Discovery of Omicron Neutralizing Antibodies Could Lead to Effective Treatments for COVID-19 Variants

By HospiMedica International staff writers Posted on 29 Dec 2021

Illustration

An international team of scientists have identified antibodies that neutralize Omicron and other SARS-CoV-2 variants, raising hopes of the findings leading to the development of more effective vaccines and antibody treatments for COVID-19 variants.

In a research project supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Chevy Chase, MD, USA), researchers identified the antibodies which target areas of the virus spike protein that remain essentially unchanged as the viruses mutate. By identifying the targets of these “broadly neutralizing” antibodies on the spike protein, it might be possible to design vaccines and antibody treatments that will be effective against not only the Omicron variant but other variants that may emerge in the future.

The Omicron variant has 37 mutations in the spike protein, which it uses to latch onto and invade cells. This is an unusually high number of mutations. It is thought that these changes explain in part why the variant has been able to spread so rapidly, to infect people who have been vaccinated and to re-infect those who have previously been infected. The researchers speculate that Omicron's large number of mutations might have accumulated during a prolonged infection in someone with a weakened immune system or by the virus jumping from humans to an animal species and back again.

To assess the effect of these mutations, the researchers engineered a disabled, non-replicating virus, called a pseudovirus, to produce spike proteins on its surface, as coronaviruses do. They then created pseudoviruses that had spike proteins with the Omicron mutations and those found on the earliest variants identified in the pandemic. The researchers first looked to see how well the different versions of the spike protein were able to bind to protein on the surface of cells that the virus uses to latch onto and enter the cell. This protein is called the angiotensin converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) receptor. They found the Omicron variant spike protein was able to bind 2.4 times better than spike protein found in the virus isolated at the very beginning of the pandemic.

The researchers then looked at how well antibodies against earlier isolates of the virus protected against the Omicron variant. They did this by using antibodies from patients who had previously been infected with earlier versions of the virus, vaccinated against earlier strains of the virus, or had been infected and then vaccinated. They found that antibodies from people who had been infected by earlier strains and from those who had received one of the six most-used vaccines currently available all had reduced ability to block infection. Antibodies from people who had previously been infected and those who had received the Sputnik V or Sinopharm vaccines as well as a single dose of Johnson & Johnson had little or no ability to block – or “neutralize” – the Omicron variant's entry into cells. Antibodies from people who had received two doses of the Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and AstraZeneca vaccines retained some neutralizing activity, albeit reduced by 20- to 40-fold, much more than any other variants.

Antibodies from people who had been infected, recovered, and then had two doses of vaccine also had reduced activity, but the reduction was less, about fivefold, clearly demonstrating that vaccination after infection is useful. Antibodies from people, in this case a group of renal dialysis patients, who had received a booster with a third dose of the mRNA vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech showed only a 4-fold reduction in neutralizing activity. All but one antibody treatments currently authorized or approved to be used with patients exposed to the virus, had no or had markedly reduced activity against Omicron in the laboratory. The exception was an antibody called sotrovimab, which had a two- to three-fold reduction of neutralizing activity, the study found.

But when they tested a larger panel of antibodies that have been generated against earlier versions of the virus, the researchers identified four classes of antibodies that retained their ability to neutralize Omicron. Members of each of these classes target one of four specific areas of the spike protein present in not only SARS-CoV-2 variants but also a group of related coronaviruses, called sarbecoviruses. These sites on the protein may persist because they play an essential function that the protein would lose if they mutated. Such areas are called “conserved.” The finding that antibodies are able to neutralize via recognition of conserved areas in so many different variants of the virus suggests that designing vaccines and antibody treatments that target these regions could be effective against a broad spectrum of variants that emerge through mutation.

“This finding tells us that by focusing on antibodies that target these highly conserved sites on the spike protein, there is a way to overcome the virus’ continual evolution,” said David Veesler, investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

Related Links: Daily clinical news - Hospimedica.com

Everyone will get Covid more than once during their lives, scientist says

JIMMY NSUBUGA

29 December 2021

Shoppers pass a Covid vaccination centre in Solihull town centre. (PA)

A scientist has said every person will likely catch Covid more than once during their lifetime.

Professor Francois Balloux, a geneticist from University College London (UCL), warned although vaccines perform well against severe disease, hospitalisation and death, the jabs were “meh” against stopping infections.

He added this meant most people would likely catch coronavirus soon and then again at least once.

But the professor was criticised for having “no empathy” after making the remarks on Twitter on Monday.

Prof Balloux wrote: “This is not an easy message to convey, even to those who have already accepted that zero-covid was toast.

"Essentially everyone will eventually get infected by SARS-CoV-2 in the near future, and likely more than once in their lifetime."

He said measures like wearing masks would prolong the pandemic by delaying some getting infected.

Prof Balloux added: "Vaccine protection against infection is meh, though protection against severe symptoms, hospitalisation and death remains stellar (~20x), including against Omicron."

He said the virus would become endemic, continuing: “I believe it is time to give in soon.

“Vaccine protection rates are as high as they may ever be in many places, and now we've got a couple of decent drugs.

“Pretending we remain in control, of sorts, is just becoming too costly.”

