UK PFIZER COVID-19 VACCINE ROLLOUT: BRITAIN BEGINS COVID VACCINATION

PROGRAMME

The COVID vaccination program in the United Kingdom, the country that

approved Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for the first time on Wednesday, is

starting today. The health workers, the elderly and care home workers will

receive the vaccine initially. The National Health Service (NHS) will be

responsible for vaccinating these high-risk individuals, according to the UK

Department of Health.

Meanwhile, Britain is building a refrigerator at a temperature of -70°C to

preserve Pfizer’s COVID vaccine.

The Serum Institute has sought approval of the Oxford vaccine in India. On

the other hand, the first consignment of China’s Sinovac COVID vaccine has

arrived in Indonesia.

UK Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock described the start of the

COVID vaccination campaign as a “historic moment”. He also urged everyone to

play their role in tackling coronavirus.

According to a BBC report, health workers, people over the age of 80 and

care home workers who initially fought against the COvid-19 will be

vaccinated first. 50 hospitals have been identified as COVID vaccination

sites in the UK.

The vaccination will also begin in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from

Tuesday. It has been informed that vaccinations will also be given in these

places from the hospital.

A special container of the vaccine, invented by US company Pfizer and German

BioNTech, has been shipped to the UK from Belgium. Later, they were kept in

a safe place. From there, they were sent to the hospitals where the vaccines

will be applied.

IRAN SAYS AI AND ‘SATELLITE-CONTROLLED’ GUN USED TO KILL NUCLEAR SCIENTIST

The assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist last month was carried out

remotely with artificial intelligence and a machine gun equipped with a

“satellite-controlled smart system”, Iranian news agencies quoted a senior

Iranian commander as saying.

Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, told

Iranian news agencies that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was driving when a weapon

opened fire on his car on a highway near Tehran. The weapon “zoomed in on

Fakhrizadeh” using an “advanced camera”, Fadavi said. “No terrorists were

present on the ground.”

Fadavi’s account is the most explicit yet of claims first made last week

that the attack was conducted remotely. The claims have not been verified

and have been treated with a degree of scepticism in the west.

Fadavi said the gun used to kill Fakhrizadeh had been placed on a pickup

truck and controlled by a satellite, and had fired 13 shots. “During the

operation artificial intelligence and face recognition were used,” Fadavi

said. “His wife, sitting 25cm away from him in the same car, was not

injured.”

Fadavi’s account differs markedly from early reports of Fakhrizadeh’s death,

when witnesses told state television that a truck had exploded before a

group of gunmen opened fire on his car.

CHINA CALLS FOR NEW TALKS WITH U.S. AFTER BIDEN WIN

China's top diplomat on Monday called for the resumption of talks with the

incoming U.S. administration of President-elect Joe Biden, as relations

between the world's two largest economies continued to nosedive.

Beijing and Washington have locked horns over issues from trade and China's

human rights record to its expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea.

But speaking during a video call with the board of the U.S.- China Business

Council (USCBC) on Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said “the two

sides should work together.”

“We need to strive to restart the dialogue, get back on the right track, and

rebuild mutual trust in the next phase of China-U.S. relations,” he said,

according to a readout of his remarks on the Foreign Ministry website.

“For problems that cannot be immediately resolved, we need to maintain a

constructive attitude to manage the situation to avoid intensifying and

escalating the overall situation of China-U.S. relations,” Mr. Wang said.

JOE BIDEN CHOOSES RETIRED GENERAL LLOYD AUSTIN AS DEFENSE SECRETARY: REPORTS

President-elect Joe Biden has chosen retired General Lloyd Austin, who

oversaw U.S. forces in the Middle East under President Barack Obama, to be

his defense secretary, two people familiar with the decision said on Monday.

The nomination of Austin, who headed U.S. Central Command under Obama, could

draw fire from some progressive groups given his role in retirement on the

board of a number of companies, including weapons maker Raytheon

Technologies Corp.

Biden, who takes office on Jan. 20, on Monday also announced key members of

his health team to lead the administration’s response to the raging

coronavirus pandemic.

Biden chose California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for secretary of

health and human services and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious

diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, to run the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and

Infectious Diseases, was named as Biden’s chief medical adviser on the

virus.

Biden’s first major challenge in the White House will be containing a

resurgent COVID-19 virus that has killed more than 283,000 Americans, and

finding ways to jump-start an economy still reeling from millions of

pandemic-fueled job losses.

