Facing a brutal new wave of coronavirus cases,India on Thursday made anyone over 45 eligible for vaccination. But the scramble to vaccinate as many people as possible has also meant sharply curtailing exports.
Why it matters: The hopes of vaccinating the world have largely fallen on the shoulders of India, a vaccine manufacturing powerhouse and home to the world’s largest producer, the Serum Institute.
Canada's three biggest provinces this week announced new coronavirus restrictions amid a surge in cases largely driven by COVID-19 variants, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Details: Ontario will enter a four-week limited lockdown — its third lockdown since the beginning of the pandemic — starting Saturday, which will ban all indoor activities. Earlier this week, Quebec closed schools and non-essential businesses, and British Columbia banned indoor activities, including places of worship.
As the Derek Chauvin trial wraps its first week of testimony in the U.S., Mexico is reckoning with its own case of police brutality.
Why it matters: The death of Victoria Salazar, a Salvadoran refugee who had lived in Tulum for years, is the most recent case of Mexican law enforcement being accused of killing someone of Central American origins.
Two men who work as coyotes, or human smugglers, told Noticias Telemundo that for those desperate enough, a payment of $8,000 each will suffice to get them into the U.S. through the desert.
Details: To cross people by car, hiding them in secret compartments, they’ll charge up to $20,000 because the coyotes swear U.S. immigration officers get a cut to turn a blind eye.
HSBC Global Research analysts are taking an increasingly granular look at which nations are the most and least resilient to climate change.
The big picture: A report this week ranked 77 countries on their capacity to adapt, shift away from fossil fuels, and benefit from growing cleantech markets.
A Hong Kong court has found media tycoon Jimmy Lai, barrister Martin Lee and five other pro-democracy leaders guilty of participating in an an authorized protest in 2019, per Bloomberg. They'll receive sentences at a later date.
Why it matters: The verdict is a further blow for the city's pro-democracy movement. It comes a day after China's government a passed a law that critics say effectively ends democratic elections in Hong Kong. The pro-democracy figures were convicted under a draconian national security law the Chinese government imposed on the territory last year.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday warned that "cyberthreats are coming dangerously close to threatening our lives" as he announced a series of "sprints" designed to counter online attacks.
Why it matters: "Our government got hacked last year and we didn’t know about it for months," Mayorkas said. It wasn't until cybersecurity firm SolarWinds "got hacked itself and alerted the government" when federal officials learned the extent of the problem, he noted.
United Nations special envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener told the UN Security Council during a meeting Wednesday that "a bloodbath is imminent" in Myanmar and urged the council to act, according to AFP.
Why it matters: The military junta that usurped power from Myanmar's democratically elected government in February has killed hundreds of protesters during anti-coup demonstrations across the country.
