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JICA donates P80-M vaccine storage equipment to PHL

VACCINES against COVID-19 are delivered by boat to the island province of Basilan in southern Philippines in this March 15, 2021 photo. — BANGSAMORO GOV’T

THE JAPAN International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Wednesday announced that it officially turned over P80 million worth of cold chain and logistics equipment to help deploy COVID-19 vaccines across the Philippines.  

This includes two units of service vehicles, two units of refrigerated vans, and 600 units of biothermal packaging, which are reusable iceless containers for the storage of vaccines.  

JICA said in a press release that this initiative will help the Philippines “achieve its vaccination targets to underserved priority groups, particularly in hard-to-reach communities, and restart new normal lives and economic activities.”  

The agency is also planning to provide P275 million worth of other cold chain equipment under a grant aid project.   

JICA previously donated around P80 million worth of medical equipment and supplies to various hospitals and medical centers in the country.  

It also provided training on telemedicine to Filipino doctors and frontliners to increase hospitals’ capacity of giving intensive care services.   

It is also looking into initiatives to strengthen the country’s capacity for infectious disease control. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson

NKTI emergency room hits full capacity

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THE STATE-OWNED National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) on Wednesday urged patients to go to other hospitals as its emergency rooms and services have reached full capacity.  

In a Facebook post, the NKTI said its emergency room was overwhelmed and had reached three times its capacity, with majority of patients needing dialysis and those with leptospirosis and COVID-19.  

“(T)here are no more vacant rooms in the wards,” the NKTI said in an advisory signed by Executive Director Rose Marie O. Rosete-Liquete.  

“In addition to this is the lack of nurses in NKTI, which is among the biggest problems facing the DoH (Department of Health) nationwide,” it added.   

The NKTI, a government-owned and controlled corporation attached to the DoH, is a specialty center for renal health. It is located in Quezon City. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza 

Davao coastal road opening moved anew to Q2 next year

DPWH

AN initial 7.6-kilometer segment of the Davao Coastal Road project is targeted for opening to motorists by the second quarter (Q2) next year, according to a Department of Public Works and Highways-Davao region official, after several postponements in the past three years.    

“We intend to finish in the second quarter of next year and once completed we can open the first segment of the coastal road at Bago Aplaya to Times Beach,” Dean I. Ortiz, spokesperson of the department’s regional office, told the city council on Tuesday.   

Parts of the road project, with an estimated cost of over P30 billion, was opened to the public earlier this year for recreational and sports activities.  

Construction of the 18-kilometer coastal road started in 2017, and has faced delays due to the coronavirus pandemic and right-of-way acquisition.   

It stretches from the Toril district in the southwestern part of Davao City to the downtown area.   

Mr. Ortiz also reported to the council that construction of the Bucana Bridge component of the road project is already scheduled to start by next year.    

The P3.11-billion bridge will be funded through a China government grant, with the agreement signed by the Chinese Embassy in Manila and DPWH in December 2020.  

The coastal road is intended to provide an alternative route to the Pan-Philippine Highway in the southern part of the city, which has been experiencing heavy traffic congestion. It will also serve as a costal shore protection and breakwater. — Maya M. Padillo

Twitter isn’t helping your career

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TWITTER’s rapid descent into corporate chaos has prompted a wave of nostalgic posts and witty laments from users who fear these are the app’s final days. Without a doubt, Twitter has had a unique role shaping the cultural zeitgeist, and for better or worse it has had a disproportionate influence on how some people — journalists in particular — do their jobs. It can be very funny or rather horrifying, but it often has felt essential. What if it goes away?

In an era when all workers are supposed to sustain a personal brand that in theory will insulate us from job losses and other workplace misfortunes, something important could be lost if the site disappears or becomes a junkyard of spambots and trolls. And yet I also wonder what we might gain from its demise.

One of the great things about Twitter is how flexible and customizable it is. In my line of work, I’ve used Twitter to find new voices; to track academic research; to keep in touch with professional contacts and make new ones; to promote pieces I’ve written or edited; to share job descriptions for roles I think are interesting. I’ve had great professional opportunities slide into my DMs. When I’m about to interview someone, I like to first scan their tweets. One especially gratifying aspect of Twitter has been following people different from me as a way to expand my perspective. And when a truly big news event hits, the endless scroll is addictive.

And yet for all that apparent professional utility, when I was on maternity leave I barely signed into Twitter for a full six months. Somewhat to my surprise, I didn’t miss it. I didn’t miss the reply-guys or the flame wars or the snark. And it’s not like I was too busy to be on social media; in fact, my phone was barely out of my hand. The best tweets found their way onto my new platform of choice, Instagram, as screenshots. I read newspapers and magazines rather than hopscotching from one random link to another.

It turned out that although it felt like Twitter added a lot to my professional life, it had also taken things away. Despite my careful attempts to curate an interesting feed, I wound up with an echo chamber that gave me the mere illusion of knowing what people were thinking. I realized it had been years since it had meaningfully expanded my professional network, perhaps because the site had grown shoutier, whether as a result of changes to the algorithm or changes in people’s attitudes.

