Boeing's Starliner astronauts could return on SpaceX capsule in Feb 2025, NASA says

WASHINGTON - NASA officials said on Wednesday the twoastronauts delivered to the International Space Station in June by Boeing's Starliner could return on SpaceX's Crew Dragon in February 2025 if Starliner is still deemed unsafe to return to Earth.

The U.S. space agency has been discussing potential plans with SpaceX to leave two seats empty on an upcoming Crew Dragon launch for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who became the first crew to fly Boeing's Starliner capsule.

The astronauts' test mission, initially expected to last about eight days on the station, has been drawn out by issues on Starliner's propulsion system that have increasingly called into question the spacecraft's ability to safely return them to Earth as planned.

A Boeing spokesperson said if NASA decides to change Starliner's mission, the company "will take the actions necessary to configure Starliner for an uncrewed return."

Thruster failures during Starliner's initial approach to the ISS in June and several leaks of helium - used to pressurize those thrusters - have set Boeing off on a testing campaign to understand the cause and propose fixes to NASA, which has the final say. Recent results have unearthed new information, causing greater alarm about a safe return.

The latest test data have stirred disagreements and debate within NASA about whether to accept the risk of a Starliner return to Earth, or make the call to use Crew Dragon instead.

Using a SpaceX craft to return astronauts that Boeing had planned to bring back on Starliner would be a major blow to an aerospace giant that has struggled for years to compete with SpaceX and its more experienced Crew Dragon.

Starliner has been docked to the ISS for 63 of the maximum 90 days it can stay, and it is parked at the same port that Crew Dragon will have to use to deliver the upcoming astronaut crew.

Early Tuesday morning, NASA, using a SpaceX rocket and a Northrop Grumman NOC.N capsule, delivered a routine shipment of food and supplies to the station, including extra clothes for Wilmore and Williams.

Starliner's high-stakes mission is a final test required before NASA can certify the spacecraft for routine astronaut flights to and from the ISS. Crew Dragon received NASA approval for astronaut flights in 2020.

Starliner development has been set back by management issues and numerous engineering problems. It has cost Boeing $1.6 billion since 2016, including $125 million from Starliner's current test mission, securities filings show.

CONCERNS AT NASA

A meeting this week of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which oversees Starliner, ended with some officials disagreeing with a plan to accept Boeing's testing data and use Starliner to bring the astronauts home, officials said during a news conference.

"We didn't poll in a way that led to a conclusion," Commercial Crew Program chief Steve Stich said.

"We heard from a lot of folks that had concerns, and the decision was not clear," Ken Bowersox, NASA's space operations chief, added.

A Boeing executive was not at the Wednesday press conference.

While no decision has been made on using Starliner or Crew Dragon, NASA has been buying Boeing more time to do more testing and gather more data to build a better case to trust Starliner. Sometime next week is when NASA expects to decide, officials said.

The agency on Tuesday delayed by more than a month SpaceX's upcoming Crew Dragon mission, a routine flight called Crew-9, that is expected to send three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut to the ISS.

NASA's ISS program chief said the agency has not yet decided which astronauts they would pull off the mission for Wilmore and Williams if needed.

Boeing's testing so far has shown that four of Starliner's jets had failed in June because they overheated and automatically turned off, while other thrusters re-fired during tests appeared weaker than normal because of some restriction to their propellant.

Ground tests in late July at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico have helped reveal that the thrusters' overheating causes a teflon seal to warp, choking propellant tubes for the thrusters and thereby weakening their thrust.

"That, I would say, upped the level of discomfort, and not having a total understanding of the physics of what's happening," Stich said, describing why NASA now appears more willing to discuss a Crew Dragon contingency after previously downplaying such a prospect to reporters.

NASA astronauts voice confidence that Boeing Starliner will bring them home Read full story

FACTBOX-Who are the first astronauts to fly aboard Boeing's Starliner? Read full story

NASA to push back moon mission timelines amid spacecraft delays - sources Read full story

Boeing Starliner's return from space to hinge on weeks of more testing Read full story

EXPLAINER-How Boeing's Starliner can bring its astronauts back to Earth Read full story

(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Chris Sanders)

-reuters

Dozens injured after train derails in Netherlands: emergency services

The HAGUE, Netherlands  — At least 30 people were injured after a passenger train derailed in the southern Netherlands on Tuesday, emergency services said.

The train derailed after colliding with construction equipment on the line near the village of Voorschoten, between The Hague and Amsterdam, it said.

"At least 30 people were injured and are being treated at the spot. The seriously injured are being taken to hospital, while 11 are at homes of nearby residents," Hollands Midden emergency services said.

"Specialists are working to secure the train."

