SAO PAULO: Brazilian health authority Anvisa said on Wednesday that a volunteer in a clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University has died, stating it had received data from an investigation into the matter.
The regulator said testing of the vaccine would continue after the volunteer’s death. It provided no further details, citing medical confidentiality of those involved in trials.
The Federal University of Sao Paulo, which is helping coordinate phase 3 clinical trials in Brazil, separately said that the volunteer was Brazilian but did not say where the person lived.
AstraZeneca shares turned negative and were down 1.7%.
The federal government already has plans to purchase the UK vaccine and produce it at its biomedical research center FioCruz in Rio de Janeiro, while a competing vaccine from China’s Sinovac is being tested by Sao Paulo state’s research center Butantan Institute.
Brazil has the second deadliest outbreak of coronavirus, with more than 154,000 killed by COVID-19, following only the United States. It is the third worst outbreak in terms of cases, with more than 5.2 million infected, after the United States and India.
AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine trial volunteer has died, Brazil health authority says
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AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine trial volunteer has died, Brazil health authority says
- Regulator said testing of the vaccine would continue after the volunteer’s death
’Kyiv should be ours’: Russians boosted after Putin-Trump call
Asked what her main feeling was following the talks, pensioner Sofiya said: “Uncertainty“
MOSCOW: A day after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke by phone on Ukraine, showering each other with compliments, Russian home-maker Anastasia had one wish: for Moscow to finish what it started in 2022.
In the fourth spring of Moscow’s devastating offensive, which has killed tens of thousands, diplomatic movement in recent days has given Russians a boost in confidence that victory — in some shape or another — is approaching.
In the call with Trump on Monday, the Russian leader once again brushed off calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, as demanded by the West and Kyiv.
Despite that, the US president said the “tone” of the conversation was “excellent.”
Russia controls a fifth of Ukraine and holds an upper hand on the battlefield.
“I am rooting for our country, I love it very much and I just want Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) to just, after all, get justice done,” Anastasia told AFP in the Moscow suburbs, echoing official language calling for the defeat of Ukraine.
Not knowing how or when it would happen, the 40-year-old mother, who declined to give her surname, said she was getting impatient.
“I don’t want my children to have to solve this issue. Let’s decide it here and now.”
But she had no trust in Trump — who she said is “just a businessman” who “wants money and nothing else” — and worried the “Anglo-Saxons” will trick Russia.
Putin has shown no sign of scaling down his maximalist demands for ending the Ukraine conflict, seeking little short of capitulation from Kyiv.
At talks in Istanbul last week, Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine abandon territory it still controls in the east and south.
Russia also wants Ukraine barred from NATO and for Western military support to end.
Putin has repeatedly called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to be removed from office.
Confidence was tinged with uncertainty in Moscow after the Putin-Trump call, in which the Russian leader floated a vague “memorandum” that would outline demands for a peace deal and Trump said Kyiv and Moscow would begin talks swiftly.
Many in Moscow did not know what Trump or Putin meant.
Asked what her main feeling was following the talks, pensioner Sofiya said: “Uncertainty.”
“It’s interesting what will happen to us, not only to our families, but our country,” said the 72-year-old, who declined to give her surname.
Like many, Sofiya saw no real progress from last week’s talks — the first direct negotiations on the conflict in more than three years.
“I don’t know how to express this, but I would like calm and peace,” she said.
Moscow has ramped up military censorship amid its Ukraine offensive, threatening years in prison for those who criticize or question the campaign.
Zelensky said Russia was not serious about talks and is trying to “buy time” to continue its offensive.
Putin was indeed hoping to advance more on the ground and will not “miss the opportunity” for a summer offensive, said Russian analyst Konstantin Kalachev.
He called the Trump call a “tactical victory” for the Russian leader.
“Russia is hoping to push them (Ukrainian forces) this summer,” Kalachev said.
“There will be no peace, while Russia has not yet used the option of a final offensive,” he said, highlighting the prospect of a summer ground campaign.
Though Putin said both sides should be ready to make “compromises,” few were forthcoming from the Kremlin or on the streets of Moscow.
“I believe that Odesa, Kharkiv, Nikolayev (Mykolaiv), Kyiv should be ours,” said another pensioner, 70-year-old Marina, who also declined to give her surname, reeling off a string of Ukrainian cities that Russia has not formally claimed.
Russian state TV said Moscow’s negotiators threatened in Istanbul to seize more land if Ukraine does not pull its troops out of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that Moscow claims to have annexed.
“If the four regions will not be recognized in the nearest future, the next time there will be six regions,” said state TV presenter Yevgeny Popov.
Moscow’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky later evoked Russia’s 21-year war with Sweden in the 18th century, hinting Moscow was ready for a long fight.
Marina, too, said she would support Russia to fight on, even as thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed.
“Of course, it is a big shame that our people are also dying,” she told AFP. “But there is no other way.”
Poland to try suspect in alleged Russian plot to assassinate Zelensky
- The man, identified as Pawel K., was arrested in April 2024
- Prosecutors said he had declared his readiness to act for Russia’s military intelligence
WARSAW: Polish authorities have indicted a man charged with planning to help Russian foreign intelligence services prepare a possible attempt to assassinate Ukraine’s president, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The man, identified as Pawel K., was arrested in April 2024 after cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors, and faces up to eight years in prison.
