Asked by Corden how he sees his life after lockdown, he said on the episode that aired on Thursday: “My life is always going to be about public service and Meghan signed up to that.”

On the decision to walk away from the royal family, he said it “was never walking away, it was stepping back rather than stepping down”.

He added that it was a “really difficult environment” and criticised the press.

“We all know what the British press can be like and it was destroying my mental health. This is toxic. So I did what any husband and father would do – I need to get my family out of here.

“I will never walk away, I will always be contributing. My life is public service.”

Harry addressed the controversy over The Crown’s portrayal of his family’s history and defended the Netflix regal drama, saying it does not “pretend to be news”.

He said both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh can use Zoom and have seen Archie “running around” in California.

The duke also spoke about his early relationship with his wife.

He said dating for him or any member of the royal family is “flipped upside down”, telling Corden that early dates take place at home and only when they are a couple do they venture out in public.

“We got to spend an enormous amount of time just the two of us,” he said of his early relationship with Meghan. “There were no distractions, and that was great, it was an amazing thing. We went from zero to 60 in the first two months.”

Asked what a “regular night in” for the couple is like, Harry said they may make Archie’s tea, give him a bath and read him a book before he and Meghan spend time together.

He said they may watch game show Jeopardy! or something on Netflix.

Asked what he thinks about The Crown, Harry replied: “They don’t pretend to be news, it’s fictional but it’s loosely based on the truth.

“Of course it’s not strictly accurate, but, loosely, it gives you a rough idea about what that lifestyle, what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that.

“I am way more comfortable with The Crown than I am seeing the stories written about my family, or my wife or myself.”

He said The Crown is “obviously fiction” whereas he has a “real issue” with some of the stories written about him.

Harry joked that he would want Homeland star Damian Lewis to play him.

The segment opened with Corden telling the duke to pay the fare before jumping on the bus. Harry quipped: “You know us royals – we don’t carry cash.”

Corden served him afternoon tea while pointing out celebrity homes, including what he claimed were those of Friends star David Schwimmer and Die Hard actor Bruce Willis.

During a visit to the house that featured in 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, Harry rapped the famous theme song, which was originally performed by Will Smith.

Corden tried to convince him to buy the sprawling mansion before the Duke went inside to use the bathroom.

The pair then video-called Meghan, who, in response to Corden’s suggestion they buy the house, joked: “I think we’ve done enough moving.”

She then asked “Haz” how his tour of Los Angeles was going, and he said Corden was “the worst tour guide in LA”.

Harry and a reluctant Corden also tackled an assault course, with the TV host complaining about getting dirty.

Harry and Meghan will appear in a US primetime TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, which is set to be broadcast on March 7.

The post Prince Harry Quit Royals for Mental Health’s Sake appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

The post Cuba, DR, Jamaica on Lufthansa’s New Schedule appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

By Sir Ronald Sanders

If US President, Joe Biden, eases the trade embargo against Cuba, one benefit to developing countries, including the Caribbean, could be greater access to coronavirus vaccines at an affordable price.

Cuban scientists have been working on four vaccine candidates to counter the virus.  They believe that their most successful candidate, Sovereign 2, will enter a final phase of testing next month.

Vincent Verez, one of the leading scientists on the Cuban team, says that clinical tests, in two trial phases so far, have revealed that Sovereign 2 is “very safe with very few adverse effects”.

The scientific team claims that producing the coronavirus vaccine was made more difficult by the sanctions on Cuba.  They were not able to buy all the equipment and raw materials they needed, including spectrometers used for quality control.  Nonetheless, their work is continuing.  They have used a 20-year-old spectrometer that is still powerful enough to analyse the vaccine.

Cuba’s biotech sector is well developed, making eight vaccines (for other diseases) administered to children in the country and exported to more than 30 countries.  A successful coronavirus vaccine from Cuba would help to break the global control of the market by the big pharmaceutical companies in the US and Europe.

Cuba’s geographical location in the Caribbean and its willingness to share a successful vaccine with the developing world, would ease the pressure on Caricom countries which face a twin problem in relation to inoculating their people.  The first is to access vaccines being produced by the large pharmaceutical companies particularly, Pfizer and Moderna, and the second is getting better prices.

