Linguists and Braille experts in Mali have translated the country’s most widely spoken African language, Bambara, into Braille for the country’s blind. Bambara is spoken and understood by about 15 million Malians, even more than the colonial French, making it an important step for blind people. Moussa Keita has been at the Malian Union of the…
read moreIs it better to give more people partial protection from COVID-19, or maximum protection to fewer people? As limited supplies of vaccines begin rolling out in parts of the world, some experts are suggesting authorities go against the recommended vaccine schedule. Rather than giving two shots spaced three or four weeks apart, they say it would…
read moreThe Australian government says Facebook has agreed to allow Australians to resume viewing or sharing news content after the two sides reached an agreement over a proposal to make the digital giants pay domestic news outlets for their content. The two sides announced the deal Tuesday just hours before the Australian Senate was set to begin…
read moreTwo U.S. Senate committees are holding a hearing Tuesday examining the January 6 attack on the U.S. capitol with a focus on security and the response of law enforcement. Scheduled to testify before the Homeland Security Committee and Governmental Affairs Committee are the former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger and former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, as well as former Capitol Police Chief…
read moreNASA on Monday released the first high-quality video of a spacecraft landing on Mars, a three-minute trailer showing the enormous orange and white parachute hurtling open and the red dust kicking up as rocket engines lowered the rover to the surface. The quality was so good — and the images so breathtaking — that members of…
read moreMerrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, sat Monday for his first of two days of questioning by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. If confirmed, the 68-year-old federal appellate judge and former nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, will serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Here are five takeaways from Monday’s…
read moreU.S. Attorney General nominee Judge Merrick Garland told lawmakers Monday an investigation into the January 6th riot at the US Capitol will be his first priority if confirmed. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more on President Joe Biden’s pick to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer.Camera: Mike Burke Produced by: Katherine Gypson …
read moreWith the Ebola virus flaring in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a new outbreak in Guinea, Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum is worried.“This is a great concern for us, especially since the COVID and Ebola crises are occurring” simultaneously, said Muyembe, who manages DRC’s National Institute of Biomedical Research and is coordinating his country’s responses…
read moreBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans Monday to begin easing coronavirus lockdown measures. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, Johnson credited Britain’s rapid vaccination program for allowing the country to begin reopening — amid growing scientific evidence that the vaccines will help to bring the global pandemic under control. Camera: Henry Ridgwell …
read moreA NASA unmanned resupply ship docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday carrying more than 3,600 kilograms of research equipment and supplies to the orbiting laboratory. The spacecraft, built by aerospace company Northrop Grumman, was bolted into place on the Earth-facing port of the ISS shortly after arrival. Along with basic supplies for the…
read moreIn a significant defeat for former President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to step in to halt the turnover of his tax records to a New York prosecutor.The court’s action is the apparent culmination of a lengthy legal battle that had already reached the high court once before. Trump’s tax records are…
read moreThe International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is appealing for $9.4 million to fund efforts to prevent a new Ebola outbreak from spreading across West Africa. The IFRC said Monday the money will be used to step up “surveillance and community sensitization efforts” in Guinea, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden’s pick for attorney general, Merrick Garland, is no stranger to Washington politics. He rose to national prominence in late 2016 when Republicans in Congress blocked his nomination by then-President Barack Obama to a seat on the Supreme Court. Garland, a federal appellate judge, is once again in the limelight and on the verge…
read moreU.S. Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland, nominated by President Joe Biden as the country’s top law enforcement official, plans to tell senators at his confirmation hearing Monday that he is committed to fighting discrimination and extremist attacks against the government.The 68-year-old Garland, currently a federal appellate court judge in Washington and in 2016 a Supreme…
read moreIsrael closed all its Mediterranean beaches until further notice Sunday, days after an offshore oil spill deposited tons of tar across more than 160 kilometers (100 miles) of coastline in what officials are calling one of the country’s worst ecological disasters.Activists began reporting globs of black tar on Israel’s coast last week after a heavy…
read moreIsrael has reopened many schools, malls and gyms that were closed for several weeks. Some venues, however, are open only to those with a “green passport,” a document showing they have received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine. The opening comes amid reports that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine works better than expected. Malls reopened after almost two…
read morePresident Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general says the Justice Department must ensure laws are “fairly and faithfully enforced” and the rights of all Americans are protected, while reaffirming an adherence to policies to protect the department’s political independence.Judge Merrick Garland, who is set to appear Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, plans to tell…
read moreMajor winter storms, extreme cold and power outages shut down more than 2,000 vaccination sites and delayed delivery of 6 million vaccine doses in all 50 states last week, White House senior adviser Andy Slavitt said in a briefing with reporters Friday.Extreme weather has spread across large swaths of the United States since Feb. 14.…
read moreIt took just three months for the rumor that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was engineered as a bioweapon to spread from the fringes of the Chinese internet and take root in millions of people’s minds.By March 2020, belief that the virus had been human-made and possibly weaponized was widespread, multiple surveys indicated. The Pew…
read moreAs U.S. President Joe Biden begins a diplomatic push to revive a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, supporters of the deal say he will need a long-term effort to succeed, while opponents say he should focus instead on pressuring Tehran into a new and tougher deal.The 2015 agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan…
read moreAlphabet Inc.’s Google fired staff scientist Margaret Mitchell on Friday, they both said, a move that fanned company divisions on academic freedom and diversity that were on display since its December dismissal of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru.Google said in a statement that Mitchell violated the company’s code of conduct and security policies by moving…
read moreAs the Australian state of Victoria enters its third day of a snap COVID-19 lockdown, the national medical association is calling for urgent changes to infection control in hotel quarantine. Australian travelers returning from overseas must go into isolation for at least 14 days on arrival, but doctors are worried that the airborne transmission of…
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