UKRAINE INVASION: Russia oil: Moscow says it will find other importers after EU ban - by Sam Meredith

The European Union on Monday agreed to ban most Russian oil imports by the end of the year as part of new measures designed to punish the Kremlin over its invasion of Ukraine.

Responding to the measures, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, said the oil ban reflects negatively on the bloc.

“As she rightly said yesterday, #Russia will find other importers,” Ulyanov said via Twitter, referring specifically to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Read mor at: Russia oil: Moscow says it will find other importers after EU ban

America's handling of COVID-19 proved unpopular around the world

For many decades, the United States of America has enjoyed the reputation of having one of the most advanced medical research systems and the best public health policies in the world. There are heated debates regarding the nature of the healthcare system financing model (public or private), but what we have seen so far since the pandemic is a mixture of defective health policies, bad decisions, denialism and a very weak healthcare system that didn't put people first. Although the American leaders like to brag about having "the strongest health system model" in the world, they turned out to be one of the weakest in fighting against COVID-19.

Read more at: America's handling of COVID-19 proved unpopular around the world - CGTN

EU -Britain: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old as well as young adults - by Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Kelland, Kate Holton

The vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, also triggers lower adverse responses among the elderly, British drug maker AstraZeneca Plc AZN.L, which is helping manufacture the vaccine, said on Monday.

Read more at: Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old as well as young adults | Reuters

US COVID-19 response: How miscommunication, selfishness played role

For a century or more, the United States has been a beacon of hope and strength to the rest of the world. But its response to the pandemic, many public health experts say, has been uniquely hapless, ineffective, undisciplined and selfish. By some measures, the United States has handled the health crisis as badly as any country has.

Although the United States represents only 4% of the world’s population, it accounts for a quarter of all COVID-19 cases and 22% of all deaths.

The country whose military and economic might powered a victory in the Second World War, and whose confidence and technological wizardry planted the first human being on the moon, now finds itself as a reverse role model during the worst public health crisis in a century.

“The U.S. response – I exaggerate not – is a textbook example of how to do it wrong,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

To be sure, some American states, particularly in New England, have fared better than others, but that only reflects the disjointed national response, epidemiologists say.

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US COVID-19 response: How miscommunication, selfishness played role

Middle East: Syria crisis collides with Trump chaos – by Bryan Bender and Wesley Morgan

National security adviser John Bolton was supposed to lead a White House meeting of the president’s national security team on Monday afternoon, but a surprise visitor showed up and took the reins instead: Mike Pence.

The vice president doesn’t often attend the White House’s Principals Committee meetings, which are typically led by the national security adviser, but Pence guided Monday’s discussion as President Donald Trump’s senior aides debated how to respond to a gruesome chemical weapons attack in Syria, according to four senior administration officials.

Pence’s attendance wasn’t listed on his public schedule. Although some meeting attendees viewed his appearance as an attempt to upstage Bolton on his first day as national security adviser, others saw it as an effort by the vice president to offer a steadying hand as Trump confronts a thorny national security dilemma with a foreign policy team in flux and amid the distraction of multiple investigations.

A White House official said the vice president attended the meeting in the president’s place, though the president’s attendance would have turned the gathering into a meeting of his National Security Council — a formal distinction previous administrations have closely adhered to. The same official said Pence has chaired Principals Committee meetings before.

Trump, who has promised that Syrian President Bashar Assad will pay a “big price” for the latest attack, is balancing his public threats to punish Assad with the possibility that airstrikes against Syria could kill Russian soldiers there and create a dangerous crisis with Moscow.

Trump’s national security team is rehashing a debate based on the parameters set forth by the president a year ago when he ordered airstrikes after a chemical weapons attack last April, and administration officials said the president feels strongly that the use of chemicals weapons is a type of barbarism the U.S. cannot tolerate. But foreign policy analysts say the administration has yet to find a way to fundamentally shift the dynamics.

“When he ordered that strike, he in essence bought on to the Obama red line,” said Eric Edelman, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy in the George W. Bush administration, referring to the previous administration’s threat — empty, as it turned out — that the use of chemical weapons would spur the U.S. to action. “So now he’s bought on to that red line, he’s gotta enforce it,” Edelman said of Trump.

Read more:Syria crisis collides with Trump chaos – POLITICO