Just days after the Tokyo Olympics drew to a close, Japan appeared to be hurtling towards a coronavirus disaster. On 13 August, the host city reported a record 5,773 new Covid-19 cases, driven by the Delta variant. Nationwide the total exceeded 25,000. Soaring infections...
Turkmenistan is one of only a handful of countries, including North Korea, which says it has no coronavirus cases. But reports suggest it is experiencing its third and possibly strongest wave of Covid-19. Sayahat Kurbanov was suffocating. He gasped for...
Aparade of white Taliban flags lines Musa Qala bazaar right up to the central monument where two kidnappers were hanged in a public execution earlier this year. The flags flutter from almost every shop in celebration, some rough and handmade, others printed...
The US has said it is concerned after the Taliban unveiled Afghanistan's new all-male government with figures linked to attacks on American forces. The interim cabinet is led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, who is on a UN blacklist. Another...
A classified US intelligence report delivered to the White House was inconclusive on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, in part due to a lack of information from China, according to US media reports. The assessment received on Tuesday, which was...
New Zealand’s coronavirus cluster has grown to 10, with genomic sequencing linking it to the Delta outbreak that began in Sydney, as the country woke up to day one of a snap lockdown stemming from just one case. The prime...
In an extraordinary rebuke over police brutality, India’s chief justice has said the most dangerous places in the country for threats to human rights are police stations. Nuthalapati Ramana said that rather than being the safest places, “the threat to...
China has dramatically tightened travel restrictions as it seeks to control the country’s worst outbreak in months, with hundreds of Delta variant cases linked to airport employees. The latest outbreak has so far infected more than 400 people in 25...
Press groups have expressed alarm at the worsening intimidation of foreign media in China, often driven by government officials and organisations. As recovery and rescue efforts continue in Henan province after last week’s deadly floods, groups including Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and...
American diplomats are escalating a charm offensive with Central Asian leaders this week as they work to secure a nearby spot to respond to any resurgence of outside militants in Afghanistan after the US military withdraws. But even as high-level US diplomats...
