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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to counter what he called the “systemic challenge” posed by China as he set out the government’s 10-year defense strategy Tuesday.Some ruling Conservative Party lawmakers, however, have accused Johnson of “going soft” on Beijing.Britain is seeking to carve out a new role on the world stage outside the European Union. The government’s “Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy” says Russia remains the most acute threat facing the country but warns that China poses a “systemic challenge to our security, prosperity and values.”Uyghurs, Hong Kongers“The U.K. … has led the international community in expressing our deep concern over China’s mass detention of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province, and in giving nearly 3 million of Hong Kong’s people a route to British citizenship,” Johnson told lawmakers.“There is no question that China will pose a great challenge for an open society such as ours, but we will also work with China where that is consistent with our values and interests, including in building a stronger and positive economic relationship and in addressing climate change,” he said.He added that changing defense priorities would enable the country to fulfil his post-Brexit pledge of a “global Britain.”FILE – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a news conference on Downing Street in London, Dec. 24, 2020.“Britain will remain unswervingly committed to NATO and preserving peace and security in Europe. From this secure basis, we will seek out friends and partners wherever they can be found, building a coalition for openness and innovation, and engaging more deeply in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.“I have invited the leaders of Australia, South Korea and India to attend the G-7 summit in Carbis Bay in June, and I am delighted to announce that I will visit India next month to strengthen our friendship with the world’s biggest democracy. Our approach will place diplomacy first. The U.K. has applied to become a dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and we will seek to join the trans-Pacific free trade agreement,” Johnson said.Carrier’s voyageTo demonstrate that engagement, Britain’s new aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, will make its maiden voyage to the Indo-Pacific later this year.However, several ruling Conservative Party lawmakers accused Johnson of “going soft” on China for seeking deeper trade links.Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chairman of Parliament’s Defense Select Committee, wrote on Twitter that China was “still not seen as a geo-strategic threat but a competitive trading partner.”FILE – Britain’s opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer speaks in the House of Commons in London, Dec. 2, 2020.Opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer also criticized the government’s approach.“We welcome the deepening of engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, but that comes on the back of an inconsistent policy towards China for a decade. Conservative governments have spent 10 years turning a blind eye to human rights abuses while inviting China to help build our infrastructure,” Starmer told MPs.Johnson said those seeking a “new Cold War” with Beijing were mistaken.Britain’s Ministry of Defense is set to detail later this month how the new strategy outlined in the “Integrated Review” would be implemented. Countering China’s assertiveness will require a broad response, said analyst Veerle Nouwens of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.“This won’t just be about sending ships to the region or planes to the region. It will really be about equally investing in new technologies, be that quantum, A.I., cyber, space, you name it. So, it really is a broader challenge than just the immediate visible military things that we know of when we speak about China’s rise and assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific itself,” Nouwens told VOA.Focusing on strengths“It would be very difficult to compete with China match for match, point for point, but I think that’s the situation that most countries are heading to,” Nouwens said. “We do have limited resources, and so, it is really about finding those angles that the U.K. already has real strength in and working with partners and allies or others to try and shore up capability, shore up knowledge, and come out with products and technologies that allies can share alike.”Johnson added that the United States would remain Britain’s closest ally.“In all our endeavours, the United States will be our greatest ally and a uniquely close partner in defense, intelligence and security,” he told lawmakers. “Britain’s commitment to the security of our European home will remain unconditional and immovable.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is pictured upon his arrival at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, March 17, 2021.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are visiting Japan and South Korea this week, with China at the top of the agenda. Speaking Wednesday in Seoul, Blinken underlined the threat posed by Beijing.“China is using coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undercut democracy in Taiwan, abuse the human rights situation in Tibet and assert maritime claims in the South China Sea that violate international law,” Blinken said at a news conference.China accused the U.S. of disrupting regional peace and stability. Beijing has yet to respond to Britain’s plans for greater engagement in the Indo-Pacific.Meanwhile, Britain also announced it would raise the cap on its nuclear arsenal to 260 warheads from 180. Critics said that would breach Britain’s commitment under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The government said the figure was a cap, not a target.Johnson confirmed a $33 billion multiyear boost to military spending. He said Britain’s total defense budget stood at 2.2% of GDP, above the NATO spending commitment of 2%. Part of the new investment will fund a new counterterrorism operations center and a new National Cyber Force. 
