(Un)Nobeling Abiy Ahmed: The Burden of Couching an Old Goofy Dog

“Mr. Cohen accused Abiy of “atrocities and unnecessary warfare perpetrated by his army against his own citizens”. Any fair observer would promptly ask: What is the “unnecessary warfare perpetrated by his Army”? The Queen of Sheba, used as a pen name here to remain anonymous, questions.

The Queen of Sheba

December 29, 2020

In his recent Twitter post, the Former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Mr. Herman J. Cohen, patently blurted:

PM Abiy Ahmed’s Nobel Peace Prize should be revoked. Unprecedented, but definitely called for in this case, having rejected political solutions in Tigray, and in view of the atrocities and unnecessary warfare perpetrated by his army against his own citizens.

Even before reminding why Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed received the coveted Nobel Peace Prize, let’s just lay out the facts which triggered the tragic conflict in Tigray. The savage attack on the Ethiopian National Defence Forces of the Northern Command was triggered by the TPLF cabal as charged by the Ethiopian government and corroborated by the (erstwhile) high-ranking cabal official of the TPLF which described it as a pre-emptive attack.

The Painful, but Irrefutable, Facts

The atrocious attack on the Northern Command included ethnic-based execution of officers and soldiers while on their beds; slitting throats and bodies; slashing of breasts of women soldiers; crashing prisoners with heavy trucks and spraying them with bullets as they were fleeing. After the “thunderous” attack, the cabal official bragged that the reality on the ground has now shifted and victoriously, but erroneously, declared the TPLF as invincible force, better armed and equipped than the entire Federal Forces combined. 

While this remains the hard, and irrefutable fact, the distorted, and inaccurate, media stories enabled by dishonest shenanigans and hired guns, continue unabated. What is more distressing is that there seems to be no shame in doing so—and repeatedly. A good number of pundits, arm chair analysts, and paid operatives stationed in universities, thinktanks and the media have largely succeeded in twisting and obscuring facts—and effectively, but tragically, misplacing the victimhood. The power of the looted money by the cabal has evidently triumphed. 

Mr. Cohen, the old guard, who brokered the infamous negotiations which installed the TPLF cabal to power in the 1980s—and rarely spoke against them during their 27-year reign of terror—now deceitfully places a blame on Abiy for rejecting “political solutions in Tigray”. One of the most pathetic arguments of Mr. Cohen for revoking the irrevocable prize, now stands as the alleged rejection of political solutions in Tigray. 

Just for the sake of it: How is it that, once winners are crowned with such a prize, they are obliged to accept all political positions and proposed solutions, even when not agreeable to them? If Mr. Cohen is seriously concerned about political solutions—and problems—in Ethiopia, he has had ample opportunities—including those rejected by the cabal, one not so long ago.  

Patent—and Vicious—Dishonesty

The second dishonest charges against Abiy is simply distastefully tragic and painful. Mr. Cohen accused Abiy of “atrocities and unnecessary warfare perpetrated by his army against his own citizens”. Any fair observer would promptly ask: What is the “unnecessary warfare perpetrated by his Army”? 

The very forces that Mr. Cohen enabled to take over Ethiopia in 1990s but butted out of power in 2018 had been camping in Tigray for two years preparing and conspiring to wage a war on the Federal Army—and the people of Ethiopia. And when they did, they massively, savagely, “thunderously” and cowardly attacked the Federal Forces—the ultimate guardian of the nation, if Mr. Cohen cares to know. 

Since when and how is it that the defence of a nation, as executed by a head of its armed forces, considered “unnecessary” and “a war on its citizens”? In fact, doing otherwise, would be tantamount to a dereliction of duty of epic proportion. Mr. Cohen seems to have a diminished regard for our intelligence, unless of course, he is also “incentivized” by the cabal forces who are now scrambling for any sympathetic voice anywhere. Mr. Cohen’s spiteful tweet is not simply condescending but patently dishonest and manifestly vicious.

In fact, if Abiy was to be blamed, it would be his boundless patience towards the TPLF cabal which had been challenging him daringly; but more so, conspiring against him by openly building massive rebellious forces under his nose. One may also add his painstaking restraints from divulging the gravity of the atrocities committed by the cabal on his troops and citizens. 

One may wish to ask Mr. Cohen if he has heard of the My-Kadra genocide. If he did, he may dilly-dally to find a way to pronounce it as Abiy’s atrocities. 

Mr. Cohen may need to be advised to retire quietly with dignity and cease and desist from “advice” and “analysis” on Ethiopia, which he got them disastrously wrong—time and again. Alas, it may not be easy to teach an old goofy dog a new worthy trick. 

In Conclusion: The Revoking of the Nobel Prize

In the interest of fact, the Nobel Peace Prize is won on a proven track record of distinction; it is thus not a down payment for a deed in the future. Dr. Abiy deservedly got the recognition for his exceptional contribution to peace making in the region, and the accord with Eritrea. In the words of the Nobel Committee, “An important premise for the breakthrough was Abiy Ahmed’s unconditional willingness to accept the arbitration ruling of an international boundary commission in 2002.”

It is interesting that—from the “deranged” leader in the highest office in the United States to those serving humanity in the atrocious trenches of the world—many have been seen to be moaning, salivating and raving about this particular prize awarded to Abiy. To be sure, while his prize is a proud moment—and accomplishment—for most Ethiopians and Africans alike, its revocation, though impossible, would be a no big deal. 

The only thing the pathetic effort of the Un(Nobeling) of Abiy cannot achieve is the refund of the cash prize which he may have already dispensed with to building schools. Or else, the Nobel Committee may need to rewrite its refund guidelines in the future. 

This as it may, one wonders if the Nobel Peace Committee imposes demands on its deserving graduates to turn a blind eye when an adversary is dead set to gouge it savagely, furiously—and, yes, “thunderously”.  I, for one, will do.

The Queen of Sheba may be reached at QueenOfSheba2020@outlook.com

MKHIZE: ALCOHOL BAN LIKELY TO HELP FREE UP HOSPITAL SPACE FOR COVID-19 CASES

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that alcohol abuse and the related unnecessary trauma that it often brought with it had been filling up ICU beds, especially in COVID-19 hotspots across the country.

Thando Kubheka 

Eyewitness News

JOHANNESBURG - Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has appealed to South Africans to do their bit to flatten the curve and free up space in the nation’s hospitals.

Addressing a briefing on the new level three lockdown regulations, Mkhize said that the ban on alcohol sales was likely to help matters considerably.

Minister Mkhize said that alcohol abuse and the related unnecessary trauma that it often brought with it had been filling up ICU beds, especially in COVID-19 hotspots across the country.

"We find that our ICUs are full of trauma patients when, in fact, we need them for COVID-19 related situations."

Mkhize has appealed to citizens to work with government to ensure that they abide by lockdown restrictions and in so doing, reduce the number of infections.

"... so that we can open up our hospitals so that we can continue to treat people who have come there with other diseases that are not related to COVID-19."

Over 11,000 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalised. Of these just over 3,500 are on oxygen and 604 are on ventilators.

COVID-19, PANDEMIC AND LOCKDOWN: HOW 2020 CHANGED THE WORLD

In the last 12 months, the novel coronavirus has paralysed economies, devastated communities and confined nearly four billion people to their homes. It has been a year that changed the world like no other for at least a generation, possibly since World War II.

An information poster on the wearing of face masks and social distancing measures as well as the ban of alcoholic beverages during certain hours during the novel coronavirus pandemic is seen in the city of Nuremberg, southern Germany, on 28 October 2020. Picture: AFP

AFP 

PARIS - When the world celebrated the dawn of a new decade with a blaze of firework parties and revelry on 1 January, few could have imagined what 2020 had in store.

In the last 12 months, the novel coronavirus has paralysed economies, devastated communities and confined nearly four billion people to their homes. It has been a year that changed the world like no other for at least a generation, possibly since World War II.

More than 1.7 million people died. Around 80 million people are known to have contracted the virus, though the actual number is likely much higher. Children became orphans, grandparents were lost and partners bereaved as loved ones died alone in hospital, bedside visits considered too dangerous to risk.

"This is a pandemic experience that's unique in the lifetime of every single person on Earth," says Sten Vermund, infectious disease epidemiologist and dean of Yale School of Public Health. "Hardly any of us haven't been touched by it."

COVID-19 is far from the deadliest pandemic in history. Bubonic plague in the 14th Century wiped out a quarter of the population. At least 50 million succumbed to Spanish Influenza in 1918-19. Thirty-three million people died of AIDS.

