Published Sunday, March 21, 2021 | 9 pm
Updated 10 hours, 2 minutes ago
LONDON (AP) – AstraZeneca said on Monday that its vaccine COVID-19 provided strong protection among all adults in a long-awaited American study, raising hopes that the findings could help rebuild public confidence in the direct hit in other countries and taking a step closer to the release for American use. AstraZeneca said the vaccine was 79% effective overall in preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19 – including in older people – and that none of the study volunteers who were vaccinated were hospitalized or developed serious illness. The company also said that its experts have not identified any safety concerns related to the vaccine, including the discovery of no increased risk of rare blood clots identified in Europe.
Despite the clamor to speed up the US vaccination campaign against COVID-19 and get the country back to normal, the first three months of implementation suggest that faster is not necessarily better. A surprising new analysis found that states like South Carolina and Florida, which ran ahead of others to offer the vaccine to ever-larger groups of people, vaccinated smaller portions of their population than those that moved more slowly. and methodical, like Hawaii and Connecticut. The explanation, in the opinion of the experts, is that the rapid expansion of eligibility has caused an increase in demand that is too big to be administered by some states and has led to great disorder.
ATLANTA (AP) – A man who survived the shooting that killed his wife in a massage shop in the Atlanta area said last week that the police treated him badly, detaining him in handcuffs for four hours after the attack. Mario Gonzalez said he was detained in a vehicle outside the spa. The revelation, in an interview with Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish-language news site, follows other criticisms of Cherokee county officials investigating the March 16 attack, which killed four people. Four others were killed about an hour later, at two spas in Atlanta. Gonzalez’s indictment would also mean that he remained in detention after police released security video footage of the alleged sniper and after authorities captured him 150 miles south of Atlanta.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court said on Monday it would consider reinstating the death sentence for the Boston Marathon suicide bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, presenting President Joe Biden with an initial test of his opposition to capital punishment. Judges agreed to hear an appeal filed by the Trump administration, which executed 13 federal inmates in his last six months in office, including three in the last week of President Donald Trump’s term. The case will not be heard until autumn, and it is unclear how the new government will approach Tsarnaev’s case. The initial process and the decision to seek the death sentence were made by the Obama administration, of which Biden served as vice president.
PITTSBURGH (AP) – In a private Facebook group called the Pittsburgh Area Police Breakroom, many current and retired officers spent the year criticizing kneeling bosses or officers who marched with Black Lives Matter protesters, whom they called “terrorists” or ” bandits. ”They made transphobic posts and intimidated members who supported protesters against police brutality or Joe Biden in a forum advertised as a place where officers can“ decompress, complain, share ideas. ”Many of the daily publications were jokes about the difficulties from being official, memorials to deceased colleagues or conversations about training and equipment. But over the group’s nearly four years of existence, a few dozen members have become more vocal with posts that turned to pro-Donald Trump memes and harsh criticism to anyone who supported so-called “demoncrats”, Black Lives Matter or security measures against the coronavirus.
INDIANÁPOLIS (AP) – It’s not like nobody goes to the office. The March Madness schedule change brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic will provide basketball fans with an unprecedented experience – eight games on a Monday. Second round clashes start with a lunchtime meeting (or coffee break) between Oregon and Iowa and end with a game between USC and Kansas that is expected to end after midnight in the east. The NCAA has slightly condensed the tournament schedule this year, bringing together 67 games in 19 days instead of the usual 21, by bringing all 68 teams to Indiana in an attempt to create a safe environment to play all games.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) – A curfew to end the party imposed after fights, gunfights, property destruction and dangerous stampedes broke out among huge crowds in Miami Beach could last until the end of spring break. Miami Beach commissioners voted unanimously on Sunday to authorize the city administrator to extend the curfew in the South Beach entertainment district until at least April 12, effectively closing a spring break hot spot in one of the few states fully open during the pandemic. SWAT teams and police from at least four other agencies tried to contain the loud crowd, but the clashes continued for days before Miami Beach officials decreed a curfew, forcing Ocean Drive restaurants to suspend seats altogether. open air.
BANGKOK (AP) – In the jungles of southeastern Myanmar, the army was shooting and oppressing civilians long before last month’s military coup. This largely invisible repression continues until now. In the remote southeast of the country, an army offensive has prompted some 8,000 Karen people to flee their homes, in what humanitarian aid groups say is the worst rebellion in nearly 10 years. They are now living in the jungle, with growing fears for their health and safety, and with no prospect of an early return. This border crisis was overshadowed by the deadly repression of the mass movement that was protesting the seizure of power by the military of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Saudi Arabia announced on Monday a plan to offer the Yemeni Hutile rebels a ceasefire in the country’s years’ war and allow the reopening of a major airport in its capital, the last the kingdom’s attempt to end the conflict the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in the poorest nation in the Arab world. Saudi Arabia’s action comes after Yemen’s Houthi rebels stepped up a campaign of drone and missile attacks against the kingdom’s oil sites, briefly shaking global energy prices amid the coronavirus pandemic. It also happens when Riyadh tries to rehabilitate its image with the United States under President Joe Biden.
A Congressional effort to support US news organizations in negotiations with Big Tech has supporters hoping the third time is charm. The bill, the Journalism Preservation and Competition Act, was introduced in March for the third time since 2018. Your chances of approval may have improved in a Democratic-led Congress that is working on revising antitrust laws. Australia and other countries have started pushing mechanisms to support news publishers against Facebook and Google, which dominate online advertising. The editors argue that Big Tech removes news organizations from digital ad revenue and exerts undue control over who can see their journalism. The bill would offer publishers a four-year antitrust exemption so they could trade as a group with “dominant online platforms”. Facebook and Google get most of the dollars from online advertising in the USA