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Pfizer and BioNTech Launch Trial of Omicron-Targeted COVID Vaccine

A vial of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is pictured at the hospital in Le Mans, as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, January 14, 2021. (Reuters)
A vial of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is pictured at the hospital in Le Mans, as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, January 14, 2021. (Reuters)
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Pfizer and BioNTech Launch Trial of Omicron-Targeted COVID Vaccine

A vial of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is pictured at the hospital in Le Mans, as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, January 14, 2021. (Reuters)
A vial of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is pictured at the hospital in Le Mans, as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, January 14, 2021. (Reuters)

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said on Tuesday they started a clinical trial to test a new version of their vaccine specifically designed to target the COVID-19 Omicron variant, which has eluded some of the protection provided by the original two-dose vaccine regimen.

The companies plan to test the immune response generated by the Omicron-based vaccine both as a three-shot regimen in unvaccinated people and as a booster shot for people who already received two doses of their original vaccine.

They are also testing a fourth dose of the current vaccine against a fourth dose of the Omicron-based vaccine in people who received their third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine three to six months earlier.

The companies plan to study the safety and tolerability of the shots in the more than 1,400 people who will be enrolled in the trial.

"While current research and real-world data show that boosters continue to provide a high level of protection against severe disease and hospitalization with Omicron, we recognize the need to be prepared in the event this protection wanes over time and to potentially help address Omicron and new variants in the future," Pfizer's head of vaccine research and development, Kathrin Jansen, said in a statement.

Pfizer has said that a two-dose regimen of the original vaccine may not be sufficient to protect against infection from the Omicron variant, and that protection against hospitalizations and deaths may be waning.

Still, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a third dose of an mRNA vaccine like the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has provided 90% protection against hospitalization due to COVID-19.

Some countries have already started offering additional booster doses, but a recent study from Israel showed that while a fourth dose of an mRNA vaccine boosted antibodies, the level was not high enough to prevent infection by the Omicron variant.

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UK: Sapling Stolen from Famous Tree Months After Planting

The Sycamore Gap tree that was found felled next to the Hadrian's Wall UNESCO World Heritage site in northeast England in September 2023 (AFP)
The Sycamore Gap tree that was found felled next to the Hadrian's Wall UNESCO World Heritage site in northeast England in September 2023 (AFP)
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UK: Sapling Stolen from Famous Tree Months After Planting

The Sycamore Gap tree that was found felled next to the Hadrian's Wall UNESCO World Heritage site in northeast England in September 2023 (AFP)
The Sycamore Gap tree that was found felled next to the Hadrian's Wall UNESCO World Heritage site in northeast England in September 2023 (AFP)

A sapling taken from the Sycamore Gap tree has been stolen from the grounds of a castle just months after it was planted, according to The Guardian.

The Sycamore Gap tree, on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, was one of the UK’s best-known and most loved trees. It was criminally felled for no apparent reason on a stormy night in September 2023.

Last July Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers were found guilty over the illegal felling of the tree and sentenced to more than four years in prison.

The National Trust collected seeds from the tree, which was at least 100 years old, and 49 saplings were successfully salvaged, to be planted across the country as “signs of hope.”

Gardens and historic sites across the country clamored for the saplings, with one receiving at least 500 applications. But now, one has been stolen from the picturesque grounds of Wray parkland and castle in Cumbria where it was planted in April this year.

The castle’s staff believe it was taken deliberately. Jez Westgarth, the National Trust’s assistant director for Cumbria and Lancashire, said it must have been taken to plant elsewhere.

“It hasn’t just been pulled up recklessly – somebody’s thought about what they’re doing,” he told the BBC.

The trust said staff were “saddened” by the theft and appealed to the public to come forward with information.

Laura Lee, the National Trust’s general manager for the Lake District, said: “We are shocked and saddened that a sapling from the Sycamore Gap tree that was gifted to the Lake District national park and planted at Wray in April 2026 has been stolen.”

She added: “Grown from seeds gathered from the much-loved tree at Hadrian’s Wall, which was illegally felled in 2023, it was one of 15 saplings planted across the UK’s national parks as a symbol of hope and resilience among our most protected landscapes.”

