Бізнес

During his first formal news conference as U.S. president, Joe Biden on Thursday announced a new nationwide coronavirus vaccination goal: 200 million shots in arms during the first 100 days of his administration.”I know it’s ambitious – twice our original goal – but no other country has even come close,” said Biden at the start of the event in the White House East Room.In late January, just days after his inauguration, Biden said he wanted to ship out 150 million shots in his first 100 days, but his administration scaled back that projection.As of Wednesday, 130 million injections had been administered, White House officials said, with 85 million people having received one shot and 45 million people being fully vaccinated.Three entities, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, have promised enough vaccine doses to inoculate all 260 million adults in the United States by the end of next month, another goal previously announced by Biden.In June, Pfizer and Moderna are set to deliver another 100 million doses.Biden, on the 65th day of his presidency, also said the government was closing in on another pledge he had made – of having most kindergarten-through- eighth-grade classrooms reopened during the first 100 days of his administration.’We’re really close’The president cited an Education Department survey stating nearly half of such schools with in-person learning were open full time.“Not yet a majority, but we’re really close,” said Biden. “And I believe in the 35 days left to go we’ll meet that goal as well.”During Biden’s hourlong news conference, there were no queries directly related to the coronavirus pandemic from any of the 10 reporters who were selected to ask questions.Over the past year, COVID-19 has killed more than 542,000 people and infected at least 30 million in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.White House officials earlier Thursday announced plans to spend $10 billion of money already appropriated by Congress to expand access to coronavirus vaccines and overcome hesitancy about the vaccine in high-risk communities.So far, only the states of Alaska, Mississippi, Utah and West Virginia have made all their adults eligible for vaccination. Florida is to join them on April 5.It is expected to be some time before many children, who are at lower risk of serious illness from the coronavirus, will be inoculated in the United States.Pfizer on Wednesday began testing its vaccine on children under age 12. Astra Zeneca and Moderna have been testing their vaccines on those between six months and 12 years, while Johnson & Johnson says it expects to extend its trial to younger age groups after assessing the performance of its one-shot vaccine in older children.   
…

Former Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers forward Elgin Baylor died of natural causes at the age of 86 on Monday, the NBA franchise announced.Baylor, the number one draft pick in 1958 and Rookie of the Year in 1959, spent 14 seasons with the Lakers. He is enshrined in the Hall of Fame and was considered one of the greatest players to never win a championship.A gifted shooter and rebounder despite his 6 ft 5 in frame, Baylor still held the record for most individual points in a single game in the NBA Finals when he scored 61 points against Lakers’ arch rivals, the Boston Celtics, in 1962.”Elgin was the love of my life and my best friend. And like everyone else, I was in awe of his immense courage, dignity and the time he gave to all fans,” his wife Elaine said in a statement.Baylor’s number 22 jersey was retired and hangs in the rafters of Staples Center while the 11-times NBA All-Star was immortalized in a statue that stands outside the arena.”Elgin was THE superstar of his era, his many accolades speak to that,” Lakers Governor Jeanie Buss said.”He was one of the few Lakers players whose career spanned from Minneapolis to Los Angeles.”But more importantly he was a man of great integrity, even serving his country as a U.S. Army reservist, often playing for the Lakers only during his weekend pass.”After his retirement, Baylor coached the New Orleans Jazz before he was hired as the general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers, spending 22 years in that role.”RIP to the NBA’s first high flyer, Lakers legend and Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor,” former Lakers guard and former team president Magic Johnson wrote on Twitter.”Before there was Michael Jordan doing amazing things in the air, there was Elgin Baylor.” 
…

