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British and EU negotiators have dug in their heels and each is demanding more concessions from the other as post-Brexit trade talks dragged on into Sunday, deadlocked on fishing rights.Sources from each side said that unless the other backed down on access to U.K. waters, Britain would leave the single market at midnight December 31 without a deal on cross-channel commerce.”We’re continuing to try every possible path to an agreement, but without a substantial shift from the [European] Commission we will be leaving on WTO terms on 31 December,” a British government source said.But an EU diplomat told Agence France-Presse that Brussels had made Britain its last offer on fishing and it was down now to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to decide whether he wanted a deal.”If Britain doesn’t accept the latest EU offer, it will be a ‘no deal’ over fish,” he warned. A European official said: “It’s very blocked.”The tough talk came as both sides engaged in intense negotiations to secure a pact before the end of the month. No deal would risk chaos at EU and U.K. borders, where a pre-deadline rush has caused long lines of lorries.Observers, however, noted that the fishing issue was about finding middle ground between offer and counteroffer in an economically small sector, while the much bigger other main issue, on guaranteeing fair trade competition rules, was closer to settlement.”It’s all down to numbers now,” the European diplomat said.British chief negotiator David Frost arrives at the U.K. delegation office for Brexit talks in Brussels, Dec. 19, 2020. EU fishing rights in British waters were proving to be a hurdle to securing a post-Brexit trade deal.The EU’s lead negotiator, Michel Barnier, has proposed that EU fishermen give up nearly a quarter of the value of the fish they currently catch in U.K. waters. Britain is understood to be holding out for getting back much more than half.The U.K. has suggested this compromise last for three years before it is renegotiated, whereas Europe is holding out for double that.Fishermen ‘sold down the river’EU fishermen fear losing any access to the rich U.K. fishing waters will threaten their livelihoods.”We are in the throes of being sold down the river,” the European Fisheries Alliance said in a statement, urging Barnier to stick to protecting them. “The shape of a deal as currently stands would give a huge blow to the European seafood sector, which is made up of more than 18,000 fishermen and 3,500 vessels with an annual turnover of 20.7 billion euros.”Time is very short to reach an accord. The European Parliament has highlighted a deadline of midnight (2300 GMT) on Sunday to receive a deal for review if its members are to ratify it before the end of the year.Their U.K. parliamentary counterparts are in recess but can be recalled within 48 hours to do likewise.But EU capitals are not binding themselves to the European Parliament’s deadline.France’s European affairs minister, Clement Beaune, said talks would not be called to a halt if they dragged out past Sunday night.’Concerns’ Britain not readyThe urgency of reaching a deal is seen in long lines of trucks at the freight rail link through the Channel tunnel as British companies frantically stockpile.A group of U.K. MPs warned Saturday that Britain had not installed the complex IT systems and port infrastructure needed to ensure trade with the EU runs smoothly.Some disruption is inevitable, deal or no deal, with British and European firms needing to fill out import-export, health and tax forms to send and receive goods to each other.A deal would avoid tariffs but there would still be traffic snarls as checks on truck loads and drivers’ papers are carried out.
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U.S. President Donald Trump is downplaying the severity of a massive cybersecurity breach by suspected Russian operatives that has exposed the networks of government agencies and private sector companies, contradicting the assertions of his secretary of state and lawmakers briefed on the matter.After days of silence, Trump took to Twitter on Saturday for his first comments on the hack, which is thought to have impacted at least 18,000 customers of SolarWinds, a Texas-based software management company. Those affected include the Energy, Treasury and Commerce departments, as well as state and local governments.But unlike intelligence officials and lawmakers, who warned that damage from the breach was ongoing, the president said that “everything is well under control.”“I have been fully briefed,” he wrote. “The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality.”Trump also cast doubt on comments late Friday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said it appeared that Russia was responsible.The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – This Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Washington.U.S. intelligence and cybersecurity agencies have yet to make a formal attribution for the hack, which they said was under way at least as early as March.The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI on Saturday declined to comment on Trump’s tweets, standing by a joint statement issued Wednesday, which described the hack only as part of a “significant and ongoing cybersecurity campaign.”Since then, however, in a series of updated alerts, the cybersecurity unit of the U.S. Homeland Security Department — the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — has warned that the problem was not contained to software from SolarWinds.Other platforms“CISA has evidence of initial access vectors other than the SolarWinds Orion platform,” one alert said, adding that the agency was investigating instances in which other platforms were used to access critical networks.“This threat poses a grave risk to the federal government and state, local, tribal and territorial governments as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations,” CISA said. “This is a patient, well-resourced and focused adversary that has sustained long duration activity on victim networks.”In the meantime, CISA’s former director answered some of the president’s Twitter allegations, rejecting the notion that the hack could have in any way changed the results of November’s presidential election.“Do not conflate voting system security and SolarWinds,” said Christopher Krebs, who had played a leading role in the country’s election security efforts until Trump fired him last month, two weeks after American voters cast their ballots.Trump Fires Security Chief Who Said 2020 Vote Was ‘Most Secure’ in US History President late Tuesday fired the director of the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency, alleging Christopher Krebs made ‘highly inaccurate’ comments about security of the November 3 vote “The proof is in the paper,” Krebs said, referring to the widespread use of paper ballot backups. “You can audit or recount again to confirm the outcome. Like they did in Georgia. And Michigan. And Wisconsin. And Arizona. Can’t hack paper.”Do not conflate voting system security and SolarWinds. The proof is in the paper. You can audit or recount again to confirm the outcome. Like they did in Georgia. And Michigan. And Wisconsin. And Arizona. Can’t hack paper.
— Chris Krebs (@C_C_Krebs) December 19, 2020Top lawmakers briefed on the hack also went on social media Saturday, pushing back against Trump’s insistence without evidence that Russia might not be responsible for the breach.“Increasingly clear that Russian intelligence conducted the gravest cyber intrusion in our history,” the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Marco Rubio, tweeted.“The process of determining its extent & assessing the damage is underway,” Rubio said, adding, “Our response must be proportional but significant.”Increasingly clear that Russian intelligence conducted the gravest cyber intrusion in our history
The process of determining its extent & assessing the damage is underway
Remediation will take time & significant resources
Our response must be proportional but significant
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 19, 2020The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Democrat Adam Schiff, meanwhile, castigated Trump for his response to the cyber breach.“Another day, another scandalous betrayal of our national security by this president,” Schiff tweeted. “Another dishonest tweet that sounds like it could have been written in the Kremlin.”Another day, another scandalous betrayal of our national security by this president.
Another dishonest tweet that sounds like it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Another obsequious display towards Putin.
