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We’re masking the push to purchase Covid remedy drugs in Asia, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and local weather questions dealing with China.
A rush to purchase Covid drugs
Not less than 4 international locations within the Asia-Pacific area introduced agreements with the drug maker Merck to buy a tablet that the pharmaceutical firm says may halve the danger of hospitalization and demise from Covid-19.
Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea have all announced agreements to buy supplies of molnupiravir, the Covid remedy tablet, although their regulatory companies have but to approve the drug. Thailand and Taiwan are additionally reported to be in talks to buy provides of the tablet.
The bulletins got here lower than per week after the pill’s manufacturer released results from clinical trials that confirmed its effectiveness. The international locations are the primary to agree to purchase the tablet aside from the U.S., which bought sufficient drugs for 1.7 million therapies for $1.2 billion in June.
Therapy: Merck’s tablet, the primary oral antiviral drug that may be taken at dwelling, is predicted to assist restrict future coronavirus outbreaks and to scale back the necessity for pricey hospital stays.
Will China ship on local weather change?
Simply weeks earlier than a important U.N. local weather summit in Glasgow, attention is riveted on China and whether or not it can do extra to chop emissions.
The world’s high vitality company stated final week that China “has the means and capability” to scale back its emissions. Its actions might be consequential for the planet’s local weather.
China’s chief, Xi Jinping, has promised to start out decreasing carbon dioxide and different gases generated by burning coal, gasoline and oil by 2030, and to cease financing new coal energy crops in different international locations. However China can be at the moment constructing a number of big gas-fired energy crops and nonetheless plans to construct 247 gigawatts of recent coal energy — almost six instances Germany’s total coal capability — in line with the U.S. local weather envoy John Kerry.
Progress: The extra vitality is demanded in China, the place its manufacturing sector produces a 3rd of the world’s manufacturing facility items. The largest driver of China’s emissions, nevertheless, is its insatiable urge for food for metal and cement, that are wanted for residence towers, bullet prepare strains, subways and different giant development initiatives.
Incentives: To encourage the usage of renewable vitality, the Chinese language authorities has ordered electrical utilities to cost prospects as much as 5 instances as a lot when energy is scarce, and generated primarily by coal, as when renewable vitality is flooding into the grid.
Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the Nobel for literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Tanzanian author Abdulrazak Gurnah for his works that discover the lingering trauma of colonialism, struggle and displacement. He’s the primary African to win the award in virtually 20 years.
In an interview with The Times, Gurnah, who moved to Britain at 18 as a refugee, stated he “stumbled into writing,” partly as a means to deal with his sense of dislocation. He started by writing recollections of his homeland and different snippets with out ever desiring to publish them, however over time, tales began to take form. He has now written 10 novels. The newest one, “Afterlives,” explores the generational results of German colonialism in Tanzania, and the way it divided communities.
“The factor that motivated the entire expertise of writing for me was this concept of dropping your house on the earth,” Gurnah stated. “Distress, poverty, homesickness, these sorts of issues, you begin to assume laborious and replicate on issues.” Here are The Times’s reviews of his work.
Upcoming: The Nobel Peace Prize will likely be introduced on Friday, which attracts essentially the most consideration and is commonly thought-about essentially the most prestigious of the prizes. Final 12 months’s winner was the World Meals Program, the U.N. company that addresses starvation.
THE LATEST NEWS
Asia Pacific
France is the European Union’s major breadbasket. But half of its farmers are over age 50 and set to retire within the coming decade, leaving almost 160,000 farms up for grabs. A brand new enterprise enterprise known as Hectar is aiming to recruit a various group of two,000 younger folks annually to lead a farm-tech revolution and carry French farming into the longer term.
ARTS AND IDEAS
The advantages of journaling
It’s not only for teenage women or the literati. In the event you’re going by way of a troublesome time or in case you are feeling down, attempt placing pen to paper. Journaling has change into an indicator of the “self-care” motion.
Research have discovered that writing in a journal can result in higher sleep and extra self-confidence, Hayley Phelan writes in The Occasions. She began protecting a diary a number of years in the past, when she was sad in her marriage and her profession.
“I used to be in a spot the place I might have tried something to really feel higher,” Hayley writes. “If somebody had advised me {that a} each day follow of morning somersaults helped her get by way of a troublesome time, you higher imagine I might have began rolling.”
Questioning tips on how to begin or what to jot down about? Here are tips.
PLAY, WATCH, EAT
What to Cook dinner
That’s it for at present’s briefing. See you subsequent time. — Matthew
P.S. The U.S. struggle in Afghanistan started 20 years ago this week. Right here’s a look back in photos by the Occasions photographer Tyler Hicks.
The newest episode of “The Daily” is in regards to the state of the coronavirus pandemic.
Claire Moses wrote at present’s Arts and Concepts. You may attain Matthew and the staff at briefing@nytimes.com.
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