Local retirees gather to
sing Red Army revolutionary songs in Guizhou province. Photograph:
Emily Wang/AP
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Chinese retirees
Tesla denies car was driverless
Scrutiny of wreckage from
a fatal crash in the United States indicates that someone was at the wheel,
Tesla has claimed, despite police previously saying they were "100 per
cent" sure no-one was driving the vehicle.
The accident, which
killed two people, involved a Tesla Model S that caught fire after hitting a
tree late on April 17 near Houston, Texas.
Local authorities said one man was found in the passenger
seat, while another was in the back, prompting Harris County Precinct Four Constable
Mark Herman to say he was "100 per cent"
sure no-one was driving the vehicle…………
Britain is sending a huge naval force through some of the most tense waters in Asia
Britain's aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth arrives in New York on October 19, 2018.
China claims almost all of the 1.3
million-square-mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory, and it has
denounced the presence of foreign warships there as the root of tensions in the
region.
The largest naval flotilla assembled by Britain in recent
years will set sail in May on a months' long voyage through the Pacific, the
country's Defense Ministry said Monday.
The strike group will be led by the aircraft
carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, marking its maiden deployment. The ship, one of
the UK's two aircraft carriers, is the largest warship the UK has ever sent to
sea.
Joining the carrier will be two destroyers, two
anti-submarine frigates, a submarine and two auxiliary supply ships, a ministry
statement said.
A United States Navy guided-missile destroyer will sail
with the group as well as a frigate from the Netherlands that will be tasked
with air defense, the ministry said………………..
Monday, April 26, 2021
The cause of blood clots potentially linked with Covid-19 vaccines
Doctors say they are homing in on the cause of blood clots that may be linked with certain coronavirus vaccines, and said their findings have important implications for how to treat the condition, regardless of whether vaccines cause it.
Even though
the link is not firm yet, they're calling the condition vaccine-induced
immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia or VITT.
It's characterized by unusual blood clotting combined with a low number of blood-clotting cells called platelets. Patients suffer from dangerous clots and, sometimes, hemorrhaging at the same time.
It's been linked most firmly with the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, which is in wide use in Europe and the UK……………………..
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/16/health/blood-clots-vaccine-possible-cause/index.html
Significant drop in Australians who will get COVID jab
According to an ANU study undertaken earlier this year,
more than one-in-five Australians (21.7 per cent) said in January 2021 that
they probably or definitely will not get a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine
once health officials notify the public that one is available.
https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/significant-drop-in-australians-who-will-get-covid-jab
USA voters - 1 in 5 reject vaccine
The survey, released Sunday, shows that while 7
in 10 voters have either already received a vaccine (58 percent) or plan to (13
percent), more than 1 in 5 aren’t scheduling their novel coronavirus
inoculation (22 percent).
Source:
Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/health/fox-news-poll-coronavirus-vaccine-concerns
Saturday, April 17, 2021
Doctors are honing in on the cause of blood clots potentially linked with Covid-19 vaccines
Doctors say they are homing in on the cause of blood clots that may be linked with certain coronavirus vaccines, and said their findings have important implications for how to treat the condition, regardless of whether vaccines cause it.
Even though
the link is not firm yet, they're calling the condition vaccine-induced
immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia or VITT.
It's characterized by unusual blood clotting combined with a low number of blood-clotting cells called platelets. Patients suffer from dangerous clots and, sometimes, hemorrhaging at the same time.
It's been linked most firmly with the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, which is in wide use in Europe and the UK……………………..
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/16/health/blood-clots-vaccine-possible-cause/index.html
Friday, April 16, 2021
Notre Dame fire 2 years anniversary
NOTRE DAME: French president Emmanuel Macron (left) salutes
workers next to Jean-Louis Georgelin (right), a former general leading the
restoration efforts, on the roof of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral during a
visit marking two years since the blaze that made the spire collapse and
destroyed much of the roof. The actual restoration work has yet to begin as
time up until now has been spent on securing the building, and the full
restoration works should begin early next year. Photograph: Benoit
Tessier/Pool/AFP via Getty
Chernobyl 35th Anniversary
CHERNOBYL: New Safe Confinement covering the fourth block of
the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Ukraine will mark the
35th anniversary of Chernobyl tragedy on April 26th. The explosion of reactor
four of the power plant in 1986 is still regarded as the worst nuclear disaster
ever. Photograph: Oleg Petraasyuk/EPA
The Eye by Tony Tasset
Workers restore the fiberglass sculpture called "The
Eye," created by artist Tony Tasset, in downtown Dallas, Texas. The
30-foot giant eye was vandalized.
