The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is investigating reports  that young people have developed myocarditis, or heart inflammation, after being inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine.The agency’s vaccine safety group said in a recent report that there have been “relatively few reports“ of the heart inflammation, but most tended to occur in male teenagers and young adults, usually after a second vaccine dose.“Most cases appear to be mild, and follow-up of cases is ongoing,” the safety group said.In another development, two doses of the COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca are about as effective against the coronavirus variant first found in India as they are against the variant first found in England, according to a study by Public Health England announced Saturday.The study found that Pfizer’s vaccine is 88% effective against B.1.617.2, or the Indian variant, and 93% effective against B.1.1.7, now known as the Kent variant. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is 60% against the Indian variant and 66% effective against the English variant.In both cases, the effectiveness was measured two weeks after the second shot and against symptomatic disease. The Kent variant is the dominant strain in England but health officials fear the Indian strain may outpace it.In England, health authorities have stretched the time between the two doses to as much as three months in order to get more people vaccinated and stop the coronavirus in its tracks. Against the variants, though, two shots are better than one, so for clinically vulnerable people or those older than 50, the period between the two shots will be cut to eight weeks.“I’m increasingly confident that we’re on track for the road map [to reopening], because this data shows that the vaccine, after two doses, works just as effectively [against the Indian variant],” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told broadcasters.Kaiser Health News reported that during the pandemic many older people have become “physically and cognitively debilitated and less able to take care of themselves.”While no large-scale study has recorded the extent of the problem, Kaiser said doctors and physical therapists are reporting that seniors are losing muscle mass and strength, resulting in problems with mobility and balance.“What I’d love to see is a national effort, maybe by the CDC, focused on helping older people overcome these kinds of impairments,” Linda Teodosio, a physical therapist and division rehabilitation manager in Bayada Home Healthcare’s Towson, Maryland, office told Kaiser.India casesOn Sunday, India’s health ministry reported 240,842 new COVID infections and nearly 4,000 deaths from the virus in the previous 24-hour period.The Indian government said Saturday that while COVID-19 infections remain high as they spread to overburdened rural areas, the infections are stabilizing in some parts of the country.As India struggles with a faltering health care system and vaccine shortages, experts have warned of a third wave of infections in coming months.Johns Hopkins University said early Sunday there are 166.7 million global COVID-19 infections. The U.S. has 33.1 million, followed by India with 26 million.  Brazil is ranked third with 16 million. 
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Virgin Galactic on Saturday made its first rocket-powered flight from New Mexico to the fringe of space in a manned shuttle, as the company forges toward offering tourist flights to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.High above the desert in a cloudless sky, VSS Unity ignited its rocket to hurtle the ship and two pilots toward space. A live feed by NASASpaceFlight.com showed the ship accelerating upward and confirmed a landing later via radar.Virgin Galactic announced that the shuttle achieved a speed equal to three times the speed of sound and an altitude of just more than 89 kilometers (55 miles) above sea level before making its gliding return through the atmosphere.British billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson said the flight and landing brought the roughly 15-year-old venture tantalizingly close to commercial flights for tourists. Virgin Galactic said those flights could begin next year.’They all worked'”Today was just an incredible step in the right direction,” Branson told The Associated Press shortly after the flight landing. “It tested a lot of new systems that the teams have been building and they all worked.”Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said at least two more undated test flights lie ahead — the next with four mission specialist passengers in the cabin. Pending trials also include a flight that will take Branson to the edge of space.”The flight today was elegant, beautiful,” Colglazier said. “We’re going to analyze all the data that we gather on these flights, but watching from the ground and speaking with our pilots, it was magnificent. So now it’s time for us to do this again.”Virgin Galactic said the flight provided an assessment of upgrades to a horizontal stabilizer, other flight controls and a suite of cabin cameras designed to provide live images of flight to people on the ground. The shuttle also carried a scientific payload in cooperation with NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.Preparations for the latest flight included a maintenance review of the special carrier plane that flies the six-passenger spacecraft to a high altitude, where it is released so it can fire its rocket motor and make the final push to space.Several delaysThe first powered test of the rocket ship in New Mexico from Spaceport America was delayed repeatedly before Saturday’s launch. In December 2020, computer trouble caused by electromagnetic interference prevented the spaceship’s rocket from firing properly. Instead of soaring toward space, the ship and its two pilots were forced to make an immediate landing.While Virgin Galactic’s stock price ticked up this week with the announcement of the latest test being scheduled for Saturday, it wasn’t enough to overcome the losses seen since a peak in February. Some analysts have cautioned that it could be a while before the company sees profits as the exact start of commercial operations is still up in the air.Virgin Galactic is one of a few companies looking to cash in on customers with an interest in space.Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch a billionaire and his sweepstakes winners in September. That should be followed in January 2022 by a flight by three businessmen to the International Space Station.Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched a new capsule in January as part of testing as it aims to get its program for tourists, scientists and professional astronauts off the ground. It’s planning for liftoff of its first crewed flight on July 20, the date of the Apollo 11 moon landing.Virgin Galactic has reached space twice before. The first time was from California in December 2018.New Mexico taxpayers have invested more than $200 million in the Spaceport America hangar and launch facility, near Truth or Consequences, after Branson and then-Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, pitched the plan for the facility, with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant.Richardson watched Saturday’s flight from the ground below and later thanked residents of local counties that committed early on to a sales tax increase to support the venture.
