U.S. President Joe Biden is due to announce Thursday stricter coronavirus testing requirements for international travelers entering the country, an extension of mask requirements for people on planes, trains and buses, and a push to deliver millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine to other nations in the coming months.

Biden is using an address at the National Institutes of Health to lay out his administration’s COVID-19 plans as the country heads into the winter months with its first confirmed case of the newly detected omicron variant.

The White House said in a statement ahead of Biden’s remarks that travelers will be expected to be required to get a negative COVID-19 test within one day of their departure for the United States, a change from the current three-day policy. The rule will apply to both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals.

The mandate for wearing masks on public transportation and in airports was due to expire on January 18, with an extension expected to go into March.

The White House statement said the Biden administration is pledging to deliver 200 million more vaccine doses abroad during the next 100 days.In the U.S., there will be public education and outreach efforts to encourage people to get COVID-19 vaccine booster shots as well as family vaccination clinics.

Another part of the administration’s plan is to make at-home testing kits free for those covered by private health insurance plans.And for U.S. states that are experiencing a spike in infections, emergency response teams will be made available to help strained hospitals.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert and Biden’s chief medical adviser, stressed the need for people to get vaccinated, including booster shots, as he spoke to reporters at the White House on Wednesday about the omicron variant.

He said there are 60 million people in the United States who are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine but have not, and that there is every reason to believe the rise in immune response provided by booster shots will help prevent severe disease if someone is infected by the omicron variant.

“I think what’s happening now is another example of why it’s important for people to get vaccinated who’ve not been vaccinated,” Fauci said.

The first confirmed U.S. case of someone infected with the omicron variant of the coronavirus has been discovered in the Western state of California, U.S. health officials said Wednesday.

The person returned to the U.S. from a trip to South Africa on November 22 and tested positive on Monday, Fauci told reporters.

Fauci said the person had mild coronavirus symptoms, was self-quarantining and was improving. The person was fully vaccinated, he said, but had yet to get a booster shot.

The omicron case adds the U.S. to the growing list of at least 24 countries where the variant has been discovered.

The U.S. joins a growing list of nations that have imposed some form of travel restrictions or outright bans on foreign travelers since the omicron variant was first identified November 24 by scientists in South Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

Japan is banning reentry of all foreign nationals with Japanese residency if they are traveling from South Africa or nine other southern African nations beginning Thursday.

South Korea will require all arrivals to the country to quarantine for 10 days, and all travelers coming into the country will be tested for the omicron variant. Those rules go into effect Friday for two weeks.

Along with the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Nigeria also reported their first cases of the omicron variant. The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday that a Saudi citizen tested positive after traveling from a country in north Africa, while Nigerian authorities say its first cases of omicron were detected in samples collected back in October from two travelers who had arrived from South Africa.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is recommending that people who are not fully vaccinated and who have underlying conditions, such as diabetes, that put them at increased risk of becoming severely ill or dying if they contract COVID-19 should postpone traveling to areas with high rates of community transmission.

The WHO also declared that blanket travel bans imposed by countries will not prevent the global spread of the new variant but will instead “place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Almost 29,000 U.S. troops in South Korea are staying put to help keep North Korea in check, even as Washington and Seoul eye a bigger role for South Korean military forces across the region. 

U.S. defense officials in Seoul for annual talks with their South Korean counterparts have been talking up a bigger role for South Korean forces in the Indo-Pacific. But even as both countries work to establish what exactly Seoul’s role will be, they agreed the threat from Pyongyang cannot be ignored. 

“The DPRK is continuing to advance its missile and weapons programs which is increasingly destabilizing for regional security,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s formal name, following a meeting Thursday with his South Korean counterpart and other high-ranking U.S. and South Korean military officials. 

Austin said both Washington and Seoul remain committed to diplomacy when dealing with North Korea, though they discussed, “measures to enhance our combined deterrence posture and to defend against the full ran

As part of that, South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook said Thursday that the U.S. troop presence on the Korean Peninsula would remain at its current levels. 

“The secretary and I reaffirmed the U.S. commitment towards combined defense and provision extended deterrence,” Suh said through a translator. 

A joint communique issued after the meeting further said the U.S. commitment included using the “full range of U.S. defense capabilities, including nuclear, conventional, and missile defense capabilities.” 

Additionally, both countries approved updating the strategic planning guidance, or war plan, for confronting North Korea in case of an attack, given Pyongyang’s growing military capabilities. 

“This is the right thing to do,” a senior defense official told reporters ahead of Thursday’s annual Security Consultative Meeting. “The strategic environment has changed over the past few years.”  

In particular, U.S. officials have expressed concern about Pyongyang’s tests of a cruise missile, a short-range ballistic missile, a submarine-launched ballistic missile, and what North Korea claims was a test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, all in just the last several months. 

However, both countries made clear that they are looking beyond the threat posed by the north. 

South Korea’s Suh, in particular, praised what he described as “in-depth discussions” aimed at the “the promotion of security in the region.” 

And the communique noted both officials “acknowledged the importance of preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.” 

But exactly what role South Korea would play there, or elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific, has yet to be defined, Suh said. 

