Category: News

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,…

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…

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…

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,…

The European Space Agency previews a big 2021 starting with a new boss.  Data show last year’s temperatures tied the hottest on record, and French wines return to Earth after a year aboard the International Space Station.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space. Producer: Arash…

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…

The World Health Organization's (WHO) European chief says 95% of the 23.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines that have been administered around the world so far have been given out in just 10 countries. At a Copenhagen news briefing Thursday, WHO Europe Director Hans Kluge…

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…

The European Space Agency previews a big 2021 starting with a new boss.  Data show last year’s temperatures tied the hottest on record, and French wines return to Earth after a year aboard the International Space Station.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space. Producer: Arash…

The World Health Organization's ((WHO)) European chief says 95% of the 23.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines that have been administered around the world so far have been given out in just 10 countries. At a Copenhagen news briefing Thursday, WHO Europe Director Hans Kluge…

More than 150,000 people from 154 countries are at the U.S. Consumer Electronics Show – all online - this week. Michelle Quinn reports. Contributors: Elizabeth Lee, Julie Taboh Video editor: Matt Dibble ...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has promised to provide Myanmar with 300,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine, according to the website of State Counselor and de facto head of state Aung San Suu Kyi.The site said Wang also pledged during a visit to Naypyitaw this week…

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is set to unveil Thursday a coronavirus response plan that includes boosting the rate of vaccinations and helping counter the economic effects of the pandemic. Biden is scheduled to detail the program in an evening address. He has already set a goal of administering 100 million…

After months of negotiations and accusations that China was obstructing an independent investigation, a team of World Health Organization experts has landed in Wuhan, China, where they will try to uncover the origin of the coronavirus that has killed nearly 2 million people globally.Chinese state…

A team of experts from the World Health Organization arrived in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Thursday to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.The 10-member international team flew into Wuhan after a direct flight from Singapore and immediately entered a 14-day quarantine…

Some 1,200 tennis players and officials from around the world will face strict COVID-19 controls as they start to arrive in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open. They must spend 14 days in hotel quarantine, like any other international traveler arriving in Australia, but will…

Racing against a surging COVID-19 death toll, the United States is releasing all available doses of the coronavirus vaccine and has instructed states to immediately begin vaccinating Americans 65 and older and adults with medical conditions. Patsy Widakuswara has this story.  ...

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was charged Wednesday with willful neglect of duty after an investigation of ruinous decisions that left the city of Flint with lead-contaminated water and a deadly regional outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.The charges, revealed in an online court record, are misdemeanors…

The Trump administration said Wednesday that it would slash millions of acres of protected habitat designated for the imperiled northern spotted owl in Oregon, Washington state and Northern California, much of it in prime timber locations in Oregon’s coastal ranges. Environmentalists immediately decried the move and…

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergencies chief warned Wednesday the second year of the coronavirus pandemic may be tougher than the first, at least in the first few months.During an online discussion with other WHO officials, Mike Ryan said given the transmission dynamics and other…

Aid workers this week confirmed several cases of COVID-19 in Sudan's camps for refugees who fled the fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray Region. The United Nations refugee agency and aid group Mercy Corps say an urgent intervention is needed to avoid a humanitarian disaster.Aid organizations reported…

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Wednesday he is hoping the nation’s current situation is the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as infection rates and hospitalizations are at or near record levels. In televised interviews. Hancock said Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is facing intense…

China has recorded its highest daily increase of new coronavirus infections since last July after a recent cluster of cases in northern Hebei province. The National Health Commission reported 115 new cases on Tuesday, with 90 cases located in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing.  The commission…

The United States is changing vaccine strategies, releasing millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses it was holding back for use as second shots to inoculate Americans older than 65, as well as those with underlying health conditions. Appearing on a morning news show, Health and Human Services…

The United States recorded a 10.3% decline in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 2020 as economic activity contracted due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released Tuesday by the Rhodium Group, which noted the single largest drop in annual emissions in the post-World…

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, his health director and other ex-officials have been told they’re being charged after a new investigation of the Flint water scandal, which devastated the majority Black city with lead-contaminated water and was blamed for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease…