Friday, March 12, 2021

Daily News Brief

Biden sets May 1st target to make all adults eligible for Covid-19 shots, and Beeple sells digital artwork for nearly $70M NEWSREADER INTRO: This is TRT World’s Daily News Brief for Thursday, March 12th. *) Biden aims to make vaccine accessible to all adults by May 1 US President Joe Biden says that all adult Americans will be eligible to get a Covid-19 vaccine by May 1. Biden made the announcement as he signed into law a $1.9 trillion dollar relief package that he said will help defeat the virus. The US has been the worst-affected country by the pandemic with close to 30 million infections and more than 543,000 deaths. *) Myanmar junta kills more protesters, adds Suu Kyi accusation Anti-coup protesters are on the streets in Myanmar once again, despite deadly violence a day earlier where 12 protesters were reportedly shot dead by security forces. The Southeast Asian country has been roiled by protests since last month’s coup toppled elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government. The UN has warned the junta is likely committing "crimes against humanity" in its attempt to stay in power with more than 60 people killed in crackdowns. *) Denmark, Norway, Iceland halt AstraZeneca jab despite EU safety assurance Denmark, Norway and Iceland have temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine over concerns of blood clots in receiving patients. UK and EU drug regulators have said the blood clotting is unrelated to the vaccine and falls within normal population rates. As of March 9, 22 cases of blood clots were reported among over 3 million people vaccinated in the European Economic Area. *) Pakistan to block TikTok over indecency complaint Pakistan will block the popular social media app TikTok after a court order over a complaint that it runs indecent content. A TikTok representative in the country says strong safeguards were in place to keep inappropriate content off the platform. TikTok has been one of the most-downloaded apps in the South Asian nation after WhatsApp and Facebook. And finally… *) Artist Beeple sells digital artwork for nearly $70M A digital collage by American artist Beeple sells for a record $69.3 million dollars at Christie's auctioneers. The piece, titled “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days," is now the most expensive ever non-fungible token or NFT. The sale of the work put Beeple in the top three most valuable living artists, tweets Christie's.