A ray of hope emerged Thursday for the Rainbow Nation, which has seen a massive spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases, as South Africa’s health minister announced a large shipment of vaccines is coming this month.
Zweli Mkhize said the country will receive one million vaccine doses by the end of January, and another half million in February, both from the Serum Institute of India. The first doses, he says, will go to health workers.
Mkhize acknowledged that South Africa’s vaccine acquisition was delayed because the nation was unable to pay for vaccines that were still in development — a barrier wealthier nations haven’t faced. But, he vowed, it will catch up. South Africa’s limited budget also led officials to choose the cheapest vaccine option, offered by AstraZeneca.
“We will be making sure that we bring the vaccines as quickly as possible into South Africa,” he said. “By the time we start the vaccination program, we won’t be very far different from many countries. We would actually be all in line with most of the countries. So, we would like to assure the public that, in fact, we are all on course.”
That heartening news came after South Africa, which is the continent’s viral hotspot, reported what Mkhize described as a “grim milestone” — surpassing 20,000 new cases in a 24-hour period. And, he said the situation gets worse from there, as the nation enters a second wave that features a new variant of the virus that appears to be spreading much faster.
“Deaths are already higher than what we ever experienced before,” the health minister said. “Admissions are already higher than what we experienced before. The new cases on the seven day average are also higher than what we experienced before.”
South Africa has now seen more than 1.1 million cases since the virus first arrived in March. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases says that 31,368 people have died in South Africa.
Once South Africa’s health workers are vaccinated, a second round of vaccinations will target 17 million people, including essential workers, teachers, the elderly and those with other health conditions that put them at higher risk. In the end, Mkhize said, the nation hopes to vaccinate about 40 million people within the year, about 67 percent of the population. That figure is close to what health experts say is the threshold for herd immunity.
As for the rest of the vast continent, Dr. Kate O’Brien, the WHO’s director of immunization, vaccines and biologicals, described the process by which 92 of the world’s poorest nations can get access to the vaccine, through the COVAX Facility, a global initiative of 192 countries that is trying to ensure equitable access.
“For countries, 92 countries, that are less able to actually purchase these vaccines on their own from their own domestic funds, there are donor funds that have been provided,” she said. “We need about $7 billion in order to deliver enough vaccine to these countries through the end of 2021. And the facility has already raised about $6 billion of the $7 billion.”
O’Brien said the facility “has access to over two billion doses of vaccine” and will start to deliver those vaccines by mid-February.
“That’s how countries in Africa and South Asia, and other countries around the world of these 92 that are less able to afford vaccines, are actually going to get vaccine,” she said.
O’Brien emphasized that people with HIV — South Africa carries the world’s highest burden of that virus — should be vaccinated. But pregnant and breastfeeding women should discuss the vaccine with health care providers before making a decision.
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Month: January 2021
The World Health Organization warns the European region is probably in the most acute phase of COVID-19 transmission and drastic measures must be taken to control the spread of the pandemic.
