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Ex-MP Amrin Amin congratulates Jo Teo for controlling COVID-19 spread in dorms

Jewel Stolarchuk
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Ex-MP Amrin Amin congratulates Jo Teo for controlling COVID-19 spread in dorms

Ousted ex-MP Amrin Amin congratulated Manpower Minister Josephine Teo for controlling the spread of the COVID-19 infection in the foreign worker dormitories.

Singapore’s approach to controlling the transmission of COVID-19 was initially held up as an international gold standard – until the infection spread like wildfire in the foreign worker dormitories. Several activists had raised the issue of overcrowding at dormitories and urged the authorities to act quickly to prevent an outbreak in the dormitories.

The authorities did not act quickly enough and the pandemic spiralled out of control among the migrant workers in the dormitories.

As the virus spread across dormitories in April, soaring up to a single-daily high of 1,426 cases recorded amongst migrant workers on 20 April, the ministry of manpower (MOM) imposed a stop work order and put an aggressive testing regime in place.

The government also stopped automatically admitting infected patients in hospitals and created community care facilities for those who were at low risk, which allowed hospitals to focus only on those in higher risk categories. At the peak on 12 May, there were 19,667 patients – predominantly migrant workers – in community care facilities.

By August, it was clear that the situation in dormitories was being brought under control, with new daily cases among dorm workers finally falling below 100 on 11 August. On 11 August, MOM announced that all dormitories had been declared cleared of COVID-19 (except for those blocks that were being used for quarantine facilities).

Although the situation is now more under control, some Singaporeans are still irked over the way manpower minister Josephine Teo’s responded to whether the spread of the virus in the dormitories could have been prevented.

Ms Teo had claimed that the virus spread among migrant workers could not have been anticipated and blamed a lack of hindsight for the outbreaks in the dormitories.

Singaporeans criticised the ruling party politician’s response and her lack of apology since the authorities were repeatedly warned of the risks of housing migrant workers in such close quarters before the outbreaks occurred.

Even though the number of cases has subsided, observers have said that the situation could have been avoided in the first place if the authorities had paid heed to the advice migrant worker advocates gave.

Ex-MP Amrin Amin, however, has said that credit and thanks are due to Ms Teo and her colleagues for controlling the outbreaks in the dorms. Revealing that he met Ms Teo for lunch on Tuesday (24 Nov), Mr Amrin said that he “congratulated her on her team’s success in controlling COVID-19 infection at our foreign workers’ dormitories.”

Commenting that “the worst looks over,” Mr Amrin wrote at length about how the authorities have been managing the situation. He said:

“We’ve been upfront in acknowledging the problem, conscientiously testing, and vigorously containing the virus. I’m proud that we took care of our foreign friends. They deserve our respect and support in their hour of need.

“We’re focused now on ensuring a swift recovery from COVID-19. The economy has taken a beating. Jobs are affected. We must take care of Singaporean families and ensure our people and industries bounce back fast.

He added: “The pandemic is not over – many countries are experiencing a third wave. We’ve been spared because we took decisive measures with our people’s full backing. Credit and thanks are due to our leaders, people and their families. There’s never a doubt that we can overcome this.”

Some observers asked why Mr Amrin was speaking about the government’s efforts from a first-person point of view since he is no longer a political office-holder.

Along with former Cabinet Minister Ng Chee Meng and former Senior Minister of State Lam Pin Min, Mr Amrin was unseated from Parliament in the July election when he faced off with a team of mostly new candidates from the Workers’ Party at the contest at Sengkang GRC.

Although the People’s Action Party (PAP) lost Sengkang GRC, Mr Amrin and his teammates remain active as branch chairmen in the ward – a privilege that is only extended to losing ruling party candidates.

Amrin Amin set to join two tech firms after being unseated from Parliament

Amrin Amin jokes about “involuntary” retirement with Goh Chok Tong

First-time room lessor shares tenant-related woes online

The Independent
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First-time room lessor shares tenant-related woes online

Singapore – A resident and first-time lessor took to social media to share their experience with a tenant who was unable to pay rent and eventually became unreachable.

On Wednesday (Dec 2), Facebook user Geraldine Foo uploaded their experience with a tenant on Complaint Singapore’s page. The concerned individual requested for suggestions from the online community in handling their current situation involving a tenant.

Ms Foo explained that on Oct 27, they had accepted a tenant for a common room to a lady in her late 40s. The process was coursed through a property agent.

