The Covid-19 virus had been active in Italy months before it was first officially detected, new research has found, raising further questions about the true origins, extent and actual duration of the ongoing pandemic. The new groundbreaking study, conducted by scientists with Milan Institute of Cancer and the University of Siena, was published this week by the Tumori Journal. The research is based [...]

Russia was widely criticized when it became the first country in the world to register a coronavirus vaccine in August. It was accused of rushing through the approval of the ‘Sputnik V’ formula for political or propaganda gain. Since then the whole development of the vaccine has been dogged by Schadenfreude as the press leapt on signs of impropriety in the data, and Russia has even been acc [...]

Ten members the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and five other Asia-Pacific countries, including regional leader China, have inked the world’s largest free-trade pact that covers nearly a third of global economy. The long-discussed agreement, officially known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), was signed on the sidelines of the annual ASEAN summit on S [...]

Fifteen Asia-Pacific nations including China and Japan plan to sign the world’s biggest free trade deal this weekend. The FTA will cut tariffs, strengthen supply chains with common rules of origin, and codify new e-commerce rules. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is expected to be announced at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, which Vietnam is [...]

The research team of Credit Suisse, one of Switzerland’s leading banks, has commended the frank discussion that the developers of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine recently had on its efficacy. "We were encouraged by the frank discussion of the human viral vector technology used and we view the 92 percent efficacy as a positive incremental readacross for the AstraZeneca data expected soon ( [...]

Joe Biden understands it is necessary to extend the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said in an interview with Sputnik. The possible change of the US administration, however, does not mean that the issues Moscow and Washington have in the disarmament area will be completely resolved, the diplomat said. [...]

Israel occupied and annexed about 1,200 square km of Syria’s strategic Golan Heights in the aftermath of the Six Day War of June 1967. The United Nations condemned the move as “null and void and without international legal effect”. Damascus has vowed to get its territory back one day "by any means necessary". China and the Group of 77 bloc of developing nations has called on Israel [...]

This week, the top US diplomat announced fresh sanctions against four Chinese officials accused of “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy,” and said that the Trump administration was “not finished yet” in increasing pressure on the Chinese “Marxist-Leninist monster.” The Global Times, a newspaper which is an offshoot of the Chinese Communist Party-affiliated People’s Daily, has [...]

From stealing research to hacking #virus vaccine trials, Russia has been accused by the West of playing fast and loose in the race to contain the pandemic. Our correspondents see how the #vaccine works and volunteer to test subjects. See their experiences after the Sputnik 5 vaccine injection.  What do you know about the Russian Sputnik-V Russia's Sputnik V vaccine: What the experts say [...]

Washington’s crackdown on Huawei has been in place since May 2019, when the US Department of Commerce blacklisted the Chinese tech giant, accusing the company of cooperating with China's intelligence services, allegations that both Beijing and the firm vehemently reject. Several top Brazilian telecom companies have rejected an American Embassy invitation to meet a US official who earlie [...]

The boss of one of Israel’s largest hospitals has placed a huge order for Russia’s Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine, arguing that concerns over the formula are due to tensions between Moscow and Washington, rather than safety issues. Zeev Rotstein, director of Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Centre believes Western objections are more political than scientific, telling Israeli newspaper Haare [...]

Having suffered humiliation from the UK, Poland and Hungary, the EU is scrapping its own voting rules in favour of measures to strip funding from member states that choose to follow their own path, not the one decreed by Brussels. In the mother of all ironies, as the clock ticks down to Brexit, it’s not the Palace of Westminster hit by a bombshell this Guy Fawkes Night, but the European Par [...]

Cell phone footage of a suspected terrorist attack originally reported to be taking place near Vienna’s main synagogue shows a massive police response and officers exchanging fire with one or multiple gunmen. In one video, filmed from above, a man dressed in white with a black balaclava can be seen going down a cobblestone-lined street and firing off several shots. Someone yells out a profa [...]

The Russian authorities would have never let Alexey Navalny leave for treatment in Germany if they pursued poisoning him, especially given his travel restrictions under a criminal case, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. "If the authorities wanted to poison him, they would have not let him go to Germany for treatment, would they? As soon as the wife of this citizen sent me a req [...]

More than 50 percent of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) operating in Europe’s top-five economic powerhouses fear they will have to close in 12 months as they’re struggling to stay afloat amid the coronavirus crisis. The pandemic has pushed down the revenues of more than 70 percent of European companies, according to the results of the McKinsey survey of over 2,200 SMEs in five Eu [...]

Turkey is not a “tribal state” that can be pushed around, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, dismissing the American warnings over its procurement of Russian-made S-400 anti-aircraft systems. Ankara will see through the deployment of its S-400 systems, which will not be disrupted by any threats or sanctions, Erdogan made clear, speaking in the eastern Turkish city of Malatya on Sunday. T [...]

The US-centralized empire functions like a giant blob that absorbs nations and turns them into imperial client states. Once absorbed, it is rare for a country to escape and rejoin other genuinely sovereign nations. The new president-elect of Bolivia, Luis Arce, has told the Spanish international news agency EFE that he intends to restore the nation’s relations with Cuba, Venezuela and Iran. T [...]

Anya Parampil speaks with journalist Ollie Vargas in La Paz, Bolivia about the historic victory of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party in the October 18 elections. Parampil and Vargas discuss the role of Bolivia’s social movements in overturning the coup regime that came to power in 2019, as well as the expectations of average people as the new government of Luis Arce takes power. [...]

Russia has started testing its coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V on volunteers aged over 60, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told Sputnik on Friday."We have launched trials of the Sputnik V vaccine, developed by the Russian Health Ministry's Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, on volunteers who are older than 60", Murashko said. It is crucially important to develop [...]

In mid-September, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned against politicising the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, which he said is profitable for both Russia and the EU. The statement came amid Berlin's threats to freeze the project due to Moscow's alleged role in the purported poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has told the media group Red [...]

Moscow will adequately respond to Washington's deployment of intermediate and short-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC), Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said."If American missiles are deployed in APAC, and it was once again confirmed to me yesterday that such missiles would be deployed, then the range of these missiles would reach the Russian Federation, coveri [...]

India’s vaccines regulator has given the green light for a clinical study of the Russia-developed Covid-19 vaccine. Similar trials of the formulation are underway in Russia itself and in some other nations. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), a department in India’s drug regulator that is responsible for licensing vaccines, has given its approval for a domestic clinical study of the [...]