【常速英语广播5分钟】英语新闻2020-04-16

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VOA NEWS
April 16, 2020

This is VOA news. Via remote, I'm Diane Roberts.

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to adjourn the House and Senate so he can appoint officials whose nominations he claims are being blocked by Democrats in Congress.

He told reporters he will exercise his constitutional authority to adjourn both chambers of [commerce] Congress.

The wealthy Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called for global cooperation Wednesday to ready COVID-19 vaccines for the seven billion people on the planet. The foundation also offered $150 million toward developing therapeutics and treatments for the virus.

They think it will take as many as 18 months to develop and fully test a safe coronavirus vaccine.

The governor of the U.S. state of New York says it has developed its own antibody test that could help detect those immune to the coronavirus.

Andrew Cuomo made the announcement Wednesday, saying 2,000 people a day would be tested.

He also ordered all residents to cover their faces when in stores or using public transit.

Governor Cuomo also said he is working on a plan for a phased reopening of New York without speeding up the spread of COVID-19.

New York is the U.S. epicenter of the outbreak.

The World Health Organization says it is working with its partners to fill the financial gap left from President Trump's decision to withhold $400 million. They want to continue efforts to stop the coronavirus pandemic without interruption.

[WO...] WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the U.S. has been a long-standing and generous friend to the organization and hopes it will continue to be so.

The director-general says now is the time for the world to be united against the virus that he says "exploits the cracks" when countries are divided.

For more on these stories, visit us at voanews.com. This is VOA news.

Confirmed [coronavis...] coronavirus cases around the world have surpassed the 2 million mark and have been seen in 193 countries and territories. More than 436,000 of those cases are now considered recovered. But more than 130,000 people have died.

The mandate given to Israeli parliament speaker Benny Gantz to form a government expired Thursday, but talks were reportedly ongoing on an emergency alliance with his rival, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Gantz has been given a deadline of midnight by [Isr...] Israel's president to reach a deal with Netanyahu. A centrist, Gantz is Israel's former army chief.

For Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for U.S. president, selecting a running mate has taken an even greater importance because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden has promised to name a female vice presidential nominee to run with him against President Donald Trump in the November presidential election that has led a speculation he might pick a woman senator. But some analysts say the experience - a governor - may possess in handling a public health and economic crisis now may matter more than political appeal.

One analyst told VOA Biden has to think about policy going forward, which will be a big campaign issue.

A group of 12 migrant children left Greece for Luxembourg Wednesday, the beginning of a program to relocate minors from war-torn countries stranded in Greece.

The Greek migrations ministry said those children had been staying in camps on the islands of Lesvos, Samos and Chios.

A second group of 50 will fly to Germany Saturday and 20 more will follow to Switzerland. A total of 1,600 children will be moved as part of the program.

More than a decade of Boko Haram militant attacks have displaced more than two million Nigerians in the north, with hundreds of thousands living in internally displaced people's camps, or IDPs.

Medical experts worry a lack of spacing and good sanitary conditions in camps could promote an outbreak of coronavirus, which has so far infected more than 370 people in Nigeria and killed 10.

Nigerian authorities say they are working with the United Nations and other partners to assist IDPs and are also working on providing ventilators, face masks and personal protective equipment to medical staff in the camps.

The European [Union] Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is calling for a donors' conference to be held in May to raise funds for the creation and deployment of a vaccine against COVID-19.

Von der Leyen spoke during a video-linked news conference in Brussels Wednesday, calling a vaccine the, quote, "collective best shot at beating the virus."

She said the conference would also raise funds for improving pandemic preparedness as well as accelerating work on diagnostics and treatments.

This is VO(A news.)