China and Brazil have signed a deal to trade in their own currencies, bypassing the U.S. dollar as an intermediary, to reduce costs and promote bilateral trade.
An outbreak of vaccine-induced polio has been declared by Burundian health officials, marking the first time the paralyzing disease has been detected in the East African nation in more than three decades.
Christians and other refugees looking to leave Afghanistan have few choices. Neighboring Pakistan had potential exit routes, but the Pakistani government has clamped down on refugees wishing to enter the country.
The State Department has now designated 12 “Countries of Particular Concern” and placed four more on a “Special Watch List” under the International Religious Freedom Act “for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”
The United States on Friday designated China, Iran, and Russia, among others, as countries of particular concern under the Religious Freedom Act over severe violations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
The CDC took nearly two years to formally recognize distinctions between masks for mitigating COVID-19 spread, finally saying in January that cloth masks offer "the least" protection and N95 respirators, which meet strict federal standards, "the highest."