Health & Science

• Friday, March 12th 2021 - 09:55 UTC

  Brazil's hospitals overwhelmed and in main cities stops receiving pandemic patients

  

  Hospitals in Brazil's main cities are reaching capacity, health officials warned, as the country recorded the world's highest COVID-19 death toll for the second day running, 2,233, triggering restrictions in the main and richest states.

• Friday, March 12th 2021 - 09:06 UTC

  All US surviving presidents (except Trump) release video of their inoculation; CDC says 92 million vaccinated

  

  All surviving former US presidents except Mr Donald Trump have teamed up in a video urging Americans to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Mr Jimmy Carter, Mr George W. Bush, Mr Bill Clinton and Mr Barack Obama - and the former First Ladies, appear in the one-minute spot released on Thursday, endorsing the US vaccination campaign and sharing what they miss about pre-pandemic life.

• Friday, March 12th 2021 - 09:06 UTC

  Brazilian congress passes US$ 8 billion bill to help millions of poor families

  

  Brazil's lower house of Congress approved the basic text of a bill on Thursday that revives a federal cash transfer program to help millions of poor families whose incomes have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Friday, March 12th 2021 - 09:03 UTC

  Europe approves J&J single shot Covid-19 vaccine; some 200 million doses pledged by end of year

  

  Europe approved Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday and is expected to be delivered in a month. The COVID-19 shot is the fourth to be endorsed for use in the European Union after vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-Oxford University, and Moderna, and is recommended for those over 18 years of age, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said.

• Friday, March 12th 2021 - 04:49 UTC

  RRS James Clark Ross skipper gratitude message to people of the Falklands

  

  Graham Chapman, Captain of RRS James Clark Ross sent a message of gratitude to the people of the Falklands when the polar research vessel left the Islands for the last time.

• Thursday, March 11th 2021 - 09:44 UTC

  Mexico to join the club of countries that decriminalize cannabis

  

  Mexico's lower house of Congress on Wednesday approved a bill that would decriminalize cannabis for recreational, medical and scientific uses, bringing it a step closer to creating one of the world's largest markets for the plant.

• Thursday, March 11th 2021 - 09:44 UTC

  Rich countries block a Covid-19 vaccines patent rights waiver

  

  The rich members of the World Trade Organization blocked a push by over 80 developing countries on Wednesday to waive patent rights in an effort to boost the production of Covid-19 vaccines for poor nations.

• Thursday, March 11th 2021 - 09:40 UTC

  Brazil overtakes US in daily Covid-19 deaths, 2,286 on Wednesday

  

  New Covid-19 infections in Latin America are still rising, particularly in Brazil where a resurgence has caused record daily deaths, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on Wednesday.

• Thursday, March 11th 2021 - 09:36 UTC

  Spain expects to roll out vaccine “Digital Green Pass” by May 19 for FITUR tourism fair

  

  Spain could be ready to start rolling out coronavirus vaccine ‘passports’ by the end of May, paving the way to welcome back holidaymakers, Minister of tourism, María Reyes Maroto, said on Wednesday.

• Thursday, March 11th 2021 - 09:07 UTC

  Major fire at Europe's largest cloud services knocks out some 3,6 million websites

  

  Some 3,6 million websites were knocked out because of a fire at a French cloud services firm in Strasbourg, including French government agencies' portals, banks, shops, news websites, and a chunk of the FR webspace, according to Internet monitors.