China has approved its first locally developed messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine against Covid-19, its manufacturer said Wednesday, months after the relaxation of strict Covid-zero regulations sparked a surge in cases.. The vaccine, developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd, has been approved for "emergency use" by Beijing's health regulator, the company said in a statement.
Air pollution soared in Beijing on Wednesday as the Chinese capital was hit by a huge sandstorm, and dust also shrouded other parts of the country in a sickly orange haze.. The official air quality index in Beijing hit the maximum level of 500, indicating "severe pollution", though some unofficial readings were nearly twice that figure.
Mohammad Javad enters a fashionable shop in well-to-do north Tehran with his mother.. Javad, while choosing his tie, was accompanied by his chador-clad mother, who not only encourages him to wear one but also asked the salesmen to teach her how to tie it properly for her son.
Billions of people experience water-related issues on a daily basis -- from contaminated drinking water, to droughts and floods -- with a UN report warning Tuesday that the risk of a global crisis is "imminent.". At least two billion people drink water which has been contaminated with feces -- which can contribute to the spread of diseases such as cholera, dysentery and polio.
For the first time in its history, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) will hear a case this week about the legality of denying a woman access to abortion services.. "The fact that the Court has agreed to hear this case strongly indicates... that the denial of any health service, including those that are controversial such as abortion, is a human rights violation," said Maria Antonieta Alcalde of the Ipas reproductive rights NGO, which is among the plaintiffs.
Humanity's "lifeblood" -- water -- is increasingly at risk around the world due to "vampiric overconsumption and overdevelopment," the UN warned in a report, published hours ahead of a major summit on the issue was set to begin Wednesday.. The world is "blindly travelling a dangerous path" as "unsustainable water use, pollution and unchecked global warming are draining humanity's lifeblood," United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a foreword to the report, released hours ahead of the first major UN meeting on water resources in nearly half a century.
A shareholder lawsuit filed late Monday accuses board members of Instagram and Facebook parent Meta of shirking their duties by ignoring human and sex trafficking on the tech giant's social platforms.. Meta board members and senior executives named in the suit "turned a blind eye to sex/human trafficking, child sexual exploitation, and other predatory conduct occurring on Meta's online platforms," the suit charged.
All hormonal contraceptives carry a slightly increased risk of breast cancer, including the increasingly popular progestogen-only pills, according to a study published on Tuesday.. The researchers who carried out the study stressed that the increased risk of breast cancer needs to be weighed against the benefits of hormonal contraceptives, including the protection they provide against other forms of female cancer.
Google on Tuesday invited people in the United States and Britain to test its AI chatbot, known as Bard, as it scrambles to catch up with Microsoft-backed ChatGPT. Bard, ChatGPT and other similar apps churn out essays, poems or computing code on command, though they come with warnings that the information they create can be incorrect or inappropriate.. "We've learned a lot so far by testing Bard, and the next critical step in improving it is to get feedback from more people," Google vice presidents Sissie Hsiao and Eli Collins said in a blog post.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said Tuesday that US user numbers had soared to 150 million -- almost half the total population -- as he prepared to fight at US Congress for the Chinese owned site's future.. The Singaporean CEO said he would share with Congress "all that we're doing to protect Americans using the app," in a reference to a proposal called Project Texas that would guarantee a special handling for the data of US users.