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The United Nations is appealing for nearly $84 million for assistance to 750,000 people in Nepal suffering from a devastating COVID-19 surge.In many ways, the outbreak in Nepal may be even worse than the destructive surge that has engulfed neighboring India.The United Nations said Friday that Nepal had roughly the same number of daily cases per capita as India, but with a much weaker health system incapable of dealing with the crisis.The World Health Organization said Nepal has had nearly 500,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 6,000 deaths. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the number of cases was escalating rapidly. It said cases had risen from 150 a day in early April to more than 8,000 cases a day since May 5.OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said all sectors of Nepalese society were reaching a breaking point.“Millions of people are struggling with the direct health impact of the pandemic, but also hunger, malnutrition, devastating economic losses and other health needs that are being overlooked,” Laerke said. “The current outbreak is hitting the poorest and most marginalized people in Nepal the hardest.”OCHA said the dramatic spike in cases had spurred an unprecedented need for medical supplies, including oxygen, medicine, ventilators, diagnostic kits and vaccine. It warned that the lives of many people sickened by the coronavirus would be lost because Nepal lacked the supplies needed to save them.Laerke said a positive response to the U.N.’s $83.7 million Response Plan was crucial to avoiding that.“Our plan calls for swift action and international solidarity that is desperately needed to save lives and prevent unnecessary suffering today and in the difficult weeks to come,” he  said. “We have no time to lose.”The U.N. Response Plan aims to address both the health and humanitarian consequences of COVID-19, helping hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Nepalis with health, food, education, nutrition, shelter, protection, water and sanitation assistance.
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Шмигаль: це позитивний тренд на шляху відновлення нашої економіки після кризи
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Issues in the News moderator Kim Lewis discusses with VOA senior TV correspondent Chris Simkins and VOA executive editor Steve Redisch the top stories of the week including the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants, the U.S. House approval of a commission to investigate the January 6th, riots at the U.S. Capitol and more.Program Note: Show was recorded prior to the ceasefire
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More than 700,000 citizens living in the capital of the United States do not have full representation in Congress. Once a fringe issue, a bill for DC statehood recently passed the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives, but faces high hurdles in the Senate. Zack Smith, legal fellow in the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation and William Roberts, managing director for Democracy and Government Reform at the liberal Center for American Progress, spar over the constitutional, historical, ideological and political impediments to statehood for the District of Columbia. 
