The historic second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump starts Tuesday in the U.S. Senate, with Trump accused of inciting insurrection a month ago by urging his supporters to confront lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol as they were certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated Trump in the 2020 election.The protest turned into mayhem,…
read moreThe World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday it is reviewing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in light of a South African study indicating the drug offers minimal protection against the new South Africa variant of the virus. The study, conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand, prompted the South African government to temporarily halt its use of…
read moreThis week, Washington will tackle two important issues – the $1.9 trillion economic relief package President Joe Biden has proposed and the Senate impeachment trial of his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump. VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports. Video editor: Mary Cieslak …
read moreMore than 800,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine should be delivered to South Sudan by the end of the month according to a South Sudanese health ministry official. Doctor John Rumunu, director-general for preventive health services at the national health ministry said the vaccine will first be administered to the country’s most…
read moreA British health official Monday downplayed a study suggesting the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was minimally effective against a variant of the virus and suggested the vaccine could be modified to address such strains. South Africa halted its rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine after researchers from the University of Witwatersrand and the University of…
read moreEmergency teams in northern India are working Monday to rescue 37 power plant workers trapped in a tunnel after part of a Himalayan glacier broke away, slamming water and debris into a dam and at least two hydroelectric plants early Sunday. Authorities say at least 18 bodies have been recovered, but more than 165 people are missing and feared dead. More than 2,000 people have been deployed to the search-and-rescue operation…
read moreThe Democratic Republic of Congo reported Sunday that a woman died of Ebola, three months after the country declared an end to a previous outbreak. The woman’s husband had contracted the disease and survived in the previous 2020 outbreak. Samples from the hospital in Butembo, in the northeastern part of the country, were being…
read moreThis week, Washington will tackle two important issues – the $1.9 trillion economic relief package President Joe Biden has proposed and the Senate impeachment trial of his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump. VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports. Video editor: Mary Cieslak …
read moreAfter hurtling hundreds of millions of kilometers through space since last summer, three robotic explorers are ready to hit the brakes at Mars. The stakes — and anxiety — are sky high. The United Arab Emirates’ orbiter reaches Mars on Tuesday, followed less than 24 hours later by China’s orbiter-rover combo. NASA’s rover, the cosmic…
read moreU.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday it “will take years” to get the country’s coronavirus-ravaged economy back on track if Congress fails to enact President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package, rejecting Republican claims that it is too big. Yellen told CNN that with passage of the relief deal, the economy could return to what…
read moreRights groups in Cameroon marked the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation Saturday by protesting the resurgence of the practice, also known as FGM. The government says COVID-19, the country’s separatist crisis and Boko Haram terrorism have stopped campaigns on the dangers of the practice and made providers return to FGM, which…
read moreThe Biden administration said on Saturday it was immediately suspending Trump-era asylum agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, part of a bid to undo his Republican predecessor’s hard-line immigration policies.In a statement, State Department Secretary Antony Blinken said the United States had “suspended and initiated the process to terminate the Asylum Cooperative Agreements with…
read moreDeep in the deciduous tropical forests on the Srepok River banks, Bun Tropin has a routine as he stations himself at the Mereuch Base for the armed forest rangers of Cambodia’s Ministry of the Environment.The base has a long history of combat dating to the pivotal A red muntjac. (World Wildlife Fund)But Bun Tropin, 27,…
read moreWith the world in a race between the spread of coronavirus variants and vaccinating millions, AstraZeneca announced Saturday that early data shows its vaccine provides limited protection against mild disease caused by the South African variant of the virus.The test group was small, about 2,000 people, and young, with a median age of 31. But…
read moreThe Wyoming Republican Party voted overwhelmingly Saturday to censure U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney for voting to impeach President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.Only eight of the 74-member state GOP’s central committee stood to oppose censure in a vote that didn’t proceed to a formal count. The…
read morePresident Joe Biden gave a pep talk to a California woman who was laid off because of the coronavirus pandemic, during a conversation the White House said was part of an effort to help him engage more consistently with regular Americans.The White House on Saturday released a 2½-minute video of Biden’s long-distance telephone conversation with…
read moreChina has conditionally approved a second COVID-19 vaccine for public use.The National Medical Products Administration said in a statement Saturday that regulators approved the use of Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s CoronaVac the day before.A vaccine developed by a Chinese institute affiliated with the state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) was approved for public use two months…
read moreTechnology that can predict bushfires is being developed in Australia, one of the world’s most fire-prone countries. It will offer real-time visual displays of how fires are likely to spread. It comes as dozens of homes already have been destroyed this year by fires on the outskirts of the Western Australian state capital, Perth.Bushfires are…
read moreAs the Trump administration was nearing the end of an unprecedented string of executions, 70% of death row inmates were sick with COVID-19. Guards were ill. Traveling prisons staff on the execution team had the virus. So did media witnesses, who may have unknowingly infected others when they returned home because they were never told…
read moreUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Beijing on its treatment of Uighurs, Tibetans and Hong Kong in the first conversation between top officials of the two powers since President Joe Biden took office. “I made clear the U.S. will defend our national interests, stand up for our democratic values, and hold Beijing accountable for its…
read moreThe United States said Friday it intends to revoke the terrorist designation for Yemen’s Houthi movement in response to the country’s humanitarian crisis, reversing one of the most criticized last-minute decisions of the Trump administration.The reversal, confirmed by a State Department official, comes a day after President Joe Biden declared a halt to U.S. support…
read moreThe head of the World Health Organization called Friday for pharmaceutical companies to share manufacturing facilities to increase the production of COVID-19 vaccines.Speaking at an online news briefing from Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said what is needed is “a massive scale-up in production.”He noted that France’s pharmaceutical company Sanofi announced it would make its manufacturing…
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