More than 26 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the European region, including over 580,000 deaths. The World Health Organization reports levels of transmission remain extremely high. As a consequence, it notes countries and territories across the region are enacting full lockdown measures, affecting more than 230 million people. FILE – Medical personnel attend patients at Casalpalocco Covid 3 hospital in the outskirts of Rome, Jan. 1, 2021.WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge says the year ahead offers new opportunities and tools, such as vaccines for controlling the pandemic. At the same time, he notes new challenges posed by the virus itself are of great concern. He says the COVID-19 virus has changed. He says it is normal for viruses that circulate to mutate over time. While little is known about the impact of the new variant, he says the new strain appears to spread more quickly and be more contagious. FILE – The World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, speaks during a news conference about the coronavirus disease at Eigtveds Pakhus, in Copenhagen, Denmark, March 27, 2020.”Twenty-two countries in the WHO European region have detected this new variant. This variant is of concern and it has increased transmissibility. So far, we understand there is no significant change to the disease this variant produces — meaning the COVID-19 is not more nor less severe,” he said. Kluge says the new viral strain spreads across all age groups and children do not appear to be at higher risk. Over time, he says the variant may replace other lineages, as seen in Britain and Denmark. Senior Emergency Officer in WHO’s European Region Catherine Smallwood says new variants are assessed for any public health impact. She says the strain identified in Britain has been studied for its transmissibility and impact on COVID-19 vaccines that have been developed. FILE – A man receives the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, Britain, Jan. 4, 2021.”There is probably quite promising evidence that the vaccines will work. At the moment, there is no evidence for any of the variants that have emerged that there will be any decreased effectiveness of the vaccine. But studies are still going on and we expect to hear more after the studies are confirmed,” she said. The vaccine rollout will have little immediate effect on the control of transmission and spread of COVID-19. WHO officials say that will be achieved by following public health measures, such as wearing masks and social distancing. However, vaccines will protect the most vulnerable people from becoming severely ill and dying in hospital. Vaccines also hold the promise of one day bringing this devastating pandemic to an end.
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Facebook and Alphabet’s YouTube took down a video from President Donald Trump on Wednesday that continued to make the baseless claim the election was fraudulent as he told supporters who had stormed the U.S. Capitol to go home.Twitter restricted users from retweeting the video “due to a risk of violence,” as hundreds of protesters sought to force Congress to undo the president’s election loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. Twitter restricted a later tweet from Trump that again falsely alleged he had won the election.Later Wednesday night, Twitter locked the president’s account for 12 hours over “repeated and severe violations” of the social media platform’s civic integrity rules and threatened permanent suspension.Facebook Vice President of Integrity Guy Rosen tweeted that it believed the video “contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence,” saying the action was part of “appropriate emergency measures.”Google-owned YouTube said the video violated its policy against content that alleges “widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Election.” YouTube spokesman Farshad Shadloo added the company does allow copies that include additional context.Social media companies have been under pressure to police misinformation on their platforms around the election. Trump and his allies have continuously spread unsubstantiated claims of election fraud that have proliferated online.In a statement on Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League called for social media companies to suspend Trump’s accounts, saying the events at the Capitol resulted from “fear and disinformation that has been spewed directly from the Oval Office.”Former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos tweeted: “Twitter and Facebook have to cut him off. There are no legitimate equities left and labeling won’t do it.”A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.According to researchers and public postings, violent rhetoric and advice on weaponry ramped up significantly in the past three weeks on many social media platforms as multiple groups planned rallies for Wednesday, including Trump supporters, white nationalists and enthusiasts of the wide-ranging conspiracy theory QAnon.
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New strains of the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic have evolved, raising alarms with public health experts. The viruses appear to be more infectious, making them harder to control. But experts say the new vaccines against them should still work. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
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The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed on Wednesday that it had been the victim of a massive hacking operation linked to Russian intelligence. In a statement, Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said about 3% of the agency’s email accounts appeared to have been compromised, although no classified information was accessed. “After learning of the malicious activity, the Office of Chief Information Officer eliminated the identified method by which the actor was accessing the … email environment,” Raimondi said. Raimondi said the department learned about the previously unknown hack on its networks on Christmas Eve and determined that it constituted a “major” security incident. The disclosure came a day after U.S. intelligence agencies said that the hack was part of an ongoing intelligence operation and likely being carried out by Russia. FILE – This Feb. 11, 2015, photo shows FireEye offices in Milpitas, Calif.The hack came to light in early December when private cybersecurity firm FireEye disclosed that its networks had been compromised. Investigators have traced the breach to SolarWinds, a Texas-based network management software company that the hackers used to penetrate the computer networks. In a statement Tuesday, the FBI, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and the National Security Agency (NSA) said that of the approximately 18,000 SolarWinds customers impacted by the hack, “a much smaller number has been compromised by follow-on activity on their systems.” FILE – The SolarWinds logo is seen outside its headquarters in Austin, Texas, Dec. 18, 2020.“We have so far identified fewer than 10 U.S. government agencies that fall into this category and are working to identify the nongovernment entities who also may be impacted,” the agencies said. Officials had previously confirmed that the departments of Defense, Treasury, State, Homeland Security, Commerce and Energy were impacted. Among targeted businesses were Microsoft and Amazon. U.S. President Donald Trump has faced criticism for failing to respond to the alleged Russian hacking operation and for suggesting that China may have been responsible. The National Security Council has set up a task force made up of intelligence agencies to investigate and remediate the attack. “At this time, we believe this was, and continues to be, an intelligence gathering effort,” the agencies said in a statement. “We are taking all necessary steps to understand the full scope of this campaign and respond accordingly.”
