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End of the road for Hong Kong’s democratic dream as China “improves” its voting system

HONG KONG, March 5 (Reuters) - Ever since Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997, opposition activists have tried to bring full democracy to the city, believing that China would live up…

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FOCUS-Travel industry bets on vaccine passports to draw Brits to Med

LONDON/MADRID/PARIS, March 5 (Reuters) - The race to roll out vaccination passports is spurring competition among travel companies and tourist destinations for the large number of Britons set to receive…

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Following 3 major quakes off New Zealand, questions remain about how they might be linked

A sequence of three major offshore earthquakes, including a magnitude 8.1 quake near the Kermadec Islands, triggered tsunami warnings and evacuations along the east coast of New Zealand this morning. By early afternoon,…

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What is the International Criminal Court?

THE HAGUE, March 3 (Reuters) - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday opened a formal investigation into possible war crimes committed in the Palestinian Territories. Below are…

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The Conversation: Deciding on whether to close schools or not

Policymaking during a pandemic can be extremely challenging. Given that Covid-19 is a new disease and its global impacts are unprecedented, decisions must be made in a highly uncertain, complex,…

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Is the Mediterranean Basin really a hotspot of environmental change?

The Mediterranean basin, which includes the Mediterranean sea and the countries it borders, is often referred to as a hotspot for climate change and biodiversity. This image is used to…

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Gorbachev tells EU and Russia to ‘not be afraid of negotiations’

Moscow (dpa) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has expressed hope for an improvement in relations between Russia and the European Union, Russia's Interfax news agency reported on Saturday. Ties between the powers…

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Gulf War: 30 years on, the consequences of Desert Storm are still with us

The Conversation - It was a short message to end a short war. On February 26 1991, Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz put his signature to a letter addressed to…

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How did NASA’s Martian rover come to land in a crater named after a tiny Balkan village?

The world was excited by the news last week that NASA’s Perseverance rover had successfully landed in a Martian crater. The rover will now set about collecting samples from what scientists say…

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Uber drivers ruling: How thousands working in the gig economy could benefit

It’s been a long old journey for former Uber drivers James Farrar and Yasseen Aslam. But after a five year legal battle, the pair arrived at their chosen destination –…

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Biden’s first month was a ‘honeymoon,’ but bigger challenges loom ahead

WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - One month into the job, President Joe Biden is on the cusp of securing a bigger economic rescue package than during the 2009 financial crisis.…

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From ECB to Rome, ‘Super Mario’ Draghi rides to Italy’s rescue

Mario Draghi has never shirked a challenge, from salvaging the reputation of Italy’s central bank to saving the euro. He is about to take on what may be an even…

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Analysis – From Conte to Draghi – now comes the hard part

ROME, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Italians' hopes in Mario Draghi could hardly be higher. But the former European Central Bank chief, who was sworn in as the country's new prime…

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INSIGHT-Vaccine vs variant

JERUSALEM, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Israel’s swift vaccination rollout has made it the largest real-world study of Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine. Results are trickling in, and they are promising. More…

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COVID-19 has fuelled automation — but human involvement is still essential

The Conversation - The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the way we work and interact with machines — and people — in the workplace. The surge in remote working brought on…

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Russia’s Navalny case casts shadow on German politics ahead of election

The poisoning and jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has thrust Nord Stream 2 - a pipeline to take Russian gas to Europe - up Germany's political agenda. That has…

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As Poland’s Church embraces politics, Catholics depart

WARSAW, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Katarzyna Lipka is no longer Catholic, and she says that is a political statement. Like most Poles, the 35-year-old has marked life's milestones in the…

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COVID vaccine nationalism: history shows when countries act selfishly, everyone loses

The Conversation - According to one recent estimate, more than half of all vaccines against COVID-19 have been reserved for one-seventh of the world’s population. At the time of writing,…

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Brexit, Nationalisation, Pandemic and Pride… how a vaccine exposed all the underlying conditions

Brexit, Nationalisation, Pandemic and Pride were the underlying conditions of the feud between the EU and UK and the vaccine producers. The way the issue erupted on Friday led to…

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A great deal of expectation

After years of hard-nosed negotiations, false starts and inconclusive talks, the post-Brexit deal announced by the UK and the EU on December 24th felt nothing short of a Christmas miracle.…

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A rocky road to the White House

As a young boy, Joe Biden used to say he wanted to become President of the United States when he grew up. Sure enough, he announced his first presidential bid…

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Lockdown and dementia: for some, COVID-19 has created an isolated, confusing but calmer world

The approximately 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK have been badly affected by COVID-19. Many live in care homes, which have arguably been hit hardest by the pandemic,…

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Explainer: South China Sea tension flares again as Biden takes charge

(Reuters) - A U.S. aircraft carrier group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt entered the South China Sea over the weekend to promote "freedom of the seas" at a time…

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Trump’s legacy: A more divided America, a more unsettled world

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When President Donald Trump delivered his inaugural speech on Jan. 20, 2017, he promised an end to “American carnage,” a bleak and dysfunctional nation he had promised…

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From a new coalition to a technocrat government – Italy’s options to overcome latest crisis

Reuters/POLITICO - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resisted calls to resign on Thursday after a junior coalition party pulled out of his government, stripping him of a parliamentary majority in…

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No country is an island: collective approach to COVID-19 vaccines is the only way to go

As countries across the world begin to purchase and roll out COVID-19 vaccines, a key question is how far the vaccine is from reaching Africa and how accessible it will…

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Brexit trade problems: what’s gone wrong and can it be fixed?

