VOA NEWS - 210716

 

VOA NEWS

July 16, 2021

- 00:03 - 

This is VOA News. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd. The death toll continues to climb and dozens are reported missing as severe flooding in Germany and Belgium turned streams and streets into raging torrents that swept away cars and caused houses to collapse. Recent storms across parts of Western Europe made rivers and reservoirs burst their banks, triggering flash floods [骤发洪水] after the saturated soil could not absorb any more water. Speaking at an afternoon news conference at the White House after meeting with President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "My empathy and my heart goes to all of those who in this catastrophe lost their loved ones or who are still worrying about the fate of people still missing and I include Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands who have also suffered from flooding." The death toll is expected to rise as dozens of people are reported missing. - 01:31- President Joe Biden said Thursday the United States will bolster security at its embassy in Haiti following last week's assassination of that country's president but sending American troops to stabilize the country was not on the agenda. "We're only sending American Marines to our embassy to make sure that they are secure and nothing is out of whack 运转失常at all. But the idea of sending American forces into Haiti is not on the agenda at this moment." Haiti's interim government last week asked the United States and the U.N. to deploy troops to protect key infrastructure following President Jovenel Moïse's assassination. Biden signaled he was not open to the request, which comes as he is drawing down U.S. forces in Afghanistan this summer. There is more news on our website voanews.com. This is VOA News. - 02:54 - The head of the World Health Organization said Thursday he is asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus and acknowledged it was premature to rule out the pandemic might have been linked to a laboratory leak. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said getting access to raw data had been a challenge for an international team that traveled to China earlier this year to investigate the source of COVID-19 where the first human cases were identified in Wuhan. "... and we need information, direct information on what the situation of these labs was before and at the start of the pandemic." In recent months, the idea that the pandemic somehow started in a laboratory and perhaps involved an engineered virus has gained traction, especially with President Joe Biden ordering a review of U.S. intelligence to assess that possibility in May. - 04:27 -  The U.S. surgeon general is calling on Americans to fight misinformation about the coronavirus. AP's Ed Donahue reports. Vivek Murthy says health information has led to people resisting wearing masks, to turn down proven treatments and to choose not to get vaccinated. "Simply put, health information has cost us lives." Virus cases have been going up in many states while the pace of vaccinations has slowed. "Every week, I talk to doctors and nurses across our country who are burning out as they care for more and more patients with COVID-19 who never got vaccinated - all too often because they were misled by misinformation." Murthy says many people don't intend to spread wrong virus information. "... if you are not sure, don't share." The World Health Organization is calling it an "infodemic[信息疫情]." Ed Donahue, Washington. - 05:38 - Los Angeles County's public health officer says a rapid and sustained increase in COVID-19 cases in the nation's largest county requires a return to mandatory mask-wearing indoors even when people are vaccinated. Dr. Muntu Davis told a virtual press conference Thursday that a public health order requiring masks indoors will go into effect on Saturday. He didn't detail what he said would be some exceptions. David said the county has been recording more than 1,000 new cases each day for a week and that there is now "substantial community transmission." - 06:34 -  The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits has reached its lowest level since the pandemic struck last year. The Labor Department said that jobless claims fell by 26,000 last week to 360,000. Visit voanews.com for more. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd, VOA News. - Thanks to - 新闻来源：https://www.voanews.com/node/4733266 语音文本：https://gandalf.ddo.jp/ 字幕生成：剪映 https://lv.ulikecam.com/ 视频生成：Shotcut https://shotcut.org/