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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that the city aims to vaccinate 10,000 police officers against the coronavirus by Sunday.At his daily briefing, De Blasio said police officers and jail guards were now eligible to receive vaccines under guidance provided by state officials. The guidelines released by the state do not explicitly say that police officers can now be vaccinated, but a de Blasio spokesperson said city officials were told they could count police and corrections officers as frontline workers eligible for the shots.De Blasio said the city wanted to make sure “all these frontline workers, folks who work directly with everyday New Yorkers, folks who do things like having to perform CPR or working in very close proximity, that they’re going to get the opportunity to be vaccinated starting right now.”In a statement, the president of the city’s police union, Patrick Lynch, applauded the move, saying it cleared the way to protect “both police and the New Yorkers” they help every day.In a tweet, Lynch said the pandemic had strengthened the bond between police and other first responders who have been prioritized for vaccination, calling them a “frontline family.”New York City has about 35,000 uniformed police, of whom about 25,000 regularly deal with the general public.De Blasio said the expanded vaccine eligibility guidelines included home health aides.
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U.S. intelligence officials investigating last month’s massive cybersecurity breach that impacted thousands of companies and dozens of government agencies warn the hack is part of an ongoing intelligence operation, likely being carried out by Russia. The public conclusion, shared Tuesday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the National Security Agency (NSA), is the first formal statement of attribution from U.S. officials, and confirms previous comments by senior officials and lawmakers who said the evidence pointed “pretty clearly” to Moscow. FILE – The sign outside the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md., June 6, 2013. All fingers are pointing to Russia as author of the worst-ever hack of U.S. government agencies.”This work indicates that an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor, likely Russian in origin, is responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and nongovernmental networks,” according to the statement from the intelligence and security agencies. “At this time, we believe this was, and continues to be, an intelligence gathering effort,” they added. “We are taking all necessary steps to understand the full scope of this campaign and respond accordingly.” ‘Serious compromise’Evidence of the breach involving SolarWinds, a Texas-based software management company, first emerged in early December when the private cybersecurity firm FireEye announced its systems had been penetrated and that sensitive information had been stolen. In the days that followed, the hack was traced to SolarWinds, with investigators warning that approximately 18,000 customers, including U.S. government agencies and companies around the world, had been affected. FILE – Microsoft’s corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington. (VOA/Diaa Bekheet)Late last month, software giant Microsoft said the hackers even managed to use the breach to access some of the company’s heavily guarded source code — the basic programming essential to running Microsoft programs and operating systems. But despite the huge number of SolarWinds customers affected by the hack, U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday that “a much smaller number” were compromised by follow-on activities. “We have so far identified fewer than 10 U.S. government agencies that fall into this category and are working to identify the nongovernment entities who also may be impacted,” they said in the statement. U.S. officials had previously said the hack had impacted the departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security, Energy, Treasury and Commerce, as well as state and local governments. “This is a serious compromise that will require a sustained and dedicated effort to remediate,” the FBI, CISA, ODNI and the NSA said in Tuesday’s statement, adding the agencies will “continue taking every necessary action to investigate, remediate and share information with our partners and the American people.” Trump responseU.S. President Donald Trump has been largely silent on the SolarWinds hack, tweeting last month, “Everything is well under control,” while appearing to deflect blame from Moscow. “Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China,” Trump said.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) December 19, 2020In a tweet late Tuesday, the White House National Security Council said the president “continues to surge all appropriate resources to support the whole-of-government response to the recent cyber incident affecting government networks.”President @realDonaldTrump continues to surge all appropriate resources to support the whole-of-government response to the recent cyber incident affecting government networks. We are taking every necessary step to understand the full scope of this incident & respond accordingly. https://t.co/WnmH2dE1Y7— NSC (@WHNSC) January 5, 2021Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, however, accused the Trump administration of dragging its feet. “It’s unfortunate that it has taken over three weeks after the revelation of an intrusion this significant for this administration to finally issue a tentative attribution,” Warner said in a statement late Tuesday. “We need to make clear to Russia that any misuse of compromised networks to produce destructive or harmful effects is unacceptable and will prompt an appropriately strong response.”
