COVID VACCINE: MODERNA SEEKS APPROVAL IN US AND EUROPE

Moderna Inc plans to request clearance for its coronavirus vaccine in the

United States and Europe on Monday, after a new analysis showed the vaccine

was highly effective in preventing Covid-19, with no serious safety

problems.

The primary analysis, which included 196 cases, found the vaccine was 94.1

per cent effective, in line with preliminary findings released earlier this

month. None of the participants in the trial who'd received the vaccine

developed severe Covid-19. All 30 severe cases observed in the study

occurred in participants who received placebo shots, according to a company

statement. The shares extended their gains to as much as 13 per cent before

US markets opened, hitting a record of $142.85. They have risen more than

sixfold since the year began.

Moderna said it plans to apply on Monday for an emergency-use authorisation

for the vaccine in the US and for conditional marketing authorisation in

Europe. Advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration will likely

scrutinize the data at a public meeting on December 17, the company said,

one week after a similar review of Pfizer's vaccine is expected to take

place.

"We have been working nonstop in the last few weeks" to get the vaccine data

ready to submit to regulators, Stephane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive

officer, said in an interview.

Once authorities sign off, the company will move quickly to distribute the

shots, part of a vast vaccination effort that will unfold as hospitals in

the US strain under a surge in infections.

"We are ready today to ship the vaccine," Bancel said. "We have millions of

doses ready, we have more and more every couple days."

WOMEN SET TO ROCK IN WHITE HOUSE

After powering the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket to the White House,

American women in all their diversity are heading towards a fair share of

executive office 100 years after they won the right to vote in the US. In a

striking recognition of their capability, merit, and majority support for

the Democratic Party, President-elect Biden on Sunday rolled out an

all-female team to head the White House communications office - a first, and

is expected to nominate Indian-American Neera Tanden as the budget director

in a finance team that will also be dominated by women.

He is also expected to name Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton University economist,

as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, with economists Jared

Bernstein and Heather Boushey serving as the other members. Along with

former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, who was picked as treasury

secretary last week, they will constitute a troika of women who will call

the shots on monetary and budgetary matters, areas long dominated by men.

Separately, Biden named a seven-women, all-female White House press team

that will be led by Kate Bedingfield, his campaign communications director

who will serve as the White House communications director. Jen Psaki, a

longtime Democratic spokeswoman, will be his press secretary. Senior advisor

to the Biden-Harris campaign Symone Sanders will be vice-president-elect

Kamala Harris' chief spokeswoman and Harris's communications director will

be Ashley Etienne, a senior adviser to Biden's campaign who served as a

communications director to Nancy Pelosi.

What is striking about the teams is not just the gender aspect but also the

diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, and background. While Tanden will be

only the third woman to be nominated to head the Office of Management and

Budget (she would need to be confirmed by the Senate), she is the first

Indian-American, or any minority woman to be named for the position. Cecilia

Rouse, who is African American, would be the first woman of color to chair

the Council of Economic Advisers. Yellen will be the first female treasury

secretary in the country's history going back to Alexander Hamilton in 1789.

In the White House comm team, Karine Jean-Pierre and Pili Tobar, both

lesbian, are of Haitian and Guatemalan origin respectively. Women voted

57-42 for the Biden-Harris ticket.

TOP SECRET: BIDEN GETS ACCESS TO PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris began

receiving the nation's most sensitive secrets Monday as they prepare to

assume office on Jan. 20.

The pair got their eyes on the highly classified President's Daily Brief.

It's a summary of the most important U.S. intelligence and world events

prepared and delivered by the Office of the Director of National

Intelligence.

Outgoing President Donald Trump gave Biden permission to see the PDB last

Tuesday, a day after his administration approved the formal transition

process.

IRAN OFFICIAL ALLEGES ISRAEL 'REMOTELY KILLED' SCIENTIST

A top Iranian security official Monday accused Israel of using "electronic

devices" to remotely kill a scientist who founded the Islamic Republic's

military nuclear program in the 2000s.

Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the country's Supreme National Security

Council, made the assertion at the funeral of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi,

where Iran's defense minister separately vowed to continue the slain

scientist's work "with more speed and more power."

Shamkhani's remarks drastically change Iran's account of Fakhrizadeh's

killing Friday. Authorities initially said that a truck exploded and gunmen

then opened fire on the scientist, killing him. Iranian state television

even interviewed a man on the night of the attack who described seeing

gunmen open fire.

Israel, long suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the last

decade, has declined to comment on the attack.