And yet another reason that Trump can’t leave office fast enough. https://t.co/ILNh3KnfbT
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 19, 2020Indications of a cyber intrusion went public earlier this month when the private cybersecurity firm FireEye announced its systems had been penetrated and that sensitive information had been stolen.The hack was later traced to updates for network management software from SolarWinds, though officials said the hackers were also using other software and systems to reach inside government and private sector networks.Research by tech giant Microsoft, made public Thursday, indicated the hackers precisely targeted at least 40 organizations. The vast majority were in the United States, but companies in Canada, Mexico, Britain, Belgium, Israel and the United Arab Emirates were also attacked.Not ‘espionage as usual’“This is not ‘espionage as usual,’ even in the digital age,” Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote on the company’s blog. “This is not just an attack on specific targets, but on the trust and reliability of the world’s critical infrastructure.”Former U.S. government officials also expressed concern about the impact of the hack.“The scope of it is large but exactly how large remains to be seen, and exactly how severe remains to be seen,” Michael Daniel, who served as a special assistant to former U.S. President Barack Obama on cyber issues, told VOA’s Russian Service.“The damage could be very, very significant to U.S. national security and to our economic security,” he said.Tom Bossert, a former homeland security adviser to Trump, said Saturday in a thread on Twitter, “It is clear that a foreign government is holding American networks at risk.”“If it’s Russia, as all indications suggest, the free world — led by the United States — must impose costs on the Kremlin,” Bossert added. “Our long-term goals must be to regain network integrity and control and to establish geopolitical deterrence.”It is clear that a foreign government is holding American networks at risk. @SecPompeo took a necessary step attributing the attack to Russia. That step requires formalization. 1/
— Thomas P. Bossert (@TomBossert) December 19, 2020U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday called the cybersecurity breach, “a matter of great concern.”“I want to be clear: My administration will make cybersecurity a top priority at every level of government — and we will make dealing with this breach a top priority from the moment we take office,” he said in a statement shortly after the latest CISA alert was issued.“Our adversaries should know that, as president, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation,” he added.Biden is set to be inaugurated as the 46th U.S. president on January 20.Wayne Lee and the VOA Russian Service’s Danila Galperovich contributed to this report.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed new coronavirus lockdown measures in England Saturday, reversing initial plans to ease restrictions during the holiday season after a new strain of the coronavirus was detected in the country. “I know how much emotion people invest in this time of year …I know how disappointing this will be,” Johnson said at a news conference. “There is no alternative open to me.”Britain’s PM Boris Johnson attends a news conference, together with Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer and Patrick Vallance, UK Gov. Chief Scientific Adviser, in response to the ongoing situation with the coronavirus, London , Dec. 19, 2020.Whitty said Britain has alerted the World Health Organization about the strain, which British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday was detected in the south of England.As a result of the new measures that become effective at midnight Saturday night, people in London and southeast England are now under a new higher tier of restrictions, affecting about one-third of the country’s population. They will be required to remain at home except for essential reasons, such as work. Non-essential retail stores will close, along with leisure and entertainment venues.In the U.S., American drug maker Moderna, Inc. and partners have started distributing its COVID-19 vaccine, the second approved for emergency use in the country. Trucks will begin shipping the vaccine to more than 3,700 U.S. locations on Sunday, U.S. Army General Gustave Perna said Saturday during a virtual news conference.FDA Approves Emergency Use of Second Coronavirus VaccineVice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi receive shots Friday Perna said the Moderna vaccine will reach health care workers as early as Monday, but that the delivery of some of the first 20 million doses of vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, Inc. could be delayed until the first week of January.Nearly 76 million people around the world contracted the coronavirus as of midday Saturday, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. More Than 75 Million Global Coronavirus CasesUS has more COVID cases than any other countryThe U.S. tops the list as the country with the most cases, with 17.5 million; India is second, with more than 10 million, followed by Brazil, with 7.1 million.  Medical residents staged a protest Friday at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, California, because they and other frontline medical professionals, including nurses and respiratory therapists, were not included among the staff members scheduled to receive the coronavirus vaccine.  Stanford apologized and has promised to remedy the situation “immediately.”Turkish state-run media said eight people were killed in a fire that broke out in an intensive care unit where COVID-19 patients were being treated.   The Anadolu news agency said the fire erupted Saturday when an oxygen cylinder exploded at Sanko University Hospital in Gaziantep in southern Turkey. A hospital statement said 14 other patients have been transferred to other hospitals.  Zeng Yixin, vice minister of China’s National Health Commission, said Saturday the country would focus on vaccinating high-risk groups over the next several months before beginning to vaccinate the general public. “During the winter and spring seasons, carrying out novel coronavirus vaccination work among some key population groups is of great significance to epidemic prevention,” Zeng, who also is director of State Council’s vaccine R&D working group, said.  The World Health Organization said it has gained access to 2 billion doses of several coronavirus vaccines.  WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said access to the vaccines ensures that some 190 countries will be able to inoculate their populations “during the first half of next year.”  South Korea has recorded four straight days of more than 1,000 coronavirus cases.  The government is offering free testing because of the surge, but has not yet decided what, if any, new measures will be imposed to curb the uptick.Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic is the latest European leader to test positive for the coronavirus.  French President Emmanuel Macron has also announced that he has contracted COVID-19.  Both men attended an EU summit last week in Brussels. In Australia, portions of Sydney are set to adhere to new lockdown measures, following an outbreak of 38 cases on the city’s beaches. The lockdown begins late Saturday and goes until midnight Wednesday.   “We’re hoping that will give us sufficient time to get on top of the virus so that we can then ease up for Christmas and the New Year,” said Gladys Berejiklian, the state premier of New South Wales.
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British scientists were scrambling Saturday to work out whether a mutant strain of the coronavirus, which has been spreading rapidly in England this month, may be resistant to the crop of newly developed vaccines.The strain was first identified on December 13 in the county of Kent in southern England, and initial analysis by government scientists suggested it is “growing faster than the existing variants.”Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a news conference in response to the ongoing situation with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, inside 10 Downing Street, London ,Britain, Dec. 19, 2020.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held an unscheduled meeting of ministers Friday amid mounting alarm about the threat posed by the mutant strain, which has been named VUI-202012/01. Johnson said at a press conference Saturday that there was no evidence so far to suggest vaccines would be any less effective against the new strain, but he added that “there is still much we don’t know.”He noted the new strain was up to 70% more transmissible than prior strains.The British leader announced a virtual lockdown for London and the southeast of England, with people urged to stay at home. All nonessential stores are now to close, and people should not enter or leave the British capital or large parts of southeast of England.“We can’t continue with Christmas as planned,” said Johnson, noting that a previously announced relaxation of rules for the holidays would be reversed. In London and southern England, households now can’t mix to celebrate Christmas. Elsewhere in the country, up to three households can mix but only for Christmas Day itself.“I must stress how complicated it is to work out, in a situation where things might be growing for other reasons, to really put your finger on that it’s actually the virus that is doing it, but the evidence is pointing in that direction,” Ewan Birney, deputy director of the European Molecular Biological Laboratory, told the BBC.More Than 75 Million Global Coronavirus CasesUS has more COVID cases than any other countryMidweek, Health Minister Matt Hancock said the new strain might be associated with the faster transmission of the virus in the southeast of England and London, but there was “nothing to suggest” it caused a worse disease, or that it might be resistant to vaccines that have only just received approval in Britain and the U.S.England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said Britain had alerted the World Health Organization about the fast transmissibility of the variant strain.“There is no current evidence to suggest the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is under way to confirm this,” he said in a statement.Jeremy Farrar, a government adviser and director of the Wellcome Trust, Britain’s largest medical research endowment, warned Saturday of his concern. He tweeted: “The new strain of COVID-19 is worrying & real cause for concern & extra caution. Research is ongoing to understand more but acting urgently now is critical. There is no part of the UK & globally that should not be concerned. As in many countries, the situation is fragile.”The new strain of Covid-19 is worrying & real cause for concern & extra caution. Research is ongoing to understand more, but acting urgently now is critical. There is no part of the UK & globally that should not be concerned. As in many countries, the situation is fragile.