Dr Simon Ashworth, head of speciality and consultant intensive care medicine at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, criticised Prof Balloux for his comments.

He replied: “If you lie down on the tracks and wait the train to run you over, then it will run you over. So get up.

“Balloux has been consistently wrong about the pandemic… he sounds plausible but seems to have zero real understanding and no empathy.”

Prof Balloux later clarified he was not calling for restrictions to be lifted right now but suggested we continue controlling Covid case numbers over the coming months with proactive and reactive measures to ensure a smooth transition into the endemic.

Professor Francois Balloux said vaccines were “meh” against stopping infections. (Getty)

Earlier this month, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the country was going through a “bumpy transition” from the coronavirus pandemic to it becoming endemic after the Omicron variant emerged.

He said: “What we are on is a road from pandemic to endemic, where this becomes a more regular infection like flu or something over time.”

Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs Covid variants would continue to develop for “many years”.

He said: “There are going to be variants of Covid, as he says, for many years and indeed there have been many hundreds of variants, and there is no country in the world that is better on the surveillance of those variants.”

Professor Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), previously said repeated vaccinations could be offered “for years to come” to keep Covid at bay.

He told Sky News: “In the longer term, Covid is likely to become endemic and we probably are going to have to manage it with repeated vaccination campaigns for years to come.”

Omicron likely to be dominant strain globally in 2022: Experts

"It was 'futile' to try and predict when the pandemic will end"

 By PTI Updated: December 24, 2021

(File) A Covid-19 ward being prepared to admit Omicron patients | PTI

The new and highly transmissible Omicron variant of the deadly coronavirus has increased immune escape compared with the Delta variant and appears likely to become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 strain globally in 2022, according to Singapore-based experts.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for the world to pull together to end the COVID-19 pandemic next year.

"2022 must be the year we end the pandemic," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva on Monday.

But Singapore-based experts said much depends on how potent the Omicron variant is and asserted that it was “futile” to try and predict when the pandemic will end.

“It appears likely that Omicron will become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 strain globally in 2022,” Public health expert Associate Professor Natasha Howard said, adding that the Omicron variant is more transmissible and has “increased immune escape” compared with the Delta strain.

The rise of the more transmissible variant, increased case numbers and hospitalisations are likely, said Howard, the interdisciplinary health policy and systems researcher from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health in Singapore.

“The implications of this are still unclear, but it shows that the pandemic is not controlled yet and until initial and booster COVID-19 vaccine doses are accessible to everyone eligible globally, we can expect new variants to emerge,” she warned.

For the Singapore population, it is clear that two COVID-19 vaccine doses are not enough to provide reasonable protection against Omicron and people should get booster shots as soon as they are eligible, she said.

Citing Imperial College modelling data, she said that the risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant is more than five times higher and it does not appear milder than the Delta variant.

Omicron will likely be the cause of a “significant wave” of COVID-19, said Associate Professor Ashley St John from the Duke-NUS Medical School’s Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme. "But while the Omicron variant is more transmissible than most we have seen, it is still SARS-CoV-2," she said.

“The genetic backbone of Omicron is very, very different … However, we don’t yet have consistent data whether those genetic differences result in increased severity,” the professor explained.

Public health experts are thus monitoring the data on severity for Omicron and are waiting for more concrete numbers to bolster the initial assessment that vaccines are efficacious against it, she said.

Dr Lim Wee Kiat, associate director at the Singapore Management University’s Centre for Management Practice, said it was “futile” to try and predict when the pandemic will end.

After all, the 1918 flu pandemic never really ended, according to the US CDC (Centre of Disease Control and Prevention), descendants of the influenza virus from more than a century ago still circulate today, Lim Wee said.

“The path to normalcy is going to be punctuated by twists and dead ends, even reversals, as we have seen here in Singapore and elsewhere,” the Channel quoted Dr Lim, a disaster sociologist by training, as saying.

And while Omicron may further delay the roll-out of the Singapore government’s COVID-19 endemic roadmap, the city state’s experience in managing the pandemic over the past two years is a plus.

“Our experience in managing the pandemic over the past two years means that we are unlikely to revert to a ‘circuit-breaker’ type situation, which will only serve as a last resort given Singapore’s endemic goal, especially since most of the population has been vaccinated,” said Nydia Ngiow, Singapore managing director of strategic advisory firm Bowyer Group Asia.

Meanwhile, Singapore reported 322 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, of which 89 are imported or those who arrived here. There are also two fatalities, taking the country's death toll from coronavirus complications to 820 deaths.

As of Thursday, Singapore has recorded 277,042 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.

Editorial:
Western leaders’ tributes to anti-apartheid
veteran Desmond Tutu drip with hypocrisy

Desmond Tutu with Nelson Mandela

AS WITH the death of Nelson Mandela eight years ago, Desmond Tutu’s passing has prompted tributes from world leaders who stand for everything he spent a lifetime struggling against.

The South African archbishop was famed for his struggle against apartheid. Since this racist political system was brought down in 1994, US and British politicians have sought to identify themselves with the struggle against it, a matter of shared “democratic” values.

