The Biden administration and U.S. lawmakers are pushing this week for longtime ally Saudi Arabia to face consequences for agreeing to reduce oil production. OPEC+, which includes Saudi Arabia, the 12 other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and 10 other oil-exporting nations, announced last week that it would cut its oil production…
read moreEarly in World War II, the U.S. Navy battled Nazi U-boats off the East Coast of the United States in an area that came to be known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” For VOA, Genia Dulot takes us on an underwater tour of some of those wrecks, which are now artificial reefs popular with…
read moreCase numbers in the global monkeypox outbreak have now topped 70,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Wednesday as it warned that a decline in new cases did not mean people should drop their guard. The WHO said that case numbers last week were on the rise in several countries in the Americas and it…
read moreThe congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol is set to hold what will likely be its final public hearing on Thursday, with members pledging new revelations about former President Donald Trump’s role in the events that led up to the attack. The televised hearing, House of Representatives committee members…
read moreThe U.S. on Wednesday authorized updated COVID-19 boosters for children as young as 5, seeking to expand protection ahead of an expected winter wave. Tweaked boosters rolled out for Americans 12 and older last month, doses modified to target today’s most common and contagious omicron relative. While there wasn’t a big rush, federal health officials…
read moreScientists have transplanted human brain cells into the brains of baby rats, where the cells grew and formed connections. It’s part of an effort to better study human brain development and diseases affecting this most complex of organs, which makes us who we are but has long been shrouded in mystery. “Many disorders such as…
read moreThe White House on Tuesday said eligible Americans should get the updated COVID-19 boosters by Halloween to have maximum protection against the coronavirus by Thanksgiving and the holidays, as it warned of a “challenging” virus season ahead. Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 coordinator, said the U.S. has the tools, both from vaccines and…
read moreA spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away succeeded in shifting its orbit, NASA said Tuesday in announcing the results of its save-the-world test. The space agency attempted the first test of its kind two weeks ago to see if in the future a killer rock could be nudged out…
read moreEnergy infrastructure will become more vulnerable to extreme weather such as heatwaves and hurricanes, the World Meteorological Organization warned on Tuesday, with a senior official saying that climate change poses as big a threat to global energy security as the war in Ukraine. This year was illustrative of what the WMO says are the challenges…
read moreThe websites for some major U.S. airports went down early Monday in an apparent coordinated denial-of-service attack, although officials said flights were not affected. The attacks followed a call by a shadowy group of pro-Russian hackers that calls itself Killnet for coordinated denial-of-service attacks on the targets. The group published a target list on its…
read moreMalawi’s health ministry says it will soon roll out Africa’s first malaria vaccine for children under age five. The RTS,S vaccine, which was tested in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, took more than 30 years to develop. While the vaccine has a relatively low level of effectiveness, it has raised hopes of saving some of the…
read moreAs awareness grows around the world about the problem of food waste, one culprit in particular is drawing scrutiny: “best before” labels. Manufacturers have used the labels for decades to estimate peak freshness. Unlike “use by” labels, which are found on perishable foods like meat and dairy, “best before” labels have nothing to do with…
read moreCarrying on a long-established tradition, the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) plans to deploy teams of federal observers around the country on Election Day next month while requiring the FBI to receive high-level approval for politically sensitive investigations that might call into question the integrity of the election. At stake in the Nov. 8 congressional races…
read moreMonday is World Mental Health Day. To mark the day, the World Health Organization has launched a campaign to “raise awareness and spur action” in regions where there are high rates of death by suicide. The world health body said that the pandemic has created “a global crisis for mental health,” in a statement Monday,…
read moreOlder people with limited mobility and those with chronic health conditions requiring the use of electrically powered medical devices were especially vulnerable when Hurricane Ian slammed into Southwest Florida, and experts warn such risks to society’s oldest are growing as disasters increase with the impact of climate change. Almost all of the dozens of people…
read moreWhen voters in Jefferson County, Colorado, cast their ballots in the Nov. 8 midterm election, they will see security guards stationed outside the busiest polling centers. At an election office in Flagstaff, Arizona, voters will encounter bulletproof glass and need to press a buzzer to enter. In Tallahassee, Florida, election workers will count ballots in…
read moreChina Saturday criticized the latest U.S. decision to tighten export controls that would make it harder for China to obtain and manufacture advanced computing chips, calling it a violation of international economic and trade rules that will “isolate and backfire” on the U.S. “Out of the need to maintain its sci-tech hegemony, the U.S. abuses…
read moreThe city of Philadelphia issued an apology Thursday for the unethical medical experiments performed on mostly Black inmates at its Holmesburg Prison from the 1950s through the 1970s. The move comes after community activists and families of some of those inmates raised the need for a formal apology. It also follows a string of apologies…
read moreU.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday designed to allay European concerns that U.S. intelligence agencies are illegally spying on them. It promises strengthened safeguards against data collection abuses and creates a forum for legal challenges. The order builds on a preliminary agreement Biden announced in March with European Commission President Ursula von…
read moreThe Biden administration on Friday published a sweeping set of export controls, including a measure to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with U.S. tools, vastly expanding its reach in its bid to slow Beijing’s technological and military advances. The rules, some of which go into effect immediately, build…
read moreChina’s annual Golden Week festivities wind down Friday under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic with sharply reduced travel, frequent COVID testing and tight security in the capital ahead of this month’s 20th Communist Party Congress. As in the past two years, authorities have sought to discourage the popular practice of traveling to one’s hometown…
read moreAustralian scientists are trying to grow plants on the moon by 2025 in a new mission unveiled Friday that they said could help pave the way for a future colony. Plant biologist Brett Williams, from the Queensland University of Technology, said seeds would be carried by the Beresheet 2 spacecraft, a private Israeli moon mission.…
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