Residents of the northeastern Nigerian city Maiduguri were elated Wednesday evening when electricity was restored nearly two months after jihadists blew up power supply lines.The Jan. 26 attack was the third time in a month that militants from the IS-linked Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group had plunged the city into darkness.On a bustling street near Bakassi camp, which hosts more than 30,000 people displaced by the violent conflict in the region, residents were rejoicing.”Seriously, I appreciate it,” Sihiyina Chinde, 24, sitting on a wooden bench, preparing pan-fried rice cake and grounded beans in a pan she could finally see thanks to the streetlights.”I’m a maths and statistics student, and now I can read my books without using my torchlight.”Across the road, a group of children were buying cold water, sold in small plastic bags.”The light came back at 5:42 p.m. (16:42 GMT),” said the shop owner, Ibrahim Mustafa Goni.The power company has not yet released a statement but had said it was working on repairing the supply lines to the city of 3 million people.”Life has been hard,” says 48-year-old Goni, “especially at the moment, in the hot season, when cold water is really needed.”Last week, it was 42 degrees in Maiduguri. Goni had to use a generator from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., which cost him about 6,000 naira ($15) each day.”I had to increase the price of my commodities (as a result) and customers were complaining.”Tonight, “I’m happy,” said Goni, but “I appeal for the government to provide more security so that it doesn’t happen again.”ISWAP and rival Boko Haram jihadist group often target infrastructure, blowing up telecom and power lines in the northeast.Militants also target army patrols, making the roads in the region risky for civilians as well as repair crews from the power company.Nigeria’s jihadist insurgency began in 2009. The conflict has since killed around 36,000 people and displaced around 2 million from their homes.
…

With about 90% of votes counted Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party was in line to hold the most seats in parliament but lacked a clear path to forming a governing coalition.
 
An anti-Netanyahu bloc led by the closest rival party, Yesh Atid, also stood short of what would be needed to form Israel’s next government.
 
The lack of a clear winner in Tuesday’s voting, the fourth parliamentary election in Israel in the span of two years, raised the prospect of yet a fifth vote to come.
 
Election officials expected to finish counting ballots from regular polling stations sometime Wednesday.  Another 450,000 ballots needed to be counted from those who voted outside their polling area.
 
After three previous inconclusive elections, Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz agreed to a power-sharing deal to form a government in May 2020.  But that arrangement fell apart late last year with the lack of agreement on a budget, triggering the new round of elections.
…

Research is ongoing, but it’s thought the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, may be a zoonotic disease that first appeared in bats. A team in the Philippines studies diseases carried by bats in hopes of preventing future pandemics.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.Producer: Arash Arabasadi 
…

Voters in Israel cast ballots Tuesday in the country’s fourth parliamentary election in two years.
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been in power since 2009, is facing challenges from several rivals, including Yair Lapid of the centrist Yesh Atid party.
 
The last election held in May 2020 forced Netanyahu to partner with Defense Minister Benny Gantz in a power-sharing deal to form a government.
 
But that arrangement collapsed in December, with the government failing to agree on a budget.
 
Opinion polls indicate Netanyahu’s Likud party is likely to win the most seats Tuesday, but less clear is whether his allied parties would have enough support for the bloc to form a coalition government.
…

A shooting at a Colorado supermarket killed multiple people Monday, including a police officer, and a suspect was in custody, authorities said.Boulder police Cmdr. Kerry Yamaguchi said at a news conference that the suspect was being treated but didn’t give more details on the shooting or how many people were killed. Officers escorted a shirtless man with blood running down his leg out of the store in handcuffs, but authorities would not say if that was the suspect.Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said authorities know how many people were killed and suggested they are not releasing the number because they need to notify families of the victims.Yamaguchi said police were still investigating and didn’t have details on motive.A man who had just left the store in Boulder, Dean Schiller, told The Associated Press that he heard gunshots and saw three people lying face down, two in the parking lot and one near the doorway. He said he “couldn’t tell if they were breathing.”Video posted on YouTube showed one person on the floor inside the King Soopers store and two more outside on the ground, but the extent of their injuries wasn’t clear. What sounds like two gunshots are also heard at the beginning of the video.One person was taken from the shooting scene to Foothills Hospital in Boulder, said Rich Sheehan, spokesman for Boulder Community Health, which operates the hospital. Sheehan said he could not provide additional details but did say that “we have been notified we will not be receiving any additional patients.”Law enforcement vehicles and officers massed outside the store, including SWAT teams, and at least three helicopters landed on the roof. The city is home to the University of Colorado and is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Denver.Some windows at the front of the store were broken. At one point, authorities over a loudspeaker said the building was surrounded and that “you need to surrender.” They said to come out with hands up and unarmed.Sarah Moonshadow told the Denver Post that two shots rang out just after she and her son, Nicolas Edwards, finished buying strawberries. She said she told her son to get down and then “we just ran.”Once they got outside, she said they saw a body in the parking lot. Edwards said police were speeding into the lot and pulled up next to the body.”I knew we couldn’t do anything for the guy,” he said. “We had to go.”James Bentz told the Post that he was in the meat section when he heard what he thought was a misfire, then a series of pops.”I was then at the front of a stampede,” he said.Bentz said he jumped off a loading dock out back to escape and that younger people were helping older people off of it.Colorado Gov. Jared Polis tweeted a statement that his “heart is breaking as we watch this unspeakable event unfold in our Boulder community.” He called it “very much an active situation” and said the state was “making every public safety resource available to assist the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department as they work to secure the store.”Boulder police had told people to shelter in place amid a report of an “armed, dangerous individual” about 3 miles (5 kilometers) away from the grocery store but later lifted it and police vehicles were seen leaving the residential area near downtown and the University of Colorado. They had said they were investigating if that report was related to the shooting at the supermarket but said at the evening news conference that it wasn’t related.The FBI said it’s helping in the investigation at the request of Boulder police.White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting.
…

