International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire Thursday, halting a bruising 11-day war that caused widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip, brought life in much of Israel to a standstill and left more than 200 people dead. At 2 a.m. local time, just as the cease-fire took effect, frenzy life returned to
European Union countries agreed on Wednesday to ease COVID-19 travel restrictions on non-EU visitors ahead of the summer tourist season, a move that could open the bloc’s door to all Britons and to vaccinated Americans. Ambassadors from the 27 EU countries approved a European Commission proposal from May 3 to loosen the criteria to determine
Spokesperson for Thailand’s Foreign Affair Ministry, Tanee Sangrat, has confirmed the deaths of two Thai workers in Eshkol city in Israel earlier today. Eshkol is 14 kilometres from the Gaza Strip. Tanee said that Israeli officials notified the Thai embassy in Tel-Aviv about the attack by Hamas earlier today, resulting in 2 deaths and 8
Israel has faced the highest ever rate of rocket attacks on its territory during its latest confrontation with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas that controls Gaza, the army said Sunday. Since Monday, armed groups in Gaza have fired about 3,000 rockets towards Israel, surpassing the pace during an escalation in 2019 and during the 2006
Four months into a Covid-19 vaccination campaign marred by shortages and delays, hard-hit Brazil is still struggling to find enough doses, as political and diplomatic blunders prolong its pandemic nightmare. Around 33 million people — 15 percent of the population — have received at least one vaccine dose in Brazil, a proportion still too small
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Turmoil from the battle between Israel and Hamas spilled over into the West Bank on Friday, sparking the most widespread Palestinian protests in years as hundreds of young demonstrators in multiple towns clashed with Israeli troops, who shot and killed at least 11 people. Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza
Taiwan raised its coronavirus alert level on Saturday in the capital, Taipei, and the surrounding city, bringing curbs for a period of two weeks that will shut many venues and restrict gatherings in the wake of 180 new domestic infections. Masks are to be worn outdoors for the first time, as the government encourages work
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a major step toward returning to pre-pandemic life, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people on Thursday, allowing them to stop wearing masks outdoors in crowds and in most indoor settings. “Today is a great day for America,” President Joe Biden said during a
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Thursday said it was massing troops along the Gaza frontier and calling up 9,000 reservists ahead of a possible ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory, as the two bitter enemies plunged closer to all-out war. Egyptian mediators rushed to Israel for cease-fire efforts but showed no signs of progress. The
Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano will be the next tourists to travel to the International Space Station (ISS), Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said Thursday. Maezawa and Hirano will travel aboard a Russian “Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft that is scheduled for launch on December 8, 2021, from the Baikonur cosmodrome” in Kazakhstan,
The United States drug regulator authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12-15 as the country aims to speed up its Covid-19 recovery, while President Joe Biden said this is a promising development in the fight against the virus. With some wealthy nations easing restrictions thanks to rapid inoculation drives but many others struggling to secure doses, the
Though people across the globe are praying for the COVID-19 pandemic to end, many are still reluctant to get a jab to fight it. Doubts over the vaccines’ efficacy and safety linger in several places, including Thailand. Recognizing that reluctance to receive the COVID-19 vaccine could torpedo efforts to achieve herd immunity, some nations are