— Jeremy Farrar (@JeremyFarrar) Britain’s PM Boris Johnson attends a news conference, together with Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer and Patrick Vallance, UK Gov. Chief Scientific Adviser, in response to the ongoing situation with the coronavirus, London , Dec. 19, 2020.Hospitals in England are seeing a record number of patients suffering from COVID-19, the disease triggered by the coronavirus. About 38 million people in England already were under tough coronavirus restrictions before Saturday’s announcement. The new measures amount to a virtual lockdown, something Johnson had said just a few days ago he would do everything to avoid.Johnson’s decision to cancel Christmas for much of England prompted the fury of some lawmakers from his ruling Conservative Party. Many have fulminated for weeks against what they see as heavy-handed government and a lack of parliamentary oversight.“The changes must be put to a vote on the Commons at the earliest opportunity,” said Mark Harper, chairman of the COVID Recovery Group of Tory MPs who have criticized government handling of the pandemic.Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition party, Labour, accused Johnson of indecisiveness. He had been calling for tougher restrictions for weeks and had warned against relaxing Christmas rules.“Millions of families across the country are going to be heartbroken by this news — having their Christmas plans ripped up. And I’m really frustrated because I raised this with the prime minister on Wednesday and he dismissed that and went on to tell people to have a merry little Christmas, only three days later to rip up their plans,” Starmer told British broadcasters.British health authorities announced a further 27,052 confirmed cases of infection across Britain on Saturday and 534 more fatalities.In all, 66,541 Britons have died from COVID-19, just 4,500 short of the total British civilian death toll in the Second World War.
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Bulgaria accuses a Russian diplomat of spying and is expelling him from the country.  “The foreign ministry of the Republic of Bulgaria declared persona non grata a diplomat from the Russian embassy in Sofia and gave him 72 hours to leave the country due to activities incompatible with his diplomatic status,” Bulgaria’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.Russia said the charges against its diplomat are “groundless.” Prosecutors say the diplomat had been gathering information for years on the deployment of U.S. troops in Bulgaria. The U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria said in a statement: “We have in recent weeks and months seen too many examples of Russian officials carrying out aggressive actions, from espionage in Bulgaria to poisoning opponents both at home and abroad. Bulgaria is a strong NATO ally and partner and has an unalienable right to defend its sovereignty.”Neither Bulgaria nor Russia revealed the identity of the diplomat, but the Associated Press reports that local media identified the diplomat as Colonel Vasiliy Sazanovich.Bulgaria has expelled at least five Russia diplomats over the past year that it has accused of spying. The eastern European country is a NATO and European Union member, but it was once one of Russia’s closest allies during the Cold War. 
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Irma Baralija is looking forward to Sunday, when she intends to vote and hopes win her race in the first local election in 12 years held in her hometown — the southern Bosnian city of Mostar.To make that possible, the 36-year-old Baralija had to sue her country in the European Court of Human Rights for letting a stalemate between two major nationalist political parties in Bosnia prevent her, along about 100,000 other Mostar residents, from voting or running in a municipal election for over a decade.By winning in court in October 2019, Baralija believes she has “busted the myth (that nationalist parties) have been feeding to us, that an individual cannot move things forward, that we matter only as members of our ethnic groups.”Parties representing only one ethnic group have dominated Bosnian politics since the end of the country’s devastating 1992-95 war, which pitted its three main ethnic factions — Serbs, Croats and Muslims — against each other after the break-up of Yugoslavia.”I hope that my example will inspire citizens of Mostar, when they vote on Sunday, to be brave, to realize that as individuals we can bring positive change,” said Baralija, who is running for a seat in the city council on the ticket of the small, multi-ethnic Our Party.Divided between Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats, who fought fiercely for control over the city during the 1990s conflict, Mostar has not held local polls since 2008, when Bosnia’s constitutional court declared its election rules to be discriminatory and ordered that they be changed.The dominant nationalist Bosniak and Croat political parties, the SDA and the HDZ respectively, have spent over a decade failing to agree about how to do that. Meanwhile, Mostar was run by a de facto acting mayor, HDZ’s Ljubo Beslic, and his office, which included the SDA’s representatives, with no local council to oversee their work or the allocation of nearly 230 million euros from the city’s coffers they have spent over the years.Left without fully functioning institutions, Mostar — one of the Balkan nation’s main tourist destinations — had seen its infrastructure crumble, trash repeatedly pile up on its streets and hazardous waste and wastewater treatment sludge dumped in its only landfill, which was supposed to be for non-hazardous waste.An agreement between the two parties, endorsed by the top European Union and the U.S. diplomats in Bosnia, was finally reached last June — eight months after the court in Strasbourg had ruled in favor of Baralija and gave Bosnia six months to amend its election laws so a vote can be held in Mostar.A city dividedMostar is divided in half by a river. During the war, Croats moved to the western side and Muslims to the east. Since the fighting stopped, the city has had two post offices, two electricity and water suppliers, two phone networks, two public hospitals and more — one crumbling set for each ethnic group.On Sunday, several small, multiethnic parties will be vying for seats in the city council after campaigning on bread-and-butter issues. But the nationalist HDZ and SDA parties hope that, among them, they will secure a two-thirds majority in the council and keep their grip on power.While acknowledging that the nationalists have armies of faithful voters whom they mobilize by stoking ethnic mistrust, non-nationalist election candidates in Mostar hope the past 12 years has shown that those two parties are too corrupt and incompetent.”I think that many people finally realized that the abstract, ethnic interests are meaningless while their children are leaving (Mostar) in droves in search of decent jobs and a decent life” elsewhere in Europe, said Amna Popovac, a candidate from the multi-ethnic Platform for Progress party.The nationalists are now promising to fix the city’s many problems as if “Martians and not they were running Mostar, unchecked, for the past 12 years,” she added.Miljan Rupar’s name will also be on the ballot. The 35-year-old, who is running as a candidate from the multi-ethnic Social Democrat Party, decided to get involved in politics after realizing that over 38 friends and relatives, including his sister, had left Mostar “for good” in search of a better life abroad.Rupar wants his city focused on the future, just like the international school where he teaches physics, the United World College branch in Mostar. The school is one of 17 around the globe and run by a movement founded in 1962 with the aim of overcoming Cold War divisions by bringing high-achieving youngsters from all over to live and learn together.”When I walk into the classroom or attend our bi-weekly assembly and see students and teachers from all over the world, including from various parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina, who share the same values and goals, it gives me hope,” he said.Political journalist Faruk Kajtaz, however, thinks that hope could prove to be treacherous in the divided city, despite local voters’ well-justified grievances. He notes that not just Mostar but all of Bosnia has long been politically and administratively fragmented along ethnic lines.”Maybe too much is expected from the people of Mostar,” he said. “(But) just the fact that citizens of Mostar will finally get a chance to vote for their local legislators is in itself a big win for democracy.”   