The accident happened at around 3:30 am (0130 GMT) when the double-decker intercity train smacked into the building material on the tracks at Voorschoten, about eight kilometers (five miles) north of The Hague.

Images from the scene and news reports showed a front carriage derailed and plowing into a field, while a second derailed carriage landed on its side.

A third carriage remained upright, while a fourth caught fire, the ANP news agency said.

Around 60 people were on board at the time of the accident.

Ambulance services rushed to the scene en masse, including a trauma helicopter, to take the most seriously injured passengers to the hospital.

It was not immediately clear how serious their injuries were.

"We heard a loud bang and suddenly the lights went out," an unidentified witness told the local Omroep West television news.

"We couldn't initially get out of the train because there was no electricity," said the man, who appeared in a state of shock.

Agence France-Presse

Brazil's Bolsonaro faces probes over $3.2M Saudi jewels

BRASILIA - Brazil's justice minister asked federal police Monday to investigate reports ex-president Jair Bolsonaro tried to illegally import jewelry worth $3.2 million gifted by Saudi Arabia, as tax officials probe a second present of jewels.

The far-right former president has faced mounting questions over the jewels since newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo reported Friday that customs officers blocked an aide to his former mines and energy minister, Bento Albuquerque, from bringing them into Brazil without paying the required import duty after an official trip in October 2021.

According to the newspaper, Bolsonaro administration officials intervened at least eight times to try to convince customs officers to release the diamond jewels -- a necklace, a ring, a watch and a pair of earrings from Swiss luxury house Chopard -- that had been given to the president's wife.

Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing.

"They're accusing me over a gift I neither requested nor received. There was no illegality on my part," he told CNN Brasil on Saturday from the United States, where he has been living since two days before his leftist successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took office on January 1.

The scandal deepened Monday when Brazil's tax agency said it had opened its own investigation over reports Albuquerque's delegation entered the country with a second, previously undetected set of jewels, also a gift from the Saudi government.

Albuquerque mentioned the second set of jewels -- a watch and a pen, also made by Chopard -- in an interview with Estado de Sao Paulo.

"The incident could constitute a violation of customs law for failure to declare goods and pay the required duties," the tax agency said in a statement, vowing to take "all necessary measures" to enforce the law.

Brazilian media reports said the second set of jewels had been handed over to the presidential palace's official collection on December 29, 2022.

Under Brazilian law, travelers entering the country with goods worth more than $1,000 are required to declare them.

The first family would then either have had to pay import duty on the jewels -- equal to half their value -- or give them to the presidential palace collection as official gifts to the nation.

Agence France-Presse

Brexit compounded UK's shortage of doctors, says study

LONDON, United Kingdom - Brexit has compounded a shortage of doctors in Britain, with an estimated shortfall of 4,000 in major specialty areas from EU countries, a study published Sunday said.

It comes as the crisis-hit NHS state-funded health service struggles after years of underfinancing, with record waiting lists for some hospital care due to the Covid pandemic but also a lack of doctors and nurses.

The Nuffield Trust, an independent health think tank, focused on four fields of medicine -- anaesthesia, pediatrics, cardio-thoracic surgery and psychiatry -- where European doctors had been particularly relied upon before the UK left the European Union.

It found that in the four areas -- where recruitment was already challenging -- "the increase in EU and EFTA (European Free Trade Association) staff slowed down, falling below the projected increase".

If the trend seen before Brexit had continued, there should have been more than 41,000 doctors from the EU or EFTA (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein) registered in 2021, or at least 4,000 more than the figures showed.

"The campaign and result of the EU referendum is the obvious reason for a change in trend around 2015 and 2016," the study, commissioned by The Guardian newspaper, said.

It highlighted initial uncertainty over new rules for the movement of people, followed by tighter visa rules and "deteriorating work conditions" in the health system.

"The findings suggest that stagnation in the number of EU doctors in these specialities has exacerbated existing shortages in areas where the NHS has not been able to find enough qualified staff elsewhere," it added.

The Royal College of Nursing last week announced that its members would next month hold their first strike action in the union's 106-year history in England and Wales, citing pay, conditions -- and chronic staff shortages.

Agence France-Presse

Death toll from missiles on Ukraine town rises to 17

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine - At least 17 people including a child died when seven Russian missiles struck the industrial town of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian authorities said Saturday.

The missiles struck before dawn on Thursday, with three landing in the town center, just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the artillery battles of the southern front.

"In total, 17 people were killed," Ukraine's State Emergency Service said on Telegram, adding that one of them was a child.

The toll has repeatedly risen since an initial tally of one dead. Earlier on Saturday, it had stood at 14.

A five-storey residential building on the main street was almost razed to the ground.

President Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out on Telegram saying Zaporizhzhia "is subjected to massive rocket attacks every day... (it's a) deliberate crime".

The Ukrainian-controlled city is located in the eponymous Zaporizhzhia region, also home to the Russian-occupied nuclear plant that has been the site of heavy shelling.

Moscow claims to have annexed the region even though its forces do not control all of it.

Ukraine said at least 30 people were killed last week when a convoy of civilian cars in the Zaporizhzhia region was shelled in an attack Kyiv blamed on Moscow.

Agence France-Presse

White House blasts 'radical' Republican abortion bans

The White House on Friday blasted the latest set of "radical" abortion restrictions in four more states run by Republicans, signaling President Joe Biden's determination to lean on the issue ahead of tight November congressional elections.

There are now full-scale abortion bans in 12 Republican-controlled states, which had prepared so-called trigger laws ready to be activated when the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision ensuring automatic rights to abortion access nationwide.

"Today marks the latest attack against the fundamental rights of Americans as new abortion bans go into effect in Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

"These near-total abortion bans are part of a growing effort by Republican legislators to roll back the freedoms Americans have relied on for nearly half a century. Today's radical steps take away women's reproductive rights and put personal health care decisions in the hands of politicians instead of women and their doctors," she said.

The Supreme Court ruling two months ago put jurisdiction over abortion access in the hands of individual state legislatures, immediately turning swaths of the country into areas where getting the procedure has become all but impossible.

Jean-Pierre echoed Biden's frequent demand for Congress to pass a new law enshrining nationwide abortion rights and urged "people across the country to make their voices heard" ahead of the November midterm elections, which will decide whether Democrats retain their narrow hold on the legislature.

Republicans have fought for decades to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and finally achieved their goal in a Supreme Court that tilted sharply to conservative interpretations of the constitution after Donald Trump filled three vacancies during his one-term presidency.

Polls show the court's ruling was unpopular with a majority of Americans, however, and Democrats hope the issue will help them fend off a previously predicted sweep by Republicans in the midterms. 

"I think the American people realize this is just beyond the pale, it goes too far," Biden told reporters at the White House.

Meanwhile, the White House is trying to help women who want to circumvent the bans by supporting their travel to states that do allow abortions.

The health department on Friday announced increased federal funding for states where the authorities want to help such women.

"We have seen the gut-wrenching stories of women suffering and not getting the care they need because of newly-enacted laws that restrict abortion care," Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said.

The new federal assistance will "protect women's access to reproductive care, including abortion," he said.

Agence France-Presse

Bacteria behind rare disease found in US soil and water samples

WASHINGTON, United States - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday issued a health advisory to clinicians after discovering the bacteria behind a rare but serious disease for the first time in the continental United States. 

Burkholderia pseudomallei (B. pseudomallei) was detected in soil and puddle water samples in the Gulf Coast region of southern Mississippi during an investigation of two human melioidosis cases.

The two unrelated people lived in close geographic proximity and became sick with the disease two years apart -- in 2020 and in 2022 -- prompting health authorities to investigate household products and the environment around their homes.

Melioidosis causes nonspecific symptoms such as fever, joint pain, and headaches, but can also cause pneumonia, abscess formation, and blood infections. 

There are about 12 cases in the US per year on average, mostly related to travel to tropical and subtropical regions, where the bacteria is endemic.

A 2021 cluster that included four people across four states was linked to imported contaminated aromatherapy spray.

Most healthy people who come into contact with the bacteria do not develop melioidosis, but the global death rate for those who do is 10-50 percent.

The CDC said people in southern Mississippi who have underlying conditions such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease, or excessive alcohol use, should take extra precautions.

These include avoiding contact with soil and muddy water, protecting open wounds with dressing, and wearing waterproof boots and gloves while gardening.

"Given the very small number of cases of melioidosis identified historically in the United States, CDC believes the risk of melioidosis for the general population continues to be very low," the agency said.

Agence France-Presse

‘Evil’ like Texas massacre a reason to arm, not disarm: Trump

Former US president Donald Trump rejected calls for tightened gun controls Friday following the Texas school massacre, saying decent Americans should be allowed the firearms they need to defend themselves against "evil." 

"The existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens... The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens," he told members of the National Rifle Association.

Trump's remarks came as he headlined an NRA event in Houston, three days after a gun massacre at a Texas elementary school reignited the tinderbox debate about US gun control.

"The various gun control policies being pushed by the left would have done nothing to prevent the horror that took place. Absolutely nothing," he said.An 18-year-old gunman with a legally-bought AR-15-style rifle killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, marking the deadliest school shooting in the state's history.