After viewing the room, the lady decided to lease the space yet disclosed that she was just discharged from the hospital and able to pay only a month’s rent. The tenant promised to pay the deposit plus one month rent on Nov 27, Ms Foo wrote. Taking pity on the lady, Ms Foo agreed to the terms.

“After signing the contract and moved her things to my house, she went missing for two weeks,” said Ms Foo. They tried contacting the tenant to no avail. “We already planned to go to the police station to make a report, and suddenly she showed up.”

The woman explained that her sister needed to have surgery, so she was asked to take care of her niece. She also didn’t bring her charger. “That time we were very worried something happened to her, but end up she gives me such lousy excuse,” said Ms Foo. The sister’s house was only a few blocks away, making it accessible to get the charger and inform the lessor of her whereabouts.

“But the real problem just started. She told me she’s unable to pay the deposit because got retrenched,” said Ms Foo. They explained that based on their agreement, she had to pay the deposit and one month rent on Nov 27. They were reassured that the woman would find a way to provide the payment.

Ms Foo added that during her stay, the woman had allegedly made their kitchen messy and threw away items without their permission, including a pair of scissors which was a favourite of Ms Foo’s husband.

She then informed their tenant that they would talk yet a few hours before their scheduled time to discuss, the woman told them she wasn’t feeling well. The woman also said that she was admitted to the hospital and “won’t be contactable but will move out by Nov 27.” Ms Foo noted that the tenant “left that message and turned off the phone.”

On Nov 26, the woman called and informed them she was still in the hospital. “She asked me to help her pack her stuff and put inside my storeroom until she’s discharged from the hospital.” After rejecting the request, the woman turned off her phone again, said Ms Foo.

“Until now, we can’t contact her, and we really don’t know what to do. This is our first time to rent out our common room and met this kind of person,” said Ms Foo.

Members from the online community sympathised with the couple. They advised to report the incident to the police and get the law involved. Other landlords provided suggestions to ensure their safety. “That’s why I write my own eviction clause in all my tenancy agreements,” said Facebook user Mark Lee. “When engaged in situations like this, stick absolutely to the contractual agreement, and you cannot go wrong reactively.”

When a few advised Ms Foo to get the agent to settle the matter, she highlighted that the agent had returned the commission, noting they had never faced a similar issue before.

The Independent Singapore has reached out to Ms Foo for an update on their experience.

Read related: Netizen: Man who posed as landlord assaulted my wife and child

Netizen: Man who posed as landlord assaulted my wife and child

Around 100 homeless in Singapore waitlisted for temporary shelter

Anna Maria Romero
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Around 100 homeless in Singapore waitlisted for temporary shelter

Singapore—A Dec 3 report in the straitstimes.com (ST) stated that the temporary shelters around the country are now mostly at maximum capacity. It added that about 100 homeless people are waitlisted for accommodation, which can partly be attributed to the economic fallout of the pandemic.

The temporary shelters are known as Safe Sound Sleeping Places (S3Ps), which seek to give short-term refuge to those in need. They’re managed by religions and community groups and are usually found on the premises of these groups.

But because the demand has increased and the actual number of temporary shelters has decreased, some homeless people are left without recourse.

Last year, a study by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy found that there are one thousand homeless people in Singapore. The highest number of homeless is found in the city proper, and in Bedok and Kallang districts.

This year, after the Covid-19 pandemic began and during the time Singapore was placed under the Circuit Breaker, restrictions were placed on non-essential services. This meant that more people who had been sleeping rough were looking for shelter. Void decks and the other places where they could usually sleep were no longer accessible.

The ST quotes a spokesman from the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) as saying, “The economic downturn has also contributed to the number of homeless individuals, who may face the loss of jobs and may no longer be able to afford open market rental rates, as well as tensions between families or co-tenants.”

According to the charity Homeless Hearts of Singapore, some people have become homeless because of the lack of opportunity to go back and forth from Johor Baru or Batam, as travel has become restricted as well.

The MSF spokesman added, “S3Ps are temporary interim accommodation run by community partners who have availed their premises, mostly in religious premises, to provide overnight stay for rough sleepers out of goodwill,”

And while there were more than forty S3Ps during the Circuit Breaker, only 21 remain as the others have resumed their daily activities.