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Armenia on Saturday began three days of mourning for the victims of clashes with Azerbaijan as the opposition kept up pressure on the country’s leader to resign over the handling of the conflict.More than 5,000 people including civilians were killed in Armenia and Azerbaijan when clashes erupted between the ex-Soviet enemies in late September over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.The war ended in November with a Moscow-brokered peace agreement that saw the Armenians cede swathes of territory to Azerbaijan, which has been backed by close ally Turkey.The deal sparked fury in Armenia, with the opposition urging Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign.On the first day of the national mourning on Saturday, Pashinyan was expected to lead a procession to a memorial complex in the capital Yerevan where victims of the conflict are buried.The opposition planned to hold a separate march later in the day. Pashinyan’s critics have called on supporters to stage a national strike, starting Tuesday.”The entire nation has been through and is going through a nightmare,” Pashinyan said in a video address ahead of the memorial march.”Sometimes it seems that all of our dreams have been dashed and our optimism destroyed,” he added.The 45-year-old former newspaper editor was propelled to power in 2018 after he channeled widespread desire for change into a broad protest movement against corrupt post-Soviet elites.But after six weeks of clashes with Azerbaijan, many have called Pashinyan a “traitor” for agreeing to what they say is a humiliating deal with Azerbaijan. He has so far refused to step down.As part of the peace deal Russia deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeeping troops to Karabakh.Moscow said on Friday that a Russian mine clearer was killed by a blast in Karabakh when an explosive went off earlier this week.
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The Trump administration has notified Congress that it intends to shutter the two remaining U.S. consulates in Russia.The State Department told lawmakers last week that it would permanently close the consulate in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok and temporarily suspend operations at the consulate in Yekaterinburg just east of the Ural Mountains.The notice was sent to Congress on Dec. 10 but received little attention at the time. That timing predates by three days the public emergence of news about a major suspected Russian computer intrusion into U.S. government and private computer systems that has raised grave cybersecurity fears.The department’s notification to Congress, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, says the closures are because of caps placed by Russian authorities in 2017 on the number of U.S. diplomats allowed to work in the country.Artists from Russia’s city of Yekaterinburg work on the ice sculpture “Muse of Victory” during the annual international festival of snow and ice sculptures “Magical Ice of Siberia”, in Krasnoyarsk, Russia Feb. 28, 2019.The moves are “in response to ongoing staffing challenges of the U.S. Mission in Russia in the wake of the 2017 Russian-imposed personnel cap on the U.S. Mission and resultant impasse with Russia over diplomatic visas,” it said.Following the closures, the only diplomatic facility the U.S. will have in Russia will be the embassy in Moscow. Russia ordered the closure of the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg in 2018 after the U.S. ordered the Russian consulate in Seattle closed in tit-for-tat actions over the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain.The consulate in Vladivostok had been temporarily closed in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, and staffers there had already begun removing sensitive equipment, documents and other items. The consulates in Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg employ a total of 10 American diplomats and 33 local staff.The exact timing of the closures has yet to be determined. The American staff are to be relocated to the embassy in Moscow, while the locals will be laid off, according to the notice. The department estimated the permanent closure of the Vladivostok consulate would save $3.2 million per year.The closures will leave the U.S. without diplomatic representation in a massive swath of Russia — everywhere east of Moscow — and present a major inconvenience for American travelers in Russia’s far east, as well as Russians in the region seeking visas to come to the United States, as all consular services will be handled out of the Moscow embassy.
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Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht announced Friday it has changed its name to Novonor, attempting to turn over a new leaf following years of high-profile and damaging corruption scandals across Latin America.”We’re not erasing the past. The past cannot be erased,” said Mauricio Odebrecht, who represents the majority shareholder, in a statement.”After all the changes and course corrections we’ve instituted, now we’re looking at what we want to be: a company inspired by the future. This is our new north.”Odebrecht was at the center of the Operation Car Wash corruption scandal that resulted in dozens of top Brazilian businessmen and politicians being sent to jail, including Marcelo Odebrecht, the former company president and grandson of the construction giant’s founder.At the height of its influence, before Operation Car Wash was launched six years ago, Odebrecht employed 180,000 people worldwide.Now Novonor “is born as the holding company of a business group with 25,000 employees and six companies” working in engineering, construction, urban mobility and roads, oil and gas, real estate, petrochemicals and the naval industry, the statement said.From its launch in 2014, the Operation Car Wash investigation uncovered a vast network of bribes paid by large construction companies to politicians to obtain major contracts with Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras.The case sparked political crises in several countries. In Peru, three former presidents are under investigation, and a fourth, Alan Garcia, committed suicide in 2019 when police arrived at his home to take him into custody.Odebrecht was ordered to pay many fines including one worth $2.6 billion to the governments of the United States, Brazil and Switzerland.Marcelo Odebrecht was arrested in June 2015 and sentenced to 19 years in jail. That was reduced to 10 years after he collaborated with investigators, and since December 2017 he has served his time under house arrest.
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France says it arrested four people linked to a September 25 meat cleaver attack in Paris, outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The four are of Pakistani origin, as is the main suspect, Agence France-Presse reported. Two people were wounded in the attack. According to news reports, the four were arrested Monday, with one being charged two days later with taking part in a terrorist conspiracy. The remaining three were set to be charged, as well. The four were suspected of knowing about the attack beforehand and encouraging Zaheer Hassan Mahmoud to carry it out, according to a report in the Le Parisien newspaper. Mahmoud, who said he wanted to attack the magazine for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, was arrested after the attack and remains in custody. Two days before the arrest, a French court convicted 13 accomplices in the 2015 gun attack on Charlie Hebdo offices that killed 12 and wounded 11.Charlie Hebdo vacated those offices after the 2015 attack and is now in a secret location. In October, a Chechen refugee in a Paris suburb beheaded a teacher, Samuel Paty, who had shown the Hebdo cartoons to his pupils. 
