Tag: Wednesday

AstraZeneca’s Vaccine Commentary

Regulators could soon issue their first formal warnings about AstraZeneca’s vaccine and rare blood clots, which threaten to tarnish the critical global rollout of a cheap and easy-to-store vaccine after a senior European Medicines Agency vaccines official apparently announced it was a link .

The agency said it would meet this week to consider updating its guidelines, but hasn’t changed its formal advice issued last week that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh the risks.

By the numbers: The blood clots are exceptionally rare, with 44 cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, 14 of which are fatal, in 9.2 million people who received the vaccine – a risk for one in 100,000 people under the age of 60 who were given the vaccine has been.

Ikea France’s “espionage system”

Amazing emails detailing the intricate efforts of Ikea executives in France to gather information about employees, applicants and even customers are now at the center of a criminal case that has caught the public eye in France.

Prosecutors accuse the French arm of Ikea, the Swedish furniture giant, and some of its former executives, of having developed a “spy system” from 2009 to 2012. A former military employee was hired to perform some of the more elaborate operations.

The deputy prosecutor of Versailles is seeking a € 2 million fine on Ikea France, a minimum of one year imprisonment for two former company officials and a private investigator, and fines for some business executives and police officers. A total of 15 people were charged. A jury judgment is scheduled for June 15th.

Background: The case aroused outrage in 2012 after the emails leaked to the French news media and Ikea promptly fired several executives in its French unit, including the former CEO. There is no evidence that similar surveillance has taken place in other countries.

Netanyahu is trying to put together a government

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now has a possible way to stay in office despite being on trial on corruption charges after Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin gave him 28 days to try to form a new coalition government.

Netanyahu, a political survivor and Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has served the past 12 years. After four inconclusive elections in two years, however, he and his allies have not received enough support to ensure a parliamentary majority that could decisively end the country’s political deadlock.

“The results of the consultations, which were open to all, led me to believe that no candidate has a realistic chance of forming a government that has the confidence of Parliament,” said Rivlin in a televised address. But he added, “The law obliges me to appoint one of the candidates to form a government.”

Next Steps: To put together a right-wing government, Mr Netanyahu needs both the support of another small right-wing party and the far right flank of his potential coalition to rely on the support of a small Arab Islamist party that has become a potential kingmaker. The other possibility is that Mr. Netanyahu is wooing defectors from the camp across the street.

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Other great stories

• Honduras has barely begun to recover from two hurricanes that occurred late last year. With relatively little disaster aid from the USA, many Hondurans head for the border.

• Aleksei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader who has been on hunger strike in a penal colony for almost a week, showed signs of a respiratory illness and was transferred to a prison hospital, according to prison doctors.

• Negotiations are ongoing in Vienna trying to bring both the US and Iran back into line with the 2015 nuclear deal. The talks are designed to restore Iran’s strict nuclear enrichment controls to ensure the country cannot build a nuclear weapon. In return, the US would lift the sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump.

• Prince Hamzah bin Hussein employees and staff of Jordan were still in custody Tuesday, their relatives said, doubting the royal court’s claims it had solved an unusually public rift.

What else happens

Millions of people displaced from their homes during the ten year civil war in Syria are crowding an area in the northwest of the country controlled by a rebel group.

Our reporter made a rare visit to Idlib Province above, where shocked and impoverished Syrians are trapped in a bleak and often violent limbo.

ART AND IDEAS

The Tokyo Olympics explained

After a year of delay, the Tokyo Olympics appear to resume this summer, albeit under the most unusual of circumstances. Here’s what we know about the games. And here is an event schedule.

Will the 2021 Olympics be canceled?

No. After a one-year delay due to the pandemic, the Summer Games are currently taking place from July 23rd to August 8th. The Paralympics will take place from August 24th to September 5th.

Polls show that 70 to 80 percent of people in Japan think the Games shouldn’t be this summer.

But is it still called Tokyo 2020?

Yes, although I’m a year late. Branded items will reflect this.