But contracting coronavirus is as simple as breathing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I went to the gate of hell and came back," said Wan Chunhui, a 44-year-old Chinese survivor who spent 17 days in hospital. "I saw with my own eyes that others failed to recover and died, which has had a big impact on me."

The scale of the global disaster was scarcely imaginable when on 31 December, Chinese authorities announced 27 cases of "viral pneumonia of unknown origin" that was baffling doctors in the city of Wuhan.

The next day, authorities quietly shut the Wuhan animal market initially linked to the outbreak. On 7 January, Chinese officials announced they had identified the new virus, calling it 2019-nCoV. On 11 January, China announced the first death in Wuhan. Within days, cases flared across Asia, in France and the United States.

By the end of the month, countries were airlifting foreigners out of China. Borders around the world started to close and more than 50 million people living in Wuhan's province of Hubei were in quarantine.

NEW DISEASE, LOCKDOWN

AFP images of a man lying dead on his back outside a Wuhan furniture shop, wearing a face mask and holding a plastic bag, came to encapsulate the fear pervading the city. AFP could not confirm the cause of his death at the time. Emblematic of the horror and claustrophobia also was the Diamond Princess cruise ship on which more than 700 people ultimately contracted the virus and 13 died.

As the horror went global, the race for a vaccine had already begun. A small German biotech company called BioNTech quietly put their cancer work aside and launched another project. Its name? "Speed of Light".

On 11 February, the World Health Organization named the new disease as COVID-19. Four days later, France reported the first confirmed death outside Asia. Europe watched in horror as northern Italy turned into an epicentre.

"It's worse than the war," said Orlando Gualdi, mayor of the Lombardy village of Vertova in March, where 36 people died in 25 days. "It's absurd to think that there could be such a pandemic in 2020."

First Italy, then Spain, France and Britain went into lockdown. WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. US borders, already closed to China, shut to much of Europe. For the first time in peacetime, the summer Olympics were delayed.

By mid-April, 3.9 billion people or half of humanity were living under some form of lockdown. From Paris to New York, from Delhi to Lagos, and from London to Buenos Aires, streets fell eerily silent, the all too frequent wail of ambulance sirens, a reminder that death loomed close.

Scientists had warned for decades of a global pandemic, but few listened. Some of the richest countries in the world, let alone the poorest floundered in the face of an invisible enemy. In a globalised economy, supply chains ground to a halt. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare by panic buyers.

Chronic underinvestment in healthcare was brutally exposed, as hospitals struggled to cope and intensive care units were rapidly overwhelmed. Underpaid and overworked medics battled without personal protective equipment.

"I graduated in 1994 and government hospitals were utterly neglected then," said Nilima Vaidya-Bhamare, a doctor in Mumbai, India, one of the worst-hit countries. "Why does it take a pandemic to wake people up?" she asked in May.

In New York, the city with more billionaires than any other, medics were photographed having to wear bin liners. A field hospital was erected in Central Park. Mass graves were dug on Hart Island.

'ABSOLUTE CALAMITY'

"It is a scene out of a horror movie," said Virgilio Neto, mayor of Manaus in Brazil. "We are no longer in a state of emergency but rather of absolute calamity." Bodies were piling up in refrigerated trucks and bulldozers were digging mass graves.

Businesses closed. Schools and colleges shut. Live sport was cancelled. Commercial airline travel saw its most violent contraction in history. Shops, clubs, bars and restaurants closed. Spain's lockdown was so severe that children couldn't leave home. People were suddenly trapped, cheek by jowl in tiny apartments for weeks on end.

Those who could, worked from home. Zoom calls replaced meetings, business travel and parties. Those whose jobs were not transferrable were often sacked or forced to risk their health and work regardless.

In May, the pandemic had wiped out 20 million American jobs. The pandemic and global recession could push to 150 million the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2021, the World Bank has warned.

Social inequities, which for years had been growing, were exposed like never before. Hugs, handshakes and kisses fell by the wayside. Human interaction took place behind plexiglass, face masks and hand sanitiser.

Instances of domestic violence soared, so did mental health problems. As city dwellers with means congratulated themselves on riding out the pandemic at palatial second homes in the countryside and governments floundered, tempers boiled among those trapped in cities and rage spilt onto the streets.

The United States, the world's biggest economy and a country without universal healthcare, rapidly became the single worst-hit nation. More than 330,000 people have died while President Donald Trump pooh-poohed the threat and touted questionable treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and floated the idea of injecting disinfectant.

By May, he launched Operation Warp Speed, with the US government spending $11 billion on developing a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year. Trump touted it as the biggest US endeavour since creating the atom bomb in World War II.

Not even the rich and powerful could buy immunity. In October, Trump contacted COVID-19 as had Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro in July. Trump's response to the pandemic likely helped cost him the election to Joe Biden. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent three days in the ICU with coronavirus in April.

A-list movie star Tom Hanks and his wife fell sick. Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the greatest footballers of his generation, tennis champion Novak Djokovic, Madonna, Prince Charles and Prince Albert II all tested positive.

2021 VACCINE DRIVE

As the year draws to a close, governments are on the cusp of inoculating millions, starting with the elderly, medics and the most vulnerable before moving into mass campaigns presented as the only ticket back to a normal life.

In December, Britain became the first Western country to approve a vaccine for general use and roll out the inoculation developed in the BioNTech lab in cooperation with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

The United States quickly followed suit with EU nations to start on Sunday, but the emergence of a new strain of the virus in multiple countries has dampened some of the euphoria over the start of mass vaccination program.

"If I can have it at 90 then you can have it too," said Margaret Keenan, the British grandmother who became the first person to receive the approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

As wealthy nations rush to buy up stocks, 2021 will likely see China and Russia vie for influence by expanding beyond their borders their own, cheaper vaccines.

The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will leave a lasting legacy is far from clear. Some experts warn it could yet take years to build up herd immunity through mass vaccination, especially in the face of entrenched anti-vax beliefs in some countries. Others predict lives could snap back to normal by the middle of next year.

Many expect a more flexible approach to working from home, increased reliance on technology and supply chains that become more local. Travel is likely to resume, but how quickly is uncertain. The disease can leave otherwise healthy young people debilitated for months.

If home-working for white-collar workers remains common place, what will happen to commercial real-estate in downtown cities? Could urban centres start to de-populate as people, no longer bound by the commute, move away in search of greener or quieter lifestyles?

There are also concerns about the impact on civil liberties. Think tank Freedom House says democracy and human rights have deteriorated in 80 countries as governments abuse power in their response to the virus.

Others predict that fear of large crowds could have huge consequences, at least for public transport, cultural, sporting and entertainment venues, and the cruise ship industry.

"I think there are going to be some profound shifts in our society," warned Yale School of Public Health's Vermund.

The world economy is also in for a rough ride. IMF has warned of a recession worse than that which followed the 2008 financial crisis. But for many, the pandemic is just a spot on the long-term horizon of a far deadlier, far more challenging and far more life-changing calamity.

"COVID-19 has been something of a big wave that's been hitting us, and behind that is the tsunami of climate change and global warming," says astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell whose 2014 book "The Knowledge" advises how the world can rebuild following a global catastrophe.

SADC Countries in Advanced Stage of Aligning National Qualifications Frameworks to Regional Standards

A number of Southern African Development Community (SADC) Member States reached the advanced stage of aligning their national qualifications framework to the regional framework during 2019 and 2020.

The SADC Qualifications Framework (SADC QF) is aimed at enhancing mobility of skills, including those of researchers and students across the Region.

To date, South Africa and Seychelles have aligned their national qualifications framework to the regional framework while Mauritius has submitted its Alignment Report for Adjudication.

Education and skills development is a key component in the Region for ensuring the availability of literate, educated and skilled human resources to facilitate poverty reduction, equitable economic growth, and competitiveness in the labour market economy.

The region attained a very important milestone by establishing the SADC QF with the accompanying quality assurance guidelines.

The SADC Member States continued to provide support to the Secretariat, in the implementation of the SADC QF activities on a rotational basis in order to augment the capacity of the Secretariat.

The SADC QF is an overarching 10-level qualifications framework underpinned by learning outcomes and quality assurance mechanisms in SADC. It was approved and launched by Ministers responsible for Education and Training, Science, Technology and Innovation to set minimum standards for quality assurance and to facilitate the recognition of qualifications in the SADC region.

