Six In The Morning Thursday 9 December 2021

 

Omicron: WHO concerned rich countries could hoard vaccines

The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern that wealthy countries will start to hoard Covid vaccines in response to the rapid spread of the new Omicron variant.

It said this could threaten supplies to nations where most people are still unvaccinated.

Some rich countries are accelerating the roll-out of a booster shot in response to Omicron.

There are concerns that vaccines are less effective against the variant.

China says Australia, UK and US will ‘pay price’ for Winter Olympics action

Beijing accuses nations of using Games ‘for political manipulation’ amid diplomatic boycotts

Vincent Ni and agencies

Thu 9 Dec 2021 11.19 GMT

China has said that Australia, Britain and the US will pay a price for their “mistaken acts” after deciding not to send government delegations to the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February, in the latest warning demonstrating China’s escalating diplomatic tensions with the US and its major allies.

The US was the first to announce a boycott, saying on Monday its government officials would not attend the February Games because of China’s human rights “atrocities”, weeks after talks aimed at easing tension between the world’s two largest economies.

Nobel laureate: Media should fight for facts, not each other

Maria Ressa, joint winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace prize says media worldwide should join forces in “fighting for facts” amid threats to press freedoms instead of competing with each other

Via AP news wire

Media worldwide should join forces in “fighting for facts” amid threats to press freedoms instead of competing with each other, Maria Ressa joint winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace prize, said Thursday on the eve of the award ceremony in Norway's capital.

Speaking at an Oslo press conference with fellow laureate Dmitry Muratov of Russia, Ressa, a Filipina, said that “the era of competition for news is dead.”

"I think this is a time when we’re on the same side fighting for facts and we’re going to need to find new ways of collaboration, not just each in our countries, but also globally,” she said.

CPJ: Record number of journalists jailed worldwide in 2021

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has released a new report showing the number of jailed journalists hit a new record in 2021. With 293 behind bars globally, an additional 24 journalists were killed.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Thursday that the number of journalists who are jailed for their work worldwide set a new high record in 2021. 

Globally, 293 journalists are in prison, with China as the world's worst offender in 2021, according to the CPJ's annual census and global analysis of journalists imprisoned or killed. 

This is up from 2020 when 280 journalists found themselves incarcerated as a result of their work.

Worldwide, at least 24 journalists died due to their work over the course of this year.

Experimental mRNA vaccine for HIV shows promise in animals

An experimental HIV vaccine based on mRNA -- the same technology used in two highly successful Covid-19 vaccines -- has shown promise in experiments in mice and monkeys, according to a study published Thursday in Nature Medicine.

The research, which was carried out by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Moderna and other institutions, demonstrated that the vaccine was safe and prompted desired antibody and cellular immune responses against an HIV-like virus.

Rhesus macaques that received a priming shot followed by multiple boosters had a 79 percent lower per-exposure risk of infection by simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) compared to unvaccinated animals.

Iran nuclear deal talks resume in Vienna amid frictions

The deal’s remaining signatories meet as European countries urge Iran to bring ‘realistic proposals’ to ease negotiations.

Negotiations between Iran and world powers aimed at salvaging a tattered 2015 nuclear deal have resumed in Vienna after a few days’ pause, with tensions high after Tehran made demands last week that European countries strongly criticised.

European Union diplomat Enrique Mora, who chaired Thursday’s meeting of all the deal’s remaining signatories – Iran, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China – said afterwards that he felt “a renewed sense of purpose on the need to work and to reach an agreement on bringing the (agreement) back to life”.