RIYADMEDIA

The European Union has reached an agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech for an additional 300 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine.At a news conference in Brussels Friday, EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said the deal will double the number of doses the bloc gets from the drug maker. The commission is the EU’s executive arm.Von der Leyen said the EU had already made a separate deal with U.S. drug maker Moderna for its COVID-19 vaccine, which was authorized for use in Europe earlier this week. She said between the two, the EU has secured enough vaccine to inoculate 380 million Europeans, more than 80 percent of the bloc’s population.  Each vaccine requires two shots given over several weeks.Von der Leyen said 75 million of the extra doses would become available in the second quarter of the year, with the rest being delivered later in 2021.As part of its strategy to combat COVID-19, the EU has reached agreements with six vaccine makers:  Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV and CureVac.It says if all six produce working vaccines, the EU will receive 2.3 billion doses – more than enough to inoculate the EU’s entire population of about 450 million people.Vaccination programs in the 27-nation bloc have gotten off to a slow start and some EU members have been quick to blame the EU’s executive arm for a perceived failure in delivering the right number of doses.The EU has defended its strategy, insisting that vaccination programs have just started, and that the big deliveries of doses are foreseen around April.
…

Greece said Tuesday it had approved a landmark $1.68 billion deal with Israel, providing for the procurement of 10 state-of-the-art jet fighters and training of pilots as the government in Athens upgrades its defenses, mainly against its longtime foe Turkey.The deal, which both sides are set to sign in the coming weeks, marks the biggest defense agreement between Greece and Israel since Athens began shifting its pro-Arab outlook and stance in the Middle East some 20 years ago.“The Israelis do not trust easily, especially in the field of defense,” said Costas Filis, a professor of international relations in Athens. “So, this deal is not only important for the qualitative edge it will give Greece’s new generation of pilots and armed forces as a whole, but because of the serious message it puts out – that a solid and new depth of relations has been consolidated between Athens and Jerusalem.”Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the deal would “serve the interests of both Israel and Greece, creating hundreds of jobs in both countries … promoting stability in the Mediterranean.”Tensions with TurkeyUnder the agreement, Israel will provide 10 Mavi M-346 trainer aircraft, together with simulators and logistical support as part of the 20-year-deal, according to the Greek Defense Ministry. Israel’s Elbit Systems will also set up a flight school to train Greek air force pilots in Kalamata, south of Athens.In recent years, Greece has leased drones from Israel to boost surveillance of its porous borders with Turkey, mainly along the Aegean waterway that divides the two neighbor states but serves as the main gateway for illegal immigration to Europe. Last year, Greece and Israel also joined forces with Cyprus to build a 1,900-kilometer undersea pipeline to carry natural gas from the Eastern Mediterranean’s rapidly developing gas fields to Europe.The energy deal, plus others carved out by nations girdling the oil- and gas-rich region have been largely opposed by Turkey, which has sent out survey ships in recent months, exploring untapped energy potentials in areas Greece claims it has exclusive rights to exploit.NATO allies Greece and Turkey have long challenged each other’s air and sea rights in the region, coming to the brink of war over an uninhabited islet in the Aegean exactly 25 years ago. Since then, relations have seesawed, swinging to the lowest point in recent months in response to the energy standoff in the eastern Mediterranean.With tensions still high, the government in Athens has announced plans to purchase a grab bag of new warplanes, frigates, helicopters, and weapons systems, from sources including the United States and France.“There is no doubt that many of these energy deals and alliances that have been formed over the past year have spawned from a growing concern and distrust of [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan,” Filis told VOA. “But this defense deal with Israel,” he said, “is not about teaming up against Turkey. In fact, quite the opposite.”’Lingering distrust’For decades, Israel and Turkey were among the staunchest of allies, largely promoting, as Filis put it, “U.S. policy interests in the greater region.”Relations collapsed in 2010, however, after an Israeli naval raid on a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza left 10 activists dead. Despite years of acrimony, Erdogan has shown signs of wanting to rekindle relations – a move some analysts says is linked to the election of a new U.S. president anticipated to be less friendly to the Turkish president than outgoing President Donald Trump.“Sure, there is lingering distrust of Erdogan from the Israeli – and U.S. — side,” Filis said.“But that does not mean that Israel wants to push Turkey away. It has long been instrumental in the region and will continue to be. And there is no doubt that relations between the two countries will be restored to the point they were years ago.“It is in Greece’s true interest, therefore, to be seated well in this developing geopolitical play, especially with the Israeli side,” he said.It remains unclear whether improved relations between Turkey and Israel can ease tensions between Greece and Turkey. Still, the Turkish-Israeli rapprochement is gaining pace fast.In recent weeks, the head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, held numerous meetings with top Israeli defense officials, including the head of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. What is more, Erdogan has signaled his intent to restore diplomatic ties with Israel after expelling Jerusalem’s top envoy in Turkey in 2018 after 60 Palestinians were killed in violent protests on the Gaza border. Erdogan lashed out at Israel at the time, calling it a “terrorist state” responsible for the Gaza “genocide.”He has yet to rescind those remarks.
…