Queues of lorries at borders and empty supermarket shelves confirm what most already knew: the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) has increased trade barriers between the EU and the…

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What will Congress do now that Trump has been impeached a second time?

Jan 13 (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Wednesday made Donald Trump the first U.S. president to be impeached twice, formally charging him with inciting an insurrection just a…

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Even with a vaccine, we need to adjust our mindset to playing the COVID-19 long game

Australia - Incredibly, a whole year has passed since the first emergence of COVID-19. What looked like a temporary inconvenience at first is turning into a permanent fixture that might…

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Analysis: Facebook and Twitter crackdown around Capitol siege is too little, too late

PALO ALTO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - By the time social media companies took action against users and groups spurring on the siege of Capitol Hill this week, culminating in the suspension…

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How Brexit changed the English Language

Recent research has revealed a number of expressions that have entered everyday use since Brexit started. Terms like “Article 50”, “no deal”, “hard border” may now seem just part of life but…

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How to outsmart your COVID-19 fears and boost your mood in 2021

After a year of toxic stress ignited by so much fear and uncertainty, now is a good time to reset, pay attention to your mental health and develop some healthy…

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Instagram’s redesign shifts toward shopping – here’s how that can be harmful

Recently, when I opened Instagram, I noticed that the usual spot for checking notifications is now a Shop tab. The Instagram blog post announcing the redesign said that the change…

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How does Britain’s parliament approve the Brexit trade deal?

Britain and the European Union agreed terms of a trade deal on Thursday after months of knife-edge negotiations and seven days before transitional arrangements come to an end. That gives…

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What’s the deal? The nuts and bolts of the new post-Brexit agreement

CDE / DPA / Reuters -The post-Brexit trade deal reached by the United Kingdom and the European Union goes beyond the EU's so-called "Canada-style" trade accord, the BBC said on…

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Russia’s potent cyber and information warfare capabilities

MOSCOW, Dec 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that Russia was responsible for a cyber attack that embedded malicious code inside U.S. government software…

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Where are we in the vaccine race?

The following is what we know about the race to deliver vaccines to help end the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 1.59 million people worldwide: WHO IS FURTHEST ALONG? U.S.…

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The Blue Mountains World Heritage site has been downgraded, but it’s not too late to save it

Twenty years ago, UNESCO inscribed the greater Blue Mountains area on the World Heritage List for having “outstanding universal value”. If you’ve travelled to the Blue Mountains, with its rugged…

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China’s COVID vaccines are already being distributed. But how do they work, and where are they up to in trials?

Chinese authorities have already approved multiple COVID vaccines for emergency use in the country, and nearly a million Chinese have already been vaccinated with one candidate. Several local governments are…

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‘Is it safe to have more than one type of COVID vaccine?’

If we are ever to return to some semblance of normality, then the world’s population needs to be immune to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. But with so many…

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Brexit …. What happens next?

LONDON, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson could drop clauses in legislation that will deliberately breach Britain's European Union exit treaty if negotiators agree a deal with the…

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The potential impact of Brexit without a trade deal explained

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union sought on Sunday to strike an elusive trade deal, with failure likely to end with trade in chaos, markets tumbling and a…

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Fortune or foresight? AstraZeneca and Oxford’s stories clash on COVID-19 vaccine

LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca and Oxford University have given conflicting accounts of how they came upon the most effective dosing pattern for their COVID-19 vaccine, a rare instance of public…

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Explainer: Will COVID-19 vaccines protect us? Does efficacy equal effectiveness?

The frontrunners in the COVID-19 vaccine race have emerged with different success rates for their shots in clinical trials, but what does that mean for the global fight against the…

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Angela Merkel – The eternal chancellor

In power so long she has been dubbed Germany's "eternal chancellor", Angela Merkel marks 15 years at the helm of Europe's top economic power Sunday with her popularity and public…

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The Conversation – Why women strike?

During the COVID-19 emergency, contact with others for many of us is conducted through windows. We talk through them but also use them to display our hopes, emotions and frustrations.…

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Why Trump’s lawsuits are unlikely to change the outcome of the election

U.S. President Donald Trump's litigation campaign to discredit President-elect Joe Biden's victory is very unlikely to change the outcome of the election and is mostly about politics and fundraising, according…

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Microsoft’s President Brad Smith on the US Election

In 2016, as the United States emerged from a close and contentious national election, we published a blog on the need to find new ways for the country to move forward…

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London’s role in facilitating corporate crime could prove the capital’s undoing

In May 2016, David Cameron raised an uncomfortable topic. At an anti-corruption summit in London, the former British prime minister sat alongside Nigeria’s president and other dignitaries and declared that…

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Explainer – Nagorno-Karabakh – Old tensions erupt again into violence

Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous and heavily-forested patch of land that sits inside the territory of ex-Soviet Azerbaijan. Under international law, Nagorno-Karabakh is recognised as part of Azerbaijan. But the ethnic…

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Who is Amy Coney Barrett?

As the parent of seven children, Amy Coney Barrett knows about working with a large group: it is an experience she will have again if confirmed as the ninth justice on the U.S. Supreme…

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Nobody is born racist – Commissioner Dalli

Nobody is born racist. It is not a characteristic, which we are born with. So it is a question of nurture, and not nature. And this action plan, together with…

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Obituary – U.S. Supreme Court’s Ginsburg, a liberal dynamo, championed women’s rights

Ruth Bader Ginsburg became a heroine to the American left after overcoming entrenched sexism in the legal profession to ascend to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she championed gender equality…

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Brexit is far from over for the UK and EU member states

When it comes to Brexit, Brussels is still hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. The seventh formal round of post-Brexit talks ended last week in a familiar stalemate and mutual…

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