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Australia’s Victoria State Back Under Lockdown Amid New COVID Outbreak

Melbourne went back under lockdown on Friday, as Australian health authorities said a cluster of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases had increased to 39.

Health officials have ordered residents to stay home for seven days to prevent the infection from spreading and buy time to investigate how the virus was transmitted from a man being quarantined at a hotel.

The outbreak has been traced to an overseas traveler who was found to be infected with an Indian variant of the coronavirus.

The acting premier of Australia’s southern state of Victoria, James Merlino, told reporters in Melbourne that the new outbreak is the result of “a highly infectious strain of the virus, a variant of concern, which is running faster than we have ever recorded.”

During the lockdown, residents will be allowed to leave their homes only for essential work, school, shopping, caregiving, exercise and medical reasons, including receiving their scheduled coronavirus vaccinations.

The new lockdown is the fourth one imposed on Victoria state since the start of the pandemic. The most severe period occurred in mid-2020 and lasted more than three months as Victoria was in the grip of a wave of COVID-19 infections that killed more than 800 people.

Merlino had already imposed a new set of restrictions for Australia’s second-most populous state, including limiting the size of public gatherings and making mask wearing mandatory in restaurants, hotels and other indoor venues until June 4.

Vaccine for ICE

The American Civil Liberties Union requested Thursday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “provide immediate vaccine access to the more than 22,100 people in ICE custody.”

“Over the course of the pandemic, ICE detention facilities have been some of the worst hotspots for the spread of COVID-19, with positivity rates five times greater than prisons and 20 times greater than the general U.S. population,” said the ACLU’s Eunice Cho.

The ACLU also said the COVID-19 death toll was actually higher than ICE reported because many of the infected people died after being released from the hospital.

Also in the U.S., Facebook said it will no longer remove statements that COVID-19 is created by humans or manufactured “in light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic outbreak, Facebook has changed its policy several times on what is allowed on the topic and was not. Another claim banned for being discussed on the platform was the notion that vaccines were not effective or that they were toxic.

In other developments, the COVAX initiative to ensure vaccinations for vulnerable people called on world leaders Thursday to help deliver 2 billion doses of vaccines globally this year, as it faces a shortage of 190 million doses by the end of June.

COVAX also said it needed global help to make 1.8 billion doses available to 92 lower-income economies by early 2022.

“We are seeing the traumatic effects of the terrible surge of COVID-19 in South Asia — a surge which has also severely impacted global vaccine supplies,” COVAX said in a statement.

New vaccine late-stage clinical trial

Two European pharmaceutical giants, France’s Sanofi and Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline, announced Thursday that they are beginning a late-stage clinical trial of their experimental recombinant COVID-19 vaccine after reporting positive results from a smaller-scale trial.

The expanded trial will involve more than 35,000 adults in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the United States.

The drugmakers will test the efficacy of the new vaccine through a two-stage approach. The first stage will be tested on the original version of the coronavirus, while the second stage will target the B.1.351 variant that was first detected in South Africa.

The Sanofi-GSK vaccine will also be tested in the coming weeks to determine if it can be used as a booster shot for a previous inoculation, regardless of the vaccine the recipient had initially received.

An official with Sanofi says the vaccine could be granted authorization for use in the last quarter of this year if the Stage 3 trials are successful.

Source: Voice of America

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SolarWinds Hackers Targeted 150 Organizations with Phishing, Microsoft Says

BOSTON – The state-backed Russian cyber spies behind the SolarWinds hacking campaign launched a targeted spear-phishing assault on U.S. and foreign government agencies and think tanks this week using an email marketing account of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Microsoft said.

The effort targeted about 3,000 email accounts at more than 150 different organizations, at least a quarter of them involved in international development, humanitarian and human rights work, Microsoft Vice President Tom Burt said in a blog post late Thursday.

It did not say what portion of the attempts may have led to successful intrusions.

The cybersecurity firm Volexity, which also tracked the campaign but has less visibility into email systems than Microsoft , said in a post that relatively low detection rates of the phishing emails suggest the attacker was “likely having some success in breaching targets.”

Burt said the campaign appeared to be a continuation of multiple efforts by the Russian hackers to “target government agencies involved in foreign policy as part of intelligence gathering efforts.” He said the targets spanned at least 24 countries.

