estimated in a dire analysis for the Emirate.

    The problems for the fancy Emirati state doesn’t end there. It has also accumulated major sovereign debt, which was valued at 110 percent of its GDP in 2019, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), making Dubai vulnerable to a possible default.

    “If debt problems do materialise, Dubai’s government is not in a position to step in given its own large debt burden,” Capital Economics researchers wrote.

    According to the consultancy firm, Dubai’s financial health, whose debt-to-GDP ratios is one of the highest across the globe, is tied to “a key factor that will determine how fresh debt problems in Dubai play out is the response from neighbouring Abu Dhabi”.

    Abu Dhabi is the most powerful Emirate of the federal monarchy with enormous sovereign wealth funds reaching nearly a trillion dollars, according to Capital Economics.

    In the 2008-09 crisis, which brought Dubai to the brink of defaulting, heavily damaging its global image, Abu Dhabi came to the help of its little brother, bailing out much of its debt at the time.

    The Emirate’s top financial official, Mohammed Ali al Shorafa, claims that “Abu Dhabi has the resources, even at these levels of crude oil prices, to continue with its planned progression” regarding its financial projects for 2020.

    While Abu Dhabi might be tired of covering for the failures of its lavish brotherly competitor, the fall of Dubai could also create an existential threat for the durability of the Gulf monarchy.

    “Failing to support Dubai would also raise concerns about the economic and political stability of the UAE as a whole,” wrote Capital Economics.

    But this time around everything appears to be more complicated than even the 2009 crisis for both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as the virus shutdown has been coinciding with a slump in oil markets, whose revenues comprise the biggest part of the Gulf country’s national income.

    Dubai has been a falling star for some time in terms of both its residential property prices, which have declined 30 percent since 2014, and hospitality revenues, which have decreased more than 25 percent per hotel room since 2015.

    “The coronavirus outbreak and the pandemic’s indirect impact on global growth and trade pose a significant shock to economic growth in the United Arab Emirates,” Moody’s report said.

    The report also observed that Dubai appears to be more exposed to the economic consequences of the pandemic saying: “The negative growth and fiscal implications are most acute in Dubai, while it faces the greater risk of its government-related entities requiring financial support as a result of the deterioration in economic conditions.”

    – TRT World

    (This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

  • 322 new coronavirus cases reported in Oman

    Muscat: The Ministry of Health has registered 322 new coronavirus cases in Oman on Thursday.

    Among those, 242 new cases were of expats and 80 of Omanis.

    The total cases in the country has now touched 4341, including 1303 recoveries and 17 deaths, according to MOH.

    The ministry urged everyone to adhere to social distancing instructions issued by the supreme Committee and the MOH, as well as staying at home and not going out unless necessary.

    – Agencies

  • Covid-19 | Delhi reports highest number of cases in a single day

    472 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Delhi in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 8,470, according to a health bulletin released by the Delhi government on Thursday.

    This is the highest number of cases reported in a single day in the city so far.

    Also, nine more deaths have been reported, taking the total number of deaths to 115. But all the deaths did not happen in the past 24 hours.

    “Cumulative deaths as per case sheets received from hospitals, after audited by committee,” the bulletin said on the total number of deaths.

    With inputs from The Hindu

  • Coronavirus may never go away, World Health Organization warns

    Geneva: The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 could become endemic like HIV, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, warning against any attempt to predict how long it would keep circulating and calling for a “massive effort” to counter it.

    “It is important to put this on the table: this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,” WHO emergencies expert Mike Ryan told an online briefing.

    “I think it is important we are realistic and I don’t think anyone can predict when this disease will disappear,” he added. “I think there are no promises in this and there are no dates. This disease may settle into a long problem, or it may not be.”

    However, he said the world had some control over how it coped with the disease, although this would take a “massive effort” even if a vaccine was found — a prospect he described as a “massive moonshot”.

    More than 100 potential vaccines are being developed, including several in clinical trials, but experts have underscored the difficulties of finding vaccines that are effective against coronaviruses.

    Ryan noted that vaccines exist for other illnesses, such as measles, that have not been eliminated.

    WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added: “The trajectory is in our hands, and it’s everybody’s business, and we should all contribute to stop this pandemic.”

    Ryan said “very significant control” of the virus was required in order to lower the assessment of risk, which he said remained high at the “national, regional and global levels”.

    Governments around the world are struggling with the question of how to reopen their economies while still containing the virus, which has infected almost 4.3 million people, according to a Reuters tally, and led to over 291,000 deaths.

    The European Union pushed on Wednesday for a gradual reopening of borders within the bloc that have been shut by the pandemic, saying it was not too late to salvage some of the summer tourist season while still keeping people safe.

    But public health experts say extreme caution is needed to avoid new outbreaks. Ryan said opening land borders was less risky than easing air travel, which was a “different challenge”.

    “We need to get into the mindset that it is going to take some time to come out of this pandemic,” WHO epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove told the briefing . Reuters