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Malawi has introduced a mandatory quarantine on returnees from South Africa to control rising cases of COVID-19. Thousands of Malawians have returned from South Africa in recent weeks, and officials fear they could import the new, more contagious form of coronavirus.Malawi has seen a rapid increase of COVID-19 cases since the middle of December. The Public Health Institute of Malawi reports confirmed cases jumped from 116 on December 18 to 946 on January 5. Health authorities say they believe the rise is largely driven by Malawians who traveled to South Africa to look for work and escape poverty triggered by the pandemic. According to Malawi’s immigration department, about 10,000 Malawians have returned from South Africa since the start of the pandemic, with others expected to return soon. Immigration officers at Mwanza border wellcoming buses carrying Malawi returnees. (Courtesy: Pasqually Zulu/Immigration Department)“Forty percent of our cases have come from especially our returnees and indeed our deportees. So we have no option but to put this mandatory institutionalized quarantine,” said Malawi’s minister of health Khumbize Kandodo-Chiponda.The new policy, announced Tuesday, says returnees will be taken to a quarantine facility for coronavirus testing. Those found to have the virus will not be allowed to return home until they test negative. John Phuka, the chairperson of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, says the measure will help contain the more deadly new strain of the coronavirus known as 501.V2 which has hit South Africa. “For the past two weeks the number of cases had doubled almost twice,” he said. “We were 210; we should have doubled to 400. We have now doubled again to over 800 active cases. So the rate at which this is rising is pointing towards that.” Phuka notes that more young people are getting infected, compared to the first wave of the pandemic. “In the current wave, amongst those we have lost to death, three are less than 30 years. As we speak we have two children who are admitted for example at Queens [Central Hospital]. And then last week we also discharged one child, six months old, so there are indications that we may have this variant,” he said.This is not the first time Malawi has put returnees in quarantine. In May last year, more than 400 Malawian migrant workers who returned from South Africa escaped from a coronavirus screening camp at Kamuzu Stadium in the economic capital, Blantyre. This came two days after eight people who tested positive for coronavirus escaped from Kameza Isolation center in Blantyre. This time Health Minister Kandodo-Chiponda says there will ‘very tight security’ in the quarantine facilities.
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Dr. Dre says he will be “back home soon” after the music mogul received medical treatment at a Los Angeles hospital for a reported brain aneurysm.
The rapper and producer said in a social media post Tuesday night that he’s thankful for the “well wishes.” TMZ reported that he suffered a brain aneurysm Monday and was recovering at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
“I’m doing great and getting excellent care from my medical team,” he said. “I will be out of the hospital and back home soon. Shout out to all the great medical professionals at Cedars. One Love!!”
His representative has not immediately responded to an email.
Several music artists and athletes paid tribute to Dre on social media on Tuesday. Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and LeBron James offered prayers toward Dre’s recovery.
Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, has produced hits for Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and more. He’s won six Grammys.
Born in the Southern California city of Compton, he broke out on the music scene as a co-founding member of N.W.A., producing the group’s groundbreaking 1988 debut album, “Straight Outta Compton.”
