Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
by Marc BURLEIGH with Jitendra JOSHI in London Agence France Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — EU demands that AstraZeneca make up delays of its Covid-19 vaccine by supplying doses from its UK factories on Wednesday risked setting the bloc and Britain on a post-Brexit collision course. Both the European Union and former member Britain insisted the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company uphold contractual delivery promises to each of them — even as the company said there […]
PRETORIA, South Africa (AFP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday lashed “vaccine nationalism,” accusing rich countries of bulk-buying coronavirus vaccines and hoarding them to the detriment of others. Addressing the all-virtual 2021 World Economic Forum (WEF), Ramaphosa said low- and middle-income countries were being shouldered aside by wealthier nations able to acquire “up to four times what their population needs”. “We are concerned about vaccine nationalism,” he warned. “Rich countries in the world are […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — AstraZeneca’s CEO insisted Tuesday that the company was not selling vaccines ordered by the European Union to other countries at a profit, after delayed orders sparked fury from EU leaders. The British-Swedish drugs firm admitted last week that it would not meet its contractual delivery commitments to the EU because of “reduced yields” in its European supply chain. That prompted European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides to announce that the EU plans […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The UK coronavirus strain has been detected in at least 60 countries, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, 10 more than a week ago. With the global death toll now well past two million, and new variants of the virus causing deep concern, countries across the world are grappling with how to slow infections until vaccines become widely available. The South African strain, which like the UK one is believed […]
by Anna MALPAS with Agence France Presse bureaus LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Europe rushed to bulk buy more coronavirus vaccine doses and approved more drugs on Friday, as the World Health Organisation called on wealthy nations not to hog all the available jabs and millions in Asia faced tough restrictions over isolated outbreaks. The pandemic has already killed 1.9 million people out of 88 million infections and is picking up speed, with 14 […]
by Danny KEMP Agence France Presse THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — The European Union on Monday authorised the Moderna coronavirus jab, giving the bloc a second vaccine and a shot in the arm after a slow start to its bid to protect its 450 million residents. The sluggish rollout of the first vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech has drawn widespread criticism, as many of the bloc’s 27 countries battle surging infection rates. The European Commission […]
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — The EU’s drug regulator met for the second time this week on Wednesday to discuss whether to authorize Moderna’s coronavirus jab as criticism mounts of the bloc’s slow vaccine rollout. The approval of a second vaccine after Pfizer-BioNTech’s got the green light in December would be a shot in the arm for Europe, which is lagging behind the United States, Britain and Israel. The Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency brought forward […]
by Jitendra JOSHI and Phil HAZLEWOOD with Agence France Presse bureaus LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain on Thursday finally severed its turbulent half-century partnership with Europe, quitting the EU single market and customs union to go its own way four-and-a-half years after its shock vote to leave the bloc. Brexit, which has dominated politics on both sides of the Channel since 2016, became a reality as Big Ben struck 11:00 pm (2300 GMT) […]
by Jitendra JOSHI with Dave CLARK in Brussels Agence France Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain and the EU signed a post-Brexit trade deal on Wednesday, sealing their drawn-out divorce in the closing hours before the UK definitively ends its half-century European experiment. Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the heads of the European Commission and European Council, smiled at a brief televised ceremony to put their names to the 1,246-page Trade […]
by Agence France Presse bureaus PARIS, France (AFP) — The European Union began a vaccine rollout Saturday, even as countries in the bloc were forced back into lockdown by a new strain of the virus, believed to be more infectious, that continues to spread from Britain. The pandemic has claimed more than 1.7 million lives and is still running rampant in much of the world, but the recent launching of innoculation campaigns has boosted […]
by Marc BURLEIGH Agence France Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — From January 1 British and EU citizens will be confronted with the reality of Brexit as the transition period ends and borders that were done away with decades ago return. From that date, Britons will be treated by the EU as “third country” nationals, no longer enjoying freedom of movement to work, study or retire across the European Union. Britain in turn will process […]
by Martine PAUWELS with Agence France Presse bureaus LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Europe on Wednesday began lifting travel bans on Britain put in place to contain a new fast-spreading Covid strain while WHO experts were set to meet on a response to it. Meanwhile, in the United States, President Donald Trump rejected a massive Covid economic relief package passed by Congress, branding it “a disgrace” as millions of Americans are suffering fallout from […]