Then there is the opportunity cost. It’s painstaking work to build a following — it takes hours of tweeting, replying, and tweeting again. You have to be provocative or no one will want to engage with you, but you can’t be so provocative that no one will hire you. Perhaps all those hours and effort would be better devoted to the core work of one’s paid job, whatever it is — or to building up a different, more durable way of connecting with people.

Because after all, what is the value of a tweet? In theory having a Twitter presence can make you a thought leader who presumably becomes more employable. Yet only the very largest accounts gain the kind of following that translates into something clearly monetizable such as a book or a podcast. And even then, if Twitter goes under, you can’t take your 100,000 followers with you. (Twitter’s struggles have strengthened calls to create a measure of portability for users’ information and allow users to communicate across platforms.)

If the promise of Twitter for professionals has always been nebulous, its risks are only too obvious. At any given moment, we’re all just one bad tweet away from being fired or publicly embarrassed. I’ve lost count of the number of professionals whose attempts at sarcasm or humor were met by stone-faced human resources representatives and a quick walk to the door. I remember a few years ago a former boss asking why I’d “liked” a certain tweet. I ended up apologizing for my over-eager thumb.

Frequently, people I respect have tweeted things that make me think less of their judgment. Trolling is rife, not only between accounts of dubious verifiability, but between professional people who, if they had met in a real-world setting, undoubtedly would have been able to disagree more courteously. (Just take a look, if you have the stomach, at some of the flame wars that have erupted between experts who disagree over COVID school closures or the value of homemade cloth masks.)

After my six-month Twitter break, I realized that the app had become a professional obligation rather than an entertaining hobby — that if I didn’t feel I had to be there, tweeting, I would open it no more than I do Facebook or LinkedIn (that is, rarely).

Social media companies are still a relatively new phenomenon. Maybe it’s just not in their nature to stay dominant for very long. Friendster and Google Wave are gone; MySpace limps along; Instagram (owned by Facebook parent Meta) is now threatened by TikTok. Elon Musk seems to be running Twitter into the ground, but the company wasn’t in fantastic shape when he took over.

As I began enjoying Twitter less, I started spending more time reading books. One book I read this year with the time I used to spend scrolling is No One Is Talking About This, a novel whose protagonist spends a massive amount of time using a Twitter-like app she calls “the portal.” The author, Patricia Lockwood, is sometimes called the poet laureate of Twitter. One passage has stuck in my mind:

“The people who lived in the portal were often compared to those legendary experiment rats who kept hitting a button over and over to get a pellet. But at least the rats were getting a pellet, or the hope of a pellet, or the memory of a pellet. When we hit the button, all we were getting was to be more of a rat.”

Things on the internet come and go. I still miss Google Reader. If Twitter goes away, there are aspects of it I will miss. But I won’t miss feeling like a rat.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Bilateral digital partnerships

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Southeast Asia’s internet economy is expected to be worth $330 billion by 2025, Reuters reported recently, slightly down from a previous forecast of $363 billion after considering prevailing economic uncertainties as well as pressure on tech companies to make a profit. Reuters cited a yearly report by Alphabet’s Google, Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings, and global business consultants Bain & Company.

“Amidst global macroeconomic headwinds, reduced disposable income, sky-rocketing prices, and lower product availability, there is tapering of demand from Southeast Asia consumers,” the trio said in a joint release reported by Reuters. The report covers Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

But, Reuters said, the report remains “upbeat on this year and sees the internet economy growing 20% to $200 billion, three years earlier than anticipated in an inaugural report in 2016.” It also noted that all six countries covered by the report “are expected to post double-digit growth between now and 2025, with Vietnam having the fastest growing digital economy this year at 28%.”

The Google-Temasek-Bain report also noted that “the digital financial services sector is expected to overtake e-commerce to become the region’s top investment sector, with payments taking up the majority share of the deals. In the first half of 2022, the sector saw a record funding of around $4 billion.” Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines were also “likely to attract more investors in the longer-term.”

In their 2021 report, Google-Temasek-Bain noted that e-commerce, travel, media, transport, and food were driving the region’s digital growth. Their report also noted that online spending rose 49% year on year in 2021 to $174 billion, as Southeast Asia was said to have added 60 million new internet users since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. New users came mostly from Thailand and the Philippines.

“Continued shifts in consumer and merchant behavior, matched with strong investor confidence, have ushered Southeast Asia to its ‘digital decade’ — and the region is on its way towards $1-trillion GMV [Gross Merchandise Volume] by 2030,” Google-Temasek-Bain said in the 2021 report.

Singapore is one country that has never failed to seize opportunities. And in light of how the world economy is transitioning and how the digital economy is growing, I am not surprised that Singapore has also moved ahead of others in signing bilateral digital partnership agreements. It is on its fourth now, with Korea, having signed similar deals previously with Chile, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Maybe the Philippines should follow Singapore’s lead.

