European leaders voiced increasing skepticism Friday that a US proposal to lift patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines would solve the problem of getting shots into the arms of people in poorer countries, with some instead calling for more exports of the doses already being produced.While activists and humanitarian groups have cheered the Biden administration’s decision and urged others to follow suit, European Union leaders are hammering home the message that any benefit from a temporary waiver of intellectual property protections would be long in coming. Instead, they’ve taken the US, in particular, to task for not sharing more vaccines with…
Author: Mike Harrison
Each of the three oxygen generation plants – the size of 40-foot freight containers – produces 500 litres of oxygen a minute, enough for 50 people to use at a time. They are expected to reach India on Sunday morning, and the Indian Red Cross Society will transfer them to hospitals. PUBLISHED ON MAY 07, 2021 11:51 PM IST The UK is sending three 18-tonne oxygen generation plants, each capable of producing 500 litres a minute, on board the world’s largest cargo plane to help India overcome a severe shortage of oxygen amid a devastating second wave of Coronavirus infections.…
(Photo : Pexels/Sora Shimazaki) LiveLeaks video site shut down LiveLeak, a video site known for hosting gruesome footage that mainstream rivals would not touch, has now shut down after 15 years in operation. In its place is ItemFix, a site that bans users from uploading media containing excessive gory content or violence. LiveLeak Shuts Down In a blog post, LiveLeak founder Hayden Hewitt did not give a reason for the site’s closure. He only said that the world had changed a lot over the last few years, the Internet alongside it, and the society too. In a video posted on his YouTube channel Trigger…
Many of us are excited that COVID-19 vaccines are now widely available in the US, and it seems like Google Assistant is joining in. In fact, it’s got a song to share about it (via Android Police). You can listen to the song yourself by asking Google Assistant to “sing the vaccine song,” but I’ve also recorded it. Take a listen. Okay, hmm… where to start? I’ll give the music some props. It’s got a fun beat with a kind of crispy-sounding snare. I’d also call the synths “tastefully restrained.” Assistant will also, I discovered, sing the song in either…
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday gave the green light to China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, approving the vaccine to be rolled out globally.It is the first vaccine developed by a non-Western country to get the UN health agency’s backing though China has already vaccinated millions of people at home, since last year, and in dozens of other countries with it.“On the basis of all available evidence, WHO recommends the vaccine for adults 18 years and older, in a two-dose schedule with a spacing of three to four weeks. Vaccine efficacy for symptomatic and hospitalised disease was…
US vice-president Kamala Harris said on Friday the situation in India, which is battling a devastating second wave of Covid-19 cases, is “nothing short of heartbreaking” and America is “determined to help India in its hour of need”.Harris, whose mother came from India, spoke of the situation in India for the first time after the Biden administration pledged assistance worth $100 million to help it fight the second wave of the epidemic. Planeloads of supplies that have already reached India include refillable oxygen cylinders, N95 masks and remdesivir. The administration has also announced support for India and South Africa’s proposal…
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called Israel “not a country, but a terrorist base” during a speech on Al-Quds Day, an annual show of solidarity with the Palestinians.Thousands massed for rallies across several Muslim-majority countries including Iraq, Yemen and Pakistan for the day, seen in Israel as an expression of hatred and anti-Semitism.Tensions have been running high between arch-foes Iran and Israel following a series of maritime attacks, an explosion at an Iranian nuclear facility and the assassination of a top nuclear scientist that Tehran blamed on Israel.The Islamic republic does not recognise the Jewish state, and…
Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon hit a record last month, the government reported Friday with figures that belie President Jair Bolsonaro’s pledge to crack down on such destruction.The area of the rainforest that was destroyed — 580 square kilometers (225 square miles) — marked a new high for the month of April and a 42.5 percent on-year rise, according to satellite monitoring by the Brazilian space agency INPE. Its data goes back to 2015.The level for March was also higher than 12 months earlier, and followed two months of decline in the rainy season when logging activity decreases.From January through…
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken used a speech to the United Nations on multilateralism to issue a not-so-subtle rebuke of China’s behavior on everything from human rights to territorial disputes. He also acknowledged what he called American missteps during the Trump administration.Speaking minutes after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi — who was hosting the virtual UN Security Council event on Friday — Blinken appeared to take aim at Beijing’s expansive but disputed claims in the South China Sea and its treatment of Uyghur minorities in the western region of Xinjiang, as well as Russian actions toward Ukraine.Without ever saying…
Britain will allow people in England to resume international travel from May 17 but is limiting the number of destinations open for quarantine-free holidays to just a handful of countries as it cautiously emerges from lockdown restrictions.Portugal, Israel, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore all made the green list for travel in a system that will be reviewed every three weeks, transport minister Grant Shapps said on Friday. Popular destinations such as France, Spain and Greece did not.Airlines, holiday companies and tourist hotspots in southern Europe have been waiting for over four months for big-spending Britons to start travelling again, but…