The European Union has exported “over one billion” doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the past 10 months, the bloc’s chief Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday.

2001 - At least 350 people were killed when an overcrowded boat, on its way to Australia from Lampung in Sumatra carrying mostly Iraqi asylum seekers, sank near Java.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that Moscow was suspending its mission to Nato and closing the Western military bloc’s liaison mission in Russia, in a row over spying.

The science is painfully clear: to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius -- given that we’re already at 1.1C -- means slashing carbon pollution in half by 2030, and to zero by mid-century.

Russia yesterday reported a new record for coronavirus infections for a fourth day in a row, a day after the worst-affected country in Europe set a new death toll high.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday condemned as “inexcusable” a deadly crackdown by Paris police on a 1961

Iran is not ready to return to talks with world powers over its nuclear programme yet and its new negotiating team wants to first meet with the EU in Brussels in the next few weeks, a senior EU official has said.

Russia yesterday topped 1,000 deaths over 24 hours for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with the

Russia reported a record 1,002 deaths from coronavirus on Saturday, the first time the daily number has passed the 1,000-mark since the start of the pandemic.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz yesterday took a step closer to succeeding Angela Merkel as chancellor, as his Social Democrats, the Greens and liberal FDP announced a preliminary deal to form a new government.

Representatives of the Taliban have confirmed they will take part in talks on Afghanistan in Moscow next week, President Vladimir Putin’s special representative on Afghanistan said yesterday.

A partially shredded canvas of one of Banksy’s most celebrated works sold at auction in London on Thursday for £18.58 million ($25.38 million), a new record for the British artist, three years after the artwork was bought for a fraction of that price.

Queen Elizabeth II has taken aim at world leaders who “talk” but “don’t do” enough about climate change, in an apparent jibe at those not attending the upcoming COP26 summit.

1946 - A number of top German Nazis were hanged at Nuremberg after being found guilty of war crimes. They included former foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.

Lebanon buried the victims of its deadliest sectarian unrest in years yesterday after gunfire gripped central Beirut for hours and revived the ghosts of the civil war.

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday its newly formed advisory group on dangerous pathogens may be “our last chance” to determine the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and urged China to provide data from early cases.

Russia yesterday reported a pandemic high for both new coronavirus infections and fatalities over 24 hours, with the country’s vaccination drive at a snail’s pace and few restrictions in place.

With climate change threatening traditional coffee farming, Finnish scientists say they have produced coffee from cell cultures with an aroma and taste resembling the real thing.

Talk about this (succession) destabilises the situation.

Tank deployments and deadly exchanges of fire turned Beirut into a war zone yesterday after a demonstration organised by Shia parties against the lead investigator into last year’s devastating port blast turned violent.