Trump read out the names of all 19 children, whom he described as victims of an out-of-control "lunatic," before suggesting that efforts at gun control were "grotesque." 

"All of us must unite, Republican and Democrat -- in every state, and at every level of government -- to finally harden our schools and protect our children... What we need now is a top-to-bottom security overhaul at schools across this country," he added.

Multiple speakers, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott, pulled out of the event after the murders but Trump confirmed on Wednesday he would not be canceling his appearance at the NRA's annual "Leadership Forum."

President Joe Biden, who upbraided the US gun lobby in the wake of the shootings, is due in Uvalde on Sunday with first lady Jill Biden to "grieve with the community," White House officials said.

The NRA is considered the most powerful gun rights organization in the country, although its influence has waned as it has become mired in legal battles linked to a corruption scandal.

It has rejected most initiatives to prevent mass shootings, including expanded background checks on gun purchases, although it said ahead of Trump's speech that audience members would not be allowed to carry firearms.

Republicans in Washington have suggested "hardening" schools with beefed up security -- including armed guards posted at a single entry and exit point -- rather than restrictions on gun ownership. 

They have also spoken of the need to focus on mental health, although critics point out that other nations with stricter gun controls face the same issues and don't see regular mass shootings.

There have been 214 mass shootings this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive. 

They include a racist massacre at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, just 10 days before the Texas killings.

Agence France-Presse

CIA warns desperate Putin poses nuclear threat

WASHINGTON — Russia's setbacks in its invasion of Ukraine could lead President Vladimir Putin to resort to using a tactical or low-yield nuclear weapon, CIA director William Burns said Friday.

"Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they've faced so far, militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons," Burns said during a speech in Atlanta.

The Kremlin said it placed Russian nuclear forces on high alert shortly after the assault began Feb. 24, but the United States has not seen "a lot of practical evidence" of actual deployments that would cause more worry, Burns added, speaking to students at Georgia Tech university.

"We're obviously very concerned. I know President Biden is deeply concerned about avoiding a third world war, about avoiding a threshold in which, you know, nuclear conflict becomes possible," said Burns.

Russia has many tactical nuclear weapons, which are less powerful than the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.

Russian military doctrine features a principle called escalate to de-escalate, which would involve launching a first strike nuclear weapon of low yield to regain the initiative if things go badly in a conventional conflict with the West.

But under this hypothesis, "NATO would intervene militarily on the ground in Ukraine in the course of this conflict, and that's not something, as President Biden has made very clear, that's in the cards."

Recalling that he once served as US ambassador to Russia, Burns had very harsh words for Putin, calling him an "apostle of payback" who over the years "has stood in a combustible combination of grievance and ambition and insecurity."

"Every day, Putin demonstrates that declining powers can be at least as disruptive as rising ones," Burns said.

Agence France-Presse

'Shanghai won't lock down despite COVID spike'

Shanghai on Saturday recorded a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases, but a member of the city's pandemic task force said officials were determined to avoid a full lockdown over the damage it would do to the economy.

Millions of Chinese in affected areas have been subjected to city-wide lockdowns by an Omicron-led outbreak that has sent daily case counts creeping ever-higher, though they remain insignificant compared to other countries.

Shanghai, however, has aimed to ease disruption with a more targeted approach marked by rolling 48-hour lockdowns of individual neighbourhoods and large-scale testing while largely keeping the metropolis of 25 million people running.

At a daily Shanghai press conference Saturday, officials alluded to the importance of avoiding a full lockdown of the huge port city.

"If Shanghai, this city of ours, came to a complete halt, there would be many international cargo ships floating in the East China Sea," said Wu Fan, a medical expert with the city's pandemic task force.

"This would impact the entire national economy and the global economy."

Wu made the comments as city officials also announced that they would begin handing out self-testing kits to Shanghai residents, in the latest sign that the government was expanding its pandemic response.

The northeastern province of Jilin also said Saturday that it had begun distributing 500,000 of the rapid-antigen kits.

Shanghai and Jilin have been the areas hardest hit by the outbreak, which took off in early March. 

China had largely kept the coronavirus -- which first emerged in the city of Wuhan in late 2019 -- under control through its strict zero-tolerance measures.

But that top-down approach is increasingly being questioned amid concerns over the economic impact and public "pandemic fatigue", especially considering Omicron's less severe symptoms.

The National Health Commission announced two weeks ago that it would introduce the sale in China of rapid antigen self-test kits for the first time, and they have begun to appear on pharmacy shelves.

But Saturday's announcements appeared to mark their first wide-scale use as part of official pandemic control measures.

China on Saturday reported 5,600 new confirmed domestic transmissions, most of them asymptomatic.