Boris Johnson, who has praised Tutu’s “critical role” in the anti-apartheid struggle, has even in the past sought to identify the fight against apartheid with the cold war against communism, linking its eventual defeat to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

This is a perverse inversion of reality given the truth — that Britain and the United States were the armers and funders of the apartheid regime, while communists were at the heart of the fight against it, from the leading role of the South African Communist Party (of which Mandela was at one point a member) within the country, to the international solidarity shown by Cuba (which sent troops to rout the South African army at Cuito Cuanavale in Angola), the Soviet Union (which supplied weapons and training to Umkhonto we Sizwe, the African National Congress’s military wing, for three decades) and Western communists such as the London Recruits.

The rewriting of history matters — because burying the revolutionary nature of the anti-apartheid struggle is aimed not just at whitewashing the criminal record of Western support for apartheid but at disguising parallels with today’s injustices and suppressing awkward questions about today’s rulers.

It is to Tutu’s immense credit that in his case this will be difficult. He did not rest on his laurels or use his celebrity status to cosy up to power but remained a trenchant critic of Western imperialism to the end.

Most famously this took the form of his condemnation of the modern system of apartheid imposed by Israel on the Palestinian people. Tutu was not afraid to state that Israel’s systematic racism — the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian neighbourhoods, the Jewish-only roads — was directly comparable to the experiences of black South Africans.

He was an explicit supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, noting the role of such tactics in raising international pressure on apartheid South Africa.

A British government that seeks to suppress solidarity with Palestine in our universities, which is reportedly looking at an “absolute ban” on BDS “within a year or two,” wallows in hypocrisy when it claims to honour Tutu’s “spiritual leadership.”

So does Labour leader Keir Starmer, who praises Tutu for “standing with the oppressed” while condemning the BDS movement and presiding over a party which brands protesters against Israel’s racist ambassador to Britain, Tzipi Hotovely, anti-semites.

Nor was Palestine the only issue on which Tutu was capable of embarrassing Western leaders.

This “turbulent priest” called for Tony Blair and George W Bush to be tried at The Hague for war crimes over the illegal and unprovoked invasion of Iraq, declining to appear at a Johannesburg leadership summit when he learned Blair would be a fellow speaker.

He savaged the US programme of targeted drone assassinations that reached its height under Barack Obama (who called him a “friend and mentor”) as evidence that Washington believed foreigners’ lives “are not of the same value as yours.”

Few of the tributes to Tutu we will hear this week will mention this. Like others before him he will be sanitised for capitalism, a hero of a struggle safely confined to the history books.

Our responsibility as socialists is to learn from the real Desmond Tutu and the real history of the anti-apartheid struggle — to reinforce our own fight against racism, imperialism and war in the here and now.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/

 

Taliban Fire Warning Shots On Afghan Female Protesters

 December 29, 2021  

 VOA

By Ayaz Gul

Witnesses say Taliban security forces in Afghanistan fired warning shots Tuesday to disperse a group of female activists in Kabul protesting restrictions placed on women in the country.

The women marched through the streets of the Afghan capital toward the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which enforces Islamic law as interpreted by the Taliban. Protesters held banners reading, “We are tired of discrimination” along with, “We are the voice of hungry people.”

Other banners read, “We women wake up and hate discrimination,” and “Why have you closed schools?” Protesters demanded work, food and education.

The protest comes two days after the ministry issued travel curbs on women across Afghanistan, further curtailing their rights. The new rules limit a woman’s ability to travel farther than 72 kilometers unless accompanied by a close male relative. They also require taxi drivers to offer rides only to women wearing an Islamic hijab or a headscarf and to refrain from playing music in their vehicles.

The government has allowed schoolboys to return to classes but girls across many Afghan provinces are still waiting for permission to do so and most women have been prevented from returning to work.

Last month, the Taliban’s ministry ordered Afghan channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring actresses, and female news anchors to wear hijabs while on the air.

The ultraconservative group regained power in August and named an all-male interim Cabinet to govern the conflict-torn country in line with the group’s strict interpretation of Islam, despite pledging not to bring back the harsh polices of their previous regime from 1996 to 2001.

When the Taliban were last in power, girls were not allowed to attend school and women were barred from work as well as education. The then-Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or the morals police, had been accused of serious human rights abuses, leading to Afghanistan’s isolation from the world.

The United States and the global community at large have not recognized the new Taliban government. They are refusing to open direct political engagement with the Islamist group until it ensures respect for human rights, especially those of women, runs the country inclusively and cuts ties with transnational terrorists.

The lack of government legitimacy has hampered the flow of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, where years of war, drought and poverty have left nearly 23 million people with acute food shortages and in need of urgent relief.

Afghan women protest against new limitations imposed by Taliban

NEWS AGENCIES| Updated on: 29 December 2021


Several dozen Afghan women on Tuesday protested against the new directives of the Taliban putting limitations on their movement.

In recent days the Islamic Emirate Ministry of Virtue and Vice issued a new directive on women's travel, saying the women who are travelling long distances by road should be accompanied by a male relative, and they should wear a hijab, to cover their head and face.

The directive also banned playing music in the vehicles, reported Tolo News.

"Our forces told drivers and people to not play and listen to music, music is not allowed in the Islamic religion," said Mawlawi Mohammad Sadeq Akef, a spokesman of the Ministry of Virtue and Vice.

