South Africa is reporting both good and bad news in the battle against the coronavirus, seeing a decline in confirmed cases along with the spread of a new, more infectious strain of the virus. First, the good news from South Africa’s health minister, Dr. Zweli Mkhize. The nation is still experiencing its second wave of … continue reading -> “South Africa Coronavirus Cases Decline, But New Variant Spreading Quickly”
Hundreds of members of Serbia’s military lined up on Tuesday in their camouflage uniforms at an exhibition hall in Belgrade where nurses injected them with a Chinese-made vaccine against COVID-19. Last week Serbia received one million doses of Chinese Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine, becoming the first European country to start a mass inoculation program with it. … continue reading -> “Serbia Becomes First European Country to Use Chinese COVID Vaccine for Mass Rollout”
California has become the first U.S state to post more than 3 million total coronavirus cases. As of Tuesday, the western state, home to 40 million residents, has 3,015,644 confirmed infections, including 33,724 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. According to the Associated Press, it took California 292 days from the first confirmed … continue reading -> “California First in US to Post More than 3 Million Total COVID-19 Cases “
Turkey imposed advertising bans Tuesday on Twitter, Periscope and Pinterest for not complying with a new law requiring social media companies to appoint a local representative to handle content removal orders. The rules that went into effect in October have drawn criticism from human rights and media freedom groups who argue Turkey’s government is … continue reading -> “Turkey Hits Twitter, Pinterest with Advertising Bans”
Australia has said it could keep its external borders closed for the rest of 2021 because of the coronavirus. 28,721 coronavirus cases have been reported in Australia since the pandemic began. 909 people have died, according to the Health Department.Australia closed its international borders to foreign travelers in March. It’s been a key part of the … continue reading -> “COVID-19 Threat Will Likely Keep Border Closed in 2021, Australia Says “
Mexico expects to receive its last Pfizer–BioNTech vaccines against COVID-19 Tuesday for the next three weeks as it supports a United Nations’ proposal to limit purchases in order to make vaccines available to poor countries. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Mexico will get 200,000 doses of the Pfizer- vaccine on Tuesday before its shipments are temporarily suspended. The Mexican leader says the temporary suspension of Pfizer shipments will not impact his efforts to get vaccines to all citizens. He said the government … continue reading -> “Mexico Temporarily Suspends Pfizer Vaccine Purchases to Help Supply Doses to Poor Countries”
A powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit San Juan Province in Argentina late Monday night, according to early reports from the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake, which was felt as far away as Santiago, Chile, sent items flying off store shelves, damaged buildings and caused cracks in a highway in San Juan, based on videos posted on twitter. There were also reports of power outages, but no immediate confirmation of casualties. San Juan Governor Sergio Unac on Tuesday urged people to stay calm while … continue reading -> “Powerful 6.4 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Western Argentina”
The head of the World Health Organization says the world is “on the brink of a moral catastrophic failure” for its unequal sharing of COVID-19 vaccinations. Addressing a WHO executive board meeting in Geneva on Monday, Executive Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it is “not right that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated before … continue reading -> “WHO Chief: World on Brink of ‘Moral Failure’ Over COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution”
Oil and gas companies are not doing enough to decrease the release of methane gases, a main source of planet-heating emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report released Monday. In 2020, the fuel industries emitted about 5% of all global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, the IEA report said. The energy sector is … continue reading -> “Watchdog Agency: Energy Sector Needs to Decrease Methane Emissions”
Parler, a social media website and app popular with the American far right, has partially returned online with the help of a Russian-owned technology company.Parler vanished from the internet when dropped by Amazon Inc.’s hosting arm and other partners for poor moderation after its users called for violence and posted videos glorifying the January 6 … continue reading -> “Parler Partially Reappears with Support from Russian Technology Firm”
Coronavirus deaths are rising in nearly two-thirds of American states as a winter surge pushes the overall toll toward 400,000 amid warnings that a new, highly contagious variant is taking hold. As Americans observed a national holiday Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pleaded with federal authorities to curtail travel from countries where new variants … continue reading -> “COVID-19 Deaths Rising In 30 US States Amid Winter Surge”
Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera has introduced new lockdown measures to contain a jump in confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19. The restrictions include school closures, a night-time curfew, and no gatherings over 50 people. The measure comes five days after Chakwera declared a state of national disaster in response to the recent spike in … continue reading -> “Malawi Announces New Lockdown Measures as COVID Cases Surge”
The decision by social media giants to police more content, along with banning U.S. President Donald Trump and some of his supporters from posting, is intensifying a debate in Europe over how to regulate platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.The hotly contested debate has mostly focused on whether governments should intervene to censor and curtail … continue reading -> “Should Social Media Platforms Lose Legal Protection?”