Just this week, Singapore signed a Digital Partnership Agreement with the Republic of Korea, paving the way for greater cooperation between the two countries in creating a seamless digital economy environment that benefits businesses and consumers through enhanced trading and payment platforms, among others.

The Straits Times reported the agreement will facilitate “smoother digital activities between both sides in areas such as e-payments and paperless trading,” with both countries working “to align their digital rules and standards to promote interoperability between systems.” The Times quoted Singapore’s Trade and Industry Ministry as saying the agreement “will enable more seamless cross-border data flows and build a trusted and secure digital environment for businesses and consumers.”

The agreement, said the Ministry, will “deepen bilateral cooperation in emerging areas, including personal data protection, e-payments, artificial intelligence and source code protection,” and will be the “basis for strengthening our close relationship and shaping, together, the rules of digital trade in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Both countries are said to be looking into accepting electronic versions of trade administration documents, and using data exchange systems for such paperwork; encouraging small- and medium-sized enterprises’ participation in platforms that connect them with overseas suppliers, buyers, and potential business partners; greater cooperation in artificial intelligence; and, the electronic exchange of data between Customs administrations.

Singapore’s Tan See Long, Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry, was quoted by the Times as saying that “the growth of our digital economy and trade will be boosted by the closer cross-border integration of our digital ecosystems.” And, given the way the global economy is now, digital integration is necessary for growth.

I recall that during a meeting in Singapore in 2004 with then Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, he explained to us, his visitors, his plan to tour the Middle East. At the time, Minister Goh had just stepped down as Prime Minister and was preparing for trips to the Arab world to seek opportunities for Singapore businesses as well as to attract more Arab investments.

The initiative was two-pronged: to improve diplomatic relations, and thus perhaps mitigate the threat of Islamic terrorism in Singapore; and to invite Arab investors to Singapore. At the time, as an aftermath of 9-11 in 2001, Arab investors were seeking investment opportunities outside the Western world. And Singapore was among those presenting themselves as a suitable investment location.

And this is precisely what I mean by knowing when to strike. Islamic investments were not exactly welcome in the West soon after 9-11, and Singapore saw an opportunity. The same with the internet economy and going digital, with Singapore’s Temasek partnering with Google and Bain in monitoring developments since 2016. Access to such valuable information allowed it to move ahead of others on the digital front.

I am also curious to find out as well how Singapore intends to move with respect to digital taxation and tax administration. Government policies and regulations adjust to the changing times, to sustain revenue collection. It will be interesting to know how Singapore’s bilateral digital partnerships will actually impact business and the economy, and how this might lead to changes in their tax regime, particularly for global trade.

As experts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have noted in a previous report, “new global reforms will change where tech giants pay taxes in Asia, and make the international tax system more robust.”

“More than half of all services trade in Asia is digitally delivered, making it hard to collect value-added taxes when these services cross borders. Cross-border e-commerce sales of goods have also been exempted from value-added taxes when shipped internationally in small parcels. Resolving these challenges pays off,” noted Era Dabla-Norris, division chief in the IMF’s Asia-Pacific Department and mission chief for Vietnam; Ruud De Mooij, advisor in the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department; Andrew Hodge, economist in the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department; and, Dinar Prihardini, an economist in the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department.

In a blog, the IMF experts noted that “requiring nonresident suppliers of digital services and e-commerce marketplaces to register with local tax authorities and remit value-added taxes on their sales could raise revenue between 0.04 and 0.11% of GDP in some countries in Asia.”

They added: “As Asian consumers and businesses increase their online activity in the coming years, tech giants will expand further into Asian countries, making taxation in a digitalizing economy even more important. Countries in Asia, in particular, can invest in ways to harness digitalization for tax administration, helping to reduce tax evasion, boost revenue mobilization, and make tax collection more efficient.”

Singapore’s bilateral digital partnership agreements are just the first of many to come. I am certain other countries, including the Philippines, will follow suit. And, as these agreements become the foundation for seamless digital trade among nations, major adjustments in policies and rules for trade facilitation, customs, and tax administration must occur.

 

Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippine Press Council

matort@yahoo.com

Controversies hounding the World Cup in Qatar

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The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Doha, Qatar, kicked off last Sunday. It started 12 years after the FIFA — Federation Internationale de Football Association — awarded the hosting rights to a tiny but rich Middle East country that has, in the words of football experts, “no soccer pedigree.” It however has the financial muscle to host a massive undertaking featuring the world’s top 32 soccer powers playing 64 matches over the next 30 days. More than a million visitors are expected to flock to Qatar, which has a population of about three million.

The controversy behind Qatar 2022 started the moment the hosting rights were awarded to the Gulf nation by football’s governing body. Other issues shared the spotlight, including the treatment of migrant workers in the country. These and Qatar’s policy on the transgender were all brought to light. No doubt these issues collided with the core of the country’s conservative culture, religious beliefs and practices. For years and up to a few weeks before the first match between Ecuador and Qatar was played, human rights groups and media continued to devote time and space to the issues with various nuances and what the FIFA was or was not doing about these topics.

