Kurdish officials in northeast Syria are expressing concerns over a sharp increase in coronavirus cases in their region, calling on international health organizations to intervene to prevent a “humanitarian catastrophe.” A 10-day curfew went into effect Tuesday in an attempt to curb the spread of the deadly virus in the semiautonomous region, which is…
read moreSouth Africa’s health minister says the nation will still hit its COVID-19 vaccination targets, even as it pauses the use of the Johnson & Johnson shot amid concerns over blood clots. South Africa’s mass-inoculation campaign was dealt the setback following word that six women in the United States developed a blood clotting disorder after receiving the…
read moreEuropean Commission President Urusula Von der Leyen Wednesday announced the European Union has reached a deal with pharmaceutical partners Pfizer-BioNTech for 50 million additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine, to be delivered in the coming months. At a news briefing in Brussels, Von der Leyen said the new deal means the EU will have obtained 250…
read moreHealth care workers in Cameroon say they are reluctant to take the coronavirus vaccines donated by China because they doubt the drug’s efficacy. On Sunday, 200,000 Sinopharm doses arrived in Cameroon’s capital. Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute accepted the vaccine donation on behalf of President Paul Biya at Yaounde’s international airport, in a ceremony that was…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to give his first address to a joint session of Congress on April 28.The speech will come as Biden hits 100 days in office, an unofficial milestone upon which modern U.S. presidents have been judged for what their administrations have accomplished at the start of their four-year term.The address…
read moreHours after U.S. federal health officials urged a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine after it was linked to a rare but dangerous blood clot, the U.S. pharmaceutical giant announced Tuesday it was delaying rollout of the single-dose vaccine in Europe.“We have been working closely with medical experts and health authorities,…
read moreThe U.N. Population Fund called on nations Wednesday to respect bodily autonomy as a universal right, saying too many women and girls are denied this basic power over their own bodies.“The right to autonomy over our bodies means that we must have the power and agency to make choices without fear of violence or having…
read moreSeveral U.S. states have temporarily stopped providing Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccines in line with federal guidance after six people who received the shots developed rare blood clots. Meanwhile, several countries have suspended the AstraZeneca vaccines after reports it, too, may be linked to blood clots. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports. …
read moreU.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday invited President Joe Biden to address a joint session of Congress on April 28.”I am writing to invite you to address a Joint Session of Congress on Wednesday, April 28, to share your vision for addressing the challenges and opportunities of this historic moment,” Pelosi wrote…
read moreU.S. health officials have pressed pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after a handful of people developed a rare but serious blood-clotting disorder following vaccination. Six cases have been reported so far, out of nearly 7 million doses given. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine makes up a small proportion of the U.S. vaccine supply, so the…
read moreGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday she is asking Parliament for temporary powers that would allow her federal government to implement nationwide coronavirus lockdowns to curb a third wave of the pandemic in the country. Merkel spoke to reporters after her Cabinet approved a draft of legislation that would give her government the power…
read morePresident Joe Biden and U.S. lawmakers Tuesday paid tribute at a ceremony in the Capitol rotunda to the U.S. Capitol Police officer killed when a motorist rammed a car into two police officers and brandished a knife earlier this month.William Evans, an 18-year veteran of the Capitol Police force and father of two young children,…
read moreU.S federal health officials Tuesday said “out of an abundance of caution” they are recommending an immediate pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after six cases of blood clots were reported in the United States. At a joint virtual news briefing, officials of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and…
read moreThe international Future City Competition recently announced its 2021 winners in the first ever all-virtual event. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. …
read moreScientists with the U.S. space agency, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) say the much-anticipated first flight of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars has been delayed again while scientists make some software modifications. Scientists had hoped to perform the first controlled powered flight of an aircraft on a planet other than Earth as…
read morePredicting whether an outbreak is likely to happen is now possible with the COVID-19 Outbreak Detection Tool, a map that shows the coming hotspots for the disease, if accurate data is available. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.Producer: Elizabeth Lee …
read moreA new single-day record of COVID-19 cases has pushed India into second place behind the United States for the world’s most confirmed coronavirus infections.The South Asian nation’s 168,912 new COVID-19 cases posted on Monday gives India 13,527,717 total cases, compared to Brazil’s 13,517,808 total cases, according to the FILE PHOTO: File labelled “Sputnik V coronavirus…
read moreThe international Future City Competition recently announced its 2021 winners in the first ever all-virtual event. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. …
read moreU.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday named Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley as the State Department’s first chief diversity officer, a position created to make the U.S. diplomatic corps more representative. The appointment is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to put diversity, equity and racial justice at the top of the national agenda after nationwide protests…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden is linking his $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan to alleviating a critical shortage of semiconductors. “Chips, like the one I have here — these chips, these wafers are batteries, broadband —it’s all infrastructure,” Biden said in the White House Roosevelt Room on Monday during a virtual meeting with leaders of some…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden is meeting Monday with a bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers to push for adoption of his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan to repair the country’s aging and deteriorating roads and bridges, add to its broadband internet system and revitalize several sectors of the American economy.There appears to be wide support…
read moreThe World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday the world has now seen seven consecutive weeks of rising COVID-19 infections and four consecutive weeks of increasing numbers of deaths after starting the year with six weeks of declining numbers. At the agency’s Monday briefing from its headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus…
read more