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Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine shows great results against the Delta coronavirus strain, with its effectiveness against it reaching around 83%, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Wednesday. “Today, the Sputnik V vaccine shows the most effective results in preventing and fighting the Delta strain. The latest data show that its …

US President Joe Biden celebrated the Senate’s passage of a historic, sweeping $1.2 trillion bipartisan package on Tuesday, a step toward fulfilling a key item in his legislative agenda that also amounts to the biggest bipartisan win of his presidency so far. “The death of this legislation was mildly premature,” …

New data showing vaccines still allow transmission of the virus means herd immunity may not be possible Herd immunity “is not a possibility” because the delta variant can spread among vaccinated individuals, according to experts including the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group. In a parliamentary panel on Tuesday, Professor …

Ethiopia’s government on Tuesday urged citizens to join the fight against resurgent Tigrayan forces now pushing beyond their own region in a nine-month-old war that has sparked a major refugee crisis. The call to arms came in a statement from the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed: “Now is the …

Taliban overruns cities of Farah and Pul-e-Khumri in fresh setbacks for Afghanistan’s government. The Taliban has captured two more cities in Afghanistan, taking the number of provincial capitals the group has seized since Friday to eight. Farah city of the eponymous southwestern province and Pul-e-Khumri of the northern province of …

In his latest sweeping crackdown on political dissent, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has ordered the arrest of at least 207 employees from different ministries under the guise of fighting corruption. The announcement came Monday from the kingdom’s so-called National Anti-Corruption Commission, known as ‘Nazaha,’ which reports directly …

Iraq logged 9970 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said today. The daily epidemiological report stated that 66 COVID-19 deaths were registered today. On the other hand, 9926 patients achieved full recovery. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Iraq, 1732298 patients have contracted the …

Real Madrid will launch civil and criminal lawsuits against La Liga president Javier Tebas and CVC Capital Partners’ chief Javier de Jaime Guijarro over their proposed 2.7 billion euro ($3.16 billion) deal, the Spanish soccer club said on Tuesday. Real Madrid also said they would pursue legal action to block …

Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google is blocking ad targeting based on the age, gender or interests of people under 18, the company said on Tuesday. It also said it would turn off its “location history” feature, which tracks location data, for users under 18 globally. It will further expand the types …

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi says a regional summit will be held in the country later this month. In a statement on Monday, the office of Kadhemi said Baghdad would be the host of a regional summit late in August, with French President Emmanuel Macron also attending. It added that …

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday he will resign after a withering report from the state’s attorney general alleged he’d sexually harassed multiple women, leading to calls from top Democrats, including President Joe Biden, that he step down. “And I think that given the circumstances the best way I …

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a decree on Tuesday approved a new cabinet headed by Hussein Arnous, less than two weeks after the caretaker-premier was tasked with forming a new government. The final announcement about the new 21-member cabinet came in a tweet by the Syrian Presidency, with no significant …

Extreme heatwaves that previously only struck once every 50 years are now expected to happen once per decade because of global warming, while downpours and droughts have also become more frequent, a UN climate science report says. The report found that we are already experiencing those effects of climate change, …

At least 11 Taliban members were killed in a B-52 airstrike by US forces in Kapisa province’s Nijrab district on Tuesday morning, TOLO News quoted a provincial police spokesman as saying. By Tuesday, the Taliban were in control of six Afghan provincial capitals following a blitz across the north that …

The F.B.I. said it would review some long-classified documents for possible disclosure, a decision that followed a push by families of the attacks’ victims. The Biden administration, under pressure from families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, said on Monday that it intended to disclose some long-classified documents that …

Several rounds of meetings scheduled over three days between Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban as armed group makes advances. The United States envoy on Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, “will press the Taliban to stop their military offensive” at talks in Qatar’s capital this week, the Department of State announced after the …

Firefighters and helicopters are trying to contain several blazes threatening residents in Tizi Ouzou province. At least seven people have been killed in Algeria as forest fires spread in the North African country, the civil defense authority said on Tuesday. Two people were seriously injured, it added. State radio reported …

Oil prices rose more than 1% on Tuesday, recouping some of the losses in the previous session when prices hit a three-week low, but gains are likely to be limited on worries that rising COVID-19 cases and restrictions in China will dent fuel demand. Brent crude was up by 84 …

A logistics convoy of the US military was targeted this morning in the Iraqi province of Babylon. No group has so far claimed responsibility for targetting this US military logistics convoy in Babylon province. On August 8, news sources reported that another US logistics convoy was targeted in Nasiriya, southern …

Health officials in Guinea have confirmed West Africa’s first case of Marburg, a highly infectious disease that’s in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the virus needed to be “stopped in its tracks”. Marburg virus disease is transmitted to people from …