Just six months after receiving two shots of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, some people in Bahrain are being offered booster doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.The decision to mix vaccines comes as the Gulf state is experiencing a wave of virus infections despite having a very high per capita vaccination rate. The booster is being recommended for…
read moreYouTube videos that cause an autonomous sensory meridian response, or ASMR, are likely something school-age kids know all about. Their parents? Not so much. Karina Bafradzhian looks at a new trend that some people say helps them deal with pandemic-induced stress. Camera: David Gogokhia …
read moreThe administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is formally establishing the fight against corruption as a core national security interest. Biden on Thursday issued his first national security memorandum, outlining his anti-corruption agenda. “Corruption threatens United States national security, economic equity, global anti-poverty and development efforts, and democracy itself,” the president said in his directive. “But by…
read moreBritain is hosting a two-day summit of health ministers from the Group of Seven nations, with a focus on sharing vaccines and better identifying threats to global health security. The talks in Oxford on Thursday and Friday come ahead of a summit of G-7 leaders next week in Cornwall. Countries that have carried out large-scale vaccination efforts…
read moreIn the span of just five days last month, China gave out 100 million shots of its COVID-19 vaccines.After a slow start, China is now doing what virtually no other country in the world can: harnessing the power and all-encompassing reach of its one-party system and a maturing domestic vaccine industry to administer shots at…
read moreThe new White House science adviser hopes that for the next pandemic, a vaccine will be ready in 100 days. Eric Lander tells The Associated Press in his first interview since he was sworn in that he’s pushing for better preparedness for the next pandemic. He says that includes the type of vaccine where researchers can plug in…
read morePresident Joe Biden is launching a monthlong nationwide push to get 70% of American adults vaccinated by Independence Day on July 4. But the administration has not yet outlined its vaccine-sharing strategy with the rest of the world. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …
read moreNASA is returning to sizzling Venus, our closest yet perhaps most overlooked neighbor, after decades of exploring other worlds.The space agency’s new administrator, Bill Nelson, announced two new robotic missions to the solar system’s hottest planet, during his first major address to employees Wednesday.”These two sister missions both aim to understand how Venus became an…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden is concerned about the nation splitting into two groups: the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.”I don’t want to see the country that is already too divided become divided in a new way, between places where people live free from fear of COVID, and places where … the fall arrives and death and…
read moreHundreds of Zimbabweans protested Wednesday about a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines as the country awaits more doses from China. The government wants to inoculate at least 60% of Zimbabwe’s more than 14 million people by the end of the year but has struggled to get the necessary supplies. Claudina Maneni brought her 60-year-old mother to get…
read moreThe United States is calling on Central American countries to confront corruption and poverty as Washington examines root causes and strategies to manage the flood of migrants at its southern border.Wednesday in Costa Rica, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard discussed “a variety of issues to promote the prosperity…
read moreWith his online presence all but obliterated since leaving office in January, former U.S. President Donald Trump has permanently shut down the webpage blog that he started less than a month ago. His blog, From the Desk of Donald J. Trump, has been scrapped from the webpage of the former U.S. leader, senior aide Jason Miller…
read moreWhen Democrat Joe Biden ran for vice president in 2008, he delivered a speech in which he repeated a saying he attributed to his father: “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”At the time, it was delivered as a criticism of the policies of Senator…
read moreCities around the world are installing new technology that connects to the personal devices of pedestrians, drivers, and riders on public transportation. Some cities are using these systems to make transportation easier for people with disabilities, such as those who are blind. For VOA, Jason Strother has the story from Busan, South Korea. …
read moreHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi is ruling out a presidential commission to study the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, telling House Democrats that having President Joe Biden appoint a panel is unworkable even after the Senate blocked an independent probe last week. Pelosi on Tuesday laid out possible next steps after last week’s…
read moreAuthorities in Australia’s southern state of Victoria have extended a one-week lockdown for its capital, Melbourne, to contain the spread of a new COVID-19 outbreak. The lockdown was initially imposed across the entire state last week after health officials detected a highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that was rapidly spreading across Victoria state. The latest…
read moreAustralian scientists are leading an international consortium that is building one of the world’s most powerful ground-based telescopes. It promises to see further and clearer than the Hubble Space Telescope and unlock mysteries of the early Universe.The telescope is called MAVIS, or Multi-conjugate-adaptive-optics Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph. It’s a long name for a highly complex…
read moreWhen Democrat Joe Biden ran for vice president in 2008, he delivered a speech in which he repeated a saying he attributed to his father: “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”At the time, it was delivered as a criticism of the policies of Senator…
read moreOn Tuesday, Joe Biden became the first sitting American president to commemorate the anniversary of the destruction of a prosperous Black community by a white mob that left up to 300 people dead and 10,000 homeless. “Just because history is silent, it doesn’t mean that it did not take place,” Biden said in remarks to…
read moreCities around the world are installing new technology that connects to the personal devices of pedestrians, drivers, and riders on public transportation. Some cities are using these systems to make transportation easier for people with disabilities, such as those who are blind. For VOA, Jason Strother has the story from Busan, South Korea. …
read moreSouth Korea’s second largest city is using new, inclusive technology to bring down barriers to mobility for people who are blind.Park Hyoung-bae glides his long, white cane along a strip of raised yellow blocks that form a trail through an underground metro station. The tactile paving leads blind commuters from the street all the way…
read moreThe World Health Organization has granted emergency approval for the use of a Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine for adults 18 and older. The U.N. health agency approved a vaccine Tuesday made by Sinovac Biotech, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company. It was the second time the WHO approved a vaccine made by a Chinese company on an…
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