New Delhi hospitals overwhelmed
Patients
suffering from the COVID-19 get treatment in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP)
hospital, in New Delhi, India.
3D printed copy of David
Florence, Italy
A 3D printed
copy of Michelangelo’s David is prepared for transport to Dubai Expo 2021. Photograph: Carlo Bressan/AFP/Getty Images
William and Harry will be separated at funeral
Prince William and Prince Harry won't walk
side-by-side as they follow their grandfather's coffin into the church ahead of
Prince Philip's funeral.
The decision should minimise the chances of any
awkward moments between the brothers, who are grappling with strained relations
since Prince Harry's decision to step away from royal duties last year.
As Megan
watches the funeral procession, I hope she feels some responsibility for being
the cause of the rift between the brothers and the royal family. But I doubt it.
Pfizer says third dose likely
People may need a third Pfizer jab after being fully vaccinated, the CEO of the company has said. (Edwina Pickles)
The CEO of Pfizer says people will likely need a third dose of the company's vaccine within a year of being fully vaccinated.
"The likely scenario is there be a likely need for a third dose, somewhere between six and 12 months," Albert Bourla said. "And from there, there will be an annual vaccination.
The revelations could throw Australia's plans for the Pfizer jab into disarray, with only 40 million doses secured.
Does President Putin want Ukraine back?
Tensions are rising over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, with growing violations of a cease-fire and a massive Russian military buildup near its border with the region.
Ukraine and the West said Russia sent troops and weapons to the east to support the separatists. Moscow has denied those claims and insisted that Russians fighting alongside the rebels went there on their own.
The armed rebels in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern region seized government buildings and proclaimed “people's republics” in the Donetsk and the Luhansk regions, and the Ukrainian military and volunteer battalions moved to put down the unrest.
Russia has argued that it's free to deploy its forces on its territory and sternly warned the government in Kyiv against using force to reclaim control of the rebel-held territory east where more than 14,000 people have died in seven years of fighting.
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union until its 1991 collapse and I’m guessing Putin wants it back. If we don’t watch out, as we come out of one war that has nothing to do with Australia, we’ll be asked to contribute to another.
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Australian troops to return home
'We have won the war,
America has lost' say Taliban
The
Taliban will do their best to take the country back to the dark ages. The poor little girls, if they take control
again, they won’t allow them to attend school.
42 Australian soldiers were killed and 261 wounded since 2007. And for what? It make you feel sick.
No uniforms at Duke's funeral
The Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Wessex
and Princess Royal would have been, by convention for a royal ceremonial
funeral, in full military uniform
In an unprecedented about-turn, a last minute decision,
approved by the Queen, has been made that no royals will wear military uniform in order to present a united family front.
Behind the scenes, courtiers have been racked by concern that Prince Harry, who was forced to give up his honorary military titles after he acrimoniously quit royal duties and moved to the US, would be the only senior royal not in uniform.
Prince Andrew will be disappointed, he wanted to wear an Admirals uniform.
Ponzi scheme inventor Bernie Madoff dies in prison
Bernie Madoff, the financier who pleaded guilty to
orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, died in a federal prison
early Wednesday.
Last year, his lawyers filed court papers to try to get the
82-year-old released from prison in the COVID-19 pandemic, saying he had
suffered from end-stage renal disease and other chronic medical conditions. The
request was denied.
So what about Novavax?
In a scramble to protect the nation, the government has secured another 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine but these won’t be delivered until the last quarter of this year.
So
what about Novavax?
It's the third vaccine on Australia's radar, and we're expecting to receive 51 million doses this year.
Novavax is made using more traditional-style methods and is currently going through phase three trials in the US and Mexico.
