Section: Voice of America (USA)
Russia Says It’s Ready for Hypersonic Missile Talks with US
Russia is ready to discuss hypersonic missiles and other arms control issues with the United States as part of wider discussions about strategic stability, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.Cold War-era arms control agreements have been in jeopardy as Russia’s relations with the West have soured in recent years.In August 2019,...
Forest Fires Rage Near Chernobyl Nuclear Plant
Forest fires raged Tuesday in the contaminated area near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but officials insisted there is no radiation threat. Hundreds of firefighters backed by aircraft have been battling several forest fires around Chernobyl since last week. They managed to contain the initial blazes, but new fires are now raging close to the...
Coronavirus Upends Putin’s Political Agenda in Russia
Spring is not turning out the way Russian President Vladimir Putin might have planned it. A nationwide vote on April 22 was supposed to finalize sweeping constitutional reforms that would allow him to stay in power until 2036, if he wished. But after the coronavirus spread in Russia, that plebiscite had to be postponed — an action so abrupt that...
Fauci: Uncertain That Warm Weather Will Limit Coronavirus Threat
The top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Thursday it is uncertain whether the threat of the coronavirus sweeping the world will fade as the weather turns warmer in the Northern Hemisphere in the coming weeks.Fauci told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that with other infections like influenza, when the weather...
Germany Flies in Seasonal Farm Workers Amid Virus Measures
Two planeloads of Eastern European farmhands arrived Thursday in Berlin and Duesseldorf amid strict precautions to protect the country from the new coronavirus, as an ambitious German program to import thousands of seasonal agricultural workers got underway.Seasonal workers had been caught up in the country’s ban on travel after the...
Saudi-Led Coalition Adopts Coronavirus Cease-Fire in Yemen
The Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen for five years declared a two-week cease-fire starting Thursday in response to United Nations calls for peace as the world battles the coronavirus pandemic.After making his appeal last month, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reported last week that parties to conflicts...
Trump Challenges Authority, Independence of Agency Watchdogs
President Donald Trump is moving aggressively to challenge the authority and independence of agency watchdogs overseeing his administration, including removing the inspector general tasked with overseeing the $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue package that passed Congress with bipartisan support. In four days, Trump has fired one inspector general...
Trump Ousts Watchdog for Coronavirus Rescue Spending
U.S. President Donald Trump has removed the independent watchdog overseeing the management of the country’s $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package, the second inspector general he has ousted in recent days. Trump pushed out Glenn Fine, the acting inspector general at the Pentagon for the past four years, from the coronavirus spending...
Ukraine Fights Fires in Chernobyl Zone, Says no Radiation Jump
Local authorities in Ukraine have dismissed residents’ concerns that forest fires near the Chernobyl nuclear power station have led to unsafe radiation levels.The radiation levels in the capital Kyiv and the exclusion zone established around the plant in 1986, after an explosion there that caused the world’s worst nuclear accident,...
Fired Inspector General ‘Saddened’ by Trump Move
The intelligence community inspector general who alerted Congress to a whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump’s contacts with Ukraine says he is “disappointed and saddened” that Trump removed him from office. Michael Atkinson issued a statement late Sunday saying he believes Trump’s decision is based on Atkinson’s...