Women protestors said that the Islamic Emirate is keeping women away from society by imposing limitations and called for their rights to education, employment and social freedom to be honoured, reported Tolo News.

They used the slogans "we are the voice of hungry people" and "we are awake, we hate discrimination."

"How can we find a relative to go outside in urgent moments? They said 'we are not responsible for your food,' so pay our salaries and we can eat, we are not the women of two decades ago, we will not be silent," said Wida, a protestor, reported Tolo News.

The Islamic Emirate should not remove women from society, they said. "We gathered to raise voices against restrictions imposed on women; our schools are closed, they took away working opportunities, now they ordered us not to go out of our homes alone, they are talking about the rights described by Islam. Does Islam order that a nation should be hungry, does Islam say to forbid girls from education?" said Shayesta, a protestor.

The protestors called on the international community to not ignore Afghan women, reported Tolo News.

"We are half of the society, we are human, we have the right to education and to work, I ask the international community to not recognize this government," said Zahra, a protestor.

The protest of Afghan women did not last a long time and the Islamic Emirate's forces fired into the air to disperse the protesters.

Meanwhile, the Taliban officials said that women can have rights based on Islamic regulations.

"The Islamic Emirate supreme leader, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, issued a decree on women which covers all (aspects of) women's lives," said Bilal Karimi, Deputy spokesman of Islamic Emirate.

(ANI)

Also Read: Taliban torturing former Afghan govt employee goes viral, sparks sharp reaction
First published: 29 December 2021, 11:05 IST

Corporate Media Ignore US Sanctions Driving Starvation Threat in Afghanistan

With no mention of what was causing the crisis, or what kind of help was actually needed, Pannell's report had the effect of painting the US as a benevolent actor that just wasn't doing quite enough to address a largely inevitable situation.

This picture taken on November 22, 2021 shows women waiting for staff members from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to check their children for signs of malnutrition, at a camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of Herat. The UN's children's agency UNICEF estimates that some 3.2 million Afghan children under the age of five will suffer from malnutrition this winter. (Photo: by Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

JULIE HOLLAR

December 27, 2021

 by Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)


As the United States withdrew militarily from Afghanistan in August, US TV news interest in the plight of the country's citizens spiked, often focusing on "the horror awaiting women and girls" (CNN Situation Room, 8/16/21) to argue against withdrawal (FAIR.org, 8/23/21).

Four months later, as those same citizens have been plunged into a humanitarian crisis due in no small part to US sanctions, where is the outrage?

UN News (10/25/21) quoted the head of the World Food Programme: "Afghanistan is now among the world's worst humanitarian crises—if not the worst—and food security has all but collapsed."

Experts warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in the wake of the US withdrawal (IRC, 8/20/21). In recent months, the messages have become more urgent. A UN report (10/25/21) warned that "combined shocks of drought, conflict, Covid-19 and an economic crisis in Afghanistan have left more than half the population facing a record level of acute hunger." One million children are so malnourished they are at risk of dying in the coming months (IRC, 12/3/21).

Decades of conflict, invasion and occupation left Afghanistan with a highly precarious economy. In 2019, well before withdrawal, a record 50% of Afghans reported finding it "very difficult" to get by on their household income (Gallup, 9/23/21). While drought and the Covid-19 pandemic have contributed to the current humanitarian crisis, it is largely driven by the imploding economy. The entire banking system is collapsing, with government employees going unpaid, and citizens unable to access their money or receive funds from relatives abroad.

As many have pointed out, the Taliban shoulder some blame, having banned women from most paid jobs outside of teaching and healthcare, costing the economy up to 5% of its GDP (UNDP, 12/1/21). But a much bigger driver of the crisis has been the US-led sanctions on the Taliban. The US occupation left Afghanistan dependent on aid for 40% of its GDP and 80% of its budget. After withdrawal, the US froze some $9 billion of the country's central bank reserves, and US and UN sanctions cut off the central bank from the international banking system and drastically limited the aid flowing into the country (UNDP, 12/2/21).

Despite pleas from around the globe, even, most recently, from former US military commanders in Afghanistan and dozens of members of Congress (Washington Post, 12/20/21), the Biden administration has made only slight tweaks to its policies, which are ostensibly meant to punish and provide leverage over the Taliban, but, like other supposedly targeted sanctions, have the effect of putting millions of civilian lives in peril.
Vanishing interest

Since November 1, well into the worsening crisis, FAIR identified only 37 TV news segments from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and MSNBC that mentioned "humanitarian" in the same sentence as Afghanistan. That's 37 segments in seven weeks.

For perspective, as the US withdrew in August, journalists from those shows mentioned "women's rights" in the same sentence as Afghanistan more often—42 times—in just seven days. Today, as those women and girls face starvation, the deeply concerned TV reporters are virtually nowhere to be seen.

Even when reports did mention the crisis, they rarely highlighted the US role. Of the 37 mentions, FAIR was able to find only four that named sanctions as a factor.

MSNBC twice (11/23/21, 12/16/21) brought on spokespeople from the International Rescue Committee to discuss the crisis, and CBS did so once (12/12/21); all three of these guests named the role sanctions play in Afghanistan's economic collapse.

