US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s decision to de-fund several Federal Reserve coronavirus lending programs on Dec. 31 is “deeply irresponsible,” President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team said on Friday, and threatens to undermine the country’s fragile economic state.

By Richard Cookson*

Microplastic pollution has been discovered in snow close to the peak of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. With plastic debris revealed in 2018 at the deepest point on Earth, the Mariana Trench, it is now clear that humanity’s litter has polluted the entire planet.

For generations, kids have been coaxed into finishing their vegetables after their parents sternly advised them that it is not nice to waste food when people are starving elsewhere in the world. But someday soon, kids may have a comeback: “If we eat those vegetables, we can’t help fight climate change, reduce the carbon footprint or help provide power to underserved regions of our world.”

A Hindu temple, believed to have been constructed 1,300 years ago, has been discovered by Pakistani and Italian archeological experts at a mountain in northwest Pakistan’s Swat district. The discovery was made during an excavation at Barikot Ghundai.

Cuba is reopening its doors to foreign tourists after an eight-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the cash-strapped country faces an uphill struggle to woo back wary travelers.

Coronavirus antibodies last at least six months and offer protection against a second infection, a study of health care workers suggested.

The European Commission proposed that power plants fuelled by natural gas would not be classed as a sustainable investment in Europe, although plants could possibly gain a green label by burning some hydrogen.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry reacted to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to the occupied lands, saying he gives priority to the interests of the Zionist regime’s prime minister even more than those of the American taxpayers.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman said on Friday that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s visit to Armenia, where he will discuss mutual ties, is probable.