Dre produced his own hits and multiplatinum albums, along with crafting music for many others including Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Nas, Busta Rhymes, the Game and Anderson .Paak. He also found success outside of the rap genre, producing pop hits for Gwen Stefani and Mary J. Blige.
Dre founded Beats Electronics in 2008 with Jimmy Iovine and six years later they launched a streaming subscription service, Beats Music. Apple acquired both in a $3 billion deal in 2014.
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India has not imposed a ban on export of vaccines for COVID-19, the federal government said amid a controversy that it had imposed restrictions on an Indian company expected to be on the frontlines in supplying vaccines to developing countries. India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, is expected to play a pivotal role as low and middle income countries look ahead to launching immunization programs to bring the pandemic under control. But following the emergency authorization granted by Indian authorities to the British-developed AstraZeneca and another vaccine developed locally on Sunday, media reports said that India will not allow exports for several months. “The government hasn’t banned the export of any one of the COVID vaccines. That is something that should be absolutely clear,” Rajesh Bhushan, the health ministry’s top official told reporters cautioning against what he called “misinformation.” In a joint statement on Tuesday, the two companies manufacturing the vaccines — the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech — also pledged global access for the doses saying that the most important task ahead was to save lives and livelihoods in India and the world. FILE – An employee in personal protective equipment (PPE) removes vials of AstraZeneca’s COVISHIELD, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine from a visual inspection machine inside a lab at Serum Institute of India, in Pune, India, Nov. 30, 2020.For the time being, the global focus is mainly on the Serum institute that is manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine — the company is on track to make a billion doses this year as it ramps up its current capacity of 60 to 70 million doses a month to 100 million doses by March, according to a company spokesman. It has already stockpiled 50 million doses made even before approval came in. The initial vaccines are expected to be supplied domestically India, which aims to immunize 300 million people by August, will need millions of doses for its own massive population. A health worker talks to a vaccine trials’ volunteer before he is tested for COVID-19 and takes part of the country’s human clinical trial for potential vaccines at the Wits RHI Shandukani Research Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, Aug. 27, 2020.However, the rollout in many countries in Asia and Africa will depend on the speed with which they secure vaccines from Indian companies like the Serum Institute. Half the one billion doses it is contracted to make are to be sold to developing countries. Health experts are also watching the development of two local vaccine candidates by Indian companies.“India’s leadership on this front may be a game changer for COVID vaccine distribution in the developing world,” according to Andrea D. Taylor, an Assistant Director at the Duke Innovation Global Health Center. “The first is the sheer volume of vaccines that they intend to produce, as well as the considerable number of doses that have already been manufactured and stockpiled and are now ready to ship out.” While rich countries like the U.S., Britain, and Canada have secured available vaccines for their own populations and launched immunization programs, developing countries have been left behind as they look for affordable vaccine supplies. FILE – Staff members deliver injections of the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to patients in their cars at a drive-in vaccination center in Hyde, Greater Manchester, northwest England, Dec. 17, 2020.For them, the most promising candidate so far is AstraZeneca that can be stored in ordinary refrigerators and is cheaper compared to vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna. Gavi, a non-profit global vaccine alliance, has entered into an agreement with the Serum Institute for 200 million doses of AstraZeneca billed as the “vaccine for the world.” It is expected to be priced at around $ 3.However, when these will be available remains unclear. Though Indian companies, which make 60 percent of the world’s vaccines, are ramping up production lines, there is expected to be a huge mismatch between supply and demand amid the worldwide scramble for vaccines. “Our data on vaccine purchases and manufacturing indicate that there is reason to be concerned that low and middle income countries will not receive enough vaccines in 2021,” according to Taylor. “This is not because of hoarding by the Indian market but because globally we cannot produce enough doses quickly enough or ensure that they reach all high-priority populations first.”
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More than two-thirds of the 15 million coronavirus vaccines shipped within the United States have so far gone unused. As Mariama Diallo reports, some states are vowing to penalize hospitals that fail to dispense shots quickly enough.