"One Million Children at Risk of Dying of Starvation" was the secondary point of ABC's report (12/15/21); the main focus of the story was "Taliban Authority Being Challenged by ISIS Terrorists."

ABC World News Tonight's Ian Pannell (12/15/21), in a report from Afghanistan, made the only other mention of sanctions, in a vague and brief reference that named no names: "A mix of sanctions and drought has brought the country to the brink of catastrophe." After showing an emaciated two-year-old and telling the child's mother, "You must feel very hopeless, very helpless," Pannell wrapped up his report by noting:


$280 million in emergency aid has been OKed by the United States and others, but it's likely not enough. It won't reach hungry mouths until the end of the year. And the situation right now in Afghanistan seems as bad as I can remember it in 20 years of reporting here.

With no mention of what was causing the crisis, or what kind of help was actually needed, Pannell's report had the effect of painting the US as a benevolent actor that just wasn't doing quite enough to address a largely inevitable situation. The segment and its top-of-the-show preview were the only two mentions FAIR's study found of Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis on ABC during the study period.

More often, the crisis was covered with a brief soundbite that emphasized women's rights over the broader humanitarian crisis, as on CNN Newsroom (11/28/21):


A group of female Afghan students graduated from a private university in Kandahar on Saturday. They were forced to wear veils, due to a rule imposed by the Taliban. Before the Taliban takeover, an estimated 100,000 girls were attending universities. The graduates fear finding jobs might be difficult, because of both the Taliban rule and the country's worsening humanitarian crisis.

Finding jobs is also difficult when a powerful enemy has frozen the funds of your nation's central bank—but that's not the kind of problem US corporate media is likely to dwell on.
© 2021 Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)

JULIE HOLLAR  is FAIR’s senior analyst and managing editor. Julie has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Brits will have to pay for entry to the EU from 2022: Bloc to demand cash and pre-approval as post-Brexit trips to Europe are no longer for free

BY:MICHIEL WILLEMS


Brits will have to start paying €7 per person and pre-register their details in order to enter the European Union from next year.

Reports had surfaced in various European media in recent weeks that access to all Schengen EU countries would come at a cost from 2022, and when approached by City A.M. this morning, a spokesperson for the European Commission in Brussels confirmed all British travellers will have to pay a €7 visa fee.

The so-called European Travel and Information and Authorisation Scheme (ETIAS) enables citizens of 61 non-EU countries to visit the EU Schengen area with travel pre-authorisation, rather than a full visa.

The European Commission confirmed that, from late 2022, the UK will be part of ETIAS, meaning that Brits will have to pre-register their details before any trip, as well as pay the €7 levy.

Once the pre-authorisation has been approved, British passport holders will be allowed to stay in Europe up to 90 days.

The European Commission confirmed the payment and pre-registration will apply for any trips to all Schengen area states, plus the non-Schengen micro-states of Andorra and Monaco.

This means the ETIAS requirements will be in place for any trip to Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, San Marino, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Greece, Czech Republic, Malta, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland Vatican City.

UK Foreign Secretary takes over Brexit talks with EU as chief negotiator Frost resigns


20 December 2021


British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed foreign minister Liz Tuss to lead talks with Europe after the resignation of the Brexit minister David Frost sent shockwaves through the already troubled London administration.

In a statement released by Downing Street on Sunday, "Foreign Secretary Truss will take on the EU negotiating brief -- including the knotty issue of Northern Ireland's relationship with Brussels -- with immediate effect."

The reshuffle came a day after David Frost, a trusted ally of the prime minister and former Brexit negotiator, brought forward his resignation in a letter to the prime minister late Saturday.


Frost's move came after The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported that he had handed in his resignation a week ago, but had agreed to wait until January before leaving his post.

In his resignation letter, Frost told Johnson he had "concerns about the current direction of travel" regarding coronavirus regulations and tax rises.

Johnson is already reeling from a rebellion by 100 of his MPs in a parliamentary vote over coronavirus restrictions and the stunning loss of a 23,000-majority seat in a recent by-election.

That was partly blamed on a slew of reports that his staff and aides had held parties last Christmas despite virus restrictions in place at the time.
Running out of time

The by-election loss for Johnson's Conservatives intensified speculation of a leadership challenge.

Frost recently came second in a poll of most popular ministers held by ConservativeHome, an influential blog read by the grassroot Tories who could end up deciding Johnson's replacement.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Sky News on Sunday that Frost was "an outstanding public servant", adding: "I do understand his reasons, he's a principled man, you know, principled people do resign from the government."

The deputy leader of the main opposition Labour party Angela Rayner said the resignation demonstrated "a government in total chaos".

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen warned Johnson was "running out of time and out of friends to deliver on the promises and discipline of a true Conservative government.

In his resignation letter Frost told Johnson: "I hope we will move as fast as possible to where we need to get to: a lightly regulated, low-tax, entrepreneurial economy.

"We also need to learn to live with Covid and I know that is your instinct too," he added, in apparent reference to the new measures introduced by the government last week.

"I hope we can get back on track soon and not be tempted by the kind of coercive measures we have seen elsewhere," he added.

The series of crises engulfing Johnson have seen him garner increasingly negative coverage in Britain's right-wing press, normally favourable to his leadership and his party.

