Covid-19: UK ‘not learning lessons of Australia quarantine’

BBC News says the UK’s rules on quarantine hotels for travellers arriving from Covid “red list” countries are less stringent than those enforced in Australia.

Australia’s system, introduced early last year, is seen as a gold standard internationally.

But as a result of repeated outbreaks among staff and guests, and the arrival of new variants, the rules in Australia have been tightened and are under review again.

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Pfizer vaccine found to give strong immune response to new Covid variants

The Guardian says people who have received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been found to have strong T-cell responses against the Kent and South African variants of Covid, suggesting that the vaccine will continue to protect against serious disease in the coming months.

In the first study to test immune responses against the variants circulating in populations, researchers found that although antibody responses against the new variants were blunted, they may still be high enough to protect most people from becoming infected, after a second dose of vaccine has been given.

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Myanmar junta says 23,000 inmates freed as protests continue

France24 says Myanmar’s military regime braced for a seventh straight day of street protests on Friday.

A torrent of anger and defiance has brought tens of thousands of people out in nationwide rallies demanding the country’s generals relinquish power.

With another day of mass rallies underway, state media announced the release of more than 23,000 inmates as part of a prison amnesty.

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Instagram’s crackdown on ‘hateful’ DMs speeds up the spiral of Anglocentric censorship on social media

RT News says the app founded to share cute photos is now using AI to censor “hate speech” in direct messages, enforcing an Anglo-American notion of banning the ever-increasing expanse of unapproved thoughts to the rest of the planet.

Anyone who sends direct messages containing “hate speech” or abuse shall henceforth be banned, Instagram announced on Wednesday. Previously, they only suspended such users for a period of time. While that sounds great on the surface – nobody wants hate or abuse – it leaves open the very real question of who gets to define that, and how.

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Jordan reports high adherence to COVID-19 protocols in schools as students return

Arab News says Jordan’s education ministry has reported high compliance to COVID-19 health protocols as more than 773,000 students went back to their classrooms this week, almost a year after all educational institutions were shut down.

Adherence to health and safety regulations related to the infectious coronavirus disease in schools was at 97.7 per cent during the first week of students’ gradual return to physical learning, education officials said, according to a report from state news agency Petra.

The attendance rate of in-class education at public schools reached 84.4 percent, compared with about 17 per cent of those who opted for distance learning.

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Brazil says Amazon COVID-19 variant three times more contagious

Aljazeera says a coronavirus variant identified in the Amazon might be three times more contagious but early analysis suggests vaccines are still effective against it, the country’s health minister said on Thursday, without providing evidence for the claims.

Under pressure as the variant hammers the jungle city of Manaus with a devastating second wave of infections, the Health Minister sought to reassure legislators that the surge of recent months was unexpected but coming under control.

He also told a Senate hearing that Brazil would vaccinate half its eligible population by June and the rest by the end of the year – an ambitious target as the country has barely guaranteed doses for half the population.

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US piles sanctions on Myanmar junta leaders, threatens with more action

TRT World says the US has slapped sanctions on the leaders of Myanmar’s junta, warning that more punishment could come even as the generals in Yangon ordered demonstrators to get back to work or face “effective actions.”

As Myanmar was preparing for a seventh consecutive day of anti-coup rallies, the US announced on Thursday it was blocking any US assets and transactions with 10 current or former military officials held responsible for the February 1 coup.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, “we are also prepared to take additional action should Burma’s military not change course,” as anti-coup rallies continued in the country following the ouster of the government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

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Prosecutors: There’s ‘Clear, Overwhelming’ Evidence Trump Incited Insurrection

VOA says Impeachment prosecutors contended Thursday that there was “clear and overwhelming” evidence that former President Donald Trump incited insurrection by sending a mob of his supporters to the U.S. Capitol last month to confront lawmakers as they were certifying that he had lost the November election to Joe Biden.

In closing arguments, the lead impeachment manager, Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, told the 100 senators acting as jurors at Trump’s impeachment trial that they should use “common sense on what happened here.”

“It is a bedrock principle that no one can incite a riot” in the American democracy, Raskin said.

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