President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned 15 people, including Republican allies, a 2016 campaign official ensnared in the Russia probe and former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad.Trump also commuted the sentences of five people. While it is not unusual for presidents to grant clemency on their way out the door, Trump…
read moreRetail giant Walmart Inc. is facing a civil lawsuit from the Department of Justice alleging the company “unlawfully dispensed” controlled substances, including opioids “throughout the height of the prescription opioid crisis.” Walmart has pledged to fight the lawsuit. According to a news release, the DOJ alleges Walmart, which operates over 5,000 pharmacies nationwide, violated the Controlled…
read moreMore than 170 people have died from yellow fever outbreaks in Nigeria this year, despite vaccines being available since 2004. A preference among some Nigerians for traditional, herbal medicine is part of the problem. But experts said apathy to vaccines in rural areas is the biggest challenge.Nigerian car washer Jonathan Sale caught yellow fever from mosquito…
read morePresident-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday expressed empathy with struggling families and applauded Congress for passing the coronavirus relief bill as the nation deals with a COVID-19 surge that’s casting a shadow over the Christmas holiday. He called out to frontline workers, scientists, researchers, clinical trial participants and those with deployed family members during the holiday season. “Our…
read moreU.S. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate Miguel Cardona, currently Connecticut’s commissioner of education, to be secretary of education, according to news reports.Cardona took his current post just months before the coronavirus pandemic hit, becoming the first Latino to hold the job.Cardona reportedly embraced remote learning, but has recently been pushing for schools to…
read moreMajor climate and clean energy measures are tucked inside the package of $1.4 trillion in annual spending to fund the government and $900 billion to provide COVID-19 relief approved by Congress late Monday. It’s a rare bit of bipartisan agreement on an issue that has been mostly stalled in Congress while global temperatures rise and…
read moreAn organization run by women in Senegal, ElleSolaire, was supplying solar panels to light up country homes that are off the power grid. But with the outbreak of the coronavirus, and health care stretched, ElleSolaire has switched to providing the panels to underequipped, remote health clinics, where women are often forced to give birth in…
read moreSouth African scientists say new variant of COVID-19 virus is causing resurgence of cases …
read moreU.S. officials are considering a requirement for all travelers from Britain to offer proof they have tested negative for COVID-19.News outlets say the White House coronavirus task force met Monday and discussed crafting a rule that passengers prove they have taken a negative test within 48 or 72 hours before leaving Britain.The proposed rule comes…
read moreThe U.S. Congress has passed a massive year-end bill that includes both a $900 billion coronavirus aid package as well as $1.4 trillion in annual government funding.Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the measure with overwhelming support late Monday, with lawmakers having only a few hours to look over the more than…
read moreU.S. President-elect Joe Biden received a COVID-19 vaccination on live television Monday to convince Americans that the inoculation is safe. “I’m ready,” Biden told a nurse at a hospital in Newark, Delaware, before being injected Monday with a vaccine developed by drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech. “I’m doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it’s…
read moreThe World Health Organization (WHO) says it is studying variants of the coronavirus found in Britain and South Africa, adding there is no evidence they are deadlier or more severe than any more common strains, and the best thing people can do is work to suppress transmission.During the agency’s regular briefing at its Geneva headquarters,…
read moreOutgoing Attorney General William Barr said he saw “no reason” to appoint a special counsel on potential election fraud or the tax investigation into the son of President-elect Joe Biden. Barr said Monday in his final press conference that the investigation into Hunter Biden’s financial dealings was “being handled responsibly and professionally.” “I have not…
read moreChina has announced it will allow access by international scientists to its massive radio telescope — the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, in southwestern Guizhou province. It is now the largest and only instrument of its kind in the world following the recent collapse of a Puerto Rico-based observatory.Ahead of the announcement, Chinese officials last…
read moreWith inoculations of a second COVID-19 vaccine set to begin Monday across the United States, federal health regulators have issued new guidelines of who should be prioritized in the next round of inoculations.An advisory panel of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted 13-1 Sunday to make Americans 75 and older, along with…
read moreAs a second vaccine against the novel coronavirus is being rolled out across the United States ahead of the Christmas holiday, Britain is shutting down out of concern that a new mutation of the virus is highly contagious. VOA’s Michelle Quinn has more. …
read moreU.S. lawmakers are expected to endorse $1.9 billion to fund a program to remove telecom network equipment that the U.S. government says poses national security risks as part of a year-end spending bill and COVID-19 bill, a source briefed on the matter said on Sunday.Lawmakers are also expected to back $3.2 billion for an emergency…
read moreUndeterred by dismissals and admonitions from judges, President Donald Trump’s campaign continued with its unprecedented efforts to overturn the results of the November 3 election Sunday, saying it had filed a new petition with the Supreme Court.The petition seeks to reverse a trio of Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases having to do with mail-in ballots and…
read moreAn expert committee put people 75 and older and essential workers like firefighters, teachers and grocery store workers next in line for COVID-19 shots as a second vaccine began rolling out Sunday to hospitals, a desperately needed boost as the nation works to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control.The developments occurred as the nation seeks…
read moreAs the U.S. state of Georgia begins early voting in a pair of runoff elections that will determine party control of the U.S. Senate, many Republicans are debating whether to vote in a system they believe to be fraudulent.“I think the presidential election was rigged,” Georgia resident Kyle Huneycutt, a Republican voter, told VOA, referring…
read moreAs COVID-19 cases skyrocketed before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, warned Americans to “be vigilant” and limit celebrations to “your immediate household.”For many Americans that guidance has been difficult to abide, including for Birx herself.The day after Thanksgiving, she traveled to one of her vacation properties…
read moreJohns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Sunday there are 76.3 million global COVID-19 cases.The U.S. continues to lead the world in case numbers at 17.6 million, followed by India with 10 million and Brazil with 7.2 million.U.S. lawmakers are expected to vote Sunday on a nearly $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package. The package…
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