The hackers gained access to USAID’s account at Constant Contact, an email marketing service, Microsoft said. The authentic-looking phishing emails dated May 25 purport to contain new information on 2020 election fraud claims and include a link to malware that allows the hackers to “achieve persistent access to compromised machines.”

Microsoft said in a separate blog post that the campaign is ongoing and evolved out of several waves of spear-phishing campaigns it first detected in January that escalated to the mass-mailings of this week.

While the SolarWinds campaign, which infiltrated dozens of private sector companies and think tanks as well as at least nine U.S. government agencies, was supremely stealthy and went on for most of 2020 before being detected in December by the cybersecurity firm FireEye, this campaign is what cybersecurity researchers call noisy. Easy to detect.

Microsoft noted the two mass distribution methods used: the SolarWinds hack exploited the supply chain of a trusted technology provider’s software updates; this campaign piggybacked on a mass email provider.

With both methods, the company said, the hackers undermine trust in the technology ecosystem.

Source: Voice of America

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SOUTH AFRICAN GROUP TO INVEST USD 100 MILLION IN CABINDA

Cabinda – Troper, a South African business group, plans to invest about USD100 million in Cabinda in the near future in the agri-livestock and solar energy sectors.

The aim of the South African business delegation, which arrived in Cabinda Thursday, is to find openings and business opportunities with entrepreneurs from these two sectors and with the authorities of the provincial government, in order to create partnerships and investment opportunities in these two sectors.

In view of this, the head of Trooper’s delegation, John Kayira, and the operations manager, Verónica Shale, met with the governor of Cabinda, Marcos Nhunga, where they put forward several ideas on business, partnership and investment opportunities in Cabinda.

John Kayira, who is part of the Angola-South Africa Business Forum, said that the trip to Cabinda was an opportunity to see in-loco the existing investments in these two sector and interact with local authorities and businesspeople about business and partnership opportunities in the agri-livestock and solar energy sectors.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

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FORMALISATION OF INFORMAL ECONOMY STARTS IN JUNE

Luanda – The implementation of the pilot project for the formalisation of the informal economy is due to start in June, Angop has learnt.

This was announced Thursday by National Director of the Population Policies Office, Adriano Celso Borja, who said that the process will begin from unofficial “Marcado do 30” Market, located in Viana municipality, Luanda.

Speaking to the press at the end of a working visit to the Market, Adriano Borja said the visit allowed to check the speedup of the market activity.

He announced plans to make final decision to launch, in this site, a registration and formalisation campaign of the economic activities and to accommodate the mobile brigades that will execute the registration.

He announced the creation of nine brigades made up of six people each, in a total of 54 members, that will perform the registration with appropriated technologic means.

This will include a joint administrative services such as Unique Company Window, Directorate of Registries and Notaries, General Tax Administration and the National Institute of Social Security.

The pilot Project for the formalisation of the informal economy, coordinated by the Ministry of Economy and Planning, will start with the registration of operators and followed by the effective formalisation that includes, in addition to the legalisation of documents, the finance inclusion and therefore the regulation of the activity, covering approximately two million of informal operators in Luanda province.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

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PRESIDENT APPOINTS COMMISSION FOR A. NETO’S CENTENARY

Luanda – President João Lourenço Thursday in Luanda appointed an Inter-ministerial Commission to organise the celebrations of the centenary of the birth of the Founder of the Angolan Nation, António Agostinho Neto.

According to a press release from the Civil Affairs Office to the President of the Republic, the Commission is tasked with preparing a due celebration of the event.

The note further states that the Commission is made up by the heads of the Civil and Military Affairs Offices to the President of the Republic, respectively, as coordinator and deputy-coordinator.

The two will be assisted by the ministers of Territory Administration, National Defence and Motherland Veterans, Transports, Education, Telecommunications and External Relations.

The ministers of Finance, Education, Youth and Sports, Culture, Tourism and Environment are also part of the Commission.

The Commission has been assigned to draft a budget for the celebrations, prepare, organise and coordinate locally and abroad, all operations for the celebrations.

