EU agency examines reports of blood clots with J&J Covid vaccine

EMA says four serious cases reported, one fatal, and also expands inquiry into AstraZeneca vaccine

The EU’s drug regulator is reviewing reports of rare blood clots in four people who received Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine and has expanded its inquiry into AstraZeneca’s shot to include reports of a bleeding condition.

Of the four serious cases of clotting and low platelets, three occurred in the US during the rollout of J&J’s vaccine from its Janssen pharmaceuticals unit, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Friday, adding that one person had died and one case was reported in a clinical trial. It was the first news of EMA’s inquiry into the J&J vaccine.

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Amazon workers in Alabama vote against forming company’s first union

  • Workers at Bessemer warehouse reject joining RWDSU
  • Legal challenge looks inevitable due to many contested ballots

Amazon has won a victory in its hard-fought campaign to stop workers at an Alabama warehouse forming the company’s first union, in a tough blow for the US labor movement.

Workers at the Bessemer, Alabama, plant have voted 1,798 to 738 to reject the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Counting concluded on Friday morning, and attention will now focus on some 505 challenged ballots , but the margin of victory was too greatto change the outcome.

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Murder of Kremlin critic in London ‘was made to look like suicide’

Nikolai Glushkov was strangled by assailant who then wrapped dog lead around his neck, inquest told

The prominent Kremlin critic Nikolai Glushkov was strangled at his home in south-west London by an unknown assailant who wrapped a dog lead around his neck in a crude attempt to “simulate” the appearance of suicide, an inquest heard.

Glushkov’s body was discovered on 12 March 2018 at his suburban home in New Malden. His daughter Natalia Glushkova told the hearing that she and Glushkov’s partner, Denis Trushin, had called round that evening after growing concerned.

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France under pressure to admit responsibility for Mali airstrike

Paris has repeatedly dismissed UN report into attack that killed 19 wedding guests as not credible

France is facing growing calls to accept responsibility for an airstrike that killed 19 civilians at a wedding in a village in Mali in January, following the publication of a United Nations report into the attack.

The damning investigation by the UN released last month, its first into French military action, said the airstrike hit Bounti village on 3 January, killing 19 guests at the wedding and three militants.

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Norway prime minister fined after breaking Covid rules with birthday party

Erna Solberg breached ban on events attended by more than 10 people

Norway’s prime minister, Erna Solberg, has been fined 20,000 kroner (£1,713) after breaking coronavirus social-distancing rules when organising a family gathering to celebrate her birthday.

The matter came to light in a report by the public broadcaster NRK, which triggered a police investigation.

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Saint Vincent volcano shows signs of eruption being imminent – video

Seismologists have warned La Soufrière could erupt in a matter of hours or days and the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent has declared a red alert and issued an evacuation order.

Video posted on social media showed a plume of smoke towering above the volcano, which is the highest point in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Monitoring stations reported long earthquakes, which suggested that fresh magma was trying to reach the surface, and indicated that the volcano was moving to 'an explosive stage'

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Saudi Arabia jails alleged satirist ‘identified in Twitter infiltration’

Activist claims 2014 breach led to aid worker being sentenced to 20 years over parody account

A Saudi court’s decision to sentence an aid worker to 20 years in prison for allegedly using a satirical Twitter account to mock the Riyadh government has been linked to the infiltration of Twitter by Saudi agents in 2014, in a case that has drawn the attention of senior US officials.

Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, a 37-year-old aid worker with the Red Crescent, was sentenced by Saudi Arabia’s specialised criminal court, and given an additional 20-year travel ban, following allegations that he used a popular parody account to mock the Saudi government.

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Georgia corporations tried to interfere with our democracy. We didn’t let them | Nsé Ufot

When Coca-Cola and Delta backed bigoted lawmakers, we organized, rose up, used our voices to make change – and it worked

In the last general election, Georgians delivered our country from the hands of fascism by securing Democrats in the White House and the Senate. As payback for doing so, Republicans are waging an unholy war against voting rights in the state, pushing Jim Crow-style measures like SB 202 into law, which will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of Georgians to cast their ballots. This dangerous bill impacts specific communities the most: Black, brown, young, and new voters in Georgia.

Many voters don’t know that Republicans aren’t working alone to disenfranchise us. Their accomplices were some of the most powerful corporations in our state. In fact, Georgia-based companies like Delta, Coca-Cola and Home Depot previously bankrolled the backers of voter suppression bills to the tune of over $7.4m.

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‘I won’t allow myself to be broken’: Russia’s Eurovision candidate Manizha takes on ‘the haters’

The singer’s fight against domestic violence and homophobia and her body-positive posts on Instagram have led to a torrent of abuse – some from very powerful people

Russia’s 2021 Eurovision candidate breezes into a conference room, Channel One documentary film crew in tow, offering a simple tea of mint leaves brewed in hot water. “On days like today, I want something calming,” Manizha says, pouring two cups, as a boom mic hovers over us. No pressure.

The Tajikistan-born singer, who will perform her feminist ballad Russian Woman next month at the much-loved, much-mocked song contest in Rotterdam, is the target of a fiery conservative backlash for her foreign roots and her lyrics attacking female stereotypes.

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Coronavirus live: Malta offers tourists up to €200; EMA reviewing vaccines – as it happened

Island to pay visitors after tourism sector hammered by pandemic; EMA looking at reports of rare bleeding condition and four cases of rare blood clots in J&J jab

That’s it from the UK blog team. Thanks for following our coverage..

People who have had the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are seeking help at A&E in England despite having only mild side-effects such as headaches, in the wake of the controversy over whether the jab causes blood clots.

