Despite the health and security concerns that kept the usual large crowds away from this week’s swearing-in of a new American president, one Washington community was well represented at the solemn ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol – the diplomatic corps.For many of them, the ceremony was a moving reaffirmation of the strength…
read moreGerman President Frank-Walter Steinmeier says he will begin leaving a light in a window at his official residence, Bellevue Palace, to remember those killed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Steinmeier has called on Germans to do the same as a remembrance that “the dead in the corona pandemic are not just statistics for us.” He added, “Even…
read moreNew coronavirus variants appearing in Britain, South Africa, Brazil and elsewhere have experts concerned. Not only do they spread faster than existing strains, it’s possible that vaccines against them might not work as well, though that hasn’t been a problem so far. Here’s how these variants are different and why scientists think vaccines will still…
read moreU.S. president Joe Biden is expected to sign at least two executive orders Friday aimed at providing financial and food security to families impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The newly inaugurated president will order the Department of Agriculture to expand benefits in the country’s food program in one of the orders. Many people who have been laid off from their jobs because of the pandemic have sought help finding food.In addition, the new president is seeking a 15% increase in a school meals program that began after the pandemic. Biden officials say the…
read morePaul Chavez had no idea where a sculpture of his father, Latino American civil rights and labor leader Cesar Chavez, would end up in the White House.He agreed just this week to lend the bronze bust to President Joe Biden and hustled to get it wrapped up and shipped across the country from California. It…
read moreBeginning Friday, foreign nationals granted special permission to fly to Australia take a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their departure. Masks will also be compulsory on all international flights.Australia has had a fortress-like approach to COVID-19. It closed its borders to most foreign travelers in March to try to curb the spread of the…
read moreSouth Africa is mourning the sudden death of Jackson Mthembu, a cabinet minister and presidential adviser who was the public face of South Africa’s fight against COVID-19.President Cyril Ramaphosa offered condolences in a statement Thursday, saying he was shocked and saddened that 62-year-old Mthembu had died from COVID-related complications.He is the first of six South…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden spent his first full day in office Thursday signing a number of executive orders addressing the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has affected more people in the United States than anyplace else in the world. The U.S. has 24.6 million of the world’s more than 97 million infections.One of Biden’s…
read morePresident Joe Biden has taken over as America’s leader at a time of sickness, acrimony and division. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti introduces us to the 78-year-old man who will guide the United States for the next four years. Camera: Carolyn Presutti …
read moreThe United States returns to a unified government this week as Joe Biden becomes the 46th president and Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate. With the U.S. House continuing under the Democratic party leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Biden has an opportunity to enact big legislative changes. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports.…
read moreSenate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is proposing to push back the start of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial by a week or more to give Trump time to review the case.House Democrats who voted to impeach Trump last week after he was accused of inciting the January 6 Capitol riots have signaled they want…
read moreAmazon won’t be forced to immediately restore web service to Parler after a federal judge ruled Thursday against a plea to reinstate the fast-growing social media app, which is favored by followers of former President Donald Trump.U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle said she was not dismissing Parler’s “substantive underlying claims” against Amazon but…
read morePresident Joe Biden immediately began to reverse the Trump administration’s policies on climate change with one of 17 executive orders signed Wednesday after his inauguration.That’s in addition to the move to rejoin the Paris agreement to limit climate-changing greenhouse gases. After four years of federal disinterest in the issue, the order calls on all federal agencies…
read moreGoogle and a French publishers lobby said Thursday that they had agreed to a copyright framework for the U.S. tech giant to pay news publishers for content online, a first for Europe.The move paves the way for individual licensing agreements for French publications, some of which have seen revenues drop with the rise of the…
read moreAs the United States marked the inauguration of Vice President Kamala Harris — the first woman, the first Black person and the first person of South Asian descent to hold the office — other lawmakers with foreign roots are breaking barriers across the country.Among them is Representative Esther Agbaje of Minnesota, who this month became…
read morePakistan said Thursday it will receive half-a-million free doses of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine by January 31. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi made the announcement at a news conference, saying his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, shared the “good news” in a phone call between the two officials. “He told me, ‘Send your aircraft…
read moreA NASA-Boeing partnership took its next steps toward deep-space exploration. Two commercial space flight companies reached new heights, and China says “foreign scientists” can inspect lunar samples it recently collected. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space.Produced by: Arash ArabasadiCamera: NASA/AP/Reuters/Virgin Orbit/Blue Origin …
read moreFacebook’s independent oversight board said Thursday that it had accepted the company’s request to review its decision to suspend the accounts of former President Donald Trump.The U.S. social media giant blocked Trump’s access to his Facebook and Instagram accounts after he was accused of inciting a deadly insurrection by his supporters January 6 at the…
read moreNew U.S. President Joe Biden is moving aggressively Thursday to ramp up the national government’s fight to curb the coronavirus pandemic by signing 10 orders to increase production of vaccines and medical equipment, while attempting to safely reopen schools and businesses. Biden is moving to markedly increase coronavirus testing and, at the same time, trying to open 100 federally…
read moreFire erupted Thursday in a building under construction in India that is owned by the world’s largest vaccine maker, but the company said it would not affect production of a COVID-19 vaccine.The fire broke out at a Serum Institute of India (SII) building in the western city of Pune.Fire official Prashant Ranpise said the cause…
read moreThe leading infectious disease expert in the United States says the country will participate in the global initiative to provide COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical adviser to new U.S. President Joe Biden, told the executive board of…
read moreLatin American leaders from Peru, Venezuela and Colombia are extending congratulations to U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.Colombian President Ivan Duque described Biden’s inaugural speech as transcending, saying his call for unity among the people of the United States and his call for the construction of common goals in the midst of…
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