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Mohinder Singh jailed for 18 years
Truck driver Mohinder Singh
has been jailed for at least 18 years and six months for hitting and killing
four police officers on Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway.
Singh
was short on sleep and high on drugs when he crashed a 19-tonne semi-trailer
into the officers who had pulled over Porsche driver Richard Pusey on 22 April
last year.
Vanuatu tribesmen honour Prince Phillip
Chiefs from the villages of Yaohnanen and Yakel on Vanuatu's Tanna island gathered this week to remember Philip, who died last Friday at Windsor Castle at the age of 99.
How do you convince a nation to get vaccinated?
President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama will appear in an hour-long NBC special on Sunday aimed at promoting Covic-19 vaccinations as they hope to convince hesitant Americans to get the shots.
Pfizer hikes cost of Covid vaccine for EU by 60 per cent
The company announced last month that it expects to make $15bn off its coronavirus vaccine this year based on current deals……
https://www.cityam.com/pfizer-hikes-cost-of-covid-vaccine-for-eu-by-60-per-cent/
No guarantee borders will open even if whole country is vaccinated
Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt
has refused to guarantee Australia’s borders will open even if the whole
country has been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The borders have been shut since March 2020 and will remain closed until
at least the middle of June.
Mr Hunt suggested at a news
conference in Canberra yesterday (Tuesday) the international border closures
could last much longer and stay in place even if the entire population had been
vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“Vaccination alone is no guarantee that you can open up,” Mr
Hunt said.
“If the whole country were vaccinated, you couldn’t just open the
borders.
“We still have to look at a series of different factors:
transmission, longevity [of vaccine protection] and the global impact - and
those are factors which the world is learning about,” he said………
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Christine Holgate: PM should have called me before 'public hanging'
Scott Morrison didn’t call
Christine Holgate before publicly humiliating her in Parliament.
She says the Prime Minister's comments were an "utter disgrace" and "one of the worst acts of bullying I've ever witnessed.".............
Monday, April 12, 2021
Cruz Hewitt wins under 12 clay court championship.
Cruz Hewitt (centre) pictured with his parents
Lleyton Hewitt's son Cruz displayed all his father's trademarks in
claiming the Australian under 12 boys clay court championship in Canberra. He won both the national singles and doubles
clay court titles in his age group.
New statue of Christ the Redeemer
A
giant new statue of Christ being constructed in southern Brazil will rise even
higher than the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks Rio de
Janeiro.
A
head and outstretched arms were added this week to the statue, which has been
under construction since 2019 in the city of Encantado, in the state of Rio
Grande do Sul.
Chinese vaccine has low effectiveness
Gao Fu, director of the China Centers for Disease Control
BEIJING (AP) — In a rare
admission of the weakness of Chinese coronavirus vaccines, the country’s top
disease control official says their effectiveness is low and the government is
considering mixing them to get a boost.
Chinese vaccines
“don’t have very high protection rates,” said the director of the China Centers
for Disease Control, Gao Fu, at a conference Saturday in the southwestern city
of Chengdu.
Beijing has
distributed hundreds of millions of doses abroad while trying to promote doubt
about the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine made using the
previously experimental messenger RNA, or mRNA, process.
“It’s now under
formal consideration whether we should use different vaccines from different
technical lines for the immunization process,” Gao said…..
Sunday, April 11, 2021
Scott Morrison vaccination conspiracy theory
The colour of the needle used in the Prime
Minister's vaccination was spun as misinformation on Facebook, but there's a
simple explanation
The most common allegation shared on Mr Morrison's posts was that the
orange tip of the hypodermic needle seen directed towards the Prime Minister's
arm was a "cap" preventing Mr Morrison from being given the vaccine.
Catherine
Bennett, the chair of epidemiology at Deakin University, told Fact Check the
orange section of the needle was not a cap, but rather "the hub that holds
the needle".
She
added that contrary to the assertions on Facebook, the needle used on Mr
Morrison would have been an intramuscular needle, and that the "low dead
space" needles used for the Pfizer vaccine did not follow the same colour
coding as suggested by the commenter.
