Tag: Government and politics

Congress has poured tens of billions of dollars into state and local public health departments in response to the coronavirus pandemic, paying for masks, contact tracers and education campaigns to persuade people to get vaccinated. Public health officials who have juggled bare-bones budgets for years are happy to have the additional money. Yet they worry

BELGRADE, Serbia — Thousands of vaccine-seekers from countries neighboring Serbia flocked to Belgrade on Saturday after Serbian authorities offered foreigners free coronavirus jabs if they showed up over the weekend. Long lines of Bosnians, Montenegrins and Macedonians — often entire families — formed in front of the main vaccination center in the Serbian capital as

AMIENS, France — As France battles a new virus surge that many believe was avoidable, intensive care nurse Stephanie Sannier manages her stress and sorrow by climbing into her car after a 12-hour shift, blasting music and singing as loud as she can. “It allows me to breathe,” she says, “and to cry.” People with

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary has emerged as a European Union leader in COVID-19 vaccinations thanks to a strategy that sought shots from Russia and China as well as from inside the bloc, spurring increasing trust in jabs from eastern nations. But that strategy is up against a skyrocketing rise in new COVID-19 cases and deaths

BRUSSELS — Australia is seeking assurances from the European Union’s executive arm that future shipments of vaccines will not be blocked, after Italy banned a large export of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shots. The shipment to Australia of more than a quarter-million doses was blocked from leaving the 27-nation bloc — the first use of an

Officials say U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport thwarted a man’s attempt to import several pounds of African rat meat. Customs spokesman Steve Bansbach said Tuesday that the man declared the 32 pounds of meat on June 26 when his flight arrived from the Ivory Coast. The meat was confiscated

Interested in Cuba? National security agencies and members of Congress are frustrated by the lack of answers about what the United States describes as “health attacks” that have injured American diplomats in Cuba. A meeting Thursday between U.S. and Cuban officials was intended to try to help determine the method and motive behind those mysterious