The SADC QF is a comprehensive Regional Qualifications Framework (RQF) for Schooling, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Higher Education. The vision is that, in the SADC Region, all new qualifications -- certificates, diplomas and other documents issued by competent authorities -- will contain the relevant descriptors on the SADC QF.

The purpose of the SADC QF is to enable easier movement of learners and workers across the SADC region and internationally. It seeks to provide a mechanism for comparability and recognition of qualifications in SADC; facilitate mutual recognition of qualifications in all Member States; harmonise qualifications wherever possible; promote the transfer of credits within and among Member States and even beyond; and create SADC regional standards, where appropriate.

The SADC QF holds numerous benefits to the beneficiaries. These include promoting dialogue and mutual understanding, creating a wider pool of knowledge, skills, values and experience in the Region as countries can begin to fill their training gaps and collaborate in highly specialised training; increasing access to skilled and knowledgeable personnel through a more efficient, rational and standardised system; allowing learners and workers greater flexibility and mobility within the region and increasing the pool of learning opportunities; facilitating determination of qualification comparability and credit transfer in the SADC region; and regulating cross-border provisioning.

The benefits also include streamlining and rationalising training resources leading to greater economies of scale in developing highly technical and rare skills and knowledge; promoting greater co-operation and unity of purpose between SADC Member States and education and training stakeholders; enhancing partnerships between governments and private education and training providers to improve QA practices and relevance of qualifications; and ensuring more justice in access and equity of disadvantaged groups.

The principles on which the SADC QF are based on are regional solidarity and co-operation; interaction with global and local frameworks of qualification reference; strengthening of national education and training systems; quality enhancement and strengthening of education and training in the region; respect for regional and multilateral decisions; autonomy and interrelatedness of the sectors of learning; pragmatism in development; prioritisation of projects; position in terms of globalization and internationalization; transparency, flexibility and validity; mobility relation to national education systems; equity within and among member states; responsiveness and relevance.

SADC Records Notable Progress in Financial Markets and Regional Integration

There has been notable progress in the area of payments systems in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).At national level, all the 16 SADC Member States are implementing Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) which facilitates quicker transactions and brings about efficiency in payments.

In her report to the 40th SADC Summit hosted virtually by Mozambique in August 2020, SADC Executive Secretary, Her Excellency Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax, said at regional level, harmonisation of payments and clearing systems through the SADC-RTGS is ongoing.

The SADC RTGS supports the modernisation and harmonisation of payments and clearing systems both domestically and regionally with the objective of improving safety of payments and efficient settlement and payment processes in the region.

It is also intended to lower transaction costs as it removes the need for correspondent banks. Where transactions previously took two to three days to clear, with SADC-RTGS they are now settled in real-time, subject to availability of funding at the paying bank.

All Member States (except Comoros) are participating in the SADC-RTGS and a total of 85 central banks and commercial banks are also participating in the system. The SADC-RTGS has performed impressively since July 2013 when the system went live, with more than 1.7 million transactions settled as at end of March 2020, representing 6.87 trillion South African rand.

In the area of financial inclusion, 32 percent of adults in the SADC Region are financially excluded, which is around 45.7 million individuals against the target of 25 percent by 2021. Overall levels of financial inclusion vary considerably across the region, from 97 percent in Seychelles to 40 percent in Mozambique.

As per the decision by the Ministers of Finance and Investment at their meeting in Namibia in July 2019, the operationalisation of the SADC Financial Inclusion Subcommittee is ongoing. The main objective is to coordinate the work on financial inclusion and build synergies among the structures dealing with financial inclusion across the region.

With regard to cross border remittances in the region, which are critical for financial inclusion and poverty alleviation, the main objective is to lower the average price of remittances to the consumer, as well as appropriately increase the use of formal channels.

For instance, the cost of cross border remittances has been reduced by 3.6 percentage points from an average of 13 percent per transaction to about 9.4 percent in the corridor between South Africa and Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The challenge is to further reduce these costs to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals target of 3 percent by 2030.

Furthermore, SADC migrants’ resident in South Africa are estimated to remit approximately R21.9 billion home annually, with R11.3 billion (representing 52 percent) transiting through informal channel. Migrants using formal remittance channels are estimated to send as much as R12,000 annually or R1,000 per month while informal remitters send in the order of R550 per month.

Notable progress has also been achieved towards market integration by ensuring Online Mechanism for Reporting, Monitoring and Eliminating Non-Trade Barriers to Trade in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and SADC are operational and managed by EAC for Tripartite Member States.

To date, seven Member States have ratified the Protocol on Trade in Services. The first round of negotiations was completed in six priority sectors identified in the Protocol. These are communication, finance, tourism and transport services, construction and energy-related services.

The SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap foresees an increase in manufactured exports to at least 50 percent of total exports by 2030 from less than 20 percent at present and to build market share in the global market for the export of intermediate products to East Asian levels of around 60 per cent of total manufactured exports.    

Currently, 13 SADC Member States participate in the FTA while three – Angola, the Comoros, and the Democratic Republic of Congo – are not yet participating. Efforts are being made to consolidate the FTA by bringing these remaining three Member States into the FTA.

New World Bank Country Representative Pays Courtesy Call on SADC Executive Secretary

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been engaging and collaborating with the World Bank in a number of areas such as infrastructure development, statistics, finance and investment, development of value chains, disaster risk reduction, energy, and water, SADC Executive Secretary, Her Excellency Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax, has said.

H. E. Dr Tax said this during the virtual courtesy call by the New World Bank Country Representative to Botswana, Mr Guido Rurangwa, on the 7th December, 2020. She congratulated Mr Rurangwa for the recent appointment and warmly welcomed him to Botswana and SADC.

She said industrialisation remains among the key priorities of SADC, and Value Chains in agro-processing, mineral beneficiation and pharmaceuticals have been profiled, and called upon the World Bank to collaborate with SADC on the development and operationalisation of specific regional value chains in these sub-sectors. She further requested the World Bank to support SADC in the areas that can enhance competitiveness and trade facilitation, through among others, energy and connectivity projects, and development and operationalisation of the One Border Post concept.

Mr Rurangwa thanked the Executive Secretary for the warm welcome and reiterated the World Bank's commitment and desire to work closely with SADC Secretariat and Member States in advancing the aforementioned potential areas of cooperation.

He pointed out that the World Bank's portfolio in the SADC region is large, covering economic diversification, human capital development, trade and transport facilitation, and capacity development which are implemented at both national and regional levels. These also include support to individual countries that are SADC Member States.

The meeting was also attended by Senior Programme Officer-Project Management Support, Mr Joseph Kamwenyi, the Executive Secretary's Assistant, Mr Alex Banda, and Resource Mobilisation Officer, Mr Andoniaina B. Andriamiandrisoa.

SADC and UN Discuss Potential Areas of Collaboration to Strengthen Cooperation

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Executive Secretary, Her Excellency Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax, has hailed the existing collaboration and partnership with the United Nations (UN) through a number of UN agencies in a number of areas at both national and regional levels, as guided by SADC priorities.

H.E Dr Tax said this during a virtual courtesy call with Mr Nicholas Haysom, Under Secretary-General and Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General, His Excellency António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, on 30th November 2020.

SADC and UN have enjoyed cordial cooperation through a number of UN Agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organisation, through the Sub-regional Office for Southern Africa, in the area of agriculture crops, livestock, fisheries, forests; and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), through the Africa Office, and Nairobi Convention Secretariat, on environmental aspects, including Blue Economy.

SADC and the UN also cooperate in the partnership with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), through its Secretariat, in the area of combating desertification; and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through its Secretariat in the area of climate change adaptation and mitigation.

There is also an ongoing agreement with World Food Programme (WFP), through its Southern Africa regional office, in the area of Regional Vulnerability Assessment Analysis (RVAA) with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Mr. Haysom thanked the Executive Secretary for the warm welcome and underscored that the UN remains committed to enhancing cooperation with SADC at both regional and national levels. He explained that the UN is both engaging the SADC Secretariat and Member States to discuss ways of offering more support and further expand existing collaboration. He averred that the UN is alive to the potential threats in the areas of cross-border crime, human trafficking and cross-border terrorism within the region.

H.E. Dr. Tax thanked Mr Haysom for the engagement and assured him of SADC's commitment to the partnership where the two parties have worked together well over the years. She called for a more robust and coordinated programme that brings together all UN agencies together to address both economic and social issues in the region in a coordinated and collaborative manner. H.E Dr Tax reiterated Africa's long call to have representation in the United Nations Security Council. She also called for a more coordinated approach and focus on strategic areas in the cooperation with the UN.

