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US anti-Covid supplies to reach India soon

The US will also send India anti-COVID supplies like test kits, ventilators, medications and personal protective equipment used by frontline workers…reports Arul Louis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8zpu3gGDgE

In a break from the America First policy, President Joe Biden’s administration is “working round the clock” to immediately send India raw material needed for making Covishield and other products needed in the fight against the COVID-19 surge overtaking the nation, according to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Recalling the assistance sent by India to the US in the early phase of the pandemic last year, he told India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in a phone call on Sunday that “the United States is working around the clock to deploy available resources and supplies”, Sullivan’s Spokesperson Emily Horne said.

Sullivan told Doval that Washington “also is pursuing options to provide oxygen generation and related supplies on an urgent basis,” she said in a readout of their conversation.

The US will also send India anti-COVID supplies like test kits, ventilators, medications and personal protective equipment used by frontline workers.

The National Defence Production Act invoked by former President Donald Trump banned the export of vaccine raw materials and some other COVID-related products and have continued under Biden.

The decision to lift the embargo for India on the export of vaccine raw materials comes after nearly two weeks of requests from Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of vaccine-maker Serum Institute of India, and others in India.

Also read:Nepal seeks India’s medical assistance to fight virus

But as recently as Friday various US government spokespersons would not say if the Biden administration would lift the embargo.

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday that the “first obligation” was to the American people and added, “It’s in the interests of the rest of the world to see Americans vaccinated”.

But as calls grew for helping India, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken gave a hint on Saturday that India may get the material to fight the pandemic surge.

Media statement(Twitter)

He tweeted, “We are working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and we will rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and India’s health care heroes.”

Horne said in the readout, “Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, the United States is determined to help India in its time of need.”

After some physicians had said that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) could be a treatment for COVID-19, last April Trump had personally asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lift his ban on its exports and supply the drug to the US.

Also read:US ‘working closely’ with India, but no response on export embargo

India sent about 50 million doses of HCQ to the US and thanking Modi, Trump said, “We will remember it.”

Now the next president’s administration is remembering it, even though the emergency use authorisation for HCQ’s in hospital settings in the US was withdrawn and a huge cache of it sits unused while Modi’s decision was crticised in India.

Covidshield

India has been sharing its vaccine production with countries around the world, sending nearly 65 million doses to 86 countries.

Horne said, “Sullivan affirmed America’s solidarity with India, the two countries with the greatest number of COVID-19 cases in the world” and they both “resolved that India and the United States will continue to fight the global COVID-19 pandemic together.”

The readout, listing what India will receive, said, “The United States has identified sources of specific raw material urgently required for Indian manufacture of the Covishield vaccine that will immediately be made available for India. To help treat COVID-19 patients and protect front-line health workers in India, the United States has identified supplies of therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators, and personal protective equipment (PPE) that will immediately be made available for India.”

The US is also deploying an expert team of public health advisors from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and USAID to work with the embassy in Delhi, India’s Health Ministry, and India’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, the readout said.

USAID, which is the international assistance arm of the US, “will also quickly work with CDC to support and fast-track the mobilization of emergency resources available to India through the Global Fund,” it said. The Global Fund is an international collaboration to fight epidemics and serious diseases.

Looking ahead, the readout said, “The U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is funding a substantial expansion of manufacturing capability for BioE (Biological E), the vaccine manufacturer in India, enabling BioE to ramp up to produce at least one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022.”

Also read:India, US join hands on climate

Biological E, a Hyderabad-based company, is set to conduct Phase 3 trials for a vaccine developed by Baylor University and Dynavax Technologies Corporation in the US.

At the March summit of Quad, Biden and Modi, along with Prime Ministers Yoshihide Suga of Japan and Scott Morrison of Australia agreed on a joint plan to help other countries with vaccines that would be made in India with US and Japanese finance and distributed using Australian logistics.

Democratic members of the House of Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi and Ro Khanna asked Biden to open the spigot on the excess vaccines for India, but from the readout of the Sullivan-Doval meeting it did not appear that as yet there was an agreement on the vaccines.

Krishnamoorthi pointed out that the US had about 40 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is distributed in India under the Covishield brand name, and had begun supplying some of it to Canada and the US.

He said that he would “strongly call on the Biden Administration to release millions of AstraZeneca vaccine doses to countries hardest-hit by the spread of COVID-19, including India, Argentina, and potentially others.”

