Simon Kent

U.S. health agencies on Tuesday will issue a joint call for Washington to begin an “immediate pause” in the rollout of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a wealth tax Monday to help finance the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic while at the same time expressing his profound disappointment in the international response to the crisis.

More than 70 percent of people in Japan said in a poll they are opposed to holding the rescheduled Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The negative response comes just three months before the event, originally set down for last year but pushed back because of the global coronavirus pandemic, is due to begin.

Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), has been tipped to be U.S. President Joe Biden’s nomination for a diplomatic post with the United Nations World Food Programme.

Iran blamed Israel on Monday for a sabotage attack on its underground Natanz nuclear facility, vowing for the second time in a matter of months bloody revenge against those it holds responsible for an “act of terror.”

China’s top disease control official admitted Sunday the country’s domestic coronavirus vaccines have low effectiveness and the Communist government is considering how to give them a boost. Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates,” said the director of the China Centers

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) announced Thursday its personnel will now be known as aviators rather than airmen, as it marks 100 years since its foundation.

The Biden administration was applauded Thursday by the U.N. agency for so-called Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after it offered $250 million in funding while sidestepping a 2018 law that prevents U.S. taxpayer dollars from supporting the Palestinian Authority.

The city of St. Louis, Missouri, elected its first black female mayor on Tuesday, with Democrat Tishaura Jones taking 52 percent of the vote over her opponent’s 48 percent. She will be sworn in on April 20 and faces the dual challenges presented by a declining population and one of the worst murder rates in the nation.

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) on Tuesday said it rejects coronavirus vaccine passports for travel “at this stage” because of doubts over the efficacy of the injections as well as equity concerns.

George Soros’s grantmaking Open Society Foundations have pledged $20 million to push President Joe Biden’s infrastructure and social welfare proposals.

First Lady Jill Biden pranked traveling reporters Thursday by disguising herself as a flight attendant to issue ice cream treats in an April Fool stunt.

First Lady Jill Biden journeyed to California on Wednesday in a visit to a pop-up vaccination site for farmworkers designed to encourage others to join the national mass coronavirus vaccination program.

President Joe Biden’s son Hunter maintains his role on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma wasn’t unethical and didn’t represent a lack of judgment on his part.

On the same day the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) finally released its report into the origins of coronavirus and posited the theory China may not be responsible, the organization’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revived a claim it could have leaked from a lab in Wuhan as all options remain open.

Korean pop band BTS struck out Tuesday against racial discrimination and violence towards Asian people in a general note that did not identify America or any other country as a particular culprit.

Iran has such military strength and experience in dynamic modern warfare no enemy can even dream of beating it in a conflict, Major General Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, declared Tuesday.

The United Nations will not move to verify reports Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities are being persecuted in China until the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gives permission, U.N. secretary-general Antonio Guterres confirmed Sunday.

A report compiled by the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in collaboration with China on the origins of coronavirus claims it leapt from bats to humans through another animal and not via a laboratory leak in the city of Wuhan, a draft copy obtained by The Associated Press claims.

The massive container ship MV Ever Given which has been blocking the Suez Canal for almost a week was “partially refloated” Monday morning, raising hopes the critical waterway will soon be cleared for a resumption of maritime traffic.

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday night told Fox News he will visit the southern border in a matter of weeks, criticizing Joe Biden administration’s response to the crisis building there.

A pair of specially chartered tugboats on Sunday were ordered to make best speed to the Suez Canal to aid efforts to free a skyscraper-sized container ship wedged for days across the crucial waterway.

Saturday Night Live has finally aired a skit that acknowledges Joe Biden is now in the White House and his administration has its hands on the levers of power.

Tugboats and dredgers joined land-based heavy machinery Friday working to free a giant container ship blocking Egypt’s Suez Canal for a fourth day.

Prince Harry’s new job as the first chief “impact officer” of a San Francisco startup that combines coaching and computing to benefit employee mental health is a good fit and not a publicity stunt, the CEO who hired the British royal said Thursday.

Vice President Kamala Harris has accepted an invitation from former President Bill Clinton to join him Friday to discuss “empowering women and girls in the U.S. and around the world.”

President Joe Biden keeps in regular contact with Barack Obama to canvass his opinion on a range of issues, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.

The number of migrant children now held in U.S. custody surged past 15,000 on Saturday, with some 5,000 unaccompanied minors alone being held in a tent holding facility run by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other stations along the U.S.-Mexico Border.

The boss of Australian airline QANTAS warned Sunday “governments are going to insist” on coronavirus vaccines for all international fliers, with the global imposition coming sooner rather than later.

There will be no Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2021. Organizers announced Friday the anticipated return of the mass event this year “has been cancelled,” after it was initially postponed to October due to coronavirus concerns.