morning tx
SAM270 USAF C-40B out of Wyoming and inbound to JBA
EASY40 USMC C-560 departed Janesville, WI-Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport nw to begin it's day
LOBO344 USMC C-560 departed Cape Cod Coast Guard Air Station after a ground stop-inbound from Cherry Pt. MCAS
>>10296330 pb KANSAS Leaving Warsaw
Pompeo Signs Defense Agreement to Add 1,000 Troops to Poland
Poland and the U.S. signed an expanded defense cooperation agreement that will result in 1,000 additional U.S. personnel being sent to the Eastern European country on a rotational basis.
The deal, agreed earlier this month, and signed Saturday in Warsaw by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, follows the U.S.’s decision to withdraw about 12,000 troops from Germany and plans to redeploy almost half of that number to other nations in Europe.
It envisages that Poland will host forward elements of the U.S. Army’s V Corps headquarters and intelligence, and surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities as well as the infrastructure to support an armored brigade combat team and a combat aviation brigade on top of the 4,500 personnel already on rotation in the eastern European nation. Poland will cover the costs of the presence, which its defense ministry estimated at 500 million zloty ($135 million) a year.
“I believe the agreement will help boost cooperation in other areas; more security means more investment by American companies, including more cooperation in the energy industry,” President Andrzej Duda said at the signing ceremony. The nations have also been negotiating a bilateral civil nuclear power agreement to help Poland to “decisively move ahead” in building nuclear plants with American technology, the White House said in June.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller confirmed nuclear power was among the topics raised by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki at his meeting with Pompeo earlier on Saturday. “Excited that the US and PL took another important step towards enhancing Poland’s energy security through the Intergovernmental Agreement on nuclear power,” Ambassador Georgette Mosbacher tweeted on Saturday.
Pompeo and Morawiecki also discussed the situation in Belarus, as well as co-operation in 5G network construction, and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which would link Russia and Germany. Poland welcomed U.S. sanctions aimed at halting the pipeline’s construction, Muller said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-15/pompeo-signs-defense-agreement-to-add-1-000-troops-to-poland
Russia aims COVID vaccine at Asian buyers beyond Philippines
MOSCOW Asia figures prominently in Russia's multibillion-dollar plans for its new coronavirus vaccine one that has prompted international experts and even some Russian scientists to raise concerns about its safety.
Others insist the skepticism voiced by the likes of top U.S. doctor Anthony Fauci and others is unwarranted, and that Russia is taking a responsible path. On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had registered the world's first vaccine against COVID-19, and that one of his own daughters had already been inoculated. The vaccine has been named Sputnik V, after the 1957 Soviet satellite that was the first human-made object to orbit Earth.
Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) which financed the development revealed that 20 countries had already submitted preorders for 1 billion doses of Sputnik V. "So far, countries in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia have displayed the greatest interest in the vaccine," he said, "and we are about to finalize a number of contracts for the purchase of the vaccine."
Dmitriev added that Russia would partner with five other countries to produce 500 million doses of vaccine per year, with plans to scale up output over time. By the end of 2021, Russian vaccine developers hope to corner a quarter of the global coronavirus vaccine market, estimated to be worth over $75 billion, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported earlier this week. On Friday, reports emerged that Vietnam's Drug Administration, under the Ministry of Health, is looking to procure Sputnik V. The ministry is seeking approval and guidance from the government, however, given concerns over the limited availability of information on the development process.
Moscow has particularly high hopes for supplying the vaccine in Asia, according to Sergey Shulyak, CEO of DSM Group, a Moscow-based pharmaceutical market research agency. "The European market will not buy Russia's vaccine because of geopolitical reasons. Not to mention Europe has its own producer which it will support. Same case with the United States and Canada," Shulyak said.
"On the other hand, Russia has traditionally been geopolitically close to both Asia and Africa. So these markets are more promising for us."
Already, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has emerged as an early and enthusiastic champion of Russia's vaccine. The Southeast Asian nation plans on beginning Phase 3 trials in October. Duterte himself has pledged to be vaccinated with Sputnik V as early as May 2021. The RDIF says India and Indonesia are also among the countries that have expressed interest in obtaining the vaccine. The fund has revealed plans to begin mass production of Sputnik V in India and South Korea in partnership with local sovereign wealth funds. Developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute in Moscow, Sputnik V is an adenoviral vector-based vaccine, which combines a coronavirus spike protein with a human adenovirus – a type of common virus that causes an array of ailments. The Gamaleya Institute had previously used adenoviruses to develop vaccines for Ebola and Middle East respiratory syndrome.
So far, Sputnik V has been tested on animals and 76 people in two early stage trials. Crucially, however, Russia has yet to complete a Phase 3 trial, which entails testing it on thousands of people. This is considered an integral part of the vetting process for any vaccine. "No one knows the long-term effects of this vaccine," said Yevgeny Timakov, chief physician of the Lider-Medicina medical center in Moscow. "We don't know yet how it will impact a person's immune status, oncology, or reproductive functions."
This is why the decision to approve Sputnik V in its current stage has sparked concern. Russia's own Association of Clinical Trials Organizations, a nongovernmental group representing major drug companies, urged the Kremlin to postpone registering the vaccine until a Phase 3 trial was completed.
moar
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Russia-aims-COVID-vaccine-at-Asian-buyers-beyond-Philippines
Spanish AF AME44515 Falcon 900B departed AB Torrejon-Madrid with a gs at Azores and on final at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic- Joaquin Balaguer Int'l Airport
AC went in to a different airport-Las Americas located on the se portion of Santo Domingo