Will there be someone in the stands?

Japanese fans can now take part in events. However, most international visitors are not allowed to come to Japan for the Olympics. Getting the ticket money back may take a while.

Who is the mascot

Miraitowa is the mascot of the Games and Someity is the mascot of the Paralympics. The name Miraitowa is derived from the Japanese words for “future” and “eternity”. Someity’s name comes from a type of cherry tree. You have to judge for yourself what animals or creatures they resemble.

Where will future games be held?

Beijing will host the Winter Games in 2022, making it the first city to host the Summer and Winter Games. The Summer Games will take place in Paris in 2024 and in Los Angeles in 2028.

How often did Tokyo host the Games? Pandemic aside, is the city ready?

Once before, in 1964. In Japan, the 1972 Winter Games also took place in Sapporo and in 1998 in Nagano.

Unlike other hosts, particularly Rio de Janeiro in 2016, it appears that Tokyo has its stadiums and infrastructure in order, although there are sometimes surprises when athletes arrive.

What are the new sports and events?

Baseball and softball return after 13 years of absence. The new sports are karate, surfing, sport climbing and skateboarding. (Participants will be surfing in the ocean off Shidashita Beach, approximately 60 km from Tokyo.)

PLAY, WATCH, EAT

What to cook

Making croissants at home is difficult – but it brings miraculous results. Here is our guide.

Reading recommendation

In “Peaces” by award-winning British-Nigerian author Helen Oyeyemi, young lovers and their pet mongooses take a Wes Anderson-style train to nowhere.

Deep introspection

Tarot cards are less about predicting the future and more about thinking about your life. Here’s how to get started.

Now is the time to play

Here’s today’s mini crossword puzzle and a hint: Food that can be ordered: “Anything with Nothing” (five letters).

You can find all of our puzzles here.

That’s it for today’s briefing. Thank you for coming to me. – Natasha

PS Frank Bruni resigns from his post as Times Opinion columnist and joins Duke University in June. He will continue to write his newsletter.

The latest episode of The Daily is about online revenge.

Reach out to Natasha and the team with comments, questions, and croissant success stories at briefing@nytimes.com.

AstraZeneca’s recent stumble

In a two-page letter, federal health officials and an independent panel of medical experts accused AstraZeneca of collecting data on the effectiveness of its Covid-19 vaccine.

The company had said that based on its US study, the vaccine appeared to be 79 percent effective in preventing Covid-19. However, the panel said its effectiveness could be anywhere from 69 to 74 percent and blamed AstraZeneca for an overly rosy description of the trial data.

AstraZeneca defended the data released Monday, saying the interim results appeared to be “consistent” with the more recent data collected during the trial. The company said it would release more complete results within 48 hours.

The results throw a wrench in efforts by elected leaders elsewhere to rebuild confidence in the shot. Confidence in the vaccine had already fallen across Europe after it was recently reported that a very small number of recipients had developed unusual blood clots.

Supply bottlenecks: The European Union is due to enact public emergency laws today that will allow it to curb the export of block-made Covid-19 vaccines for the next six weeks. The new regulations will make it harder for companies like AstraZeneca that make Covid-19 vaccines in the EU to export them and it will likely disrupt supplies to the UK.

Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.

Uncertainty after Israel’s fourth election in two years

Two exit polls as well as early results of the elections in Israel indicated a clear result on Tuesday evening. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his potential right-wing allies had only 60 seats, less than the 61 seats required to form a majority in the 120s. Seat of parliament.

A third poll gave an anti-Netanyahu bloc of parties a 61 seat head start, potentially blocking Mr Netanyahu’s path to victory and making the election too short to call them up. The uncertainty will likely lead to weeks, if not months, of negotiations and possibly more elections.

Mr Netanyahu campaigned to fight the coronavirus pandemic, including a vaccine rollout that the world will envy. Seeking re-election despite being on trial on corruption charges did not prove fatal to his chances.

