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A30 world news
Diahuebs 8 september 2022

Putin and Xi to meet in Uzbekistan next week, official says

(AP) – Russian President democratic forces in Asia,
Vladimir Putin and Chi- Europe and beyond, mak-
nese President Xi Jinping ing a stand for authoritarian
plan to meet next week rule with tight borders and
in Uzbekistan, a Russian little regard for free speech,
official said Wednesday, minority rights or opposition
announcing a summit politics.
that could signal another
step in warming ties be- Each leader may also be hop-
tween two powers that ing to bolster his standing at
are increasingly facing off home with the meeting. For
against the West. Putin, it’s an opportunity to
show that he still has power-
The meeting at the Shanghai ful allies. For Xi, it could be a
Cooperation Organization — chance to be seen as standing
a political, economic and se- up to Western opposition to
curity forum that China and the Ukraine war and burnish
Russia dominate — comes at his nationalist credentials at a
delicate times for both lead- time when relations with the
ers. U.S. have grown increasingly
tense over trade, technology,
Putin is dealing with the eco- human rights issues and its
nomic and political fallout threats to attack Taiwan.
of his war in Ukraine that
has left Russia more isolated. Even though Moscow and
Xi, meanwhile, is also fac- Russian Ambassador to Chi- The visit to Uzbekistan, if it When asked about the trip, Beijing in the past rejected
ing a slowing economy as he na Andrei Denisov told re- goes ahead, would be part of Chinese Foreign Ministry the possibility of forging a
seeks a third five-year term porters that the two would Xi’s first foreign trip in 2½ spokesperson Mao Ning told military alliance, Putin has
as Communist Party leader. meet at the organization’s years. Xi has only left main- a daily briefing Wednesday: said that such a prospect can’t
While he’s expected to se- summit in the Uzbek city of land China once — to make “On your question, I have be ruled out. He also has not-
cure it, that would represent Samarkand on Sept. 15-16. a one-day visit to the semi- nothing to offer.” ed that Russia has been shar-
a break with precedent. Both “We are actively preparing autonomous city of Hong ing highly sensitive military
have seen their countries’ re- for it,” Denisov was quoted Kong — since the start of the Moscow and Beijing have in- technologies with China that
lations with the West deterio- by Russia’s state news agency COVID-19 outbreak in late creasingly aligned their for- helped significantly bolster
rate. Tass as saying. 2019. eign policies to oppose liberal its defense capability.

WHO: COVID cases drop everywhere, but pandemic not over

(AP) — The number of Health Organization’s The U.N. health agency re- virus will linger far into the
new coronavirus cases fell latest weekly review of the ported that there were just “This is very encouraging, future, partly because it is
everywhere in the world pandemic issued Wednes- under 4.2 million new in- but there is no guarantee getting better and better at
last week by about 12%, day. fections last week and about these trends will persist,” said getting around immunity
according to the World 13,700 deaths - a 5% drop. WHO from vaccination and past
infection. Experts point to
Director-General Tedros emerging research that sug-
Adhanom Ghebreyesus at gests the latest omicron vari-
a press briefing. “The most ant gaining ground in the
dangerous thing is to assume U.S. — BA.4.6, which was
(that) they will,” he said. He responsible for around 8% of
added that even though the new U.S. infections last week
number of weekly report- — appears to be even better
ed deaths have plummeted at evading the immune sys-
more than 80% since Febru- tem than the dominant BA.5.
ary, one person still dies with
COVID-19 every 44 seconds In China, authorities this
and that most of those deaths week locked down 65 million
are avoidable. of its citizens under tough
COVID-19 restrictions and
In its pandemic report, is discouraging domestic
WHO said COVID-19 travel during upcoming na-
deaths dropped in Southeast tional holidays.
Asia, Europe and the Middle
East, but increased in Africa, Across the country, 33 cities
the Americas and the West- including seven provincial
ern Pacific. capitals are under full or par-
tial lockdown covering more
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s than 65 million people, ac-
technical lead on COVID-19, cording to a tally published
noted that the virus has not late Sunday by the Chinese
yet settled into a seasonal pat- business magazine Caixin.
tern and that its continued
evolution will require con- It said that outbreaks have
stant surveillance and pos- been reported in 103 cities,
sible tweaks to diagnostics, the highest since the early
treatments and vaccines. days of the pandemic in early
2020.
Scientists warn the corona-