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Britain pledged to counter what it called the strategic threat posed by China as it set out its new t10-year defense strategy this week. Britain is seeking to carve out a new role on the world stage outside the European Union, according to the policy review, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Producer: Jason Godman. Camera: Henry Ridgwell. 
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The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement Wednesday, saying it believes the benefits of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends that vaccinations continue.The agency noted several European Union countries have temporarily suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of blood clots in some people who received it.  The WHO statement said any vaccination against COVID-19 will not reduce illness or deaths from other causes. The agency noted blood clots — known as Thromboembolic events — are known to occur frequently and are the result of Venous Thromboembolism, the third most common cardiovascular disease globally.The WHO said it is routine in vaccination campaigns for nations to note possible adverse events following immunization, and it is good practice to investigate them. But it does not necessarily mean that the events are linked to vaccination.AstraZeneca Says No Evidence Vaccine Causes Blood ClotsThe company conducted a review after several countries suspended use of the shot The statement said the WHO is in regular contact with Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and other regulators around the world for the latest information on COVID-19 vaccine safety.  The EMA is also investigating the blood clot reports, but Tuesday made a similar statement about the benefits versus the risks of the AstraZenca vaccine.The WHO said its Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety continues to carefully assess the latest available safety data on the AstraZeneca vaccine, and will immediately communicate its findings. 
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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen Wednesday said British-based vaccine maker AstraZeneca has underdelivered its vaccine to the European Union and she threatened to ban exports from Britain if the company does not deliver the doses agreed to.Speaking to reporters in Brussels, von der Leyen said that as coronavirus infections are once again on the rise in much of Europe, the bloc is facing “the crisis of the century” and “all options are on the table” in terms of what they need to do to get Europeans vaccinated.Noting AstraZeneca has delivered about third of the doses it promised, von der Leyen said the vaccines produced in Europe are being sent to other countries, but “hardly nothing is coming back.” She said, “Open roads run in both directions, and this is why we need to ensure that there is reciprocity and proportionality.”   She said if the situation does not change, the EU will consider making exports dependent on the level of openness of their trading partners.As she was criticizing AstraZeneca for its slow deliveries, the European Commission president also defended the efficacy of the company’s vaccine. Several European nations have suspended use of the drug after reports of blood clots among recipients.On Tuesday, Emer Cooke, director of Europe’s drug monitoring group, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said the agency believes the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risks. Nonetheless, she said the agency is reviewing the cases and will announce the result of that investigation Thursday.Von der Leyen said she trusts the AstraZeneca vaccine and the process of the EMA.Meanwhile, the commission also unveiled Wednesday a plan for a so-called “vaccine passport” — a proposed certificate that would allow European citizens or residents who are vaccinated or have recovered from the virus, and thus have antibodies — to travel freely across the 27-nation region by the summer.The plan, designed to help those nations whose economies are dependent on tourism, is scheduled to be discussed during an EU summit next week. 
