President Biden announced on Monday that the administration is raising the cap on refugee admissions to 62,500 for the fiscal year, far above the 15,000 limit set by the previous administration, but below an earlier campaign promise.

Biden acknowledged in his Monday statement that the level of 62,500 will not be met in reality.

But Biden vowed to reach his goal of 125,000 refugee admissions in the coming fiscal year.

In this northeastern corner of Namibia, on the borders of Angola and Botswana, a Canadian oil company called ReconAfrica has secured the rights to explore what it believes could be the next -- and perhaps even the last -- giant onshore oil find.

The oilfield that ReconAfrica wants to harness is immense. The firm has leased more than 13,000 square miles, or some 30,000 square kilometers, of land in Namibia and neighboring Botswana.

The find -- potentially containing 12 billion barrels of oil -- could be worth billions of dollars.

Do transgender women and girls have a constitutional right to play on women's sports teams? That question will be argued before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday

Do transgender women and girls have a constitutional right to play on women's sports teams? That question will be argued before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday.

That law never went into effect. U.S. District Court Judge David Nye issued an injunction last August, writing that the plaintiffs who challenged the law are "likely to succeed in establishing the Act is unconstitutional as currently written."

So researchers are trying to come up with tests that can be performed using a blood sample that will determine not only whether a vaccine will work, but for how long. One approach for determining these so-called correlates of protection is underway at the University of Oxford. Researchers there are deliberately exposing volunteers to the coronavirus. The volunteers are all healthy young adults who have previously gotten sick with COVID-19.

Knowing that cutoff level, also called the cutoff titer, should be particularly useful for figuring out how long the protection afforded by a vaccine will last. If, for example, you have antibody titers above that threshold 18 months after being vaccinated, then you can expect the vaccine will still be working.

The Biden administration is moving into a new phase of its campaign to vaccinate as many Americans as possible for the coronavirus, one where the government may not always be the best messenger to persuade people to get their shot.

The country is nearing the point where vaccine supply will outstrip demand. It was only this week that every state lifted restrictions on who could be vaccinated, and just under 50% of adults have yet to get their first shot.

"That's hugely problematic because I don't think they are," Jha said. "I think actually there are lots of people who are perfectly happy to get a vaccine but aren't desperate for it, aren't convinced they need it badly and we still make it too hard for many people

Catalonia is one of Spain's wealthiest and most productive regions and has a distinct history dating back almost 1,000 years.

efore the Spanish Civil War it enjoyed broad autonomy but that was suppressed under Gen Franco.

When Franco died, the region was granted autonomy again under the 1978 constitution and prospered as part of the new, democratic Spain.

Former President George W. Bush on Sunday called on Congress to tone down the "harsh rhetoric" on immigration, adding that he hopes that doing so will "set a tone that is more respectful" of immigrants and lead to more reform.

The plea from the former President comes amid a heated debate over immigration reform in Congress as the Biden administration grapples with the influx of migrants at the US-Mexico Border. It also follows his message in an op-ed published by the Washington Post on Friday, where he called for bipartisan action on several immigration measures.

He acknowledged Sunday one of the biggest disappointments of his presidency is that he did not pass any meaningful reform on the issue. Bush also said he is currently lobbying the Republican Party to act on creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, if they can pass a background check and pay back taxes but did not seem hopeful that his party will agree.

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter has made the first-ever powered flight on another planet, 117 years after the Wright Brothers' historic flight on this planet.

The helicopter arrived on Mars on Feb. 18, attached to the belly of the six-wheeled Perseverance rover. Last weekend, the rover dropped the helicopter to the Martian surface, and then drove to a viewing point about 60 yards away.

Unlike a drone, the helicopter maintains stability in the air by making fine adjustments in the pitch of the rotor blades.

Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 14 months in prison after being found guilty of unauthorised assembly.

The 73-year-old founder of Apple Daily is a fierce critic of Beijing.

he verdict comes as the mainland is increasingly cracking down on Hong Kong's rights and freedoms.

In at least 30 states nationwide, lawmakers have introduced bills aiming to keep transgender girls and women from participating on girls' and women's sports teams. These type of restrictions have become a major culture war battle, with Republican lawmakers being the loudest proponents of such bills, while Democrats often oppose them.

Republican voters aren't that enthusiastic about those proposed laws, even while they do have reservations about transgender sports participation.

Just 29% of Republicans said they "support a bill that prohibits transgender student athletes from joining sports teams that match their gender identity." Moreover, there was no significant party divide: Similar shares of Republicans, Democrats and independents also said they oppose the bills.

A man opened fire at a FedEx warehouse facility in Indianapolis late Thursday night, killing eight people and injuring others. The suspect shot himself and is among the nine dead, according to police.

"We are deeply shocked and saddened by the loss of our team members following the tragic shooting at our FedEx Ground facility in Indianapolis.

