China on Sunday announced it had administered its one-billionth shot in the world's biggest coronavirus inoculation drive as Brazil's death toll from the pandemic passed 500,000.The global death toll from COVID-19 is now more than 3.8 million and many nations are still battling outbreaks, but vaccine drives in some countries are allowing activities that were unthinkable a few months ago.China's vaccine milestone comes after the number of shots administered globally passed 2.5 b

Getting COVID vaccines into the arms of the world's population is an international priority – but will today's jabs stay effective against virus variants that are spreading across the globe?It is one of the big questions about the pandemic, with Pfizer chief Albert Bourla recently acknowledging that it is likely a booster will be needed to help extend the protection conferred by its vaccine and ward off new variants.A recent study presented a mixed picture. It found that th

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday about the lack of information about China's coronavirus vaccines, saying they might even encourage the development of variants if they are not effective.Speaking to the Atlantic Council think-tank, Macron conceded that China's early "diplomatic successes" in distributing vaccines to other countries could be seen as "a little bit humiliating for us as (Western) leaders".But he warned that the efficacy of a jab from

The United States (US) pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which is manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Germany's BioNTech, now considers each vial contains six doses compared to five previously. The difficulty in obtaining that sixth dose in practice means many countries are at loggerheads with Pfizer and facing a drop in supply.How Many Doses?Until recently, each vial of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine was considered to officially contain five doses. After being thaw

“The UN (United Nations) was not founded to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell,” the UN second secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjöld, once said. The hell he had in mind, of course, was World War II and the Shoah, next to which most of today’s challenges pale in comparison.

The following is the full speech delivered by Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic in Les Mureaux, outside Paris, France on 2 October, 2020.

Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad tweeted Thursday that Muslims had a right "to kill millions of French people" after a deadly attack in Nice, sparking widespread anger and prompting Twitter to delete his post.Three people were killed at a church in the southern French city, with the attacker slitting the throat of at least one, in what authorities were treating as the latest jihadist assault to rock the country.Shortly afterwards, Mahathir - the prime minister of Muslim-maj

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the Bangladesh capital on Tuesday in the biggest anti-France rally since President Emmanuel Macron defended cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.Muslims across the world have reacted furiously to Macron's robust defence of the right to mock religion following the murder of a French schoolteacher who had shown his pupils cartoons of the prophet.In Syria, people burned pictures of France's leader, tricolour flags were torched in the L

The European Union's (EU) disease control agency on Friday joined frantic health workers across Europe in sounding the alarm about the surge in coronavirus infections as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of an 'exponential' rise in cases.Several countries in Europe are reporting infection rates higher than during the first wave of the pandemic in March and April, with Spain saying it has now more than three million cases.Governments across the continent are slapping ur

German police Saturday halted a Berlin march by thousands opposed to coronavirus restrictions in the biggest of several European protests against anti-virus curbs and masks to halt the pandemic.With new COVID-19 cases on the rise, European nations are starting to tighten controls while trying to avoid the major lockdowns imposed earlier this year to contain the outbreak that has killed more than 800,000 worldwide.Across the globe, governments are struggling to revive economies already battere