Health Canada has approved Pfizer-BioNTech’s updated COVID-19 Comirnaty vaccine, which targets Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants and is approved as a booster dose for individuals 12 years of age and older.

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This is the second bivalent vaccine approved in the country, a vaccine that is effective against both the parent strain of COVID-19 and one of its variants, in this case Omicron.

However, the first bivalent vaccine made by Moderna attacked the original strain of the Omicron subvariant. Pfizer’s vaccine completes the picture by targeting the even more contagious subvariants Omicron BA.4 and BA.5.

In a press conference, Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos urged Canadians to get their booster dose and “recharge their immune systems” if it was more than six months since they last had an injection or were infected with the virus.

“The two bivalent vaccines are now approved in Canada […] both provide an excellent immune response and increased protection against the Omicron variant,” he said.

“Health Canada licensed this vaccine following a thorough and independent scientific review of the evidence that has demonstrated the safety and efficacy of this vaccine,” Health Canada said in a statement Friday.

Keep in mind that Moderna’s bivalent vaccine has been available in Quebec since last month to protect against these two variants.

Man jumps to his death from Midtown Manhattan’s The Row NYC hotel, where Mayor Eric Adams planned to house migrants

• Rescue workers responded to reports on Friday that a man had jumped to his death from New York’s The Row hotel
• The man’s splayed intestines and other body parts had to be washed off the NYC sidewalk by rescue workers
• The Row NYC Hotel was in the news recently after Mayor Eric Adams proposed housing up to 600 illegal immigrant families in the $400-a-night lodge

By Sophie Mann

Published: 10:41 PM BST, October 7, 2022 | Updated at 10:49 PM BST, 7 October 2022

A man jumped to his death from New York’s The Row hotel in midtown Manhattan — where Mayor Eric Adams once planned to house illegal migrants being sent into New York from the border.

Emergency services responded Friday morning after the man threw himself from a room at the Row NYC Hotel.

He fell to his death from the 29-story Midtown hotel next to Times Square, which was packed with tourists.

The unidentified 39-year-old man was pronounced dead at 11.30am.

Rescue workers arrive to assess the scene at the Row NYC Hotel where a man jumped to his death on Friday morning

The unidentified 39-year-old was pronounced dead around 11.30am in the area crowded with tourists

He is believed to have jumped around 10:00 a.m. and his body was removed from the hotel at Eighth Avenue and 45th Street at 3:15 p.m.

Two hats were found at the scene – a baseball cap and a woman’s brown cap.

The fire department had to hose down the sidewalk.

Rooms at the hotel cost guests up to $400 a night, a number that drew criticism when Mayor Adams proposed temporarily housing up to 600 migrant families at NYC taxpayers’ expense.

The Row NYC Hotel was contacted by the Chron for comment.

The investigation is ongoing, police said.

NYC firefighters had to hose down the sidewalk because victim’s guts covered the street

The investigation is ongoing, police said

The Row NYC Hotel briefly made headlines this summer when it was identified as a location where NYC Mayor Eric Adams may have housed up to 600 illegal immigrant families who had been bussed into the city

The investigation is ongoing, police said. The incident disrupted traffic in the busy downtown area

The man jumped out of the 29-story luxury hotel around 10 a.m

This is a file that has been dragging on for years and may finally be gathering momentum. US President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order allowing progress to implement a new framework for the transfer of personal data from the European Union to the United States, which is crucial for the digital economy. Washington and Brussels reached an agreement in principle on the issue in March, with earlier versions having been challenged by the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) over concerns about US surveillance programs.

The US President’s signature of the decree will allow the European Commission to begin its own ratification process, which should take several months. “This is the culmination of our collective effort to restore trust and stability in transatlantic traffic,” US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said during a briefing with reporters.

guarantee confidentiality

The text reinforces measures to ensure confidentiality and protect civil liberties in American surveillance programs targeting data collected in Europe and transmitted or hosted across the Atlantic.

It also creates an independent and binding mechanism for individuals in eligible states to seek redress if they believe their personal information was unlawfully collected by US intelligence agencies. This mechanism provides for two levels of appeals, one with an official responsible for protecting civil liberties within the US Secret Service and the other with an independent court formed by the Department of Justice. “These commitments fully comply with the Schrems II decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union and will cover transfers of personal data to the United States under EU law,” said Gina Raimondo.

In July 2020, the court found that the “Privacy Shield” used by 5,000 American companies, including giants like Google or Amazon, did not protect possible “interference with the fundamental rights of the persons whose data is transferred”.

Complaint against Facebook

The case was initiated by a lawsuit against Facebook by Max Schrems, a figure in the fight for privacy, already at the origin of the 2015 ruling on the Privacy Shield’s predecessor, Safe Harbor.

It’s possible the new version could be challenged again, US government officials conceded during the briefing. But it is designed to counteract the previous reservations of the European judiciary, they assured.

The decision of the ECJ had plunged companies operating in the EU that transmit or host data across the Atlantic into legal uncertainty. Since then, they have resorted to alternative solutions with more uncertain legality to continue these transfers while waiting for a more solid and sustainable system.