Professor
Bennett pointed Fact Check to a website selling intramuscular needles with orange hubs in the
size necessary for administering a COVID-19 vaccine…………..
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-26/coronacheck-scott-morrison-pfizer-vaccine-facebook/13190970
The touch of a human hand
The idea came from a nurse who filled two latex gloves with warm water from the shower. She used them to warm the patient’s hand, which had become cold during intubation, due to the difficulty of circulation but also to provide comfort. It is believed the picture comes from Brazil, where deaths from the virus have hit 345,000.
Saturday, April 10, 2021
Sale of lost Caravaggio masterpiece halted
The work had been titled “Coronation with Thorns” and attributed to the entourage of the 17th century Spanish artist José de Ribera.
The auction of a religious painting with
a reserve price of €1,500 has been halted by the Spanish government after
experts said it was likely to be a lost Caravaggio masterpiece worth up to €150
million.
The discovery of what may possibly be
an Ecce Homo by Caravaggio, which depicts Pontius Pilate displaying
Christ to a crowd and is thought to have been kept in Spain for four centuries,
prompted the government to quickly ban its export.
In the catalogue of the Madrid company that had scheduled it for auction today the work was titled “Coronation with Thorns” and attributed to the entourage of the 17th century Spanish artist José de Ribera.
Asylum-seekers cross Rio Grande
Asylum seeking migrants families attempt to get off an inflatable raft
with the help of a Texas Ranger officer after crossing the Rio Grande into the
United States from Mexico in Roma, Texas, 5 April 2021. Reuters/Go Nakamura
Prince Philip tribute
A tribute to Britain's Prince Philip is
projected onto a large screen at Piccadilly Circus in London, after the
announcement of the duke's death.
Japan says sorry but it has to dump radioactive water into the ocean
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says that
the government has put off figuring out what to do with all of the contaminated
water building up at the destroyed
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for long enough — and
it’s time to start dumping it into the ocean.
Suga’s hand is forced given that the plant will
soon run
out of space to store the contaminated groundwater seeping into
the facility, The
Japan Times reports,
and he’s framing the controversial plan to release the water into the Pacific
Ocean as “unavoidable.”………………………..
https://futurism.com/the-byte/japan-sorry-dump-radioactive-water-ocean
Friday, April 9, 2021
People under 50 turned away from Melbourne vaccination centre
Athena Stathoulas was turned away despite having confirmation for her appointment two days ago.
Dozens of
people were turned away from a vaccination hub in Melbourne.
The new advice says the Pfizer vaccine is preferred over AstraZeneca for
people under 50 due to concerns about a very rare clotting disorder.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation says the AstraZeneca vaccine can be given where a person has made an informed choice.
Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft blessing
Russian Orthodox Priest
Father Sergei blesses the Soyuz rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad,
Thursday, April 8, 2021 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Expedition 65 NASA astronaut
Mark Vande Hei, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy are
scheduled to launch aboard their Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on April 9. Photo
Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Biden restores $200m in US aid to Palestinians slashed by Trump
A Palestinian aid worker prepares food supplies
at a UNRWA distribution centre in Gaza. Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Trump had gradually cut virtually all US money to Palestinian aid projects
The US will restore more than $200m in aid to Palestinians, reversing massive funding cuts under the Trump administration that left humanitarian groups scrambling to keep people from plunging into poverty.
The aid includes $75m in economic and development funds for the occupied West Bank and Gaza, which will provide food and clean water to Palestinians and help small businesses.
Source: The Guardian
London Mayor Sadiq Khan heading for victory
Sadiq Khan is coasting towards a clear victory in the battle for Mayor of London yesterday. The sitting Labour mayor is ahead of his Conservative rival by 47 per cent to 26 per cent with a month to go.
Australia not buying Chinese propaganda
Foreign Minister Marise Payne says there are “credible
reports of the systematic abuse and torture” of Uyghur women.
Australian journalists were invited to a press conference on Wednesday where they were shown Chinese government propaganda videos denying the abuse of the Muslim minority Uyghur population in Xinjiang.
Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye lashed out at what he described the “distorted coverage” of Xinjiang, and slammed Canberra for its criticism of Chinese human rights abuses.
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