Tag Archives: United States

Reuters reports: U.S. politicians should stop calling for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics to avoid hurting bilateral ties and China will take “countermeasures” if necessary, China`s foreign ministry said on Monday. The Biden administration is expected to announce this week that U.S. government officials will not attend the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, CNN reported on Sunday. Those …

The Washington Post reports: Apple alerted 11 U.S. diplomats that their iPhones had been hacked in recent months by spyware from NSO Group, an Israeli-based company that helps government clients in dozens of countries secretly steal files, eavesdrop on conversations and track the movements of its targets, according to people familiar with the notifications. The news, first reported by Reuters …

CNN reports: The United States’ first confirmed case of the Omicron coronavirus variant has been identified in California. The World Health Organization designates Omicron a “variant of concern.” In a technical brief released this week, WHO noted that the variant poses a “very high” global risk. The variant was first identified by scientists in South Africa, and has since been …

The Associated Press reports: The discovery of a new coronavirus variant sent a chill through much of the world Friday as nations raced to halt air travel, markets fell sharply and scientists held emergency meetings to weigh the exact risks, which were largely unknown. In response, the United States joined the European Union and several other countries in instituting travel …

The Washington Post reports: The United States for the first time was added to a list of “backsliding democracies” in a report released Monday by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. “The United States, the bastion of global democracy, fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself, and was knocked down a significant number of steps on the democratic …

The New York Times reports: Federal medical teams have been dispatched to Minnesota to help at overwhelmed hospitals. Michigan is enduring its worst case surge yet, with daily caseloads doubling since the start of November. Even New England, where vaccination rates are high, is struggling, with Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire trying to contain major outbreaks. Nationally, case levels remain …

The Associated Press reports: The U.S. lifted restrictions Monday on travel from a long list of countries including Mexico, Canada and most of Europe, allowing tourists to make long-delayed trips and family members to reconnect with loved ones after more than a year and a half apart because of the pandemic. The rules that go into effect Monday allow air …

NBC News reports: The United States had the second-steepest decline in life expectancy among high-income countries last year during the pandemic, according to a study of death data spanning several continents. The only country studied that saw a starker overall trend was Russia. The study, published Wednesday in The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal), assessed premature death in 37 …

NPR reports: Global deaths from COVID-19 have now surpassed 5 million, according to the data released Monday from Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker. The U.S. continues to lead the world with the number of confirmed deaths from the virus — where more than 745,800 people have died from COVID-19. Brazil (with more than 607,000 deaths) and India (with more than …

Via press release from the White House: We, the President of France, Chancellor of Germany, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and President of the United States, met in Rome today to discuss the risks posed to international security by Iran’s escalating nuclear program. We expressed our determination to ensure that Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon …

NBC News reports: The United States has issued its first passport with an “X” gender marker, which denotes that someone is neither exclusively male nor female, the State Department said Wednesday. This marks a milestone for nonbinary and intersex Americans, who make up an estimated 1.2 million and 4 million Americans, respectively, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA …

The Associated Press reports: Children under 18 and people from dozens of countries with a shortage of vaccines will be exempt from new rules that will require most travelers to the United States be vaccinated against COVID-19, the Biden administration announced Monday. The government will require airlines to collect contact information on passengers regardless of whether they have been vaccinated …

Gallup reports: Six months into Joe Biden’s presidency, approval ratings of U.S. leadership around the world had largely rebounded from the record-low ratings observed during the Trump administration. A new Gallup report shows that as of early August 2021, across 46 countries and territories, median approval of U.S. leadership stood at 49%. This rating is up from the 30% median …

Reuters reports: The White House will announce on Friday it will lift travel restrictions for fully vaccinated foreign nationals from more than 30 countries, effective Nov. 8, at land borders and for air travel, a White House official said. Curbs on non-essential travelers have been in place since March 2020 to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House announced on …

Reuters reports: The United States surpassed 700,000 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, as officials roll out booster doses of vaccines to protect the elderly and people working in high-risk professions. The country has reported an average of more than 2,000 deaths per day over the past week, which represents about 60% of the peak in fatalities …

Agence France-Presse reports: France’s Naval Group said Wednesday it will send a “detailed and calculated proposal” to Australia in the coming weeks of the costs it expects Canberra to pay for scrapping a massive contract to purchase French submarines. Australia in 2016 agreed to buy 12 diesel-powered submarines built by Naval Group in a deal dubbed the “contract of the …

CNN reports: The French government has immediately recalled its ambassador to the US for consultation in response to the recently announced national security partnership with the United Kingdom and Australia. Philippe Étienne, the French ambassador to the US, confirmed the news when reached for comment. In a statement, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, said …

CNN reports: The US has now tallied more than 40 million Covid-19 cases across the pandemic, with more than 4 million of them reported in the last four weeks alone, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The count comes with a caveat: 40 million represents just officially reported positive test results, and many experts believe the actual number of …

The Associated Press reports: The European Union recommended Monday that its 27 nations reinstate restrictions on tourists from the U.S. because of rising coronavirus infections there. The decision by the European Council to remove the U.S. from a safe list of countries for nonessential travel reverses advice that it gave in June, when the bloc recommended lifting restrictions on U.S. …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The European Union is set to recommend halting nonessential travel from the U.S. because of Covid-19, diplomats said on Sunday. European officials have been considering the move for much of the last month with the average U.S. infection rate now above that of the EU. The Slovenian presidency of the EU last week recommended removing …