Potential government: It was expected by many that Mr Netanyahu’s larger bloc would form a coalition with Naftali Bennett, a rival far-right who leaves Israel with one of the most conservative governments in its history, made up of ultra-Orthodox parties, ultra-nationalists, a group opposed to them fights, established gay rights and another whose leader supports the expulsion of Arab citizens of Israel who are considered unfaithful to the state.

Months of protest for India’s farmers

Farmers from Punjab and other countries camped outside New Delhi for four months in protest. At the center of the dispute is a subsidy system that the government, economists and even many farmers all agree is broken.

The system was introduced in the 1960s to prevent famine by encouraging farmers to grow wheat and rice. It contained government-set minimum prices that helped farmers sell what they grow for a profit.

While the system is undoubtedly out of date, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rush to reshape it – his political party got new laws through parliament in a matter of days – could devastate large swaths of the country where farming remains a way of life. Our reporters looked at what went wrong and now they have taken stock of the protests.

Context: Almost 60 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people make a living from agriculture, although the sector only accounts for around 11 percent of economic output. For many, getting another job is not an option.

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Virus News

In 2017 a strange intruder came zooming through our solar system. Was it a comet? A cosmic iceberg? Or an alien space wreck?

This month’s astronomers offered the previously solid explanation: Oumuamua, as it is called, was a chip from a distant planet in another solar system. Long ago, a collision with an asteroid broke him off and sent him through space.

ART AND IDEAS

Welcome to BookTok

TikTok’s influence is selling thousands of books. Some avid readers – mostly teenage and 20 year old women – post videos of themselves reading or recommending novels. Occasionally they sob into the camera after a particularly devastating ending.

“It’s going to be this very emotional 45-second video that people instantly connect with,” the Barnes & Noble book director told The Times. “We haven’t seen these kinds of insane sales – I mean tens of thousands of copies a month – with other social media formats.”

An example: “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller. Sales soared after a popular TikTok video last year, and the book now sells about nine times as many copies a week as it did in 2012 when it won a prestigious fiction award. The book currently ranks third on the New York Times bestseller list for paperback literature.

Some publishers saw the potential and started paying users with large fan bases or sending them free books. Fees range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per post. For now, however, the majority of these videos are not being sponsored and are running organically.

PLAY, WATCH, EAT, LISTEN

What to cook

Crispy tofu with panko and sesame seeds goes well with a coconut and lime dressing in this vegetarian dish.

Something to see

If you like the farce and fraternal conflict of “Frasier”, you might like the British comedy “Back”, which brings together more jokes and details in a single episode than some shows can manage in one season.

What to hear

Lana Del Rey’s sixth major label album “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” thinks that the singer “went back to get more insights into the island,” writes our reviewer.

Now is the time to play

Here’s today’s mini crossword and a clue: Used Cars? (five letters).

You can find all of our puzzles here.

That’s it for today’s briefing. I wish you a good Wednesday. – Natasha

PS The Times unveiled its 2021-22 class of fellows hailing from the US, as well as the UK and Vietnam.

The latest episode of “The Daily” shows a food critic who has lost her sense of smell due to Covid-19.

Sanam Yar contributed to the coverage. You can reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

Indonesia’s Muslims have questions about the vaccine

With the highest number of coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is keen to start vaccinating in the coming weeks. However, one thing stands in the way of the hundreds of millions of Muslims: is the vaccine halal?

After waiting months for responses from Sinovac, the Chinese manufacturer whose shot is being distributed there, the clergy received a one-sentence answer that said: The vaccine was “made free of pig materials”. Religious leaders want more details as even the smallest amount of pork DNA could deter some devout Muslims from taking it.

President Joko Widodo has rejected concerns, saying the emergency situation is the greater priority. It is possible for a fatwa to be issued, as has been done in the past. Islamic authorities in other countries with large Muslim populations such as Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates have already declared the vaccine legal.

The goal: Indonesia hopes to vaccinate 181.5 million adults within 15 months.

Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.