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Lord Palmerston, who twice served as British prime minister in the 19th century, is quoted as having said the British “have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual.” A dramatic turn of events involving Britain’s ambassador in China serves to illustrate his point.  Caroline Wilson was criticized for showing too much deference to China in September of last year, immediately before she headed to Beijing to take up her post. UK Ambassador to China Stirs Uproar With Photo Seen as Promoting Xi JinpingBritish foreign ministry says it uses ‘engagement to raise matters on which the UK cannot agree or compromise with China’Six months later, Wilson is being applauded for standing up for a cherished democratic principle, even as she is singled out by her Chinese hosts for violating diplomatic protocol and lecturing national authorities. I stand by my article. No doubt the outgoing Chinese Ambassador to the UK stands by the 170+ pieces he was free to place in mainstream British media. https://t.co/AgkynfJM36— Caroline Wilson (@CWilson_FCDO) March 9, 2021“When the British ambassador to China, Caroline Wilson, called on her counterpart in London before taking up her posting to Beijing, I criticized the way she allowed Ambassador Liu Xiaoming to exploit the photo opportunity,” Roger Garside, himself a former British diplomat who twice served in Beijing, said in a written interview with VOA from his home in London.  Following that meeting, Wilson posted a photograph of herself with Liu in which the two diplomats held up what appeared to be a gifted book, the latest in a series of tomes laying out Chinese President Xi Jinping’s thoughts on governance.”So, if I now express my support for an action for which the Chinese Foreign Ministry has rebuked her,” Garside continued, “I cannot be accused of unthinkingly jumping to the defense of my government’s representative.”Garside, author of a forthcoming book on contemporary China, said his newfound admiration for Wilson grew out of “the way Ambassador Wilson posted on the embassy’s WeChat website a defense of the role of a free press in speaking truth to power, whether that power be the rulers of its own country or of a foreign nation.”  In her posting, Wilson noted that Beijing had expelled a record number of foreign journalists in 2020, apparently in the belief that their criticisms of the Chinese government showed a dislike of the country. But, she wrote, in countries like her own, media criticism of the government is viewed as something positive which is intended to help make the country better.  While Garside and other supporters found Wilson’s posting principled, “elegant and instructive,” Chinese state media reported that Wilson had been summoned by the Foreign Ministry, which described her comments as full of arrogance and bias and displaying “conduct gravely unbefitting that of a diplomatic representative.”For Benedict Rogers, co-founder of the British Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission, the two incidents reflect less a change of heart by Wilson than an underlying dissonance that exists in all of Britain’s dealings with China.The contrasting episodes “symbolize the tension and the almost sort-of slightly schizophrenic approach of British policy toward China,” Rogers told VOA in a phone interview from London.Rogers sees the two incidents as evidence of the British government’s desire to be on good terms with China while not wanting to pretend that freedom of the press, freedom of expression and other core democratic values don’t matter.“I think it is one of the greatest debates of our time,” he said. The question, he added, “will be how much the government itself will be able to walk this tightrope of defending our values but at the same time preserving such a high priority on trade.”   This tension aside, Rogers said Wilson’s latest encounter in Beijing illustrates the reality of Beijing’s conduct with other governments.“Even though you’ve sort of tried to reach out to them and be almost a friend to them, when you say something they don’t like, no matter how respectful, even kowtowing before, they’re going to respond furiously,” Rogers said.
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Voters in the Netherlands are casting ballots Wednesday in the third and final day of the first European national election held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his ruling People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy are expected to be reelected in voting that observers say is a referendum on the government’s handling of the pandemic.  
 
But Rutte, who is one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders after 10 years in office, saw his popularity slide in recent weeks after implementing an unpopular curfew to fight the spread of the coronavirus. Rutte also resigned in January after his tax officials falsely accused thousands of families of trying to scam childcare services. He is currently serving in a caretaker capacity.
 
Much like last year’s U.S. elections, the Dutch elections have been adapted for the coronavirus pandemic, with early voting for vulnerable people, and seniors allowed to vote by mail.
 
Rutte spoke with reporters Wednesday as he arrived at the polls on his bicycle. He said that as prime minister, he takes responsibility for the government’s pandemic response but said he has not talked as much about what to do next. “So, when we come out of this crisis, how to rebuild our economy and our companies, how to rebuild the health sector.”
 
Polls show Rutte’s VVD party with about 25 percent of the vote, which would give it slightly more than the current 32 of the 150 seats in parliament. His closest rival, far-right anti-immigration lawmaker Geert Wilders, is at about 13 percent.
