France 24

A year after Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic, and the world’s pharmaceutical companies threw themselves into the race to find a vaccine against the deadly disease, the contest is now on patenting their immunisation shots. But intellectual property rights drive prices and can discriminate against vaccine access, prompting louder and louder calls for patents to be temporarily waived.
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Raul Castro said Friday he is resigning as head of Cuba’s Communist Party, ending an era of formal leadership by he and his brother Fidel Castro that began with the 1959 revolution.
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France is considering declaring a day of national tribute to the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic, having passed the milestone of 100,000 deaths on Thursday and in response to calls for such an homage by bereaved families and associations. A psychologist tells FRANCE 24 that talking about death could help survivors overcome the loss of their loved ones.
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Despite being on the brink of collapse, the Lebanese economy is keeping a troublesome neighbour afloat: Bashar al-Assad's Syria. In order to dodge international sanctions on the Assad regime – notably the US-imposed Caesar Act – products such as food and petrol are being smuggled across the border into Syria on a massive scale. Our reporters James André and Mayssa Awad
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The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has launched a chain of supermarkets that are stocked with Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian products at reduced prices that are accessible with a party-issued card. It’s a welcome initiative in a country crippled by a financial crisis and food shortages. But critics say it’s yet another bid by the powerful Shiite movement to win
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to ease tensions with Moscow following talks in Paris on Friday.
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China’s economy expanded at its fastest pace on record in the first quarter, data showed Friday, in a sharp turnaround from the historic contraction caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
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Brazil’s full Supreme Court upheld a ruling Thursday annulling former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s corruption convictions, which cleared the way for him to run for a new presidential term next year.
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With their season on the line, Arsenal’s players produced a devastating first-half performance Thursday to beat Slavia Prague and reach the Europa League semifinals.
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On the evening of April 15, 2019, the world watched in horror as Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris went up in flames and its burning spire crashed through the roof. Firefighters battled into the night to save the 850-year-old edifice. As the flames spread, Notre-Dame was at very real risk of collapse but luckily it remained standing. 
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