According to US President Joe Biden, his administration has already struck a deal with Pfizer to buy COVID-19 tablets. "Today, I'm reporting that we've ordered 10 million courses of COVID-19 tablets from Pfizer. Our most essential strategy remains vaccination, but this new drug has the potential to drastically cut hospitalizations and fatalities, as well as speed up our recovery from the epidemic...

The WHO estimates that 99% of global COVID-19 infections in the past 60 days have occurred in the delta variant of the coronavirus. The number of infections over the world has been rising for the past four consecutive weeks. Of the 900 000 cases of coronavirus infections reported worldwide over the past 60 days, 99% came from the strain codenamed delta. This was reported by World Health...

A new wave of COVID-19 is sweeping Europe, forcing authorities in the region to take tough action. Unvaccinated residents in Austria, for example, have been allowed to leave their homes only in exceptional cases since Monday, and German authorities are preparing to mobilise up to 12,000 troops to help the medics. The Christmas holidays in Europe are likely to be restricted. Among European...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) plans to develop a concessional lending facility for low- and middle-income countries against the backdrop of climate change. This will particularly affect island states. The size of the fund will be $30-50 billion. "In light of the climate crisis, we intend to develop a low-interest long-term lending instrument, with loans to be extended not only to...

The European Union now has an opportunity to roughly double steel product shipments to the United States after the decision to lift the duty, said Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice president of the European Commission (EC), at a press conference. The U.S. announced in late October that it would no longer apply duties from the so-called "Section 232" on a certain amount of steel and aluminum...

OPEC has worsened its forecast for global oil demand in 2021, now expecting it to rise by 5.7 million bpd instead of 5.8 million bpd a month earlier, and still expects growth of 4.2 million bpd in 2022, the organisation said in a November report. "Growth in global oil demand is revised downward by about 0.16 million bpd from last month's estimate, to 5.7 million bpd," the report said. The...

US pharmaceutical company Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that revaccinations against the coronavirus were likely to provide protection within a year, but pointed to the need for more research on the topic. "If I were to make a prediction, (protection) would probably last for a year. There is a possibility that it will be an annual vaccination," Bourla said on Tuesday, speaking during a virtual...

The US government is considering unleashing the country's strategic oil reserves in order to keep market prices stable. Jennifer Granholm, the US Secretary of Energy, stated this in an interview with Bloomberg TV. Ms. Granholm stated, "We are absolutely investigating the possibility [of delivering oil] from strategic reserves." She stated that US President Joe Biden's government was extremely...

China intends to increase imports from neighbouring countries, reduce the negative list for foreign investment and consistently expand openness in areas such as telecommunications and medicine, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the opening ceremony of the Fourth China International Import Expo. The Chinese leader pointed out that China's determination to share development opportunities with...