2020 has tied 2016 as the hottest year on record, the European Union’s climate monitoring service said Friday, keeping Earth on a global warming fast track that could devastate large swathes of humanity.The six years since 2015 are the six warmest ever registered, as are 20 of the last 21, evidence of a persistent and deepening trend, the Copernicus Climate Change Service reported.”2020 stands out for its exceptional warmth,” said C3S director Carlo Buontempo, of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.”This is yet another reminder of the urgency of ambitious emissions reductions to prevent adverse climate impacts in the future.”   
…

The handbag of Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, are seen as she attends the traditional Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris, July 14, 2018.The United States has indefinitely suspended 25% tariffs on French cosmetics, handbags and other imports it had planned in retaliation for a digital services tax Washington says will harm U.S. tech firms, as it investigates similar taxes elsewhere.The U.S. Trade Representative’s office (USTR) said on Thursday that the 25% tariffs on imports of the French goods, which are valued around $1.3 billion annually, would be suspended indefinitely.Washington announced the tariffs in July after concluding a French digital services tax (DST) would harm firms such as Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.The USTR said suspending the action against France, which had been scheduled to come into force January 6, would allow it to pursue a coordinated response in 10 investigations involving other countries, including India, Italy, Britain and Turkey.”The U.S. Trade Representative has decided to suspend the tariffs in light of the ongoing investigation of similar DSTs adopted or under consideration in ten other jurisdictions,” the USTR said in a statement.”Those investigations have significantly progressed but have not yet reached a determination on possible trade actions,” it said, adding its aim was to achieve a “coordinated response in all of the ongoing DST investigations.”French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire took note of the postponement, adding, “We view these sanctions as not legitimate under WTO rules. We are once again calling for a global solution to trade disputes between the United States and Europe that will only make losers, particularly during this time of crisis.”EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said in a tweet that he took note of the postponement and that the European Union was willing to work with Washington to find a global solution for fair taxation of the digital sector.”The EU stands ready to explore all options should the U.S. unilaterally apply these trade measures,” he said.The USTR said on Wednesday that it had concluded digital services taxes adopted by India, Italy and Turkey also discriminated against U.S. companies and were inconsistent with international tax principles, paving the way for potential retaliatory tariffs.But it held off on announcing any specific tariff actions and said it would continue to evaluate all available options.The probes are among several still-open USTR Section 301 investigations that could lead to tariffs before President Donald Trump leaves office or early in the administration of incoming President-elect Joe Biden.
…

