U.S. President Joe Biden directed federal agencies Sunday to take modest steps to promote voting access even as a major congressional fight looms over balloting rights across the country. Biden ordered the government agencies to expand access to voter registration and election information and told the agency heads to devise plans to give several million federal…
read moreIn recent weeks, as Africa prepared to mark the milestone of one year since the coronavirus reached its shores, millions of doses of long-awaited vaccine finally began to arrive across the continent. Most were provided by the global COVAX Facility, which distributes vaccine to lower income countries.That, officials say, has flipped this tale from one…
read moreAfrica’s year with the pandemic has been a challenging one, full of suspense and surprises. VOA’s Anita Powell looks back at the continent’s bout with the virus, which has infected at least 2.8 million people and killed about 72,000, according to the World Health Organization. She reports from South Africa. Camera: Zaheer Cassim …
read moreTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey is selling his first tweet at auction, with bidding Saturday reaching $2 million in a sign of the appetite for virtual objects authenticated through blockchain technology.”just setting up my twttr,” Dorsey tweeted on March 21, 2006.On Friday he posted a link to “Valuables @Cent,” an online marketplace for tweets where, the…
read moreFormer President Donald Trump has clashed again with his Republican Party, demanding that three Republican groups stop using his name and likeness for fundraising, a Trump adviser said Saturday.The adviser, confirming a report in Politico, said lawyers for Trump on Friday had sent cease-and-desist letters to the Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Campaign and…
read moreRepublican Senator Ted Cruz has placed a hold on President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency to pressure the administration to put tough sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project.The Senate Intelligence Committee this week backed William Burns, a former ambassador to Russia, by a unanimous vote. Burns has been…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday came one step closer to his first major political victory: passage of his coronavirus economic relief package.What is it? A $1.9 trillion bill that Democrats said would help the country defeat the coronavirus and repair the economy. Republicans say it is more expensive than necessary. The measure follows five…
read morePharmaceutical giant Merck and an American laboratory announced progress Saturday in the design of an oral drug against COVID-19. Their antiviral has shown positive effects in reducing the viral load in current tests.”Knowing that there is an unmet need for antiviral therapy for SARS-CoV-2, we are encouraged by these preliminary results,” Wendy Painter, chief drug…
read moreJohns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has recorded more than 116 million global coronavirus cases. The U.S. is on the verge of having 30 million infections, followed by India with 11 million and Brazil with 10.8 million.Earlier this week, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had callous words for fellow Brazilians unhappy with the president’s response to the…
read moreThe Democrat-led U.S. House of Representatives this week passed a bill that would greatly expand access to voting in federal elections. Even though Senate passage is highly unlikely, Democrats are underscoring their commitment to making voting easier at a time when Republicans seek to limit voting access in many states.The bill was labeled House Resolution…
read moreDemocratic leaders in the U.S. Senate are hoping to pass a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill before Monday after making a series of late changes to the bill to shore up support from party members.With Republicans united in their opposition to the cost of the relief bill, Democrats have no votes to spare in the…
read moreDemocrats laid aside one battle over boosting the minimum wage but promptly descended into another internal fight Friday as the party haltingly tried moving its $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill through the Senate.Hours after asserting they’d reached a deal between party moderates and progressives over renewing emergency unemployment benefits, lawmakers said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.,…
read moreFor more than a century, International Women’s Day has celebrated women’s achievements across the globe, overcoming persistent gender inequality. This year’s observance comes as the UN reports women, particularly women of color, face especially high rates of unemployment. VOA’s Esha Sarai has more. Camera: Karen Sánchez and Rebaz Majeed …
read moreOne year into the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya, thousands of families are struggling with deepening poverty and unemployment. A survey by the charity Twaweza shows 60% of Kenyan families can no longer afford three meals per day. Brenda Mulinya reports from Nairobi. Camera: Amos Wangwa Producer: Henry Hernandez …
read moreOn the day U.S. President Joe Biden took office, he began dismantling former President Donald Trump’s policies at the southern U.S.-Mexico border. Biden rescinded Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, suspended construction of Trump’s controversial border wall, and vowed to end governmental practices of migrant family separation and rapid-fire deportations. The abrupt shift in policy…
read moreJoe Biden is enjoying an early presidential honeymoon, with 60% of Americans approving of his job performance thus far and even more backing his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. At a moment of deep political polarization in America, support for…
read moreThe White House COVID-19 response team said Friday that all coronavirus vaccines currently available were safe and effective and urged Americans to take whichever one they had access to, after the mayor of Detroit reportedly declined an allocation of the Johnson & Johnson drug.At a news briefing Thursday, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said he was…
read moreThe World Health Organization says it is using every measure it has to curb the spread of parallel Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. One of the biggest lessons learned from the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa — the largest in history — is the critical importance of acting quickly to…
read moreThe east-central African nation of Rwanda began its COVID-19 vaccination program Friday, using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, making it the first African nation to administer the drug. The nation received 102,960 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and 240,000 doses of AstraZeneca through the international vaccine cooperative, COVAX facility earlier this week. Rwandan health authorities began transporting both shots around…
read moreBrazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was among of former President Donald Trump’s most outspoken ideological allies when Trump was in office. Now, with President Joe Biden in the White House, many in Brazil are expecting changes that some dread and others welcome. For VOA, Edgar Maciel reports from Sao Paulo. Camera: Edgar Maciel Producer: Marcus…
read moreThe U.S. Senate is expected to vote this weekend on a massive new round of coronavirus aid addressing the ongoing economic and health crises caused by the pandemic. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more on the impact of that aid. Produced by: Katherine Gypson Camera: Adam Greenbaum …
read moreA U.S. and a Japanese astronaut ventured out of the International Space Station (ISS) Friday, in the second of two spacewalks conducted this week to complete upgrades and repairs to the orbiting outpost. NASA Flight Engineer Kate Rubins and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, have a number of tasks on their…
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