It’s been another tumultuous week in the international scramble for vaccines, in Europe and beyond. Here’s an FT video on takeaways and trends - plus a THREAD on the latest events and the many questions they raise. 👇(1/x) ft.com/video/4a26b2eb… The EU is still hammering AstraZeneca for falling way short of early delivery targets. Here’s our FT read on a company under pressure. (AstraZeneca says it is making the required efforts to fulfil its EU supply contract). 👇(2/x) ft.com/content/7df5e3…

🚨🚨🚨NEW: The mysterious story of the AstraZeneca Netherlands factory that explains in part why the company has fallen far behind its early coronavirus vaccine delivery commitments to the EU. THREAD 👇 (1/X) ft.com/content/8e2e99… AstraZeneca has cut its EU supply estimates for the first quarter of the year from 100m or more doses to 30m. It's one reason why the EU is lagging so far behind the US and UK in its Covid-19 inoculation drive, per the FT’s vaccine tracker. 👇 (2/X) ig.ft.com/coronavirus-va…

Brussels hits back in vaccine exports row with London, contrasting the millions of doses the EU ships to other countries with the UK’s contractual hold on domestic production for itself. THREAD (1/x) ft.com/content/d8084b… via @FinancialTimes The UK has been the biggest recipient of EU coronavirus jab exports among 31 countries covered by the bloc’s new export monitoring mechanism. More than 9m of a total 34.1m doses shipped by the EU went to the UK between January 30 and March 9, according to internal bloc data.(2/x)

It’s been a week of turmoil in the EU’s troubled vaccines rollout, as supply shortages start to hamper national inoculation programmes across the bloc. A thread with articles on what’s happening, why - and what might be to come. 👇(1/12) ft.com/content/fe8514… The EU vaccine scheme has a structural problem: supplies will be relatively scarce until April even in the best-case scenario. This is partly because the bloc was less bold than the UK and the US about betting early and big on specific vaccines. 👇(2/12) ft.com/content/c9bbc7…

NEW: EU warned by International Chamber of Commerce that proposed new powers to block coronavirus vaccine exports threaten a "devastating" impact on global supplies of the jabs. 👇 SHORT THREAD (1/4) ft.com/content/24867d… via @financialtimes The letter to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen says the EU move risks triggering retaliation from other countries and harming poor nations that depend on European supplies. This is all contrary to EU rhetoric on trade and aid. 👇(2/4) ft.com/content/b2a0f1…

EU pressing AstraZeneca for agreement to publish coronavirus vaccine contract, after CEO Pascal Soriot spoke about aspects of it yesterday. "Personally I'm happy that we start taking off the veil," an EU official said, as the dispute (and PR battle) over vaccine supply escalates. EU-AstraZeneca vaccine supply row 2: contract has "significant reporting requirements" for company that, if breached, may allow EU to suspend payments, a bloc official says.

European governments are locking down again due to a Covid-19 resurgence. One problem is a failure to communicate to the public where the main risks lie - notably indoors. Here’s my FT latest with .@sam1fleming and .@jburnmurdoch + A SHORT THREAD 👇 (1/6) ft.com/content/881138… This piece in June on how to avoid the virus still holds. It cites some fascinating studies and is brilliantly illustrated by .@jburnmurdoch. Note how small the risk outdoors is compared with indoors, where "superspreader" events tend to occur. 👇 (2/6) ft.com/content/2418ff…

This striking .@Reuters .@jgesilva photo showing Queen Suthida of Thailand’s shock as protesters confront the royal motorcade in Bangkok on October 14 captures why #whatshappeninginThailand right now is historic and deserves your attention. A THREAD (1/10)👇 Thai authorities have now declared a state of emergency in Bangkok and detained protest leaders. This is a disturbing moment, because past crackdowns on demonstrations have turned deadly. Latest story here from FT’s .@johnreedwrites in Bangkok. ft.com/content/26f1f4… (2/10) 👇

Today is the 205th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo that ended the Napoleonic Wars. Last weekend I visited the site of a bloody struggle in which more than a quarter of the 180,000-plus troops who fought there became casualties. A short thread. 👇 (1/7) It’s striking how Waterloo has become so central in English folklore, inspiring place names from pubs to a London railway station (which was, piquantly, the original Eurostar terminus). The victorious Duke of Wellington’s imprint stretches as far as New Zealand’s capital. (2/7)