Since the 1950s, thousands of Uighurs fleeing persecution in China have found sanctuary in Turkey, where they share a common linguistic, cultural and religious heritage with the Turks. Some experts say the Uighur community there could be in jeopardy, though, after a recent agreement was reached between the two countries. An estimated 50,000 Uighurs are believed to reside in Turkey, constituting the largest Uighur refugee community in the world.  Uighur diaspora activists cite a significant shift since December 26, however, when the FILE – A masked Uighur boy takes part in a protest against China, at the courtyard of Fatih Mosque, a common meeting place for pro-Islamist demonstrators in Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 6, 2018.Ekrem told VOA the extradition treaty tilts largely in favor of China, where capital punishment is applied. He said Uighur refugees who are at risk of a death sentence if they return to China are particularly made vulnerable by the treaty, which makes no stipulation that those who are facing the death penalty there cannot be extradited. The agreement, consisting of 22 articles, obligates a signing country to extradite any person wanted on charges of criminal activity to the requesting country. “Extradition can only be granted if the conduct targeted by the extradition request constitutes a crime under the laws of both countries,” the agreement states. Turkey’s stance  Turkish and Chinese officials have dismissed claims the treaty provides a legal window for the deportation of Uighurs from Turkey.   A diplomatic source at the Turkish Foreign Ministry told VOA the country views its treaty with China as a routine move similar to 32 other such treaties signed with other countries for the extradition of criminals under international law. “It is extremely wrong to view the extradition treaty with the PRC as targeting Uighur Turks,” said the source.   FILE – China’s Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng speaks at a forum in Beijing, China, Oct. 22, 2019.During the submission of the treaty for a vote at the Chinese People’s Congress, China’s vice minister of foreign affairs, Le Yucheng, said the agreement addressed the cooperation needs in anti-terrorism and crime fighting between Beijing and Ankara.  Le said the Chinese and Turkish representatives during negotiations on the agreement disagreed on determining the nationality of the person to be deported. Turkey proposed that if the person requested for extradition had acquired the nationality of the requested country when the extradition request was made, the person should be recognized as a national of the requested country. The Chinese side, however, argued such a proposition could encourage criminals to evade extradition by changing their nationality.  “The two parties finally agreed not to specify the time for nationality recognition in the treaty, but to hand it over to the competent authorities in accordance with their respective domestic laws in practice,” Le said.  Turkey’s inability to include its proposal in the treaty means many Uighurs who acquired Turkish citizenship nonetheless could face a crackdown by Beijing, according to Hankiz Kurban, a Turkey-born Uighur whose parents were abducted by Chinese authorities despite their Turkish citizenship.  “If this treaty is ratified by the Turkish parliament, I fear that I won’t be able to see my parents forever,” she said. Kurban said her father came to Turkey as a child and her mother as a teenager from Xinjiang. The two were arrested by Chinese police in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, in 2017 while they were on a business trip and have been incommunicado ever since. Detained Uighurs Rights organizations say the Chinese government has since 2017 subjected more than 1 million Uighur Muslims to torture, forced sterilization, coerced labor and abandonment of their faith in internment camps. But China denies the mistreatment of the minority, saying the detention facilities are “vocational training centers” to combat extremism and teach Uighurs different job skills.  FILE – Workers walk by the perimeter fence of what is officially known as a vocational skills education center in Dabancheng, in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, Sept. 4, 2018.Relations between Ankara and Beijing seemed strained for a short period after the Turkish president called the Chinese government’s handling of a Uighur protest in July 2009 in Urumqi “a genocide.” The two began to reconcile through the establishment of a strategic cooperative relationship in October 2010. According to Kemal Kirisci, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, the Turkish government in recent years has been “surprisingly quiet and subdued” in the treatment of Uighurs because of the Chinese government’s increasing economic leverage over Turkey.  “Economic considerations may well be playing a role given the dire state of the Turkish economy and the poor relations that Turkey has with its traditional allies in the West,” Kirisci told VOA. Last October, 39 countries in a letter to the U.N. condemned China’s policies in Xinjiang. Uighur diaspora activists said Turkey’s unwillingness to join the effort was noticeable. Alimcan Inayet, director of the Istanbul-based Uighur Academy, charged that Uighur organizations engaged in political activism for “the East Turkistan cause” have found themselves increasingly under pressure.  The extradition treaty means these groups “would have to be more restrained in their activities,” added Inayet.  Last year, NPR said in a report that Turkey had deported at least four Uighurs to Tajikistan, and one of them, Zinnetgul Tursun, ended up in Chinese police custody along with her two toddlers.  Turkey’s directorate general of migration management in a statement last September, however, denied Turkey had extradited Uighurs to China “directly or through third countries.” Despite the Turkish reaffirmation, some Uighurs in Turkey say Ankara’s expanded cooperation with Beijing in security has elevated Uighur refugees’ fear of being extradited to China. “I love Turkey. I am not against this country. Even though I have never committed any criminal act, I am constantly fearful of being arrested or deported,” lamented Ihsan Kartal, a Uighur refugee and a businessman in Istanbul.  
…

Ukrainian authorities are investigating documents and audio recordings that appear to reveal a plot to murder Pavel Sheremet, an investigative journalist who was killed in a car bombing.Ukrainian police confirmed Monday that FILE – Boris Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister and opposition leader, is pictured at a news conference in Moscow, May 30, 2013.Musayeva said Sheremet worked in Russia and had a connection with Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician and critic of President Vladimir Putin, who was shot dead close to the Kremlin in February 2015.“This Russian connection could have been used as a factor of destabilization in Ukraine,” Musayeva said. “But there is another story, a story related to Belarus. I can say unequivocally that Aleksandr Lukashenko perceived Pavel Sheremet almost as an enemy. At one time he took away his citizenship and it was a direct instruction.”Tensions between Sheremet and the Belarusian authorities had existed since the 1990s because of the journalist’s work, Musayeva said.Sheremet reported critically on the Belarusian president, and in 1998, he and a colleague were handed a suspended sentence for illegally crossing a border after they reported on smuggling.Investigation prioritizedWhen he came to power in 2019, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said investigating Sheremet’s murder would be a priority.Anton Gerashchenko, Ukraine’s deputy minister of internal affairs, confirmed to VOA that investigators received the new evidence in December.”The Ministry of Internal Affairs received information from Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service that a Belarusian intelligence officer, who has been living outside Belarus for eight years, has important information: audio recordings about a possible Belarusian connection in the assassination of Pavel Sheremet,” Gerashchenko told VOA.Investigators looked into the case and signed permits to question the officer, Gerashchenko said.But the minister emphasized a possible Belarus involvement is just one avenue of investigation.”Another version is a Russian connection because it is well-known that Pavel Sheremet had certain historical connections with the Russian Federation,” Gerashchenko said.“That’s why such versions of foreign involvement have been in consideration for a long time, and this new fact can help us to determine which of these versions will prove itself,” Gerashchenko said.The Russian Foreign Ministry in 2016 denied accusations of involvement, The Moscow Times reported.Musayeva, of Ukrainska Pravda, said that although three Ukrainians were on trial for their alleged involvement in the killing, the case against them was questionable.FILE – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during a meeting with the country’s political activists in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 16, 2020.“The investigation supported the version that the murder was aimed to destabilize the situation in Ukraine. If we are talking about the possible connection with the recordings and the Belarusian secret services, then this is about the threat to the life of Aleksandr Lukashenko’s political opponents, and if we listen to the words of the recorded messages, this is about the public message for the Belarusian opposition, for the Belarusian people,” she said.The audio recordings show that journalists working in Ukraine continue to be under threat from internal and external forces, Musayeva said.”Until all involved perpetrators and instigators are found, the perpetrators of the high-profile murders of journalists, no journalist in Ukraine can feel safe,” she said.This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service. Some information is from Reuters.
 