Caricom countries have not been able to vaccinate more than one per cent of their people despite herculean efforts by governments to secure vaccines. The COVAX facility, established by the World Health Organization, to negotiate both supply and price with the major vaccine suppliers, has encountered major obstacles and is yet to deliver any of the vaccines for which Caribbean countries have already paid.  A rollout is scheduled to start soon, but it will be less than 10 per cent of the quantities that were ordered.

The generosity of the Indian government in donating 570,000 does of the AstraZeneca vaccines to Caricom countries has helped them to get the inoculation programme started.  But to get to the point of vaccinating 80 per cent of their populations so as to achieve herd immunity, requires access to more vaccines at prices less than the suppliers are offering.

Given that the world’s richest countries have pre-ordered and pre-paid for supplies, the big pharmaceutical companies are under no pressure to reduce prices, or ramp up production, even as global demand is increasing rapidly. Pfizer expects about $15 billion in revenue this year from its Covid-19 vaccine developed with BioNTech.

Further, the governments of countries, in which the large producers of vaccines are located, have implemented measures, restricting exports of Covid-19 vaccines, citing intellectual property rights.  Pfizer and Moderna claim the rights to vast amounts of intellectual property that will be useful, if not necessary, for others to develop vaccines in the future.

Sadly, the governments of the countries in which Pfizer and Moderna are located have also spurned urgings to facilitate such exports.  Human rights, including the right to life and health, have been disregarded.

For these reasons, it would be beneficial to the Caribbean if the most promising of the four vaccines that Cuba is developing could secure World Health Organization (WHO) authorisation after successful testing.

While he was campaigning for the US presidency, Joe Biden pledged to reverse sanctions placed on Cuba by former President Donald Trump in his efforts to win Florida where a large number of Cuban exiles reside.

One of the most unfounded measures against Cuba is its listing, in the last days of Trump’s administration, as a sponsor of terrorism. The critics of this listing have rightly pointed out that it is unjustified and serves no purpose other than to further cripple the Cuban economy. More particularly, it will hamper deals between Cuba and other countries.  Governments of Cuba’s closest neighbours, including Caricom, have called for its reversal.

About 20 churches and religious organisations in the US also sent a letter on 17 February, to President Biden asking that the decision to include Cuba on the list of states sponsoring terrorism to be revoked.

At the same time, others, including the new Chair of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez, continue to demand harder and tougher measures against Cuba. The latter represents the opposition, most of whom want nothing less than the immediate collapse of the Cuban government.

President Biden’s instincts on normalisation of US relations with Cuba are grounded in the successful efforts of the Barack Obama administration of which he was Vice President. Nothing good will come from pursuing a decades-old failed policy that no one wants, except disgruntled Cuban-American exiles – a few of whom are in the US Congress.

(The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and the Organization of American States.  He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto.  The views expressed are entirely his own) 

The post Comment: Normalizing US-Cuba Relations Would Benefit Caribbean appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

The post Post Pandemic: Caymans May Limit Cruise Ship Traffic appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

The post Newspaper Cover for 26th February, 2021 appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

President Biden spoke with Saudi King Salman on Thursday ahead of the anticipated release of a U.S. intelligence report on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi that is expected to implicate the king’s son, the Saudi crown prince.

The White House readout of the call made no mention of Khashoggi, but said the two leaders “affirmed the importance the United States places on universal human rights and the rule of law.”

“The President told King Salman he would work to make the bilateral relationship as strong and transparent as possible,” the readout stated. “The two leaders affirmed the historic nature of the relationship and agreed to work together on mutual issues of concern and interest.”

The waiting game: The United States is expected as early as Thursday night to release an unclassified report outlining the circumstances of Khashoggi’s death. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident who lived in Virginia, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 where he was attacked, killed and dismembered.

The expected declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) concludes Prince Mohammed approved and likely ordered Khashoggi murdered, according to a Reuters report.

The U.S. was reportedly waiting to release the report until after Biden had a chance to speak with the Saudi king.

An ODNI spokesperson responded to a request for comment from The Hill on Thursday saying “we have no update to offer on timing, content, or process matters related to the release.”

Next steps: The release of the report could just be the first step to hold the Saudis accountable for Khashoggi’s death.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a Thursday press briefing that there are “a range of actions that are on the table” to hold the Saudis accountable, but that Biden would first have to speak to King Salman.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a briefing with reporters that the department is likely to “speak to steps to promote accountability going forward for this horrific crime” following the release of the report.

