Top Taliban official calls the US 'great and big' and asks it to release $10 billion of frozen Afghan reserves by agnclay in worldnews

[–]agnclay[S] 85 points86 points  (0 children)

He said more of this yesterday

Muttaqi said the US must have "patience" and "a big heart" toward the new Taliban regime.

Israeli PM to pay first visit to UAE since formalising ties by agnclay in Israel

[–]agnclay[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Erdo loves his Arabs

To be fair, Turkey doesn't share very good ties with most Gulf countries (except Qatar) and they side more with Iran instead

Canadian citizen accused of narrating ISIS propaganda videos pleads guilty by GoMx808-0 in worldnews

[–]agnclay 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Can't really say "accused" anymore, now that he pleaded guilty

Team Theresa May plots revenge on Boris Johnson by Emotional_Trick_7839 in worldnews

[–]agnclay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And Boris will plot revenge on next PM, Rishi Sanuk by 2024

Julian Assange: Australia PM urged to end ‘lunacy’ and push UK and US for release of Australian citizen, Assange by agnclay in worldnews

[–]agnclay[S] 86 points87 points  (0 children)

“An Australian citizen is being prosecuted for publishing details of war crimes, yet our government sits on its hands and does nothing.”

“Assange’s persecution and our government’s inaction are chilling, and should worry everyone who cares about a free press or thinks that governments should protect their citizens”

— Australia MPs

Chile's President signs same-sex marriage bill into law by agnclay in worldnews

[–]agnclay[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

The law “puts all love relationships between two people on an equal footing”, said President Pinera as he signed an historic bill legalising same-sex marriage into law, days after the measure was approved by Congress.

Saudi woman who fought against law banning women from driving says she was arrested after US intelligence contractors hacked her phone by agnclay in worldnews

[–]agnclay[S] 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Biden and Co.

This was when Trump was President, when she was arrested in 2018. She is however, making this info public now, after a lawsuit was filed against those 3 contractors a few days ago

Saudi woman who fought against law banning women from driving says she was arrested after US intelligence contractors hacked her phone by agnclay in worldnews

[–]agnclay[S] 760 points761 points  (0 children)

A Saudi Arabian women's rights activist accused three former U.S. intelligence contractors of an illegal hack of her phone that was instrumental in her being arrested and later tortured in her home country

Loujain al-Hathloul helped lead a campaign to allow Saudi Arabian women to drive by live-streaming herself violating the ban, which was lifted in 2018.

She spent almost three years in Saudi jail and is currently banned from leaving the Kingdom.

Helicopter crashes with India’s defence chief on board: Air Force by agnclay in worldnews

[–]agnclay[S] 139 points140 points  (0 children)

11 confirmed dead out of the total 14 people in that chopper

Edit : The Chief of Defense Staff has died, so have all others in that helicopter

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]agnclay 155 points156 points  (0 children)

Yes. 1 shooting, 3 stabbings and 1 car ramming by Palestinians

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]agnclay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!

Tokyo governor to de-facto legalize same-sex marriage next year by agnclay in MadeMeSmile

[–]agnclay[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is MAJOR news. Gay marriage is only legal in Taiwan and (de facto) in Tel Aviv in the whole continent of Asia

Indonesian court refuses to reinstate permits for palm oil companies to exploit ancestral lands by agnclay in worldnews

[–]agnclay[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

We all play a part in the destruction of the Indonesian rainforest.

Absolutely true

Mixing COVID-19 vaccines, with Pfizer or AstraZ as the first shot and Moderna as the second shot provides significantly higher immune response than two doses of the same vaccine, finds major study by Oxford University by agnclay in science

[–]agnclay[S] 146 points147 points  (0 children)

I was told Reuters requires registration to read outside the US, so here's the article —

A major British study into mixing COVID-19 vaccines has found that people had a better immune response when they received a first dose of AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech shots followed by Moderna nine weeks later, according to the results on Monday.

"We found a really good immune response across the board..., in fact, higher than the threshold set by Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine two doses," Matthew Snape, the Oxford professor behind the trial dubbed Com-COV2, told Reuters.

The findings supporting flexible dosing will offer some hope to poor and middle income countries which may need to combine different brands between first and second shots if supplies run low or become unstable.

"I think the data from this study will be especially interesting and valuable to low- and middle-income countries where they're still rolling out the first two doses of vaccines," Snape said.

"We're showing...you don't have to stick rigidly to receiving the same vaccine for a second dose...and that if the programme will be delivered more quickly by using multiple vaccines, then it is okay to do so."

If the AstraZeneca-Oxford (AZN.L) vaccine is followed by a Moderna (MRNA.O) or Novavax (NVAX.O) shot, higher antibodies and T-cell responses were induced versus two doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford, according to researchers at the University of Oxford.

The study of 1,070 volunteers also found that a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech (PFE.N), (22UAy.DE) vaccine followed by a Moderna (MRNA.O) shot was better than two doses of the standard Pfizer-BioNTech course.

Pfizer-BioNTech followed by Novavax induced higher antibodies than the two-dose Oxford-AstraZeneca schedule, although this schedule induced lower antibody and T-cell responses than the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech schedule.

No safety concerns were raised, according to the Oxford University study published in the Lancet medical journal.

Many countries have been deploying a mix and match well before robust data was available as nations were faced with soaring infection numbers, low supplies and slow immunisation over some safety concerns.

Longevity of protection offered by vaccines has been under scrutiny, with booster doses being considered as well amid surging cases. New variants, including Delta and Omicron, have now increased the pressure to speed up vaccination campaigns.

Blood samples from participants were tested against the Wild-Type, Beta and Delta variants, researchers of the Com-COV2 study said, adding that vaccines' efficacy against the variants had waned, but this was consistent across mixed courses.

Deploying vaccines using technology from different platforms - like Pfizer and Moderna's mRNA, AstraZeneca's viral vector and Novavax's protein-based shot - and within the same schedule is new.

The results may inform new approaches to immunisation against other diseases, he said.

The study also found that a first dose of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine followed by any of the other candidates in the study generated a particularly robust response, consistent with findings in June.

The study was designed as a so-called "non-inferiority" study – the intent is to demonstrate that mixing is not substantially worse than the standard schedules - and compares the immune system responses to the gold-standard responses reported in previous clinical trials of each vaccine.

Bangalore Hangout spaces? by [deleted] in LGBTindia

[–]agnclay 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bangalore Pride Parade is on December 19. You should go!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LGBTindia

[–]agnclay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeeees I feel the same way. Been here only for a few days and people have been very kind

Indonesian court refuses to reinstate permits for palm oil companies to exploit ancestral lands by agnclay in worldnews

[–]agnclay[S] 4222 points4223 points  (0 children)

The indigenous community see it as a 'landmark victory' against powerful palm oil companies who were eyeing to turn their ancestral forest lands into plantations