These 21 S3Ps can house 560 people, but most of the available slots are filled. In mid-November, around 100 people were waitlisted for slots. The remaining available spaces are already slated for those whose admission is pending.

Over 800 homeless and rough sleepers have been receiving support since April from the Partners Engaging and Empowering Rough Sleepers (Peers) network, social service agencies, other community partners, and the MSF, ST added. —/TISG

Read also: Homeless in the time of Covid-19

Homeless in the time of Covid-19

 

 

Bertha Henson: PM Lee’s siblings should be called to witness stand

Anna Maria Romero
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Bertha Henson: PM Lee’s siblings should be called to witness stand

Singapore—On the ongoing defamation suit Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong filed against Terry Xu, Editor in Chief of The Online Chronicles (TOC), former Straits Times journalist Bertha Henson said that since the siblings of PM Lee “are the source of all this,” they should be called to the witness stand.

The trial has been ongoing since Monday (Nov 30), with Ms Kwa Kim Li, the lawyer who prepared several of the late founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s wills scheduled to appear at the High Court on Thursday (Dec 3).

Prof Henson, who now teaches journalism at the National University of Singapore, said in a Facebook post that she is “getting quite tired” of the case.

“The siblings should be called to the stand – they are the source of all this. TOC should have just got court to call them as witnesses even if not in third-party action,” she added.

PM Lee filed the suit last year after an article with the headline “PM Lee’s wife, Ho Ching, weirdly shares article on cutting ties with family members” was published on the TOC website and Facebook page on Aug 15, 2019.

The article mentioned the rift between PM Lee and his siblings Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang, the will of their father the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, and the family property at 38 Oxley Road.

PM Lee took the witness stand on Monday morning (Nov 30).

During the course of his cross-examination, Mr Lim Tean, the lawyer of Mr Xu, asked PM Lee why he had not filed a lawsuit against his brother and sister for defamation.

While Dr Lee and Mr Lee Hsien Yang are listed as third parties to the defamation case, they have not been called as witnesses. Mr Lim said at a pre-trial conference on Nov 2 that it was likely that his client would no longer pursue third-party proceedings.

PM Lee answered Mr Lim by saying that he has not brought his sister and brother to court for defamation but added that it doesn’t mean he will never do so.

He also said that he and his wife, Ms Ho Ching, hold no animosity towards his siblings, and that he hopes that matters between them will be repaired one day.

Prof Henson gave her opinion on this as well, writing that PM Lee “won’t sue siblings, because he is their brother. In matters like this which go into the public eye, you can’t be EITHER family member OR PM.
I honestly believe that PM should have set aside personal considerations right from the start. So his siblings get a free pass while others who take them at their word get it in the neck? Cannot be.”

—/TISG

Read also: PM Lee on rift with brother, sister: “I think the feud is on my siblings’ part”

PM Lee on rift with brother, sister: “I think the feud is on my siblings’ part”

Family of South Korean dictator’s assassin seek treason acquittal

AFP
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Family of South Korean dictator’s assassin seek treason acquittal

by Kang Jin-kyu

Forty years after South Korea’s spy chief was executed for shooting dead his boss, dictator Park Chung-hee, the assassin’s sister is seeking to clear him of treason, arguing the killing was in the service of the country.

But she is not seeking to overturn his murder conviction or death sentence, in a reflection of how the South still grapples with Park’s complex legacy.

“A person needs to be punished for killing,” Kim Jae-gyu’s grey-haired sister Jung-sook, 81, told AFP.

“But my brother did not kill the president so that he could become president or to commit treason against the state.”

Park took power in a 1961 military coup and established a regime that transformed South Korea into a manufacturing powerhouse, but ruthlessly crushed opposition.

He hand-picked Kim Jae-gyu, a friend from their days as military academy classmates, to head the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), responsible for fending off espionage plots from the North and ensuring the president remained unopposed domestically.

In October 1979, major rallies against Park’s rule broke out in the second city Busan and nearby Masan, infuriating the dictator.

According to Kim, Park’s chief bodyguard Cha Ji-cheol was urging a swift and merciless crackdown, a move the spy boss opposed but the leader was leaning towards.

Questions and controversy over Kim’s motives still persist, but what is not in doubt is that he stepped away from the trio’s private, Chivas Regal-fuelled dinner at the KCIA compound in Seoul, fetched a handgun from his office and shot both men dead.

He fled but was arrested hours later.

