International medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF) has urged rich countries to stop blocking a patent waiver plan that could boost the global production of coronavirus vaccines.Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will meet virtually for informal talks on Thursday to discuss a proposal to waive intellectual property rights for producing COVID-19 vaccines and other coronavirus-related medical tools for the duration of the pandemic.

Australia has scrapped agreements tied to China's Belt and Road initiative (BRI), prompting anger from Beijing and adding further strain to tense relations between the countries.The federal government used new powers to rip up two deals made between the state of Victoria and China.Canberra said it was backing away from the agreements to protect Australia's national interest.The Chinese embassy in Australia branded the move "provocative".It said the action by Canbe

The Myanmar military's crackdown on anti-coup protesters has displaced close to a quarter of a million people, a United Nations (UN) rights envoy said Wednesday.The junta has stepped up its use of lethal force to quash mass demonstrations against a 1 February coup which ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.At least 738 people have been killed and 3,300 are languishing in jails as political prisoners, according to a local monitoring group."Horrified to learn that...

Younger people aren't as scared of the virus, so they're often more hesitant about getting vaccinated than their elders.As the days grow longer, there’s a palpable feeling of hope in the air – at least in the more fortunate western countries. Thanks in part to vaccines, COVID-19 deaths are dropping in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US), enabling parts of normal life to resume. But, as we’re well aware, it’s not over yet.

China's President Xi Jinping will attend United States (US) President Joe Biden's virtual climate summit this week, Beijing said Wednesday, as the world's top polluting nations seek rare common ground despite wider political tensions.Biden has invited 40 world leaders including Xi and Russia's Vladimir Putin to the meet starting on Earth Day, meant to mark Washington's return to the front lines of the fight against climate change after former president Donald Trump di

United States (US) President Joe Biden has announced that he will withdraw American troops from Afghanistan by 11 September, finally ending his country’s longest war ever. The move was indicative of a broader shift by the US away from the Middle East – one that has been a long time coming. Will anyone take its place in the region?

Under the Paris Agreement on climate, nearly every country will have to drastically reduce their carbon emissions, and they were supposed to submit renewed plans to do so by the end of 2020.The first raft of "nationally determined contributions" (NDCs) submitted in 2015 would put Earth on course to be at least three degrees Celsius (C) hotter than pre-industrial times, a far cry from the Paris temperature cap goal of keeping warming "well below" two degrees C.Under the dea

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday defended the United States (US) decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, saying the terror threat had moved elsewhere and that Washington needed to refocus resources on challenges such as China.President Joe Biden announced last week that the US would withdraw all forces from the country before this year's 20th anniversary of the 11 September attacks.The unconditional withdrawal – four months later than a deadline agreed with the Taliban

The global COVID-19 death toll passed three million on Saturday as the pandemic speeds up despite vaccination campaigns, leading countries like India to impose new lockdowns to fight spiralling infection numbers. It is the latest grim milestone since the novel coronavirus first surfaced in central China in December 2019 and went on to infect more than 139 million people, leaving billions more under crippling lockdowns and ravaging the global economy.An average of more than 12,000 dea

The head of Pfizer said in an interview aired Thursday that people will "likely" need a third dose of his company's COVID-19 shot within six to 12 months of vaccination, while elsewhere defending the relatively higher cost of the jab.CEO Albert Bourla also said annual vaccinations against the coronavirus may well be required."We need to see what would be the sequence, and for how often we need to do that, that remains to be seen," Bourla said in a CNBC interview recor