【常速英语广播5分钟】2020-03-30

VOA NEWS

March 30, 2020

This is VOA news. Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to keep the social distancing guidelines in place in the United States until April 30 after last week saying he hoped to remove them by April 12.

Mr. Trump said in a news conference Sunday that it is now apparent that extending the precautions is the best way to keep the spread of COVID-19 at bay.

He also said the peak of the viral spread is expected to hit in [two weet] two weeks. That was his previous target date for loosening the restrictions.

"Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before victory is won," he said.

The global total of confirmed coronavirus cases passed 700,000 on Sunday while White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci said the United States could eventually have one hundred to two hundred thousand deaths and millions of cases of the illness. According to medical projections, that's 50 times the current death toll.

Elsewhere, Moscow announced it will tighten up its coronavirus precautions on Monday with a city-wide quarantine. Italy reported its first decline in the daily number of deaths there with 756 deaths over the past 24 hours.

Nigeria's president announced Sunday that its capital and commercial centers, Abuja and Lagos, will shut down for two weeks in order to contain the virus.

In Great Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has himself tested positive for (the) coronavirus, is sending letters out to 30 million homes this week to encourage people to follow guidelines and stay inside to prevent the spread of the virus.

North Korean state media says Sunday's test of super-large multiple-rocket launchers was a success.

North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Sunday - the latest in a flurry of launches that South Korea has called "inappropriate."

VOA news.

Saudi Arabia intercepted ballistic missiles fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen, the country's state news agency reported on Sunday.

Saudi state news agency SPA reported that Riyadh intercepted two ballistic missiles over the capital as well as over Jizan, a city along the Middle Eastern country's border with Yemen, late on Saturday.

Saudi civil defense spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Al-Hammadi was quoted as saying "Two civilians were slightly injured due to the falling of the intercepted missile's debris as it exploded in mid-air over residential districts" in Riyadh.

The missiles were fired days after all parties in Yemen showed support for (the) United Nations call for a cease-fire. The U.N. warned that all parties must stop fighting as the world fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Houthi rebels frequently fire missiles into Saudi Arabia, most of which cannot reach the capital. The missile attacks come on the fifth anniversary of Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen when Riyadh attempted to restore the country's internationally recognized government.

The war in Yemen has killed over 100,000 people, many of them at the hands of Saudi airstrikes.

The Afghan government has criticized the Taliban for rejecting Kabul's negotiating team for upcoming intra-Afghan peace talks aimed at ending the nearly 19-year war.

Waheed Omar, President Ashraf Ghani's adviser, told reporters in Kabul on March 29 that the Taliban "should not make excuses any more" to start the long-delayed negotiations.

The talks were scheduled to begin on March 10, but were delayed due to political bickering in Kabul over the composition of the negotiating team.

After weeks of delays, the government on March 27 announced a 21-member team, including five women, to take part in the talks, a key step in the U.S.-facilitated peace process.

But the Taliban on March 28 rejected the negotiation team, saying the government has failed to put forward an "inclusive" team.

The United States has not commented.

Voters in Mali went to the polls Sunday to elect members of the 147-seat National Assembly.

The parliamentary election in the war-torn West African country, which should have taken place after President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's [twen...] 2018 reelection, has been postponed several times since then out of security concerns.

New members of the assembly are expected to emerge for the first time since 2013, when Rally for Mali, Keita's party, gained a substantial majority.

Some 200,000 people displaced by the ongoing violence in northern and central Mali will not be able to vote because "no mechanism has been established" to facilitate their participation, according to the government.

Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton. This is VOA news.