Two great days in US politics

Voters take part in the elections in Georgia to decide which party has control of the Senate. On Wednesday, Congress will meet to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, while Republicans make one last attempt to scrap the election results.

The elections in Georgia are turning into a nail biter. In November, no candidate received 50 percent of the vote. Early voting data and polls show that the race is very close again.

If the Republicans keep control of the Senate, it will be much harder for Mr Biden to get his agenda through. Republicans need only win one of the two races to retain control of the Senate. Democrats need both to regain control. There is something to see here.

Next Up: Voting in Congress to confirm the results of the presidential election is a procedural step that Americans would ignore in most elections. But it has taken on new meaning in a year the president tried to derail the process.

Some Republicans are planning a final showdown to invalidate Mr Biden’s win, but they will almost certainly fail. Follow our latest updates here.

South Korea’s falling birthrate threatens growth

For the first time since the census was recorded, the number of newborns in South Korea fell below the number of deaths last year. A shrinking and rapidly aging population could lead to a long-term crisis in one of the world’s major economies.

The coronavirus pandemic may have contributed to the problem: Although the death toll was low at around 1,000 people, the health crisis may have deterred people from having children or from marrying. Successive governments have tried to provide financial incentives for couples to have more children without success.

The payment: There were 275,815 births, a decrease of 10.65 percent from 2019 and 307,764 deaths, an increase of 3.1 percent from 2019. South Korea’s birth rate is the lowest in the world.

If you have 5 minutes it is worth it

A new tool for treating mental illness: design

Residents of the Pigeon Pavilion in California wake up in private rooms with views of the forested Santa Cruz Mountains and relax in landscaped courtyards throughout the day. It might sound like a resort, but the center is a mental health facility that opened in June.

Psychiatric hospitals have been a dire situation for decades. However, new research into the health effects of our surroundings is driving the development of mental health facilities that are cozy, calming, and supportive, with private spaces and more greenery.

The following also happens

Vietnam journalists: Three journalists were sentenced to 11 and 15 years’ imprisonment, including a prominent reporter who wrote for foreign news organizations and campaigned for the freedom of the press. As Congress draws closer to the ruling Communist Party, the authorities arrested or prosecuted its loudest critics.

Death penalty for China: Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of Huarong Asset Management, was sentenced to death Tuesday. This is a rare and dramatic example of Beijing’s use of the death penalty for economic crimes. He was convicted of $ 277 million in bribes.

Blockade in Qatar: Representatives of several Gulf states signed an agreement to ease Qatar’s isolation from its Arab neighbors, who have blocked the country since 2017 when neighbors accused it of coordinating too closely with Iran. The deal came a day after Saudi Arabia agreed to reopen its borders and airspace to Qatar.

Snapshot: Above, a group in a rented igloo between curling games in New York City. Restaurants and cafes that can only dine outdoors get creative in a gloomy winter. Heated huts, igloos and games like ice stock sport are popping up in the city.

What we read: This Der Spiegel interview with BioNTech founders Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin. It contains reassuring information about the virus variant (yes, the vaccine will continue to be effective against it) and insight into the amazing life of this “first pair of medicines”.

Now a break from the news

Cook: This yam and plantain curry with crispy shallots is an adaptation of Asaro, a dish made from starchy root vegetables cooked in a flavored tomato and chili-based sauce and served in southern Nigeria and other parts of West Africa.

Read: “Himalaya: A Human History” by Ed Douglas, journalist and climber, tells the story of the highest mountains in the world and its equally enormous impact on humanity.

To do: Imagine you are in Cartagena. The Colombian city is so magical that it has inspired entire books by Gabriel García Márquez.

Whether books or baking, we have everything for you. At home, you have ideas for what to read, cook, see, and do while being safe at home.

And now for the background story about …

The corrections the editors are tracking

David Vecsey, a Times editor, wrote about the gaffes and mistakes that can keep him up at night. Here is an excerpt.