António Agostinho Neto was born on 17 September 1922, in Kaxicane (Icolo e Bengo, near the capital Luanda), and died on 10 September 1979. He proclaimed Angola’s Independence from the Portuguese colonial power on 11 November 1975.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

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PRESIDENT GETS MESSAGE FROM CHAD COUNCIL LEADER

Luanda – The Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, Thursday in Luanda, received a message from the leader of the Chad Transitional Military Council, Mahamat Idriss Deby.

The message was delivered by Ahmed Kogri, envoy of the leader of the Chad Transitional Military Council running the country’s affairs since the fall on the battlefield of President Idriss Deby Itno, in April this year.

Ahmed Kogri would not speak to the press at the end of the audience.

President João Lourenço is currently at the head of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and is, in that capacity, regularly informed on the situation in that member country.

The situation in Chad worsened in late April this year, following the death of Idriss Déby Itno, who succumbed to wounds sustained on the battle front during fighting against armed opposition forces.

He died a day after he was declared winner of the presidential election of 11 April.

As a result, a Transitional Military Council was put in place to take up the affairs of the country, before forming a transition government on 2 May, to run the country until new elections are held within 18 months.

A civil war has been raging on in Chad since December 2005, involving government forces and several armed groups.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

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ANGOLA REPORTS 269 NEW INFECTIONS, 62 DEATHS IN LAST 24 HOURS

Luanda – Angola has reported 269 new cases, 3 deaths and 62 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

As many as 215 fresh cases were reported in the provinces of Luanda, 37 in Huambo, 7 in Huíla, 5 in Cabinda, 4 in Benguela, 2 in Zaire and 1 in Malanje, according to the clinical bulletin reached Angop on Thursday.

The new infections feature 147 males and 122 females, aged from 8 months to74 years old.

The deaths occurred in Luanda, Cabinda and Huíla, with one each.

As for the recoveries, 37 were recorded in Luanda, 8 in Huíla, 7 in Huambo, 3 in Uíge, 3 in Zaire, 2 in Cunene.

While, Bengo and Benguela reported one each.

The country’s overall caseload stands at 33,607, recoveries at 27,529, while the total fatalities are at 745, according to the data released on Thursday.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

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GOVT HANDS OVER FIRST DEATH CERTIFICATES TO FAMILIES OF CONFLICT VICTIMS

Luanda – Angolan Government started Thursday to formally deliver the first death certificates to the families of victims of the armed conflicts, whose symbolic process included three relatives of those killed on May 27, 1977.

The process started Thursday (27) in Luanda province, marked by a ceremony under the motto “Embrace and Forgive”.

The initiative is part of the programme of the Commission for Reconciliation in Memory of Victims of Political Conflicts, occurred between 1975 and 2002.

It will cover whole country, free of charge.

The Angolan authorities admit that the process will also cover the citizens killed in other political conflicts happened in the last 44 years.

However, the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, publicly presented on Wednesday (26) a public apology and forgiveness to the Nation, for the events of May 27, 1977, which led to summary execution of indeterminate number of Angolans.

On the occasion, the president announced that the Executive will, in the next few days, begin the process of locating the remains of the victims of the 27th of May, 1977, for their exhumation and delivery to their families.

The list of the remains (bones) to be located include the names of Alves Bernardo Baptista (Nito Alves), Jacob João Caetano ( Monstro Imortal), Ernesto Eduardo Gomes da Silva (Bakalof), Sita Maria Dias Valles (Sita Valles), José Jacinto da Silva Vieira Dias Van-Dúnem (Zé Van-Dúnem), António Urbano de Castro (Urbano de Castro), David Gabriel José Ferreira (David Zé).

It includes the names of Artur de Jesus Nunes (Artur Nunes), Pedro Fortunato, Arsenio José Lourenço Mesquita (Sianuk), António Lourenço Galiano da Silva, Domingos Ferreira de Barros (Sabata), as well as the ex-soldiers of the 9th Brigade , from the Female Detachment and then DISA.

This process also includes the delivery to the respective families of the bones of Jeremias Kalandula Chitunda, Elias Salupeto Pena and Adolosi Paulo Mango Alicerces, who were listed in combat in the post-election conflict of 1992, in Luanda.

The Head of State asked everyone to show sensitivity for those cases in which it is not possible to achieve this objective (location of remains).