President Joe Biden’s administration has tried for weeks to keep the public from seeing images like those that emerged Monday showing immigrant children in U.S. custody at the border sleeping on mats under foil blankets, separated in groups by plastic partitions. Administration officials have refused to call the detention of more than 15,000 children in U.S. custody, or the conditions they’re living under, a crisis.  Officials have barred nonprofit lawyers who conduct oversight from entering a Border Patrol tent where thousands of children and teenagers are detained. And federal agencies have refused or ignored requests from the media for access to detention sites. Such access was granted several times by the administration of President Donald Trump, whose restrictive immigration approach Biden vowed to reverse.  Now Biden faces growing criticism for the apparent secrecy at the border, including from fellow Democrats.  FILE – Migrants are seen in a green area outside of a soft-sided detention center after they were taken into custody while trying to sneak into the U.S., in Donna, Texas, March 19, 2021.National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that “the administration has a commitment to transparency to make sure that the news media gets the chance to report on every aspect of what’s happening at the border.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki added that the White House was working with officials from Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “finalize details” and that she hoped to have an update in the “coming days.” On Monday, Axios first published a series of photos taken inside the largest Border Patrol detention center, a sprawling tent facility in the South Texas city of Donna. The photos were released by Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat from the border city of Laredo.  FILE – U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) gives an interview in Laredo, Texas, Oct. 9, 2019.Cuellar said he released the photos in part because the administration has refused media access to the Donna tent. He said he also wanted to draw attention to the extreme challenges that border agents face in watching so many children, sometimes for a week or longer, despite the Border Patrol’s three-day limit on detaining minors.  “We ought to take care of those kids like they’re our own kids,” Cuellar said. Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the U.S. should allow media access to border facilities while respecting the privacy of immigrants detained inside. He noted the risk of sharing without permission images of children who have already faced trauma.  “We ought to be aware of these conditions,” Saenz said. “People have to see them so that they can assess the inhumanity and hopefully embark on more humane policies.” The White House has prided itself on its methodical rollout of policy during its first 50-plus days, but West Wing aides privately acknowledge they were caught off guard by the surge of migrants at the border and the resulting media furor. Republican lawmakers have revived the border issue that was key to propelling Trump to the top of the Republican field in 2016. In 2018, the Trump administration detained hundreds of children in many of the same facilities being used now after separating them from their parents. The following year, hundreds of families and children detained at one West Texas border station went days without adequate food, water or soap.  Biden has kept in place a Trump-era public health order and expelled thousands of immigrant adults and families, but he declined to expel immigrant children without a parent after a federal appeals court in January cleared the way for him to do so. He also moved to speed up the reunification of hundreds of separated immigrant families.  “What Trump did was horrible,” Cuellar said. “These pictures show you that even under our best intentions, and the Biden administration has the best intentions, it’s still very difficult.” Cuellar said the White House needs to work more with Mexico and Central America to prevent people from leaving their home countries. And on Monday, the White House said key officials were headed to Mexico and Guatemala.  Detainees are seen in a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) temporary overflow facility in Donna, Texas, March 20, 2021, in this photo provided by the Office of Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.The Associated Press has requested access to border facilities for more than a month. Reporters first asked HHS on February 4 to allow entry into a surge facility reopened at Carrizo Springs, Texas, holding hundreds of teenagers. And they have asked Homeland Security officials for access at least seven times to Border Patrol facilities, with no response. The AP has also petitioned Psaki to open border facilities.  Border agencies under Trump allowed limited media tours of both Homeland Security and HHS facilities. Several of those visits revealed troubling conditions inside, including the detention of large numbers of children as young as 5 separated from their parents.  Under Biden, the agencies also have denied full access to nonprofit lawyers who conduct oversight of facilities where children are detained. Those oversight visits occur under a federal court settlement.  When lawyers this month visited the Border Patrol facility at Donna, where thousands of children are now detained, agents refused to let them inside, and the Justice Department said they were not entitled to gain access. The lawyers were forced to interview children outside. The Justice Department declined to comment.  The newly published photos released by Cuellar’s office show groups of children crowded together inside the partitions. Some appear to be watching television, while others are lying on floor mats, some side by side. Children are shown wearing surgical masks but are close to each other. The Donna facility consists of large interconnected tents. Overhead photos taken by AP show enclosed outdoor areas where children can go. But lawyers who have interviewed children detained at Donna say some can go days without being allowed outside. The administration is rushing to open more space to get roughly 5,000 children out of Border Patrol detention and into HHS facilities that are better suited for youth. It has also tried to expedite the releases of children in HHS custody to parents and other sponsors in the U.S. But border agents continue to apprehend far more children daily than HHS is releasing, even though more than 40% of youths in the system have a parent or legal guardian who could take them.Meanwhile, the administration is seeing its emergency facilities for immigrant children approach capacity almost as quickly as it can open them. The downtown Dallas convention center has 1,500 teenagers less than a week after opening and is expected to take in 500 more teens Monday, according to HHS. Its current capacity is 2,300 people.  
 