“I applaud the Biden Administration’s decision to put people over profits,” Khanna said welcoming the decision to give India the raw materials and other supplies, and added, “The Biden Administration can still do more, like give India our stockpile of AstraZeneca vaccines that won’t be used in the US.”

Biden’s chief adviser on the COVID-19 pandemic, Anthony Fauci, said on a TV programme on Sunday that sending vaccines to India was under consideration.

Also read:Pause on J&J Covid-19 vaccine lifted

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-Top News India News USA

Biden admin urged to support Covid hit India

US President Joe Biden

US is working closely with its partners in the Indian government and will rapidly deploy additional support to the people and health care heroes in India,said Blinken…reports Asian Lite News

USSecretary of StateAntony Blinken on Saturday said that US is working closely with its partners in the Indian government to deploy more supplies and additional support amid the record upsurge in COVID-19 infections in the country.

Taking to Twitter, Blinken said that the US is working closely with its partners in the Indian government and will rapidly deploy additional support to the people and health care heroes in India.

“Our hearts go out to the Indian people in the midst of the horrific COVID-19 outbreak. We are working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and we will rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and India’s health care heroes,” he tweeted.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Meanwhile, US National Security Adviser (NSA) Jake Sullivan also expressed concern over the severe COVID-19 outbreak in India and said that the US is working ‘around the clock’ to deploy more supplies and support.

“The U.S. is deeply concerned by the severe COVID outbreak in India. We are working around the clock to deploy more supplies and support to our friends and partners in India as they bravely battle this pandemic. More very soon,” he tweeted.

Also read:India, US join hands on climate

Several US lawmakers have voiced their concerns and have heaped pressure on the Biden administration to extend assistance, release vaccines and other raw materials critical for India.

The US came under pressure after a handful of other big countries have blocked negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) involving a proposal spearheaded by India and South Africa which now has the support of 100 WTO members. The proposal would temporarily waive the IP rights of pharmaceutical companies to allow developing countries to produce vaccines.

A medical worker prepares a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Istanbul, Turkey

On Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders said it was also in the United States’ own interest to ensure as many people were vaccinated as quickly as possible, to limit the chance of virus mutations that could prompt further US lockdowns. But he also appealed to President Joe Biden’s desire to rebuild US credibility in the world.

Prominent democrat lawmaker Ed Markey, one of the first US lawmakers to extend his support towards India noted that the US has enough vaccine for Americans and they should not deny countries like India who need support.

Solidarity with India over the Covid rise

Lawmaker Haley Stevens made an appeal to the federal government and the international community to step in and stop the virus outbreak, while Congresswoman Rashida Tlabib pressed that Biden must support India in wake of the alarming COVID-19 situation.

A number of other countries have expressed solidarity with India over the drastic rise in coronavirus cases.

Afghanistan Ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay on Saturday expressed his solidarity with the people of India as the country is witnessing a record surge in COVID-19 numbers.

A view of LNJP Hospital after lockdown in National Capital in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases, in New Delhi On Friday, 23 April, 2021.(Photo:Qamar Sibtain/IANS)

“Afghanistan stands in solidarity with India in its fight against COVID-19. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the coronavirus pandemic. With a million new cases in the past 3 days alone, compassion, support and act of kindness are more important than ever,” Ambassador Mamundzay tweeted.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison have also expressed their support for India.

India on Saturday recorded 3,46,786 new COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike since the pandemic broke out last year. According to the official data issued by the government, the country recorded 2,624 new deaths due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

As of Saturday, 1,66,10,481 COVID-19 cases have been reported in India while 1,89,544 people have succumbed to the viral infection. There are 25,52,940 active cases of COVID-19 in the country. (ANI)

Also read:US ‘working closely’ with India, but no response on export embargo

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-Top News USA

Washington, D.C. the 51st US state?

H.R. 51, the Washington, DC Admission Act passed in the House in a party-line vote of 216-208 on Thursday…reports Asian Lite News

The US House voted to pass a bill that would make Washington, D.C. the nation’s 51st state, a Democratic priority that will face an uphill battle in the Senate for final passage even as the party controls both chambers of Congress.

