BBC- Sixteen people, including at least two children, have been killed in a rebel attack in Peru, the country’s defence minister has confirmed.
The far-left Shining Path guerrilla group says it was behind the attack.
It left pamphlets at the scene ordering people not to vote in the upcoming presidential election.
The Maoist rebel group lost much of its power after the arrest of its leader in 1992 but remnants are still active in Peru’s coca-producing region.
The government says the Shining Path has since turned into a criminal group engaged in drug trafficking.
What happened?
A local official said he had been alerted to an attack in the village of San Miguel del Ene on Sunday evening local time.
He said he found bodies strewn across the floor of two bars on opposite banks of a small river. He told local media that the bodies had bullet holes and that some of them, including those of two children, had been burned.
Initial reports spoke of 18 bodies, which was later revised down to 14. But Defence Minister Nuria Esparch said that following the arrival of the security forces at the site on Monday, she could confirm that 16 people had been killed.
Peru’s armed forces said that next to the bodies pamphlets signed by the Central Committee of the Militarised Communist Party of Peru – the official name of an offshoot of the Shining Path – had been found warning people not to vote in the upcoming presidential election on 6 June.
The pamphlets also said that the group would “clean” the area of “informants and traitors” and other “parasites”.
Moderna moves closer to offering vaccine to 12- to 17-year-olds
Moderna announced on Tuesday that studies had found that its COVID-19 vaccine was 100 percent effective at stopping infection in adolescents aged 12 to 17.
The company intends to submit its data for the age group to global regulators, including the FDA, in early June.
The studies included 3,732 participants aged 12 to 17 and no cases of COVID-19 were found in any vaccinated participants. “No significant safety concerns” were identified.
The vaccine was 93 percent effective after the first dose and 100 percent effective after the second.
“We are encouraged that mRNA-1273 was highly effective at preventing COVID-19 in adolescents,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. “It is particularly exciting to see that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine can prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
What this means: FDA’s emergency authorization for Moderna to be given to 12- to 17-year-olds would open up more opportunities for older students to get vaccinated before the next school year starts. The FDA has already granted emergency authorization for the Moderna vaccine to be given to those 18 and older and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be given to those 12 and older. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech received the emergency authorization for 12- to 15-year-olds about two weeks ago, after the FDA permitted it to be given to those 16 and older in December.
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Big Bucks Vaccine Lottereies Grow
States are increasingly turning to lotteries as a way to try to get hesitant people vaccinated against the coronavirus and boost lagging numbers.
New York and Maryland on Thursday announced that residents who get the COVID-19 vaccine will be eligible for prize money, with Oregon unveiling similar plans on Friday. All three states are following in the footsteps of Ohio, which launched a lottery-focused campaign earlier this month.
Health officials in the Buckeye State are already reporting some promising results: Vaccinations for people 16 and older increased 28 percent the weekend after the lottery announcement, compared to the previous weekend.
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), said vaccinations had been trending down before the lottery.
“Really the only thing that has changed was the availability of the Vax-a-Million incentive,” Tierney said.
Vaccinated residents in Ohio will be entered to win one of five $1 million prizes.
The approach is garnering interest in other parts of the country. About 10 other states have talked to DeWine or his staff about the lottery incentive, Tierney said.
The White House also gave its support to the idea on Friday.
“From the data we’ve seen, they appear to be working,” White House senior adviser for the COVID-19 response Andy Slavitt said during a press briefing.
“I think the reason they work is because the vast number of people who are not yet vaccinated are actually not opposed to getting vaccinated,” he added. “They’re just not prioritizing it very high. There are other things going on in their lives. Things that draw attention to it, like the lotteries in those states you mentioned, are, not surprisingly, very effective. And so we’re enthusiastic.”
Health officials are looking for new ways to spur people to get vaccinated, now that the most eager Americans have already received their shots. Nationally, vaccinations have fallen from over 3 million per day in April to about 1.8 million per day, according to Our World in Data.
Still, some experts cautioned that the lotteries are not a cure-all. While lotteries can prompt people who have not gotten around to getting a vaccine yet, they do not address underlying issues like concerns about safety or worries about taking time off work to get vaccinated.
“It doesn’t at all deal with the structural obstacles that might still be there,” said Micah Berman, associate professor of public health and law at The Ohio State University.
“It certainly creates a buzz. It just can’t be the only thing that the state does,” he added.
While there appears to be a short-term increase in vaccinations after the announcement, he noted, it is also unclear whether that will be sustained over the longer term.
