BERLIN: European Union states will start vaccinations against COVID-19 in 10 days as Europe tries to catch up with Britain and United States after what some have criticized as a slow EU approval process for the shots.
The Dec. 27 start date — confirmed by EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, Austria, Germany and Italy — will be almost three weeks after the world’s first fully-tested COVID-19 vaccination was administered in England.
“In Germany we will start, if the approval comes as planned, on Dec. 27. The other countries in the EU want to be able to start and want to start from Dec. 27,” Health Minister Jens Spahn said before an online meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel and executives from vaccine maker BioNTech.
As a member of the EU, Germany is obliged, by and large, to wait for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to approve the vaccine. The EMA is expected to make an announcement on Dec. 21.
A senior EU official said on Wednesday the bloc could give its final approval for the vaccine, developed by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, on Dec. 23.
Von der Leyen confirmed the planned timetable for the start of inoculations for the European Union’s 450 million citizens.
“On 27, 28 and 29 December vaccination will start across the EU,” she wrote on Twitter. She had previously called for a coordinated start to inoculations on the same day in all 27 EU countries.
Italy said it would start vaccinating health workers on Dec. 27, the Sunday after Christmas. Vaccinations will also start in Austria on that date, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Twitter.
Britain, which left the EU early this year, approved the shot on Dec. 3 for emergency use, followed by Canada on Dec. 9 and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Dec. 11.
In Britain, around 140,000 people have already received the jabs, BioNTech Chief Medical Officer Oezlem Tuereci said at Thursday’s online event.
According to Spahn, the vaccine should become available to all 27 EU member states at the same time, regardless of their financial strength, thanks to negotiations led by the European Commission that he said were an “important signal of European solidarity.”
Merkel said Germany was looking forward to starting life-saving vaccinations, a day after the country reported 952 deaths related to the coronavirus, its highest daily number yet.
“If we look at how many people are dying of coronavirus now, we know how many people this (vaccine) can save,” she said.
BioNTech’s Tuereci said the “marathon” was not over yet for the vaccine maker.
“Our team here at BioNTech has been working through nights and weekends, has put off vacations. They will continue over the Christmas to make sure delivery can happen quickly,” she said.
EU states to start COVID-19 vaccinations in 10 days
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EU states to start COVID-19 vaccinations in 10 days
- Germany looking forward to starting life-saving vaccinations
UK universities at risk as number of students from Pakistan, other nations plunge — report
- Students from Pakistan, India, Nigeria and China account for 70 percent of graduate visas
- The Migration Advisory Committee found no evidence of widespread abuse for graduate route
LONDON: Britain should avoid further restricting international student numbers or some universities may collapse, a government commissioned report said on Tuesday, after foreign registrations plummeted for next year.
High levels of legal migration have long dominated Britain’s political discourse and were one of the major drivers for the Brexit referendum in 2016.
Along with care staff and low salaried workers, the government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has sought to reduce the number of students coming to Britain, including preventing some post-graduate students from bringing family members.
The Migration Advisory Committee, an independent body which gives the government advice, said the number of international postgraduate students paying deposits to study at British universities this September had dropped by 63 percent, compared with the previous year, after the government put restrictions on education visas.
The report warned that further restrictions on the so-called graduate route, which allows foreign students to work in Britain for up to two years after graduation, would lead to job losses, course closures and a risk “that some institutions would fail.”
Britain boasts some of the most famous and sought after universities in the world, from Oxford and Cambridge to Imperial College London. Business leaders argue that they boost innovation, increase creativity and provide a form of soft power, as many world leaders have studied at British colleges.
The government commissioned the review after concerns that the graduate visa route was being abused. Some British politicians have complained that some students are applying for visas and then claim asylum or overstay.
Esther McVey, a minister in Sunak’s cabinet, said on Monday that some British universities were “selling immigration to international students rather than education.”
A spokesman for Sunak said the government would consider the report and respond. But the spokesman highlighted concerns about the scheme, pointing out that more than 40 percent of international students using the route were either not working or earning below 15,000 pounds ($18,834) a year after graduation.
The Migration Advisory Committee found there was no evidence of widespread abuse specifically for the graduate route. Students from four countries – India, Nigeria, China and Pakistan – account for 70 percent of graduate visas.
British business lobby group, the CBI, said British universities were one of the country’s biggest export successes, and with the Migration Advisory Committee saying the system was not being abused “it’s time to put its future beyond doubt and end this period of damaging speculation.”
8 dead, at least 40 injured as farmworkers’ bus overturns in central Florida
- The bus was transporting 53 farmworkers at about 6:40 a.m. when it collided with a truck
- The workers were being transported to Cannon Farms in Dunellon
FLORIDA: A bus carrying farmworkers in central Florida overturned on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring about 40 other passengers, authorities said.
The bus was transporting 53 farmworkers at about 6:40 a.m. when it collided with a truck in Marion County, north of Orlando, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
Authorities say the bus swerved off State Road 40, a straight but somewhat hilly two-lane road that passes through farms. It crashed through a fence and ended up on its side in a field. The workers were being transported to Cannon Farms in Dunellon, which has been harvesting watermelons.
Photos taken by the Ocala Star-Banner at the scene show the bus lying on its side with both its emergency rear door and top hatch open. The truck that hit it shows extensive damage to its driver’s side.
There is no immediate indication that weather was a factor.