H.R. 51, the Washington, DC Admission Act passed in the House in a party-line vote of 216-208 on Thursday. Its fate in the Senate, however, is almost certainly doomed, given that overwhelming Republican opposition will make it next to impossible for the measure to cross the 60-vote threshold for passage, Xinhua news agency reported.

The legislation was introduced by Eleanor Holmes Norton, the sole delegate representing the District in the House who, because the District is not a state, may draft legislation but has no voting right in the chamber. A member of the Democratic Party, Norton has long been an advocate for DC statehood.

The Democrats, thanks to whose majority in the House the bill was passed in the lower chamber last year, have framed the long unresolved and controversial issue from the perspective of equal representation and voting rights, arguing that the status of “taxation without representation” for the total of over 700,000 Washingtonians should end.

People wearing face masks visit the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C during covid 19 surge

“Taxation without representation” is on Washington license plates because residents pay taxes but are not represented with a vote in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted during a Wednesday news conference at which she wore a mask with the number “51” on it.

“Washingtonians … pay taxes, fight in our wars, contribute to the economic life of our country. But for centuries, they have been denied their right to representation,” the California Democrat said.

Republicans, who in the last Congress held a majority in the Senate, blocked the bill’s advance in the upper chamber last year by denying a vote on it. They have argued that the legislation mounts to a partisan effort by Democrats to pursue a progressive agenda and tip the scales in Congress in their favour.

Also read:Biden team adds 2 Indian-Americans

If it becomes the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth — as dubbed by the bill to commemorate Frederick Douglass, a 19th century American social reformer — Washington, DC, whose population is larger than that of Wyoming or Vermont, will have one voting representative in the House and two US senators.

“The Democrats’ DC statehood scheme is about two things: consolidating power and enacting radical policies,” House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy said Thursday on Twitter. “The American people see right through this blatant power grab.”

US President Joe Biden at the Oval Office in White House, Washington D.C., (Picture: @POTUS/Twitter)

The bill will leave places like the White House, the US Capitol, the Supreme Court and the National Mall out of the newly-created state, letting them remain as federal grounds and as the seat of the US government.
The bill has already got the backing of the administration of President Joe Biden, whom 92 per cent of DC voters voted for in the 2020 election, compared to just 5 per cent who voted for then-President Donald Trump.

Congress should “provide for a swift and orderly transition to statehood” for DC residents to have full voting representation in the House and Senate, the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement on Tuesday, formally offering the White House’s support for the Democrats’ long-shot bid.

Census Bureau data showed 46 per cent of the District’s residents are African Americans, potentially making the nation’s capital the first state with a plurality Black population. That’s why some advocates, including DC Mayor Muriel Bowser — herself a woman of colour — view the issue from the angle of racial justice and civil rights.

Noting that DC statehood has strong backing of the White House and that 45 senators have signed off on the legislation, Bowser in a tweet following the House vote urged “the 55 Senators who have not yet signed on in support of #DCStatehood to fulfill their responsibility to build a more perfect union.”

Also read:Biden to halve carbon emissions by 2030

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-Top News China USA

Bill against Chinese threat gets senate node

US CHINA FLAGS

The 21-1 panel vote sends The Strategic Competition Act to the floor for a full chamber vote. Senator Rand Paul cast the lone vote opposing the legislation…reports Asian Lite News

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday passed sweeping legislation to push back on China on a number of issues, including human rights and its gross economic practices.

The 21-1 panel vote sends The Strategic Competition Act to the floor for a full chamber vote. Senator Rand Paul (Republican from Kentucky) cast the lone vote opposing the legislation, as reported by The Hill.

“There has been no shortage of discussion in recent years about the need to reimagine our nation’s competitive posture towards China. There has, however, been a lack of results — until today. With this overwhelming bipartisan vote, the Strategic Competition Act becomes the first of what we hope will be a cascade of legislative activity for our nation to finally meet the China challenge across every dimension of power, political, diplomatic, economic, innovation, military and even cultural,” said Senator Bob Menendez the Foreign Relations chair, according to The Hill.

President Joe Biden (www.instagram.comwhitehouse)

“From the beginning, I have said that any China legislation needs to be strong, actionable, and truly bipartisan. I believe the package we passed out of committee today meets those criteria,” added Senator Jim Risch (from Idaho), the committee’s top Republican.

