Reuters
Europe to pay less than US for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
The European Union has struck a deal to initially pay less for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate than the United States, an EU official told Reuters News Agency as the bloc announced on Wednesday it had secured an agreement for up to 300 million doses. The experimental drug, developed in conjunction with Germany’s BioNTech, is the frontrunner in a global race to produce a vaccine, with interim data released on Monday showing it was more than 90 percent effective at protecting people from COVID-19 in a large-scale clinical trial. Under the EU deal, 27 European countries could buy 200 million doses, and have an option to buy another 100 million. The bloc will pay less than $19.50 per jab, a senior EU official involved in talks with vaccine makers told Reuters, adding that partly reflected ...
Donald Trump will lose special Twitter protections when Joe Biden takes office
U.S. President Donald Trump will be subject to the same Twitter rules as any other user when President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20, the social media company confirmed this week. Twitter places “public interest” notices on some rule-breaking tweets from “world leaders” that would otherwise be removed. Such tweets from political candidates and elected or government officials are instead hidden by a warning and Twitter takes actions to restrict their reach. But the company said this treatment does not apply to former office holders. “This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions,” a Twitter spokesman said in a statement. It has added multiple warnings and labels to tweets from the...
US election: FBI probes robocalls urging voters to ‘stay home’
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating calls that seek to discourage people from voting, a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security told reporters on Tuesday. Authorities would not offer details. US state and local officials have been raising the alarm over at least two separate automated call campaigns as millions of people cast their votes on Tuesday to decide between President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden. Janaka Stucky, 42, a Democratic voter who lives in Medford, Massachusetts, was one of the many who received the robocall on Tuesday. “My first thought was that actually, it was a municipal test call for a COVID lockdown thing,” he told the Reuters news agency. “The more I thought about it I was like, oh this actually feels really off and weir...
Nico Rosberg: I take my hat off to Lewis Hamilton
Nico Rosberg hailed Lewis Hamilton’s record 92nd Formula One win and sporting longevity as a great achievement on Tuesday. Rosberg added that the way the Briton was using his platform to raise awareness for global issues was just as impressive. The 35-year-olds were teammates and fierce rivals at Mercedes from 2013 until the German won the 2016 title and immediately retired. Rosberg was also teammate to Michael Schumacher, whose record Hamilton broke in Portugal last Sunday, at Mercedes from 2010 to 2012 after the Ferrari great had made a comeback. “I have huge respect for what he’s managed to achieve,” Rosberg told Reuters after a launch for the Extreme E off-road electric series that starts next year with both men entering teams. “One thing is being at the level that he’s at, just a phen...
Nigerian judge throws out case against 47 men for homosexuality
A court in Lagos throws out a case against men charged with public displays of affection with members of the same sex. A judge in a Nigerian court has thrown out a case against 47 men charged with public displays of affection with members of the same sex, ending what had widely been seen as a test of the country’s laws banning homosexual relationships. The Nigerian law banning gay marriage, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, and same-sex “amorous relationships”, prompted an international outcry when it came into force under former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014. The men were arrested in a police raid on a Lagos hotel in the city’s Egbeda district in 2018. Police said the men were being initiated into a gay club, but the defendants said they were attending a birthday party. Prosec...
Hollywood-backed Quibi to shutter six months after launch
Streaming service Quibi said on Wednesday it intends to wind down its operations and start a process to sell its assets, just six months after its launch. The announcement highlights the dominance that Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+ hold over smaller streaming service providers, which struggle to keep up against their large content budgets and vast libraries of shows. “The world has changed dramatically since Quibi launched and our standalone business model is no longer viable,” founder Jeffrey Katzenberg said in a statement. Los Angeles-based Quibi offers entertainment and news in episodes of 10 minutes or less on mobile phones, initially promoted for on-the-go viewing. The service was priced at $5 a month with advertisements, or $8 a month without them. “Our failure...
Taiwan tells China to ‘back off’ as airspace ‘incursions’ rise
Taiwan on Tuesday demanded that China “back off” and accused it of threatening peace, after recent incursions and a Beijing official openly rejecting a largely respected marine boundary. Foreign Minister Joseph Wu urged Beijing to “return to the civilised international standards” after a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said there was no so-called median line in the Taiwan Strait “as Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory”. The tension between China and the island Beijing claims as its own is at its highest in years, with Taiwanese fighter jets scrambling to intercept the Chinese aircraft last week. “The median line has been a symbol of preventing military conflicts and maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait for many years,” Wu told reporters. “The Chinese forei...
Court ruling paves the way for Facebook to settle its facial recognition lawsuit
Facebook won preliminary approval late on Wednesday from a federal court for settlement of a lawsuit that claimed it illegally collected and stored biometric data of millions of users without their consent. The social media company had in July raised its settlement offer by $100 million to $650 million in relation to the lawsuit, in which Illinois users accused it of violating the U.S. state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. The revised settlement agreement resolved the court’s concerns, leading to the preliminary approval of the class action settlement, Judge James Donato wrote in an order filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. “Preliminary approval of the amended stipulation of class action settlement, Dkt. No. 468, is granted, and a final approval h...
Lyon return empty-handed with prospect of losing key players
Had Olympique Lyonnais’ Memphis Depay and Karl Toko Ekambi found the back of the net in the opening 16 minutes against Bayern Munich on Wednesday, the Champions League may have had its first ever all-French final. Instead, Paris St Germain will now face the German champions while Lyon return home empty-handed and without the opportunity of righting those wrongs next season after they failed to qualify for Europe’s premier club competition. Ligue 1 was the only top-flight league from the ‘Big Five’ to prematurely end its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving Lyon in seventh place on a points-per-game basis — thereby missing out on the Europa League as well. The 3-0 scoreline flatters Bayern as Lyon had their chances but playing in only their second semi-final on the big stage, their ...
Former Real Madrid chief expects club to send Gareth Bale out on loan
Real Madrid may consider sending Welsh forward Gareth Bale out on loan and pay part of his salary to end the agony for both the player and the club amid their rift, the Spanish team’s former president Ramon Calderon said. The post Former Real Madrid chief expects club to send Gareth Bale out on loan appeared first on TODAY. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Huawei will stop producing Kirin chipsets on September 15
Huawei will stop making its flagship Kirin chipsets next month, financial magazine Caixin said on Saturday, as the impact of U.S. pressure on the Chinese tech giant grows. U.S. pressure on Huawei’s suppliers has made it impossible for the company’s HiSilicon chip division to keep making the chipsets, key components for mobile phone, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Unit was quoted as saying at the launch of the company’s new Mate 40 handset. The post Huawei will stop producing Kirin chipsets on September 15 appeared first on TODAY. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing...
Security forces head off anti-government protests in Zimbabwe
Streets were deserted and businesses shut in Zimbabwe’s two main cities on Friday after security forces were deployed to prevent anti-government marches called by activists over corruption and economic hardship. Protesters stayed away. Job Sikhala, an opposition lawmaker and one of the protest organisers, said the heavy security presence showed a state afraid of its citizens. He added: “Protracted demonstrations will be the way forward.” He is among more than a dozen activists who are in hiding and who police say they are seeking for promoting Friday’s protests. In Bulawayo and central Harare, the capital, businesses were shut as police and soldiers patrolled the streets. Shops also stayed shut in some Harare townships, including Mbare – a hotbed of past protests. President Emmerson Mnanga...