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U.S. intelligence officials investigating last month’s massive cybersecurity breach that impacted thousands of companies and dozens of government agencies warn the hack is part of an ongoing intelligence operation, likely being carried out by Russia. The public conclusion, shared Tuesday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the National Security Agency (NSA), is the first formal statement of attribution from U.S. officials, and confirms previous comments by senior officials and lawmakers who said the evidence pointed “pretty clearly” to Moscow. FILE – The sign outside the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md., June 6, 2013. All fingers are pointing to Russia as author of the worst-ever hack of U.S. government agencies.”This work indicates that an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor, likely Russian in origin, is responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and nongovernmental networks,” according to the statement from the intelligence and security agencies. “At this time, we believe this was, and continues to be, an intelligence gathering effort,” they added. “We are taking all necessary steps to understand the full scope of this campaign and respond accordingly.” ‘Serious compromise’Evidence of the breach involving SolarWinds, a Texas-based software management company, first emerged in early December when the private cybersecurity firm FireEye announced its systems had been penetrated and that sensitive information had been stolen. In the days that followed, the hack was traced to SolarWinds, with investigators warning that approximately 18,000 customers, including U.S. government agencies and companies around the world, had been affected. FILE – Microsoft’s corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington. (VOA/Diaa Bekheet)Late last month, software giant Microsoft said the hackers even managed to use the breach to access some of the company’s heavily guarded source code — the basic programming essential to running Microsoft programs and operating systems. But despite the huge number of SolarWinds customers affected by the hack, U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday that “a much smaller number” were compromised by follow-on activities. “We have so far identified fewer than 10 U.S. government agencies that fall into this category and are working to identify the nongovernment entities who also may be impacted,” they said in the statement. U.S. officials had previously said the hack had impacted the departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security, Energy, Treasury and Commerce, as well as state and local governments. “This is a serious compromise that will require a sustained and dedicated effort to remediate,” the FBI, CISA, ODNI and the NSA said in Tuesday’s statement, adding the agencies will “continue taking every necessary action to investigate, remediate and share information with our partners and the American people.” Trump responseU.S. President Donald Trump has been largely silent on the SolarWinds hack, tweeting last month, “Everything is well under control,” while appearing to deflect blame from Moscow. “Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China,” Trump said.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) December 19, 2020In a tweet late Tuesday, the White House National Security Council said the president “continues to surge all appropriate resources to support the whole-of-government response to the recent cyber incident affecting government networks.”President @realDonaldTrump continues to surge all appropriate resources to support the whole-of-government response to the recent cyber incident affecting government networks. We are taking every necessary step to understand the full scope of this incident & respond accordingly. https://t.co/WnmH2dE1Y7— NSC (@WHNSC) January 5, 2021Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, however, accused the Trump administration of dragging its feet. “It’s unfortunate that it has taken over three weeks after the revelation of an intrusion this significant for this administration to finally issue a tentative attribution,” Warner said in a statement late Tuesday. “We need to make clear to Russia that any misuse of compromised networks to produce destructive or harmful effects is unacceptable and will prompt an appropriately strong response.”