Source: Angola Press News Agency

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ANGOLA GUEST OF HONOUR AT 8TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Lubango – Angola will attend the eighth edition of the International Film Festival “Arquiteturas Film Festival”, set for 1-6 June, in Lisbon, Portugal.

The country, which will participate in the event as guest of honour, is expected to present 11 cinematographic contents.

The activity will take place at São Jorge cinema and is an initiative that looks at the landscapes, projects, ideas and experiences of the world.

Emphasise will be place on Angolan content such as “Ar Condicionado”, “O Herói”, “Para Lá dos Meus Passos ”and“ Mulheres ”, announced the organisation of the event.

Speaking to Angop from Lisbon on Thursday, one of the Angolan representatives to the event, the actor Sílvio Nascimento, said that all the films to be shown were produced in Angola and by Angolans.

He considered an “honor for the country and for that peculiar moment of Angolan film”.

The six-day event will enable the Angolans to present 11 cinematographic works at the festival, ranging from documentaries, fiction films, animation and experimental works produced from 1975 to 2020

Source: Angola Press News Agency

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US to Make Intelligence on COVID-19 Origins Public

The United States will share the results of a new deep-dive by its top intelligence agencies into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed millions of people across the globe.

Before boarding Air Force One on Thursday for a visit to Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters he would make the findings of the 90-day review public, “unless there’s something I’m unaware of.”

Biden ordered the fresh review Wednesday amid?growing speculation?that?COVID-19?might have?leaked from a Chinese laboratory, with the White House promising to make additional resources available, including from the country’s national labs.

Top U.S. intelligence agencies said last year that their information supported “the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified” but that they would “continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence” to determine whether the outbreak began after the virus was transmitted to humans from animals in nature or as the result of a laboratory accident.

In a new statement Thursday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said U.S. intelligence agencies are still trying to answer the question surrounding its origin.

“The U.S. Intelligence Community does not know exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially but has coalesced around two likely scenarios: either it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals, or it was a laboratory accident,” said ODNI spokeswoman Amanda Schoch.

“The majority of elements within the IC do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other,” she added.

The statement confirmed Biden’s assertion that two of the three top intelligence agencies were leaning more towards one of the scenarios, but that all three had only “low or moderate confidence” in their assessments.

U.S. officials?have stressed for months that a lack of cooperation from the Chinese government hinders outside efforts to learn more about?the origins of the coronavirus that has killed?at least 3.4 million?people worldwide, including nearly 600,000 in the United States.??

In an interview with Fox News late Wednesday, the top U.S. military official repeated the criticism of China’s handling of the outbreak.

“Once this virus started appearing, there seems to have been a fair amount of activity or cover-up or lack of transparency, probably the best way to put it, and all of that is disturbing,” said General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ?”I think that the president is exactly right, we need to get to the bottom of it.”?

Some U.S. lawmakers are also expressing frustration with China.

“After 15 months we have zero evidence or proof that the #Covid19 pandemic began naturally from an animal to a human,” Marco Rubio, the lead Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, tweeted Thursday.

In a statement Wednesday, Adam Schiff, Democratic chairperson of the House Intelligence Committee, accused China of serving to “delay the vital work necessary to help the world better prepare itself before the next potential pandemic.”

The?Wall Street Journal?on Monday cited a U.S. intelligence report that researchers at a Wuhan, China,?lab fell ill in November 2019, a month?before?the Chinese government reported?to the World Health Organization the first cases of the illness that would be designated as COVID-19.??

“It is most likely that this is a virus that arose?naturally,?but we cannot exclude the possibility of some kind of a lab accident,”?Dr. Francis Collins, the National Institutes of Health director,?told?Senate lawmakers?at a hearing?on Wednesday.??

The?WHO, which is to conduct the second phase of an inquiry?into?the virus’s?origins, has faced mounting criticism for dismissing the possibility?that?the new coronavirus?escaped from?the Chinese?scientific facility,?a supposition that?officials in Beijing have repeatedly rejected.?

Two months ago, the organization concluded in a report?that?it was?”extremely unlikely”?that COVID-19 had?escaped from the Wuhan lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology.??

Collins told senators that?the?report?”satisfied nobody”?and?”this time we need a really expert-driven,?no-holds-barred?collection of information, which is how we’re mostly really going to find out what happened.”?

Source: Voice Of America