World

BANGKOK: Chinese citizens living in Thailand started getting COVID-19 jabs on Thursday (May 20) as part of China's global campaign to inoculate its nationals living and working abroad. The vaccines were donated by China to be administered to its nationals as Thailand slowly rolls out shots for its own citizens to contain a coronavirus surge that has sickened tens of thousands in the past two months. It was unclear how many of the 150,000 Chinese citizens living in Thailand will be inoculated under Beijing’s “Spring Sprouts” program in this round of inoculations, but China recently donated 500,000 vaccine doses to Thailand. China has so far supplied millions of doses to the country. The Thai government has said it will vaccinate Thais before inoculating most other foreigners, regar...

With no chance for dining in for the next few weeks, more Singaporeans will turn to ordering their food online. But have the knots in delays and lack of service been sorted out for round two, asks an NUS Business School professor. SINGAPORE: My friends and I were planning to go to a Lebanese restaurant in Singapore on a Tuesday night. With the announcement of new heightened measures to fight COVID-19, including no dine-ins and a maximum party size of two (from different households), the dinner wasn’t possible. Like the Lebanese restaurant, many other F&B businesses in Singapore will be swiftly adjusting their delivery operations. With prior experience during the circuit breaker in 2020, can these businesses feed their customers in time, and feed their workers over time? There were ...

BERLIN: Bayern Munich president Herbert Hainer has ruled out any big-money signings this summer as the Bundesliga giants tighten their belts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "We will add to the squad, but not make any expensive transfers," Hainer said in a podcast for German daily Bild on Friday (May 7). "We have an incredibly strong, young team with an enormous amount of potential. In that respect, I'm not worried." Hainer was clear that he sees "no need for further expensive transfers". Bayern can be confirmed Bundesliga champions for the ninth straight season at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday with head coach Hansi Flick poised to land a seventh title in 18 months. Flick has asked to be released from his contract and will be replaced by RB Leipzig coach Julian Nagels...

SINGAPORE: One community case is among the 16 new COVID-19 infections reported in Singapore as of noon on Wednesday (May 5), said the Ministry of Health (MOH). The new community case is linked to three previous dormitory infections who tested positive last month. They form a new cluster, bringing the number of active clusters in Singapore to 10. This is the first time in a week that no new cases have been linked to the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) cluster, which is currently the country's largest active cluster with 40 cases. NEW CLUSTER FORMED, CASES WERE AT PASIR PANJANG TERMINAL The sole community case reported on Wednesday is a 59-year-old Singaporean who is linked to previous cases. The man, known as Case 62824, is employed by GKE Express Logistics as a trailer truck drive...

NEW YORK: Thousands of restaurants and bars decimated by the COVID-19 outbreak have a better chance at survival as the government begins handing out US$28.6 billion in grants - money to help these small businesses stay afloat while they wait for customers to return. Laurie Thomas is applying for grants for her two San Francisco restaurants that have closed and reopened several times as coronavirus cases surged and declined; she’s still at just 50 per cent of capacity. Rose’s Cafe and Terzo are operating at a loss but grant money will help them stay open. “This allows you to go back to February 2020 and apply these funds to help pay down debt, catch up on past due rent, etc.,” she says. The Small Business Administration is accepting applications for grants from the Restaurant Revital...

ÉVRY, France: A French court on Monday (May 10) threw out a lawsuit brought by a French-Vietnamese woman against more than a dozen multinationals that produced and sold toxic herbicide Agent Orange, used by the US military during the Vietnam War. The court in the Paris suburb of Evry ruled that it did not have the jurisdiction to judge a case involving the wartime actions of the US government, according to the ruling seen by AFP. Tran To Nga, who was born in 1942 in what was then French Indochina, accused the chemicals firms of causing grievous harm to her and others by selling Agent Orange to the US government, which used the toxic chemical to devastating effect in the war. The 79-year-old complainant, who covered the 1955-1975 war as a reporter, also accused the companies of causi...

Israel is impregnable in that it cannot be defeated, but it’s insecure in that underlying threats will not go away, says a professor. BRFORD, England: Israel is the most powerful state in the Middle East. Its military forces may not match the likes of Egypt or Turkey in numbers, but the might of its training, equipment, technologies and nuclear weapons make it unassailable. Given its long-developed capabilities in public order control, such a position should also apply to its control of radical dissent within its own borders, as well as in the Palestinian occupied territories. Gaza may not be occupied in the conventional sense but it is a small territory with 2 million people living behind borders controlled by Israel. It lacks a port, its sole airport was destroyed many years ago...

NEW DELHI: A devastating surge in coronavirus infections has exposed India's dilapidated health infrastructure and a deep shortage of oxygen - a key treatment for seriously ill COVID-19 patients. AFP looks at the reasons behind the shortage: WHY IS MEDICAL OXYGEN VITAL? Oxygen therapy is crucial for severe COVID-19 patients with hypoxaemia - when oxygen levels in the blood are too low. "Some clinical studies show that up to a quarter of hospitalised (COVID-19) patients require oxygen therapy and upwards to two-thirds of those in intensive care units," community health specialist Rajib Dasgupta told AFP. "This is why it is imperative to fix oxygen supply systems in hospital settings as this is a disease that affects lungs primarily." Experts have long raised the alarm about sh...

Despite their increasingly bitter rivalry, the United States and China have recently been sending the right signals regarding potential cooperation on combating climate change. The joint statement issued after the mid-April meeting between John Kerry, U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, indicates that the two governments may be trying to use collaboration on climate policy to prevent their relationship from devolving into outright enmity. But the path ahead is strewn with geopolitical landmines. It is not difficult to understand why the U.S. and China are behaving responsibly at the moment. Both countries view climate change as an existential threat and have a strong interest in cooperation. And Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping kno...

related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. 2 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. Global stocks slipped and cryptocurrencies sank deeper on Wednesday as a threat of unwanted inflation had investors shy away from assets seen as vulnerable to any removal of monetary stimulus. LONDON: Global stocks slipped and cryptocurrencies sank deeper on Wednesday as a threat of unwanted inflation had investors shy away from assets seen as vulnerable to any removal of monetary stimulus. Digital coins were also under pressure from new Chinese restrictions on financial institutions providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions. But as the U.S. dollar edged away from its lowest levels of the year against its rivals, ...