According to World Health Organisation (WHO) experts, 6-8 million people in the world may have already died because of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, 1.8 million people are officially estimated to have died from the virus in 2020, and preliminary estimates of total mortality from COVID-19 stand at 3 million. Some 6-8 million people around the world could have died as a result of...

Average GDP growth in the most economically developed countries slowed to 0.3% in the first quarter of 2021 from 1% in the fourth quarter of 2020, preliminary data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show. In annual terms, GDP growth remained negative at minus 0.8% after minus 2.9% in the fourth quarter, minus 3.8% in the third, minus 11.6% in the second and...

The Maldives authorities have warned that the state could disappear due to climate change. 80% of the surface of the islands on which the country is located are barely more than one metre above sea level. The Maldives could disappear by the end of the century if the world does not begin to tackle climate change quickly and in a concerted manner, the country's environment, climate change and...

Japan's government will introduce amendments to laws that will require organisations in 14 key infrastructure sectors to consider national security risks when using imported equipment or services, the Nikkei newspaper reported, citing its own data. The authorities intend to monitor compliance with the rules and suspend or revoke licences in case of violations. Nikkei cites the telecoms, energy,...

Ethereum creator and the world's youngest crypto-billionaire Vitalik Buterin donated more than $1 billion in cryptocurrencies to pandemic India foundation COVID-Crypto Relief and other organizations. At the same time, the tokens donated by Buterin have plummeted in value because of his actions. The co-founder of blockchain platform and cryptocurrency Ethereum Vitalik Buterin donated over $1...

World economic growth in 2021 is expected to be 5.4%, according to the UN Global Economic Monitoring Division's mid-year report. The global GDP growth forecast was improved to 4.7% in January. The decline of the global economy in 2020 was 3.6%. Economic recovery in China and in the US has improved global growth prospects, but they are threatened by an increase in the coronavirus infections and...

The US authorities have declared a regional emergency following the suspension of operations by Colonial Pipeline, the largest operator of the United States fuel pipeline. Earlier, Colonial Pipeline said it had suffered a cyberattack. In response, the company shut down some systems "to contain the threat, which temporarily halted all pipeline-related operations and affected some information...

Low- and middle-income countries have opted not to order the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, Bloomberg reported, citing a letter from Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla. Earlier, the World Health Organisation said that equal access to COVID-19 vaccines globally was failing. "We have asked all countries to place orders so that we can allocate doses for them. In fact, high-income...

Despite statements by China's leaders and personally by President Xi Jinping about the country's ambition to become a global leader in combating climate change, China is still one of the leaders in sponsoring deforestation. According to a coalition of non-profit organisations Forests & Finance, between January 2016 and April 2020, Chinese institutions provided $15bn in loans and underwriting...