Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is the second one in the United States to receive full approval from the FDA.
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday.
The vaccine, named Spikevax, is approved for use in people ages 18 and older.
Spikevax meets the FDA’s rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality required for approval, said the agency in a statement.
“While millions of people have already safely received COVID-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock.
“Today’s milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the U.S.,” she said.
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is the second one in the United States to receive full approval from the FDA. Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty, was fully approved for use in people ages 16 and older in August 2021.
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine has been available under the FDA’s emergency use authorization for individuals 18 years of age and older since Dec. 18, 2020.
In the week ahead, Winter Storm Landon could bring a mess of snow, sleet and ice from the Plains to the Midwest and Great Lakes while soaking parts of the Northeast just days after Winter Storm Kenan’s heavy snow on Saturday.
NEW YORK, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) — More than 15 million people across the U.S. Northeast, Appalachians and southern Florida are under wind chill alerts Sunday morning as arctic air filters south and east behind the departing Nor’easter, which delivered a mix of heavy snow and gale along much of the U.S. East Coast on Saturday.
Morning low temperatures are forecast to be in the single digits and teens across much of the Northeast and Appalachians. However, some interior portions of New York and New England could see morning temperatures drop below zero. Winds behind the Nor’easter could gust as high as 40 mph in some locations in the morning.
“These strong winds combined with the cold air temperatures will cause wind chills to be as cold as 10 to 20 degrees (Fahrenheit) below zero,” reported CNN. “This cold, arctic air will also impact locations as far south as Florida this morning, where several cities could see record morning low temperatures today.”
Morning low temperatures across the region will be in the upper 20s to mid-30s degrees Fahrenheit, but wind chills could feel as cold as 20 degrees Fahrenheit. This is some of the coldest air to impact southern Florida in over a decade, leading the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Miami to warn of “falling iguanas.”
On Saturday, packing raking winds, blinding snows and piercing cold, a powerful, fast-moving winter storm roared up the U.S. East Coast, bringing power outages, disrupted travel and general misery to millions of residents. “The worst of the storm was felt across the Northeast,” said The New York Times.
Power outages were still affecting nearly 62,000 Massachusetts residents as of early Sunday morning, and broader blackouts remained an ongoing concern with high winds threatening to snap snow-covered branches and cripple power lines as the storm churned offshore, according to the report.
“It’s a classic blizzard,” Glenn Field, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norton, Massachusetts, was quoted as saying. Some areas in the state had received three to four inches of snow per hour Saturday morning. Heavy snow continued through the afternoon, with wind gusts of more than 70 miles per hour.
A snow plow works at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the United States, Jan. 29, 2022. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua)
“Indeed, the tempest’s intensity and drifting snow made even measuring the accumulation difficult, though the storm was shaping up to be the biggest of the season in some regions, and maybe one of the biggest in decades,” said the report. The NWS said the 23.6 inches on Saturday tied the single-day record for Boston, set in 2003.
In the week ahead, Winter Storm Landon could bring a mess of snow, sleet and ice from the Plains to the Midwest and Great Lakes while soaking parts of the Northeast just days after Winter Storm Kenan’s heavy snow on Saturday, The Weather Channel, an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, reported on Sunday.
“We’re in the peak time of year for large, expansive winter storms in the United States, and the latest forecast guidance suggests the ingredients will be in place for another one of these just after we turn the calendar to February,” it said.
A fresh supply of arctic air will move into the nation’s midsection as a sharp, southward plunge of the jet stream carves into the U.S. western and central regions, pulling increasing moisture northward over the cold air, according to the report.
“As is almost always the case, all the key details, such as how much snow, sleet and freezing rain falls where and when remain uncertain. But this has the potential to be a disruptive winter storm for travel by the middle of the week,” it added.
The China-Laos Railway has transported over 1 million passengers and 500,000 tonnes of cargo since it was launched in December 2021, said the transport authorities of southwest China’s Yunnan Province.
KUNMING, Jan. 30 — The cargo transported by the railway includes 100,000 tonnes of cross-border goods, according to the China Railway Kunming Group Co., Ltd.
The China-Laos Railway connects Kunming in Yunnan Province with the Lao capital Vientiane. It is the first overseas railway jointly constructed and operated by the two countries.
