Germany to start Omicron-adapted COVID vaccinations next week

BERLIN: Germany can next week start using COVID-19 vaccines which have been adapted for the Omicron variant and got approval for use in the European Union on Thursday, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said. He said approval of the BA.1 vaccine was a quantum leap in the fight against the pandemic as vaccines were now available that work well against all previously known virus variants. “From next week, vaccinations can begin with the new doses. Now is the optimal time to close the gaps in vaccination for the autumn,” he said in a statement. On the other hand, Britain’s medicines regulator on Friday approved Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged between 12 and 17 years. Read more: Britain approves Novavax COVID vaccine for 12-17 year-olds The mRNA vaccines made by Moderna as well as the partnership between Pfizer-BioNTech are also cleared for use by this age group, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said. In the 12 through 17 year-old population, the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine has been granted authorization in the U.S., India, the European Union, Australia, Japan, Thailand, and New Zealand, and is actively under review in other markets.

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1Mln Russians Flee to EU Since the Start of Ukraine War, Border Agency Says

Nearly 1 million Russian citizens have fled to the European Union in the six months since their country invaded Ukraine, the EU’s border agency Frontex said Thursday. A total of 998,085 Russian passport holders have entered the EU from the day of the invasion on Feb. 24 to Aug. 22, a Frontex spokesperson told Germany’s DPA news agency. Meanwhile, some 7.7 million Ukrainian citizens have fled to the EU and 4.7 million returned to their homeland since the Russian invasion, Frontex said on Aug. 12. The EU’s border agency recorded fewer entries among Russian citizens in the week of Aug. 16-22 from the previous week as the bloc’s 27 members debate a proposed visa ban for Russian tourists. Finland, the Czech Republic and Estonia last week called for an EU-wide visa ban for Russian tourists. Latvia, Lithuania and Poland stoped issuing new tourist visas to Russians since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Estonia barred entry to Russians with existing visas, while Finland vowed to cut the number of processed Russian tourist visa applications by 90% starting Sept. 1. In a compromise with members that oppose such broad measures, the Czech government is expected to propose higher costs and processing times for Russians’ and Belarusians’ short-term entry visas at an EU meeting Wednesday. The European Commission last week emphasized the need for humanitarian access into the EU for dissident Russians, saying visa applications should be assessed individually and not under a blanket rule.

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Russia stops US nuclear arsenal inspections New START treaty

Russia stops US nuclear arsenal inspections

• Russia has informed the US that it has “temporarily” halted on-site inspections of its strategic nuclear weapons.
• The US, according to the Russian foreign ministry, was looking for benefits and had denied Russia the opportunity to conduct inspections on US soil.
• It is the final agreement between the former Cold War foes to reduce their arsenals.

According to the New START arms limitation pact, Russia has informed the US that it has “temporarily” halted on-site inspections of its strategic nuclear weapons.

The US, according to the Russian foreign ministry, was looking for benefits and had denied Russia the opportunity to conduct inspections on US soil.

It said that the Ukraine crisis and US sanctions on Russia had altered relations between the two nations.

In 2011, the agreement entered into force.

It is the final agreement between the former Cold War foes to reduce their arsenals. The maximum number of long-range nuclear warheads that each nation may use is 1,550.

According to the government, the suspension was permitted by the rules of the treaty “in extraordinary circumstances”.

The suspension comes a week after US President Joe Biden declared himself prepared to cooperate with President Vladimir Putin on a new nuclear armaments pact. The existing one will run out in 2026.

The US was charged with neglecting “existing facts” such “the suspension of normal” aviation links, according to the ministry.

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Russia suspends nuclear arms inspections under START treaty with US

Russia says it is "temporarily" stopping on-site inspections, pointing to Western sanctions and rising coronavirus infections in the Unites States.

START is the last remaining arms reduction pact between the US and Russia and caps to 1,550 the number of nuclear warheads that can be deployed by Moscow and Washington. (Patrick Semansky / File / AP)

Russia has told the United States it would not allow its weapons to be inspected under the START nuclear arms control treaty for the time being because of travel restrictions imposed by Washington and its allies.

Inspection conditions proposed by Washington created "unilateral advantages for the United States and effectively deprive the Russian Federation of the right to conduct inspections on American territory," the Moscow foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday. 

Moscow also pointed to a new spike in coronavirus cases in the United States.

Russia remained fully committed to complying with all the provisions of the treaty, it added.

The United States and its allies, including Britain and the European Union, closed their airspace to Russian planes as part of a barrage of sanctions imposed in response to Russia's decision to send its armed forces into Ukraine in February.

READ MORE: Global spending on nuclear weapons on rise even amid Covid

New treaty

The New START Treaty, which came into force in 2011, caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.

US President Joe Biden said last Monday that his administration was ready to "expeditiously" negotiate a framework to replace New START, which is due to expire in 2026, if Moscow demonstrated its willingness to resume work on nuclear arms control.

But Russia's mission to the United Nations said Washington had withdrawn from separate talks with Moscow on strategic stability over the Ukraine conflict, and needed to decide what it wanted.

The following day, the Kremlin said time was running out to negotiate a replacement for New START, putting global security at risk.

Moscow says it was forced to intervene in Ukraine to defend Russian-speakers from persecution and avert a Western threat to use Ukraine to threaten Russia's security. Kiev and its Western allies say these are baseless pretexts for an imperial-style land grab. 

READ MORE: Why the US can't give up on Russian uranium

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

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