WORLD
Biden rejects new Republican offer, to continue infrastructure talks next week
During a phone call with the president Friday, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican negotiator, proposed a new offer to increase about $50 billion in spending across a number of infrastructure programs, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. "The President expressed his gratitude for her effort and goodwill, but also indicated that the current offer did not meet his objectives to grow the economy, " Psaki said.
Facebook suspends Trump's accounts for 2 years under new rules
"We are today announcing new enforcement protocols to be applied in exceptional cases such as this, and we are confirming the time-bound penalty consistent with those protocols which we are applying to Mr. Trump's accounts... We believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols." Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Facebook, said.
Fauci 'undeniable asset': White House over Covid lab leak emails
Over 3,000 pages of Fauci's work emails during the pandemic between January and June 2020, obtained by the Washington Post, Buzzfeed News and CNN through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), has put the 80-year-old in a spotlight earning both praise and criticism, the BBC reported.
Organiser of HK Tiananmen Square massacre vigil arrested
Richard Tsoi, secretary of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HKA) told dpa news agency that Chow was arrested at 8 a.m. at Central Police Station. The police announced a ban on Tiananmen commemorations last week, which they said was because of the pandemic. They said that anyone breaking the ban could face five years in prison, and one additional year for publicizing an event.
Fauci adds pressure on China to come clean on possible Covid lab-leak in Wuhan
Fauci is now urging China to release medical records of nine people, including three who had taken ill with Covid-19 symptoms before China officially declared the outbreak of the pandemic, according to a Financial Times report. The three patients had worked in the WIV, a US intelligence report quoted by The Wall Street Journal had said.
Wuhan lab head, US expert flagged Covid risk in 2015: Report
In the research, Shi Zhengli and epidemiologist Ralph Baric used mice as subjects and inserted the protein from a Chinese rufous horseshoe bat into the molecular structure of the SARS virus from 2002, creating a new, infectious pathogen, the Vanity Fair reported on Thursday. "Scientific review panels may deem similar studies too risky to pursue," the researchers wrote in the paper and warned the world of "a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence.
Pfizer jab produces less antibodies against Delta variant: Lancet
This antibody's response was even lower in people who had only received one dose. After a single dose of Pfizer-BioNTech, 79 per cent of people had a quantifiable neutralising antibody response against the original strain, but this fell to 50 per cent for Alpha variant , 32 per cent for Delta variant and 25 per cent for Beta variant , showed the study, published as a Research letter in The Lancet on Thursday.
B.1.6172 Covid variant now 'dominant' in UK
The number of cases of the variant has increased by more than 5,000 since last week to 12,431, Xinhua news agency reported citing PHE data as saying on Thursday. PHE officials say that the variant has now overtaken the Kent variant, known as Alpha, as the most dominant in the UK.
Chicago to fully reopen on June 11
The date is three weeks earlier than the target date of July 4 that Lightfoot had initially planned to fully reopen the city, Xinhua news agency reported citing a Chicago Tribune report as saying on Thursday. Under Pritzker's Phase-Five plan for the state, a full reopening means Chicago residents and visitors will have few coronavirus-related restrictions starting from June 11.
Joe Biden expands ban on Chinese surveillance firms doing business in US
The executive order bans Americans from investing in additional Chinese firms starting from August 2. The move is a clear signal that Biden wants to continue with old policies related to Chinese firms doing business in America and does not want US citizens to invest in companies that create and deploy surveillance technology.
Don't Miss
Advertisement