Chinese authorities had watched nervously as a deadly Hong Kong Omicron surge sparked panic buying and claimed a high toll of unvaccinated elderly in the southern Chinese city.

Its subsequent spread in mainland China has posed a dilemma for authorities wrestling with how forcefully they should respond.

On Wednesday, Shanghai infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong, a top doctor in the city's pandemic fight, called for balancing anti-virus measures with maintenance of "normal life".

The comments in his widely followed blog indicated growing official tolerance for voices who question the lockdown approach.

Shanghai's softer strategy has so far failed to stop cases from rising, and the localised lockdowns have provoked grumbling online and a run on groceries in some districts.

Shanghai on Saturday reported another steep rise in new local transmissions to 2,269 -- around 40 percent of the national total. 

Agence France-Presse

Shanghai pushes ahead with mass COVID tests as new cases spike

SHANGHAI - The Chinese commercial hub of Shanghai is pushing ahead with a mass testing initiative as it tries to curb a new spike in COVID-19 infections, but some districts were easing lockdown rules in an effort to minimize disruptions.

The city, home to about 25 million people, saw symptomatic local community infections hit 57 on March 17, with another 203 domestically transmitted asymptomatic cases, up from eight and 150 respectively a day earlier.

Shanghai, which has up to now remained relatively unscathed by the coronavirus, has shut schools and launched a city-wide testing program that has seen dozens of residential compounds sealed off for at least 48 hours.

China has been battling its worst COVID outbreak since the virus first emerged in Wuhan in 2020. It reported 2,388 new local cases with confirmed symptoms on March 17, almost double the count a day earlier.

The outbreak is small by international standards and analysts have been debating how much China's uncompromising "zero-COVID" response will hurt the economy at home and in the world at large. 

President Xi Jinping signaled late on Thursday that the "dynamic clearance" policy to contain the outbreak would not be ditched. 

"Victory comes from perseverance," Xi told a Politburo standing committee meeting while calling for more effective measures and efforts to minimize the economic impact, state media reported.

MIXED SIGNALS

The Shanghai government, while stressing there would be no city-wide lockdown as in other cities, said it would test residents on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis, and order 48-hour lockdowns while they waited for their results.

On Friday, there were some signs it was easing up on its restrictions, with some compounds no longer required to go into a 48-hour lockdown while residents were tested.

The head of one residential committee in Changning district said her compound would not be sealed off this weekend as originally planned. At least two other compounds also said testing would be postponed.

While officials said on Thursday that Shanghai has ramped up its testing capacity to 3 million per day and planned to increase it to 5.5 million in the near future, some districts also reported shortages of qualified testing personnel.

Some residents complained about the lack of clarity when it came to the rules. One family quarantined in the district of Hongqiao said they were still locked in despite two negative tests.

Users of China's Weibo microblogging platform also slammed a decision to seal rented accommodation used by outpatients at the Shanghai Cancer Hospital, making it impossible for them to receive treatment.

"Shanghai used to brag the whole day long about its precise epidemic prevention and control... even mocking others for excess prevention and for having inadequate officials," said one user posting under the name BayMax XX. "It's not so great now?"

As of March 17, mainland China had reported 126,234 cases with confirmed symptoms, including both local ones and those arriving from outside the mainland. There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636.

(Reporting by David Stanway, Brenda Goh, Engen Tham and the Shanghai newsroom; Additional reporting by Roxanne Liu and Albee Zhang; Editing by Sam Holmes and Lincoln Feast)

-reuters-

Austria to further ease COVID restrictions

ZURICH - Austria will begin easing COVID-19 related restrictions next week, Chancellor Karl Nehammer told a news conference on Saturday, allowing shops and restaurants to remain open longer and easing restriction on the unvaccinated.

The moves come as the Omicron variant leads to reduced hospitalisations despite high infection numbers.

From Feb. 5, Austria will extend the maximum permitted opening hours of restaurants and shops until midnight and will increase the number of people able to participate in events to 50 from 25, Nehammer said.

"The good thing in spite of everything in this difficult situation - the hospital numbers are at a good level, the intensive care beds, I think it's fair to say, are at a very good level," Nehammer told a press conference in Vienna.

"We are now in a position to raise new prospects that will allow people a breather."

New daily coronavirus infections have been rising in Austria, driven by the extremely contagious Omicron variant, with nearly 35,000 new cases reported on Saturday.

However, pressure on hospitals has eased, as Omicron leads to less severe outcomes, and the current Omicron wave is expected to reach a peak around Feb. 7-9, Director General for Public Health Katharina Reich told the same press conference.

In a further step, from Feb. 12, Austria will eliminate so-called "2G rules" barring those who are not vaccinated against or recovered from the virus from entering non-essential shops.