 
With a record 37 parties taking part in the election, and 17 expected to garner enough votes to win at least one seat in parliament’s 150-seat lower house, forming coalitions in the government will be a tough and lengthy process. After the 2017 elections, coalition talks took seven months.
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A just-released assessment by U.S. intelligence officials finds Russia and Iran, joined by a handful of other countries and groups, did seek to influence the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election. But the assessment also concludes that, despite repeated warnings by a number of top officials, China ultimately decided to sit it out. The declassified report, issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is the U.S. intelligence community’s final take on foreign meddling in the hotly contested race, in which then-presidential candidate Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump. FILE – A newspaper with a front picture of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is seen at a newsstand in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 8, 2020.Initially completed and shared with the Trump administration in a classified form in January, the unclassified version, required by law, seeks to give U.S. voters an overview of the threats and of their impact on American democracy.  While the assessment concludes no adversary managed to infiltrate critical systems or change how votes were cast, the conclusions on China could lead to new questions about how the intelligence was initially presented to the public. “We assess that China did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election,” the newly released ODNI report said, adding it had “high confidence” in its finding. “China sought stability in its relationship with the United States, did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling, and assessed its traditional influence tools — primarily targeted economic measures and lobbying — would be sufficient to meet its goal of shaping U.S. China policy regardless of the winner,” the report stated. Earlier warnings Those findings contrast with earlier warnings from intelligence officials who spent months warning voters of the potential threats, specifically calling out efforts by China along with Russia and Iran. “China is expanding its influence efforts to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and counter criticism of China,” then National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director FILE – Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe waits on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Dec. 12, 2020.In August, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe grouped China with Russia and Iran in an interview with Fox Business News. “I don’t want to say this is only about China,” Ratcliffe said at the time. “China, Russia, Iran, other actors, are all trying to interfere or influence our elections for their own gain.” He added, however, that Beijing’s efforts stood apart. “China’s using a massive and sophisticated influence campaign that dwarfs anything that any other country is doing,” Ratcliffe said.  Another top Trump official, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, echoed those thoughts less than a month later. “The intelligence community has made very clear, first you have China, which has the most massive program to influence the United States politically,” O’Brien told reporters at the time. White House Defends Trump’s Concerns About Mail-In Voting National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien defended the president’s warning of fraud while dismissing an intel bulletin that suggested Russia is using mail-in voting to sow confusion ahead of the November electionTrump, himself, also played up the notion China was seeking his defeat. “China would love us to have an election where Donald Trump lost to sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump said during a news conference last August. “They would own our country.” Declassified report In the newly declassified report, however, U.S. intelligence officials concluded Beijing did not use its well-developed influence machine to alter the results. “We did not identify China attempting to interfere with election infrastructure or provide funding to any candidates or parties,” the report said. It said Beijing had previously sought to influence U.S. politics, including in the 2018 U.S. elections. “We did not, however, see these capabilities deployed for the purpose of shaping the electoral outcome,” the report said. Report Puts Russia, China and Iran in Line for Sanctions for Election Meddling

        Voters who went to the polls last month in the United States' midterm elections can rest assured that their votes were registered and counted properly.However, a new report by the U.S. 