The two parties reiterated their commitment to the existing cooperation while exploring other potential areas of cooperation for the mutual benefit of the parties, particularly in mitigating the negative impacts of COVID-19.

The Executive Secretary was accompanied by Deputy Executive Secretary for Regional Integration, Dr. Thembinkosi Mhlongo, Deputy Executive Secretary for Corporate Affairs, Ambassador Joseph Nourrice, Executive Director for the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs, Mr Jorge Cardoso, Director for Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr Domingos Gove, while Mr Nicholas Haysom was accompanied by Mr Martinho Chachiua, Head of the Liaison Team of the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs to the SADC Secretariat (UNDPPA), Mr. Amit Singhal, UNDPPA Desk officer for Southern Africa and Mr. Elijah Rubvuta, International UN Volunteer (Associate Political Affairs Officer).

Truck Drivers Hail Guidelines on Movement of Goods to Curb COVID-19 in SADC-EAC-COMESA Region

GABORONE - The outbreak of COVID-19 has affected economies globally, prompting countries to impose measures which have restricted movement of goods, services and people across borders in efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic.

When COVID-19 broke out, most border posts were closed for the general public and only allowed the movement of essential goods such as medical supplies. Truck drivers have played a crucial role of delivering goods to various destinations.

The introduction of these measures has helped greatly to curb the spread of COVID-19.

In interviews at Tlokweng border post between Botswana and South Africa recently, truck drivers said they were impressed with the overall services at the borders, even though each country had its own regulations. They, however, noted a few hiccups to do with the waiting period to get the COVID-19 tests results, quarantine time and finally being cleared.

A truck driver from Khoemacau mine in Botswana said even though the borders were not exactly the same, he was happy with service delivery.

“The system itself is okay, and so are the officers who assist us. I don’t have any problems. The link between Botswana and South Africa is very fast except only when the network is down,” he said, adding that chaos only erupted after drivers had been tested and awaited the results as there was no proper control to manage the movement of truck drivers. He said there was a probability that those who were negative may interact unknowingly with those who were positive as they wouldn’t know each other’s statuses.

He said this should be noted by the relevant officials and precautionary measures should be taken to ensure that truckers’ health is not compromised, adding that in most instances they loiter around the border posts areas without accommodation.

Another truck driver said ever since the outbreak of COVID-19, business has been greatly affected as they have to wait to get the results before they can proceed with the journey. Prior to COVID-19, they used to make profits which was no longer the case, as they have to spend days at the borders.

He suggested that countries consider issuing them COVID-19 certificates which would last for two weeks as they were frequent travelers, other than the three days they were given.

“Since the introduction of tests at the border, I have done more than 37 tests for COVID-19 and have always had negative results. It is strenuous for us. Why can’t we use the same tests results for the next two weeks if one is negative?”

However, the driver said they no longer had to undergo 14 days of quarantine as was the case earlier in the year. The results were usually available after three days, which is highly commendable, he said.

Comparing earlier this year when most countries closed their border posts and only allowed for essential services, and now when some countries are gradually opening their borders, another truck driver said there used to be long queues which eventually led to cargo delays, thus affecting cross border trade. He said there was an improvement in turnaround time to conduct COVID-19 tests and the clearance of goods.

He also said when COVID-19 broke out, there was a lot of stigma of truck drivers and people who had tested positive, which made them feel they were not welcome in society. People have since changed their perception towards truck drivers.

“When most cases of COVID-19 tests were detected at the border posts, most people viewed us as the transmitters of the coronavirus and this made us struggle to fit in society due to the stigma attached to this virus”, he said.

Most truck drivers said COVID-19 should be a wakeup call to officials in each country to employ proper measures of dealing with pandemics in future without compromising trade between countries, and come up with comprehensive policies that would ensure speedy service delivery at the border posts.

They were of the view that even though comprehensive guidelines and protocols have already been developed by international organisations such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC), East African Community (EAC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a World Health Organisation-co-ordinated and harmonised approach is required to tackle the pandemic.

SADC, EAC and COMESA Member States came up with a holistic approach to control the movement of essential goods and personnel at the borders by introducing  measures to minimise the spread of COVID-19.

The Tripartite Region Member States have adopted the harmonised Tripartite Guidelines on Trade and Transport Facilitation Guidelines for Safe, Efficient and Cost-Effective Movement of Goods and Services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The guidelines are aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 while facilitating trade and movement of goods and services across the tripartite area during the pandemic. The guidelines have been adopted as minimum uniform regulations, procedures and standards to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and minimise disruptions in the supply chain and to facilitate movement of goods and services across the region.

The specific objectives of the guidelines are tocomplement regional and national measures against the COVID-19 pandemic aimed at protecting citizens against the pandemic by limiting its spread through transport and mobility across borders.  They are aimed at safeguarding the existing trading arrangements in order to minimise the disruption to cross-border trade in goods and services, while striking a balance between public health on one hand and the need to sustain national economies, livelihoods of citizens and food security.

The guidelines seek to ensure smooth and uninterrupted movement of goods and services during the COVID-19 pandemic by balancing, aligning, harmonising and coordinating COVID-19 response measures with the requirements for trade and transport facilitation. It is envisaged that the guidelines will facilitate and support tripartite Member States in implementing the policies and measures to combat COVID-19 as recommended by WHO, World Customs Organisation (WCO), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and African Centre for Disease Control.

The guidelines are complemented by the Tripartite Transport and Transit Facilitation Programme (TTTFP), which is funded to the tune of Euro 21 million by the European Union under a SADC-EU partnership. The programme has been amended to include a corridor trip monitoring system that will allow for tracking of vehicles and drivers, as well as allow for sharing of information on their health status across the borders, including COVID-19 related information.

The TTTFP addresses these challenges through the implementation of harmonised road transport policies, laws, regulations, systems and standards that affect drivers, loads, vehicles and road infrastructure.

The programme has seen increased efficiency of the transport corridors. The objectives of the TTTFP are to develop and implement harmonised road transport policies, laws, regulations and standards for efficient cross border road transport, transit and logistics services, systems and procedures with a view to reducing transport costs across the mainland countries of the SADC, COMESA and EAC region and facilitate trade.

Ethiopia, Djibouti Agree to Refine Road Services, Port Operations and Parking Terminals

Ethiopian Ambassador to Djibouti, Berhanu Tsegaye (left),and Mr. Aboubaker Oumer Hadi, Chairman of Djibouti Ports International (right) holding discussion. Photo : MFAE

MFAE

December 28,2020 

Ethiopian Ambassador to Djibouti, H.E. Berhanu Tsegaye held discussions with Mr. Aboubaker Oumer Hadi, Chairman of Djibouti Ports International Free Trade Zone on Sunday where major agreements were reached to hone the capacity of the road & port operation as well as parking terminals. 

Ambassador Berhanu underscored the need to fast-track the completion of the Dikhil-Daguru Road, which would greatly contribute to the economic development of the two countries. 

The two sides agreed on ways of commencing the remaining 80 km of the road in the shortest possible period. 

The Ambassador and the Chairperson also exchanged views on ways of improving the capacity of port services by connecting the DMP (Doraleh Multi-Purpose Port) and SGTD (Djibouti Container Terminal) to the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway. 

They have agreed to establish a connection at the Horizon oil terminal from the Djibouti side and the oil depot at Awash from the Ethiopian side to the Ethio-Djibouti railway. 

This, it was noted, will have various advantages in ensuring the efficient flow of oil cargo and the prevention of illegal oil marketing.

The Port and Free zone Authority also accepted the Ethiopian government’s request for a Title Deed to the oil terminal to set in place an administrative procedure similar to that of the dry parking terminal. The chairman promised to grant the title deed to the Ethiopian side as soon as possible.

Jal Mero Oromo Liberation Front Military Leader Reportedly Killed

Oromo Liberation Front and Ethiopian Federal Police did not release report regarding the reported death of Jal Mero

Borkena

December 28, 2020 

Security authorities in the Oromo region of Ethiopia reportedly said that the leader of the military wing of Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) was killed in the Qelem district of Wollega region.

According to a report from Ahadu Radio and Television, Kumsa Driba ( Jal Mero) died from a bullet wound he sustained from one of the latest military operations in the region. 

Police inspector of the Qelem District, Inspector Zelalem Nememsa is said to have confirmed that the rebel leader is dead.

 About 103 bodyguards are also reportedly killed and that the police in the district claims that it has confirmed it with photographic evidence. 

However, government media outlets did not release a video footage of the rebel leader. The Federal Police Commission has not confirmed the story either. 