…

Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, the main challenger in the Republic of Congo’s presidential election, has died of COVID-19.A spokesman for Kolelas’s campaign says the 61-year-old candidate died Sunday as he was being evacuated from Brazzaville to France for treatment. FILE – Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas speaks to supporters while receiving oxygen, in Brazzaville, Congo Republic, in this still image taken from Reuters TV video said to be filmed March 19, 2021. (Parfait Kolelas/Handout via Reuters)Kolelas was too ill to participate in a final campaign rally Friday, two days before the election. He recorded a video from his hospital bed Saturday holding an oxygen mask, declaring that he was “battling against death” but urging his supporters to “stand up and vote for change.” Sunday’s election was the second time Kolelas had challenged incumbent President Denis Sassou Nguesso, having finished second in the 2016 election. The results are not expected for several days, but observers believe the 77-year-old Sassou Nguesso will emerge the winner and extend his decades-long grip on power.  Sassou Nguesso first took office in 1979 and served until 1992, and has served uninterrupted since winning the presidency again in 1997.   
…

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday approved sanctions over abuses in China, Myanmar and Russia, as the bloc expands measures targeting global rights breaches.The 27 nations are due to place four Chinese officials and one state-run entity on a blacklist over Beijing’s crackdown on the Uighur minority after ambassadors gave the go-ahead last week.The highly symbolic move — reported by EU diplomats and expected to be formally unveiled in the EU’s official journal later Monday — is the first time Brussels has hit Beijing over human rights abuses since it imposed an arms embargo in 1989 after Tiananmen Square.China’s foreign ministry has warned that Beijing will “react with a firm hand” against any punishment over its actions in the western Xinjiang region.The measures are part of a package of human rights sanctions targeting a dozen people that also includes individuals in Russia, North Korea, Eritrea, South Sudan and Libya, diplomats said.”This is a very important step which shows how committed we are,” Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok said.The mechanism — designed to make it easier for the bloc to target rights abusers — was launched this month with sanctions on four Russian officials over the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.Diplomats said the fresh sanctions on Russia will target individuals behind abuses in the country’s Chechnya region, which is ruled with an iron-fist by Kremlin loyalist Ramzan Kadyrov.The EU will also slap asset freezes and visa bans on 11 officials of Myanmar’s junta over the military coup last month and crackdown on demonstrators.”What we see there in terms of excesses of violence is absolutely unacceptable,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. “That is why we will not be able to avoid imposing sanctions.”Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, triggering a mass uprising that security forces have sought to crush with a campaign of violence and fear. Diplomats have said businesses tied to the military will likely be placed under sanctions in the coming weeks.People stage a protest in support of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party, or HDP, in Istanbul, in Istanbul, March 18, 2021. The European Union voiced concerns over the “backsliding of rights” in Turkey.Turkey tiesTurkey will feature prominently at the meeting as member states debate efforts to improve ties after a spike in tensions last year over the eastern Mediterranean.Brussels has welcomed steps by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reduce tensions by restarting talks with Greece over their disputed maritime border. But there remain major concerns, including over domestic freedoms after moves to ban a key opposition party and Erdogan’s decision to leave a global treaty to prevent violence against women. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has drawn up a report outlining the bloc’s options to be discussed by leaders at a video conference this week.Warming ties have seen efforts to impose sanctions agreed on in December over Turkish drilling off Cyprus put on the back burner for fear of derailing the rapprochement.”There are different signals from Turkey,” Maas said.”We will continue to try to remain in dialogue, but also to use this dialogue to address the issues where we believe that Turkey is sending out the wrong signals.”
…

North Korean diplomats vacated their embassy in Malaysia and prepared to leave the country Sunday, after the two nations cut diplomatic relations in a spat over the extradition of a North Korean criminal suspect to the United States.   The North Korean flag and embassy signage have been removed from the premise in a Kuala Lumpur suburb. Two buses ferried the diplomats and their families to the airport, where they were seen checking in for a flight to Shanghai.   Ties between North Korea and Malaysia have been virtually frozen since the 2017 assassination of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.   Two days after Kuala Lumpur extradited a North Korean man to the U.S. to face money laundering charges, a furious North Korea on Friday announced it was terminating ties with Malaysia. Malaysia denounced the decision and in a tit-for-tat response, gave North Korean diplomats 48 hours to leave.   Kim Yu Song, the chargé d’affaires and councilor in Kuala Lumpur, said Malaysia had “committed an unpardonable crime.” Echoing Pyongyang’s earlier statement, he accused Malaysia of being subservient to the U.S. and being part of a U.S. conspiracy aimed at “isolating and suffocating” his country.   “The Malaysian authority delivered our citizen to the U.S. in the end, thus destroying the foundations of the bilateral relations based on respect of sovereignty,” he said in a short statement outside the embassy, before heading to the airport.   North Korea has called the money laundering charges an “absurd fabrication and [a] sheer plot” orchestrated by the U.S. and warned Washington will “pay a due price.”   Some experts say cutting ties with Malaysia was North Korea’s way of showing anger with President Joe Biden’s administration, without jeopardizing an eventual return to nuclear negotiations with Washington.   North Korea has insisted it will not engage in talks with Washington unless it abandons what Pyongyang’s perceives as a “hostile” policy. But experts say North Korea will eventually seek to return to diplomacy to find ways to get sanctions relief and revive its moribund economy.   Malaysia has defended its move to extradite Mun Chol Myong, saying it was carried out only after all legal processes have been exhausted. A top court ruled Mun can be extradited after rejecting his appeal on grounds that the U.S. charges were politically motivated.   Mun, who lived in Malaysia for a decade and arrested in May 2019, has denied U.S. accusations that he was involved in supplying luxury goods from Singapore to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions while working in the city-state. He denied laundering funds through front companies and issuing fraudulent documents to support illicit shipments to his country.   North Korea has long used Malaysia as a crucial economic hub where it handled trade, labor exports and some illicit businesses in Southeast Asia, but their relations suffered major setbacks over the 2017 killing of Kim Jong Nam.   Two women — one Indonesian and the other Vietnamese — were charged with colluding with four North Koreans to murder Kim Jong Nam by smearing his face with VX nerve agent, a toxic and lethal chemical weapon. The four North Koreans fled Malaysia the day Kim died. The two women were later released.   Malaysian officials never officially accused North Korea of involvement in Kim’s death, but prosecutors made it clear throughout the trial that they suspected a North Korean connection.   North Korea denied the victim was Kim Jong Nam and disputed it had any role in the man’s death. Longtime North Korea watchers believe Kim Jong Un ordered his brother’s killing as part of efforts to remove potential rivals and cement his grip on power.  
…

