Russian elections: How democratic are they?

The president of the Australian Medical Association has spoken of his disappointment at Italy’s decision to block the export of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the country. Dr Omar Khorshid told BBC World News the country would soon be in a position to manufacture the vaccine itself but for now was dependent on…

A meeting between UK and Ukrainian officials has been held at the Ministry of Defence to discuss the growing crisis over Russian troop movements near Ukraine’s border. Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, said it was part of a regular dialogue between UK and Ukraine but today’s meeting had been very much influenced by…

Long-time democracy campaigner and Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov has said he is very concerned for the health of Alexei Navalny who is three weeks into a prison hunger strike. He told BBC World News: “We understand that the West cannot save Navalny, but it can seal his fate by simply ignoring him.” It was…

People need to be able to decide for themselves whether to be vaccinated against Covid-19, Colorado Republican congressman Ken Buck has said. “I don’t believe in vaccine mandates,” he told BBC News’s Hardtalk programme’s Stephen Sackur. “I don’t believe that the government should require individuals to put a foreign substance in their body for disease…

India is seeing a huge spike in Covid-19 infections as this country finds itself in the grip of a second wave of the virus. The sheer number of patients coming into hospitals is huge and the healthcare system is working at its peak, Dr Jerryl Banait told BBC World News. “Every patient is being given…

A federal investigation into policing practices in the city of Minneapolis has been launched, a day after one of its former officers, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of the murder of George Floyd. Speaking before the investigation was announced Dr Rashawn Ray, a professor of sociology told BBC World News that he was not sure whether…