 
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The Swiss government Friday ordered all bars, restaurants, cultural venues and sports facilities to close next week because of a surging number of coronavirus cases.At a news conference, Health Minister Alain Berset said the new restrictions, which take effect Tuesday, are necessary because the situation in health facilities ”is not tenable in the long term.”The government will also restrict the number of people who can be inside stores, which must close after 7 p.m. and on Sundays and public holidays.While the closures include restaurants and bars at ski resorts, the federal government is leaving it to Switzerland’s 26 cantons — or states — to decide whether to close skiing facilities.But Berset cautioned they should “think carefully” about their decision “because hospitals are full and putting a lot of people on snow slopes can lead to an increase in accidents and we need to be very careful.”The Swiss health minister’s cautionary stance is a reversal from earlier this month. As other European nations announced plans to close their ski facilities for at least the first several weeks of the season, he said Swiss resorts would be allowed to stay open if they put in place safety measures such as masks, proper hygiene, social distancing and limited capacity for bars and restaurants.At the time, he said he realized the stance could raise regional tensions, but said “We are a sovereign country and can decide ourselves what the facts are on our territory.”The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Switzerland has risen over the past two weeks from 43 cases per 100,000 people on December 3 to 50 cases per 100,000 people on Thursday.  
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In marking International Migrants Day, the United Nations says at least 3,174 migrants have died this year while seeking safety from persecution and violence or in hopes of bettering their impoverished lives.The International Organization for Migration says the number of recorded migrant deaths is likely to be highly underestimated. It says tens of thousands of people embark on dangerous journeys across deserts, jungles and seas. Many thousands do not survive but their deaths, it says, are not recorded.The IOM says the overall number of global migrant deaths recorded this year is lower than in previous years. However, it notes fatalities have increased significantly on some of the migratory routes. For example, IOM spokesman Paul Dillon says at least 593 deaths have been documented in 2020 on route to Spain’s Canary Islands, compared to 45 fatalities in 2018.“An increase in migrants’ deaths was also recorded in South America compared to previous years, with at least 104 lives lost—most of them Venezuelan migrants—compared to fewer than 40 in all previous years,” said Dillion. “This includes at least 23 people who drowned off the coast of Venezuela last weekend. Some 381 men, women and children also lost their lives on the U.S.-Mexican border.”Advocates Warn of More Immigrant Deaths without ICE Action More people will die of the coronavirus in US immigration custody unless the Trump administration rapidly improves conditions and releases more detainees, lawyers and advocates warn, following the first confirmed virus-related death of a detaineeThis year, migration within and on route to Europe claimed the largest number of lives, more than 1,700. Dillon says a significant number of the deaths were among migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.He says migrants are not just statistics. He says they are people who make significant contributions to their countries of migration, especially in this time of coronavirus.“What we see every day are the images of doctors and nurses and support staff in health care facilities and old age homes, many of whom are migrant workers contributing to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, saving lives, putting in the long arduous hours on behalf of those who are stricken with the virus,” Dillion said. Dillon says migrants should be welcomed and appreciated for the services and beneficial roles they perform in their adopted societies instead of being vilified and subjected to discrimination.
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German Health Minister Jens Spahn announced Friday the order in which COVID-19 vaccinations will be carried out, starting with the most vulnerable, more than a week before any vaccine is expected to be approved for use.
 
At a Berlin news conference, Spahn said he expects the vaccinations will begin about December 27, and because initial quantities will be limited, the first shots will go to people over the age of 80 living in retirement homes, along with staff and medical personnel most at risk of exposing themselves or others to the coronavirus.
 
Spahn said getting the vaccine out to the general population will take time. He said it will take one to two months to ensure the most vulnerable are vaccinated. He added, “Only then will we be able to consider gradually expanding the offer, within the framework of the law on vaccination.”  
 German Health Minister Promises Coronavirus Vaccine Within DaysJens Spahn says he expects coronavirus vaccine to be approved for use by December 23 and for inoculations to begin before the end of the yearGermany, like the rest of the European Union, is waiting for emergency approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to grant approval for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which is expected early next week. EU leaders wanted to wait and begin vaccinations in each member nation on the same day, in an act of solidarity.
 
Britain, Canada and the United States already have begun vaccinations and late Thursday, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel endorsed for emergency use a second vaccine produced by U.S. drug maker Moderna. The FDA is expected to follow that recommendation and quickly approve the vaccine.
 
The EMA announced Thursday it would move up a planned assessment for the Moderna vaccine to January 6 from January 12. The agency said in a statement it received the final data package from the company ahead of schedule, allowing it to move forward.
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Britain and the European Union provided sober updates Thursday on the state of post-Brexit trade discussions, with only two weeks to go before a potentially chaotic split.While Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union’s executive commission, noted “substantial progress on many issues,” she voiced concerns about the discussions taking place around fishing rights. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also warned that a no-deal outcome seemed “very likely.”The two spoke early Thursday evening, their latest in a series of conversations in the past couple of weeks aimed at unclogging the talks, which have moved at a snail’s pace since Britain left the EU on January 31.Britain remains within the EU’s tariff-free single market and customs union until December 31. A failure to reach a post-Brexit deal would likely lead to chaos on the borders at the start of 2021 as tariffs and other impediments to trade are enacted by both sides. The talks have gotten bogged down on three main issues — the EU’s access to Britain’s fishing waters, the level playing field to ensure fair competition between businesses, and the governance of any deal.Following their latest conversation, von der Leyen warned that bridging big differences, in particular on fisheries, “will be very challenging.” Negotiations, she added, would continue Friday.According to a statement from Johnson’s office, the prime minister stressed that “time was very short” and that it “now looked very likely that agreement would not be reached unless the EU position changed substantially.”European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses European lawmakers during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels, Dec 16, 2020.Intractable disputeJohnson, like von der Leyen, focused on the lack of progress on fisheries. which has proved to be a hugely intractable issue in the talks — even though it accounts for only a very small amount of economic output.On fisheries, the EU has repeatedly said it wants an agreement that guarantees a reciprocal access to markets and waters. EU fishermen are keen to keep working in British waters and Britain’s seafood industry is extremely dependent on exports to the 27-nation bloc. Johnson has made fisheries and British control over its waters a key demand in the long saga of Britain’s departure from the EU.According to Downing Street, Johnson stressed that Britain could “not accept a situation where it was the only sovereign country in the world not to be able to control access to its own waters for an extended period and to be faced with fisheries quotas which hugely disadvantaged its own industry.”The EU’s position, according to Johnson, “was simply not reasonable, and if there was to be an agreement, it needed to shift significantly.”Earlier, the European Parliament issued a three-day ultimatum to negotiators to strike a trade deal if it is to be in a position to ratify an agreement this year. European lawmakers said they would need to have the terms of any deal in front of them by late Sunday if they were to organize a special gathering before the end of the year.If a deal comes later, it could only be ratified in 2021, as the Parliament would not have enough time to debate the agreement before that.An anti-Brexit placard is held in Parliament Square, in London, Dec. 16, 2020.’Intolerable’ uncertainty”We give until Sunday to Boris Johnson to make a decision,” said Dacian Ciolos, president of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament. “The uncertainty hanging over citizens and businesses as a result of U.K. choices becomes intolerable.”A trade deal would ensure there are no tariffs and quotas on trade in goods between the two sides, but there would still be technical costs, partly associated with customs checks and nontariff barriers on services.Britain’s Parliament must also approve any Brexit deal, and the Christmas break adds to the timing complications. Lawmakers are due to be on vacation from Friday until January 5, but the government has said they can be called back on 48 hours’ notice to approve an agreement if one is struck.Though both sides would suffer economically from a failure to secure a trade deal, most economists think the British economy would take a greater hit, at least in the near term, as it is relatively more reliant on trade with the EU than vice versa.Both sides have said they would try to mitigate the impact of a no-deal, but most experts think that whatever short-term measures are put in place, the disruptions to trade will be immense.”The prime minister repeated that little time was left,” Downing Street said in its statement after the call. “He said that, if no agreement could be reached, the U.K. and the EU would part as friends, with the U.K. trading with the EU on Australian-style terms.”Australia does not have a free-trade deal with the EU.
