FDA’s expert panel on vaccines will discuss US booster strategy in April
The Food and Drug Administration announced Monday that it would convene a meeting of its outside advisory panel on vaccines to discuss the U.S. COVID booster strategy April 6. The panel will not take up pending applications from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for emergency authorization of second booster shots, the agency said. Last week, Pfizer and BioNTech asked regulators to allow them to offer another dose to those 65 and over, and Moderna asked to offer another dose to all adults. Regulators may rule on those requests before the April meeting without asking for the committee’s advice, according to people familiar with the situation.
Myanmar’s military committed genocide against Rohingya: US
Against the backdrop of a war in Ukraine and atrocities in Ethiopia, the United States on Monday formally accused Myanmar of committing genocide against its minority Rohingya population. “The day will come when those responsible for these appalling acts will have to answer for them,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which is exhibiting evidence of decades of discrimination and abuse against Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar’s military. The violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state peaked in August 2017 with a campaign of mass rape, burnings and drownings against entire families that killed more than 9,000 people and forced nearly 1 million to flee the country.
SEC to require climate-change risk disclosures under new plan
Companies will need to reveal detailed information about their greenhouse gas pollution under a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plan, marking a major shift in how corporations must show they are dealing with climate change. For the first time ever, the agency plans to require businesses to outline the risks a warming planet poses to their operations when they file registration statements, annual reports or other documents. Some large companies will have to provide information on emissions they don’t make themselves, but come from other firms in their supply chain.
Creating space command, Australia strengthens high-tech bond with US
Two years after the United States inaugurated a military Space Force to mixed reviews, Australia has created its own Space Command to counter threats from China, Russia and other extraterrestrial powers. The new force will expand Australia’s space capabilities and contribute to “a larger, collective effort among like-minded countries to ensure a safe, stable and secure space domain,” according to prepared remarks to be delivered Tuesday by Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton. In a speech at a conference with several U.S. military officers in attendance, Dutton will also announce that Australia and the United States have agreed to partner on “a broad range of satellite activities.”
Russia bans Facebook, Instagram
A Moscow court banned Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook and Instagram in Russia Monday, in what was the first use of the country’s sweeping law on “extremism” against a foreign technology company. The presiding judge backed the prosecutor’s request to ban the social networks with immediate effect, ruling their activities “extremist,” according to the court’s official Telegram channel. The prosecutor had argued that Meta’s policies were directed against Russia and its army, state-run Tass reported. A lawyer for Meta said the Russian court didn’t have the authority to rule in the case.
By wire sources