New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Friday the country will end its strict COVID-19 lockdown once 90% of its citizens are fully vaccinated. The nation of 5 million people has been among the best in the world at containing the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, largely because New Zealand closed its borders for most of the last 18 months to non-residents. The strategy to eliminate COVID-19 worked for the most part, with the nation…
read moreUganda has kickstarted a trial for the injectable HIV drugs cabotegravir and rilpivirine. Researchers and those living with HIV say the trial will likely end pill fatigue, fight stigma, improve adherence and ensure patients get the right dosage. The two drugs have been in use as tablets. The World Health Organization last year licensed their use as injectables. While the two injectables already…
read moreThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thursday recommended booster shots for millions who received the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccines, and said the booster does not necessarily have to match the original shot. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the government agency, OK’d the recommendations by an advisory panel Thursday, putting the…
read moreNew Zealand scientists have found that microplastics have a direct impact on global warming. They published the first study linking airborne plastic fragments and fibers to climate change Wednesday. They also found that microplastics, which have been widely detected on land and in rivers and oceans, are detrimental to health. This is the first study…
read moreAfter a day of high-level talks in Colombia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Thursday a regional partnership to address deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. “We’ll give much-needed financial assistance to help manage protected areas and Indigenous territories, and we’ll help scale up low-carbon agricultural practices to farmers throughout the Amazon,” he said…
read moreThe U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to hold Steve Bannon, one of former President Donald Trump’s longtime advisers, in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a congressional inquiry into the January 6 rioting at the U.S. Capitol. The House voted 229-202, with a handful of Republican lawmakers, including Representatives Liz Cheney and…
read morePresident Joe Biden on Thursday tied his legislative priorities on voting rights, police reform and climate change to Martin Luther King Jr.’s push for racial justice as he marked the 10th anniversary of the opening of the civil rights leader’s memorial on the National Mall. Biden, introduced by Vice President Kamala Harris, sought to reassure…
read moreThe U.S. state of Texas on Thursday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to leave in place its restrictive law banning most abortions after the administration of President Joe Biden had asked the country’s highest court to block the statute. In its court filing, Texas, the second most populous U.S. state, defended an order by a…
read moreMore than just altering the environment, climate change is threatening to permanently and dangerously reshape the global security landscape, according to a series of new assessments by U.S. military, intelligence and security officials. The reports, ordered earlier this year by U.S. President Joe Biden as part of an effort to better confront the impact of climate…
read moreThe U.S. House of Representatives is due to vote Thursday on a contempt citation against Steve Bannon, one of former President Donald Trump’s longtime advisers, for refusing to cooperate with a congressional inquiry into the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The Democrat-majority House is expected to approve the contempt measure, with most House…
read moreWorsening climate change requires that the United States do much more to track, ease and manage flows of refugees fleeing natural disasters, the Biden administration said Thursday in what it billed as the federal government’s first deep look at the problem. The report recommends a range of steps: doing more to monitor for floods or…
read moreFacebook’s quasi-independent oversight board criticized the company Thursday, saying many high-profile accounts such as celebrities and politicians are not held to the same standards as other accounts. In a blog post, the board said, “Facebook has not been fully forthcoming with the Board on its ‘Cross-Check’ system, which the company uses to review content decisions…
read moreWith the U.N. Climate Change Conference set to begin in less than two weeks, a vital piece of the Biden administration’s climate agenda is in danger of dying in the U.S. Senate, at the hands of a member of the president’s own party. Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat who represents the state of West Virginia,…
read moreFacebook critics pounced Wednesday on a report that the social network plans to rename itself, arguing it may be seeking to distract from recent scandals and controversy. The report from tech news website The Verge, which Facebook refused to confirm, said the embattled company was aiming to show its ambition to be more than a…
read moreA bill aimed at thwarting restrictive new voting laws enacted in Republican-led states failed to advance in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, as Republican lawmakers blocked a Democratic effort to begin debating the measure. It was the third time this year Senate Democrats tried to advance a voting rights bill in reaction to new state…
read moreScientists temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a human body and watched it begin to work, a small step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for lifesaving transplants. Pigs have been the most recent research focus to address the organ shortage, but among the hurdles: A sugar in pig cells, foreign…
read moreA French woman of African origin is leading a campaign to encourage more members of France’s African diaspora to register as bone marrow donors to potentially save lives. Elhame Lecoeur filed this report for VOA from Paris, narrated by Michael Lipin. Camera: Elhame Lecoeur Produced by: Marcus Harton …
read moreA French woman of African origin is leading a campaign to encourage more members of France’s African diaspora to register as bone marrow donors to potentially save lives. Elhame Lecoeur filed this report for VOA from Paris, narrated by Michael Lipin. …
read moreNew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a vaccine mandate for city workers Wednesday. The order calls for employees, including police officers and firefighters, to have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by October 29 or else they will be placed on unpaid leave. The mayor’s office said the mandate applies…
read moreApproval of U.S. leadership around the world rebounded during the first six months of President Joe Biden’s term, after a record low in the last year of President Donald Trump’s administration. This according to a new Gallup survey of people in nearly 50 countries. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report. Produced by: Barry…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden and Democratic lawmakers are edging toward a deal on the scope of their cornerstone economic revival package and hope to reach a compromise as soon as this week, people briefed on the negotiations said Tuesday. Scrambling to broker an agreement, Biden met with 19 lawmakers on Tuesday in an unusually busy…
read moreA federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, accusing him of lying to the FBI and concealing information from federal agents who were investigating campaign contributions funneled to him from a Nigerian billionaire. The U.S. attorney’s office announced that the grand jury in Los Angeles had indicted the nine-term Republican…
read more