In the meantime, some sponsors felt they had to speak out since it would affect the image of the brands that support the World Cup. Sponsors and broadcast rights holders and fans help ensure the viability of an event such as the FIFA World Cup.

In an article dated June 9, 2014, writer Seb Joseph reported that sponsors had “broken their silence over the Qatar World cup row.” Joseph claimed that sponsors have heaped pressure on FIFA to tackle corruption charges swirling around the 2022 Qatar World Cup bid. Exerting pressure on FIFA is due to the importance brands give to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and management and avoidance of repetitional risks.

Despite the sponsors’ efforts to get FIFA to deal with the controversies emanating from the hosting by Qatar of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, at the end of the day, these same corporate sponsors generally avoid controversy. As pointed out by Arthur Sullivan in Business Qatar, when Tiger Woods, then the world’s biggest sports star, was engulfed in a sex scandal in 2009, Gillette, Gatorade, AT&T, Tag Heuer, and Accenture were among the brands which dropped the golfer. Most recently, Kanye “Ye” West — the rapper, record producer, and songwriter — lost a multimillion, multiyear endorsement contract with rubber shoe giant adidas for his anti-Semitic comments. Adidas, through owner Adolf Dassler, lost no time in canceling the deal with West. Dassler is from Bavaria, Germany which, during the brutal dictatorship of Dassler’s namesake, Adolf Hitler, attempted mass genocide of Jews.

The year following the Tiger Woods controversy, Qatar was awarded, in 2010, what Sullivan calls the world’s most lucrative sponsorship bonanzas, the FIFA World Cup. Sullivan adds that in the 12 years that (had) passed since that decision and the beginning of the tournament itself, Qatar 2022 has been the definition of controversy. Thousands of migrant workers have reportedly died in Qatar since 2010. Male homosexuality is outlawed while LGBT people on the whole face severe discrimination and various legal obstacles. Sullivan adds that all these matters don’t even get into the controversial manner in which Qatar was awarded the World Cup. It has been reported that since the infamous 2010 award, more than half of the 22 members of the FIFA Executive Committee which voted for Qatar had earlier been implicated in or investigated for alleged corruption or other bad practices.

Yet, when the tournament kicked off on Nov. 20, big brands like adidas, Coca-Cola, and even Budweiser Beer — the sale of which have been banned inside any of the eight stadiums in a big U-turn by Qatar from earlier agreements — and other globally prominent brands still decided to associate themselves with the Qatar soccer festival. It seems that Sony and Emirates are the only brands that decided to cut their ties with the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The only other brand that opted out is Gazprom, the Russian gas company which was in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia but which has been heavily sanctioned because of the war in Ukraine.

Alongside adidas, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser), other companies which decided to continue their relationship with Qatar 2020 are Hyundai-Kia and Qatar Airways. Other brands which are continuing their sponsorship probably have a pragmatic view of publicity, whether good or bad — VISA and the Wanda Group of China which prides itself with the following advocacies: “targeted poverty alleviation, charitable donation, environmental sustainability, caring staff, entrepreneurship.” The list of brands that continued their sponsorship includes McDonald’s and other global brands which were in Russia 2018. Both Emirates and Sony opted not to renew their commercial deals once they expired at the end of 2014.

Sullivan also points out that new sponsors have been added to the list of official sponsors. Among them are software company Globant and Indian tech education company Byju’s, among others. The main reason for the renewal of commitments by global brands despite the controversial Qatar 2022 is, as Kieran Maguire, sports finance expert at the University of Liverpool says, many companies are locked into long-term deals with FIFA and prefer to focus on that relationship rather than dwell on issues with the host nation.

“They signed a deal with FIFA, not with the Qatari government,” says Maguire.

The situation brings to mind the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 which did not become a high-profile issue tied to Russia 2018.

Brand exposure is just too tempting for sponsors to ignore. FIFA President Gianni Infantino from Italy says that about five billion people are expected to watch the month-long extravaganza, exceeding the four billion who watched FIFA Russia 2018. Five billion pairs of eyes to which one’s product is exposed, is nothing to sneeze at.

It is not surprising therefore that despite some of the alleged serious ethical and moral issues involved, very few companies have terminated their relationship with Qatar 2022, for the main reason that these companies are dealing with FIFA and not the host country. In fact, FIFA points out that very few of its 200 members “have issues of what’s taking place in Qatar.”

Other companies have, however, taken a slightly different position: ING, the giant Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation, will downscale or water down its promotions of the Netherlands team.