The news rather triggered skepticism among Ethiopians in the Diaspora. News of Jal Mero’s death was released just a day after a brutal massacre in the area that reportedly targeted ethnic Amharas. 

It is seen as a deliberate propaganda effort to cover the massacre of ethnic Amhara’s in the region.  

There has been a recurring massacre of ethnic Amharas in the area where Jal Mero’s armed group was operating for more than two years now. 

Peace, Rule of Law Key Focus for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed

His government has been under pressure at least for the past two years for failing to maintain the rule of law in Ethiopia 

Borkena

December 28, 2020 

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been widely criticized over prevalent ethnic massed massacres in Benishangul Gumuz region, Oromo region and Southern Ethiopia. 

In fact, one of the latest massacres in the Benishangul Gumuz region that claimed the lives of at least 207 innocent civilians of mostly ethnic Amhara and ethnic Agarw region happened hours after he returned from a meeting with authorities in the region and Metekel — the zone where most of the massacres took place. 

Quite a considerable number of his critics even tend to think that the killing is deliberately orchestrated with the aim of ethnic cleansing against ethnic Amhara. 

Abiy Ahmed seems to take note of the mounting opposition to his administration. 

On Monday, he said that peace and security are core objectives in what his government calls a “Ten-year National Perspective Plan” -some thing that is a point of criticism on its own. His critics think that his government is not an elected one and does not have a mandate to prepare a ten-year plan.  But there is a claim that it is the Planning and Development Commission that is said to have prepared the ten years plan. And the House of People’s Representatives is discussing it. 

For him, “development” is the tool to achieve lasting peace. He wrote on his facebook page ” Development makes enduring peace possible. Our 10year National Perspective Plan is unique in recognizing this and puts peace and the rule of law as critical objectives within the plan. Various measures are being put in place, even during trying times, requiring close collaboration between citizens and institutions towards realising enduring peace.” 

For innocent citizens being massacred almost on a weekly basis now simply because of who they are, chances are the words could not be consoling. 

For most of the last two years, the massacres in different parts of the country were linked to Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). However, TPLF does not longer seem to be in a position to coordinate mass killings in different parts of the country as its capacity is believed to be significantly weakened following operation to enforce rule of law in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. 

Tamrat Layne Says No Distinction Between TPLF and Prosperity Party

Oromo forces are wilding hegemony within Ethiopia’s ruling Prosperity Party : Tamrat Layne 

Borkena

December 28, 2020 

Former Ethiopian Prime Minister Tamrat Layne said that he does not agree with the Prosperity Party. He cited a number of reasons as to why he lost faith in the party — a party that was established in November 2019 after four major parties of the now defunct Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPDRF) and four other support parties merged under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. 

In an interview with Abbay media over the weekend, Tamrat  Layne said that the party was established in a rush — without extensive consultation. 

According to him, political cadres from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed were sent to Bahir Dar, the seat of Amhara regional state, to engage over two thousand cadres in the region. The idea to merge the parties met with resistance from the cadres in the region, said Tramrat who said he was in the city at the time for personal reasons. The cadres were convinced at the time in light of the prospect of a political advantage that Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) would garner from the situation. 

For him, the Prosperity Party is not much different from EPRDF under the domination of TPLF. The latter’s hegemony is now replaced with Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) within the Prosperity Party.  

In fact, there are other political groups that seem to support Tamrat Layne’s position relating to the power of what used to be OPDO in the current power arrangement within the Prosperity Party.  There is accusation that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s political base, OPDO, is working on an expansionist and domination agenda. The massacre in Oromo region, Benishangul Gumuz region and South Ethiopia is now increasingly being seen as part of the Oromo region Prosperity Party expansionist agenda. 

Tamrat Layene was the leader of what later became Amhara National Democratic Movement — an ethnic party after the former Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Movement (EPDM) was rebranded under influence after 1991 under influence from TPLF. 

Tamrat Layne’s critics reject his opinion mostly considering his political involvement under the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government — not on grounds of his view of the current Prosperity Party Politics. He currently lives in Denver, Colorado. 

France Takes Careful Vaccine Approach to Counter Skepticism

By ANGELA CHARLTON

December 27, 2020

A health worker carries doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in a box at the Rene-Muret hospital in Servan near Paris, Sunday Dec. 27, 2020. France is starting its first vaccinations Sunday against the coronavirus at a nursing home northeast of Paris, in one of France's poorest regions. (Thomas Samson/Pool Photo via AP)

PARIS (AP) — While governments across Europe kicked off their virus vaccination plans this weekend with fanfare, France took a more low-key approach because of widespread skepticism among it citizens around the vaccines.

After the first shots were injected Sunday into the arm of 78-year-old Mauricette, a woman in a long-term care facility near Paris, President Emmanuel Macron appealed to his compatriots: “Let’s have trust in our researchers and doctors. We are the nation of the Enlightenment and of (vaccine pioneer Louis) Pasteur. Reason and science should guide us.”

Yet many of his compatriots worry. They remember French health scandals in recent decades, including those involving mismanaged vaccines. They fear that the coronavirus vaccines were developed too quickly, are aimed at bringing profit to big pharmaceutical companies, or risk long-term side effects that the world will only discover years from now.

France has lost more lives to the virus than most countries, and its economy — one of the world’s biggest — has been deeply crippled by two virus lockdowns. Doctors hope that French vaccine hesitancy will fade as more people get vaccinated.

Dr. Jean-Jacques Monsuez, a 65-year-old cardiologist at a nursing home northeast of Paris, was France’s second vaccine recipient Sunday. After he and several elderly patients were injected, he said, “they are vaccinated, we are vaccinated, we are all in the same boat. And the boat cannot sink.

“And around the boat there is a country that cannot sink.”

Politicians on France’s far right and far left have fueled vaccine concerns, but polls commissioned by the national health agency suggest that the skepticism comes from some moderate voters too.

Justine Lardon walks with a crutch after suffering severe side effects from a hepatitis B vaccine in 2010, and is hesitating over whether to get vaccinated against the virus. She told regional newspaper Le Progres that she supports vaccination, but is concerned that doctors don’t pay enough attention to individual health issues.

“If (the vaccine) can wipe out the epidemic, that’s really great, but I don’t want a vaccine that is a time bomb,” she is quoted as saying.

The French government has been cautious in its messaging, keen to ensure that it’s not seen as forcing vaccination on the public. Instead, authorities are counting on doctors to convince patients that the vaccine is in their, and the country’s, best interests.

Macron reiterated Sunday that the vaccine will be free of charge — and not obligatory.

France’s first vaccination wasn’t broadcast on live television as it was elsewhere, and no government ministers attended. No top officials have said they’re getting the vaccine yet, instead insisting it should go to the most vulnerable first.

In a country with a large elderly population, including many with cognitive impairments, the government came under pressure from concerned families to devise extensive guidance for collecting consent from nursing home patients before vaccinating them.

Many French people, however, are eager to get vaccinated as soon as they can.

“I’m very touched,” Mauricette said when told she was the first in France to get the vaccine. “You’re a star,” said the medic who administered it, after gently folding Mauricette’s sleeve down over the small bandage on her upper arm.

“We didn’t need to convince her. She said ‘yes, I’m ready for anything to avoid getting this disease,’” said Dr. Samir Tine, head of geriatric services at her facility in Sevran northeast of Paris.

“It’s an important day,” Tine said. “We are very eager to have a new weapon at our disposition, and we are very eager to rediscover our normal lives.”

France has reported the highest number of virus infections in Western Europe and among the highest death tolls, at 62,573 lives lost. Nearly a third died in nursing homes, so the government decided to give the vaccine to the elderly first, as well as some at-risk medical workers.

Noting that France’s infections are rising again in some regions, particularly among older people in rural areas, Health Minister Olivier Veran warned in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche newspaper published Sunday that pressure on hospitals could start growing again, and said the government isn’t ruling out a third lockdown.

More COVID-19 Vaccines in the Pipeline as US Effort Ramps Up

By LAURAN NEERGAARD

Ellie Basham, Executive Director at Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., being vaccinated by Kristine Kim, a pharmacist for CVS outside the Center in Kirkland, Wash., Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. (Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times via AP)

A huge U.S. study of another COVID-19 vaccine candidate got underway Monday as states continue to roll out scarce supplies of the first shots to a nation anxiously awaiting relief from the catastrophic outbreak.

Public health experts say more options in addition to the two vaccines now being dispensed — one made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, the other by Moderna — are critical to amassing enough shots for the country and the world.