The 1,035-km railway, a landmark project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, started operation on Dec. 3, 2021.
“Currently, the cargo category of the railway keeps expanding, ranging from feed and fertilizer products to communications, photovoltaic, automobile and textile products. The transportation volume of rice, beer and other food and articles of daily use are also growing,” said Xu Jiefeng, an official of the company.
The test-fire confirmed the accuracy, security and effectiveness of the operation of the Hwasong 12-type weapon system under production.
The evaluation test-fire of Hwasong 12-type ground-to-ground intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile was conducted Sunday, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) reported.
Under a plan of the Academy of Defence Science, the Second Economy Commission and other institutions concerned, the test-fire was aimed to selectively evaluate the missile being produced and deployed and to verify the overall accuracy of the weapon system, according to the report.
“It was conducted by the highest-angle launch system from the northwestern part of the country toward the waters of the East Sea of Korea in consideration of the security of neighboring countries,” KCNA reported.
It confirmed the accuracy, security and effectiveness of the operation of the Hwasong 12-type weapon system under production, the report said.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella was elected to a second term, Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico announced late Saturday, after the parliament gathered in a joint session and concluded its eighth round of voting.
ROME, Jan. 29 — Mattarella was reconfirmed with a broad majority, namely 759 votes in favor from a total of 983 lawmakers and regional representatives actively taking part in the ballot.
“I wish to thank lawmakers and regional representatives for the faith they have put in me,” Mattarella, 80, said in a declaration broadcast live from the Quirinale presidential palace immediately after receiving the official notice of his re-election.
“The difficult days of this election, taking place during the serious health, economic, and social emergency we are still going through, call for a sense of responsibility and for the respect of the parliament’s decisions,” he said.
“These conditions require (us) to not avoid duties, which must prevail over other thoughts and different personal perspectives,” he added.
Mattarella’s candidacy emerged prominently at the end of a tense week in which the two major political blocs — the center-left and the center-right — failed to agree on a different common candidature.
As a consequence, seven rounds of voting were held since Monday, all delivering inconclusive results and exposing deep fractures within both coalitions.
After the leaders of the largest parties from center-right and center-left acknowledged the stalemate on Saturday morning, and agreed on Mattarella’s possible second term, a direct request was submitted to the president by all parties’ whips.
After a brief talk with Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Mattarella made himself available, despite having repeatedly made clear prior to the election that he would not serve a second term.
The re-election of a head of state is rare in Italy. So far, only Giorgio Napolitano, Mattarella’s predecessor, had served a second term, and only for less than two years.
All major political leaders thanked Mattarella for his availability. “This is a great news for Italians, and I am grateful to the president for choosing to oblige to the strong will expressed by the parliament to reconfirm him to a second term,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi said in a note.
Enrico Letta, leader of center-left Democratic Party, hailed Mattarella for taking a choice “of great generosity toward the country.”
Meanwhile, Letta noted the fact that parties were unable to find an alternative common candidature should not be neglected.
Right-wing League’s leader Matteo Salvini said he was “comforted” by Mattarella’s choice. “I also feel very serene, because I have made (prior to the re-election) all possible proposals.”
Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, also a leading figure of the Five Star Movement, told reporters the re-election was “a victory for the country.”
The pledging ceremony to reconfirm Mattarella is expected to take place next Thursday, when his first term officially ends.
The following is a profile of Mattarella.
Mattarella, 80, was born in Palermo, the capital city of Italian island region Sicily.
In his earlier years, after graduating in law at the University of Rome, he qualified as a lawyer and taught parliamentary law at the university of Palermo until 1983 when he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, or the lower chamber, for the first time.
He became deputy prime minister in October 1998 and Minister of Defence from December 1999 to the June 2001 elections. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies until 2008 and a member of Italy’s Constitutional Court from 2011 to 2015. He was elected president of Italy on Jan. 31, 2015, and his first term will officially end on Feb. 3.
Mattarella has repeatedly showed a strong moral authority in the past seven years, during which several coalition governments collapsed.
He has proved a reassuring figure for the country during the past two difficult years of COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, he ultimately stepped in to avert early general elections after then Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned, and appointed former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi as prime minister.
