United States (US) President Joe Biden on Tuesday accused China and Russia of failing to show leadership on climate change in blistering criticism of their leaders for not attending the COP26 summit in Glasgow.Speaking at the United Nation (UN) summit aimed at forging an ambitious new climate agreement, Biden called his own presence and promises proof that "America is back" after the go-it-alone approach of his predecessor Donald Trump."The fact that China is trying to assert,

The United States (US) is "very concerned" about China's hypersonic missile tests, US disarmament ambassador Robert Wood said Monday, after reports that Beijing launched one with a nuclear capacity in August.On Saturday, the Financial Times (FT) reported that China had launched a hypersonic missile that completed a circuit of the planet before landing, missing its target."We are very concerned by what China has been doing on the hypersonic front," said Wood, who next

Nations across the globe hit new pandemic highs and reimposed COVID-19 restrictions on Saturday as G20 finance ministers meeting in Venice warned the economic recovery was threatened by variants and uneven vaccination campaigns.The highly transmissible Delta variant, first detected in India, is sweeping the world as countries race to inoculate their populations to ward off fresh outbreaks and allow for economies and daily life to resume."The recovery is characterised by great divergences

In January 2020, when most of the world slept soundly in ignorance of the pandemic coming its way, a group of scientists at Oxford University got to work on a vaccine to save the planet. They wanted it to be highly effective, cheap, and easy to use in even the poorest countries.Prof Sarah Gilbert, Prof Andrew Pollard and others pulled it off. With speed crucial, they designed it and launched into trials before bringing in a business partner.

In a recent essay on Samantha Power, President Joe Biden’s new administrator of the United States (US) Agency for International Development, Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times writes – correctly – that Power’s “first big test … lies in what America does to help vaccinate the rest of the world against COVID-19.” And Power herself is quoted as saying that, “It’s about a very, very tangible, results-oriented agenda.” Results seemed to follow.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday it had uncovered problems at a Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine production site which Moscow insisted had been resolved.WHO approval has been sought for the Sputnik V jab created by Russia's Gamaleya research institute, which is already being used in 40 countries.The United Nations (UN) health agency inspected four Sputnik V manufacturing sites.On Wednesday, it released a summary report of its preliminary findings, detailing six issues found d

Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in a junta court again Tuesday on trial for sedition and for flouting COVID restrictions during an election her ousted party won in a landslide.A mass uprising in Myanmar against a February military putsch has been met with a brutal crackdown that has killed more than 870 civilians, according to a local monitoring group.Under house arrest and invisible apart from a handful of court appearances, Suu Kyi has been hit with an eclectic raft of char

New variants of COVID-19 are suspected of causing a sudden jump in the number of cases in the Russian capital, the mayor said Thursday, amid a sluggish vaccination drive."It's most likely we are facing new, more aggressive variants which spread more quickly," said mayor Sergei Sobyanin during a video conference with government officials battling the pandemic.He noted that daily infections in the capital had soared from 3,000 to 7,000 within a few days and were expected to hit m

President Joe Biden will draw "red lines" for President Vladimir Putin at a tense Geneva summit on Wednesday, where ghosts of the Cold War will hover over modern-day United States (US) concerns that Russia has become a rogue, authoritarian state.The setting – a sumptuous villa overlooking Lake Geneva – may be picturesque, but a gruelling diplomatic face-off awaits.Up to five hours of talks are planned, starting at around 1:00 pm (1100 GMT), with no break for meals.

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