The candidate made by Novavax Inc. is the fifth to reach final-stage testing in the United States. Some 30,000 volunteers are needed to prove if the shot — a different kind than its Pfizer and Moderna competitors — really works and is safe.

“If you want to have enough vaccine to vaccinate all the people in the U.S. who you’d like to vaccinate — up to 85% or more of the population — you’re going to need more than two companies,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press on Monday.

The coronavirus is blamed for about 1.8 million deaths worldwide, including more than 330,000 in the U.S. This has been the deadliest month of the outbreak in the U.S. yet, with about 65,000 deaths in December so far, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The nation has repeatedly recorded more than 3,000 dead per day over the past few weeks.

And the U.S. could be facing a terrible winter: Despite warnings to stay home and avoid others over Christmastime, nearly 1.3 million people went through the nation’s airports on Sunday, the highest one-day total since the crisis took hold in the U.S. nine months ago.

The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed expects to have shipped 20 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to states by the beginning of January, fewer than originally estimated to the frustration of states and health officials trying to schedule the shots.

There is no real-time tracking of how quickly people are getting the first of the two required doses. As of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had reports of more than 2.1 million vaccinations out of 11.4 million doses shipped — but the agency knows that count is outdated. It can take days for reports from vaccine providers to trickle in and get added to the site.

“Just because a vaccine arrives doesn’t mean we can put an on-the-spot clinic up and running,” said Jenny Barta, a public health official in Carlton County, Minnesota.

But Tuesday, her agency aims to vaccinate 100 people in a drive-thru clinic for emergency medical workers that Barta hopes could become a model for larger attempts at mass vaccination. Nurses will wheel vaccine to cars lined up in a county-owned snowplow garage. Once the drivers get their shots, they will wait in parking spaces to be sure they don’t have an allergic reaction before heading home.

“Vaccinating one individual at a time is how we’re going to work our way out of this pandemic,” she said.

Yet another worry hanging over the vaccine scramble: Will shots block a new variant of the coronavirus that emerged in Britain and might spread more easily? Fauci said that data from Britain indicates the vaccines still will protect against the virus but that National Institutes of Health researchers will be “looking at it very intensively” to be sure.

A look at the frontrunners in the global vaccine race:

GENETIC CODE VACCINES

The U.S. based its emergency rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and a similar one made by Moderna and the NIH on studies suggesting they are both roughly 95% effective. Europe over the weekend began its first vaccinations with the Pfizer shot, and on Jan. 6 will decide whether to add Moderna’s.

These shots are made with a brand-new technology that injects a piece of genetic code for the spike protein that coats the coronavirus. That messenger RNA, or mRNA, induces the body to produce some harmless spike protein, enough to prime the immune system to react if it later encounters the real virus.

Both vaccines must be kept frozen, the Pfizer shot at ultra-low temperatures that complicate its delivery to poor or rural areas.

Additional companies are working toward their own mRNA candidates, including Germany’s CureVac, which has begun a large study in Europe.

PROTEIN VACCINES

The Novavax candidate is made differently, using what Fauci called a “more tried and true” technology that needs only ordinary refrigeration. The Maryland company grows harmless copies of the coronavirus spike protein in the laboratory and mixes in an immune-boosting chemical.

Novavax already has enrolled 15,000 people in a late-stage study in Britain and 4,000 in South Africa. The newest and largest study, funded by the U.S. government, will recruit volunteers at more than 115 sites in the U.S. and Mexico and target high-risk older adults along with volunteers from Black and Hispanic communities, which have been hit hard by the virus.

“We’ve got to protect our community and our people,” said the Rev. Peter Johnson, 75, a prominent civil rights activist in Dallas who was among the first volunteers.

Two-thirds of participants will receive vaccine and the rest dummy shots, a twist from earlier vaccine studies that gave half their volunteers a placebo. That should help researchers recruit people who wonder whether it’s better to take part in a study or wait their turn for an existing shot, said Dr. Gregory Glenn, research chief at Novavax.

For many people, that would be a long wait: The Pfizer and Moderna shots are slated first for health care workers and nursing home residents, followed by people 75 and older and essential workers.

“If you wanted to hedge your bets, for most people who aren’t in those very high-risk groups, the shortest route to getting the vaccine would be to sign up for a trial,” said NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins.

TROJAN HORSE VACCINES

The next big vaccine news may come from Johnson & Johnson, which is aiming for a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine.

Made in yet another way, it uses a harmless virus – a cold virus called an adenovirus -- to carry the spike gene into the body. In mid-December, J&J finished enrolling about 45,000 volunteers in a final-stage study in the U.S. and a half-dozen other countries. Fauci expects early results sometime next month.

In Britain, regulators also are considering clearing a similar vaccine made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

Tests of the shots in Britain, South Africa and Brazil suggested they are safe and partially protective — about 70%. But questions remain about how well the vaccine works in people over 55 and how to interpret results from a small number of people given a different set of doses.

A U.S. study of the AstraZeneca shots is still recruiting volunteers; Fauci said researchers hope it will provide a more clear answer.

Companies in China and Russia also are producing adenovirus-based vaccines and began administering them before the results of final testing came in. Argentina is expected to soon use the Russian vaccine.

“KILLED” VACCINES

Spike-focused vaccines aren’t the only option. Making vaccines by growing a disease-causing virus and then killing it is a still older approach that gives the body a sneak peek at the germ itself rather than just that single spike protein.

China has three such “inactivated” COVID-19 vaccines in final testing in several countries and has allowed emergency use in some people ahead of results. An Indian company is testing its own inactivated candidate.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

House Approves Trump’s $2K Checks, Sending to GOP-led Senate

By LISA MASCARO and JILL COLVIN

The U.S. Capitol is seen, Thursday, Dec. 24, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted overwhelmingly Monday to increase COVID-19 relief checks to $2,000, meeting President Donald Trump’s demand for bigger payments and sending the bill to the GOP-controlled Senate, where the outcome is highly uncertain.

Democrats led passage, 275-134, their majority favoring additional assistance, but dozens of Republicans suddenly joined in approval. While Democrats favored bigger checks, Congress had settled on smaller $600 payments in a compromise over the big year-end relief bill Trump reluctantly signed into law. The president’s GOP allies opposed more spending and Trump’s push puts them in a difficult spot.

The vote was a stunning turn of events from just days ago, when House Republicans blocked Trump’s demands during a Christmas Eve session. After Trump spent days fuming from his private club in Florida, where he is spending the holidays, dozens of Republicans preferred to link with Democrats rather than buck the outgoing president. Senators were set to return to session Tuesday, forced to consider the measure amid similar, stark GOP divisions.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared, “Republicans have a choice: Vote for this legislation or vote to deny the American people the bigger paychecks they need.”

The showdown could end up as more symbol than substance. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has declined to say publicly how the Senate will handle the bill when Democrats there try to push it forward for a vote on Tuesday.

After the robust House vote, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned, “There is no good reason for Senate Republicans to stand in the way.”

“There’s strong support for these $2,000 emergency checks from every corner of the country,” Schumer said in a statement. “Leader McConnell ought to make sure Senate Republicans do not stand in the way of helping to meet the needs of American workers and families who are crying out for help.”

The legislative action during the rare holiday week session may do little to change the $2 trillion-plus COVID-19 relief and federal spending package that Trump signed into law Sunday, one of the biggest bills of its kind providing relief for millions of Americans.

That package — $900 billion in COVID-19 aid and $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies — will deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and avert a federal government shutdown that otherwise would have started Tuesday, in the midst of the public health crisis.

But the outcome will define Trump’s GOP, putting a spotlight on the Georgia runoff election Jan. 5 where two Republican senators are in the fights of their political lives against Democrats in a pair of races that will determine which party controls the Senate next year.

Together with votes Monday and Tuesday to override Trump’s veto of a sweeping defense bill, it’s potentially one last confrontation between the president and the Republican Party he leads as he imposes fresh demands and disputes the results of the presidential election. The new Congress is set to be sworn in Sunday.

Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, acknowledged the division and said Congress had already approved ample funds during the COVID-19 crisis. “Nothing in this bill helps anybody get back to work,” he said.

Aside from the direct $600 checks to most Americans, the COVID-19 portion of the bill revives a weekly pandemic jobless benefit boost — this time $300, through March 14 — as well as a popular Paycheck Protection Program of grants to businesses to keep workers on payrolls. It extends eviction protections, adding a new rental assistance fund.

