Monday, November 16, 2020

Six In The Morning Monday 16 November 2020

 

Moderna: Covid vaccine shows nearly 95% protection


By James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent

A new vaccine that protects against Covid-19 is nearly 95% effective, early data from US company Moderna shows.

The results come hot on the heels of similar results from Pfizer, and add to growing confidence that vaccines can help end the pandemic.

Both companies used a highly innovative and experimental approach to designing their vaccines.

Moderna says it is a "great day" and they plan to apply for approval to use the vaccine in the next few weeks.

However, this is still early data and key questions remain unanswered.


EU plans to increase offshore windfarm capacity by 250%


Proposal would create 62,000 jobs and help towards carbon neutrality, says commission

 in Brussels

The capacity of the EU’s offshore windfarms in the North Sea, the Baltic, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea will be increased by 250%, under a draft plan drawn up by the European commission.

The move follows Boris Johnson’s announcement this year of his intention to generate enough electricity to power every home in the UK within a decade from the country’s offshore sites.

Both the UK and the EU are seeking to both make progress on the target of carbon emission neutrality by 2050 and pioneer potentially rival innovations that will put its industry at the forefront of the growing sector.


Peru now has no president as crisis takes chaotic turn

Who is the president of Peru

Via AP news wire




Who is the president of Peru?

That answer to that question early Monday was no one.

The Latin American nation’s political turmoil took a chaotic turn Sunday when interim leader Manuel Merino quit and Congress couldn’t decide on his replacement. That left Peru rudderless and in crisis less than a week after legislators ignited a storm of protest by removing President Martín Vizcarra, an anti-corruption crusader highly popular among Peruvians.


Australia back on outbreak alert as one state reports jump in virus cases


By Byron Kaye and Swati Pandey

South Australia reported 14 new coronavirus cases on Monday, a rapid spike in the state's first outbreak since April, prompting officials to impose social distancing restrictions.

The cluster also prompted some other Australian states to reimpose strict quarantine measures on anybody arriving from South Australia - just days after Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he expected all internal borders to be open by Christmas.

South Australia authorities first reported three locally-acquired COVID-19 cases on Sunday, saying the outbreak was caused by a worker from a quarantine hotel infecting family members. By Monday, case numbers had jumped to 17.

Macron criticises media over coverage after France attacks

French President Emmanuel Macron says media coverage of France’s stance following attacks is ‘legitimising’ violence.

President Emmanuel Macron called a New York Times writer to criticise English-language coverage of France’s stance on what it calls “Islamist separatism” after recent attacks, arguing it amounts to “legitimising” violence.

“When France was attacked five years ago, every nation in the world supported us,” Macron told Ben Smith during the call, which Smith described in his Sunday column.

“So when I see, in that context, several newspapers which I believe are from countries that share our values … when I see them legitimising this violence, and saying that the heart of the problem is that France is racist and Islamophobic, then I say the founding principles have been lost.”

Trump's failure to work with Biden is becoming more urgent as Covid spreads


Updated 1239 GMT (2039 HKT) November 16, 2020



President Donald Trump is facing a barrage of calls to permit potentially life-saving transition talks between his health officials and incoming President-elect Joe Biden's aides on a fast-worsening pandemic he is continuing to ignore in his obsessive effort to discredit an election that he clearly lost.

The increasingly urgent pleas are coming from inside his administration, the President-elect's team and independent public health experts as Covid-19 cases rage out of control countrywide, claiming more than 1,000 US lives a day. More than 246,000 Americans have now died from the disease, and a bitter winter lies ahead even amid encouraging news such as Monday's announcement that a vaccine developed by Moderna is demonstrating a high success rate in early clinical trials, the second such positive vaccine news in about a week.




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