Dozens of pro-democracy protesters and police officers were injured Sunday when Thai police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse a crowd gathered near the Grand Palace in the capital Bangkok.Police arrested at least 20 demonstrators for insulting the monarchy and breaching public gathering laws, saying that their actions were in accordance with international standards.Speaking to reporters, the deputy head of the Bangkok police, Piya Tavichai said that the “violence originated from the protesters’ side and police have to defend the law and protect national treasures.”Protesters said, however, that police used excessive force first before the demonstrators did anything.Videos circulated on social media showed police in riot gear clashing with demonstrators, hitting and stomping on people, some of them running to take refuge in a nearby McDonald’s restaurant.Thailand’s protest movement started last year and is presenting the biggest challenge for the government of Prime Minster Prayuth Chan-ocha, a retired army general who seized power after the 2014 military coup. The pro-democracy protesters demand that the prime minister and his government relinquish power, demand a constitutional amendment and call on the monarchy to reform.The military-monarchy establishment drafted the constitution for which the protesters say gives the king too much power and keeps Prayuth as prime minister after a 2019 election.Prayuth and his supporters reject that claim. 
…

Saudi Arabia’s state-backed oil giant Aramco announced Sunday that its profits fell sharply in 2020 to $49 billion, a big drop that came as the coronavirus pandemic roiled global energy markets.Saudi Arabian Oil Co. released its financial results a year after the pandemic sent the price of oil crashing to all-time lows as people stopped moving around the world to stem the spread of the virus. In recent weeks, however, the price has edged up as movement restrictions ease, commerce increases, and more people get vaccinated against COVID-19. Still, analysts caution that a peak in demand may still be far off.The public figures, obligatory ever since the mostly state-owned company listed a sliver of its worth on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange in 2019, offer valuable insight into the health of the region’s largest economy. Despite Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to diversify the economy away from oil, the kingdom remains heavily dependent on oil exports to fuel government spending.Saudi Aramco profit of $49 billion in 2020 is down from $88.2 billion in 2019 and $111.1 billion in 2018. Still, Aramco remains one of the world’s most valuable companies.The company produced the equivalent of 9.2 million barrels per day of crude oil over the course of the year, its annual results said. Capital expenditure was down in 2020 to $27 billion compared to $32.8 billion the year before. Aramco expects to spend $35 billion this year, significantly lower than the previous estimates of $40 billion-$45 billion.
…