“If someone is concerned about the safety of the vaccine, will a lottery push them over that tipping point such that they would get the vaccine? I think we’ll need to see,” said William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University. “My guess right.
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US achieves full vaccinations for half of adults
CDC data showed the U.S. reached a huge milestone with its COVID-19 vaccination effort on Tuesday, with half of the nation’s adults being considered fully vaccinated.
Fifty percent, or more than 129 million, of Americans 18 and older are considered fully vaccinated.
A person is considered fully vaccinated in the U.S. two weeks after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or two weeks after receiving the only dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
What’s next: President Biden’s next target is to ensure that 70 percent of adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine by the Fourth of July. Tuesday’s data shows 61.6 percent of adults, amounting to more than 158 million, have received at least one dose.
The U.S. is also nearing half of its total population having received at least one dose of the vaccine, as Tuesday’s data shows 49.5 percent of Americans have reached this point.
But vaccinations have slowed in recent weeks after the most eager recipients received their vaccines, prompting states to institute incentives, including lotteries, to encourage unvaccinated people to get their shots.
CDC identifies only 10,000 COVID-19 infections in fully vaccinated, but likely an undercount
More than 10,000 fully vaccinated people in the U.S. have experienced a “breakthrough” COVID-19 infection, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study.
According to the CDC, a total of 10,262 vaccine breakthrough infections had been reported from 46 U.S. states and territories as of April 30, out of the approximately 101 million people who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 at the time.
The agency noted, however, that the breakthrough number in the report is likely a substantial undercount.
State health departments voluntarily report vaccine breakthrough infections to the CDC, and people voluntarily report infections to states, so the data might not be complete or representative.
Many people with vaccine breakthrough infections, especially those who are asymptomatic or who experience mild illness, might not seek testing, CDC said.
Going forward, the CDC is limiting the monitoring of people who have been infected while vaccinated. The agency is only sequencing a limited number of the cases, which has drawn concern from scientists. CDC said only 5 percent of breakthrough cases were sequenced.
In addition, beginning May 1 the CDC shifted from monitoring all reported breakthroughs to only those that result in hospitalization or death. The agency said the narrowed focus means only the cases of “highest clinical and public health significance” get reported.
Why it matters: Tracking and sequencing help identify who might be more at risk, and whether certain variants can escape the vaccine’s neutralizing effects. Scientists have questioned the benefit of limiting surveillance, when casting a wider net would likely be more beneficial.
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Trump on Wuhan lab: Now everyone agrees ‘I was right’
Former President Trump on Tuesday took a victory lap for his assertion that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, and defended using the term “Chinese virus,” which has been criticized as racist and blamed in part for a spike in violence against Asian Americans.
“Now everybody is agreeing that I was right when I very early on called Wuhan as the source of COVID-19, sometimes referred to as the China Virus,” Trump said in a statement.
Top U.S. public health officials and experts are increasingly lending credibility to the need for a deeper investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, but so far there is no definitive proof the virus leaked from a lab.
Experts and officials have also noted that even if the virus escaped from a lab, that doesn’t mean it was manufactured in one.
Still, Trump says he’s vindicated.
“To me it was obvious from the beginning but I was badly criticized, as usual. Now they are all saying ‘He was right.’ Thank you!” Trump added.
Keeps using that term: The World Health Organization last February urged people to avoid terms like the “Wuhan virus” or the “Chinese virus,” fearing it could spike a backlash against Asians.
Trump never followed that advice though, and researchers have found his tweets led to an increase in anti-Asian backlash. Last week, he was sued by a civil rights group for calling COVID-19 the “China virus.”
Victorian health authorities are urging thousands of people who attended an AFL match at the MCG on Sunday to get tested and isolate as Melbourne's COVID-19 cluster grows to 16.
Anyone sitting in zone four, level one of the Great Southern Stand of the MCG on Sunday for the Collingwood and Port Adelaide game are considered immediate contacts with authorities rushing to contact everyone who could be affected.
The Port Adelaide team and staff who travelled for the match are also now quarantining in South Australia.
"In light of the positive case identified as having visited the MCG on Sunday, Port Adelaide players and staff members who were at the venue for the game against Collingwood will undergo COVID-19 tests today," a club statement released today read.
"The club is also encouraging any members and supporters who attended the match to get tested out of an abundance of caution.
"Wednesday had already been a scheduled day off for players and football department staff, who will await negative results before returning to training."
The game hosted more than 20,000 spectators and health officials are scouring CCTV to determine who was in close proximity to a positive case who attended the game.