The post Biden, Saudi King Speak Before Release of Khashoggi Killing Report appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

• On average 12 workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died each week since December 2010 when preparations started 
• The 6,500 deaths does not take in the huge Kenyan and Filipino workforce 
• Most fatalities are categorised as ‘natural’ without going into underlying causes

By Ross Ibbetson For Mailonline

More than 6,500 migrant workers have died during Qatar’s football World Cup preparations over the last decade, according to a report.

On average 12 migrants from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died each week since December 2010 when Qatar was awarded the 22nd FIFA tournament.

The findings were compiled from government sources by The Guardian but the true migrant death toll is believed to be far higher because they do not include figures from countries that send huge numbers of workers to Qatar, including the Philippines and Kenya.

Over the last decade, the Middle Eastern country of just 2.8 million people has speedily constructed seven new stadiums, built a new subway, airport, motorways and even a new city, to transform into a footballing paradise for summer 2022.

But behind the stunning façades of the beautiful game, lies a grim reality of migrant workers packed into horrific dormitory accommodation by night as they spend their days toiling in deadly heat.

Workers toil in sweltering conditions inside the Lusail stadium in Doha in December 2019

Migrant workers at the Lusail stadium. Most of Qatar’s workforce for the tournament is from Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the Far East

An Amnesty International handout photo dated October 2012 shows a bunk bed in a dormitory for migrant workers in Qatar

A migrant worker in one of the tightly packed dormitories in Qatar

While the deaths are not categorised by occupation, it is likely that workers from these countries died while working on projects related to the World Cup, says Nick McGeehan, a director at FairSquare Projects, which specialises in labour rights in the Gulf.

He told The Guardian: ‘A very significant proportion of the migrant workers who have died since 2011 were only in the country because Qatar won the right to host the World Cup.’

Officially there have been 37 deaths among workers on World Cup stadiums, with 34 of these defined as ‘non-work related.’

The terminology raises questions because it has been used in cases where workers have collapsed on construction sites.

Qatar has a migrant workforce of some 2 million, mainly young men from Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the Far East.

Based on the data obtained by The Guardian, the majority of workers’ deaths were put down to natural causes.

More than two thirds of Indian, Nepali and Bangladeshi workers’ deaths were ‘natural,’ while among Indians the figure was 80 per cent.

Often these categorisations were made without autopsy and, therefore, failed to understand the underlying causes for the so-called natural deaths, the report said.

It’s believed that many may have died as a result of Qatar’s oppressive heat, working 10-hour shifts in temperatures of up to 113 Fahrenheit (45C).

Janoub Stadium, formerly known as Al Wakrah Stadium, is a football stadium in Al-Wakrah. Qatar has constructed seven state-of-the-art venues for the tournament

The Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, one of seven structures built to host the football tournament in summer 2022

Qatari officials have previously claimed they are keeping workers safe by banning manual labour in unshaded outdoor areas between 11.30am and 3pm from mid-June to August.

But analysis shows that even outside those hours, temperatures reach levels that can cause heat stress.

The United Nations said in a report last year that migrant labourers in Qatar faced ‘high’ or ‘extreme’ risk of succumbing to heat stress during half of their working day.

Working in hot weather puts strain on the cardiovascular system and can lead to heart attacks and other complications.

Critics of the working conditions say that this is the reason why such a large proportion of migrant workers’ deaths are categorised as natural, despite a clear correlation to the occupational hazards they face.

‘The mortality rate among these communities is within the expected range for the size and demographics of the population. However, every lost life is a tragedy, and no effort is spared in trying to prevent every death in our country,’ a Qatari government said in a statement.

He added that all foreign nationals had access to free healthcare and that reforms in recent years had reduced fatalities among ‘guest workers.’

Other significant causes of deaths among Indians, Nepalis and Bangladeshis were road accidents (12 per cent), workplace accidents (7 per cent) and suicides (seven per cent).

Covid deaths do not feature disproportionately as infection rates have remained low in Qatar, with just 250 deaths among all nationalities since the pandemic started.

In a statement, FIFA said: ‘With the very stringent health and safety measures on site … the frequency of accidents on Fifa World Cup construction sites has been low when compared to other major construction projects around the world.’

They did not cite any evidence for this.

The post Report: More than 6,500 Migrants Die Building Qatar’s World Cup Venue appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.