The Hill further reported that the bill would implement a slew of investments, including USD 655 million in Foreign Military Financing funding for the Indo-Pacific region and $450 million for the Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative. It also expands the powers of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which analyzes international financial transactions in an effort to pick up on any national security risks.

Also read:Australia annuls BRI deal with China

The legislation also designates $10 million for the State Department to promote democracy in Hong Kong and includes several measures to boost the defence capabilities of Taiwan — of which, China claims full sovereignty of.As per The Hill, the legislation’s passage comes as the relationship between Washington and Beijing grows increasingly strained. The US has lambasted China over cyber-attacks and intellectual property theft, human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang Province and crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

While lawmakers touted the bipartisan nature of the vote Wednesday but maintained the bill alone is insufficient to significantly alter China’s aggressive behaviour.

“I don’t believe anyone would think that this legislation is going to change China’s march toward a global hegemony of autocracy and repression,” said Senator Mitt Romney (Republican from Utah), adding “I would suggest we have a lot more work to do.”

The bill would mandate forcing Beijing to honour a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal that artificial islands China had built near the Philippine coastline, including at Mischief Reef, violated Manila’s sovereign rights.

Also read:The new US strategy to edge out China

Asked about the bipartisan legislation, State Department spokesman Ned Price earlier declined to comment specifically on the Menendez-Risch bill, but added: “We have spoken of competition with China as a defining challenge for this administration, that we will enjoy the greatest amount of success when we work hand in hand with Congress, and when our proposals, find support on both sides of the aisle.”

“We have been heartened that there is a good deal of bipartisan agreement when it comes to how we should and could approach the government in Beijing,” he said.

Under the former President Donald Trump’s administration, ties between the two countries had deteriorated over issues such as human rights violations in Xinjiang, encroachment on the special status of Hong Kong, accusations of unfair trade practices by Beijing, lack of transparency concerning the pandemic and China’s military aggression in various parts of the world.

Also read:Canada busts int’l drug racket with links to India, US

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-Top News USA

Vanita Gupta confirmed as Associate Attorney-General

The civil rights lawyer won with the help of a breakaway Republican Senator overcoming stiff opposition from her fellow party members, reports Arul Louis.

Indian-American civil rights lawyer Vanita Gupta has been confirmed as the US Associate Attorney-General with the help of a breakaway Republican Senator overcoming stiff opposition from her fellow party members who accused the nominee of espousing “radical” policies.
Senator Lisa Murkowski gave her the crucial vote on Wednesday in the 100-member Senate, which is evenly divided between the Republican and Democratic parties, to assume the third-highest position in the Justice Department.

US President Joe Biden

Gupta is a legendary figure in the US civil rights movement having as a newly-minted lawyer won the release of 38 people, most of them African-Americans, who had been wrongly convicted by all-White juries on drug charges in a Texas town and also got them $6 million in compensation.
She went on to become the Principal Deputy Associate Attorney-General and head of the Civil Rights Division during former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Gupta overcame a campaign against her estimated to have run close to a million dollars by conservative and right-wing groups portraying as a “radical” who was against law enforcement.

But she also received the support of other conservative Republicans and law enforcement groups.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, which has to give preliminary approval for Gupta’s confirmation, was deadlocked on her nomination for more than a month and the Senate bypassed it.
Gupta was the second Indian-American nominee of President Joe Biden to run into difficulties in the Senate, which must approve all senior appointments, because of previous policy stances as well as divisive tweets.
Neera Tandon, who was nominated to the important cabinet position of the director of the Office of Management and Budget, withdrew herself from consideration after it became clear that she would face opposition from Democrats in addition to all the 50 Republicans making her confirmation impossible.
But Gupta was able to keep the support of all the Democrats and get one crucial Republican vote in the full Senate.


Vice President Kamala Harris was ready to cast a tie-breaking vote as the Senate president if the votes had been split 50-50.
Murkowsi, who represents Alaska, said that Gupta “has demonstrated throughout her professional career to be deeply, deeply committed to matters of justice.”
Democratic Party Senator Leader Chuck Schumer said: “Not only is Gupta the first woman of colour to ever be nominated to the position, she is the first civil rights attorney ever to be nominated to the position.”
But Republican Party Senate Leader Mitch McConnell called her “way outside the mainstream” and “an activist for left-wing causes” who had attacked Senators.
Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, Gupta had apologized for some of her tweets saying that she had “fallen prey” to “the rhetoric (that) has gotten quite harsh over the last several years”.
The campaign against her was spearheaded by the right-wing Judicial Crisis Network which launched an ad campaign accusing her of being soft on crime.