The safety of our team members is our top priority, and we are fully cooperating with investigating authorities."

President Biden stood in the Roosevelt Room at the White House and declared the end of U.S. involvement in the war in Afghanistan. He spoke from the same spot where former President George W. Bush announced the beginning of the war 20 years ago with a bombing campaign.

The president said the U.S. will "keep providing assistance" to the Afghan security forces, and reposition counterterrorism forces "over the horizon," to make sure Afghanistan does not once again become a haven for terrorists planning to attack the U.S.

The Taliban have yet to break with al-Qaida, a condition of the U.S.-Taliban agreement in February 2020. U.S. officials in the Afghan city of Jalalabad told NPR two years ago that the Taliban continue to work with al-Qaida in eastern Afghanistan, while both U.S. and Afghan airstrikes have targeted al-Qaida militants in southeastern Helmand Province.

Every major automaker is preparing to pivot from gas and diesel cars to electric and hybrid ones. Ford F-150s and Kia crossovers, Volkswagen hatchbacks and BMW sedans: They'll all plug in instead of fill up. It's a remarkable transformation that will change the way we drive and shake up world energy markets.

But the massive shift is raising concern that the world's battery supply chain, from mines to manufacturers, will fail to keep pace, leading to a bottleneck that will slow the pace of electrification and derail companies' business plans — and the fight against climate change.

So battery supplies will need to scale up fast — starting with the raw materials that go into them.

Japan's government announced a decision to begin dumping more than a million tons of treated but still radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean in two years.

The plant was severely damaged in a 2011 magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami that left about 20,000 people in northeast Japan dead or missing

Despite Tokyo's assurances that discharging wastewater will not pose a threat to people or the environment, the decision was roundly criticized by the local fishing community, environmental groups and Japan's neighbors. Within hours of the announcement, protesters rallied outside government offices in Tokyo and Fukushima.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration are recommending that the United States pause the use of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine over six reported US cases of a "rare and severe" type of blood clot.

"CDC will convene a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Wednesday to further review these cases and assess their potential significance," the statement said. "FDA will review that analysis as it also investigates these cases. Until that process is complete, we are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution. This is important, in part, to ensure that the health care provider community is aware of the potential for these adverse events and can plan for proper recognition and management due to the unique treatment required with this type of blood clot."

Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and use of force expert, told jurors in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin that the actions by the officers involved in George Floyd's killing violated those of a "reasonable officer" throughout the fatal arrest.

"It's clear from the number of officers and Mr. Floyd's position and the fact that he's handcuffed and has been searched, he doesn't present a threat of harm," Stoughton told jurors after reviewing a brief body cam clip in which Floyd stood in handcuffs flanked by officers beside a squad car

In order to assess that, he said, experts consider the threat an officer faces at any given moment, as well as the "foreseeable effects of the use of force."

A political debate has erupted over the idea of requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for entry into certain settings. While politicians argue over equity and privacy concerns, some businesses and institutions are moving ahead and developing apps for people to easily and securely prove their status.

Schools and colleges have long required proof of vaccination for diseases such as measles and mumps. Kotlikoff says this requirement is similar

If some institutions and businesses aim to require vaccination, how will they ask people to show proof — or certification –- of immunity? The Biden administration has ruled out having federally mandated vaccination credentials, so it's up to the private sector to develop their own systems.

Tear gas has been fired and a curfew imposed amid angry protests after police fatally shot a black man in a traffic stop in the US city of Brooklyn Center, just north of Minneapolis.

Tensions rose as police donned riot gear, and two police vehicles were pelted with stones and jumped on, Reuters news agency reported.

In a statement, the Brooklyn Center Police Department said officers had pulled a man over for a traffic violation on Sunday afternoon and determined that he had an outstanding arrest warrant.

The Iranian foreign minister has said his country will "take revenge" for an attack on an underground nuclear site, for which it has blamed Israel.

US intelligence officials told the New York Times that a large explosion had completely destroyed the independent internal power system that supplied the centrifuges inside the underground facility.

Israel has recently stepped up its warnings about its arch-foe's nuclear programme amid efforts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal that was abandoned by former US President Donald Trump.

"We are so close -- so very close -- to getting back to the everyday activities we all miss so much," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a recent White House Covid-19 briefing. "But we're not quite there yet."

Tens of millions of Americans are not yet protected from the virus while the B.1.1.7 variant -- now the dominant strain in the US -- is fueling a rise in cases and hospitalizations, predominantly in younger groups, and threatening to create another surge. And while vaccine eligibility is expected to open to all adults in the next 10 days, some may have to wait months more for immunity.

xperts are worried about the quick abandonment of safety measures as the virus still runs rampant. They've worried before -- and they were right. Rewind to one year ago -- when more than 90% of Americans were in lockdown as the first Covid-19 wave hit the country. Some of those measures lasted just a few weeks, even as the US led the world with the highest number of reported infections.