02-07-2022

SATURdAy, JUly 2, 2022
3
US President Joe Biden said the possibility of a chemical attack is a "real threat".
Photo: Reuters
NATO summit concludes amid
criticisms of bloc's aggression
MADRID: The 2022 Summit of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) wrapped up here on Thursday
amid mounting criticisms of the
military alliance's increasingly
aggressive and destabilizing security
policies unveiled at the meeting,
reports UNB.
Twenty-two NATO members on
Thursday agreed to launch the NATO
Innovation Fund, a multi-sovereign
venture capital fund that will invest 1
billion euros (1.05 billion U.S. dollars)
in startups and other venture capital
funds developing emerging
technologies for both civilian and
military use.
NATO Secretary General Jens
Stoltenberg said at the fund's signing
ceremony that it would help transform
NATO's security environment and
strengthen its innovation ecosystem.
The fund's launch is the latest in a
long list of provocative security policies
adopted at the two-day NATO meeting.
NATO leaders on Wednesday agreed
to strengthen the alliance's forward
defenses, enhance the bloc's
battlegroups on its eastern flank and
increase the number of high readiness
forces to over 300,000.
On the same day, they approved the
military bloc's new strategic concept,
which calls Russia the "most significant
and direct threat" to NATO's security
and unjustly accuses China of posing
"systemic challenges."
NATO also invited Finland and
Sweden to join the alliance on
Wednesday.
In an explicit move to meddle in the
regional affairs of the Asia-Pacific,
NATO invited the leaders of Japan, the
Republic of Korea, Australia and New
Zealand to attend its summit for the
first time.
The four Asia-Pacific countries held a
four-way meeting on the sidelines of
the NATO Summit to discuss
strengthening ties with the alliance.
The United States, Japan and the
Republic of Korea also held a trilateral
meeting on the sidelines to discuss
issues related to the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea.
While Stoltenberg insisted that the
NATO meeting was focused on
"transforming and strengthening" the
alliance for the security of its members,
analysts and officials from non-NATO
countries have said that NATO is
inciting bloc confrontation with an
outdated Cold War mentality.
Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Thursday
condemned NATO's new strategic
concept, saying the document distorts
facts, smears China's foreign policy,
makes irresponsible remarks on
China's normal military development
and national defense policy,
encourages confrontation and conflicts,
and is full of Cold War mentality and
ideological bias.
Zhao added that NATO claims to be a
regional and defensive organization,
but in fact, it has been transgressing
regions and fields, constantly waging
wars and killing civilians, and now
NATO has extended its reach to the
Asia-Pacific region in an attempt to
export the Cold War mentality.
Gilbert Achcar, a professor of
development studies and international
relations with the School of Oriental
and African Studies at the University of
London, told Xinhua on Thursday that
NATO's new strategic concept shows
the alliance is "going far beyond the
area of NATO into the Asia-Pacific."
"NATO has always been used by the
United States as a tool to perpetuate its
hegemony," Achcar added. "The United
States is trying to push Europe to take
part in its own policies, including in
East Asia."
New Zealand secures major
FTA deal with EU
WELLINGTON: New Zealand and
the European Union have concluded
negotiations on a major free trade
agreement (FTA), which covers
market access into 27 European
countries and removes duties on the
majority of products New Zealand
exports, reports UNB.
"Our EU-NZ FTA is expected to
increase the value of New Zealand's
exports to the EU by up to 1.8 billion
NZ dollars (1.12 billion U.S. dollars)
per year from 2035," New Zealand
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said
on Friday after the FTA signing in
Brussels.
"It's a strategically important and
economically beneficial deal that
comes at a crucial time in our
export-led COVID-19 recovery,"
Ardern said in a statement. The deal
delivers tangible gains for exporters
into a restrictive agricultural market.
It cuts costs and red tape for
exporters and opens up new highvalue
market opportunities, she said.
This is the fifth FTA New Zealand
has concluded in the past five years
and sits alongside upgrades to the
existing agreements with China and
Singapore, she said, adding that the
increase in market access means
73.5 percent the goals need more
ambitious and urgent action to
reduce the biggest risks such as
speeding, and increased financing
for sustainable and safe
infrastructure and investments in
cleaner mobility and greener urban
planning, the of New Zealand's
global exports are now covered by an
FTA, up from around 50 percent five
years ago.
The deal provides duty-free access
on 97 percent of the New Zealand's
existing goods trade to the EU
within seven years, 91 percent from
day one, said New Zealand Trade
and Export Growth Minister
Damien O'Connor.
However, the meat and dairy
industries, two of New Zealand's
major export sectors, were
disappointed as their gains in the
trade deal were very limited.
