Nearly three years after his failed bromance with Donald Trump, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is once again angling for United States (US) attention. North Korea has tested a new, high-tech missile and hinted that it may agree to restart talks with South Korea, where President Moon Jae-in desperately wants to resuscitate his moribund outreach to the North.
A synthetic antibody treatment developed by Regeneron reduced the risk of developing symptomatic COVID by more than 80 percent up to eight months after receiving the treatment, the United States (US) biotech firm said Monday.The results are "particularly important to those who do not respond to COVID-19 vaccines including people who are immunocompromised," said Myron Cohen, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientist who is leading a government-sponsored study into the t
Michael Thompson, a 47-year-old executive recruiter from Illinois, United States expects his former wife to take him to court over vaccinating their two children against COVID-19.He doesn't trust the vaccine for children, but she wants to follow US health guidelines and have their eight-year-old and 10-year-old inoculated.It is a clash repeated among separated families across the US, where widespread vaccine hesitancy has thwarted efforts to end the pandemic despite injections being free
Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused mainly by burning fossil fuels are set to rebound in 2021 to pre-COVID levels, with China's share increasing to nearly a third of the total, according to an assessment published Thursday.Overall, CO2 pollution this year will be just shy of the record set in 2019, according to the annual report from the Global Carbon Project consortium, released as nearly 200 nations at the COP26 climate summit confront the threat of catastrophic warming.Emissi
China is expanding its nuclear arsenal much more quickly than anticipated, narrowing the gap with the United States (US), the Pentagon said in a report published Wednesday.China could have 700 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2027, and could top 1,000 by 2030 – an arsenal two-and-a-half times the size of what the Pentagon predicted only a year ago, according to the report.The People's Republic of China (PRC) "is investing in, and expanding, the number of its land-, sea-, and air-base
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,
Beijing lashed out against a United States (US) intelligence review into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic on Sunday, calling it "political and false" while urging Washington to "stop attacking" China.The Chinese foreign ministry's retort came days after the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a fuller version of its findings from a 90-day review ordered by President Joe Biden.The paper said that, without new information, intelligence agenci
The United States (US) on Friday authorized the Pfizer COVID vaccine for children aged five-to-11, paving the way for 28 million young Americans to soon get immunised.The decision came after a high-level medical panel advising the government this week endorsed the shots, ruling that the known benefits outweighed the risks of side-effects.The US follows only a handful of other countries including China, Chile, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates that are inoculating younger children with various
Billed as a chance for humanity to save itself from climate catastrophe, the United Nations (UN) COP26 summit starting Sunday will task world leaders with turning ambitions to restrain global heating into the actions needed to slash greenhouse gas emissions.With just over one-degree Celsius warming so far after 150 years of burning fossil fuels, the world is experiencing a rapid-fire onslaught of weather disasters supercharged by climate change.
Southeast Asian leaders kicked off an ASEAN summit on Tuesday but Myanmar refused to send a representative after being angered by the bloc's decision to exclude the country's junta chief.The virtual gathering marked the start of three days of meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with United States (US) President Joe Biden as well as Chinese and Russian leaders set to attend.Myanmar topped the agenda of Tuesday's talks between regional leaders,
United States (US) biotech firm Moderna said Monday its COVID vaccine was safe and produced a strong immune response in children aged six-11, adding it would submit trial data to global regulators soon.The news comes as a panel of government advisors was preparing to meet Tuesday on the question of whether to authorise the Pfizer vaccine in kids aged five-11, with top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci predicting it would be available by mid-November."We are encouraged by the immuno
China is now a global power, something scarcely imaginable just a few decades ago.Its power sometimes stems from cooperation with the wider world, such as signing up to the Paris climate agreement.Or sometimes it means competition with it, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, a network of construction projects in more than 60 countries that has brought investment to many parts of the world deprived of western loans.Yet there is also a highly confrontational tone to much of China's globa