…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Thursday condemned the assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, and said Trump was wrong for encouraging them.At a news conference from his residence in London, Johnson said the U.S. president has “consistently cast doubt on the outcome of a free and fair election and I believe that was completely wrong.”The comments came a day after Trump supporters forced their way into the U.S. Capitol in a harrowing assault during which four people died.Both houses of the U.S. Congress were inside conducting the normally ceremonial task of certifying electoral college votes and confirming Joe Biden as president-elect.Before the siege on the Capitol building, Trump gave a speech to his supporters repeating numerous false claims that the election had been stolen from him and urged the crowd to go to walk to the Capitol and “make their voices heard.”Johnson, who has generally been an ally to Trump during his term, said he “unreservedly” condemned “encouraging people to behave in the disgraceful way that they did in the Capitol. And all I can say is I’m very pleased that the president-elect (Joe Biden) has been properly, duly confirmed in office and that democracy has prevailed.” 
…

Vaccine inoculations have begun in Italy for medical staff and the most vulnerable, but the country’s daily death toll continues to be well over 500. All Italian primary school students and most middle school students returned to face-to-face lessons on Thursday. But not all regions in the country have agreed to re-open their schools to younger students due to very high numbers of COVID infections in some places.In at least four regions the return of middle school students has been delayed. Regions also adopted different decisions for high school students, but most were being allowed to return to face-to-face classes next Monday, as Education Minister Lucia Azzolina explained on Italian national television.The minister said five million younger students would be returning to school on Thursday. These are the same students, she said, who were already attending classes during the second wave. The government, Azzolina added, has also authorized 50 percent of high school students to return to in-person classes next Monday and the other 50 percent will continue with distance learning.The relief group Save the Children this week warned that the pandemic has had severe effects on the lives of millions of youngsters who have faced difficulties with distance learning due to lack of technology and possibilities to study online.Protests broke out Thursday throughout Italy against the failure to reopen schools to all students.Italy continues to enforce COVID restrictions in spite of the tight measures taken over the Christmas season. More than 20,000 new infections were reported on Wednesday and the daily death toll stands as well over 500.Meanwhile, Covid vaccine inoculations began before the end of the year, first with medical staff and the most vulnerable.A resident receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Villa Verde elderly care home, as part of the coronavirus vaccination campaign in Rome, Italy, Jan. 7, 2021.More than 320,000 Italians have been inoculated so far with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines that have been distributed across Italy. The regions of Lazio, Tuscany and Veneto in particular, have managed to quickly use most of the doses available to them. The Moderna vaccine will also soon start to be used in Italy after it received approval and up to 1.3 million doses will be available in Italy in the first quarter of this year.The Italian government aims to vaccinate six million people by the end of March, 14 million by the end of April and the remainder of all those who accept to be vaccinated by the end of August. Vaccination is voluntary. 
…

Peru is expecting to receive its first batch of coronavirus vaccines this month to launch its long-awaited immunization program.President Francisco Sagasti announced on Wednesday the government purchased 38 million doses from the Sinopharm laboratory of China, with the first 1 million doses arriving this month.Sagasti said that because phase three of clinical trials of the vaccine was carried out in Peru, his administration was in a better position to access the Sinopharm vaccines.He said, it also helped to verify the vaccine’s effectiveness among the national population.The president said, the most vulnerable citizens would have priority is receiving the first vaccinations.Peru also entered into an agreement to buy 14 million doses of vaccine developed by AstraZeneca with Oxford University, with the first batch arriving no later than September, or possibly sooner.Peru also signed an agreement to buy an additional 13.2 million vaccine doses through the COVAX Facility, a group led by the World Health Organization, which aims to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines among less wealthy nations.The president also announced Prime Minister Violeta Bermudez will lead a working group to oversee the implementation of the vaccination program.Peru has recorded more than 1 million coronavirus cases and nearly 38,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
…

The Netherlands delivered its first coronavirus vaccine dose Wednesday to a care home nurse, nearly two weeks after other European Union nations began inoculations.
 
A shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was given live on television to nurse Sanna Elkadiri, the first recipient at a mass vaccination center in Veghel, 120 kilometers southeast of Amsterdam.  Afterwards, Elkadiri told an interviewer, “This is a very important moment for me as a person who works in the care sector. You want to provide the care knowing that your clients are safe. Without the vaccine that is not possible but from now on I can do it.”The Dutch government has come under fierce criticism for its late start to vaccinations.  Prime Minister Mark Rutte told parliament Tuesday his government had focused preparations on the easy-to-handle AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not yet been cleared for use in the European Union. Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, AstaZeneca’s does not require deep-freeze storage at a certain temperature.The Netherlands is in a five-week lockdown as infection rates rise across the country.Nearly 12,000 people are confirmed to have died of COVID-19 in the Netherlands since the pandemic started, although officials say the true number is likely higher because not all people who died with symptoms were tested. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.
 
…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament Wednesday that the government had “no choice but to return to a national lockdown,” as health officials estimate that one in every 50 people in the nation have had COVID-19 in the last week.Figures released Tuesday by Britain’s Office for National Statistics show the number is higher in London, where one in 30 people had the virus between December 27 and January 2. The figure does not include people in hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions.Addressing parliament Wednesday ahead of lawmakers’ retroactive votes on lockdown measures introduced earlier this week, Johnson said the plan is for the lockdown to last until the end of March, but with a mid-February review. European Health Officials Cast Nervous Eye at Britain’s Struggling HospitalsEuropean health officials anxiously watch pandemic developments in Britain, the epicenter of a mutant coronavirus strain that is overwhelming hospitals thereHe said the lockdown is an effort to slow the spread of the virus while the country is accelerating its vaccination program.Under the latest lockdown, schools, outdoor sports facilities, bars, restaurants, hair salons, gyms, theaters and most shops are closed.Johnson said 1.3 million people have received at least one shot of the two-dose inoculation regime since injections began in early December. That includes almost a quarter of people over the age of 80. Comparing the vaccination effort to a race, Johnson said after the “marathon of last year, we are now in a sprint …to vaccinate the vulnerable faster than the virus can reach them.”New COVID-19 infections have soared in recent weeks as public health officials struggled to contain a new variant that the government says is 50% to 70% more contagious.Britain reported 830 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday. The death toll from the pandemic is now 76,423, one of the world’s highest tallies, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
…

A British judge has rejected a request to release WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange on bail, ordering him to remain incarcerated while British courts determine whether he should face espionage charges in the United States.District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said Wednesday that Assange could fail to appear in court if he is released and therefore must remain in a high-security prison while British courts consider a U.S. appeal of her decision not to extradite him.The decision to deny bail to Assange came two days after Baraitser rebuffed an American request to extradite him to the U.S. to face spying charges over WikiLeaks’ disclosure of confidential military and diplomatic documents a decade ago. Baraitser’s extradition denial was based on concerns over Assange’s well-being, saying he was likely to commit suicide if held under harsh conditions in U.S. prisons.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – In this May 19, 2017 photo, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange greets supporters outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been in self imposed exile since 2012.Assange will remain in London’s Belmarsh Prison, where he has been detained since his April 2019 arrest for skipping bail seven years earlier in a separate court case.The U.S. has indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ disclosures. Assange could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison if convicted.Assange’s attorneys say he was acting as a journalist and therefore is entitled to U.S. constitutional free speech protection for leaking documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Afghanistan and Iraq. 
…

British new car sales fell nearly 30% last year in their biggest annual drop since 1943 as lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus hit the sector, a trade industry body said Wednesday. Demand stood at 1.63 million cars in 2020, preliminary data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed. It was particularly hard hit by a 97% fall in April, the first full month of a national lockdown. Dealerships gradually reopened in June across the United Kingdom’s four nations. “We lost nearly three quarters of a million units over three or four months, which we never got back,” said SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes. Showrooms in England were closed again during a second lockdown in November but many were better prepared with “click and collect” options, allowing more purchases, but still leading to a 27% year-on-year slump. The performance leaves new car sales at their lowest level since 1992, and suffering the biggest drop since 1943. Then, Britain was fighting World War Two and industry was repurposed for the effort. Last year, the sector was also awaiting a trade deal with its biggest export market, the European Union. An agreement was reached on December 24, meaning immediate tariffs and disruption were avoided, but the sector warned on Wednesday of additional costs. Diesel cars accounted for around one in five sales while battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles stood at a tenth. Expectations for 2021In common with other non-essential retail, the car sector faces the challenge of new national lockdowns announced in England and Scotland this week. The SMMT expects sales to be below 2 million this year, with the sector nervously looking ahead to March, one of the top two selling months of the year due to the change in the license plate series. “Where the industry is focused at the moment, is what do we need to do to try to sustain sales …, sustain manufacturing over the next two to three months, especially with March being such a critical month for the industry and that will undoubtedly be affected,” said Hawes.
 
