WORLD

Europe’s medicines watchdog issued statements on Wednesday confirming that its Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) is looking into whether three medical conditions are connected to the administration of Covid jabs made by Pfizer and Moderna, after being made aware of a “small number” of incidences. One of the three potential …

A trove of internal documents published by journalist Christopher Rufo on Wednesday purported to show a diversity training course put on by the financial services giant last year, largely centered on promoting “racial equity and progress.” Trafficking heavily in concepts such as “white privilege,” “microaggressions” and “intersectionality,” the course informs white …

The country’s Investigative Committee opened a case on Wednesday, saying it would investigate the incident following massive public uproar in Russia.  The oil spill was first noticed off the coast near the port city of Novorossiysk on August 7. According to preliminary data, the oil leaked into the sea from …

Asked about whether the Taliban has any interest in reaching a peaceful resolution as a top US envoy is set to meet with the group for talks, Psaki struck a diplomatic tone, advising the militants to think about what role they want to play on the world stage and suggesting …

Roughly a day after it fell prey to the largest heist in crypto history by the volume of assets stolen, Poly Network announced that the alleged perpetrator, or perpetrators, of the hack returned some $260 million in bitcoin, ethereum and polygon tokens flushed out in the attack. About $353 million …

Unusually heavy rainfalls in the Turkish provinces on the Black Sea coast led to major flooding on Wednesday, with torrents of water and sludge rushing through the streets of cities and towns in the regions of Bartin, Sinop and Kastamonu. At least one person died from a heart attack amid …

Though health officials have been saying vaccines are safe for pregnant women, the CDC took things further by recommending inoculation for pregnant women, claiming they have found no heightened health risks.  Only 23% of pregnant women have received at least one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine as of July 31, …

Over the past few days, China has handed down sentences for Canadian nationals detained in the country for various misdeeds. One of them is being sentenced to death for smuggling drugs – nothing particularly unusual in an Asian context – while the other is accused more ambiguously of ‘espionage’. This …

On Wednesday, the head of the Executive Committee of Reforms in Ukraine, former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, slammed the policy requiring civil servants to prove their ability in the language. According to him, the rules, which came into force last month, have created an explosion in black market skills certificates. …

“There’s no more of that,” Army Chief of Staff Andika Perkasa declared, discussing the so-called ‘two-finger’ virginity tests which had examined “whether the hymen was ruptured or partially ruptured” before female cadets could be admitted.  Addressing concerns raised by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which investigated the process in 2014 and …