The COVID-19 package draws and expands on an earlier effort from Washington. It offers billions of dollars for vaccine purchases and distribution, for virus contact tracing, public health departments, schools, universities, farmers, food pantry programs and other institutions and groups facing hardship in the pandemic.

Americans earning up to $75,000 will qualify for the direct $600 payments, which are phased out at higher income levels, and there’s an additional $600 payment per dependent child.

Meantime the government funding portion of the bill keeps federal agencies nationwide running without dramatic changes until Sept. 30.

Democrats are promising more aid to come once President-elect Joe Biden takes office, but Republicans are signaling a wait-and-see approach.

Biden told reporters at an event in Wilmington, Delaware, that he supported the $2,000 checks.

Trump’s sudden decision to sign the bill came as he faced escalating criticism from lawmakers on all sides over his eleventh-hour demands. The bipartisan bill negotiated by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had already passed the House and Senate by wide margins. Lawmakers had thought they had Trump’s blessing after months of negotiations with his administration.

The president’s defiant refusal to act, publicized with a heated video he tweeted just before the Christmas holiday, sparked chaos, a lapse in unemployment benefits for millions and the threat of a government shutdown in the pandemic. It was another crisis of his own making, resolved when he ultimately signed the bill into law.

In his statement about the signing, Trump repeated his frustrations with the COVID-19 relief bill for providing only $600 checks to most Americans and complained about what he considered unnecessary spending, particularly on foreign aid — much of it proposed by his own budget.

While the president insisted he would send Congress “a redlined version” with spending items he wants removed, those are merely suggestions to Congress. Democrats said they would resist such cuts.

For now, the administration can only begin work sending out the $600 payments.

A day after the signing, Trump was back at the golf course in Florida, the state where he is expected to move after Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20.

Most House Republicans simply shrugged off Trump’s push, 130 of them voting to reject the higher checks that would pile $467 billion in additional costs. Another 20 House Republicans — including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, a Trump confidant — skipped the vote, despite pandemic procedures that allow lawmakers to vote by proxy to avoid travel to the Capitol. McCarthy was recovering at home from elbow surgery, his office said.

Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, a conservative who supported Trump’s extraordinary and futile challenge of the election results, counted himself Monday among the opponents of a more generous relief package and Trump’s call for higher payments.

“It’s money we don’t have, we have to borrow to get and we can’t afford to pay back,” he said on “Fox and Friends.”

But Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York said she was open to the idea of $2,000 checks. “Many Americans are in dire need of relief,” she said on the show.

___

Colvin reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

Bomber to Neighbor: The World Is ‘Never Going to Forget Me’

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI, DENISE LAVOIE and MICHAEL BALSAMO

This undated image posted on social media by the FBI shows Anthony Quinn Warner. Warner, the man accused of exploding a bomb in Nashville, Tenn., on Christmas Day, told a neighbor days earlier that “Nashville and the world is never going to forget me.” (Courtesy of FBI via AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — It seemed like a friendly chat between neighbors. Only after a bomb exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning could Rick Laude grasp the sinister meaning behind his neighbor’s smiling remark that the city and the rest of the world would never forget him.

Laude told The Associated Press on Monday that he was speechless when he learned that authorities identified his 63-year-old neighbor, Anthony Quinn Warner, as the man suspected of detonating a bomb that killed himself, injured three other people and damaged dozens of buildings.

Laude said he saw Warner standing at his mailbox less than a week before Christmas and pulled over in his car to talk. After asking how Warner’s elderly mother was doing, Laude said he casually asked, “Is Santa going to bring you anything good for Christmas?”

Warner smiled and said, “Oh, yeah, Nashville and the world is never going to forget me,” Laude recalled.

Laude said he didn’t think much of the remark and thought Warner only meant that “something good” was going to happen for him financially.

“Nothing about this guy raised any red flags,” Laude said. “He was just quiet.”

Laude said Warner sometimes did not respond when he and other neighbors waved to him, but said he did not take it personally. “I knew that he was just a recluse,” he said.

Warner left behind clues that suggest he planned the bombing and intended to kill himself, but a clear motive remained elusive.

“We hope to get an answer. Sometimes, it’s just not possible,” David Rausch, the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said Monday in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show. “The best way to find motive is to talk to the individual. We will not be able to do that in this case.”

As investigators continued to search for a motive, body camera video released late Monday by Nashville police offered more insight to the moments leading up to the explosion and its aftermath.

The recording from Officer Michael Sipos’ camera captures officers walking past the RV parked across the street as the recorded warning blares and then helping people evacuate after the thunderous blast off camera. Car alarms and sirens wailed as a voice on the dispatcher calls for all available personnel and a roll call and people stumble through the downtown area littered with glass.

Investigators are analyzing Warner’s belongings collected during the investigation, including a computer and a portable storage drive, and continue to interview witnesses as they try to identify a motive for the explosion, a law enforcement official said. A review of his financial transactions also uncovered purchases of potential bomb-making components, the official said.

Warner had recently given away a vehicle and told the person he gave it to that he had been diagnosed with cancer, though it is unclear whether he indeed had cancer, the official said. Investigators used some items collected from the vehicle, including a hat and gloves, to match Warner’s DNA and DNA was taken from one of his family members, the official said.

The official could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Warner also apparently gave away his home in Antioch, a Nashville suburb, to a Los Angeles woman a month before the bombing. A property record dated Nov. 25 indicates Warner transferred the home to the woman in exchange for no money after living there for decades. The woman’s signature is not on that document.

Warner had worked as a computer consultant for Nashville real estate agent Steve Fridrich, who told the AP in a text message that Warner had said he was retiring earlier this month.

Officials said Warner had not been on their radar before Christmas. A law enforcement report released Monday showed that Warner’s only arrest was for a 1978 marijuana-related charge.

“It does appear that the intent was more destruction than death, but again that’s all still speculation at this point as we continue in our investigation with all our partners,” Rausch added.

Furthermore, officials have not provided insight into why Warner selected the particular location for the bombing, which damaged an AT&T building and wreaked havoc on cellphone service and police and hospital communications in several Southern states. By Monday, the company said the majority of services had been restored for residents and businesses.

Forensic analysts were reviewing evidence from the blast site to try to identify the components of the explosives as well as information from the U.S. Bomb Data Center for intelligence and investigative leads, according to a law enforcement official who said investigators were examining Warner’s digital footprint and financial history.

The official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, said federal agents were examining a number of potential leads and pursuing several theories, including the possibility that the AT&T building was targeted.

Doug Korneski, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Memphis field office, said Sunday that officials were looking at any and all motives and were interviewing acquaintances of Warner’s to try to determine what may have motivated him.

The bombing took place early on a holiday morning well before downtown streets were bustling with activity. Police were responding to a report of shots fired when they encountered the RV blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes. Then, for reasons that may never be known, the audio switched to a recording of Petula Clark’s 1964 hit “Downtown” shortly before the blast.

In addition to the DNA found at the blast site, investigators from the Tennessee Highway Patrol were able to link the vehicle identification number recovered from the wreckage to an RV registered to Warner, officials said.

“We’re still following leads, but right now there is no indication that any other persons were involved,” Korneski said. “We’ve reviewed hours of security video surrounding the recreation vehicle. We saw no other people involved.”

President-elect Joe Biden on Monday called the bombing “a reminder of the destructive power an individual or a small group can muster and the need for continued vigilance across the board.”

President Donald Trump hasn’t publicly commented on the explosion but has spoken to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and offered resources and support, according to the governor’s office.

___

Balsamo reported from Washington, and Lavoie from Richmond, Virginia. Associated Press journalists Scott Stroud and Mark Humphrey in Nashville, Michael Kunzelman in College Park, Maryland, Eric Tucker in Washington and Alexandra Jaffe in Wilmington, Delaware, contributed to this report.

Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine: Where Should We Stand in the Waiting Line?

BY MARC SIEGEL

OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 12/28/20 12:00 PM EST  

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

Stansberry Research

Trump's legacy: An enduring contempt for truth?

Trump's legacy: An enduring contempt for…Getting the COVID-19 vaccine: Where should we stand in the waiting line?

My former college roommate came down with COVID-19 in Los Angeles the same week that I received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine here in New York. 

He had been very careful to mask and distance, but COVID-19 is exploding in L.A. County, where he lives, and he somehow acquired it, even though contact-tracing did not reveal where. We are the same age; he has diabetes but I don’t, and he is borderline obese. I wish he would have been in line to receive the vaccine before the illness struck him but the rollout is still in its earliest stages.

