Just recently, Australia signed a new security pact with the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) called AUKUS and for the first time, the US will provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.

The basic text making the case for an international-relations rulebook was provided by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides in his account of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta in the fifth century BCE.

Britain's new HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier has paid a port call to Japan, in a mission that adds to pressure from Tokyo, the United States (US) and allies on China over its increasingly assertive regional maritime presence.The Queen Elizabeth is the flagship of the United Kingdom's (UK) Carrier Strike Group (CSG) deployment, which has been making stops around Japan and carrying out exercises along with vessels from allied nations in recent weeks."This port call to Japan

Britain announced Wednesday it would begin donating millions of coronavirus vaccine doses around the world, including Commonwealth countries, following its pledge to provide 100 million jabs globally by next June.Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the rollout of an initial nine million inoculations from Friday would go to Kenya, Jamaica and several Asian nations."They will go to countries, vulnerable places like Lao and Cambodia, partners like Indonesia, Malaysia (and) a range of Common

Younger adults admitted to hospital with COVID are almost as likely to suffer from complications as those over 50 years old, a study has found.Four in 10 of those between 19 and 49 developed problems with their kidneys, lungs or other organs while treated.The research looked at 73,197 adults of all ages across 302 United Kingdom (UK) hospitals in the first wave of COVID in 2020."The message is that this is not just a disease of the elderly and frail," said Prof Calum Semple, who led

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.

As concerns of a substantial wave of hospitalisations due to the Delta variant of the coronavirus grow, we take a look at the latest data on the protection offered by vaccines.What Does Vaccine Effectiveness Mean?Vaccine effectiveness refers to how well a vaccine works in the real world.

The Alpha variant, first identified in Kent, United Kingdom (UK), performed a large jump in its ability to transmit. Now the Delta variant, seen first in India, has leapt further still.This is evolution in action.So, are we doomed to a never-ending parade of new and improved variants that get harder and harder to contain? Or is there a limit to how much worse the coronavirus can become?It's worth remembering the journey this virus is on.

The Delta variant of the coronavirus is estimated to be 40 percent more transmissible than the Alpha variant that caused the last wave of infections in the United Kingdom (UK), Britain's health minister said Sunday.But people who have received two doses of vaccine, should be equally protected against either variant, he added."That figure, around 40 percent more transmissible, is indeed the latest advice I have," Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News.The Delta variant, als

The late George Shultz, United States (US) Secretary of the Treasury under President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan, was one of the finest public servants in recent American history. When I was the last British governor of Hong Kong, he once offered me wise advice about dealing with the People’s Republic of China.