According to prosecutors, he had declared his readiness to act for the military intelligence of the Russian Federation and established contacts with Russians who were directly involved in the war in Ukraine.
“The activities were to help, among other things, in the planning by the Russian special services of a possible assassination attempt on the life of ... the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky,” the prosecution said in a statement.
Pawel K.’s tasks included collecting and providing information on security at the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland, prosecutors said.
Poland, a hub for Western military supplies to Ukraine, says it has become a major target of Russian spies, accusing Moscow and its ally Belarus of trying to destabilize it — accusations which the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.
PKK urges Turkiye to ease leader’s solitary confinement for any peace talks
- The disbanding mechanisms are unclear yet
- Hiwa said the PKK has shown “seriousness regarding peace,” but “till now the Turkish state has not given any guarantees”
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has said Türkiye should ease prison conditions for its founder Abdullah Ocalan, declaring him the group’s “chief negotiator” for any future talks after a decision to disband.
The Kurdish group, blacklisted by Ankara and its Western allies, announced on May 12 it had adopted a decision to disarm and disband after a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that cost more than 40,000 lives.
The group’s historic decision came after an appeal by Ocalan, made in a letter from Istanbul’s Imrali prison island where he has been held since 1999.
Zagros Hiwa, spokesman for the PKK’s political wing, told AFP on Monday that “we expect that the Turkish state makes amendments in the solitary confinement conditions” to allow Ocalan “free and secure work conditions so that he could lead the process.”
“Leader Apo is our chief negotiator” for any talks with Türkiye, Hiwa added in an interview, referring to Ocalan.
“Only Leader Apo can lead the practical implementation of the decision taken by the PKK.”
The disbanding mechanisms are unclear yet, but the Turkish government has said it would carefully monitor the process to ensure full implementation.
Hiwa said the PKK has shown “seriousness regarding peace,” but “till now the Turkish state has not given any guarantees and taken any measure for facilitating the process” and continued its “bombardments and artillery shellings” against the Kurdish group’s positions.
The PKK operates rear bases in Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdistan region, where Türkiye also maintains military bases and often carries out air and ground operations against the Kurdish militants.
Turkish media reports have suggested that militants who had committed no crime on Turkish soil could return without fear of prosecution, but that PKK leaders might be forced into exile or stay behind in Iraq.
Hiwa said the PKK objects to its members or leaders being forced to leave, saying that “real peace requires integration, not exile.”
Second man in court over arson attacks linked to UK PM Starmer
- Neither of the suspects has been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act
- Police said the first fire involved a Toyota Rav4 car that Starmer used to own
LONDON: A second man to be charged over a series of arson attacks on houses and a car linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared in a London court on Tuesday.
Over five days earlier this month, police were called to fires at a house in north London owned by Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live, and to a blaze involving a car that also used to belong to the British leader.
Last week, Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, was charged in connection with the fires, and on Tuesday Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, who was born in Ukraine, appeared in court accused of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.
“The alleged offense arises from three fires set at locations linked to the prime minister in the last fortnight,” prosecutor Sarah Przybylska said. “At this stage the alleged offending is unexplained.”
Neither of the suspects has been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act which aims to target hostile state activity.
Police said the first fire involved a Toyota Rav4 car that Starmer used to own. Days later, there was a blaze at a property where Starmer once resided and the following day there was an attack on a house in north London that he still owns.
Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister last July, has called the incidents “an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for.”
Wearing a light blue hoodie, Carpiuc, who was arrested on Saturday at London’s Luton Airport, spoke only to confirm his name and address while listening to the proceedings through a translator.
He was remanded in custody until a hearing on June 6 at London’s Old Bailey court when his co-accused Lavrynovych is also due to appear.
The prosecutor said a decision would be taken at this hearing as to whether the case would proceed under the terrorism protocol.
Carpiuc’s lawyer Jay Nutkins said his client had lived in Britain for nine years and had just completed a two-year degree at a university in Canterbury.
“He denies being at the scene of any of these fires,” Nutkins said.
Carpiuc funded himself through construction work, Nutkins said. On a casting website for models and actors, an entry under Carpiuc’s name said he was born in western Ukraine and was seeking work as a model.
On Monday, police arrested a third man in connection with the fires and he remains in police custody.
Russia accuses NATO of ‘aggressive actions’ in Baltic Sea after Estonia tries to seize tanker
- Zakharova said Moscow was closely monitoring events in the Baltic
MOSCOW: Russia on Tuesday accused NATO of carrying out what it called aggressive actions in the Baltic Sea that impeded the freedom of shipping after Estonia tried and failed to seize a tanker.
Estonia said on Thursday last week that Moscow had briefly sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea during an attempt to stop a Russian-bound oil tanker thought to be part of a “shadow fleet” defying Western sanctions on Moscow.
Asked about the matter at her weekly news briefing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow was closely monitoring events in the Baltic and would react to what she called illegal actions by NATO vessels if they caused risks.
