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The much-politicized Nord Stream 2 undersea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany is 99% complete, the pipeline operator said, after the pipelay vessel Akademik Cherskiy finished its initially planned workload. The $11 billion Nord Stream 2, designed to bypass Russia’s political foe Ukraine and double the capacity of the existing …

China says it has put forward alternative parameters for a second probe into the origins of Covid-19 that should span multiple countries, Beijing’s latest move to counter a push by the US for a deeper investigation into the theory the virus leaked from a Wuhan lab. China, where the coronavirus …

The effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine dropped from 96 percent to 84 percent over six months, a new study funded by the companies showed. The study, published on Wednesday, showed that while the efficacy level of the Pfizer vaccine reached a peak of 96.2 percent within the first two …

COVID-19 could be just a few mutations away from evading existing vaccines that protect against the deadly virus, according to the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Two Games-related people from overseas with COVID-19 have been hospitalized but neither case is serious, Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya said on Thursday. The cases are the first known COVID-19 hospitalizations at the pandemic-hit Games, which is in its sixth day of competition and runs till August 8. Athletes and …

Beginning July 30, Walt Disney World in Florida will begin requiring attendees to wear face masks, as the US state sees a rise in COVID-19 cases. The new rules will apply to all guests aged two and up while indoors and using public transport facilities in the park, regardless of …

Italy approved the use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for children 12-17 years old. To date, over 31 million people in Italy — or 57.4 percent of the target population aged 12 and above — have already been fully immunized. Italy has authorized the Moderna Spikevax coronavirus vaccine for minors aged …

Researchers find North Africa’s oldest Stone Age hand-axe manufacturing site, dating back 1.3 million years. Archaeologists in Morocco have announced the discovery of North Africa’s oldest Stone Age hand-axe manufacturing site, dating back 1.3 million years, an international team reported on Wednesday. The find pushes back by hundreds of thousands …

The decision by some EU countries to ban Huawei from supplying 5G infrastructure is based on “political motivation”, the Chinese company has said, as it defended its legacy and ongoing investments in the region. Abraham Liu, Huawei’s chief representative to the EU, said “when you talk about certain, very few …

United Nations negotiations for a global agreement to protect the planet’s biodiversity are being delayed a third time due to the coronavirus pandemic and are now set to take place in the spring of 2022, according to sources familiar with the matter. Diplomats, scientists, and conservationists from over 200 countries …

Bitcoin’s price jumped 7.2% on Wednesday after cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance announced it will further cap withdrawals and leverage. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency was trading at around $39,870 at 10:00am GMT, regaining momentum after Tuesday’s losses. Number-two crypto ethereum was also trading around 4% higher. This comes after the …

Researchers say ‘overexploitation of the Earth’ has seen many of its ‘vital signs’ deteriorate to record levels. Thousands of scientists have repeated calls for urgent action to tackle the climate emergency, warning that several tipping points are now imminent. The researchers, part of a group of more than 14,000 scientists …

New research studying COVID-19 patients has found that a severe infection could cause brain changes that increase an individual’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Researchers from UT Health San Antonio have followed COVID-19 patients with long-term neurological symptoms for the past year, and are presenting their findings this week at the …

A Chaumet jewellery store close to the Champs-Elysee avenue in central Paris was targeted by an armed robbery on Tuesday, the Paris prosecutors’ office said, with almost 2 million euros ($2.37 million) worth of goods stolen, according to reports. Le Parisien newspaper said a man arrived at the store on …

A former Los Angeles police officer was swarmed by 5,000 angry bees in his backyard on Saturday, in an attack that killed two of his dogs and left him with more than 40 stings. Bob Ramos of Diamond Bar, California, told local news outlet KTLA that the bees were in …

Schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic must reopen as soon as possible, the United Nations insisted on Tuesday, estimating that the education of more than 600 million children was at stake. “This cannot go on,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told reporters in Geneva. Read …

Medical authorities in China have said a drug used in Japan to treat new strains of influenza appeared to be effective in coronavirus patients, Japanese media said on Wednesday. Zhang Xinmin, an official at China’s science and technology ministry, said favipiravir, developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm, had produced encouraging …

Oil prices were little changed on Monday as investors balanced concerns about fuel demand from the spread of Covid-19 variants and floods in China against expectations of tight supplies through the rest of the year. Brent crude futures for September fell 3 cents to $74.07 a barrel by 0153 GMT …

Simone Biles’ bid for a record six gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics ended abruptly on Tuesday when she dropped out of the women’s team final after one vault and watched as the United States surrendered their title to Russia.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday that 70 percent of adults in the bloc have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Overall, 57 percent of over-18s are now fully vaccinated across the 27 nations, she said in a statement. “These figures put Europe among the …