At the 52nd Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), Mamani pointed out that the global, structural and systematic crisis was more serious in this entity and directly questioned its Secretary General Luis Almagro.

He added that the international crisis stems from the great powers’ claim to adhere to unipolarity without resigning themselves to multipolarity, the only guarantee of justice between states, regardless of their economic and military power.

He pointed out that the situation is worse in the region, where the OAS is weakening more and more, opting for partial, petty and sectarian interests to which three countries no longer belong.

According to the Bolivian representative, the resignations are due to the fact that the OAS “undermines the elementary principles of equality between states by applying double standards, similar to the interests of capitalism and imperialism”.

“Without a doubt, it is the worst time for the OAS, in which it has even lost its forms, as the Secretary-General subjugates the states and is not at their service,” he said.

He urged Almagro to “end hypocrisy, selectivity, politicization and double standards that constitute practices harmful to international law.”

On the other hand, Mamani considered fundamental the understanding of governability and democracy so mistakenly used by the OAS to evaluate and disqualify governments, for which it uses observation missions to undermine the sovereignty of states.

He cited the case of the OAS scrutiny after the 2019 Bolivian elections being used to engineer a constitutional breach, citing the coup that brought right-wing Senator Jeanine Áñez to the presidency and grave human rights violations his country is seeking an international investigation .

The deputy minister also referred to his country’s geographic limitations that threaten its development and trade, he said, recalling that Bolivia was born with coasts, a reference to Chile’s conquest of them in the 19th century.

“We hope that the injustices will be remedied sooner rather than later and that dialogue and diplomacy can succeed in repairing the damage caused by a war driven by capitalist interests and thus build a better future between our brother peoples,” added he added.

acl/mrs

Climate and energy crises should really drive the expansion of renewable energy more than ever before. In fact, little is happening in Austria. At the federal level, important laws have been locked in for months and some states are blocking them. The umbrella organization for renewable energy (EEÖ) is now strongly criticizing and demanding more access rights for the federal government.

AUSTRIA. By 2030, Austria wants to produce 100% of its electricity from renewable sources such as water, wind and solar energy. The goal is also in the government’s program. “Fossil fuel independence is the need of the moment,” Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) said around April. In May, Energy and Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) spoke of a “national tour de force for the energy transition”. Since then, however, almost nothing has happened, she criticizes the umbrella organization for renewable energies (EEÖ).

Rapid expansion would be crucial to achieving the EU’s climate targets, on the one hand – if they are not met, there will be the threat of fines in the billions. The war in Ukraine and the associated power shortages are putting additional pressure on them. Anyway, everything is going very slowly for the EEÖ. It calls for federal states to be deprived of powers or give the federal government more access rights, the Ö1 morning newspaper reported on Thursday.

Criticism of the lack of legislative decisions

Important laws have been stalled for months, criticizes the EEÖ: “Since 24 February, not a single federal law has been passed to accelerate the expansion of renewable energies, although important legislative projects have been drafted for many months – sometimes even years”, says a role, which exists in various media. The federal states – with the exception of Burgenland – “have not introduced any laws or measures”.

At the federal level, two important projects are hovering in the air. First, there is the Climate Protection Act – it aims to establish a path by which climate-damaging emissions must be reduced. The situation is similar with the Energy Efficiency Law – it is intended to prescribe energy saving measures for companies.

Distribution of skills as the main problem

If Austria wants to reach its target by 2030, a new wind turbine must be installed every three days. At the same time, an area of ​​about 100 km² would have to be equipped with photovoltaics and some new hydroelectric and biomass plants would have to be built. So a lot would have to happen. However, this is not the case, as Martina Prechtl-Grundnig, managing director of the umbrella organization for renewable energies, reported in the Ö1-Morgenjournal: We are in the midst of an energy crisis and yet unfortunately we have to say that in renewable energy moves nothing – in other words, moves very little.”

Prechtl-Grundnig sees the main reason for domestic inertia in the expansion of renewables in the distribution of powers between federal and state governments. In Austria, the federal government is responsible for energy and climate protection goals, but the competence for project implementation lies with the federal states. The fact is that some federal states contribute very little, according to the representative of the sector.

blocking states

From countries such as Upper Austria, Tyrol or Carinthia, one hears over and over again that wind energy is practically out of the question, explains the energy expert. According to Prechtl-Grundnig, there is basically only one federal state, Burgenland, in which the pace of expansion of wind and solar energy has increased since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Penalties and Penalties

The managing director of the association therefore asks for more powers and access rights for the federal government. In addition, there should be financial consequences if states slow expansion: “If federal states don’t meet the targets, then there should be a mechanism for them to pay financially,” says Prechtl-Grundnig.

After all, Austria is threatened with hefty fines if the EU’s climate targets are not met. Furthermore, it is not just about climate protection, but also about Austria becoming more independent from countries like Russia when it comes to energy, concluded the head of the renewable energy umbrella organization.

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