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The White House put forward a $1.7 trillion infrastructure counteroffer Friday to Senate Republicans, dropping from President Joe Biden’s sweeping $2.3 trillion proposal “in the spirit of finding common ground.”White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki disclosed the new offer as talks were still underway between key Cabinet secretaries and GOP senators at a crucial stage toward a deal. Skepticism had been rising on all sides amid complaints about the lack of significant movement off the opening bids. Republicans had offered a $568 billion plan.”This proposal exhibits a willingness to come down in size,” she said at the press briefing.According to a memo obtained by The Associated Press, the administration is cutting more than $550 billion from the president’s initial offer.But the memo makes clear Biden is not interested in the Republicans’ idea of having consumers pay for the new investments through tolls, gas taxes or other fees. Instead, the administration is sticking with his proposal to raise the corporate tax to pay for the new investment, which is a red line for Republicans.”Our approach should ensure that corporations are paying their fair share,” said the memo from the administration’s negotiators to the GOP senators.The White House and Republican senators have been in talks ever since Biden met with a core group of Republican negotiators over the possibility of working together on an infrastructure plan. The White House dispatched the transportation and commerce secretaries and top aides to Capitol Hill to meet with the Republicans earlier this week, and they had a follow up video-call Friday.The more than hour-long meeting was constructive and hopeful, said two administration officials granted anonymity to discuss the private talks.But Republicans dismissed the new White House offer as “disappointing,” according to a GOP aide familiar with the meeting and permitted anonymity to discuss it.The Republicans viewed the changed approach as “very marginal movement” on the topline and without much difference in policy, the aide said.The slog of the negotiations is certain to mean new worries from Democrats that time is slipping to strike a compromise. The president’s team is holding to a soft Memorial Day deadline it had set to determine whether a deal was within reach.Psaki said the new proposal drops the president’s proposed expenditures on broadband as well as roads, bridges and other major investments to meet the Republicans’ lower level. She said the administration’s proposal also involved “shifting investments in research and development, supply chains, manufacturing and small business” out of the infrastructure talks, since they could be considered elsewhere, noting in Endless Frontiers Act, which is a separate bipartisan bill pending in the Senate.But Psaki said the president’s team is still pushing for investments in new veterans hospitals, rail projects and green energy investments to fight climate change that Republicans have excluded from their offers.In all, the White House cut broadband from $100 billion to $65 billion, as Republicans proposed. It also reduced road and bridges spending by $39 billion, from $159 billion to $120 billion, to move closer to the GOP’s proposal of $48 billion in new funds.Removing the research and development funds would cut a whopping $480 billion, the aides said.The White House characterized the GOP’s initial $568 billion “Roadmap” proposal as amounting to an estimated $175 billion to $225 billion in “new investment, above current levels Congress has traditionally funded,” according to the memo.The GOP senators have not publicly disclosed their latest offer.Securing a vast infrastructure plan is Biden’s top priority as he seeks to make good on his campaign pledge to “build back better” in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis and the economic churn from a shifting economy. With narrow Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the president is reaching out to Republicans for support on a potentially bipartisan approach rather than relying simply on his own party to muscle the proposal to passage. But Republicans are refusing Biden’s idea of a corporate tax increase to pay for the package.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday on Fox News that higher taxes on corporations or the wealthiest Americans are nonstarters. Republicans are unwilling to undo the 2017 tax cuts, the party’s signature domestic accomplishment under President Donald Trump. They reduced the corporate rate from 35% to 21%. Biden proposes lifting the corporate tax to 28%.”If they’re willing to settle on target an infrastructure bill without revisiting the 2017 tax bill we’ll work with them,” McConnell told Fox’s Larry Kudlow, a former Trump adviser. But McConnell, R-Ky., said a package topping $2 trillion or more “is not going to have any Republican support.”The new offer from the White House was intended to make a good faith effort at compromise, and to prod Republicans to put a more substantive counteroffer on the table, the officials said.In earlier talks, latest offer from GOP lawmakers left some dismay in the administration that there wasn’t more movement from their initial $568 billion proposal.The White House’s hopes for a bipartisan deal on infrastructure have cooled but they have not abandoned the effort, one of the officials said.Biden has reveled in the face-to-face negotiations, aides said, and has expressed hope to bring Republicans along. West Wing officials have been heartened by the public comments made by some of the GOP negotiating team, the official said.But outward talks of progress have not translated into the two sides getting much closer to a deal. Beyond the significant gap in the two sides’ visions for the size of the package, there has been little discussion of how to reach an agreement on how to pay for it.One GOP senator in the talks suggested tapping unspent funds from the massive COVID-19 aid package to help pay for the infrastructure investment. Other funds could be tapped from uncollected tax revenues or public-private partnerships.One strategy that had gained momentum would be for Biden to negotiate a more limited, traditional infrastructure bill of roads, highways, bridges and broadband as a bipartisan effort. Then, Democrats could try to muscle through the remainder of Biden’s priorities on climate investments and the so-called human infrastructure of child care, education and hospitals on their own.But, administration aides believe, if such an “infrastructure only” bipartisan deal is far smaller than Biden’s original proposal, the White House risks a rebellion from Democrats who could claim that the president made a bad deal and missed the moment to pass a sweeping, transformational package. 
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Національний банк України встановив на 24 травня курс 27 гривень 46 копійок за долар
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Національний банк України встановив опівдні довідкове значення курсу 27 гривень 46 копійок за долар
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