– ‘Vain desire’ –
Park’s assassination stunned the country and domestic security chief Chun Doo-hwan was appointed to investigate, announcing a week later that a “delusional” Kim had been driven by a “vain desire to become president” and fears his influence was waning.

Within two months, Chun took power in a military coup of his own.

At his trial — which began 41 years ago on Friday — Kim told the court that henchman Cha had suggested “one to two million casualties” in Busan “shouldn’t be an issue”, since Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge had already set such a precedent.

Park was ready to order troops to open fire if the situation worsened, he added, insisting he acted “to restore democracy and save lives”, and that otherwise the consequences in Busan would have been “horrifying”.

Convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit treason, he was hanged on May 24, 1980.

“My only visit to him in prison took place a day before his execution,” said Jung-sook, “but none of us knew it was going to happen the next day”.

When she told him she was praying he would avoid the gallows, he told her not to bother: “Don’t pray for my life,” she quoted him as saying. “Rather pray first for Park’s parentless children.”

The assassination has been the subject of multiple movies and television dramas, not least because it orphaned the dictator’s daughter Park Geun-hye — herself a future president — and her siblings.

She had been 22 when her mother was killed in a botched assassination attempt by a North Korean sympathiser five years earlier.

– Admired and despised -Media access and reporting on Kim’s trial were strictly controlled, and the official records did not include a full transcript.

But recordings of the entire proceedings were revealed earlier this year — the security official who made them disobeyed orders to destroy the 128 hours of tapes and kept them hidden for four decades.

Jung-sook’s legal representatives then sought a new treason trial from the Seoul High Court, which has yet to make a decision.

“He was executed without telling his side of the story — on why he had to do what he did,” she told AFP.

Park — who abolished direct presidential elections and gave himself the right to appoint one-third of MPs — is both admired in the South for his economic leadership and despised for his authoritarian rule.

“Park’s success and failure as president is starkly contrasting to a degree that has no parallel in modern history,” said political commentator and novelist Park Chul-hyun.

His killer’s grave symbolises the conflict: it has been vandalised, with the word “General” scratched out.

But it is also something of a place of pilgrimage for liberals, who leave offerings on Kim’s birthday and the assassination anniversary — including bottles of Chivas.

kjk/slb/leg

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

US tightens travel rules for Chinese Communist Party members: NYT

AFP
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US tightens travel rules for Chinese Communist Party members: NYT

Washington issued new entry rules for Chinese Communist Party members traveling to the United States, the New York Times reported Thursday, citing the State Department.

The new policy — which took immediate effect on Wednesday — caps visas of Communist Party members and their immediate families to one month and a single entry into the country, the report said.

“For decades we allowed the CCP free and unfettered access to US institutions and businesses while these same privileges were never extended freely to US citizens in China,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement quoted by the Times.

Applicants had previously been able to obtain 10-year visitor visas. The report estimated the new restrictions could theoretically apply to around 270 million people.

Tensions have soared between the world’s two largest economies on a range of fronts and both countries have stepped up travel restrictions on each other’s citizens.

Both countries have restricted journalist visas, with Washington curbing the number of Chinese nationals from state-run news outlets in the United States earlier this year.

China responded in March by expelling more than a dozen American journalists from the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration has also revoked the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese students under a policy introduced in June that accused some of espionage and stealing intellectual property.

Beijing did not confirm the new restrictions Thursday, but said earlier reports that the US was considering travel restrictions showed its “hatred and abnormal mindset towards the Communist Party.”

“Some extreme anti-China forces in the US, driven by a strong ideological bias and deep-rooted Cold War mentality, are politically oppressing China,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a routine press briefing Thursday.

“This is an escalation of their political oppression towards China and China is firmly opposed to that,” she said.

Beijing has previously accused Washington of “political persecution and racial discrimination” over visa restrictions.

burs-gle-lxc/rox/je

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

Biden set to revamp US trade tactics — but not policy

AFP
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Biden set to revamp US trade tactics — but not policy

by Delphine TOUITOU

President-elect Joe Biden undoubtedly has plans to roll back many of President Donald Trump’s policies when he takes charge of the White House next month, but when it comes to trade, he has signaled little may change — at least at first.

In an interview with The New York Times published Wednesday, Biden, who defeated Trump in last month’s presidential election, made it clear his first job will be reviving the beaten-down US economy, not radically shifting trade policy.