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Lawmakers in the lower house of Spain’s parliament approved a bill Thursday, amid ongoing protests, that would allow people to lawfully end their lives if they suffer from serious or incurable diseases.The bill, which is awaiting Senate approval, passed 198-138, in the face of staunch opposition from the conservative People’s Party, its supporters and religious groups.FILE – Santiago Abascal, leader of far-right party Vox, speaks at parliament in Madrid, Spain, Oct. 22, 2020.Many of the protesters who gathered outside parliament Thursday held banners that read “Government of death.”“The euthanasia law is a defeat for civilization and a victory for the culture of death, for those who believe that some lives are more worthy than others,” far-right Vox leader Santiago Abascal said in a video on social media.But Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa told lawmakers the society “cannotFILE – Spain’s Health Minister Salvador Illa speaks at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 12, 2020.remain impassive when faced with the intolerable pain that many people suffer.”Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma.The practice is illegal in most countries but has received favorable consideration in the European Union. If passed by the Senate, Spain would become the fourth European country after Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium to allow people to legally end their lives because of medical conditions.Without any amendments, the law could go into effect as early as next spring.After that point, patients who choose to die because of a medical condition are required to demand euthanasia or ask to be assisted to commit suicide four separate times.The first two requests must be in writing and submitted two weeks apart, while the fourth just before the procedure takes place. All these requests have to be approved by an oversight board with jurisdiction over the patient’s location.Only Spanish citizens or residents of adult age can request to end their lives. The law does, however, give doctors the chance to deny requests based on their personal beliefs. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and President-elect Joe Biden both voiced new alarm Thursday about a wide intrusion into computer systems around the world that officials suspect was carried out by Russia.The cybersecurity unit of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the hack “poses a grave risk to the federal government and state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations.”The assessment by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency was the most pointed yet since news of the intrusion first emerged last weekend. Both the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments were among the agencies whose secure data and emails were penetrated by the hack.US Says Recent Hacking Campaign Hit Government NetworksThe hackers are believed to be working for RussiaThe cybersecurity unit warned that removing the malware inserted in the network software will be “highly complex and challenging.”Biden, set to become the 46th U.S. president after his January 20 inauguration, said, “There’s a lot we don’t yet know, but what we do know is a matter of great concern.”Biden said he had “instructed my team to learn as much as we can about this breach” and praised career government civil servants “who are working around-the-clock to respond to this attack.”He vowed that after he assumes power, “my administration will make cybersecurity a top priority at every level of government, and we will make dealing with this breach a top priority from the moment we take office.”Biden said he would strengthen the government’s cybersecurity partnerships with the private sector.“But a good defense isn’t enough,” he said. “We need to disrupt and deter our adversaries from undertaking significant cyberattacks in the first place.”“We will do that by, among other things, imposing substantial costs on those responsible for such malicious attacks, including in coordination with our allies and partners,” Biden said. “Our adversaries should know that, as president, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation.”
 
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Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf says his country has “failed” in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Swedish people have suffered “enormously” as a result.In pre-recorded comments released Thursday, the king said many people have died in Sweden from the virus, and “that is horrible.” The 74-old king, whose son and daughter-in-law tested positive for the virus last month, was asked if he was fearful of getting COVID-19 himself. “Lately, it has felt more obvious,” he said. “It has crept closer and closer. That is not what you want.”The king made the comments as part of a year-end holiday broadcast scheduled to air Monday on Swedish television. The monarch plays a ceremonial role and holds no political power.Sweden initially took a different approach to the pandemic than its Nordic neighbors, Norway and Denmark, as well as other nations in Europe. The government never imposed lockdowns or mandated face masks, allowed restaurants and businesses to remain open, and relied mainly on voluntary social distancing and hygiene recommendations to slow the spread.But the nation saw a rising death toll, particularly among elderly residents of care facilities, and its per capita death rate far exceeded that of Norway and Demark. In a preliminary report released Tuesday, an independent commission appointed by the Swedish government said the government failed to sufficiently protect the elderly in care homes from the virus.In recent weeks, the government has imposed tighter COVID-19 restrictions, mandating remote learning for schools, limiting the size of public gatherings and banning the sale of alcohol after 10 p.m. in bars and restaurants.Sweden’s total COVID-19-related deaths stand at 7,667, much higher than its regional neighbors, but still lower than other European nations such as Britain, Spain, Italy and France, all of whom imposed lockdowns.
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U.N. humanitarian agencies are calling for a stop to the deadly sea journeys on smugglers’ boats that are endangering the lives of Venezuelan refugees and migrants fleeing persecution and hardship there.
 
The appeal follows the latest loss of life in the waters near the Venezuelan coastal town of Guiria several days ago. Up to 25 refugees and migrants, among them four children whose boat had capsized offshore, were found floating in the sea.
 
The shipwrecked vessel reportedly set sail for Trinidad and Tobago on December 6. In the wake of the tragedy, U.N. agencies are calling for urgent efforts to stop smugglers and human traffickers sending refugees and migrants on dangerous sea journeys.