…

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was set to further consolidate power as a majority-socialist Congress was installed Tuesday in Caracas. The new Congress was set to be led by Maduro’s former chief of staff, Jorge Rodriguez. Maduro was expected to attend the inaugural session after having avoided legislative sessions for years when the opposition controlled the National Assembly. Today “begins a new cycle for Venezuela, a new National Assembly born from the popular vote is born,” Maduro wrote on Twitter. “Together we will take a great leap toward economic recovery, reconciliation and national peace.”People raise their hands during the swear-in ceremony of Venezuela’s National Assembly new term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 5, 2021.The installation follows Venezuela’s December 6 legislative elections. The opposition boycotted the vote, which resulted in socialists taking control of the National Assembly. This marks a shift in balance as many Western powers, including the U.S., have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s de facto president. Elected in the context of the opposition’s 2015 landslide victory, Guaido has slowly lost public support since he declared himself interim president in January 2019. In the aftermath of the legislative elections, opposition lawmakers voted in December to extend their term for another year. The Maduro-controlled Supreme Court was quick to revoke the law. The decision, however, has not stopped Guaido and his allies from further pushing for new elections. Members of Venezuelan People’s Union (UPV) protest outside Venezuela’s National Assembly building during the swear-in ceremony for a new term in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 5, 2021.”The national parliament will not be stopped until we have seen free elections take place in Venezuela,” Guaido said in a Sunday video message shared on Twitter. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement last month the elections in Venezuela were a “political farce intended to look like legislative elections.” He said the U.S. “will continue to recognize” Guaido as interim president. Although U.S. sanctions remain in effect on Venezuela, the U.S. Treasury Department has issued a license allowing certain transactions with Guaido. A statement Monday, however, says transactions involving the Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly convened by Maduro or the National Assembly that was just seated are not authorized. 
 
…

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said Tuesday the nation was going to “amplify, accelerate and simplify” its COVID-19 vaccination program after coming under fire for the initial slow roll out of the program.In an interview with French radio, Veran said more than 2,000 doctors, nurses and other health care workers have received vaccinations. He also announced that firefighters and home aid workers age 50 and older would also be prioritized “because they are also professionals who are in contact with fragile people and who may have to work with the sick.”The faster-paced vaccination campaign comes after the government was criticized for its slow rollout of the vaccine, delivering just over 500 inoculations in the first week, compared to hundreds of thousands delivered by Germany in the same period.The criticism prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to call a meeting with Veran, Prime Minister Jean Castex and other leaders late Tuesday to discuss how to speed up the process.Veran vowed to increase vaccinations exponentially in the next few days, promising the pace of the program “will be on par with that of our neighbors” by the end of the week.He said France is prepared to deliver 500,000 doses per week of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and once it is approved by the European Medicines regulatory agency, (EMA) they will be prepared to deliver 500,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine per month. The EMA is expected to consider the Moderna vaccine Wednesday.
…

Conditions continue to deteriorate for thousands of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers stranded in Bosnia as politicians fail to reach a solution to alleviate their plight, the International Organization for Migration warned.About 6,000 migrants are housed in official accommodation centers in Bosnia while nearly 3,000 other migrants, including women and children, are sleeping outdoors in Una Sana Canton, on the border with Croatia. The IOM said about half of those people are squatting under sub-standard conditions in abandoned buildings. Another 1,400, mainly single men, who had been living in the Lipa Emergency Tent Camp were forced to leave after the camp burned down. The migrant camp Lipa is seen in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jan. 5, 2021.They have been living outdoors in bitterly cold temperatures and frequent rainy conditions for the past two weeks. IOM Bosnia Chief of Mission Peter Van der Auweraert said the situation is not sustainable. Speaking on a video link from the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, he said there is space in two official centers that could shelter all the people currently sleeping outside. “What has been impossible is to get a consensus between the central government, which are, at least normally, in charge of dealing with this issue and the local authorities where these two centers are located to allow migrants access to these centers,” he said. “There is international funding available. There is international assistance available. What has been the difficulty is to get a political consensus as to where these migrants could be accommodated.” Auweraert said most of the migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers come from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Algeria and Morocco, and most use Bosnia as a transit route through Croatia and Slovenia to get to the European Union. Migrants cook on a stove improvised from wheel rims at a makeshift camp in a forest outside Velika Kladusa, Bosnia, Jan. 5, 2021.Their presence has generated hostility and anti-migrant sentiments among some local authorities and populations, he added. “I think there is some issues in terms of the media here in Bosnia-Herzegovina highlighting mostly negative stories among migrants,” Auweraert said. “But I also think we need to be very careful not to overplay the anti-migrant or refugee sentiments in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Clearly there is a minority of people that is very vocal on social media … but there is a consensus, I believe, amongst the majority of people that while they are here, they should be treated humanely.” The IOM official said urgent action is needed to end the political impasse and alleviate the suffering of the migrants. While their physical health is degrading, he also noted signs that the situation is taking a serious toll on their mental health. 
 
