The United States will spend $3.5 billion to buy and donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to some of the world’s poorest countries.
It has urged other G7 nations to follow suit.
The vaccine donation - the largest ever by a single country - was announced before US President Joe Biden meets leaders of the Group of Seven advanced economies in western England.
A senior Biden administration official said the US is not seeking favours in exchange for these doses and is not imposing conditions - political or economic or otherwise on countries for receiving these doses.
The 500 million doses are destined for the world's 100 poorest countries. A senior Biden administration official described the gesture as a "major step forward that will supercharge the global effort" with the aim of "bringing hope to every corner of the world."
"We really want to underscore that this is fundamentally about a singular objective of saving lives," the official said.
US drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have agreed to supply the United States with the vaccines, delivering 200 million doses in 2021 and 300 million doses in the first half of 2022.
The shots, which will be produced at Pfizer's US sites, will be supplied at a not-for-profit price.
Israel bombarded northern Gaza overnight in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, causing panic amongst residents and flattening neighbourhoods in an area from which the Israeli army had previously down its troops, residents said on Tuesday.
Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine that injured seven people in the Black Sea port of Odesa, two of them children, and also targeted Kyiv, the capital, Ukraine's military officials said early on Tuesday.
A Delhi court on Tuesday extended the pre-trial detention of Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal until May 7 in a corruption case, the legal news website Live Law reported.
Taiwan's quake-hit eastern county of Hualien was rattled by more than 200 aftershocks late on Monday and early on Tuesday, but only minor damage was reported and no casualties and major chipmaker TSMC said it saw no impact on operations.
Two Malaysian navy helicopters collided in mid-air during a rehearsal for a naval parade on Tuesday, killing all 10 crew members aboard, the navy said in a statement.
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