Qatar 2022 brings to mind the LIV golf dispute which brings to front and center human rights and other issues against the main financial backer of LIV, the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Hereabouts, we have practically the same ethical issues with respect to support for sports and so-called sportsmen or athletes. Athletes or groups engulfed in integrity, moral and accountability issues are protected by business interests which have invested in these so-called winners and are willing to change and revise the narrative to bail out these same characters. Walls are built by politicians and PR groups, even to the point of changing the narrative or content in community-built, free, open, online encyclopedias.

 

Philip Ella Juico’s areas of interest include the protection and promotion of democracy, free markets, sustainable development, social responsibility and sports as a tool for social development. He obtained his doctorate in business at De La Salle University. Dr. Juico served as secretary of Agrarian Reform during the Corazon C. Aquino administration.

Navel exercises

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YOU MAY BE quietly sipping coffee at a terrace cafe in Baguio, reading about safe spaces in the workplace on your phone when something distracts you. A female in her twenties passes by wearing a bare midriff outfit under her open jacket. Why is she trying to keep warm with an exposed navel? Not exactly a question Marcus Aurelius grappled with. But there it is.

Do males also wear bare mid-riff attire outdoors? Yes. Usually outside vulcanizing shops and cockpits, using sleeveless T-shirts with the bottom rolled up to just below the chest (or man-boobs). The exposed middle consists of a bulging stomach, with the navel hardly visible, like Winnie the Pooh, but with shorts. This bare-stomach version of male accoutrement is intended to balance the rather short item on the female counterpart. The latter is definitely more charming.

Why does the bellybutton deserve serious attention?

Considering that the navel marks the spot where the umbilical cord, the link to the start of life in the mother’s womb, has been cut, it is curious to note how navels as metaphors for life forces are largely ignored in favor of other anatomical parts.

Here are some examples where navels don’t make the grade in ordinary conversations.

When an idea or fleeting memory is momentarily unavailable prior to its expression, it’s considered to be “at the tip of the tongue,” not itching to get out of the navel.

Nobody says — I’m up to my “navel” in problems. It’s the “neck” that takes that spot. Presumably, the imagery is of a person drowning in a crisis with the head barely above water.

What about mixing with the right crowd? It’s not about rubbing “navels” but “elbows.” The former expression may connote a different kind of relationship, a rather awkward violation of social distancing. So, in this form of social bonding, the navels get elbowed out.

In describing constant partners showing up together on every occasion, the middle region of the body just misses the navel. The pair is described as “joined at the hip.” Close enough, but not quite there.

However, our own literary giant, Nick Joaquin, featured the knotted cavity in the middle of our bodies in the title of his novel, The Woman Who Had Two Navels. This was mainly symbolic and referred to one character’s attachment to two cultures, a metaphor for our country and its confused sets of values.

In business expressions, there is a hint of some navel exercises. For the due diligence required in evaluating a company for a merger or acquisition, the target is required to provide full disclosure, and “open its kimono.” Clearly, the baring of facts and figures here includes the financial navel, though not specified in the phraseology. This opening up also implies a rule of looking but not touching. And once the kimono is opened, there is an explicit intention to buy, as Elon Musk was to find out after opening that social media kimono and having second thoughts.

More to the umbilical point, a business term of disdain refers to “navel gazing.” (This has nothing to do with a beach activity.) The phrase is defined in the business dictionary as “self-indulgent or excessive contemplation of oneself at the expense of a wider business view.” More than an equivalent of “seeing the trees and missing the forest,” the navel gazer adds a bit of self-regard — I enjoy the perks of this office. So, someone who is absent in a crisis or loves to use the company plane even in personal trips would be classified as a navel-gazer.

There is another philosophical side to the navel as the object of attention.

Navel-gazing does have a more positive significance. It is a form of meditation, where the world stops and one contemplates life in solitude, gazing at his own navel. Before this was a Zen practice, it was attributed to the philosophical Greeks. Navel-gazing (or omphaloskepsis) refers to contemplation of this umbilical port to shut out the outside world and meditate. No details are given on the proper attire for this activity, except perhaps that it needs to expose the object of attention.

You get ready to meditate and shut out distractions. You take the lotus position, bow your head, and focus on the navel. It’s there… even if you don’t see it.

 

Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

Ukraine promises shelters for its people as harsh winter sets in

STOCK PHOTO | Image by Joe from Pixabay

KYIV — Ukraine‘s government promised to create shelters to provide heat and water and encouraged citizens to conserve energy as a harsh winter loomed amid relentless Russian strikes that have left its power structure in tatters.

Special “invincibility centers” will be set up around Ukraine to provide electricity, heat, water, internet, mobile phone connections and a pharmacy, free of charge and around the clock, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Tuesday.

Russian attacks have knocked out power for long periods for up to 10 million consumers at a time. Ukraine‘s national power grid operator said on Tuesday the damage had been colossal.

“If massive Russian strikes happen again and it’s clear power will not be restored for hours, the ‘invincibility centers’ will go into action with all key services,” Mr. Zelenskiy said.

Ukraine‘s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said this week that some 8,500 power generator sets are being imported to Ukraine daily.