Washington and Seoul also made progress on plans to eventually transfer command of U.S. and South Korean forces on the Korean Peninsula to South Korea.  

The communique calls for the two allies to conduct an assessment next year, with additional steps to be taken depending on the results. 

 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warns Russia Wednesday that any military action in Ukraine will have severe consequences. He plans to meet separately Thursday with both the Ukrainian and the Russian foreign ministers in Stockholm to discuss the heightened border tensions. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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The U.N. committee that approves the credentials of representatives at the world body decided Wednesday to postpone a decision on who will represent Myanmar and Afghanistan.

“I can confirm the Credentials Committee had its meeting to consider credentials of U.N. member states, including Afghanistan and Myanmar,” Swedish U.N. Ambassador Anna Karin Enestrom, who heads the nine-member committee, told reporters following members’ closed-door discussions. “The committee has decided to defer its decision of the credentials in these two situations.”

She said a report that will go to the General Assembly will be made public, but she declined to say when.

Myanmar’s military junta, which seized power in a coup on February 1, wants to replace the envoy of the democratically elected government with one of its own. Afghanistan’s Taliban, who took power after the previous government collapsed, seek to do the same. For now, they will not get to name their own envoys.

Neither group has received international recognition as those countries’ formal governments, complicating the committee’s decision process.

Nine countries sit on the Credentials Committee. The current members are the Bahamas, Bhutan, Chile, China, Namibia, Russia, Sierra Leone, Sweden and the United States. The committee’s decisions are normally reached by consensus.
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The late American entertainer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker has become the first Black woman to be inducted into the Pantheon in Paris, the highest honor that France bestows.

Legendary entertainer Josephine Baker famously sang that she had two loves — “J’ai Deux Amours” — my country and Paris.    

She was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, but having come to Paris to perform, she reveled in life here, free of the institutionalized racism and segregation at home.    

Baker quickly became the darling of Parisian society, as people flocked to see her perform in her trademark banana skirt, or in shimmering sequins at the city’s nightspots.     

She made France her home, dividing her time between Paris and a fairytale castle she bought in southwest of the country.    

Baker became French by marriage — and as soon as World War II began, she joined the French Resistance, famously saying “I want to give myself to France, do what you want with me.” 

Her fame served her well —she was able to pass coded messages in her music scores without being stopped.    

She hid Resistance fighters and fleeing Jews in her castle.    

She also fought against racism in the U.S., becoming active in the civil rights movement.  

Her family said it saddened her that she had to leave home to be treated as an equal. 

On Tuesday, she became, the first Black woman, the first American and the first professional entertainer to enter the Pantheon, reserved as the final resting place for just dozens of France’s greatest, including Victor Hugo, Voltaire, and Marie Curie.    

The moving ceremony was led by French president Emmanuel Macron, who called Baker an “exceptional figure” who embodies the French spirit.

He noted that she fought for the freedom and equality of all. 

Outside, her music played to the crowds who had come to watch this historic moment.  

At the request of her surviving children, Baker’s remains will stay in Monaco where she was buried. 

Instead, a plaque was placed on a cenotaph containing soil from the four places dearest to her heart: St Louis, Paris, her castle and Monaco. 
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The Biden administration is reportedly preparing to impose stricter testing requirements for all international travelers entering the United States as part of an effort to curb the spread of the newly detected omicron variant of the coronavirus.

News outlets say the administration will also require everyone entering the U.S. to undergo a COVID-19 test a day before their departure, regardless of their vaccination status. Officials are also discussing whether to impose a requirement for all travelers to self-quarantine for seven days after their arrival, and for all travelers to get retested within three to five days after entering the U.S. The proposed rules would also apply to U.S. citizens returning from overseas travel.

President Joe Biden is expected to unveil the administration’s new strategy in a speech Thursday.

The U.S. joins a growing list of nations that have imposed some form of travel restrictions or outright bans on foreign travelers since the omicron variant was first detected last week in southern Africa.

Japan said Wednesday that it will ask all international air carriers to suspend new reservations for all flights into the country until the end of December in response to the growing outbreak of the omicron variant. The move by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism comes as Tokyo confirmed its second case of the new variant.

Japan is also banning re-entry of all foreign nationals with Japanese residency if they are traveling from South Africa or nine other southern African nations beginning Thursday.

Saudi Arabia and Nigeria are the latest nations who are reporting their first cases of the new omicron variant since the first cases were revealed last week in southern Africa, bringing the total number of nations who have identified the new version to at least 22.State-run Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday that a Saudi citizen tested positive after traveling from a country in north Africa, while Nigerian authorities say its first cases of omicron were detected in samples collected back in October from two travelers who had arrived from South Africa.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is recommending that people who are not fully vaccinated and at increasing risk of becoming severely ill or dying if they contract COVID-19 due to underlying conditions such as diabetes should postpone traveling to areas with high rates of community transmission. But the U.N. health agency has also declared that “blanket” travel bans imposed by countries will not prevent the global spread of the new variant, but will instead “place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods”

WHO also says the travel bans can “adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivizing countries to report and share” vital data.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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