 
The U.N. human rights office is calling on authorities in Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago to launch an investigation into the incident. Marta Hurtado, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, says the probes should be about accountability and sending a message.
 
“Both governments have to conduct investigations, thorough and transparent and share their outcomes and to cooperate between them, not only to start to understand what happened in this case and to prosecute whoever needs to be prosecuted. We want to hold people who are responsible for it [accountable], but to avoid this tragedy from happening again,” Hurtatdo said.  
 
The U.N. refugee agency and International Organization for Migration report more Venezuelans have been leaving their country in recent weeks as COVID-19 lockdown measures in the region have eased. However, they note land and maritime borders remain closed, forcing them to escape using informal, dangerous routes.
 
They say smugglers and human traffickers who exploit and abuse desperate people for profit are taking advantage of this situation. U.N. agencies say regular pathways must be available so refugees and migrants don’t have to risk their lives.   
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Student medics, retired doctors, pharmacists and soldiers are being drafted into a European COVID-19 vaccination campaign of unprecedented scale, beginning just after Christmas. As coronavirus cases continue to rise in a pandemic that has killed nearly half a million Europeans, the EU announced on Thursday that a bloc-wide inoculation campaign would begin on Dec. 27, four days after European authorities are expected to give approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Beyond hospitals and care homes, sports halls and convention centers emptied by lockdown measures will become venues for mass inoculations. In Italy, temporary solar-powered healthcare pavilions will spring up in town squares around the country, designed to look like five-petalled primrose flowers, a symbol of spring. Vaccines begin deployment as COVID-19 cases surgeAs more countries approve a coronavirus vaccine, the urgent need for inoculation continues to grow with COVID-19 cases and deaths spiking to record highs in several countries. Plus, British and European Union leaders vow to go the “extra mile” to reach a deal. Plus, what does the Electoral College vote mean for President Trump?Faced with a shortage of health professionals able to give the shot, many countries are on a recruitment drive. German states are calling on retired medics and company doctors to join the push, in some cases offering up to 140 euros ($170) an hour. “This will probably be the biggest mass vaccination campaign in history, certainly of our century and our generation,” Domenico Arcuri, Italy’s special commissioner for the COVID emergency, told reporters at a launch of national plans. A phased-in approach means frontline healthcare workers and elderly residents of care homes are being prioritized, with most national schemes not reaching the general public until the end of the first quarter of 2021 at the earliest. The goal of the 27-member European Union is nonetheless to reach coverage of 70% of its 450 million people. The European Commission, which struggled in the early months of the crisis to persuade national capitals to work together, is calling for the inoculation drive to be coordinated across borders. “This is a huge task. So let’s start rapidly with the vaccination together, as 27, on the same day,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this week. On Thursday she confirmed the start date for the whole bloc would be Dec. 27. In a sign of the impatience of some member states, Germany had already announced that date on Wednesday. Bottleneck concerns  Britain, which quit the EU this year, was the first country to deploy the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine outside of clinical trials, giving it emergency approval two weeks ago. It said nearly 140,000 people received their first shots in the first week of roll-out. It is introducing a new national protocol allowing midwives, physiotherapists, pharmacists and others to give the shot.  “This will help ensure we have the workforce needed to deliver a mass COVID-19 vaccination program, in addition to delivery of an upscaled influenza program, in the autumn,” a government consultation document said. National rules vary by country. In France the injection must take place in the presence of a doctor. In Germany it can be administered by someone else as long as the patient can consult a doctor first. There is a concern social distancing rules and paperwork could create bottlenecks at inoculation venues such as Berlin’s Velodrom sports hall or the Hamburg trade hall. Some countries face extra hurdles. Portugal is establishing separate cold storage units for its Atlantic archipelagos of Azores and Madeira; non-EU member Norway is buying doses from neighboring Sweden. Armies in countries including Switzerland and Italy are set to help secure vaccine supplies, while in Germany the Bundeswehr – already involved in contact-tracing – is on standby to help with injections if local regions need it. With surveys showing many Europeans remain wary of taking a vaccine developed in record time, authorities are accompanying the push with information campaigns. Stefano Boeri, the architect behind Italy’s primrose-themed pavilions, said the spring flower was picked to “convey a sign of serenity and regeneration.” “If the virus has locked us in hospitals and homes, the vaccine will finally bring us back into contact with social life and the nature that surrounds us.”
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday dismissed a media investigation that identified those responsible for poisoning opposition leader Alexei Navalny as state security assassins. Speaking during his annual news conference, Putin called the report a “trick” and said Navalny was not important enough to be the target of such an attack. Putin added an accusation that Navalny received support from U.S. intelligence agencies. Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Trailed for Years Before Poisoning, Report Says An elite Russian intelligence chemical weapons unit tracked opposition figure Alexei Navalny for the past three years, according to investigative website BellingcatNavalny fell ill during a flight in Russia in August and was later flown to Germany for treatment.  Labs in Germany, France and Sweden said he was poisoned with Novichok, the same class of Soviet-era agent that Britain said was used on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018. Putin spoke about a range of topics during his appearance Thursday, including the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden. Putin said he hopes the change in president in January will help resolve some difficult issues in U.S.-Russian relations. In 2017, the U.S. intelligence community assessed Putin ordered an influence campaign targeting the 2016 U.S. presidential election with a goal of helping President Donald Trump’s chances of winning.  A later investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller detailed “sweeping and systemic” Russian government interference. Putin on Thursday reiterated Russia’s denial of the U.S. accusations. 