The EU is New Zealand's fourthlargest
trading partner with twoway
goods and services trade worth
17.5 billion NZ dollars (10.9 billion
U.S. dollars).
The New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and her Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison.
The two countries have announced they are beginning free trade talks with the UK. Photo: AP
UN chief calls for more
holistic approach to
road safety
UNITED NATIONS: UN
Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres called for a more
holistic approach to road
safety, reports UNB.
He made the remarks at a
high-level meeting of the UN
General Assembly on
improving road safety on
Thursday .
Guterres said that road
fatalities are closely linked to
poor infrastructure,
unplanned urbanization, lax
social protection and health
care systems, limited road
safety literacy and persistent
inequalities both within and
between countries.
Meanwhile, he pointed out
that unsafe roads are a key
obstacle to development.
"Traffic accidents can
push entire families into
poverty through either the
loss of a breadwinner or the
costs associated with lost
income and prolonged
medical care," he said,
noting that developing
countries lose between 2 and
5 percent of GDP every year
because of them.
UN agencies have set goals
of cutting road traffic deaths
and injuries by half by 2030
and promote sustainable
mobility with safety at its
core.
To achieve the goals need
more ambitious and urgent
action to reduce the biggest
risks such as speeding, and
increased financing for
sustainable and safe
infrastructure and
investments in cleaner
mobility and greener urban
planning, the UN chief said.
"And we need to adopt a
more holistic approach to
road safety," he stated.
"This means better
integrating road safety in
national policies - from
education, health, and
transport to climate
mitigation, land-use
planning, and disaster
response," he said.
The secretary-general
called on all member states
to accede to UN road safety
conventions and implement
whole-of-society
action
plans, taking a strong
prevention approach.
He also urged all donors to
scale up much-needed
financial and technical
contributions through the
UN Road Safety Fund.
"Together, we can save
lives, support development,
and steer our world to safer
roads ahead, leaving no one
behind," he said.
Nuclear power can
secure energy
transitions: IEA reports
PARIS: The International
Energy Agency (IEA)
outlined that nuclear power
can help countries in
securing energy transitions,
reports UNB.
In its report titled "Nuclear
Power and Secure Energy
Transitions: From Today's
Challenges to Tomorrow's
Clean Energy Systems," the
IEA on Thursday said that
nuclear power can "reduce
reliance on imported fossil
fuels, cut carbon dioxide
emissions and enable
electricity systems to
integrate higher shares of
solar and wind power."
Without nuclear power,
the costs and complications
for building systems for
energy transitions are
important, the IEA noted.
A total of 32 countries
have nuclear plants and
nuclear power is the second
largest source of low
emissions power after
hydropower, the IEA said.
According to the IEA, with
the peak of oil, gas and
electricity prices, nuclear
power is "likely to be further
stimulated."
"In today's context of the
global energy crisis,
skyrocketing fossil fuel
prices, energy security
challenges and ambitious
climate commitments, I
believe nuclear power has a
unique opportunity to stage
a comeback," IEA Executive
Director Fatih Birol said in
the press release.
California first to cover health
care for all immigrants
SACRAMENTO: California will become the
first state to guarantee free health care for all
low-income immigrants living in the country
illegally, a move that will provide coverage
for an additional 764,000 people at an
eventual cost of about $2.7 billion a year,
reports UNB.
It's part of a $307.9 billion operating
budget that Gov. Gavin Newsom was
expected to sign Thursday. It pledges to
make low-income adults eligible for the
state's Medicaid program by 2024,
regardless of their immigration status. It's a
long-sought victory for health care and
immigration activists, who have been asking
for the change for more than a decade.
Nationwide, federal and state
governments join together to give free health
care to low-income adults and children
through Medicaid. But the federal
government won't pay for people who are
living in the country illegally. Some states,
including California, have used their own tax
dollars to cover a portion of health care
expenses for some low-income immigrants.
Now, California wants to be the first to do
that for everyone.
About 92% of of Californians currently
have some form of health insurance, putting
the state in the middle of the pack nationally.
But that will change once this budget is fully
implemented, as adults living in the country
illegally make up one of the largest group of
people without insurance in the state.
"This will represent the biggest expansion
of coverage in the nation since the start of the
Affordable Care Act in 2014," said Anthony
Wright, executive director of Health Access
California, a statewide consumer health care
advocacy group. "In California we recognize
(that) everybody benefits when everyone is
covered."
People living in the country illegally made
up about 7% of the population nationwide in
2020, or about 22.1 million people,
according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a
health care nonprofit. They are not eligible
for most public benefit programs, even
though many have jobs and pay taxes.
Immigrants have slowly been getting
access to some health care programs.