“I want to make sure we’re going to fight like hell by investing in America first,” Biden told the newspaper.

“I’m not going to enter any new trade agreement with anybody until we have made major investments here at home and in our workers,” including in education.

The statements carry major implications for  US friends and foes alike, perhaps none more than China.

Trump started a trade war with Beijing amid complaints of unfair subsidies and intellectual property theft.

A “phase one” deal signed earlier this year cooled tensions, and Biden’s comments indicate he plans to stick to that agreement initially, and will not end the tariffs slapped on Beijing.

Analysts say the comments show the incoming president understands the risk of upending Washington’s trade relations at a time when the economy is reeling from the damage inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic, or of angering the coalition of domestic allies that helped him win election.

“On China, this is no surprise,” Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University told AFP.

“Biden would have received enormous pushback from the labor unions and from the China hawks in the Republican Party if he had removed the tariffs without demanding concessions from China.”

– Making friends again –
Trump’s erratic diplomacy left Washington going it alone in its spat with Beijing, and Biden in the interview said he would focus immediately on mending fences.

“The best China strategy, I think, is one which gets every one of our — or at least what used to be our — allies on the same page. It’s going to be a major priority for me in the opening weeks of my presidency to try to get us back on the same page with our allies,” he said.

He acknowledged that when it comes to “leverage” over Beijing, “we don’t have it yet.”

Improved relations with allies, particularly the European Union, likely would give Washington a stronger position to press China for further concessions.

Prasad said Biden’s team “will be handed a baseline for trade and economic negotiations with China that is heavily skewed toward conflict rather than cooperation.”

“The new administration will feature significant shifts in strategy and tactics compared with the Trump administration’s approach, but the overall hostile posture toward China is likely to remain unchanged,” Prasad said.

Another key issue will be Biden’s approach to the EU, which also was hit with a series of tariffs under Trump, and is locked in numerous disputes with the US on issues ranging from the aerospace industry to digital taxation.

The regional bloc seems willing to cooperate: the Financial Times reported that Brussels is working on a plan to revitalize its partnership with Washington to tackle everything from stopping the pandemic to deforestation.

“I think the Biden administration will be amenable to such an initiative,” said Edward Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations, noting that an agreement on digital taxation could bring Washington revenues it sorely needs.

But Biden’s comments also indicate a new free trade deal that Britain has wanted from Washington post-Brexit will not happen anytime soon.

Dt/lo/cs/hs

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

Trump floats idea of 2024 White House run

AFP
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Trump floats idea of 2024 White House run

by Jerome CARTILLIER

Still irate and bitter one month after his election defeat to Joe Biden, Donald Trump is openly musing about a second run at the US presidency in 2024.

Refusing to accept defeat, Trump’s lawyers and supporters continued Wednesday to file lawsuits and even call for extraordinary intervention, such as martial law, to force a new vote.

And Trump released an extraordinary 46 minute video in which he again claimed that he was robbed of victory in a “rigged” election.

But at a White House Christmas party on Tuesday, the president suggested he might have lost this battle, but would not retire quietly as a one-term president.

“It’s been an amazing four years. We are trying to do another four years. Otherwise, I’ll see you in four years,” he told guests.

The comment was perhaps the closest the 74 year old Trump has come to admitting his quixotic, month-long quest to reverse Biden’s win has failed.

All six contested states have now certified their tallies, and the national count gives Biden nearly seven million more votes than Trump, an insurmountable four percentage-point margin.

On Tuesday Attorney General Bill Barr declared that the Justice Department had found no significant evidence of fraud in the election.

Biden meanwhile continued to prepared for taking office on January 20, telling The New York Times in an interview how he plans to revive the economy.

“I want to make sure we’re going to fight like hell by investing in America first,” Biden said.

– ‘So much evidence’ -Trump still refuses to publicly concede his defeat on November 3, forcing him from office after one term.

He has remained shuttered in the White House, limiting his public appearances, and apparently holding few official meetings, while issuing furious tweets about alleged election fraud.

But according to media reports he is preparing his exit, holding discussions about issuing preemptive pardons for his three adult children — Don Jr, Eric and Ivanka — for Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner, and his own personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

On Wednesday he released on Twitter a formal address on the election.

“This may be the most important speech I’ve ever made,” he began.

He recited a litany of complaints about the election, saying the Democrats used the Covid-19 crisis to force widespread use of mailed ballots, which he said were fraudulently manipulated to support Biden.