How the infected person travelled to and from the match is still being investigated.
The AFL is also working with the Department of Health to contact ticket holders who may be affected.
Meanwhile a positive case has been confirmed to have attended the Essendon v North Melbourne AFL game at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.
Individuals sitting on Level 1 between Aisles 5 and 28 or Level 3 in between Aisles 6 and 29 must get tested and stay isolated until they have received a negative result.
The Department of Health is working with the AFL and Marvel Stadium to contact spectators.
Some people with closest contact to the positive case will be directly provided more specific advice from the Department of Health.
Anyone else at the stadium on Sunday who was not not in those areas will be advised to check for symptoms and get tested if any develop.
The second positive case at an AFL match comes after the league's 10 Victorian clubs were all put into lockdown for seven days in response to Melbourne's COVID-19 outbreak.
The AFL told its Victorian teams today it was taking extra steps to avoid any impact on the competition and upcoming fixtures.
Players, coaches and club staff will only be allowed to leave their homes for four reasons: shopping for food and supplies, care giving, exercise and work – including training and rehab.
All 10 teams are still able to train together as a full group, but clubs' meeting sizes have been significantly reduced.
Health Minister Martin Foley said MCG stadium managers and health authorities immediately got data of attendees and were able to undertake contact tracing to connect with people who attended on the night.
Mr Foley said at this stage, games would still go ahead at the MCG.
"AFL is going ahead with crowds, subject to changes and masks, but there has been great engagement between the league, stadiums and the public health team," Mr Foley said.
"This is subject to how we go over the next 24 hours. We have got a critical period in front of us, but right now, engagement between the AFL and public health – games with crowds will be subject to restrictions."
Mr Foley said capacity across Melbourne testing sites were gradually increasing to cater to high demand.
Four new testing sites have been established, with more staff put on at Epping's Northern Health in response to the "very high levels of demand" in the north.
There are more than 40 sites operating across Melbourne with extended operating hours.
"If everyone with symptoms comes forward to get tested, with everyone at links to a current exposure site known to us, with everyone following the health advice and with our public health detectives staying on top of the trend of transmission – we can run this to the ground," Mr Foley said.
The health department has identified 301 primary close contacts linked to the outbreak.
Several bars have also been recently added to the state's exposure site list, including the Three Monkeys and Somewhere Bar in Prahran and Circus Bar on Chapel Street in South Yarra.
Billionaire businessman Clive Palmer and former Government MP Craig Kelly could team up in a court stoush against Facebook.
Mr Palmer met the politician he describes as his "old mate" over lunch inside Parliament House's Members dining room to discuss potentially helping the former Liberal with legal costs.
The now cross-bench MP is considering federal court action against Facebook for removing his page.
Mr Palmer told Nine News, "I've offered to support him in his quest against Facebook, and I think that's an important thing because it goes to the national integrity of the country".
"Here we've got an American company telling an elected representative of parliament what views he can have and what views he can express. It doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree with that person's views. They should have the right independently to participate in the public system," he said.
A Facebook spokesperson did not comment on possible legal action but said, "We don't allow anyone, including elected officials, to share misinformation about COVID-19 that could lead to imminent physical harm or COVID-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts. We have clear policies against this type of content and have removed Mr Kelly's Facebook Page for repeated violations of this policy."
Craig Kelly quit the government and moved the cross-bench after being criticised by the Prime Minister for pushing alternative treatments for COVID-19 through his Facebook page. Mr Kelly has always denied he was spreading misinformation.
"We cannot have a situation in this country where a foreign company comes in and is able to shutdown the freedom of speech of a Member of Parliament," Mr Kelly said.
Mr Kelly has maintained he will run at the next election despite not having the finances of a major party behind him.
We have clear policies against this type of content and have removed Mr Kelly's Facebook Page for repeated violations of this policy
Asked if he would finance Mr Kelly's campaign, the billionaire told Nine News, "I'd have to be loyal to my party members at that time. I'd have to support the United Australia Party for that seat."
And asked if that candidate could be Craig Kelly, Mr Palmer said he had not had talks "at this stage" about Mr Kelly joining the United Australia Party, and said the door was "open to all Australians … to stand up for a united country where we don't go to parliament and talk rubbish all day."
The 67-year-old did confirm he would not run again, "time to go out to pasture", he said.
Craig Kelly said he would run to be the member for Hughes as an independent.
A major Queensland shopping centre has apologised after telling a Gold Coast mother she couldn't breastfeed her three-week-old son in a high-end area of the centre.