56-year-old Frost was appointed as Johnson's so-called EU "sherpa" shortly after the British leader took office in July 2019

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
Man reveals fugitive secret in ‘deathbed confession’

BY JOHN SEEWER AND JENNIFER MCDERMOTT

29 December 2021,

In this photo provided by Bob Van Wert, Tom Randele, whose real name according to authorities is Ted Conrad, tends to golf clubs, in September 2012, in Ayer, Mass. Conrad, a former Ohio bank teller-turned-thief, lived for decades under a different name in suburban Boston. Conrad died in May 2021. (Bob Van Wert via AP)

(AP) - For more than 50 years, a man in the US kept a secret that not even his family knew until just before his death – he was a fugitive wanted over a bank robbery.

Just before Thomas Randele died, his wife of nearly 40 years asked his golfing friends and his co-workers from the dealerships where he sold cars to come to their home.

They gathered to say goodbye to a man they called one of the nicest people they had ever known – a devoted family man who gushed about his daughter, a golfer who never bent the rules, a friend to so many that a line stretched outside the funeral home a week later.

By the time of their final visit last May at Randele’s house in suburban Boston, the cancer in his lungs had taken away his voice.

So they all left without knowing that their friend who they had spent countless hours swapping stories with never told them his biggest secret of all.

For the past 50 years, he was a fugitive wanted over one of the largest bank robberies in Cleveland’s history, living in Boston under a new name he created six months after the heist in the summer of 1969.

Photos, a driver's license, the original warrant and other items from a 1969 robbery involving Ted Conrad are shown on Dec. 16, 2021 at the Carl B. Stokes U.S. Courthouse in Cleveland. After more than 50 years, Elliott announced that they had closed the case on one the city's biggest bank robberies. Conrad pulled off the 1969 robbery and had been living in Boston under a new name until his death last May, Elliott said. The U.S. Marshals Service is now piecing together how he managed to create new life while evading authorities. His stunned friends in Boston say he was a devoted family man and one of the nicest and most honorable people they'd ever known. (AP Photo/Ken Blaze)

Not even his wife or daughter knew until he told them in what authorities described as a deathbed confession.

How he was able to leave behind one family and create a new life – while evading a father and son from the US Marshals Service who never gave up their hunt – is just now being pieced together.

Ted Conrad quickly worked out that security was fairly loose at the Society National Bank in Cleveland after he started as a teller in January 1969.

He told his friends it would be easy to rob the place, said Russell Metcalf, his best friend from high school.

A day after his 20th birthday that July, Conrad walked out with 215,000 dollars from the vault, a haul worth 1.6 million dollars (£1.2 million) today.

By the time the missing money was noticed, Conrad was flying across the country.

U.S. Marshal Peter J. Elliott poses for a photo on Dec. 16, 2021 at the Carl B. Stokes U.S. Courthouse in Cleveland with items related to a 1969 bank robbery. After more than 50 years, Elliott announced that they had closed the case on one the city's biggest bank robberies. Ted Conrad pulled off the 1969 robbery and had been living in Boston under a new name until his death last May, Elliott said. The U.S. Marshals Service is now piecing together how he managed to create new life while evading authorities. His stunned friends in Boston say he was a devoted family man and one of the nicest and most honorable people they'd ever known. (AP Photo/Ken Blaze)More

In a letter sent to his girlfriend, he mistakenly thought he could return when the statute of limitations expired.

But once he was indicted, that was no longer true.

Conrad apparently cut off contact with his family.

Some eventually presumed he was dead, said Matt Boettger, whose mother was Conrad’s older sister.

His mother, he said, was relieved to find out her brother had lived a happy life.

“She thought she would go to her grave and never know,” he said.

The bank heist in 1969 did not capture the attention of the nation, or even of Cleveland.

Everyone else was focused on Apollo 11’s historic flight to the moon.

But for John Elliott, a deputy US marshal, it was personal because he and Conrad came from the same side of town.

In this photo provided by Bob Van Wert, Tom Randele, whose real name according to authorities is Ted Conrad, stands for a photograph at an entrance to the 2018 U.S. Open Golf Tournament at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, in Southampton, N.Y. According to authorities, Conrad, a former Ohio bank teller-turned-thief, lived for decades under a different name in suburban Boston. Conrad died in May 2021. (Photo/Bob Van Wert via AP)

The problem was Conrad had a head start and was disciplined enough not to make missteps.

Mr Elliott travelled across the US looking for Conrad and even after retiring would check on the case, said his son Pete Elliott, now the top US marshal in Cleveland, who inherited the hunt for Conrad nearly 20 years ago.

His father died in March 2020 before investigators pieced together details from Randele’s obituary and signatures from his past.

Then in November, Randele’s family confirmed that just before he died, he told them what he had done, Mr Elliott said.

Why Conrad committed the robbery has been analysed endlessly.

“It wasn’t about the money. He always wanted to impress people,” said Mr Metcalf.

Investigators believe he was inspired by the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, about a bank executive who got away with 2.6 million dollars and turned the heist into a game.

After the real-life robbery in Cleveland, Conrad wound up in the Boston area, where much of the movie was filmed.