Eighteen states now provide prenatal care to
people regardless of their immigration
status, while the District of Columbia and
five states - California, Illinois, New York,
Oregon and Washington - cover all children
from low-income families regardless of their
immigration status. California and Illinois
have expanded Medicaid to cover older adult
immigrants.
In California, Republicans and
conservative groups have opposed
expanding health care to immigrants living
in the country illegally. Jon Coupal,
president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers
Association, said offering free health care will
make California "a magnet for those who are
not legally authorized to enter the country."
"I think many of us are very sympathetic to
the immigrant community, but we really
wish we had better control of who enters this
nation and this state," Coupal said.
California's expansion of Medicaid won't
be easy. A confluence of events, including the
state's slow rollout of the expansion and the
end of some federal pandemic policies, mean
about 40,000 low-income immigrants will
likely lose their health coverage for up to a
year in 2023 before being eligible to get it
back - illustrating the difficulty of navigating
the government-run health insurance
system that is supposed to make it easier for
people to get coverage.
Beatriz Hernandez came to the United
States in 2007 as a 11-year-old. California
taxpayers covered her health care expenses
when she was a child. She lost that coverage
once she turned 19 because of her
immigration status, but it was restored in
2020 when the state began covering lowincome
immigrants 26 and younger.
Hernandez turned 26 in February. She
hasn't lost her coverage yet because of
emergency federal rules during the
pandemic. But those rules could expire
later this year, making her one of the
estimated 40,000 people who will
temporarily lose their coverage before
California's new program starts on Jan. 1,
2024, according to an analysis by the
nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.
Hernandez lives in Merced in California's
Central Valley and works as an organizer
with the California Immigrant Policy
Center. She said her mother would benefit
the most from the expansion, having never
had health insurance since moving to the
U.S.
But for Hernandez, she's worried a gap in
her coverage would cause her to lose access
to the medication she takes to treat
depression. In the meantime, she's
scheduling as many appointments as she
can this year - including for the dentist,
optometrist and dermatologist - before she
loses coverage.
California Governor Gavin Newsom presented his 2021-2022 state budget plan at a
news conference in Sacramento .
Photo: AP
Hong Kong fishermen keep old
ways, 25 years after handover
HONG KONG: Ng Koon-yau calmly pilots his
small fishing boat through the azure waters of
the South China Sea. The 79-year-old has
been fishing ever since he can remember,
reports UNB.
Ng and his 76-year-old brother Ng Koonhee
came to Hong Kong from Taishan in
Guangdong province, across the border in the
Chinese mainland, as youngsters in the 1950s.
So did many others who settled in Hong Kong
after the 1949 communist revolution, when
the territory was a colony of Great Britain.
The move to Hong Kong was so long ago
that the Ngs don't remember exactly when
they arrived in Tai O, a remote and scenic
fishing village on the west side of Hong Kong's
Lantau Island.
They've worked side-by-side all along,
largely unaffected by decades of political
change, including campaigns that sometimes
spilled into the territory from the Chinese
mainland.
Many in Hong Kong worry that communistruled
China is exerting ever more control over
semi-autonomous Hong Kong, contrary to
promises from Beijing to respect Hong Kong's
civil liberties and its semi-autonomous status
for 50 years after Britain handed the city to
China 25 years ago, on July 1, 1997.
But Ng Koon-yau is fine with Beijing being
in charge.
"Hong Kong is part of China, and I've
never thought of moving anywhere else," he
said. "I hope that China will make Hong
Kong a better place, where everyone can
prosper. For us in Tai O, we wouldn't think
of moving away to live anywhere else."
Tai O's homes perched on stilts above its
small harbor, are a picturesque remnant of
skyscraper-studded Hong Kong's past.
Hundreds of years ago, before the British
colonists arrived in the mid-1800s, fishing
was a way of life here and in other villages in
the Pearl River Delta region.
But small-scale coastal fishing is a dying
industry in Hong Kong.
The Ngs used to ply the seas in a big vessel,
netting thousands of fish a day. Now they
keep only a small boat and haul in small
catches.
"Now there are fewer and fewer fish for us
to catch. The waters in the Pearl River Delta
and around Guangdong are so polluted, so
there are fewer fish," Ng Koon-yau said.
Younger Hong Kongers are moving on.
"In the 1960s, there were more than
10,000 people living here, but the
population has been gradually falling, with
the young people going off to work in the
city," Ng said.
"My sons have gone off to work in the city.
Now it's just us old people, and only about
2,000-3,000 living here," he said.
Tourism is now a big business for Tai O's
remaining residents: Selling dried fish
snacks and prawn sauce to visitors and
running sightseeing boats. One of the
attractions is to catch a sight of a pink
dolphin. Dwindling like the Tai O villagers,
some of the special dolphins are still left,
sometimes breaking the sea's surface within
view of the skyscrapers of the city.