The World Health Organization (WHO) condemned a US-funded vaccine trial as unethical on Friday, citing concerns about withholding a potentially life-saving hepatitis B vaccine from newborns in Guinea-Bissau, Africa. The trial, which has drawn widespread criticism from health experts, is inconsistent with established ethical and scientific principles, according to the WHO.
The WHO's statement, released after the US funding was made public in December, provided a detailed list of reasons the trial was deemed harmful and of low quality, according to Ars Technica. The organization's conclusion was based on publicly available information.
In other international news, the European Commission adopted new measures on February 9th to prevent the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories, and footwear, as reported by Hacker News. These measures, part of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), aim to cut waste, reduce environmental damage, and create a level playing field for companies embracing sustainable business models. Each year in Europe, an estimated 4-9% of unsold textiles are destroyed before being worn, generating approximately 5.6 million tons of CO2 emissions, nearly equal to Sweden's total net emissions in 2021. The ESPR requires companies to disclose information on discarded unsold consumer products.
Meanwhile, in the Indian Ocean, U.S. military forces boarded a sanctioned oil tanker after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea, targeting illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon announced Sunday, according to Fortune. The U.S. has been enforcing sanctions on Venezuelan oil for several years, with the country relying on a "shadow fleet" of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December.
Also, Iran and the United States will hold a second round of talks over Tehran's nuclear program next week, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said Saturday, as reported by Fortune. The talks will be hosted in Geneva by Oman, which welcomed the first round of indirect talks on February 6th. After the first discussions, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran that failure to reach an agreement with his administration would be very traumatic. Similar talks last year broke down in June, and Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear program.
Finally, a top European Union official rejected the notion that Europe faces civilizational erasure, pushing back at criticism of the continent by the Trump administration, according to Fortune. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas addressed the Munich Security Conference a day after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a somewhat reassuring message to European allies. Kallas alluded to criticism in the U.S. national security strategy released in December.
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