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The French government says President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.”The president tested positive for COVID-19 today,” a statement from the presidency said Thursday. It said Macron had been tested after the “onset of the first symptoms.”The government said Macron will self-isolate for seven days, in accordance with national regulations, and will continue to work and carry out his activities remotely.The French president adds to the list of heads of state and government around the world who have contracted COVID-19, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. President Donald Trump.The World Health Organization announced Wednesday it was sending a team of researchers to China in the first week of January to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus that led to the global pandemic that has so far killed more than 1.6 million people out of a total of 74.2 million total cases.The 10-member team will examine medical data and test samples to determine how the virus that causes COVID-19 jumped from animals to humans, and where it originated. Most researchers believe the virus, which was first detected in late 2019 in the central city of Wuhan, originated in bats.People wearing protective masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus use a pedestrian crosswalk at the Ginza shopping street Dec. 17, 2020, in Tokyo.Trump has accused the Chinese government of covering up information about the pandemic.Meanwhile, the formal approval process for a second COVID-19 vaccine in the United States begins Thursday.The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccines advisory committee will review data on a vaccine developed jointly by Massachusetts-based drugmaker Moderna and the National Institutes of Health. FDA regulators earlier this week confirmed Moderna’s claims of the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.If the advisory panel approves the Moderna vaccine, the FDA could grant emergency use authorization as early as Friday, meaning nearly 6 million doses could be distributed across the U.S. beginning next week. The Moderna-NIH vaccine will add to the 2.9 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shipped out this week that began the inoculation effort in the U.S., starting with frontline health care workers and nursing home residents.The White House announced Wednesday that Vice President Mike Pence will receive the vaccine on Friday. President-elect Joe Biden will be vaccinated sometime next week, according to the transition team. The 78-year-old Biden is at high risk of contracting the virus due to his age.The FDA said Wednesday that pharmacists could draw extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine if there is any extra solution leftover in the vials. The vials are supposed to hold enough of the vaccine for five doses, but pharmacists have found there was enough for an additional sixth or even seventh dose. A spokesperson said in a statement the FDA was working with Pfizer to determine “the best path forward.”At least one health care worker in the Northwest Pacific state of Alaska suffered an allergic reaction just minutes after being inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday, the first such case of an adverse reaction in the United States. The New York Times is reporting that a second health care worker at the same hospital in Alaska also suffered an allergic reaction within minutes of being inoculated. Two health care workers in Britain also suffered allergic reactions after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.Vaccines normally produce various side effects, such as fever, fatigue, headache or pain at the injection site, but officials say such effects are common and disappear within a day or two. The report on the Moderna-NIH vaccine submitted to the FDA revealed that four volunteers in the late-stage clinical trial developed Bell’s palsy, a condition that involves temporary paralysis or weakness in the facial muscles. Three of those participants had received the two-dose vaccine, while the other one was given a placebo.The Inter-American Development Bank pledged $1 billion Wednesday to help Central American and Caribbean nations fight the coronavirus pandemic.The IDB will devote the money to purchasing vaccines, strengthening national institutions distributing the shots, and building immunization capacity.The pledge is in addition to $1.2 billion the bank already mobilized in the region to pay for testing and treatment.Wednesday’s announcement comes as Latin America reports surges in COVID-19 cases and deaths. According to the Reuters news agency, roughly 33% of the world’s COVID-19 deaths were recorded in Latin America, though the region only accounts for 9% of the global population.
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport is set to rule Thursday whether to uphold a ban on Russian athletes competing in international events in connection with accusations of a state-sponsored doping program.The World Anti-Doping Agency issued its four-year ban last year, barring Russia from competing at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 Winter Olympics in China, the 2022 World Cup football tournament and other events.Russia dismissed the ban, calling the action politically motivated.The Court of Arbitration for Sport is the highest court in sports, and it said Wednesday that its arbitrators met with the two sides for four days last month.At the center of the case is a WADA demand that Russia turn over data from a Moscow laboratory as part of conditions the agency set for the country to be reinstated. But WADA said Russia deleted and altered the data, prompting the agency to issue its ban.
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The Inter-American Development Bank pledged $1 billion Wednesday to help Central American and Caribbean nations fight the coronavirus pandemic.The IDB will devote the money to purchasing vaccines, strengthening national institutions distributing the shots and building immunization capacity.The pledge is in addition to $1.2 billion the bank already mobilized in the region to pay for testing and treatment.Wednesday’s announcement came as Latin America reported surges in COVID-19 cases and deaths. According to the Reuters news agency, roughly 33% of the world’s COVID-19 deaths were recorded in Latin America, though the region accounts for only 9% of the global population.Around the worldAbout a quarter of Mexico’s population has been exposed to the virus, officials said. Over 115,000 Mexicans have died of the virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.A new set of tight restrictions took effect Wednesday in Germany to try to curb a rising number of coronavirus infections and deaths.The hard lockdown mandated the closing of all nonessential businesses and limiting private gatherings to no more than five people. The restrictions, which will remain in effect until January 10, were imposed by Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday after talks with Germany’s 16 regional governors.The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s central disease control center, reported 952 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, shattering the previous single-day record of 598 posted just last Friday.Germany’s seven-day incidence of new cases has also set a record, rising to nearly 180 per 100,000 people.Health Minister Jens Spahn called on the European Union’s regulatory agency late Tuesday to give final approval of the vaccine jointly developed by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech by Christmas. The vaccine is being administered to health care workers in Britain and the United States, after government regulators quickly approved its use after a thorough review process.Meanwhile, in the U.S., the White House announced Wednesday that Vice President Mike Pence would receive the vaccine on Friday.President-elect Joe Biden will be vaccinated next week, according to the transition team.Regulators with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Tuesday that its preliminary analysis of a second vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health confirmed its safety and effectiveness.The report revealed that four volunteers in the late-stage clinical trial developed Bell’s palsy, a condition that involves temporary paralysis or weakness in facial muscles. Three of those participants had received the two-dose vaccine, while the other one was given a placebo.The approval process of the Moderna vaccine is now in the hands of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, which meets Thursday. If the committee gives its approval, the FDA would the grant the vaccine an emergency use authorization.The FDA granted emergency approval Tuesday of an over-the-counter COVID-19 test developed by Ellume, an Australian-based health care technology company. The self-administered home kit returns test results within 15 to 20 minutes through a smartphone application. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.As the United States, Britain and other nations escalate efforts to vaccinate citizens against the virus that has sickened more than 73.5 million people worldwide, causing more than 1.6 million deaths, a new study says at least one-fifth of the world’s population may not have access to a vaccine until 2022, as wealthier nations buy more than half of next year’s potential doses.The study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health came just days after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned about the rise of “vaccine nationalism” among the world’s richest nations at the expense of much poorer countries.Separately, two of the world’s biggest annual New Year’s celebrations are either being curtailed or canceled because of the pandemic. New York City is banning visitors from the city’s historic Times Square to witness the iconic “ball drop” that counts down the final seconds of the year.In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, officials announced Tuesday that the city is calling off its annual New Year’s Eve beach party, which normally attracts hundreds of thousands of people with live music and a spectacular fireworks display.
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The Czech Republic Wednesday launched nationwide COVID-19 testing in hopes of slowing the spread of virus in the country, which, like much of Europe, has seen a surge of infections in recent weeks.The Czech Health Ministry is offering the free antigen tests at about 170 testing sites around the country. The antigen tests are cheaper and faster but somewhat less accurate than standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) laboratory tests with results taking about 15 minutes. If someone tests positive, the ministry will administer a PCR test.The Health Ministry hopes to conduct 60,000 tests per day. The ministry’s web site says people can get tested repeatedly, every five days. Thousands registered for the first day of tests Wednesday.The Czech Republic experienced Europe’s biggest per-capita spikes in cases in October and November, and nearly 10,000 deaths in the country of 10.7 million. Criticized for its slow response to the pandemic, the government recently implemented COVID-19 restrictions, closing bars, restaurants and hotels, and imposing an overnight curfew.The country reported 5,315 new cases a day on average in the past week using the standard PCR tests, while the number of hospitalized patients grew to 4,632 from 4,475 a week ago.  
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