He installed Jeff Zients, an economic adviser known for his managerial

skills, as coronavirus “czar” to oversee a response that will include an

unprecedented operation to distribute hundreds of millions of doses of a new

vaccine, coordinating efforts across multiple federal agencies.

U.S. DESIGNATES PAK., CHINA AS COUNTRIES OF PARTICULAR CONCERN FOR VIOLATION

OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

The United States has designated Pakistan and China among eight other

countries that are of particular concern for violation of religious freedom,

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.

Pakistan and China along with Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea,

Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were placed in the list for

engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of

religious freedom , Mr. Pompeo said in a statement on Monday.

The State Department placed the Comoros, Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia on a

Special Watch List (SWL) for governments that have engaged in or tolerated

severe violations of religious freedom .

“Religious freedom is an unalienable right, and the bedrock upon which free

societies are built and flourish. Today, the United States — a nation

founded by those fleeing religious persecution, as the recent Commission on

Unalienable Rights report noted — once again took action to defend those who

simply want to exercise this essential freedom, Mr. Pompeo said.

The U.S. also designated al-Shabaab, al-Qaida, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir

al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, ISIS-West Africa, Jamaat

Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and the Taliban as ‘Entities of Particular

Concern’

Mr. Pompeo said the U.S. did not renew the prior ‘Entity of Particular

Concern’ designations for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and

ISIS-Khorasan due to the total loss of territory formerly controlled by

these terrorist organisations.

CHINA SENDS WARPLANES, TROOPS FOR DRILL IN PAKISTAN

China has dispatched fighter aircraft and troops to a Pakistani airbase

close to the Gujarat border to take part in the latest edition of a

bilateral military exercise, the Chinese military announced on Monday

evening, adding that the air force drill was aimed at improving “actual

combat training” of the two forces.

“The Chinese air force’s troops set off on December 7 for the Pakistani Air

Force’s air base in Bholari at Thatta District in Sindh, northeast of

Pakistan’s Karachi to participate in the China-Pakistan Joint Air Force

Exercise Shaheen (Eagle) – IX,” a statement put out by the People’s

Liberation Army (PLA) said.

The latest edition of the drill will take place in the backdrop of the

ongoing India-China border friction along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)

in eastern Ladakh.

The brief Chinese statement on Shaheen-IX did not give details of the

deployment of PLA Air Force (PLAAF) for the exercise with Pakistan, but said

it will conclude in late December.

“The joint air force exercise, which will conclude in late December, is a

project within the 2020 cooperation plan of the two militaries,” it said.

“It will promote the development of China-Pakistan mil-to-mil relationships,

deepen practical cooperation between the two air forces and improve the

actual-combat training level of the two sides,” the statement added.

U.S. APPROVES TAIWAN ARMS SALE

The Trump administration has approved a new major arms sale to Taiwan.

The move is sure to draw a firm rebuke from China, which regards Taiwan as a

renegade province.

The State Department said it had approved a $280 million sale to Taiwan of

advanced military communications equipment. Earlier, it said it had hit 14

members of the Chinese parliament’s standing committee with sanctions that

come as the administration steps up punitive measures against China as it

winds down its time in office.

In a statement, the department said it had approved the communications sale

to “help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining

political stability, military balance, economic and progress in the region”

and to “contribute to the recipient’s goal to modernize its military

communication’s capability in support of their mission and operational

needs.”

U.S., CHINA DOMINATE ARMS MARKET: REPORT

U.S. and Chinese companies dominated the global arms market in 2019, while

the West Asia made its first appearance among the 25 biggest weapons

manufacturers, a report by the SIPRI research institute said on Monday.

The U.S. arms industry accounted for 61% of sales by the world’s “Top 25”

manufacturers last year, ahead of China’s 15.7%, according to the Stockholm

International Peace Research Institute.

Total sales by the “Top 25” rose by 8.5% to $361 billion, or 50 times the

annual budget of the UN’s peacekeeping operations.

Six U..S companies and three Chinese firms were in the top 10, rounded out

by Britain’s BAE Systems in seventh spot.

“China and the United States are the two biggest states in terms of global

arms spending, with companies cut to size,” Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, director

of SIPRI’s arms and military expenditure programme, told AFP.

The U.S. has dominated the market for decades, but for China — whose

companies’ sales rose by almost 5% in 2019 — “this increase corresponds to

the implementation of reforms to modernise the People’s Liberation Army

underway since 2015,” she said.