…

A report released Tuesday says Norway has become the first country in the world in which 50 percent of all new cars it sold are electric.Norway’s Road Traffic Information Council (Opplysningsradet for Veitrafikken) says electric vehicles accounted for 54.3 percent of new car sales in 2020, up from 42.4 percent a year earlier.The group says the four best-selling models in the Nordic country were the Volkswagen/ Audi e-tron, the Tesla Model 3, the Volkswagen ID.3 and the Nissan Leaf — all fully electric.The fifth placed car — the Volkswagen Golf — can be bought in a rechargeable version but the statistics do not differentiate among engine types.The report says electric cars accounted for 66.7 percent of all new sales in Norway during December, a new monthly record.Norway set a goal of eliminating combustion-engine vehicles by 2025 and fully electric vehicles are tax exempt and receive other government subsidies. The nation gets most of its electric energy from hydroelectric dams.   
…

In France, public frustration with the government is growing as the nation’s coronavirus immunization campaign gets off to a slow start. In response, officials say they will speed up and widen the vaccine rollout.As of Monday, only 2,500 people had received the vaccine against COVID-19 in France — most of them nursing home residents and their nurses.  It is too small a number, critics say,  for a rollout that began, as in other EU countries, on December 27. A doctor administers a dose of Pfizer-BioNtech coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine to an old woman on Jan. 4, 2020 at the Antonin Balmes gerontology center in Montpellier in the south of France.Critics describe the pace as ridiculously low compared with neighboring Germany, where at least 264,000 people have been vaccinated so far. French President Emmanuel Macron and his government are under pressure to do better, especially considering the relative success of other nations in Europe.    One of the main critics is Jean Rottner, the president of France’s Grand Est region. Rottner says the immunization strategy in France is a scandal, and he says the government keeps failing like it did for the masks and the tests. He says he is devastated since his region is heavily hit by the pandemic. FILE – A woman is tested for COVID-19 at a mobile testing center in Marseille, France, Sept. 24, 2020.French officials claim they are still on track to reach their goal to have one million people vaccinated by the end of January. To make it, authorities say they will set up 600 immunization centers across the territory by the end of this month. Olivier Veran, France’s health minister, addressed concerns Tuesday, and he vowed to catch up with the other EU countries.  Veran says the French government will now amplify, accelerate and simplify the immunization strategy. Firefighters and in-home care workers above 50 years of age, will now receive the vaccine. The minister, who oversees the fight against the virus, says it is a permanent race to save lives. Although the immunization response is coordinated at the European level, each of the 27 members is responsible for setting its own strategy. The Netherlands will only start its immunization campaign on January 8. FILE – Healthcare workers assist a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit at the Joseph Imbert Hospital Center in Arles, southern France, April 5, 2020.As of Monday, more than 65,000 people had died from COVID-19 in France according data from Johns Hopkins University.  
…

Britain’s prime minister announced a fresh round of lockdowns Monday, closing schools and nonessential shops, as the country begins vaccinating health care workers and the elderly.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said people must stay at home until at least mid-February, noting that British hospitals are under more strain now than they have been at any point during the pandemic.“If the rollout of the vaccine program continues to be successful. If deaths start to fall as the vaccine takes effect. And critically, if everyone plays their part by following the rules, then I hope we can steadily move out of lockdown,” Johnson said in a televised address Monday.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Chase Farm Hospital in north London, Jan. 4, 2021, part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.The announcement comes days after British health officials confirmed a variant of the coronavirus that doctors say is far more contagious than the original.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday that a case of the same variant had been confirmed in an older New York state resident who had not traveled recently.NEW: The Wadsworth Lab has confirmed New York State’s first case of the U.K. variant (B.1.1.7) of the virus that causes COVID.An individual from Saratoga County, New York, tested positive for the strain. The individual had no known travel history.— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) Brian Pinker, 82, receives the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Sam Foster at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, England, Jan. 4, 2021.British officials say half a million doses of the vaccine are ready for use.The AstraZeneca vaccine is cheaper and more easily transported than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine because it does not need to be kept at extremely cold temperatures. The Pfizer shot has already been administered to many health care professionals in Britain and the United States.France, which is administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, pledged Monday to increase the speed at which it is inoculating its health care workers after facing criticism from the public.FILE – A man applies finishing touches to graffiti representing a vaccine, amidst the spread of coronavirus disease, in Kolkata, India, Jan. 2, 2021.In Russia, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said that more than 800,000 people had received the domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine and that 1.5 million doses had been distributed throughout the country of 147 million.The Kremlin is pinning its hopes on mass vaccinations, not nationwide restrictions, to stop the spread of the virus and save its struggling economy from the hit of another lockdown.The coronavirus has killed more than 1.8 million people globally since emerging in China in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins.Experts fear the worst is yet to come, predicting a sharp rise in cases and deaths after weeks of holiday gatherings.VOA’s Fern Robinson contributed to this report.
 