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Spain Records More Than 1,000 Heat-Related June Deaths

A person drinks from a fountain rest during a spring heatwave in Madrid, Spain, May 27, 2026. (Reuters)
A person drinks from a fountain rest during a spring heatwave in Madrid, Spain, May 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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Spain Records More Than 1,000 Heat-Related June Deaths

A person drinks from a fountain rest during a spring heatwave in Madrid, Spain, May 27, 2026. (Reuters)
A person drinks from a fountain rest during a spring heatwave in Madrid, Spain, May 27, 2026. (Reuters)

More than 1,000 deaths in Spain were attributed to the recent heatwave that roasted Europe, as the country posted the hottest first six months ever recorded, officials said on Wednesday.

At least 1,028 people died of heat-related issues during the heatwave, the public Carlos III Health Institute said.

The figure was more than double the 407 deaths that were attributed to heat in June 2025, Spain's hottest June since records started being kept, according to the national weather agency Aemet.

The first six months of 2026 were the hottest in Spain since the start of records, with temperatures 1.6C above normal levels on average, Aemet said in a post on X on Wednesday.

"The seven warmest first semesters... have occurred over the past 10 years", the Aemet agency said in a post on X.

June 2026 came in as the second-hottest June, "with temperatures on average 3.2C above the norm," Aemet said.

The heatwave that scorched Europe from late June was the most severe ever recorded in Europe, and would have been "virtually impossible" in June without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.

All-time temperature records have been broken in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, as well as for the month of June in the UK and in Switzerland.

France faced record breaking average temperatures, with the country experiencing its highest-ever nighttime temperatures.

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A Rare Dinosaur Fossil from Antarctica Is Found Tucked Away in a Drawer

This image provided by the Natural History Museum shows a fossil found in Antarctica that belongs to a group of dinosaurs called titanosaurs. (Natural History Museum via AP)
This image provided by the Natural History Museum shows a fossil found in Antarctica that belongs to a group of dinosaurs called titanosaurs. (Natural History Museum via AP)
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A Rare Dinosaur Fossil from Antarctica Is Found Tucked Away in a Drawer

This image provided by the Natural History Museum shows a fossil found in Antarctica that belongs to a group of dinosaurs called titanosaurs. (Natural History Museum via AP)
This image provided by the Natural History Museum shows a fossil found in Antarctica that belongs to a group of dinosaurs called titanosaurs. (Natural History Museum via AP)

Scientists have stumbled on a rare dinosaur fossil from Antarctica, tucked away for decades in a drawer.

The bone comes from the tail of a long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur called a titanosaur. Scientists haven't yet identified the species it belongs to.

It was discovered in 1985 during an expedition to Antarctica's James Ross Island and collected by geologist Mike Thomson. Working with the British Antarctic Survey, Thomson was mapping the area's rock layers and collected marine reptile fossils to help with future dating efforts. He recorded the find as a large reptile.

Decades later, paleontologist Mark Evans spotted the bone in the British Antarctic Survey's collections and wondered whether it might be a dinosaur. He and other researchers analyzed the shape of the bone and compared it to other more complete dinosaur remains, confirming their discovery. The findings were published on Monday in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

Dinosaur fossils are rare to find in Antarctica because of the unforgiving ice caps. But millions of years ago, when this dinosaur lived, the region was populated by lush forests — a “rather different and much more hospitable place than we think of today,” said study co-author Paul Barrett with the Natural History Museum in London.

At about 23 feet (7 meters) long, the dinosaur was small for its group and may have been young when it died. Scientists don't know how the creature met its end, but they think its body floated away from the coast and sank to the sea floor, becoming fossilized in marine rock.

Technology has come a long way since the dinosaur tail bone was first found, allowing researchers to peer inside bones and gain even more detailed information about ancient creatures. Thomson died in 2020 before the fossil was identified as belonging to a dinosaur.

“If he were still with us, he would be delighted to know what this was,” Evans, a study co-author, said.