The first snow of the winter has fallen in much of the country over the past week.

Authorities have warned of power cuts that could affect millions of people to the end of March – the latest impact from Russia’s nine-month invasion that has already killed tens of thousands, uprooted millions and pummeled the global economy.

Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities follow a series of battlefield setbacks that have included a retreat of its forces from the southern city of Kherson to the east bank of the Dnipro River that bisects the country.

A week after being retaken by Ukrainian forces, residents in Kherson were tearing down Russian propaganda billboards and replacing them with pro-Ukrainian signs.

“The moment our soldiers entered, these posters were printed and handed over to us. We found workers to install the posters, and we clean up the advertisement off as quickly as possible,” said Antonina Dobrozhenska, who works at the government’s communications department.

Russian missiles hit a maternity hospital in the Zaporizhzhia region killing a baby, regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said on the Telegram messaging service.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the report. Russia denies targeting civilians.

Battles raged in the east, where Russia is pressing an offensive along a stretch of front line west of the city of Donetsk, which has been held by its proxies since 2014. The Donetsk region was the scene of fierce attacks and constant shelling over the past 24 hours, Mr. Zelenskiy said.

In Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Russian air defenses were activated and two drone attacks were repelled on Tuesday, including one targeting a power station near Sevastopol, the regional governor said. Sevastopol is the home port of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

Russian-installed Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev called for calm and said no damage had been caused.

‘STOCK UP ON WARM CLOTHES’
The World Health Organization warned this week that hundreds of Ukrainian hospitals and healthcare facilities lacked fuel, water and electricity.

“Ukraine‘s health system is facing its darkest days in the war so far. Having endured more than 700 attacks, it is now also a victim of the energy crisis,” Hans Kluge, the WHO regional director for Europe, said in a statement after visiting Ukraine.

Sergey Kovalenko, the head of YASNO, which provides energy for Kyiv, advised citizens to “stock up on warm clothes, blankets … think about options that will help you get through a long outage.”

Russia’s strikes on energy infrastructure are a consequence of Kyiv being unwilling to negotiate, Russia’s state news agency TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying last week.

Russia says it is carrying out a “special military operation” to rid Ukraine of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities.

Ukraine and the West describe Russia’s actions as an unprovoked, imperialist land grab in the neighboring state it once dominated within the former Soviet Union.

Western responses have included financial and military aid for Kyiv – it received 2.5 billion euros ($2.57 billion) from the EU on Tuesday and is expecting $4.5 billion in US aid in coming weeks – and waves of sanctions on Russia.

The West has also sought to cap Russian energy export prices, with the aim of reducing the petroleum revenues that fund Moscow’s war machine while maintaining flows of oil to global markets to prevent price spikes.

The Group of Seven nations should soon announce the price cap and will probably adjust the level a few times a year, a senior US Treasury official said on Tuesday. — Reuters

Malaysia’s wait for PM continues for fourth day on election crisis

KUALA LUMPUR — The wait for a new Malaysian prime minister (PM) entered its fourth day on Wednesday, after the leading two contenders failed to secure enough support for a majority and break a hung parliament after last weekend’s election.

Malaysia’s king will pick the new premier, after opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and former premier Muhyiddin Yassin missed his Tuesday afternoon deadline to put together an alliance with other parties to form a government.

The fallout from Saturday’s election prolongs political instability in the Southeast Asian nation, which has had three prime ministers in as many years, and risks delays to policy decisions needed to spur an economic recovery.

King Al-Sultan Abdullah is expected to meet with lawmakers from the incumbent Barisan Nasional coalition individually from 10:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday to help him determine who will be prime minister.

The constitutional monarch plays a largely ceremonial role but can appoint a premier he believes will command a majority in parliament.

Mr. Anwar’s coalition won the most seats in the Saturday election with 82, while Mr. Muhyiddin’s bloc won 73. They need 112 — a simple majority — to form a government.

Barisan won only 30 seats — its worst electoral performance since independence in 1957 — but support from its lawmakers will be crucial for both Mr. Anwar and Mr. Muhyiddin to get to 112. Barisan said it would not align with either coalition on Tuesday.

Mr. Muhyiddin said he had declined the King’s suggestion for the two rivals to work together to form a “unity government.” Mr. Muhyiddin runs a Malay Muslim conservative alliance, while Mr. Anwar runs a multiethnic coalition.

Mr. Muhyiddin’s bloc includes an Islamist party whose electoral gains have raised fears in Malaysia, which has significant ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indian minorities following other faiths. It has also spooked investors amid worries over the Islamist party’s potential impact on national policies. 

Malaysian police this week cautioned the country’s social media users to refrain from posting “provocative” content on race and religion after the divisive election. — Reuters

Fauci pleads with Americans to get COVID shot in final White House briefing

WASHINGTON — Anthony Fauci, the US health official celebrated and vilified as the face of the country’s COVID-19 pandemic response, used his final White House briefing on Tuesday to denounce division and promote vaccines.

