Georgia election officials are postponing the state’s March 24 presidential primaries until May because of fears over the new coronavirus.Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement Saturday that in-person early voting, which began statewide March 2, will be halted and the election will be moved to May 19, when Georgia’s other 2020…
read moreThe United Nations’ aviation agency has approved restrictions for a global program designed to help airlines offset their carbon emissions, a move that curbs industry funding for older projects whose environmental benefits have been challenged by climate activists.The International Civil Aviation Organization council on Friday approved recommendations to exclude offset projects begun before 2016 while delivering…
read moreDemocratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden has endorsed former rival Elizabeth Warren’s plan to reform consumer bankruptcy laws, including allowing relief of student loan debt, incorporating proposals by the party’s progressive wing into the moderate front-runner’s campaign.”I’ve endorsed Elizabeth Warren’s bankruptcy proposal, which … allows for student debt to be relieved in bankruptcy and provides for a whole…
read moreSenator Bernie Sanders won the Northern Mariana Islands Democratic presidential caucuses Saturday, grabbing four of the six delegates.Former Vice President Joe Biden won the other two. This trimmed Biden’s lead to 154 delegates in The Associated Press delegate count.Saturday was the first time Sanders had a bigger delegate day than Biden since Nevada’s caucuses on…
read moreApple Inc said late on Friday it will close all its retail stores, except those in Greater China, for the next two weeks to minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission.”We will be closing all of our retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27,” Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a letter posted on…
read moreConcerns are mounting that the coronavirus pandemic could disenfranchise large numbers of American voters in the U.S. presidential election. “This is a moment we have never experienced before with regards to elections in modern times,” said David Daley, a senior fellow with the FairVote advocacy group. Efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the United…
read moreMicrosoft co-founder Bill Gates said Friday he is stepping down from the company’s board to focus on philanthropy.Gates was Microsoft’s CEO until 2000 and since then has gradually scaled back his involvement in the company he started with Paul Allen in 1975.He transitioned out of a day-to-day role in Microsoft in 2008 and served as…
read moreThe Pentagon is reconsidering its awarding of a major cloud computing contract to Microsoft after rival tech giant Amazon protested what it called a flawed bidding process.U.S. government lawyers said in a court filing this week that the Defense Department “wishes to reconsider its award decision” and take another look at how it evaluated technical…
read moreThe full federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., said Friday that it will take up the House of Representatives’ bid to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before Congress.The decision gives new hope to House Democrats who want McGahn’s testimony before the November elections. Arguments will be held April 28.The order comes…
read moreNepal’s government announced Friday that it was suspending climbing permits for Mount Everest and all of the other peaks in the country due to concern over the spread of the coronavirus.The decision effectively shuts down the world’s tallest mountain since China already closed its side of Everest over similar fears. Everest straddles the border between…
read moreOver 60,000 people have been confined to four towns in Spain’s first mandatory lockdown as infections for the new coronavirus increase sharply, putting a strain on health services and pressure on the government for more action. The situation in and around the Spanish capital, Madrid, with nearly 2,000 positive cases of the new…
read moreHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Trump administration hoped to announce agreement Friday on a coronavirus aid package to reassure anxious Americans by providing sick pay, free testing and other resources in an effort to calm teetering financial markets and the mounting crisis. Final details were being worked out, but the top House Democrat, who…
read moreU.S. hospitals are preparing for the unknown as COVID-19 spreads in the U.S. They are taking the best practices from hospitals elsewhere and tweaking their own practices. VOA’s health reporter Carol Pearson explains. …
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter Friday morning that there will soon be COVID testing “on a very large scale basis.” He added that “All the Red Tape has been cut,” but he did not give any details or indication about when or how the testing would begin.He said the Centers for Disease Control…
read moreFlorida has never been known as a place of stability, especially in its politics.And yet stability is what has been on the minds of many Democrats in the state who say they’ll vote for former Vice President Joe Biden in Tuesday’s presidential primary election instead of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.“I like some of Sanders’ ideas,…
read moreThe U.S. House of Representatives voted this week to change the way the FBI and National Security Agency use the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to conduct electronic surveillance of foreign nationals and agents in the United States. But President Donald Trump indicated Thursday that he might veto the bipartisan bill, saying he and his allies…
read moreCongressional Democrats are at odds with the Trump administration over legislation that would provide a swift response to the catastrophic public health and economic impact of the coronavirus. The battle between the White House and Capitol Hill comes as many Democrats say Trump’s Wednesday night Oval Office speech was inadequate in addressing the growing U.S.…
read moreCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is quarantining himself at home after his wife exhibited flu-like symptoms. Trudeau’s office said Thursday that Sophie Gregoire Trudeau returned from a speaking engagement in Britain and had mild flu-like symptoms, including a low fever late, Wednesday night. She is being tested for the COVID-19 disease…
read moreThe coronavirus pandemic has prompted multiple religious faiths to change or cancel services as houses of worship try to help contain the disease. But some church leaders are also tackling another task: communicating a message that elevates both faith and science. That goal is particularly challenging in a time of sharp political polarization,…
read moreDemocratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are to deliver separate addresses on the coronavirus on Thursday, less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump spoke to the nation from the Oval Office about a public health crisis he’d previously downplayed.Biden aides pitch his speech, to be delivered from the former vice president’s hometown…
read moreHouse Democrats have unveiled an ambitious measure to provide free testing for the coronavirus, paid sick leave and strengthened unemployment insurance as a response to the worsening outbreak’s economic impact on people across the United States. For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for some,…
read moreRussia’s space agency Roscosmos and the European Space Agency have decided to postpone the launch of a joint research mission to Mars until the fall of 2022 because of the situation around coronavirus in Europe, Roscosmos said on Thursday.”…The parties had to recognize that the final phase of ExoMars activities are compromised by the general…
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