Mother of two Shannon Laverty claims she was nursing her newborn at Pacific Fair Broadbeach before being told by a concierge three times she should go to feeding "facilities" rather than feed in public.
"She came over right in my face abruptly and said, 'There's actually facilities for your information," Ms Laverty told ABC Coast FM.
"This is our high-end part of Pacific Fair; if you're not going to use the facility, I'm going to ask you to move on," the concierge allegedly added.
Ms Laverty's experience has divided social media, ranging from opinions supporting the mother of two to chastising anyone who "has a problem with" being asked to move on.
Kath Angus from the Australian Breastfeeding Association said the incident shows that more education needs to be done around breastfeeding.
"It's a really disappointing reaction – I think you see a lot more breasts in some of the advertisements at average bus stops than you do when a mum is breastfeeding her baby at a shopping centre," Ms Angus told 9News.
Pacific Fair has since apologised to Ms Laverty, with the altercation and order being called a "misunderstanding", vowing to re-educate its staff.
"We're really sorry we caused her any offence," Centre General Manager Shaine Beveridge told 9News.
"Breastfeeding mums are welcome to feed whenever and wherever they want within the centre."
The Centre has also revealed it is in negotiations with Ms Laverty, offering her six months of the centre valet to help make amends.
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The Manhattan district attorney has convened a grand jury that is expected to weigh any criminal evidence against former President Trump, the Trump Organization and top executives of his company and decide whether to issue indictments, according to The Washington Post.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s office has reportedly been investigating an array of potential financial misconduct, including criminal fraud.
News of the grand jury is the latest sign of a quickening investigative pace for Vance’s probe, which is unfolding alongside an overlapping inquiry by the New York attorney general, whose offices are now coordinating efforts.
Representatives for Trump and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for Vance’s office declined to comment when asked by The Hill, and New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The grand jury is expected to hear several legal matters in addition to potential evidence of questionable financial activity linked to the former president and the Trump Organization, according to the Washington Post, which said the panel will gather three days a week for six months.
Among the millions of pages of documents in evidence are eight years’ worth of Trump’s tax returns, which Vance’s office obtained in February after a long legal battle.
One theory is that the company inflated the value of assets to get more favorable terms for bank loans, insurance and tax breaks, and deflated their value to reduce the amount owed in real estate taxes.
Investigators are also looking into possible tax fraud related to Seven Springs estate, a New York property in the Trump Organization’s portfolio, as well as hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star who says she had an affair with Trump, which he denies.
Another angle prosecutors are reportedly pursuing is whether Trump’s business gave employees benefits instead of higher salaries as a way to lower the company’s payroll tax burden.
Among the alleged recipients are Trump’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and his family members, who reportedly received heavily discounted or free access to Trump-owned apartments in Manhattan.
Prosecutors reportedly aim to “flip” Weisselberg, meaning gain his cooperation as a witness against the former president and his company. As a top Trump executive for four decades, Weisselberg is thought to be a potentially key source of information for investigators.
An attorney for Weisselberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Senate has voted to confirm Kristen Clarke as the new head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division in a tight 51-48 vote, with Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) the only Republican to cross party lines and vote for her.
Clarke will be the first Black woman to lead the influential wing of the Justice Department and will serve as assistant attorney general for civil rights.
The civil rights division’s tasks include investigating local law enforcement agencies and taking on state voting restrictions around the country.
The confirmation was held on the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted in April.
Republicans opposed Clarke’s nomination, painting her as anti-police and radical, while Democrats dismissed such arguments as smear tactics.
The nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee was deadlocked at 11-11, but that does not prevent Clarke’s nomination from going to the floor.
Clarke during her confirmation hearing in April said she did not support “defunding the police.”
“I do support finding strategies to ensure that law enforcement can carry out their jobs more safely and effectively, and channeling resources to emotional health treatment and other severely under-resourced areas, I think, is one path forward,” she said at the time.
Until being nominated for the senior Justice Department position, Clarke was the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
In that role, she was a staunch advocate for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would revise the formula that drove the federal preclearance present in the original Voting Rights Act.
The Supreme Court in 2013 ruled the formula outdated and therefore unconstitutional, though Chief Justice John Roberts gave Congress the green light to update the formula.
The battle over Clarke’s nomination echoed the fight over Vanita Gupta’s confirmation battle for the No. 3 slot at Justice.
Gupta was confirmed in a 51-49 vote, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) the only GOP crossover vote.
Gupta and Clarke both had the backing of law enforcement groups, even as conservative lawmakers sought to paint them as anti-police.
