Violet light bathed the club stage as 300 people, masked and socially distanced, erupted in gentle applause. For the first time since the pandemic began, Israeli musician Aviv Geffen stepped to his electric piano and began to play for an audience seated right in front of him.“A miracle is happening here tonight,” Geffen told the…
read moreWith internet access increasing in many emerging democracies, use of social media is changing the ways that candidates and voters interact. It’s also changing how the non-profit U.S.-based Carter Center assesses elections. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, monitoring online disinformation and threats to prevent political violence is a new front in the center’s democracy initiatives…
read moreUS President Joe Biden commemorated on Thursday the 50 millionth shot of the COVID-19 vaccine since his swearing-in, just days after the nation passed 500,000 coronavirus deaths. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.Producer: Barry Unger …
read moreU.S. lawmakers launched an investigation this week into the December 2020 SolarWinds hack that included a breach of many private and U.S. government computer systems. As VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, tech leaders are telling lawmakers the full scope of the breach is still not known. Camera: Adam Greenbaum Produced by: Katherine Gypson …
read moreIn a blow to Democrats, the Senate parliamentarian ruled the chamber cannot include President Joe Biden’s proposed $15-an-hour minimum wage in a $1.9 trillion coronavirus bill the party aims to pass without Republican votes, lawmakers said Thursday.Democrats and progressives had hoped to include the minimum wage increase in the legislation to help cushion the economic…
read moreAs countries kick off vaccination campaigns in Africa amid mistrust over COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, health ministers are among the first ones to take the shots. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports on Senegal and Zimbabwe, two countries that began inoculating their populations using Sinopharm — the Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine. …
read moreDonald Trump supporters, who launched a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol last month, have indicated they want to “blow up” the building and kill members of Congress, the acting chief of the Capitol Police said Thursday. Threats suggest extremists could target the building during an address by President Joe Biden, Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman told…
read moreByteDance has agreed to a $92 million class-action settlement over data privacy claims from some U.S. TikTok users, according to documents filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Illinois. ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the short video app that has more than 100 million U.S. users, agreed to the settlement after more than a year…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden hosted an event at the White House Thursday honoring the 50 millionth coronavirus vaccination administered in the country.Four people — an elementary school counselor, a grocery store employee and two firefighter EMTs — were vaccinated against the virus at the White House Thursday afternoon to commemorate the milestone..@POTUS watching vaccination to…
read moreA new study finds the new Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is as effective in real-world use as it was during its late-stage clinical trials. In a large-scale study of 1.2 million people, researchers at Israel’s Clalit Research Institute found the two-dose vaccine reduced symptomatic cases of COVID-19 by 94% across all age groups, and reduced severe illnesses…
read moreU.S. Senate committees will hear testimony Thursday from three more of President Joe Biden’s nominees, including his picks to be the country’s trade representative, its top public health official and the assistant secretary of health.Katherine Tai, nominee for U.S. trade representative, is set to tell the Finance Committee that she would prioritize rebuilding international alliances…
read moreAustralia has become the world’s first nation to make digital companies such as Facebook and Google pay domestic news outlets for their content.Parliament approved the law Thursday that would allow a government arbitrator to decide the price a digital company should pay news outlets if the two sides fail to reach an agreement.The final legislation…
read moreThe first in a series of congressional hearings on the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack has sparked a debate over whether intelligence breakdowns left the building vulnerable to what some officials and lawmakers have termed a “planned and coordinated” insurrection by supporters of former President Donald Trump.Former officials responsible for Capitol security appeared before two…
read morePresident Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday for a government review of global supply chains and potential US vulnerabilities in key industries, including computer chips, electric vehicle batteries, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals used in electronics. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …
read moreResidents at an assisted living facility in the US are getting a taste of life before the coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to a “hug tent,” residents can – while wearing plastic sleeves – embrace and hold hands with their families. More from VOA’s Mariama Diallo. …
read moreThe COVID-19 vaccine rollout to date has been far from equitable. The vast majority of doses have gone to high-income countries, but a World Health Organization program aiming to change that delivered its first shots Wednesday, in Ghana. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more. …
read moreKatherine Tai, President Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, will vow to U.S. senators that she will work to strengthen U.S. supply chains, enforce a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, and hold China to its trade promises.In written testimony prepared for her confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, Tai…
read moreAfter 3½ years of living inside a Missouri church to avoid deportation, Honduran immigrant Alex Garcia finally stepped outside Wednesday, following a promise from President Joe Biden’s administration to let him be.Garcia, a married father of five, was slated for removal from the U.S. in 2017, the first year of President Donald Trump’s administration. Days…
read moreFacebook on Wednesday pledged to invest at least $1 billion to support journalism over the next three years as the social media giant defended its handling of a dispute with Australia over payments to media organizations.Nick Clegg, head of global affairs, said in a statement that the company was willing to support news media while…
read moreAt a dog training center in Myakka City, Florida, Heather Junqueira, founder of BioScent, brings a four-year-old beagle, Noel, into a room with stainless-steel canisters, several containing samples of COVID-19. Noel springs into action as she tries to find the ones with a smell that she knows will earn her praise and dog treats. It…
read moreThe huge parachute used by NASA’s Perseverance rover to land on Mars contained a secret message, thanks to a puzzle lover on the spacecraft team. Systems engineer Ian Clark used a binary code to spell out “Dare Mighty Things” in the orange and white strips of the 70-foot (21-meter) parachute. He also included the…
read moreA study suggests a key environmental system that affects how water circulates in the Atlantic Ocean and effects the climate could be on the verge of collapse due to the rapid melting of glaciers and sea ice. The study, published Tuesday in the scientific journal Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) used…
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