Bloomberg has forecasted the time it will take countries to vaccinate 75% of the population. The agency based its calculations on current vaccination rates in advanced countries and the volume of vaccines delivered. Three-quarters of the population is the fraction of people that scientists believe is necessary to build up collective immunity, although the estimate is rather vague, the agency...

According to the Financial Times (FT) sources at several major law firms, large firms are increasingly considering excluding Hong Kong from their legal contracts "out of concern that China's growing control could affect the legal rules" of that autonomy. The publication notes that senior lawyers from ten major law firms in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore are reporting increasing enquiries from...

The United Arab Emirates will be the first Gulf country to allow foreigners to obtain citizenship. Investors, scientists, doctors and inventors who are approved by the government will be able to apply for the passport. Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have adopted amendments to the law that will allow certain categories of foreigners to obtain citizenship of the country. It was reported by...

According to a report from the US Department of Economy, the country's GDP for the fourth quarter of 2020 grew by 4% compared to the previous quarter, which was the highest growth rate in the history of statistics. However, compared to the previous year the US economy shrank by 2.5% in the fourth quarter and in the full year the country's GDP shrank by 3.5% year-on-year. This is the worst...

The UN's largest-ever public opinion poll on climate shows that 64% of people consider climate change to be a global emergency, and 59% of them believe that whatever is needed to fix it should be done as soon as possible. The large-scale survey, which took place between October and December 2020, involved 1.2 million people from 50 countries, where 56% of the world's population lives. The people...

Canadian Alberta Minister Jason Kenney called on his US counterpart to respond to the Keystone XL decision. In his view, new US President Joe Biden's executive order banning the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline on the border of the two countries should have proportional economic consequences. Kenney called on the country's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to get the decision from the US...

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte intends to step down. The Italian head of government will formally resign on 26 January. "The Council of Ministers will meet tomorrow, Tuesday, 26 January, at 9:00 am, during which Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will inform his ministers of his wish to go to the Quirinal Palace and tender his resignation. Following this, Prime Minister Conte will go to the...

With the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and restrictive measures, the global economy shrank by 4.3% in 2020, according to the UN World Economic Situation and Prospects report. The crisis caused by the virus has been described as the worst in 90 years. "World GDP in 2020 fell by about 4.3%, which was the sharpest decline in output since the Great Depression. During the Great Recession of 2009,...

The Thai authorities will introduce a tourist fee of $10, according to Travel Off Path website. The idea of introducing such a fee has been discussed since 2016. The decision has not yet taken effect. "Thailand's Minister of Tourism and Sports Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn announced that each foreign visitor to the country would have to pay 300 Thai baht ($10). It also emerged that the fee should have...