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PERTH, Australia (AFP) — At least 71 homes have been destroyed in a bushfire raging out of control near Australia’s fourth-biggest city Perth, authorities said Wednesday, as they told residents to ignore a virus lockdown and evacuate threatened areas. The blaze has torn through large swathes of land in the Perth Hills and was moving towards more densely populated areas. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported so far. “To the people who have […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A prototype of a SpaceX rocket the company hopes will one day journey to Mars crashed in a fireball as it tried to land upright after a test flight Tuesday. It was the second such accident after the last prototype of Starship met a similar fate in December. “We had again another great flight,” said SpaceX announcer John Insprucker on an online broadcast. “We’ve just got to work on that […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — New York is to resume coronavirus vaccinations, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday, after the city’s biggest snowstorm in five years briefly halted the program. The winter storm brought chaos to the United States east coast on Monday, canceling thousands of flights, closing schools and forcing the postponement of Covid-19 vaccinations. The National Weather Service said that by 9:00 am (1400 GMT) Tuesday, 17.2 inches (43.7 centimeters) of snow […]
by Charlotte PLANTIVE WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Joe Biden’s immigration reform push received a boost Tuesday when the Senate confirmed his pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, as the US president seeks to roll back Donald Trump’s hardline policies. Cuban-born Alejandro Mayorkas, confirmed on a modestly bipartisan vote, becomes the first Latino and the first immigrant to head up DHS. His approval gives the expansive agency its first permanent leadership in nearly […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States will begin to offer Covid-19 vaccines at pharmacies from February 11, part of efforts to rapidly increase the rate at which shots reach arms. The White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters on Tuesday that because of supply constraints, the program would initially be limited to 6,500 participating pharmacies nationwide, before eventually expanding to 40,000. “This will provide more sites for people to get […]
by Anne-Laure MONDESERT / Dave CLARK Agence France Presse EU chief Ursula von der Leyen faces the deepest political crisis of her mandate so far, under intense fire over delayed vaccine deliveries and the bungled roll-out of export controls. No-one expects the storm to drive her from office — she still has powerful backing in Paris and Berlin — but the attacks underline concerns about Brussels’ coronavirus strategy. In Brussels, Dublin and London criticism […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Wikipedia on Tuesday unveiled a “universal code of conduct” aimed at stemming abuse, misinformation and manipulation on the global online encyclopedia. The new code was released by the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that administers Wikipedia, expanding on its existing policies to create a set of community standards to combat “negative behavior,” according to a statement. The new policy aims to thwart efforts to distort and manipulate content on Wikipedia, […]
by Kelly MACNAMARA Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is 91.6 percent effective against symptomatic Covid-19, according to results published in The Lancet on Tuesday that independent experts said allayed transparency concerns over the jab, which Moscow is already rolling out. Sputnik V — named after the Soviet-era satellite — was approved in Russia months before results from its final-stage clinical trials were published, leading to scepticism from experts. […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan on Tuesday extended a coronavirus state of emergency in several parts of the country, with less than six months to go until the pandemic-postponed Olympics. The month-long extension will cover 10 of the 11 areas currently under the measure, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said at a meeting with the taskforce guiding the government’s pandemic response. © Agence France-Presse
PERTH, Australia (AFP) — A wildfire on the fringes of Australia’s fourth-largest city Perth has destroyed several homes and forced emergency evacuations, authorities said Tuesday, just days after the west coast city entered a coronavirus lockdown. Firefighters are battling the out-of-control bushfire on the city’s eastern fringes, where several properties are ablaze and several fields have been blackened. Smoke from the fires sent ash falling in the Perth city centre, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) […]
by Marc BURLEIGH Agence France Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Commission said Monday a shortfall in deliveries from Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca had forced it to recalibrate its early coronavirus vaccination strategy. The head of the Commission’s health directorate, Sandra Gallina, told MEPs the firm has been able to guarantee just 25 percent of the more than 100 million doses promised and that this was “a real issue” for the EU’s 27 countries. […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — EU export rules are preventing Japan from finalizing its coronavirus vaccination plan, a Tokyo minister said Tuesday, after the bloc introduced a controversial new mechanism for the shipment of jabs made inside its borders. With less than six months until the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Olympics, Japan has yet to set out when it will vaccinate its population of 126 million people, although it hopes to give the first doses later in February. […]