Fauci, who plans to retire soon as President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser and top US infectious disease official, has dealt with the thorny questions around health crises from HIV/AIDS to avian flu and Ebola.

But it was his handling of COVID — and his blunt assessments from the White House podium that Americans needed to change their behavior in light of the pandemic — that made him a hero to public health advocates while serving under former President Donald Trump, a villain to some on the right and an unusual celebrity among bureaucratic officials used to toiling in obscurity. Fauci has regularly been subjected to death threats for his efforts.

True to form, Fauci used his final press briefing to strongly encourage Americans to get COVID vaccines and booster shots, and touted the effectiveness of masks, all of which became partisan totems in the United States.

The United States leads the world in recorded COVID-19 deaths with more than one million.

After 13 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines given worldwide, Fauci said, there is “clearly an extensive body of information” that indicates that they are safe.

“When I see people in this country because of the divisiveness in our country… not getting vaccinated for reasons that have nothing to do with public health, but have to do because of divisiveness and ideological differences, as a physician, it pains me,” Fauci said.

“I don’t want to see anybody hospitalized, and I don’t want to see anybody die from COVID. Whether you’re a far-right Republican or a far-left Democrat doesn’t make any difference to me.”

WHOM TO TRUST
White House COVID response coordinator Ashish Jha, who joined Fauci at the podium, said the administration is trying to promote physicians as sources of information about the pandemic rather than uninformed voices.

“You can decide to trust America’s physicians, or you can trust some random dude on Twitter,” said Jha.

“For journalists and for people who run platforms, what I would say is, you should be thinking about what your personal responsibility is. And do you want to be a source of misinformation and disinformation? That’s up to up to those individuals,” Jha said.

Fauci is stepping down in December after 54 years of public service. The 81-year-old has headed the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, since 1984.

The veteran immunologist has served as an adviser to seven US presidents beginning with Republican Ronald Reagan. He made his first appearance at the White House press briefing in 2001, according to the broadcaster C-SPAN.

In the first months of the pandemic in 2020, Fauci helped lead scientific efforts to develop and test COVID-19 vaccines in record time.

He became a popular and trusted figure among many Americans as the United States faced lockdowns and rising numbers of COVID-19 deaths, even inspiring the sale of cookies and bobblehead dolls featuring his likeness.

However, Fauci drew the ire of Trump and many Republicans for cautioning against reopening the US economy too quickly and risking increased infections, and for opposing the use of unproven or ineffective treatments such as the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine promoted by some on the right.

Democrats accused Trump of presiding over a disjointed response to the pandemic and of disregarding advice from public health experts including Fauci. Trump in October 2020, weeks before his reelection loss, called Fauci “a disaster” and complained that Americans were tired of hearing about the pandemic.

Republican lawmakers including fierce critic Senator Rand Paul, with whom Fauci tangled during Senate hearings, have vowed to investigate him.

On Tuesday, Fauci said he “will absolutely cooperate fully” in any congressional oversight hearings launched by Republicans next year, when they take control of the House of Representatives after November’s elections. — Reuters

Traumatised relatives await news of missing in quake-hit Indonesia

CIANJUR, Indonesia — Traumatized relatives awaited news on Wednesday of the fate of loved ones missing after an earthquake shattered a town in Indonesia’s West Java on Monday, with more heavy machinery deployed to clear landslides that have buried villages.

The death toll from Monday’s 5.6-magnitude quake in Cianjur has continued to rise as the full extent of the disaster has emerged. Authorities said 268 were now confirmed dead, up from about 160 on Tuesday, and more than 150 were missing.

Recovery efforts on Wednesday would focus on one of Cianjur’s worst-hit districts, Cugenang, where it is believed at least one village was buried by a landslide.

Footage from the area shows residents digging in brown earth with their bare hands, or using hoes, sticks, crowbars and other tools.

“If it was just an earthquake, only the houses would collapse, but this is worse because of the landslide,” said Zainuddin, who was searching for six missing relatives.

“In this residential area there were eight houses, all of which were buried and swept away.”

More than 1,000 police officers have been deployed to bolster search and rescue teams.

Indonesia is one of the most earthquake-prone nations on earth and regularly records stronger offshore earthquakes. But Monday’s 5.6-magnitude quake was particularly deadly as it struck in a densely populated area at a shallow depth of just 10 km (6 miles).

Officials also said poor building standards led to many deaths.

During a visit on Tuesday to Cianjur, about 75 km south of the capital Jakarta, President Joko Widodo called for reconstruction efforts to include earthquake-proof housing.

There was an urgent need to ensure surgery could take place immediately as hospitals had limited capacity due to damage from the earthquake, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said.

“My priority is no more deaths,” he said during a visit to the disaster zone.

