Politics

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that New Yorkers ages 30 and up will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine starting Tuesday, and people ages 16 and up can get it starting April 6. The announcement on Monday came just a few days after California Gov. Gavin Newsom officially stated that Californians ages 50 and older

In the year that Hong Kong has achieved an Academy Awards nomination for “Better Days,” the territory’s leading free-to-air TV network Television Broadcasts (TVB) will be dropping television coverage of the Oscars ceremony. The network Monday confirmed that it did not have rights to broadcast the show this year. “It was purely a commercial decision,”

The deaths of at least 114 people on Saturday has put the crisis in Myanmar back on the front pages of media around the world. But the country’s government is trying hard to prevent such coverage. The country’s military seized power on Feb. 1 in a coup that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi

In Hong Kong, where unsmiling mainland Chinese authorities have asserted their “comprehensive jurisdiction,” satire has become a dangerous form of humor. But at least one new satirical segment is soon set to brave the Special Administrative Region’s airwaves. From next month, activist and broadcaster James Ockenden is launching “The Alphard Wars” on RTHK. The pitch

Hundreds gathered in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood to march in support of the #StopAsianHate movement. Among them was journalist Lisa Ling. “We have been rounded up and put in camps,” Ling said during the unity rally, which took place at the Normandie Avenue and Olympic Boulevard intersection. “We have been attacked, and we have been

Thursday’s congressional hearing on “Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” — which again hauled the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google before U.S. lawmakers — was predictably long (running more than 5 hours) and predictably heavy on political posturing and theatrics as both Democrats and Republicans blasted the execs for their companies’ perceived

President Joe Biden held his first televised news conference Thursday with a limited amount of journalists, starting off with the good news on America’s progress with COVID-19 vaccinations. “By my one-hundredth day in office, we will have administered 200 million shots in people’s arms. It’s ambitious, and no other country has done it,” Biden said

Despite extensive news reporting about China’s secretive “re-education” camps in the Xinjiang region, it is difficult to imagine what it’s like for more than a million Uyghur, Kazakh and other minorities detained inside. A new film aims to put you in their shoes — almost literally — with the help of virtual reality technology. “Reeducated,”

The Mail on Sunday won’t have to print a statement from Meghan Markle on its front page just yet, despite being ordered to do so by a U.K. court. Markle had sued Associated Newspapers, publishers of The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, for publishing articles that in 2018 reproduced parts of a letter she had

Donald Trump may no longer be POTUS, but his opinions remain as trenchant as ever. In an interview with Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe that launches her new podcast, the former U.S. president held forth on a number of matters. On the subject of the U.S. presidential elections, which he lost, Trump said: “We did

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have spoken up following a website’s claims that U.K. tabloid The Sun paid a private investigator to dig into her life. The Sun U.S. hired private investigator Dan Hanks to obtain information about Markle, and her father Thomas, in 2016, shortly after she started dating Prince Harry, according to a

The house arrest of two members of Russian feminist protest group Pussy Riot, Maria Alekhina and Lucy Shtein, is likely to be extended by a few months, with their case coming up for hearing Thursday and Friday. The pair are accused of calling for a rally in support of political prisoners through posts on Instagram

Tensions between China and the U.K. flared this week after Beijing summoned Britain’s ambassador to China to chastize her for an article she wrote defending the role of independent foreign press in the country. The latest tussle comes amid a backdrop of strain between the countries over matters such as human rights abuses in Xinjiang,

President Joe Biden will direct states to expand vaccine eligibility to all adults by May 1, the White House announced Thursday in a preview of Biden’s first primetime address. Biden is scheduled to speak from the East Room of the White House at 8 p.m. ET. Earlier on Thursday, he signed the $1.9 trillion COVID

The Senate has narrowly passed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package with a 50-49 vote down party lines, after the House of Representatives approved the bill on Feb. 27. The long-awaited relief package includes $1,400 stimulus checks for those making less than $75,000 annually and a $20 billion vaccination plan, as well as direct aid

