South Koreans no longer need masks outdoors if vaccinated vs COVID
SEOUL — South Korea on Wednesday said masks will no longer be required outdoors from July for those vaccinated with at least one COVID-19 shot.
WhatsApp sues India govt, says new rules mean end to privacy — sources
WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in Delhi against the Indian government seeking to block regulations coming into force on Wednesday that experts say would compel the California-based Facebook unit to break privacy protections, sources said.
Biden looks abroad for electric vehicle metals, in blow to US miners
US President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., will rely on ally countries to supply the bulk of the metals needed to build electric vehicles and focus on processing them domestically into battery parts, part of a strategy designed to placate environmentalists, two administration officials with direct knowledge told Reuters.
Sweeping bill to counter China introduced in US House
WASHINGTON — US efforts to address competition with China progressed on Tuesday when the chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee introduced sweeping legislation to boost economic competitiveness and push Beijing on human rights.
UK’s COVID ‘disaster’ to be laid bare by PM Johnson’s ex-chief adviser
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser will on Wednesday cast his former boss as a dithering leader surrounded by fools whose ineptitude...
Airlines re-route to avoid Belarus, opposition says journalist beaten
KYIV/VILNIUS — Airlines re-routed flights to avoid Belarus’s airspace on Tuesday and Belarusian planes faced a possible ban from Europe, as international outrage mounted over Minsk...
Belarus faces new sanctions over ‘state-sponsored’ piracy
BRUSSELS/KYIV — Western powers prepared to pile sanctions on Belarus and cut off its aviation links on Monday, furious after it scrambled a warplane to intercept a Ryanair aircraft and arrest a dissident journalist, an act one official denounced as ‘state piracy.’
Extreme climate displaced more people than conflicts in 2020
THE number of new people forced to move within their own countries by climate disasters rose to the highest in at least a decade in 2020, more than three times those displaced due to conflict and violence.
US examines reports of early COVID-19 infections in Wuhan lab
WASHINGTON — US intelligence agencies are examining reports that researchers at a Chinese virology laboratory were seriously ill in 2019 a month before the first cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were reported, according to US government sources who cautioned that there is still no proof the disease originated at the lab.
US advises against travel to Japan due to COVID-19
WASHINGTON - The U.S. State Department on Monday urged against travel to Japan because of a new wave of coronavirus cases just two months...
World’s supply of chips in danger unless Taiwan gets vaccines
BACK in February, as the world was beating a path to Taiwan’s door for help to tackle a shortage of semiconductors, the health minister got into a scrap with China over COVID-19 vaccines.
Singapore approves COVID breath test that gives immediate result
A BREATH test designed to detect coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and give accurate results within a minute has been approved for use in Singapore, the National University of Singapore said in a statement.