Thomas Randele came into existence in January 1970 when Conrad applied for a social security number in Boston, Mr Elliott said.

Photos, a driver's license, a death notice and other items from a 1969 robbery involving Ted Conrad are shown on Dec. 16, 2021 at the Carl B. Stokes U.S. Courthouse in Cleveland. After more than 50 years, Elliott announced that they had closed the case on one the city's biggest bank robberies. Conrad pulled off the 1969 robbery and had been living in Boston under a new name until his death last May, Elliott said. The U.S. Marshals Service is now piecing together how he managed to create new life while evading authorities. His stunned friends in Boston say he was a devoted family man and one of the nicest and most honorable people they'd ever known. (AP Photo/Ken Blaze)

During the 1970s, Randele worked at a country club outside Boston and became its manager.

He also met his future wife not long after arriving in Boston.

They were married in 1982.

Around then, he began working in the car business, selling Land Rovers and Volvos until he retired after nearly 40 years.

What is not clear yet is what happened to the money.

The Marshals Service is looking into whether he lost it early through bad investments.

While Randele and his wife Kathy lived most of their years in a pleasant Boston suburb, they filed for bankruptcy protection in 2014.

She told Cleveland.com in November that her husband was a great man.

She has declined interview requests.

U.S. Marshal Peter J. Elliott holds the birth certificate and a copy of the driver's license of Ted Conrad on Dec. 16, 2021 at the Carl B. Stokes U.S. Courthouse in Cleveland. After more than 50 years, Elliott announced that they had closed the case on one the city's biggest bank robberies. Conrad pulled off the 1969 robbery and had been living in Boston under a new name until his death last May, Elliott said. The U.S. Marshals Service is now piecing together how he managed to create new life while evading authorities. His stunned friends in Boston say he was a devoted family man and one of the nicest and most honorable people they'd ever known. (AP Photo/Ken Blaze)

No-one would have guessed that Randele, who was 71 when he died, was someone trying to hide from authorities.

Among the many people he became friends with over the years was an FBI agent in Boston, Mr Elliott said.

“He was just a gentle soul, you know, very polite, very well spoken,” said Jerry Healy, who first met Randele at a Woburn, Massachusetts, dealership where they talked daily for years.

Matt Kaplan, who managed two dealerships where Randele worked and golfed with him for many years, called him a gentleman.

“The only way it makes sense is that at that age he was just a kid, and it was a challenge kind of thing,” Mr Kaplan said.

“If he would have told us way back when, I don’t think we would have believed him because he wasn’t that kind of guy,” he said.

“The man was different than the kid.”

In the early days after Randele’s identity was revealed, his friends could not believe it.

But now looking back, some things make sense. How he always had a beard. His reluctance to talk about where he grew up or his extended family.

“You know all the years I knew Tommy, I never heard him mention a sister or a mother or a brother or a father,” Mr Healy said.

“You could never pry anything from him,” said Brad Anthony, another close friend.

Still, he said it is almost impossible to believe.

“It just seems so out of character for the Tom I knew,” he said.

Fish brought back from extinction with help from zoo

ELEANOR BARLOW, PA

29 December 2021, 6:01 am


A fish which became extinct in Mexico has been reintroduced to the wild with the help of conservationists from a UK zoo.

The tequila fish, which grows no longer than 70 millimetres, disappeared completely from the wild in 2003 following the introduction of invasive, exotic fish species and water pollution.

But more than 1,500 of the fish have now been returned to the Teuchitlan River, in the state of Jalisco in south-west Mexico, thanks to conservationists from Chester Zoo and the Michoacana University of Mexico.

Professor Omar Dominguez, from the university, said: “The tequila splitfin has, for many years, been used by scientists to study the evolution, biogeography and live bearing reproduction techniques of fishes and is a very important species.

“We could not stand back and allow it to disappear.

“Successfully reinstating this fish in the wild also offers a wider positive impact. Not only has the fish itself been saved, but the environment it lives in has been restored.

“The springs are now healthy and the community that lives around them can now enjoy this beautiful place again, along with all of the benefits that a healthy freshwater habitat brings.

“Meanwhile, local people, particularly schoolchildren, are fully embracing an ongoing education programme, which is changing the way that many act towards the freshwater environment that surrounds them – something that’s absolutely vital if we’re to ensure long-term change.”

The project started in 1998 when the university received five pairs of the fish from Chester Zoo and founded a new colony in a laboratory.

Experts maintained and expanded the fish population for the next 15 years, until 40 pairs were released into artificial ponds at the university.

After four years there were an estimated 10,000 fish in the semi-natural environment and the colony became the source for reintroduction into the wild.

Dr Gerardo Garcia, Chester Zoo’s curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates, said: “It is a real privilege to have helped save this charismatic little fish and it just goes to show that with the skill and expertise of conservationists, and with local communities fully invested in a reintroduction project, species can make a comeback from environments where they were once lost.

“This is also a great example of how good zoos can play a pivotal role in species conservation.

Conservationists from Michoacana University of Mexico return the tequila fish to the wild (Chester Zoo/PA)

“Not only has Chester Zoo been involved technically and financially, the breeders, which became the founding population for the reintroduction of the tequila splitfin, originated at Chester Zoo.

