Daily Archives: January 30, 2021


Fighting Climate Change in America Means Changes to America

Climate isn’t the only thing changing. What comes next in the nation’s struggle to combat global warming will probably transform how Americans drive, where they get their power and other bits of day-to-day life, both quietly and obviously, experts say. So far, the greening of America has been subtle, driven by market forces, technology and voluntary actions. The Biden administration is about to change that.In a flurry of executive actions in his first eight days in office, the president is trying to steer the U.S. economy from one that uses fossil fuels …


Israel Says Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine Shows 92% Effectiveness

In the first large-scale, controlled data outside clinical trials, the two-dose Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is showing 92 percent effectiveness, according to Israeli health officials. It’s good news for Pfizer, which says the vaccine also appears to work against the British mutation of COVID-19. The Maccabi Health Fund studied 163,000 Israelis who had received two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. Only 31 of them caught COVID-19 after they were fully vaccinated. In an equivalent sample of unvaccinated Israelis, almost 6,500 developed the disease.The study shows the Pfizer vaccine had 92 percent …


Downdetector: Social Media Platform Reddit Hit by Outages in US

Social media company Reddit was experiencing problems on its website on Saturday, according to outage monitoring website Downdetector.com.   Customers reported trouble logging in and sending messages on its website. The outage affected regions such as New York, Boston and Washington in United States and Toronto in Canada, according to an outage map on Downdetector’s website.    It was not immediately known what caused the glitches. Reddit did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.   Reddit has come into THE the forefront after a social media chatroom …


Female-Directed Films Spark Oscar Buzz

In the realm of film, the year 2021 seems to be the year of woman. Dozens of acclaimed films and TV series by female directors pondering a woman’s complex world are being released every week. Many are already Oscar contenders. VOA’s Penelope Poulou looks at few examples. Camera, Producer: Penelope Poulou …


NBCUniversal Vows Auditions for Actors with Disabilities

Actors with disabilities will be included in auditions for each new film and television production at NBCUniversal, which becomes the second major media company to make such a commitment.NBCUniversal said Friday that the pledge covers projects by the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, Universal Studio Group, NBC network and Peacock streaming service.The pledge was made in response to calls for change by the Ruderman Family Foundation, following a similar commitment the disability rights advocate received from CBS Entertainment in 2019.“My hope is that other major studios in the industry will now …


EU Tightens Vaccine Export Rules, Creates Post-Brexit Outcry

The European Union introduced tighter rules Friday on exports of COVID-19 vaccines that could hit shipments to nations like Great Britain, deepening a dispute with London over scarce supplies of potentially lifesaving shots.But amid an outcry in Northern Ireland and Britain, the European Commission made clear the new measure will not trigger controls on vaccines shipments produced in the 27-nation bloc to Northern Ireland, which is part of Britain bordering EU member Ireland.Under the post-Brexit deal, EU products should still be able to travel unhindered from the bloc to Northern …