…

Pressured by strict U.S. sanctions, Venezuela’s oil exports plunged by 376,500 barrels per day (bpd) in 2020, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and internal documents from state-run PDVSA, financially squeezing socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s government. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump also put curbs on PDVSA’s main trading partners, the owners of tankers still transporting Venezuelan oil and on the fuel supply to the gasoline-thirsty nation. The punishment, aimed to oust Maduro after his 2018 reelection was called a sham by most Western nations, has led PDVSA to pursue new customers, rely on mostly unknown intermediaries to resell its oil and deepen ties with Iran, another country under U.S. sanctions. Venezuela’s exports of crude and refined products fell 37.5% in 2020 to 626,534 bpd, the lowest in 77 years. The decrease was even larger for fuel imports, which fell 51% compared with 2019, to 83,780 bpd, according to the data. The drop in the crude oil was several times that of the global market, which fell about 9% last year amid COVID-19 constraints. PDVSA did not reply to a request for comment. The state-run company’s inability to revive exports and its new dependence on imported fuel have sunk OPEC member Venezuela’s petroleum industry to levels not seen since the 1940s, when it was boosting crude output while planning its first refineries. PDVSA inaugurated the 310,000-bpd Cardon refinery on the country’s northwest coast in 1947. The facility, along with neighboring Amuay, remain mostly idled because of a lack of maintenance, parts and proper crude to operate. Despite the sanctions’ impact on the economy, Maduro has held onto power with the support of the military, and backed by Cuba, Russia and China. 
…

A British judge has ruled that Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, cannot be extradited to the United States to answer charges of hacking and theft of classified material because of the risk he could commit suicide in U.S. detention. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell
…

European weather forecasters say about 2 meters (over 6 feet) of snow fell early Monday in parts of northern Italy’s alpine region, blocking roads and burying cars and houses in some areas.From its Twitter account, the Alpine-Adriatic Meteorological Society posted video from Italy’s northeastern area of Comelico, near the border with Austria. Snow blocked the entrances to homes and buildings, with more snow falling in the small village of Sappada, in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.Italian firefighters said they carried out more than 100 operations to clear roads of snow.In the Veneto region, the firefighters report they used a snow cat – a large, tracked vehicle built for traveling through snow — to rescue a family stuck in a remote area.Forecasters say more snow is expected in the area region in the coming days. 
…

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Monday the country will impose a total lockdown for the rest of January as a surging number of COVID-19 cases threatens to overwhelm hospitals.Speaking before parliament, Sturgeon said she is more concerned about the current situation than at any time since the pandemic began last March. She said the surge is putting pressure on health care facilities, adding: “In fact, our modeling suggests that without further intervention, we could breach inpatient COVID capacity within three or four weeks.”She said effective midnight Monday, all residents will be required to stay home except for essential purposes. There will also be no travel allowed in or out of Scotland during that time, and no more than two people from up to two households will be able to meet outdoors.Sturgeon said Scotland is seeing a “steeply rising trend of infections,” with more than 1,900 new cases over the previous 24 hours, and an overall positivity rate of about 15%.She blamed the surge largely on the new COVID-19 variant, identified last month in the south of Britain. The first minister said the new variant spreads as much as 70% faster than the original strain and accounts for nearly half of new cases in Scotland.She called the new variant a “massive blow” to the fight against the virus and said the simplest way to describe the challenge they face is to compare it to a race, with the vaccine in one lane and the virus in the other, with the virus currently much faster.She said, “To ensure that the vaccine wins this race, it is essential to speed up vaccination as far as possible but to give it the time it needs to get ahead, we must also slow the virus down. And because it is now spreading faster, that means even tougher restrictions are necessary.” 
…

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday issued a new license allowing certain transactions with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido despite U.S. sanctions on the country, reaffirming Washington’s support for the politician as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
 
The license, which replaces a similar previous one, also allows for certain transactions with Venezuela’s National Assembly and some others, effectively recognizing the extension of the opposition-controlled National Assembly’s term by a year.
 
The term was extended after the mainstream opposition boycotted a parliamentary election on Dec. 6 handily won by President Nicolas Maduro’s ruling socialists that the opposition and most Western democracies said was neither free nor fair. Venezuela’s Supreme Court last week ruled that the move by the opposition-controlled National Assembly to extend its term an additional year was invalid, paving the way for allies of Maduro to take over the body this month.
 
Washington in January 2019 recognized Venezuelan politician Guaido as the OPEC nation’s rightful leader and has ratcheted up sanctions and diplomatic pressure in the aftermath of Maduro’s 2018 re-election, widely described as fraudulent.
 
Maduro remains in power, backed by Venezuela’s military as well as Russia, China and Cuba.
 
The recognition of Guaido as interim president by the United States and others derives from his position as speaker of the National Assembly. Guaido invoked Venezuela’s constitution to assume a rival interim presidency in 2019, declaring Maduro was usurping the presidency after rigging his 2018 re-election.
 
The Treasury Department in the license said that transactions involving the Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly convened by Maduro or the National Assembly scheduled to be seated on Tuesday are not authorized.
…