While stating it had high confidence in its findings regarding China, the ODNI report admitted there was some disagreement. “The National Intelligence Officer [NIO] for Cyber assesses that China took at least some steps to undermine former President Trump’s reelection chances, primarily through social media and official public statements and media,” it said, explaining the NIO gave more weight to indications that Beijing preferred Biden, seeing him as more predictable than Trump. The NIO also argued, with moderate confidence, that evidence suggested China increased its influence operations from June to August 2020, while calibrating its effort so as to “avoid blowback.” Still, several former intelligence officials who spoke to VOA about the ODNI report said its prevailing view in regard to China was not surprising. “[Former Director of National Intelligence] John Ratcliffe had the political mission of downplaying the whole Russian influence issue, with one way of doing that being to play up the idea that Chinese influence was at least as likely and significant as anything the Russians did,” said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer who has been critical of Trump. Pillar, now with Georgetown University, said, in his view, the more notable conclusion from the ODNI report was how Russia sought to push Trump’s candidacy. FILE – Then-nominee for national intelligence director Avril Haines speaks during a confirmation hearing in Washington, Jan. 19, 2021. (Joe Raedle/Pool via AP)”Foreign malign influence is an enduring challenge facing our country,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in a statement Tuesday.   “Addressing this ongoing challenge requires a whole-of-government approach grounded in an accurate understanding of the problem, which the Intelligence Community, through assessments such as this one, endeavors to provide,” she added. A separate report Tuesday, from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, reaffirmed earlier findings that foreign adversaries failed to impact the tallying of ballots. “We … have no evidence that any foreign government-affiliated actor prevented voting, changed votes, or disrupted the ability to tally votes or to transmit election results in a timely manner; altered any technical aspect of the voting process; or otherwise compromised the integrity of voter registration information of any ballots cast during 2020 federal elections,” the report said. The second report also rejected claims made after the November 2020 U.S. election that foreign governments, including Venezuela, Cuba and China, were in any way in control of critical election infrastructure to manipulate the election’s outcome. Such claims “are not credible,” the Justice Department and DHS concluded. Some key lawmakers, though, reacted to the reports by warning it is more critical than ever for the U.S. to maintain its guard. “The problem of foreign actors trying to influence the American electorate is not going away,” Democratic Senator John Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. “Given the current partisan divides in this country, [it] may find fertile ground in which to grow.” 
 
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The independent Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta has called on Moscow authorities to investigate a “chemical attack” against its premises after a security camera recorded a person spraying its office entrance with an unknown liquid.The media outlet, which shares the premises with several other companies in the Russian capital, demanded the investigation on March 16, a day after a strong chemical odor swept through the building. Late on March 15, a video allegedly taken by a CCTV camera  at the building circulated on the Internet showing a man in a Yandex.Food delivery uniform spraying an unknown liquid near the building’s entrance from a device on the back wheel of the bike he was riding.”Look, it is now a device for terrorist acts — a false courier sprays a poisonous gas that is in a container installed on a bicycle. The idea is clear: the employees step in the poison and then distribute it to all of the floors in the building,” Novaya Gazeta said in a statement.A spokeswoman at Yandex.Food told the website Mediazona that the company did not receive any orders from the address where Novaya Gazeta is located.Novaya Gazeta’s staff members have said the odor in the building was very similar to one that was present when the home and car of correspondent Yulia Latynina was sprinkled with an unknown chemical in 2017.That same year the newspaper received a letter with an unknown white powder inside, which later was shown to be harmless.In October 2018, unknown people brought three cages with sheep wearing vests with the inscription PRESS on them.Several days before that, unknown individuals threw a funeral wreath in front of the periodical’s building with notes threatening Denis Korotkov, a correspondent for the newspaper. Days later a sheep’s head was found near the office with a note threatening all reporters at Novaya Gazeta.Six Novaya Gazeta journalists, including well-known reporters Yury Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, and Anastasia Baburova, have been killed since 2001. 
