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The US is buying a further 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to donate to other countries, bringing its total commitment to over a billion jabs, President Joe Biden has announced.

“To beat the pandemic here, we need to beat it everywhere,” Mr Biden said. “For every one shot we’ve administered to date in America, we have now committed to do three shots to the rest of the world.”

The purchase of a further 500 million shots from Pfizer brings the total US vaccination commitment to more than 1.1 billion doses through 2022.

U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield participate in a virtual coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Summit
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President Biden and US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield participate in the virtual coronavirus summit

Speaking during a four-hour virtual summit at the White House, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Mr Biden urged other world leaders to do more to combat the pandemic globally.

“We need other high income countries to deliver on their own ambitious vaccine donations and pledges,” he said.

He backed up his words with plans to donate $370m to help administer vaccines globally, and another $380m will be used to assist the Global Vaccine Alliance to further distribute jabs to regions with the greatest need.

He called on wealthy countries to commit to donating, rather than selling the shots to poorer nations, and to provide them “with no political strings attached”.

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To this end, he also announced the launch of an EU-US COVID vaccine partnership to allow closer collaboration.

The US and EU are calling for wealthy nations to double their donation commitments or make “meaningful contributions to vaccine readiness”, according to a joint statement.

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US donates another $500m worth of vaccines

The EU Commission followed Mr Biden’s lead and announced that the bloc would donate 500 million doses “in addition to the doses we have financed through COVAX” – the UN-backed program to share doses internationally.

The event was attended by leaders from Canada, Indonesia, South Africa and Britain, among others, as well as World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who called the pandemic an “all hands on deck crisis”.

The US has already shipped 160 million doses to more than 100 other nations – more donations than the rest of the world combined.

However, global health experts say the commitment is far short of the five to six billion doses needed to reach a goal of vaccinating 70% of the world’s population by next September.

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PM shakes hands with minister who now has COVID

More than 5.9 billion COVID-19 doses have been administered globally over the past year, representing about 43% of the global population.

But there are vast disparities in distribution, with many lower-income nations struggling to vaccinate even the most vulnerable share of their populations, and some yet to exceed 2% to 3% vaccination rates.

The WHO said only 15% of promised donations of vaccines have been delivered and wants countries to fulfil their dose-sharing pledges “immediately”, making jabs available for programs that benefit poor countries and Africa in particular.

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The delivery of jabs has been hampered by issues with COVAX, including production issues, supply shortages, and wealthy nations stockpiling vaccines.

The agency has failed to reach nearly all of its vaccine-sharing targets. An original target to ship some two billion vaccine doses worldwide by the end of the year has been lowered to 1.4 billion.

This could still be missed. As of Tuesday, COVAX had shipped more than 296 million doses to 141 countries.

Since the pandemic began in early 2020, at least 4,913,000 people have died from coronavirus.

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Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world’s best golfer to undergo surgery

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Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world's best golfer to undergo surgery

The world’s best golfer has suffered a freak injury while cooking Christmas dinner, forcing him to undergo surgery.

Scottie Scheffler sustained a puncture wound after cutting the palm of his right hand on broken glass.

The world number one required surgery as small glass fragments remained in the palm after the accident.

The injury has forced him out of the first tournament of the season, next week’s The Sentry in Hawaii.

Scottie Scheffler. Pic: Reuters
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Pic: Reuters

But the 28-year-old has been told he will recover in three to four weeks, and he hopes to be back in action at The American Express tournament in California on 16 January.

Scheffler won an Olympic gold and seven PGA Tour titles in the last year and was recently named PGA Tour’s Player of the Year for a third season in a row.

In May, he was arrested by police during the US PGA Championship after he was accused of trying to drive around a traffic jam caused by a fatal accident.

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Spectators wore Free Scottie t-shirts and one wore an orange jumpsuit. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
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Scheffler’s arrest became a major story at the US PGA Championship. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters

Just hours later, he was released and allowed to return to Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky to play his second round of the tournament.

Criminal charges against Scheffler were later dismissed due to a lack of evidence and a police officer who arrested him was disciplined for not having his bodycam on at the time of the incident.

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Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

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Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

The man accused of burning a woman to death on a New York subway train has been indicted on murder and arson charges.

Sebastian Zapeta is accused of setting a sleeping woman on fire and then fanning the flames with a shirt, which caused her to be engulfed by the blaze.

He allegedly sat on a platform at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station, opposite the stopped train, and watched as she burned to death.

Authorities are still working to identify the victim.

Zapeta, 33, has been charged with one count of first degree murder, two counts of second degree murder and one count of arson in the first degree.

After a brief hearing in which the indictment was announced, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said: “This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system.”

Mr Gonzalez said police and medical examiners are using fingerprints and advanced DNA techniques to identify the victim, while also retracing her steps before the murder.

“Our hearts go out not only to this victim, but we know that there’s a family,” he said. “Just because someone appears to have been living in the situation of homelessness does not mean that there’s not going to be family devastated by the tragic way she lost her life.”

Police officers patrol the F train platform at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
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Officers patrol the platform where the woman died. Pic: AP

Zapeta was initially charged with murder and arson in a criminal complaint earlier this week.

Such filings are often a first step in the criminal process because all felony cases in New York require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial, unless a defendant waives that requirement.

Zapeta was not present at the hearing. The most serious charge he is facing carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole and the indictment will be unsealed on 7 January.

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Zapeta is a Guatemalan who entered the US illegally having already been deported in 2018, officials say.

He was taken into custody last Sunday, after three children called 911 when they recognised him from an image shared by police.

During questioning, prosecutors say he claimed not to know what happened, and noted he consumes alcohol – but did identify himself in photos and videos showing the fire being lit.

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Pizza delivery woman stabs pregnant customer over $2 tip, police say

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Pizza delivery woman stabs pregnant customer over  tip, police say

A pizza delivery woman stabbed a pregnant customer over a $2 tip, authorities in the US say.

Brianna Alvelo, 22, is charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing the woman multiple times at a motel in Kissimmee, Florida.

The victim, her boyfriend and her five-year-old daughter were staying at the Riviera Motel to celebrate a birthday and ordered Marco’s pizza on Sunday, according to a court document reported by Sky News’ US sister outlet NBC News.

Alvelo delivered the pizza which cost around $33 (£26) and was asked to provide change for a $50 bill but did not have the change, the affidavit said.

The woman then searched for smaller bills and in the end gave Alvelo a $2 tip.

Brianna Alvelo
Pic:Osceola County Jail
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Brianna Alvelo Pic: Osceola County Jail

She told police that some time later she heard a loud knocking on the door. A man and a woman wearing masks and all black forced themselves into the room when she opened the door, she said.

The man brandished a silver revolver and demanded that the woman’s boyfriend go into the bathroom and the other person, believed to be Alvelo, pulled out a pocketknife, the document said.

As the woman turned to shield her child she felt a strike on her lower back, she said.

She then “threw her daughter onto the bed and attempted to pick up her phone”, the affidavit said, but Alvelo grabbed it and smashed it.

Alvelo then “began striking her multiple times with the knife”, according to the affidavit. The man who had the gun then yelled it was time to go, stopping the assault, it said.

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The woman received 14 stab wounds and discovered she was pregnant while being treated in hospital.

Alvelo is charged with attempted murder, home invasion with a firearm, kidnapping and aggravated assault, according to court records.

A man alleged to have accompanied Alvelo during the incident has not yet been identified.

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