International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
EU countries will be able to launch the bloc’s coronavirus recovery plan in June after all 27 members approved the scheme, the European Council announced Monday. “The European Union is now able to obtain the necessary funding for the European social and economic recovery,” said Antonio Costa, the prime minister of Portugal, which currently chairs
China said on Monday that married couples may have up to three children, a major policy shift from the existing limit of two after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world’s most populous country. Beijing scrapped its decades-old one-child policy in 2016, replacing it with a two-child limit that failed to
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds married over the weekend, his office confirmed Sunday, in what media reports have described as a “secret ceremony”. He is only the second British prime minister to marry while in power, and the first in nearly two centuries. The last was Robert Jenkinson in 1822.
The CoronaVac vaccine, produced by Chinese firm Sinovac, reduces coronavirus mortality by 97 percent, according to early results of the immunization campaign in Uruguay, which relies heavily on the Chinese jab. In people who had received two doses, it reduced infection with the coronavirus by 57 percent and intensive care admissions by 95 percent, said
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Friday announced a nationwide “total lockdown” starting in June as coronavirus infections in the country surged to record levels. Muhyiddin said the stricter lockdown from June 1 to 14 was for all social and economic areas, and that only essential services and economic sectors would remain in operation, which
Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was among eight democracy activists handed new prison sentences on Friday for attending protests on the 70th anniversary of the founding of communist China that were followed by a sweeping crackdown. Lai, who is already behind bars for taking part in earlier protests, was given 14 months after
San Jose (AP) – An employee opened fire Wednesday at a California rail yard serving Silicon Valley, killing eight people. The suspect was also dead, authorities said. Santa Clara County sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Russell Davis said the suspect was an employee of the Valley Transportation Authority, which provides bus, light rail and other transit services
A public transit worker shot dead eight people at a California rail yard Wednesday before turning his gun on himself as police arrived, officials said after the latest mass shooting to hit the United States. Multiple victims were also wounded in the attack at the rail yard in San Jose, just south of San Francisco.
Australia’s second most populous state of Victoria will enter a one-week COVID-19 lockdown forcing its near seven million residents to remain home except for essential business as authorities struggle to contain a highly-infectious outbreak. “We’re dealing with a highly infectious strain of the virus, a variant of concern, which is running faster than we have
President Joe Biden ordered aides to determine the origin of the virus that causes COVID-19, saying on Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agencies are pursuing rival theories potentially including the possibility of a laboratory accident in China. Intelligence agencies are considering two likely scenarios but still lack strong confidence in their conclusions and are hotly debating
Long dismissed as a kooky conspiracy theory favored by the far right, the idea that Covid emerged from a lab leak in Wuhan has been gaining increasing momentum in the United States. The government’s position has shifted to agnosticism in recent weeks, with top pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
EU leaders on Tuesday welcomed the introduction of a bloc-wide Covid-19 pass that they hope will unlock a tourist surge this summer. The 27 member states would like the EU Digital Covid Certificate, to be launched July 1 for citizens and residents, to turn the page on coronavirus restrictions that have crimped Europeans’ cherished freedom