Five Republican Attorneys-General circulated a petition against her confirmation.
Defending Democracy Together (DDT), an organisation of conservatives who had opposed former President Donald Trump, countered with a campaign supporting Gupta, saying that she “has been building bridges across partisan divides, she has the broad backing of law enforcement”.
Three groups of law enforcement officials, Fraternal Order of Police, Major County Sheriffs of America and Federal Law Enforcement Officials Association, also supported her.

Also Read-Indian American nominated as DOL solicitor

Read More-Biden may pick Vanita Gupta as Associate AG

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-Top News Canada

Canada busts int’l drug racket with links to India, US

Twenty-five of those arrested are Punjabi men from the Indian-dominated city of Brampton on the outskirts of Toronto…reports Asian Lite News.

An Indo-Canadian drug racket with links to the US and India has been busted with the arrest of 33 persons, who were charged with over 130 criminal offences, officials said.

Ten kg of cocaine, 8 kg of ketamine, 3 kg of heroin, 2.5 kg of opium, 48 firearms and $730,000 in Canadian currency have been seized under the ‘Operation Cheetah’.

Among the 33, 27 were arrested and charged in the Greater Toronto Area, with 19 of them hailing from the town of Brampton. Of these, 23 are of Punjabi origin. One suspect, Gurbinder Sooch, remains at large.

The arrests and drug seizure come after the year-long ‘Operation Cheetah’ culminated in raids last week, which were carried out by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the US Drug Enforcement Administration and regional police forces in Ontario, British Columbia and California, resulting in the arrest of 33 people.

Twenty-five of those arrested are Punjabi men from the Indian-dominated city of Brampton on the outskirts of Toronto.

They have been identified as Parshotem Malhi, 54, Rupinder Dhillion, 37, Sanveer Singh, 25, Haripal Nagra, 45, Pritpal Singh, 56, Harkiran Singh, 33, Lakhpreet Brar, 29, Balwinder Dhaliwal, 60, Sukhmanpreet Singh, 23, Khushal Bhinder, 36, Prabhjeet Mundian, 34, Vansh Arora, 24, Simranjeet Narang, 28, Gaganpreet Gill, 28, Sukjit Dhaliwal, 47, Harjot Singh, 31, and Sukhjit Dhugga, 35.

Gurbinder Sooch, 41, with no fixed address, has also been arrested.

These men smuggled cocaine, ketamine, heroin and opium into Canada and distributed them through their underground network.

They face various criminal offences, including conspiracies to import banned substances, drug smuggling, and possession of property obtained by crime.

The York Regional Police said that some of the drugs were found at “kids indoor playground”.

Officers seized drugs valued at approximately $2.3 million and including 10 kg of cocaine, 8 kg of ketamine, 3 kg of heroin and 2.5 kg of opium. Investigators also seized 48 firearms and $730,000 in Canadian currency. Most of the weapons were seized from Caledon. Police say the guns were lawfully possessed by a person who now faces charges.

Cocaine and other drugs smuggled into Canada come from California and are brought in by the truckers. A few months back, a Punjabi trucker named Amanpreet Sandhu from Calgary was arrested while smuggling drugs worth over $28 million – a record in Canada.
India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had shared vital inputs with Canada and the US in the last two years over the racket being run from Canadian soil. The Indian agencies had, in different operations in the last three years, found drugs were transported to Canada from Punjab in vessels, electronic machines and even in holy books.

In one case, the NCB had traced smuggling of cocaine to Punjab from Canada for local use as well as further trafficking to Delhi and Goa. Sources said that the follow-up probe would lead to the arrest of a number of international smugglers based out of Canada, Italy and Australia who were wanted by security agencies in India.

Also Read-Covid variants drive new surge in Canada

Read More-Lockdown only the last resort: Modi

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-Top News COVID-19 USA

US curbs risk Indian vaccine production

American export controls on raw materials and equipment could stop India’s vaccine production in the coming months unless America supplies 37 critical items, reports Asian Lite News.

Production lines in India, making at least 160 million doses of Covid vaccine a month, will come to a halt in the coming weeks unless America supplies 37 critical items.