Since Nov. 15 those not fully vaccinated have been under lockdown, meaning they are only allowed to leave their homes for a limited number of reasons such as shopping for essentials or working. The measure, which was suspended over Christmas, has been criticised as very difficult to enforce.

Austria last week set Jan. 31 as the date to end a fuller lockdown for the unvaccinated, removing restrictions on their movement.

However, they remain barred from taking part in a range of leisure activities, including eating in restaurants or shopping for non-essential items, as part of government efforts to increase the vaccination rate, which is among the lowest in western Europe.

Now, alongside entering shops from Feb. 12, Austria will also ease measures barring the unvaccinated from restaurants from Feb. 19, Nehammer said, saying those with a negative COVID test result will be able to visit restaurants and tourist attractions.

-reuters

Germany daily COVID cases rise above 200,000

BERLIN - The number of new COVID-19 infections in Germany exceeded 200,000 in a day for the first time on Thursday, hitting staffing at companies including Lufthansa Cargo.

The Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases reported 203,136 positive tests in the last 24 hours, 69,600 cases more than the same day a week ago.

The seven-day incidence per 100,000 people rose to 1,017 from 941 the previous day, while another 188 people died, bringing the death toll since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 to 117,314.

The rising number of infections has led to staffing shortages in sectors including logistics, healthcare and child care.

Airline group Lufthansa's cargo arm said a staffing crunch at its hub in Frankfurt meant it was currently unable to handle sorting of loose freight from the United States, Canada and Europe.

"Despite comprehensive preventative measures, we are now clearly feeling the rising infection numbers," Lufthansa Cargo said [in a statement?] on Thursday, adding that up to 15% of cargo at Frankfurt was affected by delays.

It said its flight schedule was unaffected, as was transportation of time-sensitive goods such as organs for transplants or temperature-controlled cargo.

Rival DHL said its operations in Frankfurt and Leipzig were still running smoothly.

The German Hospitals Federation had warned earlier this week that three-quarters of hospitals were reporting higher than usual numbers of staff out on sick leave.

Around 75% of the German population have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine - less than in western European peers such as France, Italy or Spain, where the equivalent figures are 80%, 83% and 86%.

German lawmakers debated on Wednesday whether to impose compulsory COVID-19 shots, while protesters gathered outside the parliament building.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz backs compulsory vaccines for over-18s but his coalition government is divided on the issue and he has told lawmakers to vote according to their conscience.

Many lawmakers, including some from the coalition's junior partner, the liberal Free Democrats, oppose mandatory vaccines, arguing this violates the second article of Germany's constitution that guarantees citizens control over their own bodies. 

-reuters

Fauci warns of bleak winter with Omicron 'raging through the world'

WASHINGTON, United States - Top US pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci on Sunday warned of a bleak winter ahead as the Covid-19 Omicron variant spurs a new wave of infections globally, sparking restrictions and concerns over hospital capacity. 

"One thing that's very clear... is its (Omicron's) extraordinary capability of spreading," Fauci told NBC News. "It is just... raging through to the world."

Since it was first reported in South Africa in November, Omicron has been identified in dozens of countries, prompting many to reimpose travel restrictions and other measures.

Despite indications it is not more severe than the Delta variant -- currently still the dominant strain -- the heavily mutated Omicron has been shown in early data to have a worrying resistance to vaccines and higher transmissibility. 

Fauci also cautioned against too much optimism over Omicron's severity, noting that in South Africa, while the hospitalization-to-case ratio is lower than with Delta, this could be due to underlying immunity from widespread previous infections. 

"No matter how you look at it," he underscored, "when you have so many, many infections, even if it is less severe, that overcomes this slight to moderate diminution in severity, because our hospitals, if things look like they're looking now in the next week or two are going to be very stressed," particularly in areas of the country with low levels of vaccination.

The top scientist urged unvaccinated Americans to get a shot and the vaccinated to get boosters, which have been shown to re-up protection.

The administration of President Joe Biden, who is due to address the nation on pandemic developments on Tuesday, has been campaigning hard for vaccination. 

While a little over 70 percent of the US population has had at least one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another 50 million eligible people remain unprotected, Fauci said.

"It's never too late to get vaccinated, and if you're vaccinated, go get boosted," Fauci told CNN, adding that continuing to wear masks and get regular testing -- another area the Biden administration is investing in -- are also key to avoiding infection. 

"With Omicron... it is going to be a tough few weeks to months as we get deeper into the winter."

Omicron now accounts for around three percent of cases in the United States, a figure that is expected to rise rapidly as has been seen in other countries.

On Saturday, New York state announced a record number of daily cases for the second day in a row with almost 22,000 positive results.

