GENEVA: The world is on the "brink of a catastrophic moral failure" if rich countries hog Covid-19 vaccine doses while the poorest suffer, the head of the WHO said Monday.World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus denounced the "me-first" attitude of wealthy nations and also blasted vaccine manufacturers for chasing regulatory approval in rich countries rather than submitting their data to the WHO to green-light vaccine use globally.He said the promise of worldwide equitable access to vaccines against the coronavirus pandemic was now at serious risk, in a speech in Geneva opening a WHO executive board meeting.Tedros said 39 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine had been administered so far in at least 49 higher income countries.Meanwhile, "just 25 doses have been given in one lowest income country. Not 25 million; not 25,000; just 25," he said."I need to be blunt. The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure -- and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world's poorest countries."He said even as some countries pronounced reassuring words on equitable access, they were prioritising their own deals with manufacturers, driving up prices and trying to jump the queue.He said
The videos and photos that emerged from the Capitol invasion looked like an alcohol-powered high school gang prank that spontaneously gathered momentum. The invaders are pictured walking around taking it in, many shooting videos and taking pictures of the grand success of their teenage disobedience. There was another dimension to the scene that seemed out of 1968 Haight-Ashbury – a little past its prime, but still robustly weird. The icon of this segment was the guy dressed up as a little bit of the Mighty Thor and little bit of Captain America, looking as if he had just come from an acid test that he had failed. A prophet of Q, apparently, an appointment that we must take on faith. He too struts about aimlessly, with no plan and no tactical command, giddy at his temporary success but with no purpose other than being there, apparently. Just like a high school prank gone disastrously wrong brings out the resolve of parents and schools to crack down on bad behavior, so too this trampling of our democracy’s capital has stirred revulsion among the great mass of Americans. I’ll give you an insurrection — a buffoonish and incompetent
There has never been a president of the United States who spoke of the soul as much as Joseph R. Biden. In dozens of campaign speeches, including his Gettysburg speech, when Biden spoke of being engaged in a “battle for the soul of the nation,” the idea of “battling for the soul” has been a preeminent theme. Likewise, in one of her first tweets after being named Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris tweeted out the phrase. Although the hyperbolic phrase of “battling for the soul” is a common one for a number of politicians on both sides of the aisle, Biden not only uses the phrase more than any of his predecessors — inserting the “battle for the soul of the nation” into everything from campaign speeches to the campaign website — but he has extended the idea of the battle to refer to the battle he is waging within his own soul. Indeed, in his inaugural speech on January 20, Biden spoke directly of his soul: “On this January day, my whole soul is in this: bringing America together.” Claiming that in order to “restore the soul and to secure the future of America,” we need unity, Biden’s lofty