A report in The Economist said last week, the billionth dose of Covid-19 vaccine was produced.

It is a sign of how greatly manufacturing capacity has expanded over the past six months that the next billion doses could be produced by May 27, according to Airfinity, an analytics firm.

“Yet this ambition is at risk from American export controls on raw materials and equipment. Production lines in India, making at least 160 million doses of Covid vaccine a month, will come to a halt in the coming weeks unless America supplies 37 critical items,” the report said.

Earlier, the world’s largest vaccine maker, Serum Institute of India’s (SII) Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla on Friday appealed to US President Joe Biden to lift the US embargo on exporting raw materials for Covid-19 vaccine production.

SII is manufacturing Covishield, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. The vaccine is not only being used in India but also exported to a number of countries.

Tagging the Twitter handle of the President of the United States, Poonawalla wrote, “Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the US, I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the US so that vaccine production can ramp up.”

With the number of new Covid-19 cases nearly doubling over the past two months, approaching the highest infection rate the world has seen during the pandemic, the unequal distribution of vaccines is not only a moral outrage, but economically and epidemiologically self-defeating, the head of the UN health agency told a special ministerial meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on Friday.

“Vaccine equity is the challenge of our time,” World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the gathering in his opening remarks. “And we are failing.”

Driving that point home, he said that of the 832 million vaccine doses administered, 82 per cent have gone to high or upper middle-income countries, while only 0.2 per cent have been sent to their low-income peers. In high-income countries alone, one in four people have received a vaccine, a ratio that drops precipitously to 1 in 500 in poorer countries.

Rapidly spreading variants, the inconsistent use and premature easing of public health measures, fatigue with social restrictions and the “dramatic” inequity in vaccine coverage; all have led to an alarming spike in new cases and deaths, he said.

The WHO chief called on countries with enough vaccines to cover their populations “many times over” to make immediate donations to COVAX.

In March, the WHO called on all countries to drop restrictions on the export of vaccines and vital components, as a rush for Covid-19 jabs puts pressure on global supply, Irish Times reported.

Several countries around the world have imposed bans or restrictions on exports of doses and key vaccine ingredients amid a scramble for stock, causing logjams in complex international pharmaceutical supply chains that could slow progress to end the pandemic, the global health body warned, as per the report.

“Some countries have imposed legal restrictions on the export of critical supplies. This is putting lives at risk around the world. We call on all countries not to stockpile supplies that are needed urgently to ramp up production of vaccines,” the WHO chief said.

Also Read-Biden team adds 2 Indian-Americans

Read More-Ramp up vax program: Manmohan writes to Modi

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-Top News Crime USA

Four Sikhs killed in US shooting

President Joe Biden ordered the national flag to be flown at half-mast at all government facilities and US embassies abroad, reports Arul Louis

At least four Sikhs have been killed in a mass shooting at a FedEx company facility in Indianapolis by a 19-year-old former employee, according to the Sikh Coalition.

Officials, who said that a “significant” number of employees at the parcel and courier service company are Sikhs, reported that the gunman killed himself after murdering eight people Thursday night and wounding at least seven, five of whom were hospitalised.

They did not identify the victims as of Friday evening, but the Sikh Coalition said, “We are sad to confirm that at least four of those killed in Thursday night’s attacks are members of the Indianapolis Sikh community.”

It added, “We are in touch with sangat leaders, government and law enforcement officials” and “we expect that the authorities will conduct a full investigation — including the possibility of a bias factor.”

WXIN-TV station quoted Parminder Singh, the uncle of one of the victims, as saying that his niece who worked at the facility near the airport phoned him shortly after the shooting and told him that she was shot while in her car and was being taken to the hospital.

Indiana Police Chief Randal Taylor said that a “significant” number of the FedEx workers at the facility are Sikhs.

Also Read – Biden to curb US gun violence epidemic

President Joe Biden ordered the national flag to be flown at half-mast at all government facilities and US embassies abroad.

Police Deputy Chief Craig McCartt told reporters that shooter has been identified as Brian Hole, who had worked in the FedEx facility but left last year.

He said that Hole began shooting people in the parking lot of the major parcel and courier company facility killing four people, then entered the building and killed four others before apparently committing suicide before police got there.

