Six In The Morning Wednesday 9 December 2020

 

Covid-19 vaccine: Allergy warning over new jab

By Nick Triggle and Rachel Schraer
BBC News

People with a history of significant allergic reactions should not have the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid jab, regulators say.

It came after two NHS workers had allergic reactions on Tuesday.

The advice applies to those who have had reactions to medicines, food or vaccines, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said.

The two people had a reaction shortly after having the new jab, had treatment and are both fine now.

Deep-sea ‘gold rush’: secretive plans to carve up the seabed decried

Greenpeace report warns against granting licences to ‘deeply destructive’ industry with opaque oversight, and calls for global ocean treaty

Jonathan Watts

@jonathanwatts

Wed 9 Dec 2020 00.01 GMT

Private mining firms and arms companies are exerting a hidden and unhealthy influence on the fate of the deep-sea bed, according to a new report highlighting the threats facing the world’s biggest intact ecosystem.

An investigation by Greenpeace found a handful of corporations in Europe and North America are increasingly dominating exploration contracts, mainly in search of cobalt and nickel, and have at times taken the place of government representatives at meetings of the oversight body, the UN’s International Seabed Authority (ISA).

Greenpeace said this undermines effective environmental management and fair distribution of risks and rewards from the ocean floor, which some states and companies want to open up for exploitation next year.

Hibernating lizards and snakes halt construction at Tesla ‘gigafactory’ in Berlin

Environment groups warn relocation of European protected species cannot be done quickly

Harry Cockburn

Hibernating snakes and lizards have seen electric car manufacturer Tesla’s construction work on a huge new “gigafactory” outside Berlin brought to a halt after a German court ordered forest clearance work to stop as it could endanger the animals.

Environmental groups launched an urgent court action against the felling of more than 200 acres of pine trees at the site in Gruenheide, south of the capital.

The bright green sand lizard, which is rare in western Europe, is a protected European species, and numbers are declining due to habitat destruction and fragmentation.

Boeing 737 MAX lands in Brazil in first commercial flight since crashes

More than 20 months after it was grounded following two deadly crashes, Boeing's 737 MAX returned to the skies Wednesday with a commercial flight in Brazil, said AFP journalists on board.

Low-cost airline Gol's Flight 4104 from Sao Paulo to the southern city of Porto Alegre took off using the revamped jet in a first that Boeing hopes will turn the page on a badly damaging crisis in the wake of the twin crashes.

Most passengers aboard the 88-percent booked and 90-minute flight took little notice of the model number painted on the plane's nose, and Gol made no fanfare for the occasion.

Growing influence by stealth?

China’s long UN game

China has grown skilled at strengthening its position within select UN institutions, increasing its international reputation. This has helped burnish its environmental credentials, downplay its human rights abuses and boost support for its Belt and Road Initiative.

by Jeanne Hughes

Back in 2005, Chinese employees of the UN felt supernumerary. Wan Jingzhang, the now retired Chinese diplomat who long headed the Iraq Sanctions Committee, told Chinese media, ‘There are only a handful of senior Chinese officials at the UN. And it’s not because of a lack of senior positions’. China’s small team of officials at UN headquarters in New York were mostly translators and editors, and the non-linguists, Wan said, ‘tend[ed] to work in technical or general services’. He suggested that the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, which organises its sessions, was the only one of the UN Secretariat’s eight directorates that might be entrusted to a Chinese official, who would then reach the rank of under-secretary-general (USG).

New officials appointed for Champions League match suspended after alleged racist incident

By Ben Church and Aleks Klosok, CNN

Updated 1425 GMT (2225 HKT) December 9, 2020

European football's governing body UEFA has announced that a new refereeing team will officiate the resumption of the Champions League match between Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir, which was marred by alleged racism.

Tuesday's game was suspended after both teams walked off the pitch in protest after an official was accused of making a racist comment towards Basaksehir assistant coach Pierre Webo, who is Cameroonian.

After being shown a red card by the match referee, Webo could be heard over the broadcast of French channel RMC Sport repeatedly asking: "Why [did] you say negro?" and pointing at the fourth official Sebastian Colţescu.