Tag Archives: United States

The Washington Post reports: The extreme heat and dry conditions of the past few years pushed what was already an epic, decades-long drought in the American West into a historic disaster that bears the unmistakable fingerprints of climate change. The long-running drought, which has persisted since 2000, can now be considered the driest 22-year period of the past 1,200 years, …

ABC News reports: Propelled in part by the wildly contagious omicron variant, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 900,000 on Friday, less than two months after eclipsing 800,000. The two-year total, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Indianapolis, San Francisco, or Charlotte, North Carolina. The milestone comes more than 13 months into a …

USA Today reports: The percentage of Americans who say they are satisfied with the acceptance of gay and lesbian people in the country has reached a new peak at 62%, according to a poll released Wednesday. Gallup’s annual Mood of the Nation poll asks people about their satisfaction with aspects of U.S. life and policy areas, ranging from the overall …

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. economy grew 5.7 percent in 2021, the fastest full-year clip since 1984, roaring back in the pandemic’s second year despite two new virus variants that rocked the United States. The economy grew 6.9 percent from October to December, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday, a sharp acceleration from the 2.3 percent it grew …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Pentagon hasn’t said under which circumstances the U.S. would deploy the troops, but officials said it could send a signal to Russia that the U.S. would quickly bolster the defenses of NATO allies in the event of a Russian incursion into Ukraine. The troops could also be on standby should the U.S. decide they …

The Associated Press reports: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday won the first stage of his effort to overturn a U.K. ruling that opened the door for his extradition to U.S. to stand trial on espionage charges. The High Court in London gave Assange permission to appeal the case to the U.K. Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court must agree …

CNN reports: President Joe Biden discussed options for bolstering US troop levels in the Baltics and Eastern Europe with his top military officials during a briefing at Camp David on Saturday, according to a senior official. The briefing, which Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley attended virtually, included the discussion of …

CNN reports: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that any movement of Russian military forces across Ukraine’s border would represent “a renewed invasion” that will be “met with swift, severe and a united response” from the United States and allies. Blinken’s remarks followed an hour and a half bilateral meeting Friday in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey …

Reuters reports: The United States reported 1.35 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, the highest daily total for any country in the world as the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant showed no signs of slowing. The previous record was 1.03 million cases on Jan. 3. A large number of cases are reported each …

Reuters reports: COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States reached a fresh high of 132,646, according to a Reuters tally on Monday, surpassing the record of 132,051 set in January last year, amid a surge of the highly contagious Omicron variant. While potentially less severe, health officials have warned that the sheer number of infections caused by the Omicron variant could …

The Washington Post reports: Negotiators for the United States are planning to show up to talks with their Russian counterparts Monday with proposals to discuss the placement of missiles and scope of military exercises in Europe, according to people familiar with the plans. The White House is looking to test whether Moscow is serious about ending the Ukraine crisis through …

CBS News reports: President Biden announced on Tuesday that he’s directing his team to double the United States’ order of Pfizer antiviral pills from 10 million COVID-19 treatment courses to 20 million treatment courses, and the delivery will be accelerated from September to June. “We may need even more. That’s the estimate we need right now,” Mr. Biden said, noting …

Bloomberg News reports: More than 1 million people in the U.S. were diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday as a tsunami of omicron swamps every aspect of daily American life. The highly mutated variant drove U.S. cases to a record, the most — by a large margin — that any country has ever reported. Monday’s number is almost double the previous …

Reuters reports: The United States is at risk of paying an “unbearable price” due to its actions over Taiwan, Wang Yi, state councillor and foreign minister, said in an interview with state media on Thursday. China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and in the past two years has stepped up military and diplomatic pressure to assert its …

The New York Times reports: With a caseload nearly twice that of the worst single days of last winter, the United States shattered its record for new daily coronavirus cases, a milestone that may still fall short of describing the true toll of the Delta and Omicron variants because testing has slowed over the holidays. As a second year of …

The Washington Post reports: The lightning spread of the coronavirus’s omicron variant in the United States pushed the seven-day average of new daily cases to 253,245 as of Tuesday afternoon, surpassing the previous high of 248,209 cases on Jan. 12. The omicron variant, first identified late last month in southern Africa, has sent infections soaring to levels not seen since …

PBS NewsHour reports: COVID-19 helped erase 1.8 years from the average American’s life expectancy in 2020, according to the latest federal mortality data released Wednesday, marking the greatest change in the American lifespan since World War II. During that one brutal year, COVID-19 became the third-most common cause of death in the United States, with one out of 10 fatalities …

Changing America reports: At least 20 million adults in the U.S. identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to a new analysis of government data, representing nearly 8 percent of the nation’s total adult population. Millions more may identify as something “more expansive” like pansexual or asexual, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation said in a recent report. Using data …

Reuters reports: The United States on Sunday reached 800,000 coronavirus-related deaths, as the nation braces for a potential surge in infections due to more time spent indoors with colder weather and the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus. The milestone means the U.S. death toll from this one virus now exceeds the entire population of North Dakota. Even with …

Axios reports: England’s High Court on Friday overturned a British judge’s decision to block the extradition of Julian Assange to the U.S., dealing a major blow to the WikiLeaks founder in his decade-long fight to avoid prosecution by the U.S. government. Assange, who was arrested in Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2019 after its government revoked his asylum, is wanted …