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It’s been two months (Jan. 18), since Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny returned home following a lengthy recovery abroad from a near fatal poisoning attack.  Navalny — and western governments — blame the Russian government for the attempt on his life — a charge the Kremlin denies.  Yet a Russian court has since sentenced Navalny to just over two and a-half years in prison for alleged past parole violations.  The question now: can Russia’s opposition thrive — or even survive — without its leading figure?  From Moscow for VOA, Charles Maynes reports.Camera: Ricardo Marquina, Agencies,  Produced by: Ricardo Marquina/Rob Raffaele   
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament Tuesday that his government will seek to strengthen ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific region in the wake of the nation’s departure from the European Union.The shift is part of his government’s so-called Integrated Review of national security and international policy, a year-long study by his government that he highlighted for lawmakers. Calling it the most comprehensive review of British defense and foreign relations since the Cold War ended, Johnson said its purpose is to make the nation safer, stronger and more prosperous, while standing up for its values.”The review describes how we will bolster our alliances, strengthen our capabilities, find new ways of reaching solutions and relearn the art of competing against states with opposing values,” he told members of parliament.As part of Britain’s pivot toward Asia, Johnson said he has invited the leaders of Australia, South Korea and India to attend the G-7 summit in the British resort town of Carbis Bay, in June. Johnson plans to visit India next month and announced that Britain has applied to become a dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He said Britain will also seek to join the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement.The prime minister said his plan calls for Britain to invest at least $9.1 billion to fund advanced and next-generation research and development in areas including space, directed energy weapons, and advanced high-speed missiles.To reaffirm that Britain is “unswervingly committed” to leadership in NATO, Johnson said the government will increase its defense budget by more than $33 billion over the next four years and remain the largest European spender on defense in NATO, with expenditures now standing at 2.2% of its gross domestic production. Britain will deploy more of its armed forces overseas more often and for longer periods of time, while cybersecurity will also be strengthened, he said.Johnson also told lawmakers the United States remains Britain’s most important bilateral relationship in defense, intelligence and security.He added that while China would pose a great challenge to what he described as Britain’s “open society,” his government would continue to work with Beijing whenever it was “consistent with our values and interests.”
 
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Europe’s medical regulator, the European Medicines Agency, will announce Thursday its findings on the safety of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine as more European Union countries suspend its use over fears it might be linked to blood clots. Critics say governments are putting politics over science.The European Medicines Agency’s executive director, Emer Cooke, said Tuesday that for now, the regulator stands behind its conclusion the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe, even as its experts conduct a thorough safety review.The AstraZeneca vaccine has been injected into millions of arms, with just a few reported cases of blood clots—and it’s uncertain if they’re linked to the shot.  “We need to have the facts first,” Cooke said. “We cannot come to a conclusion before we’ve done a thorough scientific analysis. And we owe it to the European citizens to deliver this clear and science-based response.”The medicines agency, or EMA, has also tapped international experts for its review, which will also look at whether certain specific batches could be problematic. Scientists will also look at chances of blood clots with other COVID-19 vaccines beyond AstraZenaca’s.”At present there is no evidence that vaccination has caused these conditions,” said Cooke. “They have not come up in clinical trial and they are not listed as known or expected side events with this vaccine.”  But increasingly, European Union governments are taking no chances. Sweden and Latvia are among the latest to join more than a dozen EU countries to temporarily halt their AztraZeneca rollouts.In France, which suspended the shot Monday, Health Minister Olivier Veran said he hoped the AstraZeneca vaccine campaign will quickly resume — pending a positive EMA ruling. Veran himself received the AstraZeneca inoculation and he told French citizens who have done likewise not to worry.The World Health Organization also recommends AstraZeneca, pending evidence to the contrary. Dozens of countries have authorized its use, although the United States has yet to do so. And AstraZeneca still has EU champions. Belgium, for example, argues suspending the vaccine’s rollout would be irresponsible.That’s also the view of many French medical experts. Dr. Jean-Paul Hamon, honorary president of the French doctor’s federation, told French TV the decision to suspend the vaccine’s use reflected political rather than medical considerations.  “National governments are afraid for safety concerns,” said Simona Guagliardo, an analyst at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre. “But at the same time, I’m not convinced that this is the right way to go about it.””I wonder what could be the damage in the public opinion,” she said. “People are already scared, and I fear that this might scare them off even more.”The vaccine suspensions couldn’t come at a worse time for the EU, with some member states hit by a third wave of the pandemic. Italy is again under lockdown. France and Germany may follow shortly.  And suspending the shot’s use may further delay the EU’s much-criticized vaccine rollout that sees the 27-member bloc lagging behind countries like the United States, Israel, Bahrain and even ex-member Britain—which has jabbed millions in the UK with the AstraZeneca shot. While acknowledging mistakes, EU officials also blame some of the problems on production delays by AstraZeneca itself.
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