It’s a feeling every editor knows. At 3 am you wake up from a deep sleep with your eyes open and say to yourself: Did I misspell “Kyrgyzstan” last night? And nine times out of ten, you can easily go back to sleep knowing you’ve done it.

Copy editors have an almost photographic memory when it comes to the words that pass before our eyes. Unfortunately, the cameras we use are those old-fashioned tripods that use flaming magnesium for a flash and take hours or even days to develop the images.

But at some point it all comes back in a rush of clarity. You might be pushing your toddler through the park on a glorious, sunny day off if you suddenly wonder: Did I say Dallas was the capital of Texas last week? Yes. Yes you did You idiot.

My job, put simply, is to get things right. So there’s no worse feeling than realizing that you’ve put a correctable mistake on the press and that a day or two later a correction will come up to say, “Because of an editing error …”

The Times has strict guidelines for correcting it: if it’s wrong, even if it’s online or in a print issue for a few minutes, get it corrected. It is this commitment to accuracy that deserves the trust of our readers.

Reading proofs in the New York Times is like taking a guided tour through the pitfalls of journalism. Here you will discover the Ginsberg-Ginsburg Vortex, a black hole that has engulfed many journalists who have confused the names of the poet and justice.

When I’ve learned one thing, there is one thing you need to shrug off your mistakes and move on. And one day I’ll learn from God how to do that.

That’s it for this briefing. Until next time.

– Melina

Many Thanks
To Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

PS
• We listen to “The Daily”. Our latest installment is part 2 of a series about the Georgia Senate runoff races.
• Here is our mini crossword puzzle and a clue: Enthusiastic (five letters). You can find all of our puzzles here.
• Katie Glueck, our main reporter for the Biden campaign, joins Metro as Chief Political Correspondent.

(Would you like to receive this briefing by email? Here is the registration.)

Good Morning.

We cover that Travel bans Great Britain imposed, a early elections in Israel and the rehabilitation of Gibbons in Thailand.

France eases travel restrictions for Great Britain

The UK and France reopened their border on Tuesday to select travelers and are closer to an agreement that would allow trucks to resume travel between the two countries.

France closed its borders for 48 hours on Sunday amid fears of the spread of a new and potentially more communicable variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in the UK. More than 1,500 trucks were stranded and some drivers slept in their trucks for two nights.

The European Commission called on the bloc members to lift blanket bans and ensure essential travel with the UK. More than 50 governments have taken action to close the doors on the UK. Experts are skeptical that travel bans can stop the spread of new coronavirus variants – especially if they are already widespread.

Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.

In other developments:

Israel’s fourth election in two years

A new political crisis puts Israel in fourth place early election in two years. The Israeli parliament dissolved at midnight local time after missing the deadline for approving a new budget, and forced a new election on March 23.

At the center of the crisis is the deep mutual distrust of the so-called unity government, a troubled coalition sworn in just seven months ago that brings Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party together with the centrist blue-white party of his main rival Benny Gantz.

Pointer: Mr Netanyahu, whose corruption process is expected to enter an intensive phase in early 2021, and Mr Gantz have blamed each other for the crisis.

Biden promises more momentum for the USA

President-elect Joe Biden insisted that there would be further relief after his inauguration next month, calling the latest stimulus laws a “down payment” on a larger bill. “Congress has done its job this week,” he said, adding, “I can and I must ask them to do it again next year.”

Mr Biden said he plans to come up with a plan to Congress in the New Year that would include more funding to distribute the coronavirus vaccine to 300 million people, expand the tests, and give Americans a new round of stimulus checks send. But he said the details are a matter of negotiation.

Opinion: Will the auxiliary bill do enough? “As someone who has spent many years as a macroeconomic forecaster at the Federal Reserve, I have my worries,” writes economist Claudia Sahm, the architect of the Sahm rule, of a recession indicator.

If you have 8 minutes, it’s worth it

Gibbon rehabilitation

Gibbons, the smallest of the monkeys, were once common in much of Asia, but deforestation and hunting have greatly reduced their numbers. In the 1990s and early 2000s, when displaying wild animals in bars was part of Thai nightlife, young gibbons were sometimes taught to smoke, drink alcohol, and eat human food.