“This election was rigged, everybody knows it,” he said.

“It is statistically impossible that the person, me, who led the charge, lost.”

“We have so much evidence,” Trump said.

Supporters continued to fight against the results. Giuliani appeared before Michigan’s state legislature Wednesday to present his claims of irregularities.

In Georgia, another lawyer tied to the Trump campaign, Sidney Powell, spoke to a rally of supporters claiming their votes were not counted.

But Barr’s statement, in a break with the president, Tuesday went far to undermine their claims.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” he said.

– Someone’s going to get shot’ -The campaign to delay and litigate the election results, though, was turning in discomfiting directions.

In Georgia, which still faces another vote on two hotly-contested US Senate seats in early January, officials said Trump’s rhetoric was dangerous, stoking potential violence against officials.

“Someone’s going to get hurt. Someone’s going to get shot. Someone’s going to get killed. It’s not right,” voting system manager Gabriel Sterling said Tuesday.

And two prominent retired three-star generals, including Trump’s former national security advisor Michael Flynn, chillingly called for Trump to declare martial law and have the military supervise a new election.

– Trump headed to Georgia –
Trump’s immediate plans were to head to Georgia on Saturday to campaign beside the two Republican Senate candidates, key to the party retaining control of the US Senate.

But beyond that, when he might openly accept his loss, or map out his post-presidency plans, remained unknown.

According to NBC News, Trump has discussed the possibility with his close aides of launching his 2024 campaign on January 20, the day Biden is to be inaugurated as president.

In theory, nothing prevents another run. The US Constitution restricts presidents to two four-year terms, but does not require they be consecutive.

But only one president did so: Grover Cleveland, in the late 19th century.

The real estate tycoon faces the challenge of losing the center of attention, and his grip on the Republican Party, as Washington turns to the Biden administration.

Yet he retains strong support among voters, who could continue to rally behind him and make him a continuing force in Republican politics.

jca/pmh/dw

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

Britain okays vaccine as global Covid death toll nears 1.5 million

AFP
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Britain okays vaccine as global Covid death toll nears 1.5 million

by Jitendra JOSHI with AFP bureaus

Britain on Wednesday became the first western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine for general use, while Japan and Italy pledged free inoculations for all even as the global death toll rose towards 1.5 million.

The news came as the UN convenes a special two-day summit on the pandemic Thursday, with European leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to speak virtually on their countries’ response to the global health crisis.

Notably absent will be populist heads of state like US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country was ground zero as the virus began its deadly crawl across the globe late last year.

Meanwhile US hospitalizations of Covid patients topped 100,000 for the first time Wednesday, according to the Covid Tracking Project, while daily deaths topped 2,700, the highest fatality rate since April.

The United States, which has suffered the highest virus toll with more than 270,000 deaths, reported that it hopes to have immunised 100 million people against Covid-19 by the end of February.

The UK’s independent medicines regulator gave a green light to the BioNTech-Pfizer drug in double-quick time but insisted safety had come first.

“Everybody can be confident that no corners whatsoever have been cut,” said Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) chief executive June Raine. “The public deserve nothing less.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the move heralded a vaccination programme “that will ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives and get the economy moving again”.

His government said some 800,000 doses would be administered starting as soon as next week.

With over 59,000 deaths from 1.6 million cases, Britain’s outbreak remains the deadliest in Europe.

The EU’s medicines regulator insisted Wednesday it has the “most appropriate” method to approve a coronavirus vaccine, after British ministers claimed that leaving the bloc, and its rules, had allowed them to adopt the jab ahead of their European neighbours.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it will hold a special meeting by December 29 at the latest to decide on whether to grant conditional approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

– Global tolls climb –
Meanwhile Mexico said it signed an agreement Wednesday with Pfizer to buy 34.4 million doses of vaccine, with a first batch due to arrive this month.

The cumulative total of Covid-19 cases surged by nearly 30 percent across the Americas in just one month, the Pan American Health Organization warned, releasing figures for November.

Canada is seeing worrying surges along with Brazil and Cuba.

Japan and Italy decided that vaccines, when approved, will be provided free to all residents.

As in Britain, Italy plans for medical staff and people in elderly care homes to be among the first vaccinated.

Merkel announced that cultural and sporting facilities in Germany as well as restaurants and bars will remain shut until January 10, extending shutdown measures to curb transmission of the coronavirus.