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Tanya Roberts, who captivated James Bond in “A View to a Kill” and appeared in the sitcom “That ’70s Show,” has died, several hours after she was mistakenly declared dead by her publicist and her partner. She was 65. Lance O’Brien, her companion of nearly two decades, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center reached out to him on Monday at 9:30 p.m. PST to inform him that Roberts had passed away. “She was my soulmate, she was my best friend. We haven’t been apart for two days” in their years together, a tearful O’Brien said. Roberts’ death was related to a urinary tract infection, publicist Mike Pingel said. He had been at the hospital Tuesday morning with O’Brien to pick up Roberts’ personal effects. Roberts collapsed at home on December 24 after walking her dogs and was admitted to Cedars-Sinai. She had been reported dead on Sunday, but Pingel said that was based on a mistake by O’Brien, who believed Roberts had slipped away during what was expected to be a final visit. Numerous outlets, including The Associated Press, reported Roberts’ death Monday, based on information Pingel received from O’Brien. O’Brien, who’d been unable to see Roberts in the hospital because of COVID-19 restrictions, was allowed to visit Sunday as her condition worsened. The actor did not have the virus, he said. When he got the call Sunday that she was failing, O’Brien said he was “emotionally shocked because I was expecting her to come home.” Acting careerRoberts played geologist Stacey Sutton opposite Roger Moore in 1985’s “A View to a Kill,” where she held a gun on Bond after tricking him into thinking she was in a shower. The character later joined him to stop bad guys on an airship over San Francisco. Roberts also appeared in such fantasy adventure films as “The Beastmaster” and “Hearts and Armour.” She replaced Shelley Hack in “Charlie’s Angels,” joining Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd as third Angel Julie. She also played comic book heroine Sheena — a female version of the Tarzan story — in a 1984 film. A new generation of fans saw her on “That ’70s Show” from 1998 and 2004, playing Midge, mother to Laura Prepon’s character Donna. Roberts, a huge animal rights activist, is survived by O’Brien.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese software applications, including Ant Group’s Alipay, the White House said, escalating tensions with Beijing before President-elect Joe Biden takes office this month. The order, first reported by Reuters, tasks the Commerce Department with defining which transactions will be banned under the directive and targets Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s QQ Wallet and WeChat Pay as well. The move is aimed at curbing the threat to Americans posed by Chinese software applications, which have large user bases and access to sensitive data, a senior official told Reuters. A U.S. Tencent spokeswoman did not immediately comment. FILE – WeChat has an average of 19 million daily active users in the United States.The order signed by Trump also names CamScanner, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate and WPS Office and says “the United States must take aggressive action against those who develop or control Chinese connected software applications to protect our national security.” A U.S. official told Reuters that even though the order gave the Commerce Department 45 days to act, the department plans to act before January 20 when Trump leaves office to identify prohibited transactions. Trump’s order says “by accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information.” It added the data collection “would permit China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, and build dossiers of personal information.” The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. FILE – A TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration.Another official said the order mirrors earlier Trump executive orders signed in August directing Commerce to block some transactions with WeChat and Chinese-owned Tiktok seeking to bar some transactions that have been blocked by U.S. courts. Any new transactions prohibited by the Trump administration are likely to face similar court challenges as the Commerce Department did when it sought to block transactions with WeChat and TikTok. The Commerce orders would have effectively banned the Chinese app’s use in the United States and barred Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s app stores from offering them for download for new users. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement he supports Trump’s “commitment to protecting the privacy and security of Americans from threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party.” The latest action has been under debate within the administration for an extended period. Many administration officials are eager to cement the hardline U.S. position with China on a number of fronts before Trump leaves office. Last month, the Commerce Department added dozens of Chinese companies, including the country’s top chipmaker SMIC and Chinese drone manufacturer SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd., to a trade blacklist. Also last month the administration published a list of Chinese and Russian companies with alleged military ties that restrict them from buying a range of U.S. goods and technology. In November, the administration put on hold an effort to blacklist Ant Group, the Chinese financial technology company affiliated with e-commerce giant Alibaba.