More than 4,000 flights have been canceled across the United States on Saturday as the storm is expected to last into Sunday.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 — A bomb cyclone is bashing Northeastern region of the United States on Saturday, causing travel disruption and power outages in some states.
The winter storm officially became a bomb cyclone on Saturday morning, tweeted the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center.
A bomb cyclone occurs when a midlatitude cyclone rapidly intensifies, dropping at least 24 millibars — a measure for atmospheric pressure — over 24 hours. In this case, it dropped 35 millibars in 18 hours.
A pedestrian walks in the snow in Queens, New York, the United States, on Jan. 29, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan)
The storm system continues to produce snow in parts of the U.S. East with impressive snowfall rates in parts of New England. Eastern Massachusetts could see up to 30 inches of snow in some areas, according to the NWS.
The state of New York is also suffering from heavy snow and strong wind. Governor Kathy Hochul took to the social media on Saturday to urge residents to “stay home, stay warm, and stay safe.”
More than 4,000 flights have been canceled across the United States on Saturday as the storm is expected to last into Sunday. Meanwhile, nearly 120,000 users in Massachusetts have reported power outages as of Saturday afternoon.
An official of the Department of Homeland Security said on Friday that the federal government will be actively monitoring the storm’s projected impacts and working closely with relevant agencies to provide assistance as needed.
According to Dmitry Medvedev, the situation around Ukraine is used by the West in their “geopolitical game against Russia .”
MOSCOW, Jan. 27 — Deputy Chairman of Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United States are using Ukraine to gain geopolitical leverage.
“Ukraine, unfortunately, has turned, to some extent, into a toy in the hands of NATO and the United States, as Ukraine is used as a geopolitical instrument to exert pressure on Russia,” the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Medvedev as saying during his interview with Russian media outlets.
According to Medvedev, neither the United States nor Europe “needs” Ukraine, and the situation around the country is used by the West in their “geopolitical game against Russia.”
Noting that the possibility of a direct clash between Russia and NATO over Ukraine would end up being “catastrophic,” the official hoped it would be possible to ease tensions in the foreseeable future.
Medvedev pointed out that Moscow was never opposed to the involvement of the United States in negotiations around Ukraine, but Washington was currently creating problems by trying to influence Kiev.
He expressed hope that Ukraine would sooner or later move towards normalizing ties with Russia.
The troupe returns to Europe to resume its touring productions after a two-year hiatus. The pandemic forced its London home, the Royal Albert Hall, to shut its doors on March 17, 2020.
In fact, it has been 25 years now since Cirque du Soleil first brought its captivating show to the Hall’s stage.
Inside the cobalt blue, pink and orange-lit auditorium, the intermission is over. Two years after world-famous Cirque du Soleil’s breath-taking acrobatics spectacle Luzia was forced to drop the curtain due to COVID-19, the story finally continues this month with the dazzling and awe-inspiring show returning to London.
Nevertheless, the pandemic continues to make its presence felt. During the ongoing rehearsals in the British capital’s historic Royal Albert Hall, the flying acrobats and all the other performers are masked, hand sanitizer dispensers line the theater’s corridors and social distancing remains a requirement.
“But now, we’re here … We are artists, we like to keep going. We don’t want to give up if something happens. It’s just not us,” Yan Li, a hoop diving artist from China, told Xinhua before his long-awaited daily rehearsal.
The troupe returns to Europe to resume its touring productions after a two-year hiatus. The pandemic forced its London home, the Royal Albert Hall, to shut its doors on March 17, 2020. In fact, it has been 25 years now since Cirque du Soleil first brought its captivating show to the Hall’s stage.
Artists practice during their daily rehearsals in the British capital
DEFYING GRAVITY
“All the artists and all the employees of the company are happy because we’re back live,” Li said.
Put it simply, Cirque du Soleil’s performers amaze their audience by defying physics and gravity. For them, what goes up stays up: the artists fly through the air with effortless ease. Down on the ground, the contortionists’ and jugglers’ performance is equally jaw-dropping.
Unlike before the pandemic, Li said “we now have to wear our masks during the performance. However, for some of the acts we take them off because the masks could be dangerous when we jump. They might cover our eyes.”
“Before COVID-19, we used to go down to the audience to interact with them, but now we had to cancel that for safety reasons,” said the 33-year-old.