I was not in the initial group of emergency room (ER) and intensive care unit (ICU) staff to receive the vaccine, which was fair. Any doctor, nurse or respiratory therapist who is on the COVID-19 frontlines should get the vaccine well before I do, and they did at NYU Langone Health. And at NYU, the line for the vaccine on the day I received it included all frontline workers. There is no space in the war on COVID-19 for posturing or backbiting and, although it is all too common in this heavily charged atmosphere, I have not seen it played out at my medical center. The vaccine rollout so far has been well-organized, smooth and science-based, clearly lacking in rank-pulling or VIP favors.

In my office, I try to see COVID-19-positive patients by Televisit only, and we pre-screen everyone for symptoms and take temperatures at the time of the visit. But every now and then I see a patient who ends up testing positive for the virus, so I am glad that I wear an N-95 mask, shield, gown and gloves for each encounter.

Health care workers should be at the front of the vaccine line because they are putting their health at risk and because they could spread COVID-19 unwittingly among their patients. Right up there with them should be populations at risk for complications and death, beginning with the elderly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is correct in stating that nursing home residents and staff also should be at the top of the list, when you consider that 39 percent of all COVID-19 deaths occur in long-term care facilities. Luckily, the states are following through with this.

But COVID-19 deaths do not stop at the nursing home door. In fact, many of my elderly patients have complained that they are the same age with the same types of underlying health conditions as nursing home residents. Why should the rest of the elderly (those under the age of 75) have to wait?

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) agree and are going against CDC guidelines, which would have so-called essential workers receiving the vaccines after those over the age 75. But CDC’s own data shows that around 80 percent of the deaths from COVID-19 occur in those over age 65, so Texas and Florida are right to expand the group of elderly who get the lifesaving vaccine next.

Not only that, but the CDC’s determination of what constitutes an essential worker is, in some cases, somewhat questionable. Few would argue that police officers and firemen are not essential — that they put their health on the line every day and can frequently encounter COVID-19 and potentially spread it; in fact, I would put them in the same group as emergency health workers. But why should members of the media and lawyers receive the same designation? Why should members of Congress be lining up to get the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as self-appointed role models? Surely the public already gets the message from health care workers all over the country that the vaccines are safe and crucial to take.

I was proud and honored to receive the revolutionary Pfizer Messenger RNA vaccine, as was every health care worker with whom I spoke. Pfizer has added this historic vaccine to its other monumental contributions to vaccine science against both smallpox and polio in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Afterward I developed a sore arm, headache and some transient fatigue but I was back to baseline a day later — whereas my pal in California has remained fatigued for several days from his encounter with the actual virus. Luckily, his breathing is good, his oxygen saturation is high, and he hasn’t had to be hospitalized, whereas others like him have not been so lucky.

I am more convinced than ever that immunization is the greatest public health weapon we have. The faster we get this and other COVID-19 vaccines to everyone in the country, the faster we will emerge from the pandemic.

Marc Siegel, MD, is a professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Health. He is a Fox News medical correspondent and author of the new book, “COVID: The Politics of Fear and the Power of Science.”

German Health Care Workers Sent to Hospital After Coronavirus Vaccine Overdoses

BY JUSTINE COLEMAN 

12/28/20 02:09 PM EST 

Four northern German health care workers were sent to the hospital on Sunday after being accidentally given five times the recommended dose of coronavirus vaccine.

Officials from the Vorpommern-Ruegen district reported that eight workers in an elderly care facility had received an overdose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with four developing flu-like symptoms and being monitored as a precautionary measure. When the mistake was discovered, the workers, who are between the ages 37 and 54, were informed and sent home. 

“I deeply regret the incident,” district chief Stefan Kerth said in a statement obtained The Hill. “This individual case is due to individual errors. I hope that all those affected do not experience any serious side-effects.”

District authorities cited previous statements from BioNTech that indicated that larger doses were used in the first phase of trials and did not lead to serious consequences. 

Pfizer and BioNTech pointed out that for those who receive an overdose of the vaccine, "monitoring of vital functions and possible symptomatic treatment is recommended."

The incident occurred days into Germany and the European Union’s rollout of the vaccine, approved by the EU's drug regulator last week. The U.S. and U.K. had approved the vaccine earlier this month and began giving out the first doses in recent weeks. 

Along with Pfizer, the EU has contracts with AstraZeneca and Moderna for its vaccination campaign and plans to vaccinate 6.25 million people by the end of the year. 

Some German districts refused to use vaccine doses received over the weekend out of concern that the required cold conditions for the vaccine were interrupted during the delivery, Reuters reported on Monday. The Pfizer vaccine needs to be shipped at a temperature between -112 degrees and -76 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

—Updated at 2:25 p.m.

New York Lawmakers Approve Sweeping Eviction Moratorium

By JANAKI CHADHA and BILL MAHONEY 12/28/2020 05:16 PM EST

ALBANY, N.Y. — A sweeping eviction ban that advanced in the New York State Legislature on Monday has led to pushback from landlord groups asserting that the measure will hurt struggling property owners, while tenant advocates warned that it’s only a temporary fix.

Details: The bill would halt evictions and foreclosures across the state for 60 days, and allow tenants and mortgagers who have lost jobs or income due to the pandemic to submit financial hardship declarations that would halt those proceedings until May 1. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday he would sign the legislation.

The Democratic-run state Senate passed it by a nearly party line vote in the afternoon, and the Assembly, which Democrats also control, was poised to do the same later in the day.

The measure comes as the state grapples with what is likely to be billions of dollars in back rent owed by tenants financially hurt by the pandemic. The National Council of State Housing Agencies commissioned a report earlier this year estimating that New York could face a rent shortfall of as much as $3.4 billion by January.

Tenant advocates have been pushing for a broad moratorium for months, warning of a wave of evictions when existing protections were slated to run out in January. Several housing groups lauded the bill's passage, while calling for the Legislature to pass substantial rental relief or forgiveness in the coming months. Landlord groups, meanwhile, say their members can’t swallow months of missed rent payments and note that many property owners are struggling to keep up with real estate taxes and utility bills.

The measure contains some benefits for small landlords — those who own 10 or fewer units would be able to access protections against foreclosure and tax lien sales. But landlord groups say the measure covers too broad a swath of tenants and could amount to a rent holiday for tenants who do have the means to pay.

The debate: Jay Martin, executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program, a landlord group, called the measure a “stall tactic.”

“No renter facing financial hardship should be evicted during a pandemic, but the cost of providing free housing cannot be fully borne by property owners,” he said in a statement. “If renters interpret this bill as a justification to not pay rent the damage to our economy and local budgets will be immense.”

Joseph Strasburg, head of the Rent Stabilization Association, another landlord group, argued the measure would benefit many tenants who don’t need assistance, noting the “financial hardship declaration” that tenants could submit does not require proof of economic hardship.

Members of the Republican minorities in both houses raised similar concerns about the breadth of the bill.

“I just have a fear that because [tenants] don’t need a lot of documentation, they don’t need to really prove that they’re unemployed or that they have any of these things or conditions,” said state Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury).

Assembly member Brian Manktelow (R-Lyons) said the existing rent moratorium has given his constituents opportunities to abuse the system, and that has helped the pandemic spread.

“They’re going places to buy large televisions, new cars, socializing, that’s part of the reason there’s a large spread,” he said. “I’ve seen it [and] I’ve watched it.”

State Sen. Brian Kavanagh (D-Manhattan), chair of the housing committee, said the bill is “not a rent holiday” and noted it would be against the law for a tenant and others covered under the measure to sign a hardship declaration that contains false information.

“The problem we are facing in New York is that we believe that there are about 1 million tenant households that are behind on their rent,” Kavanagh said at a committee meeting on Monday. “Any process that purported to adjudicate which of those folks have a hardship and which do not, we concluded in the drafting of this bill would be ineffective.”

What’s next: Legislators said the extended ban gives them time to create a more expansive rental assistance program and to distribute relief funds. An existing $100 million rent relief program was approved over the summer, but less than half of that money has been distributed thus far. New York will get additional rental assistance funds under the latest federal stimulus package.

Tenant groups praised the state measure but urged further action.

“This bill is only a temporary solution to the urgent housing crisis we find ourselves in,” the Housing Justice for All coalition said in a statement. “In order to prevent massive economic disaster, our legislature must clear the back rent owed by New Yorkers and create a hardship fund for small landlords struggling to keep their buildings safe and afloat.”

Judith Goldiner, a lead attorney at the Legal Aid Society, said lawmakers must “remain open to enhancing this legislation if we find ourselves still severely mired in the pandemic come May.”