Just after Fakhrizadeh's burial Monday, state television's English-language

Press TV said that a weapon recovered from the scene of the attack bore "the

logo and specifications of the Israeli military industry." The

Arabic-language channel, Al-Alam, said that the weapons used were

"controlled by satellite," an assertion also made Sunday by the

semi-official Fars news agency.

None of the outlets immediately offered evidence supporting their claims.

MARYAM DARES IMRAN TO QUESTION ISI OFFICIALS OVER PHONE TAPPING

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz said on

Monday that "puppet" Prime Minister Imran Khan should have "some courage" to

question the country's top spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as

why it is tapping his telephone calls.

Her remarks came in response to Prime Minister Khan's recent disclosure that

he was aware that the agencies tap his phone calls. "This puppet and

selected premier Imran even does not have the courage to ask the ISI as why

it is taping his calls. He should tell the ISI that it is not the work of

the institution that comes under the prime minister," said Maryam, the

daughter of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Khan in a recent interview to a local TV channel had said: "The ISI and the

IB (Intelligence Bureau) know whatever I do and with whom I talk to on

telephone."

When asked if he had no issue with the agencies tapping his phone, Khan

said: "It happens all over the world. Even the CIA does the same in the US."

The prime minister was of the view that the agencies do such things as they

are responsible for providing security to the heads. "The ISI knows as to

whom I will be calling and why I am calling. The ISI also knows as to who

has taken money out of the country," he said. Khan said the Pakistan Army

knows everything about him.

WHO SAYS 'WILL DO EVERYTHING' TO DISCOVER ORIGIN OF COVID-19

The World Health Organization (WHO) insisted on Monday it would do

everything possible to find the animal origins of Covid-19, insisting that

knowledge was vital to preventing future outbreaks.

"We want to know the origin and we will do everything to know the origin,"

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

He insisted the UN health agency was intent on getting to the bottom of the

mystery, and urged critics who have accused it of handing the reins of the

probe to China to stop "politicising" the issue.

"WHO's position is very, very clear. We need to know the origin of this

virus, because it can help us prevent future outbreaks," Mr. Tedros said.

The United States, which with more than 262,000 deaths is the country

hardest hit by the pandemic, has been harshly critical of the WHO's handling

of the crisis and has accused it of kowtowing to China and of dragging its

feet on investigating how the outbreak first started.

Other critics have also voiced concern that the agency may have allowed

China to dictate the terms of an international investigation into the

origins of the virus, which first surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan late

last year.

Last week, the WHO's emergencies chief Michael Ryan said the agency was

hoping to send the international team to Wuhan "as soon as possible".

Mr. Tedros meanwhile rejected on Monday criticism over lacking transparency

on the probe, stressing that the names of the experts on the team and the

terms of reference had been made public.

"There is nothing to hide. We want to know the origin. I don't want to have

any confusion on that."

CHINA LAUDS NEPAL'S PURSUIT OF 'ONE-CHINA' POLICY

China's Defence Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe has lauded Nepal's leadership for

resolutely pursuing the 'one-China' policy and offered firm support to the

Himalayan country in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and

territorial integrity, the Defence Ministry said in Beijing on Monday.

Mr. Wei, who is also a State Councillor, met Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma

Oli and exchanged views on matters of mutual interest and held talks with

Army chief Gen. Purna Chandra Thapa on ways to resume military cooperation

and training impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic during his one-day visit to

Nepal on Sunday.

According to a Chinese Defence Ministry statement, Mr. Wei told the Nepalese

leaders that China highly appreciates Nepal for resolutely pursuing the

'one-China' policy, and also firmly supports Nepal to safeguard its national

independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Under the 'one-China' policy, Beijing emphasises other countries to

recognise Taiwan and Tibet as part of China, it said.

SCOTT ATLAS RESIGNS AS SPECIAL ADVISER TO TRUMP ON CORONAVIRUS

Dr. Scott Atlas has resigned as special adviser to President Donald Trump, a

White House official said on December 30, after a controversial four months

during which he clashed repeatedly with other members of the coronavirus

task force.

"I am writing to resign from my position as special adviser to the president

of the United States," Mr. Atlas said in a letter to Mr. Trump dated

December 1 that he posted on Twitter.

Public health experts, including Anthony Fauci, the leading U.S. infectious

disease expert, have sharply criticized Mr. Atlas, a neuroradiologist, for

providing Trump with misleading or incorrect information on the virus

pandemic.

In his letter, Mr. Atlas listed what he considered accomplishments in

reopening schools and expanding virus testing while also defending himself

against his many critics.