Nevertheless, Li couldn’t hide his excitement to be on tour again. “Performing is our life, our passion. So that’s why we’re super happy, super excited to be back on the stage every night.”
Luzia, a merger of the Spanish words “luz” (light) and “lluvia” (rain), takes the audience to an imaginary Mexico and a sumptuous world suspended between dreams and reality. “The show is Mexican. If you have never been to Mexico and you come to the show, you will get some image of Mexico, the colors, the weather and the people there.”
Luzia runs from Jan. 12 until Feb. 27 at the Royal Albert Hall, which can seat up to 5,900 people.
The show incorporates traditional Chinese circus discipline, Li said. “I perform Chinese pole and hoop diving acts. We use these to enrich the story.”
In the show, the hoop divers are dressed as a flock of colorful hummingbirds, and the Chinese pole act is reminiscent of the movement of a lizard.
Artists practice during their daily rehearsals in the British capital
OVERCOMING HURDLES
Life has not been easy for the troupe of Cirque du Soleil, as COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on the performing arts industry.
“Some of us have had our own gigs mostly smaller or solo performances,” Li said.
Li, who originally trained as a professional gymnast at the Fujian Sports Vocational Education and Technical College in China and worked as a coach at a gymnastic school in Foshan in China’s Guangdong Province, said he never stopped his tough workout routine during the lockdown because “I knew that one day I would be back at the Cirque.” His preparations for the upcoming show have lasted four months now.
Li, who has been working with Cirque du Soleil since 2009, said that the team spirit and the power of mutual support have helped him cope with the challenges.
“We have social security, and we have unemployment benefits. The company is trying to help us. Of course, they had to stop paying because we were not performing. But they are still trying to support us. They have extended our insurance policies, helped us with accommodation, and gave us as much benefit as they could.”
Originally composed of 20 street performers in 1984, the Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group, established in Montreal, Canada, has reinvented circus arts and become a world leader in live entertainment. It has already welcomed over 180 million spectators to its shows in 450 cities around the world.
“I am a big fan of the Cirque du Soleil. So happy to see it come back,” read a comment on Xinhua London’s TikTok page, calling the troupe one of the best of its kind in the world.
People dine outside at Covent Garden in London, Britain, Jan. 19, 2022. (Photo by Stephen Chung/Xinhua)
Researchers found in a study that a third dose increased vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization from 69 percent to 88 percent among the immunocompromised, and 82 percent to 97 percent among those without immune-compromising conditions.
Athird COVID-19 mRNA vaccine dose provides improved protection against COVID-19-associated hospitalization among immunocompromised adults, according to a new study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Thursday.
In the study involving 2,952 hospitalized adults, researchers found that a third dose increased vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization from 69 percent to 88 percent among the immunocompromised, and 82 percent to 97 percent among those without immune-compromising conditions.
The third dose was defined as a full dose in immunocompromised people or a booster dose among immunocompetent adults.
These findings underscore the importance of immunocompromised adults obtaining a third mRNA vaccine dose 28 days after the second vaccine dose, and of immunocompetent adults receiving a third dose five months after the second dose, according to the CDC.
In the test-fire for updating the long-range cruise missile system on Tuesday local time, two long-range cruise missiles flew along the flight trajectory over the East Sea of Korea to hit the target island, according to the KCNA.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has conducted a test-fire for updating long-range cruise missile system and a test-fire for confirming the power of conventional warhead for surface-to-surface tactical guided missile, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported early Friday local time.
The tests were conducted by the Academy of Defence Science, said the report.
In the test-fire for updating the long-range cruise missile system on Tuesday local time, two long-range cruise missiles flew along the flight trajectory over the East Sea of Korea to hit the target island, according to the KCNA.
In the test-fire for confirming the power of conventional warhead for the surface-to-surface tactical guided missile on Thursday local time, “two tactical guided missiles precisely hit the target island,” said the report.
A snow plow works at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the United States, Jan. 29, 2022. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua)
A pedestrian walks in the snow in Queens, New York, the United States, on Jan. 29, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan)
People dine outside at Covent Garden in London, Britain, Jan. 19, 2022. (Photo by Stephen Chung/Xinhua)
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