WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was considering strikes targeting Venezuelan cartels on land, after a series of deadly strikes at sea against alleged drug-carrying boats.
“We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, when asked if he was weighing strikes on land.
But Trump declined to confirm a New York Times report that he had secretly authorized the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela against the administration of President Nicolas Maduro.
Asked if he had given the CIA authority to “take out” Maduro, Trump replied: “That’s a ridiculous question for me to be given. Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn’t it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?”
Trump said on Tuesday that another strike on boats allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela had killed six “narcoterrorists.”
At least 27 people have been killed so far in such attacks. Experts question the legality of using lethal force in foreign or international waters against suspects who have not been intercepted or questioned.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has said he believes some of those killed were Colombian.
Trump considering strikes on land against Venezuela cartels
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Trump considering strikes on land against Venezuela cartels
- US has recently laucnhed strikes at sea against alleged drug-carrying boats
EU regulator backs approval for Moderna’s combined COVID and flu vaccine
- Currently people need two separate shots to protect them against COVID-19 and influenza
- Moderna is banking on the COVID-flu combination shot
BRUSSELS: Europe’s medicines regulator recommended approval for Moderna’s COVID and flu combination vaccine on Friday, putting it on track to become the first single shot to protect people aged 50 and older against both illnesses.
Currently people need two separate shots to protect them against COVID-19 and influenza and the vaccines are updated regularly to match the viral strains in circulation.
Moderna is banking on the COVID-flu combination shot and also an mRNA-based flu shot to help it return to revenue growth as demand for COVID vaccines has collapsed in the years after the pandemic.
It hopes international markets will drive revenue growth this year, as anti-vaccine activist US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has disrupted the domestic market.
MODERNA SHARES HAVE PLUNGED FROM 2021 HIGHS
Shares of the biotech, which were flat in US premarket hours on Friday, have declined by nearly 90 percent from 2021 highs.
Last year, Moderna withdrew its US application for its COVID-flu combination shot to wait for efficacy data from a late-stage trial of its influenza vaccine.
Earlier this month, the company said it was waiting for guidance from the Food and Drug Administration on refiling the application.
US regulators initially refused to review a separate mRNA-based flu vaccine from the company, then reversed course a week later after Moderna amended its application.
EMA’s recommendation on Friday was based on data from a study of 8,000 participants that showed those who received mCombriax generated more antibodies than those who received separate shots against the viruses.
The study compared mCombriax with a combination of Moderna’s COVID-19 shot Spikevax and traditional flu shots from GSK and Sanofi.
EMA also considered data from a study of a similar mRNA flu vaccine, in which mCombriax triggered an adequate immune response. The shot contains messenger RNA with instructions for making proteins found on some strains of the influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2.
EMA’s recommendation will be reviewed by the European Commission, which will give the final sign off for marketing in the European Union. It was not clear how long that decision would take.
