China

The spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus could lead to a slowdown in the recovery of the world economy, said today the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva, quoted by Reuters.

Georgieva speaks at the online forum "Reuters Next"

International credit rating agency Fitch has raised its Turkey growth forecast for 2021 from 9.2 percent to 10.5 percent, while it changed its outlook assessment from stable to negative.

Turkey can produce goods cheaper and sell those products to other countries and raise revenues in U.S. dollars like China has done, but Turkey has more advantages in terms of luring foreign investments, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.

The owner of Facebook - Meta Platforms - has removed more than 500 accounts associated with an online disinformation network based mainly in China, writes the BBC.

The accounts promoted a fake profile of Swiss biologist Wilson Edwards, who spread allegations that the United States was interfering in attempts to discover the origin of COVID-19.

Gazprom increased its gas exports to Bulgaria by 43.8%.

The company's deliveries to foreign countries have increased to 171.5 billion cubic meters, which is 6.6% (10.6 billion cubic meters) more than in the same period in 2020.

The number of coronavirus vaccinations in the world has exceeded 8 billion. More than half of them (4.16 billion) are in three countries - China (2.5 billion), India (1.2 billion) and the United States (0.46 billion).

The new economic model that Turkey is pursuing aims to grow the national economy by boosting investment, employment, production and export, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, reiterating that this strategy will likely record more than 10 percent growth by the end of this year.

Only a global vaccination plan can end the global pandemic and this unfair and immoral situation, UN Secretary-General António Guterres was quoted as saying by world news agencies today.

Yet, mysteriously, there was no physical contact. By spring 2017 there were more than 80 alleged cases. Their medical diagnosis was akin to a "concussion without a concussion." Shortly after, more than two dozen personnel and family members attached to the Canadian Embassy in Havana began to report similar symptoms, but no noises. The "Havana Syndrome" was born.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised to provide Africa with a billion doses of coronavirus vaccine in a speech delivered via video link at the China-Africa summit in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

The Chinese leader said his country would donate 600 million doses directly.