The United States is the nation hit hardest by the pandemic, crossing 800,000 known Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.

Agence France-Presse

69,601 new infections, 527 dead from COVID in Germany in 1 day

BERLIN - Germany recorded the highest number of deaths from COVID-19 since February on Wednesday as it battles to stop a fourth wave of the pandemic.

A total of 69,601 new infections were reported, 2,415 more than the same time a week ago, and another 527 people died - the highest number since Feb. 12 - to bring the total to 104,047, the German Robert Koch Institute for disease control said.

However, the country's seven-day incidence rate of cases per 100,000 people continued to fall, declining to 427 from 432 on Tuesday.

Experts have questioned whether the metric means Germany has passed the peak of this wave of the pandemic or whether the figures are unreliable because some health authorities are so overwhelmed, particularly in the hardest-hit areas.

The country agreed last week to bar the unvaccinated from access to all but the most essential businesses such as grocery stores, pharmacies and bakeries and to ramp up the vaccination campaign. 

-reuters 

Time to ‘think about mandatory vaccination’, says European Union chief

It is time for the European Union to "think about mandatory vaccination" against COVID-19, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday, while stressing member state governments would decide.

"My personal position is . . . I think it is understandable and appropriate to lead this discussion now," she told a media conference, underlining that a third of the EU population of 450 million was still unvaccinated.

"How we can encourage and potentially think about mandatory vaccination within the European Union? This needs discussion. This needs a common approach. But it is a discussion that I think has to be led," she said.

Several EU countries have already taken steps in that direction.

Austria has announced compulsory COVID-19 vaccinations from February 1 next year and Germany is mulling following suit. 

Greece on Tuesday said jabs would be mandatory for over-60s, while France has said COVID passes would be deactivated for all adults who have not had booster shots six months after their last jab, starting January 15.

Von der Leyen also said that the EU's main COVID vaccine provider, BioNTech/Pfizer, would have jabs available for children in the bloc in two weeks' time.

She said she had spoken with the German-US joint venture about the issue the day before, and they said "they are able to accelerate -- in other words children's vaccines will be available as of December 13."

She noted that "if you look at the numbers we have now, 77 percent of the adults in the European Union vaccinated, or if you take the whole population, it's 66 percent -- and this means one-third of the European population is not vaccinated, these are 150 million people".

The EU's vaccination drive is very uneven across the 27-nation bloc. 

Portugal, Malta, Spain, Italy, Ireland, France and Belgium have all vaccinated more than three-quarters of their populations, while eastern member states Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Croatia all have jabbed less than half.

"We have the vaccines, the life-saving vaccines, but they are not being used adequately everywhere," von der Leyen said.

While the European Commission pre-purchased COVID vaccines for use in the EU, von der Leyen emphasized that the individual countries had the responsibility on how their vaccination programs were done.

Agence France-Presse

BioNTech/Pfizer expect new variant impact data 'within 2 weeks'

Germany's BioNTech said Friday it was urgently studying how well the coronavirus vaccine it developed with Pfizer protects against the new B.1.1.529 variant detected in South Africa.

"We expect more data from the laboratory tests in two weeks at the latest," a spokesperson said.

"These data will provide more information about whether B.1.1.529 could be an escape variant that may require an adjustment of our vaccine if the variant spreads globally."

The discovery of the new variant by scientists in South Africa has sparked global alarm, amid concerns its many mutations could make it even more dangerous than the highly contagious Delta strain.

A number of countries including Britain, Italy, Germany and Singapore have moved to curtail travel from South Africa and several neighboring nations to prevent the variant's spread.

BioNTech said variant B.1.1.529 "differs significantly from previously observed variants as it has additional mutations located in the spike protein".

But it said that even if its jab -- which is based on novel mRNA technology -- needed to be tweaked, changes could be made quickly.

"Pfizer and BioNTech have taken actions months ago to be able to adapt the mRNA vaccine within six weeks and ship initial batches within 100 days in the event of an escape variant," the spokesperson said.

Agence France-Presse

Israel begins giving COVID shots to children age 5 to 11

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel on Tuesday began administering the coronavirus vaccine to children age 5 to 11.

The country recently emerged from a fourth COVID wave and daily infections have been relatively low for the last few weeks. But Health Ministry statistics show that a large share of the new infections have been in children and teenagers.

Children age 5 to 11 make up nearly half of active cases. Officials hope the new inoculation campaign will help bring down the numbers and perhaps stave off a new wave.

Israeli media reported low demand for the shots on the first day they were available to this age group. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett accompanied his son David, 9, on Tuesday to get his jab in a bid to encourage parents to have their children vaccinated.

