[ TIME ] China, Isolated From the World, Is Now the Last Major Country Still Pursuing a ‘Zero COVID’ Strategy

Now, with the rise of the delta variant and the proliferation of vaccines, only one is still holding fast to that goal of eliminating Covid-19: China. With New Zealand preparing to shift away from the zero-tolerance strategy, China’s isolation is complete, raising the stakes on how long it can stick to a playbook that requires closed borders,…

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[ AsiaOne / Straits Times ] Singapore inks deal for Merck antiviral pill to treat Covid-19 and its variants

The Republic has inked a supply and purchase agreement for an antiviral pill to treat Covid-19 that is said to be effective against all known variants of the virus, including the Delta variant. The drug was developed by pharmaceutical firm Merck in the United States and Canada, together with Miami-based Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. Merck is known as…

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[ NBC ] Lawmakers in Japan elect Fumio Kishida as new prime minister

Japan’s parliament on Monday elected Fumio Kishida, a former moderate turned hawk, as prime minister. He’ll face an economy battered by the pandemic, security threats from China and North Korea and leadership of a political party whose popularity is sagging ahead of a fast-approaching crucial national election. With his party and its coalition partner holding a…

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Entire Facebook Network is Down for 8 hours

At around 11.45pm Singapore Time (GMT+8), the entire Facebook network went offline. This includes all the most popular/used apps like Facebook app, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. It was only until around 45mins later where the official twitter account for the respective apps started announcing that their apps are having issue. Despite the term used…

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[ Nikkei ] U.S. set to resume trade talks with China

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai is expected to speak to Chinese vice premier Liu He by telephone over the next few days, calling on China to respect the “phase one” trade agreement it signed with Washington under former President Donald Trump. The U.S. also plans to resurrect partial exemptions on punitive tariffs to help curb the impact of…

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Rohingya Leader Mohibullah assassinated; ARSA is widely believed to be behind the assassination

On September 29, 2021, Mohibullah, 46, chair of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Mohibullah had served as a leader among the nearly one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, documenting the Myanmar military’s crimes against the Rohingya and advocating…

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REGEN-COV monoclonal antibody therapy delivery will arrive in Singapore next month

According the Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore largest chinese newspaper/media outlet, a spokesman from the National Center for Infectious Diseases of Singapore (NCID) had confirmed to the Associated Press that the monoclonal antibody cocktail, casirivimab and imdevimab, developed by US drugmaker Regeneron and Swiss pharmaceutical company, Roche, will be expected to arrive in the island state next…

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