FDA committee recommends Moderna’s shot for ages 6 to 17
A committee advising the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday unanimously recommended Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for use in children and adolescents ages 6 to 17, an important step before emergency authorization. The FDA will likely follow the panel’s advice in the coming days and grant authorization. To date, Moderna’s shots have been authorized only for adults. On Wednesday, the committee is scheduled to vote on a more pressing question: whether to recommend emergency authorization of both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for the nation’s youngest children, who are still not eligible for any coronavirus shots.
In a boost, McConnell backs Senate bipartisan gun deal
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has announced his support for his chamber’s emerging bipartisan gun agreement. The Kentucky Republican’s endorsement Tuesday boosted momentum for modest but notable election-year action by Congress on an issue that’s deadlocked lawmakers for three decades. An outline of the accord was released Sunday by 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans. Leaders hope it can be translated into legislation in days and voted on by Congress before lawmakers’ July 4 recess. McConnell’s backing was the latest indication that last month’s gun massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, had reconfigured the political calculations for some in the GOP.
Biden trip to Saudi Arabia is set, but energy help is not
President Joe Biden’s much-anticipated trip to Saudi Arabia has been formally set, the White House announced Tuesday, but officials played down the chances of securing much immediate help in stabilizing energy markets. Biden will make his first trip to the Middle East as president from July 13-16, stopping first in Israel and the West Bank before heading to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Biden and his staff have insisted in recent days that the decision to visit Saudi Arabia had more to do with security issues than the price of gasoline.
Russians control 80% of key Ukraine city, cut escape routes
A governor says Russian forces control about 80% of the key Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. The Luhansk regional leader says Russian forces have destroyed all three bridges out of the city but Ukrainians were still trying to evacuate the wounded despite relentless shelling. A Russian general says a humanitarian corridor will be opened Wednesday to evacuate civilians from the city’s Azot chemical plant. In other news on the war, a U.N. official said nearly two-thirds of the children in Ukraine have been uprooted during the war. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Romania to meet with French troops there on NATO’s eastern flank. And President Joe Biden spoke of building silos on Ukraine’s borders to help it export much-needed grain to the world.
NATO ministers to meet
As the war in Ukraine presents Europe with one of the greatest challenges to its security since the end of the Cold War, NATO defense ministers are set to meet, with Finland and Sweden’s applications for membership stalled over objections from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. At the same time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has issued increasingly desperate calls for more firepower to face down Russia, putting further pressure on NATO member states to deliver. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and the defense ministers will meet in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday.
China turns to mass testing
The routine is familiar to hundreds of millions of people as China makes lab tests for COVID-19 a permanent feature of daily life. In major cities across the country, even where there are no reported cases, residents are being required to present a negative PCR test to go shopping, ride the subway or bus, or participate in public activities. Officials hope the regular mass testing will help isolate cases in the community before they spiral into bigger outbreaks. But the policy can be expensive and time-consuming, undercutting the central government’s efforts to fire up the economy.
Cambodia sends US activist to prison
Theary Seng, a Cambodian American lawyer and human rights activist, was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday as part of Cambodia’s wide-ranging crackdown on opponents of the nation’s prime minister, Hun Sen. Theary Seng — a refugee who escaped Cambodia’s killing fields and who had returned from the United States to help build democracy — was convicted of conspiracy to commit treason, along with dozens of other critics and opposition politicians. All of them were victims of a concerted campaign by Hun Sen to eliminate the last traces of resistance to what has in effect become his one-man rule.