Related: A&E ‘swamped’ with patients seeking help for mild Covid jab side-effects

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The ‘forgotten’ people picking your Brazil nuts – for a fraction of the price

Rich profits from the prized nut have failed to benefit those finding them. Now cooperatives hope to shake up the system

On a steamy March morning, Edivan Kaxarari walks with a few other villagers in single file down a trail in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil’s Rondônia state, near the border with Bolivia.

His sister-in-law Cleiciana carries her 11-month-old son in one arm and a rifle in the other, and his brother Edson clears the path ahead with a machete. It is hunting season for the seeds of the Amazonian Brazil nut tree.

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Aid agencies can be harmful, says Somaliland tycoon

Ismail Ahmed, a refugee turned multimillionaire, says his country has had to battle ‘negative PR’

Aid agencies are hindering development and undermining efforts to attract investment in Somaliland, according to a former World Bank and UN official turned entrepreneur.

Ismail Ahmed, founder of the money-transfer company WorldRemit, claims Somaliland, his birthplace, has had to battle “negative PR” from aid agencies exaggerating their role to protect their interests. Somaliland declared itself a sovereign state independent of Somalia in 1991, but it is not recognised internationally.

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The rice of the sea: how a tiny grain could change the way humanity eats

Ángel León made his name serving innovative seafood. But then he discovered something in the seagrass that could transform our understanding of the sea itself – as a vast garden

Growing up in southern Spain, Ángel León paid little attention to the meadows of seagrass that fringed the turquoise waters near his home, their slender blades grazing him as he swam in the Bay of Cádiz.

It was only decades later – as he was fast becoming known as one of the country’s most innovative chefs – that he noticed something he had missed in previous encounters with Zostera marina: a clutch of tiny green grains clinging to the base of the eelgrass.

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Iran nuclear deal talks: the key issues on the Vienna negotiating table

As talks resume, Iran and the signatories to the 2015 agreement face a web of sanctions to untangle

A joint commission responsible for overseeing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is looking for a way for the US to rejoin the agreement – abandoned under Donald Trump – and lift its sanctions on Tehran, and for Iran to end its retaliatory breaching of the limits placed on its nuclear programme.

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‘My children were priceless jewels’: three families reflect on the health workers they lost

The parents and children of doctors and nurses who died from Covid tell of how grief has affected them

Dr Reza Chowdhury was a beloved internist with a private practice in the Bronx and a trusted voice in New York’s Bengali community. His daughter, Nikita Rahman, said despite underlying health issues that put him at higher risk of developing Covid complications, he saw patients through mid-March when he developed symptoms. He died on 9 April.

Nikita Rahman My therapist says grief is the final act of love. Every time I miss him, I think about how that is my love for him, showing up again. I like that framing of it. I think I only recently realized just how much I loved him.

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Man’s body was found after lying in Norway flat for nine years, say police

Oslo death sparks questions about role of technology in reducing physical contact in society

A man lay dead in his Oslo flat for nine years before being discovered by a caretaker in December, Norwegian police have said.

The man, who was in his 60s, had been married more than once and also had children, according to the state broadcaster NRK.

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New Zealand suspension of travel from India questioned amid fears of racist backlash

Community leader says: ‘We don’t feel like a part of the “team of 5 million” when Indians are singled out like this’

Community leaders have questioned the New Zealand government’s decision to temporarily close the border to people travelling from India, and say they fear the move could prompt racism and stigma.

“The question of ‘Why India?’ must be asked, and a clear answer should be given,” said Sunil Kaushal, president of the Waitakere Indian Association. He asked why the ruling applied only to India, when other nations including the United States, Brazil, France and the UK had also experienced soaring infection rates, especially when compared per-capita.

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UK recognition of EU’s vaccine effort would not go amiss, says Brussels

Europe could have fully vaccinated 70% of adults before UK reaches its target, says head of EU taskforce

The UK will be reliant on the EU to complete its vaccine rollout and a little recognition of that would not go amiss, the European commissioner leading Brussels’ vaccine taskforce has said – adding that Europe could have fully vaccinated 70% of adults before the UK reaches its own target of one dose for all over-18s by the end of July.

Thierry Breton also said AstraZeneca had agreed that almost all the Covid vaccine doses made in the Netherlands over which the UK has made a claim will stay in the EU.

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Italian PM calls Erdoğan ‘a dictator’ after Ursula von der Leyen chair snub

Diplomatic spat erupts as Mario Draghi accuses Turkish president of humiliating European commision president

A diplomatic spat has erupted between Turkey and Italy, after prime minister Mario Draghi accused president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of humiliating European commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and described him as a “dictator”.

Von der Leyen – the commission’s first female president – was left without a chair during a meeting on Tuesday with Erdoğan and the European council president Charles Michel met Erdoğan. The commission chief was clearly taken aback when the two men sat on the only two chairs prepared, relegating her to an adjacent sofa.

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‘Mrs World’ grabs crown from head of ‘Mrs Sri Lanka’ in on-stage fracas – video

Police have arrested the reigning “Mrs World” on charges of assault over an on-stage fracas in which she pulled the crown off the head of the new “Mrs Sri Lanka”. 

 Caroline Jurie yanked the crown off Pushpika de Silva minutes after she was declared “Mrs Sri Lanka 2020” during a gala in Colombo on April 4. Jurie declared that Pushpika de Silva was ineligible as the winner because she was divorced, and forcibly removed her crown. De Silva needed hospital treatment after the incident, seen by stunned spectators in a packed venue as well as a live social media audience. 

 To qualify for the title, contestants must be married. De Silva is estranged from her husband, but they are still legally married. The local franchise holder for the pageant, Chandimal Jayasinghe, said they were “deeply disturbed and sincerely regret” the behaviour of Jurie and the told the media the crown would be returned to De Silva 

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