China’s top law-making body will consider this week a popular proposition to ban actors who have used drugs from entertainment industry for life at its annual weeklong meeting, which kicked off Friday. The National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber stamp parliament, counts some 3,000 professionals from across the country as delegates, including directors Jia Zhangke,

China on Friday said it would revamp Hong Kong’s electoral system to tighten its grip on the city, a strong move against the region’s democratic governance and freedoms that has incited backlash from critics abroad. Beijing’s rubberstamp parliament, known as the National People’s Congress (NPC), convened for the first day of its annual week-long meetings

Julia Roberts has been an advocate of Dr. Anthony Fauci for some time now. On March 4, Roberts mentioned her family has been profoundly inspired by the doctor’s work with the COVID-19 and HIV viruses, presenting Fauci with amfAR’s Award of Courage for 2021. “Your calm and your reassurance have left an indelible mark on

France’s former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was on Monday sentenced by the Paris judicial court to a three-year jail term after being found guilty of corruption and influence peddling in a case dating back to 2014, according to French news channel BFMTV. The three-year sentence includes just one year of imprisonment — two years have been

Former President Trump said Sunday that he may run for president a third time in 2024, and said the Supreme Court “should be ashamed of themselves” for refusing to overturn President Biden’s victory. Trump spoke for well over an hour, after arriving more than an hour late, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando,

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that works with one dose, the AP reported. In addition to Moderna and Pfizer’s double-dose vaccine, this is the third vaccine approved to prevent the coronavirus in the U.S. The FDA said J&J’s vaccine offers strong protection against serious illness, hospitalizations and death.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite currently in jail in the U.S., has offered to give up her U.K. and French citizenship in exchange for bail. Maxwell, 59, is incarcerated in a New York jail while facing charges of helping convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein groom young girls. She was arrested in July 2020 and has

In her 2017 memoir “What Happened,” Hillary Clinton wrote that in the aftermath of her loss to Donald Trump, she took solace in watching HGTV — and reading the mystery novels of Canadian writer Louise Penny. Shortly after that, Penny began including the Clinton family in the acknowledgments of her books. And now the two

As case rates plummet and vaccinations continue rapidly, England will begin easing lockdown from March 8, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to reveal Monday evening. While schools are likely to open from March 8 in phase one of the easing, and some organized adult outdoor sports activities could resume from March 29 in

Hollywood is calling out Sen. Ted Cruz for abandoning Texas for Cancún, Mexico, while millions across the state grapple with a deadly storm-induced power outage. The extreme cold is unusual for the state, leaving Texans especially vulnerable. According to the BBC, one county saw over 300 suspected carbon monoxide cases and at least four people

The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, the 99-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II, was admitted to hospital on Tuesday as a “precautionary measure.” “His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh was admitted to the King Edward VII hospital in London, on Tuesday evening,” said a statement from Buckingham Palace. “The Duke’s admission is a precautionary

The U.S. Senate acquitted Donald Trump for a second time on Saturday, concluding a five-day impeachment trial. The former president, who has been impeached twice by the House of Representatives, was not convicted by a 57-43 vote. A historic seven Republicans voted with 50 Democrats that Trump was guilty of inciting an insurrection at the

Mori Yoshiro has resigned as head of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee, after being unable to face down criticism of his sexist remarks. The move still leaves the games in the balance. A former prime minister of Japan, Mori said Friday: “Just when we were preparing to definitely hold the Games, I, as

China’s top broadcasting regulator said Thursday that it will ban BBC World News from the country, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The National Radio and TV Administration (NRTA) said that BBC World News was found to have “undermined China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity” because of its China-related reports that “went against the

ICM Partners political specialist Travis Merriweather has been promoted to senior political strategist, the talent and literary agency announced today. Since Merriweather joined ICM Politics at the start of 2020, he has focused heavily on the issues of racial equality, voter mobilization and education, and political engagement for ICM’s clients and employees (partisan and non-partisan).