Vice President Mike Pence has voted in the general election in Indianapolis. Pence and his wife, Karen, cast absentee ballots about 8:15 a.m. Friday, shortly after the polls opened in the Indianapolis City-County Building. They voted in a drop-off ballot box outside the county clerk’s office. “It’s a great honor and great to be back…
read moreNoting the world is at a critical juncture in the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization is urging nations to take immediate action to prevent unnecessary deaths, the collapse of essential health systems and the shutdown of economies. Speaking at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said too many countries, particularly in…
read moreGerman Health Minister Jens Spahn says he expects a viable vaccine to be available to Germans by early next year and enough for “a large number of those want to be vaccinated” within six or seven months. In an interview published Friday in Germany’s Der Spiegel, Spahn — who tested positive for COVID-19 this week —…
read moreThe United Nations warns of a looming health crisis in Sudan following historic floods which have created conditions for deadly insect-transmitted diseases to thrive. Some 875,000 people across the country are affected by torrential rains and floods, which have caused widespread damage to homes, crops and livelihoods. The floods have left…
read morePresident Donald Trump and his Democratic Party challenger, Joe Biden, met in Nashville, Tennessee, Thursday night for the final debate of the presidential campaign. VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports. …
read moreUnited Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said it was very unfortunate that the 20 major industrialized nations did not come together in March, as he suggested then, to establish a coordinated response to suppress COVID-19 worldwide.In an interview with the Associated Press, Guterres said he hopes that as the G-20 summit is coming next month,…
read moreU.S. Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, engaged in a spirited debate Thursday night just ahead of the Nov. 3 national presidential election, presenting the nation with sharply divergent views of where they would take the country over the next four years.For 90 minutes, they traded barbs. They…
read moreU.S. Senate Judiciary Republicans on Thursday approved President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month, despite protests by Democrats the vote is too close to Election Day. VOA congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson looks ahead to the Senate confirmation…
read moreAt a time when growing numbers of people are shunning vaccines, the polio vaccine proves that they work. As VOA’s Carol Pearson reports, despite setbacks and a coronavirus pandemic, the world is making headway in eliminating the crippling disease. …
read moreOctober marks Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month in the US. It’s a topic not often talked about but something many couples go through, as Anush Avetisyan reports in this story narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Anush Avetisyan …
read moreDemocratic U.S. presidential nominee Joe Biden said that if elected, he would put together a bipartisan commission of scholars to examine reforming a federal judiciary he called “out of whack,” noting that there are alternatives to consider besides expanding the Supreme Court. Biden, challenging Republican President Donald Trump in the November 3 election, made the comments…
read moreU.S. regulators on Thursday approved the first drug to treat COVID-19: remdesivir, an antiviral medicine given to hospitalized patients through an IV.The drug, which California-based Gilead Sciences Inc. is calling Veklury, cut recovery time from 15 days to 10 on average in a large study led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.It has been…
read moreUsing blood of recovered COVID-19 patients, the so-called convalescent plasma, as a potential treatment is of little benefit in helping hospitalized patients fight off the infection, according to results of a clinical trial in India.Published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) on Friday, the results show that convalescent plasma, which delivers antibodies from COVID-19 survivors…
read moreHealthy volunteers will be deliberately infected with the coronavirus to try to speed up the development of a vaccine, under plans announced by the British government this week. The trial will involve healthy volunteers ages 18 to 30. Most coronavirus vaccine trials involve giving volunteers the potential vaccine or a placebo and then waiting until enough…
read moreNATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed Thursday that the military alliance would establish a space center at the Allied Air Command base in Ramstein, Germany.Speaking in Brussels after a virtual conference of NATO foreign ministers, Stoltenberg confirmed reports regarding the space center made earlier this week by European news agencies.”NATO is determined to keep our cutting edge…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump has released an unedited interview with “60 Minutes” anchor Lesley Stahl before its scheduled Sunday broadcast after complaining she was biased against him. The footage Trump posted on Facebook Thursday shows him becoming increasingly irritated as Stahl questioned him on a number of topics, including his handling of the coronavirus…
read morePlaywright and “The Walking Dead” star Danai Gurira, Tony Award-winning director Stephen Daldry and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner playwright Lynn Nottage are spearheading a night of music and short monologues as part of a national get-out-the-vote effort. The hourlong, nonpartisan “Act Out: Vote 2020” will be performed by Yvette Nicole Brown, Ryan J. Haddad, Brian…
read moreHuawei’s new smartphone has an upgraded camera, its latest advanced chipset and a better battery. What it may not have outside the Chinese tech giant’s home market is very many buyers. Huawei, which recently became the world’s No. 1 smartphone maker, on Thursday unveiled its Mate 40 line of premium phones, a product release that…
read moreThe head of Germany’s disease control institute sounded an alarm Thursday, warning of a possible uncontrollable spread of COVID-19 as the country reported a daily record of 11,287 new infections.Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases, told reporters in Berlin that infection numbers are rising among all age groups, not just…
read moreThe Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee has approved Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, sending the matter to the full Senate for consideration. Democrats on the committee boycotted the vote Thursday, resulting in a 12-0 vote in favor of the nomination.Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer reiterated his party’s objection to President Donald Trump moving ahead with replacing the late Justice…
read moreFormer U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday that President Donald Trump is “incapable of taking the job seriously,” as Obama campaigned for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the key state of Pennsylvania.The drive-in rally in the city of Philadelphia was Obama’s first in-person event in support of Biden, who served as vice president during his…
read moreBrazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he has canceled a deal to buy a Chinese-developed vaccine against the coronavirus, a day after his health minister announced Brazil would purchase millions of doses of CoronaVac.Bolsonaro said Wednesday that the intentions of Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, one of his leading opponents, were distorted, saying he already canceled…
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