The Chinese scientist at the centre of theories that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a leak from her specialised lab in the city of Wuhan has denied her institution was to blame for the health disaster."How on earth can I offer up evidence for something where there is no evidence?" Dr Shi Zhengli told the New York Times in rare comments to the media. "I don't know how the world has come to this, constantly pouring filth on an innocent scientist," she

In June 2020, as the first reports of long COVID began to filter through the medical community, doctors attempting to grapple with this mysterious malaise began to notice an unusual trend.

G7 leaders on Sunday vowed to start delivering one billion doses of COVID vaccines and to step up action on climate change, in a United States (US)-led summit call to arms that also took on China and Russia.In a final communique issued at their first physical summit in nearly two years, the leaders of the elite club largely hewed to US President Joe Biden's push to regain the West's cohesion after Donald Trump's tumultuous tenure."We will harness the power of democracy, fr

What if China were to cut off the United States (US) and Europe from access to rare minerals that are essential to electric vehicles, wind turbines and drones?At a time of frequent geopolitical friction among the three powers, Washington and Brussels want to avoid this scenario by investing in the market for 17 minerals with unique properties that today are largely extracted and refined in China."The expected exponential growth in demand for minerals that are linked to clean energy is pu

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:G7 Agrees Plan To Battle Future PandemicsThe G7 group agreed on the "Carbis Bay Declaration" to battle future pandemics.

The United States (US) and China clashed in rare talks Friday as President Joe Biden made his international debut at the G7 summit, with his administration pressing Beijing on COVID, Taiwan and human rights.Secretary of State Antony Blinken, joining Biden at the summit of industrial democracies in England, spoke by telephone with senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi – their first talks since a heated in-person encounter in Alaska in March.As Biden used his first presidential trip abroad to unv

As ambitious declarations go – even for Boris Johnson – it was a big one. At the weekend, the United Kingdom (UK) prime minister said he would urge the G7 leaders to vaccinate the world against COVID by the end of 2022. But is this feasible? That rather depends on your definition. No country will vaccinate every adult. Vaccinating enough to achieve herd immunity, which could be 60 percent or 70 percent, is the real aim.

The Myanmar junta has hit deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi with corruption charges over claims she accepted illegal payments of gold and more than half a million dollars in cash, state media reported Thursday.The country has been in turmoil since the generals ousted Suu Kyi on 1 February, with more than 850 civilians killed in a brutal crackdown by security forces on near-daily protests against the coup.The 75-year-old Nobel laureate, who has been in custody since the putsch, is facin

The United States (US) will donate 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer nations, the White House said Thursday, to "supercharge" the pandemic fight as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Europeans not to drop their guard because vaccination levels there remain too low to stop another wave of infections.Both moves signalled that while pockets of the rich world have scored successes against the virus, gains are fragile and billions of mostly poor people remain unprotect

Data from Scotland’s COVID vaccination programme has revealed a possible small increase in the risk of a treatable and often mild bleeding disorder after the first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.Doctors examined the medical records of 5.4 million people in Scotland for instances of blood clots, unusual bleeding, and a condition called idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), where a reduction in blood platelets can lead to easy bruising, bleeding gums and internal bleeding.The analy