“We will be closed today out of respect to the losses and injuries endured early this morning in the accident that took place to the Olvera Trucking Harvesting Corp.,” Cannon Farms announced on its Facebook page. “Please pray with us for the families and the loved ones involved in this tragic accident. We appreciate your understanding at this difficult time.”
Cannon Farms describes itself as a family owned commercial farming operation that has farmed its land for more than 100 years, focusing now on peanuts and watermelons, which it sends to grocery stores across the US and Canada.
No one answered the phone at Olvera Trucking on Tuesday afternoon. The company had recently advertised for a temporary driver to bus workers to watermelon fields. The driver would then operate harvesting equipment. The pay was $14.77 an hour.
Harvard students end protest as university agrees to discuss Middle East conflict
- The student protest group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine said in a statement that the encampment “outlasted its utility with respect to our demands”
- Students at many college campuses this spring set up similar encampments
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: Protesters against the war between Israel and Hamas were voluntarily taking down their tents in Harvard Yard on Tuesday after university officials agreed to discuss their questions about the endowment, bringing a peaceful end to the kinds of demonstrations that were broken up by police on other campuses.
The student protest group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine said in a statement that the encampment “outlasted its utility with respect to our demands.” Meanwhile, Harvard University interim President Alan Garber agreed to pursue a meeting between protesters and university officials regarding the students’ questions.
Students at many college campuses this spring set up similar encampments, calling for their schools to cut ties with Israel and businesses that support it.
The latest Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking an additional 250 hostage. Palestinian militants still hold about 100 captives, and Israel’s military has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Harvard said its president and the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Hopi Hoekstra, will meet with the protesters to discuss the conflict in the Middle East.
The protesters said they worked out an agreement to meet with university officials including the Harvard Management Company, which oversees the world’s largest academic endowment, valued at about $50 billion.
The protesters’ statement said the students will set an agenda including discussions on disclosure, divestment, and reinvestment, and the creation of a Center for Palestine Studies. The students also said that Harvard has offered to retract suspensions of more than 20 students and student workers and back down on disciplinary measures faced by 60 more.
“Since its establishment three weeks ago, the encampment has both broadened and deepened Palestine solidarity organizing on campus,” a spokesperson for the protesters said. “It has moved the needle on disclosure and divestment at Harvard.”
At least 15 injured in Russian strike on high-rise in Ukraine’s Kharkiv
- A fire broke out at another strike site, and at least ten garages were affected
KYIV: A Russian air attack on Kharkiv city center in Ukraine hit a high-rise residential building, injuring at least 15 people, including two children, local officials said on Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear what kind of weapon was used in the strike, but it landed on the 10th floor of the 12-story apartment block, officials said on Telegram.
Ihor Terekhov, the city’s major, said rescuers were searching for the injured.
One person was hospitalized in a serious condition, Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor, added.
A fire broke out at another strike site, and at least ten garages were affected, Syniehubov said.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, and the surrounding region have long been targeted by Russian attacks but the strikes have become more intense in recent months, hitting civilian and energy infrastructure.
Two French prison officers killed in inmate's escape
- The incident took place late morning at a road toll in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France
- The inmate was being transported between the towns of Rouen and Evreux in Normandy
ROUEN, France: Gunmen on Tuesday attacked a prison van at a motorway toll in northern France, killing at least two prison officers and freeing a convict who had been jailed last week.
President Emmanuel Macron vowed that everything would be done to find those behind the attack as hundreds of members of the security forces were deployed for a manhunt to find the attackers and the inmate who were all still at large.
Two prison officers were killed in the attack and two others are receiving urgent medical care, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.
The incident took place late morning at a road toll in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France, a source close to the case added.
The inmate was being transported between the towns of Rouen and Evreux in Normandy.
A police source said several individuals, who arrived in two vehicles, rammed the police van and then fled.
One of them was wounded, the police source said.
It was not immediately clear how many attackers there were in total.
"Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime," Macron wrote on X.
"We will be uncompromising," he added, describing the attack as a "shock".
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti immediately headed to a crisis cell at his ministry.
"These are people for whom life counts for nothing. They will be arrested, they will be judged and they will be punished according to the crime they committed," he said.
Both the officers killed were men and they were the first prison officers to be killed in the line of duty since 1992, he added.
One of them was married and had two children while the other "left a wife five months pregnant", he said.
"I am frozen with horror at the veritable carnage that took place at the Incarville toll," said Alexandre Rassaert, the head of the Eure region council.
"I hope with all my heart that that the team of killers which carried out this bloody attack will be arrested quickly."
A unit of the GIGN elite police force has been despatched to apprehend the suspects.
Traffic was stopped on the A154 motorway where the incident took place.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X he had ordered the activation of France's Epervier plan, a special operation launched by the gendarmerie in such situations.
"All means are being used to find these criminals. On my instructions, several hundred police officers and gendarmes were mobilised," he said.
Prosecutor Beccuau named the inmate as Mohamed Amra, born in 1994, saying that last week he had been convicted of aggravated robbery and also charged in a case of abduction leading to death.
The case has been handed to prosecutors from France's office for the fight against organised crime known by their acronym JUNALCO.
Law and order is a major issue in French politics ahead of next month's European elections and the incident sparked fierce reactions from politicians, especially the far right.
"It is real savagery that hits France every day," said Jordan Bardella, the top candidate for the far-right National Rally (RN) which is leading opinion polls for the elections.
