International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s President Xi Jinping made his first visit to the Tibet Autonomous Region as national leader this week, and urged people there to “follow the party”, the official Xinhua news agency said on Friday. Xi‘s July 21-22 visit – the first to Tibet by a Chinese leader in three decades – comes as the country faces
Zhengzhou, China (AFP) – Piles of cars were strewn across a central Chinese city Thursday as shocked residents picked through the debris of a historic deluge that claimed at least 33 lives, with rescue efforts ongoing and hundreds seeking to find their relatives. An unprecedented downpour dumped a year’s rain in just three days on the city
BEIJING (AP) — China cannot accept the World Health Organization’s plan for the second phase of a study into the origins of COVID-19, a senior Chinese health official said Thursday. Zeng Yixin, the vice minister of the National Health Commission, said he was “rather taken aback” that the plan includes further investigation of the theory
LONDON (Reuters) – A longer gap between doses of Pfizer‘s COVID-19 vaccine leads to higher overall antibody levels than a shorter gap, a British study found on Friday, but there is a sharp drop in antibody levels after the first dose. The study might help inform vaccination strategies against the Delta variant, which reduces the effectiveness of a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine even though two doses are still protective. “For
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — COVID-19 cases nearly tripled in the U.S. over two weeks amid an onslaught of vaccine misinformation that is straining hospitals, exhausting doctors and pushing clergy into the fray. “Our staff, they are frustrated,” said Chad Neilsen, director of infection prevention at UF Health Jacksonville, a Florida hospital that is canceling elective
LONDON (Reuters) – Two doses of Pfizer or AstraZeneca‘s COVID-19 vaccine are nearly as effective against the highly transmissible Delta coronavirus variant as they are against the previously dominant Alpha variant, a study published on Wednesday showed. Officials say vaccines are highly effective against the Delta variant, now the dominant variant worldwide, though the study reiterated that one shot of the vaccines is not enough for high protection. The study, published in the New England...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The chair of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee was arrested Tuesday on charges alleging he secretly conspired to influence U.S. policy to benefit the United Arab Emirates, even while he was seeking a position as an American diplomat. Tom Barrack, 74, of Santa Monica, California, was among three men
BEIJING (Reuters) – Large swathes of China’s central Henan province were under water on Wednesday, with its capital Zhengzhou hardest-hit after being drenched by what weather forecasters said was the heaviest rain in 1,000 years. In Zhengzhou, a city of over 12 million on the banks of the Yellow River, 12 people have died so far amid the floods, and about 100,000 people have been evacuated
(Reuters) – Europe became the first region worldwide to cross 50 million coronavirus cases on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, as the more contagious Delta variant spurred a record surge in daily new infections. The region is seeing a million new infections about every eight days and has reported nearly 1.3 million deaths since the pandemic began. The Delta variant, which is significantly more contagious than the original version of COVID–19, has been detected
(AFP) China on Tuesday sharply denied US allegations it carried out a massive Microsoft hack, countering that Washington was the “world champion” of cyber attacks while raging at American allies for signing up to a rare joint statement of condemnation. The United States on Monday accused Beijing of carrying out the cyber attack on Microsoft
LONDON (Reuters) – London clubbers on Monday flocked to one of the first rule-free live music events since the pandemic began last year, dancing through the night and rejoicing in human interaction as England lifted most COVID restrictions at midnight. Britain, which has one of the world’s highest death tolls from COVID, is facing a new wave of cases, but Prime Minister Boris
BERLIN (AP) — German officials are defending their preparations for flooding in the face of the raging torrents that caught many people by surprise and left over 190 people dead in Western Europe, but concede that they will need to learn lessons from the disaster. Efforts to find any more victims and clean up the