Bennett held his son’s hand as he received the shot. David Bennett said he was a little scared but the shot didn’t hurt. The prime minister urged all eligible children to get vaccinated: “It protects our children and also parents,” he said.

Israel, which has a population of more than 9 million, has had more than 1.3 million infections since the start of the pandemic and more than 8,100 deaths.

-Associated Press

US authorizes COVID-19 boosters for all adults, recommends for over-50s

The United States authorized the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine boosters for all people aged 18 and older on Friday, as the world's hardest-hit country enters a new winter wave of the pandemic.

Boosters were previously available to the immunocompromised, people over 65, those at high risk of severe disease, and people in high risk occupations.

The new decision "helps to provide continued protection against COVID-19, including the serious consequences that can occur, such as hospitalization and death," acting commissioner Janet Woodcock of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.

A panel of experts convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) then ratified the decision to broaden eligibility, while explicitly recommending boosters for all people over 50, even absent underlying conditions.

"I am really glad that we have clarity and streamlining of the recommendations so that all Americans can understand the vaccines that are recommended for them at this time," said Camille Kotton, an infectious disease clinician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

CDC director Rochelle Walensky formally signed off on the panel's recommendations, stating that boosters "are an important public health tool to strengthen our defenses against the virus as we enter the winter holidays."

The FDA said it based its decision on data demonstrating a strong immune response to boosters from hundreds of people dosed with both brands of vaccines. 

Pfizer also carried out a clinical trial involving 10,000 people aged over 16 which found that the booster showed an efficacy against symptomatic infection of more than 95 percent compared to those who did not receive a booster.

Both vaccines are available to people six months after completing their primary series. 

Pfizer's vaccine is dosed at 30 micrograms, the same as the primary series, while Moderna's is 50 micrograms, half the primary series.

People who received the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine were already eligible for a booster of any brand two months after their first shot.

The booster decision comes as cases are rapidly rising nationally, reaching 88,000 new infections per day on average as the country enters its fifth wave, according to the latest data. 

America is officially the pandemic's hardest-hit country, with more than 760,000 deaths.

Many unknowns 

Prior to Friday's decision, some outside experts had expressed misgivings over widening boosters to all adults.

The vast majority of those people becoming hospitalized or dying with COVID are unvaccinated, and the best way to control the winter wave would be to reach those people, rather than topping up the vaccinated, the critics said.

A potential downside, they argued, was that vaccine holdouts might conclude the shots are ineffective. 

Another risk is a greater number of cases of vaccine-linked heart inflammation (myocarditis), especially among younger males. Accumulating evidence shows the risk may be greater for the Moderna vaccine compared to Pfizer, likely because of its higher dose.

Both companies are conducting post-authorization studies to assess the risks of myocarditis after third shots.

Overall, however, both health agencies took the view that the benefits outweigh the risks.

It is expected that boosters, by reducing symptomatic cases, will also help reduce community transmission, though the extent to which this might happen is not known.

It is also possible that, rather than considering the third dose a booster, the vaccines work optimally when administered three times— something that will become more clear over time as data accrues. 

Experts are in broad agreement, however, that boosters alone can't resolve the pandemic while the poorest countries, especially in Africa, remain stuck in the single-digit percentages for people covered by their initial shots. 

Last week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus decried the fact that rich countries are administering six times more vaccine doses every day than low-income countries are delivering primary doses.

This increases the risk of new variants of concern emerging in those regions, which could eventually evade the protective action of current vaccines.

Agence France-Presse

Germany's seven-day COVID incidence rate rises to record high

Germany's incidence rate measuring the number of new coronavirus infections per 100,000 people over the last seven days soared to 201.1 on Monday, a record since the pandemic erupted more than a year ago.

The figure, published by Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI), surpasses the last high, which had been 197.6 reached on December 22, 2020. 

While many more people in the country have had the jab than at that point last year, vaccination rates have stagnated at under 70 percent, with officials pleading in the last days for the population to get the jab.

"For the unvaccinated, the risk is high that they will become infected in the coming months," warned RKI chief Lothar Wieler on Wednesday.

In the eastern state of Saxony, where the incidence rate is more than twice the national average at 491.3, unvaccinated people face new restrictions from Monday.

Access to indoor dining and other indoor events will be limited to those who are fully vaccinated or can show proof of recovery.

The new rules are the toughest state-wide restrictions in Germany against non-inoculated people. Only children as well as those who cannot receive jabs for medical reasons will be exempt.

The surge in German cases comes with the country in political limbo following September's general election. 

The incoming coalition parties, aiming to form a government by early December, have so far ruled out mandatory jabs and said there will be no new lockdowns -- at least not for the vaccinated.

Agence France-Presse