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The 2021 Grammy Awards will no longer take place this month in Los Angeles and will be broadcast in March due to a recent surge in coronavirus cases and deaths. The Recording Academy told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the annual show would shift from its original January 31 broadcast to an unspecified date in March. The Grammys will be held in Los Angeles at the Staples Center. Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the crisis in California, has surpassed 10,000 COVID-19 deaths and has had 40% of the deaths in California. It is the third state to reach the 25,000 death count. An average of six people die every hour from COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, which has a quarter of the state’s 40 million residents. County health officials fear the incoming Christmas and New Year’s surge. FILE – Trevor Noah will host the 2021 Grammy Awards. (Comedy Central)The Daily Show host and comedian Trevor Noah is set to host the 2021 Grammys, where Beyoncé is the leading contender with nine nominations. She scored nominations for song and record of the year with Black Parade, which she released on Juneteenth, while Savage — her No. 1 collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion — picked up bids for record of the year, best rap song and best rap performance. Beyoncé’s Black Is King, which aired on Disney+, is nominated for best music film, while Brown Skin Girl, a song dedicated to dark- and brown-skinned women, is nominated for best music video. Her daughter Blue Ivy Carter sings on Brown Skin Girl and also earned a Grammy nomination. Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Roddy Ricch, Jhené Aiko, Post Malone, Renée Zellweger, Billie Eilish and her producer-brother Finneas also scored nominations. First-time nominees include The Strokes, Megan Thee Stallion and Harry Styles. Since the pandemic, a number of awards shows were postponed and later revamped due to COVID-19 restrictions. The BET Awards was the first major awards show during the pandemic and was a success thanks to its artsy, highly produced, well-crafted pre-taped performances. The MTV Video Music Awards featured Lady Gaga winning awards and performing onsite in a mask, and the Latin Grammys pre-taped several performances the week of the show, handing out some of its awards to the winners who attended the show. Performers at the upcoming Grammys will be announced at a later date.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed disappointment Tuesday with the failure of Chinese officials to grant final permission to an international team of researchers to enter the country to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.At the agency’s regular COVID-19 briefing at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “very disappointed” that China had not authorized entry of the team, some of whom had begun their travels to Wuhan. The news forced other members of the team to cancel their travel at the last minute.Tedros said plans for the trip had been arranged jointly among WHO officials, the Chinese government and the countries for which the team was meant to travel through on their way to Wuhan. He said the agency just learned Tuesday “that Chinese officials have not yet finalized the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in China.”Tedros said he had been in contact with senior Chinese officials. “And I have once again made it clear that the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team. I have been assured that China is speeding up the internal procedures for the earliest possible deployment. We are eager to get the mission under way as soon as possible.”FILE – Medical workers move a person who died from COVID-19 at a hospital in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, Feb. 16, 2020.China reported the first cases of a pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan to the WHO on Dec. 31, 2019, and closed a market where the novel coronavirus was believed to have emerged.Health ministers called on the WHO in May to identify the source of the virus and how it crossed the species barrier.The United States, which has accused China of having hidden the outbreak’s extent, has called for a “transparent” WHO-led investigation and criticized its terms, which allowed Chinese scientists to do the first phase of preliminary research. U.S. President Donald Trump has accused the agency of being a puppet for China during the pandemic. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 illness.
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Andrew Savoia, a 24-year-old Arlington, Virginia, cello player has taken social media by storm, posting TikTok videos of himself performing instrumental covers of modern pop and hip- hop songs. One of his first viral videos, cover of “Come Get Her” by the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd, had over 3 million views. Maxim Moskalkov has the story. Camera: David Gogokhia, Artyom Kokhan
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French Health Minister Olivier Veran said Tuesday the nation was going to “amplify, accelerate and simplify” its COVID-19 vaccination program after coming under fire for the initial slow roll out of the program.In an interview with French radio, Veran said more than 2,000 doctors, nurses and other health care workers have received vaccinations. He also announced that firefighters and home aid workers age 50 and older would also be prioritized “because they are also professionals who are in contact with fragile people and who may have to work with the sick.”The faster-paced vaccination campaign comes after the government was criticized for its slow rollout of the vaccine, delivering just over 500 inoculations in the first week, compared to hundreds of thousands delivered by Germany in the same period.The criticism prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to call a meeting with Veran, Prime Minister Jean Castex and other leaders late Tuesday to discuss how to speed up the process.Veran vowed to increase vaccinations exponentially in the next few days, promising the pace of the program “will be on par with that of our neighbors” by the end of the week.He said France is prepared to deliver 500,000 doses per week of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and once it is approved by the European Medicines regulatory agency, (EMA) they will be prepared to deliver 500,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine per month. The EMA is expected to consider the Moderna vaccine Wednesday.
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