UNITED KINGDOM
PM’s lockdown quip denied
A media report that Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he would rather have bodies piled “high in their thousands” than order a third lockdown is not true, Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace said yesterday. The Daily Mail had quoted Johnson as saying at a Downing Street meeting in October last year: “No more ****ing lockdowns — let the bodies pile high in their thousands.” “It’s not true — it’s been categorically denied by practically everyone,” Wallace told Sky when asked about the reported remark, adding that Johnson was focused on the COVID-19 response.
KAZAKHSTAN
Indigenous vaccine unveiled
The government yesterday rolled out its homegrown COVID-19 vaccine, with Minister of Health and Social Development Alexei Tsoi receiving the jab on live television. QazCOVID-in, also known as QazVac, is a two-shot vaccine that is in phase 3 trials. The state broadcaster Khabar said that 50,000 doses developed by the state-backed Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems have been distributed across the country. Tsoi told Khabar that he felt “well” after his shot.
AUSTRALIA
Three-day lockdown helps
Western Australia state has said it would lift a three-day COVID-19 lockdown in Perth and the Peel region as planned from midnight yesterday after no new cases were found. The lockdown was launched on Saturday last week after an infected traveler from overseas visited several venues while unknowingly infectious. “The short three-day lockdown has done the job it was designed to do,” state Premier Mark McGowan said. “It was a circuit-breaker we needed to limit community spread.”
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June