Spain

Model lungs

World-first lung cancer vaccine trials launched across seven countries

Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8 million deaths every year. Now experts are testing a new jab that instructs the body to hunt down and kill cancer cells – then prevents them from ever coming back. Known as BNT116 and made by BioNTech, the vaccine is designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease. The phase 1 clinical trial, the first human study of BNT116, has launched across 34 research sites in seven countries: the U.K., U.S., Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, and Turkey.

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Indian coral tree, or Erythrina variegata flowers on a tree

The International Botany Congress votes to remove apartheid slur from plant species names in Africa

In a thoroughly debated session in the recent meeting in Madrid, the vote passed 351 to 205 to rename all current botanical species (over 200) with the species name caffra to affra. “Caffra,” also spelled Kaffer or Keffir, is a derogatory term used by Afrikaans speakers towards black people in southern Africa.

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Iberian lynx

Iberian lynx no longer endangered after numbers improve in Spain and Portugal

Less than a quarter of a century after the Iberian lynx was feared to be only a whisker away from extinction, populations of the animal have recovered enough across Spain and Portugal for it to be moved from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on the global red list of threatened species. According to the latest census, the lynx population on the peninsula has risen from just 94 in 2002 to 2,021 last year.

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Man holding Palestinian flag

Ireland, Norway, and Spain jointly recognize Palestine as a state

At a time when European capitals are divided over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the initiative aims to relaunch the peace process on the basis of the two-state solution. The State of Palestine is now recognized as a sovereign state by 145 of the 193 member states of the United Nations. It has been a non-member observer state of the United Nations General Assembly since November 2012.

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Ukrainian flag

Spain to give Ukraine €1 billion in military aid in decade-long defense deal

Although the precise details of the agreement have not been made public, the Spanish government said its assistance would “allow Ukraine to prioritize its capacities, including its air defenses.” The bilateral deal was agreed two days after Russia’s onslaught in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv killed 18 people, and as E.U. leaders grow increasingly exasperated with Hungary’s efforts to block aid to Ukraine.

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