“Without the zoo population keeping the species alive for many years, this fish would have been lost forever.

“It’s humbling to think that a small population, being cared for by aquarists in Chester, has now led to their revival in the wild.”

Experts say the wild population of fish is now thriving and the project has been cited as an International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) case study for successful global reintroductions.

It is hoped to lead to future reintroductions of other highly endangered fish species.

Dr Garcia added: “With nature declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history – and the rate of extinction accelerating – this is a rare success story.

“We now have a blueprint for what works in terms of recovering these delicate fish species in Mexico and already we’re on to the next one – a new rescue mission for the golden skiffia is already well under way.”

UK

Pension funds ‘must help create a world people want to retire in’

AUGUST GRAHAM, PA CITY REPORTER

29 December 2021




Pension funds are starting to think they have a duty to look after their members in old age, not just give them a big pot of money, the head of pension investments at one of the UK’s biggest funds has said.

Scottish Widows’ Maria Nazarova-Doyle said there is little point giving someone a massive payout when they turn 65 if they need to spend it on mitigating the effects of climate change.

Traditionally, pension funds simply focused on getting the highest returns for the lowest levels of risk, she told the PA news agency.

But today “more and more pension schemes are starting to understand that pensions don’t exist in isolation”, she said.

“If you have a large pension pot, but you have to spend it on hazmat suits and flood-proofing your property in retirement – then what’s the point of a large pension pot?”

The world needs to be a “place people want to retire in,” she said.

The UK has set a target of slashing its emissions to net zero by the middle of the century and pension funds will have to step up to be part of the effort.

Earlier this year, the All Party Parliamentary Group on local authority pension funds said pension funds should engage companies on how to transition to net zero in a fair way.

“Funds should ensure that collaborative engagements on climate change include a just transition as a central theme for discussion,” the paper read.

Experts believe that by unlocking the UK’s pension funds and putting them towards the net zero transition, it can rapidly encourage companies to change their practices.

There is some evidence this is already happening. Following shareholder pressure, not least from pension funds, oil giants Shell and BP have set out plans to get to net zero by 2050 in the last couple of years.

The power can also lie with the individual. By choosing where to invest their pensions, savers can have a major impact.

One study by Swedish bank Nordea found that moving pension savings into sustainable funds can be much more effective than normal carbon-cutting measures.

Switching your pension is 27 times more effective than shortening your showers by two minutes, taking one less international flight per year, ditching your car and taking the train and only eating one piece of meat a week.

Ms Nazarova-Doyle said there are two ways that the funds can work towards slashing emissions: “On the one hand it’s about finance flows: Where do you invest the money, what do you actually support and what do you not support.

“But also it’s about stewardship. So, once you have those investments you have voting rights, and you can engage with companies, you can use your shareholder power to engender real change.”

UK
Go-Ahead exploits ‘Great Resignation’ to hire 1,000 apprentices in 2021

AUGUST GRAHAM, PA CITY REPORTER

29 December 2021



One of the UK’s largest transport companies, Go-Ahead Group, has said that more than 600 apprentices joined up to become bus drivers in London over the last year.

The sign-up is part of a UK-wide recruitment drive which saw 1,030 apprentices join the bus and rail company which jointly runs Govia Thameslink, among other routes.

“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved this year at Go-Ahead – we’ve adapted to the pandemic and are stronger than ever,” said the company’s head of apprenticeships, Susanna Dillon.

“We’re committed to recruiting apprentices and bringing in people with fresh ideas and viewpoints to shake up the transport sector.”

Go-Ahead said that amid a spike in people switching careers during the pandemic, a former legal secretary and a former teaching assistant, both over 55 years old, have joined as apprentices.

“In a time dubbed the Great Resignation, the group hopes that other career switchers will consider a career in bus and rail for 2022,” it said.

The business said that it had hired overwhelmingly from ethnic minorities for Go-Ahead London, which operates more red buses in the capital than any other firm.

It said that 82% of its apprentices fell under the catch-all term Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME), while 18% were women.

It said: “For its commitment to diversity, Go-Ahead was highly commended for Recruitment Excellence at the Government-accredited National Apprenticeship Awards earlier this month.

“The group also won the regional London awards for Macro Employer of the Year and Recruitment Excellence.”

The apprenticeships take between one and three years, and comes with training equivalent to maths and English GCSEs.

Kenney asks Albertans to reconsider New Year's plans and to not 'look for loopholes'

    

   LEAVE THAT TO UCP


Tue., December 28, 2021


CALGARY — Alberta Premier Jason Kenney asked people to reconsider their New Year's plans and not "look for loopholes" as the province recorded more than 8,000 COVID-19 cases over a five-day period.

Kenney asked people to keep gatherings small and not congregate with more than nine other adults, and get vaccinated.

Chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, says the province's new COVID-19 cases ranged between 2,500 on Christmas Day and 750 on Boxing Day.

She says province recorded 8,250 cases between Dec. 23 and 28, but adds that the numbers are preliminary and the number of completed tests varied considerably from day-to-day.

She says hospitalizations remain "relatively stable" but notes it's still too soon to know if Omicron will stress the health system.

Hinshaw says the number of new deaths wouldn't be available until Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 28, 2021.

The Canadian Press