…

The founder of BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer in making one of the first coronavirus vaccines to be approved for use, is optimistic that the virus will be under control in most European countries by the end of the summer despite a faltering vaccine rollout.In Germany, owners of shuttered shops and would-be vacationers are increasingly restive over COVID-19 restrictions. Some 20,000 people protested against lockdowns in the central city of Kassel on Saturday.European Union governments are facing criticism over the slow start to their vaccination campaigns, with supply hiccups leaving the bloc lagging far behind countries such as Israel, Britain and the United States.But BioNTech founder Ugur Sahin said he was optimistic the problems would prove temporary, adding it was possible to ensure 70% of Germans were vaccinated by the end of September, at which point he said the virus would pose few problems.’Background noise'”In many European countries and the U.S., we will probably not need lockdowns by summer’s end,” he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. “There’ll be outbreaks, but they’ll be background noise. There’ll be mutations, but they won’t frighten us.”Almost 9% of the German population had received at least one vaccine shot by Saturday. Meanwhile, Britain passed the halfway point with 50% of adults having received at least one dose.Protesters hold up an umbrella with lettering reading “Be free” as they gather for a demonstration to demand provision of basic rights and an end to restrictive coronavirus measures in Kassel, Germany, March 20, 2021.Protesters from across Germany converged on Kassel for a march Saturday that was organized by the “Lateral Thinkers,” an online conspiracy movement.Police used water cannon and pepper spray after the protests against lockdowns and other coronavirus rules turned violent.”Bottles were thrown and there were attempts to break through barriers,” police said on Twitter.In Germany, the sluggish vaccine deployment and continuing restrictions are weighing heavily on the fortunes of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, who are slipping in the polls in an election year even as rising COVID-19 case numbers look set to force authorities to put the brakes on attempts to gradually reopen the economy.Above the limitThe number of newly diagnosed cases is more than 100 cases per 100,000 population over a week, the threshold above which authorities say they must impose stricter distancing rules to stop the health care system from being overburdened.”Many are simply disappointed,” Bavaria’s conservative Premier Markus Soeder, a likely candidate to succeed Merkel in the national election, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.”A false move now risks turning this third wave [of the virus] into a permanent wave,” he said ahead of a meeting on Monday of national and regional leaders at which they are expected to discuss the next stage of coronavirus measures.”We have a tool: the emergency brake. It must be applied strictly everywhere in Germany,” Soeder said, referring to the possibility of halting the easing of restrictions.  
…

Police in the Thai capital used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets Saturday night to break up a rally by pro-democracy protesters calling for the release of detained activists, constitutional changes and reform of the nation’s monarchy.The rally held outside Bangkok’s Grand Palace was a continuation of student-led protests that began last year and have rattled Thailand’s traditional establishment, which is fiercely opposed to change, especially with regard to the monarchy.The rally organizers had said they planned to have demonstrators throw paper planes with messages over the palace walls.Barrier breachedThe demonstrators, who numbered nearly 1,000, broke through a barrier of shipping containers stacked two high outside the ceremonial palace. Police behind the containers responded first with warnings and then by shooting water cannons and rubber bullets. Police drove the crowd back, but skirmishes continued as the crowd dissipated and was gone by 10 p.m.During the skirmishes, protesters tossed smoke bombs and giant firecrackers at police, and also splashed a royal portrait with paint, but failed in an attempt to set it on fire, though they did burn tires and trash at several locations.Police deputy spokesman Colonel Kissana Phathanacharoen said at least six police officers were injured and about five protesters detained. The city’s Erawan emergency services said 11 people in all had been sent to hospitals.A demonstrator takes part in an anti-government protest, in Bangkok, Thailand, March 20, 2021.Kissana said police had warned in advance that the rally was illegal, but the demonstrators proceeded anyway. He said that in addition to throwing various objects, they used slingshots to fire nuts and bolts at police and hit them with metal rods. He said police had used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets according to proper procedures.The rally was called by REDEM, a faction of a broader protest movement last year that started with three core demands: that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and his government step down; that the constitution be amended to make it more democratic; and that the monarchy be reformed to make it more accountable.REDEM, which stands for Restart Democracy, claims to have no leaders and holds online voting to decide on rally dates and activities.Lese majeste lawThe movement sharpened its campaign to focus on the monarchy and Thailand’s lese majeste law, which makes criticizing, insulting or defaming the king and some other senior royals punishable by up to 15 years in prison.The monarchy has long been treated as a sacred institution in Thailand, and public criticism is not only illegal but has long been considered socially unacceptable. Many people still revere the monarchy, and the military, a major power in Thai society, considers defense of the monarchy a key priority.As protesters last year stepped up criticism of the monarchy, the government responded by charging outspoken protesters under the lese majeste law, and in the last month, eight were jailed pending trial.The movement was able to attract crowds of as many as 20,000 to 30,000 people in Bangkok in 2020 and had followings in major cities and universities. However, a new coronavirus outbreak late last year caused it to temporarily suspend activities, and it lost momentum. 
…

…