The director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warns the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines between rich and poor countries will prolong the global pandemic. Tedros delivered this stark warning Monday at the opening of a week-long meeting of the WHO Executive Board. WHO chief Tedros called the development and approval of safe, … continue reading -> “WHO: Poor Countries Missing Out on Life Saving COVID-19 Vaccines “
The head of the World Health Organization is calling for greater global equity in COVID-19 vaccinations, saying rich countries need to share vaccines with poor countries. Addressing a WHO executive board meeting in Geneva Monday, executive director Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it is “not right that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are … continue reading -> “WHO Chief Warns About Inequity of Global COVID Vaccine Campaign”
After almost a year of staring at each other’s living rooms or other spaces in virtual meetings due to the coronavirus pandemic, members of a Swiss startup have come up with a new idea: sending holographic emissaries to a virtual meeting space. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …
Jordan has become one of the world’s first countries to start coronavirus vaccinations for United Nations-registered refugees, according to the U.N. refugee agency and the royal palace. As part of the kingdom’s national vaccination drive that began last week, anyone living there, including refugees and asylum seekers, is entitled to receive the shot free of … continue reading -> “Jordan Among First to Vaccinate UN-Registered Refugees it Hosts “
John Hopkins University reported early Sunday there are 94.5 million global COVID-19 cases. The United States leads the world in the number of cases with 23.7 million infections, followed by India with 10.5 million and Brazil with 8.4 million.Los Angeles County in California has become the first U.S. county to record 1 million COVID-19 cases. … continue reading -> “Los Angeles First US County to Reach 1 Million COVID Cases”
China on Saturday finished building a 1,500-room hospital for COVID-19 patients to fight a surge in infections the government said are harder to contain and that it blamed on infected people or goods from abroad.The hospital is one of six with a total of 6,500 rooms being built in Nangong, south of Beijing in Hebei … continue reading -> “China Builds Hospital After Surge in ‘Harder to Handle’ Virus Cases”
The Australian Open will go ahead as planned, despite the discovery of three coronavirus cases that have put 47 players into quarantine for two weeks, the tennis tournament’s director, Craig Tiley, said Saturday.Australia’s international borders are closed, but there are exceptions.For the international tennis tournament, players and their coaches flew into the country on 17 … continue reading -> “Despite Planning, Australian Open Players Test Positive”
All four engines of the core stage of NASA’s deep space exploration rocket built by Boeing were ignited for the first time Saturday, but only briefly.Mounted in a test facility at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, the Space Launch System’s (SLS) 212-foot-tall core stage roared to life at 4:27 p.m. local time (2227 GMT) for … continue reading -> “NASA’s Boeing Moon Rocket Ground Test Is Cut Short”
Two years ago, in January 2019, the World Health Organization said vaccine hesitancy was among the top 10 threats to global health. That was before COVID-19 spread around the globe. VOA’s Carol Pearson tells us how doctors are working to overcome that hesitancy. …
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden named pioneering geneticist Eric Lander as the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy on Friday, elevating the post to Cabinet-level status for first time.Lander, a Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who helped lead the Human Genome Project, will also serve in the role of presidential science … continue reading -> “Biden Names Geneticist for New Cabinet-level Post on Science”
World Health Organization officials said Friday that they would like to see vaccination programs under way in every country in the world within the next 100 days, with frontline health workers and high-risk groups prioritized.Speaking at the agency’s regular briefing at its headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO emergency committee … continue reading -> “WHO Calls on All Nations to Begin Vaccination Programs Within 100 Days”
The numbers for the coronavirus pandemic continue upward, with more than 93 million global infections and nearly 2 million worldwide deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.The U.S. remains at the top of the list with the most cases and deaths. Johns Hopkins reports more than 23 million COVID-19 cases in the … continue reading -> “US COVID Death Toll Rapidly Approaching 400k, Says Johns Hopkins”