The European Union (EU) on Friday submitted a plan to the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it believes will more effectively broaden supply of Covid-19 vaccines than the intellectual property (IP) rights waiver backed by the United States.India, South Africa and dozens of developing countries are demanding the waiver to address what they say is a “staggering inequity” in access to vaccines and other Covid-19 treatments.A surprise US shift in May to support a waiver heaped pressure on remaining opponents, such as the European Union and Switzerland that are home to many drugmakers.The European Commission, which oversees trade policy for…
Author: Mike Harrison
The US is yet to decide country-specific allocations for the first tranche of 25 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines it will donate though figures will be determined in consultation with governments and the WHO-backed COVAX facility, a top American official said on Friday. Gayle Smith, the state department coordinator for the global Covid-19 response, told a virtual news briefing that the US will match donations from its surplus stock of vaccines to doses used by countries in their national immunisation programmes. Smith declined to set a timeframe for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) giving its approval for the 60…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday praised his country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and called for a stronger global response to global warming.Putin’s speech at an economic forum in St. Petersburg came less than two weeks before his summit with United States President Joe Biden. U.S. and Russian officials said the agenda of the June 16 meeting in Geneva will likely include climate change and efforts to counter the coronavirus among other issues.Addressing the forum, Putin lauded the efficiency of Russian-designed vaccines and bemoaned what he described as “politically-motivated bans” in some countries on their purchase.Last year, Russia boasted…
As Beijing continues its human rights abuses against ethnic minority communities in Xinjiang, Uyghurs living in Australia are left in despair over the ‘disappearance’ of their relatives in China.Yusuf Hussein, an Australian citizen of Uighur ethnicity, and his five children have not been able to contact his elderly parents since 2017. “Suddenly, [they] disappeared and none of them answered my phone…They didn’t message me at all. I tried to send a message. None of them responded,” he told Al Jazeera.Hussein believes that his 85-year-old father, mother and siblings have been transferred to what he describes as a “concentration camp” -…
When New York City voters go to the polls on June 22 to select their party’s mayoral nominee, they will fill out a new kind of ballot that allows them to pick up to five candidates in order of preference in a system known as ranked-choice voting.What is ranked-choice voting (RCV)?Most U.S. elections are “winner-take-all”: the candidate with the most votes wins even if he or she falls short of 50%. Under RCV, voters can rank multiple contenders instead of choosing just one.Dozens of cities, including San Francisco, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City, use RCV for local elections. Maine began…
(Photo : Apple) Apple Inc. is an exclusive tech giant with multiple gadgets up its sleeves. Although mainly known for their iPhones, the Cupertino-based company also has a TV franchise. On March 21, 2007, Apple Inc. released their very first Apple TV. From the very first model up to the latest ones, Apple has continuously produced high-quality and reliable devices. The Problem with Apple TV 4K However, a recent Apple TV issue surfaced in the latter portion of May 2021. A significant number of Apple TV 4K owners could not enjoy the 4K features of their brand new devices while…
The research paper was published on the backdrop of the UK’s decision to reduce the gap between two doses of vaccine to address the concerns about the spread of the B.1.617 variant, first detected in India. By hindustantimes.com | Written by Kunal Gaurav, Hindustan Times, New Delhi PUBLISHED ON JUN 04, 2021 05:57 PM IST Individuals fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are likely to have nearly six times reduced levels of neutralising antibodies against the coronavirus variant first detected in India, according to a new study published in The Lancet. The team, led by researchers from the Francis Crick…
A leading German cardinal and confidante of Pope Francis, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, offered to resign Friday over the Catholic Church’s mishandling of clergy sexual abuse cases, declaring in an extraordinary public gesture that the church had arrived at “a dead end.”The archdiocese of Munich and Freising, where Marx serves as archbishop, published his resignation letter to the pope online, in multiple languages, and the cardinal said Francis had given him permission to make it public.“It is important to me to share the responsibility for the catastrophe of the sexual abuse by Church officials over the past decades,” the 67-year-old Marx…
(Photo : Unsplash) The customer service that a company provides can be the true measure of just how much they appreciate their clients. But it can be demanding to meet those high expectations of just how and when customers can get in touch and how quickly you reply. Balancing your customers’ needs with your need to live your life and run your company can be tricky; in fact, it can be one of the biggest challenges for a local business. You know that there are going to be times when you need to be out of the office or away…
The European Union Commission and the United Kingdom regulators launched its antitrust investigation against Facebook. Both are collaborating to know more about the control of the social media giant in its classified ads through its Marketplace service. (Photo : by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 28: CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg appears on a monitor as he testifies remotely during the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing ‘Does Section 230’s Sweeping Immunity Enable Big Tech Bad Behavior?’, on Capitol Hill, October 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey; CEO of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary…