Classrooms in the Philippines were silent on Monday as millions of school children hunkered down at home for the second year of remote lessons that experts fear will worsen an educational "crisis".While nearly every country in the world has partially or fully reopened schools to in-person classes, the Philippines has kept them closed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations (UN) says.President Rodrigo Duterte has so far rejected proposals for a pilot reopening

Here are the latest developments in the Coronavirus crisis. UK Drops Vaccine Passport Plan The UK government drops a plan to make people in England show vaccine passports to enter crowded events and places such as nightclubs, the health minister says.The government had previously said these would be introduced at the end of this month, despite opposition from businesses in the sector and from some Conservative MPs.Health minister Sajid Javid announces the U-turn, saying the

China has handed over to Cambodia a US$150 million stadium in Phnom Penh, with officials saying Sunday it is the result of Beijing's biggest ever infrastructure grant to the country.The 60,000-capacity venue is the latest project under China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a plan to fund infrastructure projects and increase its sway overseas.The presentation of the arena, intended as the main venue when Cambodia hosts the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 2023, was ma

Chinese authorities have ordered gaming giants to end their focus on profits and cut content perceived to be breeding "effeminacy", as Beijing tries to direct youth culture, gender ideals and the reach of big tech.The move is the latest by authorities to tighten their grip on the embattled technology sector and sparked a collapse in the share prices of some of the industry's biggest names.Officials on Wednesday summoned gaming enterprises including Tencent and NetEase, the two

Fully vaccinated people were 11 times less likely to die of COVID and 10 times less likely to be hospitalised compared to the unvaccinated since highly contagious Delta became the most common variant, United States (US) health authorities said Friday. The data came from one of three new papers published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), all of which underscored COVID vaccines' ongoing effectiveness against severe outcomes.For reasons that are not yet well

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe was Friday pessimistic about vaccines' ability to put an end to the COVID pandemic, as new variants dash hopes of reaching herd immunity.Faced with the possibility that the virus may be around for many years, health officials must now "anticipate how to gradually adapt our vaccination strategy," in particular on the question of additional doses, Hans Kluge told reporters.In May, the WHO director had said "the pandemic

Thailand plans to reopen Bangkok to fully vaccinated visitors in October, officials said Friday, as the kingdom seeks to salvage a tourism industry hammered by the pandemic.Before COVID, tourism made up a fifth of Thailand's national income but severe travel curbs imposed to fight the virus saw the usual flood of foreign visitors dwindle to almost nothing, contributing to the economy's worst performance in over 20 years.The kingdom is pressing ahead with plans to reopen despite a de

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter and heir apparent has declared that she will not run for the presidency in May 2022 but many remain sceptical after the months of meetings she has held with the country’s major political blocs over the past few months.Sara Duterte-Carpio, who is currently mayor of Davao, said on Thursday that with her father’s decision to run for vice president, she would not run for the top job.“I am not running for a national position as we both agreed only on

United States (US) President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping talked for the first time in seven months Thursday, with both leaders urging a path away from conflict but holding ground on the fierce competition between the superpowers.In the 90-minute call, Biden warned against misunderstandings that could lead to confrontation between Washington and Beijing, the White House said, while Xi called for a new direction in a relationship beset by "serious difficulties".&n

For Bangkok market sellers, the armpit sweat soaking their T-shirts during the humid monsoon season may contain subtle signs of coronavirus infection, local scientists have said.Thai researchers are developing a sweat-based mobile virus detector, and road-tested it on shopkeepers at a Bangkok food market this week."From the samples, we found that people infected with COVID-19 secrete very distinct chemicals," said Chadin Kulsing from Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University."We