Now there is hope for the species. Our reporter examined how at least a dozen rehabilitation centers in countries across Southeast Asia are undertaking the slow process of socializing and liberating gibbons salvaged from the illegal wildlife trade.

The following also happens

Russian hack: The hackers who broke into US government agencies were given access to the email system used by the top management of the Treasury Department. It was the first detail of how deeply Moscow was embedded in the networks of the Trump administration.

Journalist murders: According to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, the number of journalists killed as a result of their work more than doubled in 2020. Armed conflict and gang violence made Mexico and Afghanistan the deadliest countries for reporters worldwide.

Morandi Bridge: The collapse of a bridge in 2018, killing 43 people in Genoa, Italy, was a consequence of problems with its conception, design, construction and eventual maintenance, according to an independent report released Monday the structure.

Drilling in Norway: The country’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit from environmental groups seeking to invalidate licenses to explore new oils in the Arctic. The activists had invoked Norway’s constitutional right to a clean environment. The ruling paves the way for further drilling.

Snapshot: Europe’s frontline workers, like those who work upstairs at the Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital in Paris, have been the heroes and pillars of a stressful year for the continent. These photos tell the story of the infections that nearly destroyed European hospitals – exhausting, infecting and killing doctors and nurses.

Keeping tradition alive: The Holy Choir of King’s College Cambridge rehearsed for months for its Christmas Eve service, which is broadcast worldwide. His hope was to play it live.

What we read: This report from Columbia Journalism Review of a billing at Magnum Photos, the world’s most prestigious photo agency, is highly recommended by Amelia Kidneyberg from the briefing team.

Now a break from the news

To do: By the end of 2020 and as the vaccination against the coronavirus increases, we know how travel will change in the coming year.

We can help celebrate the holidays with our collection of ideas to read, cook, watch and do while staying safe at home.

And now for the background story about …

The new variant

A seemingly more contagious variant of the coronavirus identified by scientists in the UK has raised alarms around the world. Here’s what scientists have learned about it so far.

Is the British variant some kind of new supervirus?

No. It’s just one variation among many that arose when the coronavirus spread around the world. Mutations occur when a virus replicates, and this variant – known as B.1.1.7 – has acquired its own distinctive set of them.

Is it more contagious than other viruses?

It seems so. In preliminary work, researchers in the UK found that the virus was spreading rapidly in parts of southern England, displacing a crowded field of other variants that have been around for months.

However, the increasing spread of a line of viruses is not evidence that the line is spreading faster than others. It could just spread further through luck. For example, a variant could start in the middle of a crowded city where broadcasting is easy and more copies of yourself can be made. However, the epidemiological evidence so far gathered from England seems to suggest that this variant is spreading very well.

Does it cause more serious illnesses?

There is no strong evidence for this, at least not yet. However, there is reason to take the opportunity seriously. In South Africa, another line of the coronavirus has received a certain mutation, which can also be found in B.1.1.7. This variant spreads quickly in the coastal areas of South Africa. In preliminary studies, doctors there have found that people infected with this variant carry an increased viral load. In many viral diseases, this is associated with more severe symptoms.

Will the variant make the new vaccines ineffective?

No. Most experts doubt this will have a major impact on vaccines, although it is not yet possible to rule out an effect.

That’s it for this briefing. Until tomorrow.

– Natasha

Many Thanks
Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh took the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

PS
• We listen to “The Daily”. Our final episode reflects the lives of four people we lost to Covid-19.
• Here is our mini crossword puzzle and a clue: The elf in “Elf” (five letters). You can find all of our puzzles here.
• The word “Vaxications” – vacation some people are rushing to book for after the pandemic – first appeared in The Times yesterday, the Twitter bot @NYT_first_said discovered.
• Poynter recently spoke to our visual journalist Stuart Thompson about his interactive article showing when you can expect a vaccination.