Pakistan’s COVID-19 Positivity Rate Dips, But ‘We Aren’t Out of the Woods’, Official Tells VOA

Pakistan reported Monday that the national coronavirus positivity rate had remained well below 5% over the past week, with the country’s top health official attributing the declining trend to “effective” government policies, including restrictions on public movement and effective screening of international travelers.Officials recorded 43 deaths and detected more than 2,100 new cases in the…

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Americans Divided Over Whether to Continue Investigating Jan. 6 Riot or Turn the Page

Harvey Wasserman is a resident of Florida and a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He voted for Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections but watched in horror as hundreds of supporters of the former president stormed the Capitol Building January 6.  “My stomach was in knots,” he told VOA. “The sheer ignorance of those so-called Trump supporters…

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Australians Rush for Vaccines as COVID Lockdown Continues in Victoria

Record numbers of COVID-19 vaccinations have been completed in Australia as a snap seven-day lockdown continues in the nation’s second most-populous state.Seven million people in Victoria are subject to strict stay-at-home orders after a growing cluster of infections was detected in recent days. Australia has managed to mostly contain the coronavirus through lockdowns, the closure…

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Vietnam Finds New Virus Variant

Vietnam has discovered a new coronavirus variant that’s a hybrid of strains first found in India and the U.K., the Vietnamese health minister said Saturday.Nguyen Thanh Long said scientists examined the genetic makeup of the virus that had infected some recent patients and found the new version of the virus. He said lab tests suggested…

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Medics March to WHO Headquarters in Climate Campaign

Medics concerned about the effects on public health of environmental degradation marched Saturday on the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, demanding health authorities make climate change and biodiversity loss their top priorities.White-clad activists from the group Doctors for Extinction Rebellion marched from Geneva’s Place des Nations to WHO headquarters where they were met by…

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US Says Iranians Should be Free to Choose Own Leaders

The Biden administration has responded to Iran’s mass disqualification of candidates for its upcoming presidential election by saying Iranians should be free to choose their own leaders.The White House statement coincides with sharp criticism of Iran’s electoral system from Iranian rights activists and U.S. conservatives as neither free nor fair.Iran’s Guardian Council, which vets election…

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EU Authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for Young Adolescents

The European Commission has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in children as young as 12, widening the pool of those eligible to be inoculated, following similar approvals in the United States and Canada.The commission made the announcement Friday after the European Union’s medical regulator, the European Medicines Agency, recommended Friday the use of…

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Biden Budget Substantially Boosts Foreign Aid, Diplomacy, but Raises Defense by 1.7%

U.S. President Joe Biden sent his first formal budget request to Congress on Friday afternoon, detailing a proposal to spend nearly $6 trillion in 2022 that includes significant increases in funding for foreign aid, diplomacy and climate change while providing a modest increase in Defense Department spending.The U.S. will still have the largest military budget…

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