“The first priority is to make sure that badly injured patients are being taken care of so they can survive.” — Reuters

Drugmakers Teva, Sandoz make major push in production of biosimilars

GENERIC drug makers Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Sandoz say they are planning a significant ramp-up in production of biosimilars — copies of high-priced drugs used to treat illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis and cancer — aiming to increase their share of an expanding market.

More than 55 brand-name blockbuster biologic drugs, each with peak annual sales above $1 billion, are due to come off patent by the end of the decade, according to industry estimates.

Executives from Teva and Sandoz said they are targeting top-selling biologics such as Humira, AbbVie, Inc.’s top-selling arthritis drug, which came off-patent in Europe and is due to come off-patent in the US next year. But both companies face commercial and regulatory challenges, especially in the US, where biosimilars have not resulted in dramatically lower prices for consumers.

Biologics are complex molecules cultivated inside living cells, making it impossible to manufacture exact copies, as is the case with conventional pharmaceuticals made from chemical compounds.

Use of brand-name biologics typically account for an outsize proportion of drug spending in wealthier countries.

One of the biggest makers of generic drugs, Israeli-based Teva said it aims eventually to secure a 10% global market share of biosimilars. The company has been grappling with a heavy debt load since a 2016 acquisition and lawsuits arising from the US opioid epidemic.

Teva currently has three approved biosimilars and 13 in development.

“We are going full blast now,” Teva Chief Executive Kåre Schultz said in an interview with Reuters.

He said the company was targeting “80% of what’s going off-patent in the next 10 years” including big sellers like the cancer drug Keytruda.

A division of Novartis, Sandoz is currently the second biggest player after Pfizer, Inc. in the biosimilar market by gross sales globally, per IQVIA data, cited by Sandoz. (Amgen is in third place).

Sandoz has launched eight biosimilar drugs.

“We now have over 15 products in development, and in the next five years we would like to double the value of our marketed portfolio,” chief scientific officer Claire D’Abreu-Hayling told Reuters, adding that the biologics they intend to target are “really obvious opportunities”.

BLOCKBUSTERS COMING OFF PATENT
Novartis plans to spin off its Sandoz generics business in 2023. The Swiss drugmaker said the unit failed to attract a serious buyer earlier this year as it considered options for the unit’s future.

The more than 55 blockbuster biologics coming off patent protection in the United States and Europe over the next decade account for more than $270 billion in expected peak annual sales, according to a McKinsey analysis.

The analysis projected the value of the global biosimilar market could more than triple to an estimated $74 billion by 2030.

Next year could bring a test case in the US market, with the anticipated launch of at least six biosimilars for Humira, which brings in about $15 billion to $20 billion in annual sales and is approved for autoimmune conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and Crohn’s disease.

Sandoz and Teva are both working on biosimilars for Humira.

But the crowded field raises a tough question: Should the companies target the biggest selling biologics such as Humira, or aim for smaller brands that will likely attract fewer players, said Barclays pharmaceuticals analyst Emily Field.

Teva aims to ensure it is one of the first three biosimilars on the market for any given biologic, according to Sven Dethlefs, executive VP, North America commercial. He said the company intended to kick off multiple biosimilar development programs but would halt production if it could not make the top three.

While going after Humira, Sandoz is also targeting drugs like Biogen’s multiple sclerosis medicine Tysabri, which is used in a much smaller patient population. The company believes no other biosimilar is being actively developed for Tysabri, said Chief Operating Officer Pierre Bourdage.

A typical biosimilar costs $100 million to $300 million to develop and between six to nine years to win approval, according to McKinsey. About half of efforts launched across the US, European, and Japanese markets fail at the earliest stages, the report found. 

Generics, which can be priced as much as 80% to 90% less than branded pills, barely cost a few million to develop.

Biosimilars are viewed as “better than traditional generics, but nowhere near as good as branded pharma,” Emily Field said.

Commercial prospects will also depend on the regulatory environment. While more than 50 biosimilars have been introduced into the European market, the United States has taken longer to set up a regulatory pathway for biosimilars.

European regulators consider all approved biosimilars on par with the original biologic, which has helped boost uptake. Biosimilars have taken the majority of market share from brand-name biologics in Europe and resulted in savings between 75% to 90% off the reference product prices, according to a 2021 report by Duke University’s Margolis Center for Health Policy.

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved 39 biosimilars and 22 products have been launched as of October, according to an Amgen analysis.

The FDA typically expects additional trial data before designating a biosimilar as “interchangeable” with the original biologic, which would allow it to be automatically replaced with a biosimilar at the pharmacy counter.

In a note last month, SVB Securities analysts predicted most US payers will likely stick with branded Humira next year, but seriously consider switching patients to interchangeable biosimilars by 2024.

Biosimilars launched in the US have only taken about 20% of the volume share of the biologics they are based on, according to the Duke Report, with knockoffs delivering discounts of about 30% to 40%.

Patent-focused court battles have stymied some launches of biosimilars. Aggressive pricing strategies from branded drug companies also helped neutralize the limited discounts initially offered by biosimilar makers. — Reuters

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