Dispute over Italian coronavirus study shows challenges of probing origins
By Emilio Parodi A dispute over blood tests has raised questions about an Italian study that suggested the coronavirus was circulating outside China much earlier...
World
EU regulator endorses use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine in teens
Europe’s medicines regulator on Friday recommended approving the use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in 12- to 17-year olds, paving the way for it to become...
Hungry, thirsty soccer fans help UK retailers return to growth
British retail sales resumed their post-lockdown recovery in June after a surprise fall in May, as soccer fans watching the Euro 2020 tournament loaded up...
Australia tightens Sydney lockdown in ‘national emergency’ Covid-19 scare
Australia’s New South Wales state on Friday reported its biggest daily rise in new COVID-19 cases this year, prompting a tighter lockdown in Sydney in...
Belgium raises flood death toll to 37, further six missing
Belgian authorities raised the death toll on Thursday from last week’s burst rivers and flash floods to 37, with a further six people missing. Belgium‘s...
Websites of airlines, banks, tech companies back online after brief global outage
Several airlines, banks and technology websites were coming back online on Thursday afternoon after a brief outage, the third such widespread incident noted in just a...
Italian fashion boss offers vaccine holdouts 6 months paid leave
Italian luxury boss Brunello Cucinelli is offering six months of paid leave to a handful of employees who have refused to vaccinate in order to...
Britain unveils plan to return NatWest to majority private control
Britain’s government on Thursday unveiled a blueprint for returning NatWest (NWG.L) to majority private ownership within a year, more than a decade since bailing out...
Anger over Covid rules gives new impetus to France’s Yellow Vests
Working from his one-room apartment near Paris airport, Jerome Rodrigues has been trying to re-invigorate a Yellow Vest protest movement that two years ago challenged...
Parliamentary inquiry urges UK-wide minimum standard protocol for head injuries
The British government has been urged to mandate a minimum standard protocol for concussions across sports in a bid to reduce the risk of brain...
China rejects WHO plan for study of Covid-19 origin
China rejected on Thursday a World Health Organization (WHO) plan for a second phase of an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, which includes the...
Israel eyes spyware export curbs; Macron, Merkel troubled by abuse reports
An Israeli parliamentary panel may seek changes to defence export policy over reports that software sold by Israel’s NSO Group was used to spy on...
US and Germany strike deal on Nord Stream 2 pipeline
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Joe Biden on Thursday reached an agreement on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that will carry gas from...
‘Pingdemic’ grips Britain as fears of food shortages grow
Britain’s supermarkets, wholesalers and hauliers were struggling on Thursday to ensure stable food and fuel supplies after an official health app told hundreds of thousands...
Opening ceremony director fired over Holocaust joke on Games eve
On the eve of the Tokyo Games, organisers fired the director of the opening ceremony over a joke he made about the Holocaust, while media...
Syrian air defences intercept Israeli attack over Homs
Syria’s air defences intercepted an Israeli attack on the al Qusair area in Homs early on Thursday, Syrian state media reported. A Syrian military source...
Tens of thousands evacuated as China storms spread northwards
Tens of thousands of people were being evacuated from flood-hit regions of central China on Thursday as officials raised the death toll from heavy rains that have...
Half of all Afghan district centres under Taliban control – US general
Taliban insurgents control about half of Afghanistan’s district centres, the senior US general said on Wednesday, indicating a rapidly deteriorating security situation. Insecurity has been...
UK citizen arrested in Spain for role in 2020 Twitter hack
A 22-year-old British citizen was arrested in Spain on Wednesday in connection with a July 2020 Twitter hack which compromised the accounts of high-profile politicians...
India reports first human death from bird flu
An 11-year-old boy has died in India from a bird flu virus of the H5N1 strain, the first such fatality in the country, highlighting a...