In Spain, Health Minister Salvador Illa announced that people will exceptionally be able to travel to visit family over Christmas but that such get-togethers must be restricted to 10 people at the most.

Close to 1.5 million people globally had died from the coronavirus as of 0200 GMT Thursday, according to an AFP count based on official sources, while more than 64 million have been infected.

– ‘Science will win’ –
Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla declared the UK certification a “historic moment in the fight against Covid-19”.

“This authorisation is a goal we have been working toward since we first declared that science will win,” he said.

US giant Pfizer and German newcomer BioNTech added that they expected further regulatory decisions from other countries in the coming days and weeks.

Other vaccines expected to come on stream soon include ones from Moderna and AstraZeneca/Oxford University, which has strong backing from the UK government.

Many poorer countries are pinning their hopes on the AstraZeneca/Oxford candidate, which can be kept in regular refrigerators and is being offered at cost price.

But it is undergoing further data analysis after questions were raised over the effectiveness of its dosage regime.

With effectiveness around 95 percent, both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are based on new mRNA technology, which hacks into human cells to effectively turn them into vaccine-making factories.

– Large-scale Russia vaccinations –
On Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will not attend the UN summit either, ordered “large-scale” vaccinations to start next week with the country’s Sputnik V vaccine.

Over 100,000 people have already been vaccinated with Sputnik V, currently in the final stage of clinical trials involving some 40,000 volunteers.

Beyond the hoped-for jabs, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and biotech firm Regeneron are working on a nasal spray that is designed to stop infection from the virus, initially testing the gene therapy on animals.

burs/pvh/jh/bfm

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

Kwa Kim Li grilled by Lim Tean on 38 Oxley Road and Lee Kuan Yew’s will

Obbana Rajah
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Kwa Kim Li grilled by Lim Tean on 38 Oxley Road and Lee Kuan Yew’s will

Kwa Lim Li, the late Lee Kuan Yew’s lawyer, appeared in court on Thursday (Dec 3) to answer questions on Mr Lee’s wills and house, 38 Oxley Road.

Mdm Kwa had to testify in court during a libel suit involving Terry Xu after failing to set aside a subpoena filed by the chief editor of The Online Citizen (TOC). Her attendance in court was her first public appearance since the start of the 38 Oxley Road saga.

On 14 June 2017, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s siblings, Dr Lee Wei Ling and Lee Hsien Yang, made several allegations against their brother in a Facebook post, including accusing him of misleading their father into believing that his Oxley Road property had been gazetted.

PM Lee later filed a defamation suit against Mr Xu when the latter repeated the allegations on August 15 last year, in an article published on TOC titled “PM Lee’s wife, Ho Ching weirdly shares article on cutting ties with family members”.

As part of the allegations, Mr Xu claimed Dr Lee said that her brother had persuaded the late Lee into thinking his property at 38 Oxley Road had been gazetted, leading their father into the conclusion that it was “futile” to keep the demolition clause in his will.

Mr Xu’s lawyer, Lim Tean asked Mdm Kwa to confirm that all the wills she had prepared for the late Lee contained a demolition clause in respect of 38 Oxley Road, except for the final two wills she prepared for him dated 20 September 2012 and 4 October 2012. She replied “yes”.

According to a yahoo!news article, Mr Lim continued, “In total, how many times did you search for whether 38 Oxley Road was gazetted and when did these searches take place?”

Mdm Kwa replied, “First time was around time of the email, I asked for my librarian to check for me. Second time I checked, I searched, it was perhaps a few days after I asked one of my colleagues, one of my lawyers, to check for me.”

When probed again on the number of times Mdm Kwa made the search, she said she could not remember but at least twice.

When Mr Lim then asked Mdm Kwa if she had informed the late Mr Lee every time she conducted the search, she said, “The answer would be privileged.”

She gave the same answer when asked about an email she sent to the late Lee on 2 October 2012, in which she apparently wrote, “Loong has free rein”.

“And the words ‘he can handle cabinet’, is that also reference to Lee Hsien Loong?” Mr Lim asked. To that, Mdm Kwa replied, “The answer would be privileged”.

At Justice Audrey Lim’s probing, she revealed that “he” referred to the prime minister.

PM Lee’s lawyer, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, said he had no questions for the witness.

With the end of the trial, both parties are expected to send written submissions to the court in January. /TISG

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