“There was no confrontation, no disturbance, he just randomly started shooting,” he said.

McCartt said that Hole had previously come to the attention of police and in March last year a gun was seized from him.

The official in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Indianapolis office, Paul Keenan, said that he had been questioned by the agency after his mother had warned that he might try to commit suicide by provoking police to shoot him.

Hole’s step-sister told WXIN TV that he was “isolated” and “never got the help he needed.”

She told the station that there was a history of mental illness in the family and that their father had committed suicide in 2004.

McCartt said that he could not say what the motive for Hole’s rampage was.

Sikhs have for long been victims of bias attacks in US, often being mistaken for Muslims because of their turbans.

According to the FBI’s 2019 hate crime statistics — the latest available — there were 49 anti-Sikh attacks with 60 victims.

In 2012 a gunman attacked a gurdwara in Oak Creek in Wisconsin State killing seven Sikhs and wounding four.

The perpetrator, Wade Michael Page, an ex-serviceman described as a White supremacist, killed himself after being injured by police.

The Indianapolis police shooting is the latest in a series of mass shootings plaguing the US.

“Gun violence is an epidemic in America,” Biden said in a statement.

Also Read – US House passes two key gun bills

Just last month a White man killed eight people, six of them Asian women, at three massage parlours in Atlanta.

That was followed by the killing of ten people including a police officer by a Syrian immigrant in Boulder, Colorado State.

“What a cruel wait and fate that has become too normal and happens every day somewhere in our nation,” Biden said and urged Congress to “enact commonsense gun violence prevention legislation, like universal background checks and a ban of weapons of war and high-capacity magazines.”

There are no national laws governing gun ownership and regulations vary by states, with some allowing even high caliber automatic weapons with no checks on owners.

Efforts to regulate gun ownership has been stymied mainly by the Republican Party backed by the powerful National Rifle Association, an organisation of gun owners.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, 19,380 people were shot dead last year in the US, an increase of more than 25 per cent over the previous year’s deaths.

Japan’s Prime Minister, who is visiting the US said at the White House before a meeting with Biden, “I would like to express my condolences to the victims, and my sympathies to the families. Innocent citizens must not be exposed to any such violence.”

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-Top News USA

Biden team adds 2 Indian-Americans

According to the announcements,Radhika Fox Fox would become Assistant Administrator for Water, Environmental Protection Agency, while Joshi is being named as Administrator…reports Asian Lite News

US President Joe Biden has named Radhika Fox and Meera Joshi, two Indian-American women already working in his administration, to be part of a 10 member team to lead on climate and transportation matters across key agencies, the media reported.

According to a White House announcement on Wednesday, Fox would become Assistant Administrator for Water, Environmental Protection Agency, while Joshi is being named as Administrator, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Department of Transportation, reports The American Bazaar media outlet.

Appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on January 20, Fox currently serves as the Acting Assistant Administer for Water.

Radhika Fox(Twitter)

Prior to joining the EPA, Fox served as Chief Executive Officer for the US Water Alliance and had also directed the policy and government affairs agenda for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

Meanwhile Joshi had previously served as the Chair and CEO of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission.

At the nation’s largest for-hire transportation regulator, she led the ‘Vision Zero’ campaigns using data tools to keep high risk drivers and unsafe vehicles off the road.

She was also the Inspector General for New York City’s Department of Corrections.

Also read:Biden to meet Moon next month

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UN slams US anti-terrorism programme

The UN said that many of the people targeted by the program have had their due process rights denied, including the presumption of innocence and fair trial…reports Asian Lite News

A group of UN experts have said that the US’ anti-terrorism program “Rewards for Justice” is violating the human rights of some of the individuals it targets.

According to a joint statement by the experts on Wednesday, the program, operated by the US State Department, offers money for information about people outside the US who are designated by the US government as being associated with terrorism but have not been charged with any crimes.

The UN experts said that many of the people targeted by the program have had their due process rights denied, including the presumption of innocence and fair trial.

By offering money for information that can lead to the capture of these individuals, “the program encourages others to participate in the denial of these rights”, the experts argued.


The offers of money to foreign individuals alleged to be involved in terrorist activity comes with threats to impose sanctions if they don’t cooperate with the US government’s demands, the experts added.

The experts who signed Wednesday’s joint statement include Alena Douhan, UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, and a number of experts from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

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