VOA NEWS - 210722

 

VOA NEWS

July 22, 2021

This is VOA News. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd. **** The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said Wednesday the Taliban appear to have the "strategic momentum" in their sweeping offensives across Afghanistan but their victory is far from assured. Speaking at the Pentagon, Milley said the Taliban fighters have made gains in recent weeks but that Afghan security forces are consolidating their gains in urban areas. "Momentum appears to be, strategic momentum appears to be sort of with the Taliban. The Afghan security forces are consolidating [合并] their forces. So part of this is they're giving up district centers in order to consolidate their forces because they're taking an approach to protect the population." The militants now control about half Afghanistan's roughly 400 districts but none of the country's densely populated main cities. The Taliban are surging across Afghanistan, snapping up (抢购，匆匆吃下，抢先弄到手) territory, seizing border crossings and encircling cities with the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign troops all but complete. **** The United States and Germany have reached a deal that will allow the completion of a controversial Russian pipeline to Europe without the imposition of further U.S. sanctions. The two governments announced the agreement in a joint statement Wednesday and said it was immediately assailed (攻击；质问) by members of Congress opposed to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline (北溪2天然气管道). The deal is intended to address U.S. and eastern and central European concerns about Russia using the pipeline as a political weapon. Both sides committed to imposing sanctions on Russia, including potentially shutting down the pipeline if Moscow does that **** On Wall Street, it was a positive day Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up eight tenths of one percent at the close. The S&P 500 also added eight tenths of one percent while the NASDAQ gained .9 percent. This is VOA News. **** COVID-19 cases tripled in the United States over two weeks amid an onslaught (猛攻；突击) of vaccine misinformation that is straining hospitals, exhausting doctors and even pushing clergy into the fray (推动神职人员加入了战团). AP's Ben Thomas reports. Data from Johns Hopkins University show the 7-day rolling average for daily new cases in the U.S. rose to more than 37,000 Tuesday. That's up from less than 14,000 just two weeks earlier. Health officials blame the delta variant and flattening vaccination rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says at this point 56.2 percent of Americans have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine. Doctors report patients are younger than earlier in the pandemic, many in their 20s, 30s and 40s, and overwhelmingly unvaccinated. I'm Ben been Thomas. **** U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, according to public health officials. AP's Julie Walker has more. The CDC report blames COVID the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer, accounting for 11 percent of the more than 3.3 million American deaths last year. That's far more deaths than in any other year in U.S. history. For decades, U.S. life expectancy was on the upswing. The CDC says last year it dropped to 77.3 from 78.8 the year before. Julie Walker, New York. **** House Republicans are threatening to boycott a committee investigating the Capitol riot in January. AP's Sagar Meghani has details. House GOP（Grand Old Party）leader Kevin McCarthy tapped (拔出) five Republicans for the panel. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is rejecting two, Trump allies Jim Banks and Jim Jordan, who each voted to overturn the presidential election results. Pelosi wants McCarthy to name replacements. Instead he is accusing her of an "egregious (惊人的；过分的；恶名昭彰的) abuse of power" and threatening to boycott the panel. "Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republicans, we will not participate." Democrats have already said the investigation will move ahead with or without McCarthy's choices. Pelosi picked eight members, including Republican Liz Cheney, who says McCarthy's trying to block the probe. "The Minority Leader has attempted to prevent the American people from understanding what happened ...." Sagar Meghani, Washington. **** Four-time Olympic women's basketball gold medalist Sue Bird and baseball player Eddy Alvarez were chosen as U.S. flag bearers for the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday night. Alvarez, who won a silver medal in speedskating in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and Bird were chosen by a vote of fellow U.S. athletes. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd, VOA News. **** Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-slZPPlzt7s