2021年CRI 拜登公布抗击新冠肺炎的国家战略 世界最大疫苗生产商突发大火（在线收听）

The White House has confirmed that President Joe Biden will be seeking a five-year extension to the New START arms control treaty with Russia.

The treaty is due to expire early next month.

It limits the United States and Russia to deploy no more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads each.

Talks for prolonging the treaty had failed under Donald Trump.

U.S. President Joe Biden has unveiled a national strategy to combat COVID-19 that reflects the ideas he set forward during the presidential campaign.

The plan aims to ramp up vaccinations and testing, reopen schools and businesses, and increase the use of masks.

"Our plan starts with mounting an aggressive, safe and effective vaccination campaign to meet our goal of administering 100 million shots in our first 100 days in office. We're on day one. This will be one of the greatest operational challenges our nation has ever undertaken. And I'm committed to getting it done."

Biden warns that the crisis will "get worse before they get better." But he promised that "help is on the way."

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to approve a waiver for Lloyd Austin to serve as President Joe Biden's defense secretary.

Congress has to pass a waiver to allow the retired four-star general to take the job, as U.S. law requires Pentagon chiefs to be out of the military for at least seven years.

Austin retired in 2016.

He would be the first African American to run the Department of Defense if confirmed by the Senate.

China has expressed hopes for work to be done to repair and restore relations with the United States under President Joe Biden's administration.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks when she extended China's congratulations to Biden after his swearing in.

"I noticed that President Biden mentioned several times in his inauguration speech the word 'unity.' I think this is precisely what the China-US relationship needs at the moment."

Hua noted that China-US relations became strained under former President Donald Trump's administration.

Hua expressed hope that the Biden administration will help restore the relationship, but stressed that China will continue to defend its sovereignty.

The Canadian Governor General has quit amid allegations of workplace harassment.

Julie Payette resigned hours after the conclusion of an independent probe against her. Reports say the details of that report are "damaging."

Payette was appointed as the representative of Queen Elizabeth in October 2017 on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's recommendation.

She will be replaced temporarily by Richard Wagner, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

The head of the World Health Organization says the global COVID-19 caseload is expected to hit 100 million by the end of this month, but vaccines have the potential to bring the pandemic under control.

The disease has so far infected over 95 million people around the world with 2 million deaths.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says COVID-19 vaccination is now underway in more than 50 countries, yet all but two of them are high- or upper-middle income countries.

He also says that vaccines complement rather than replace fundamental public health measures.

European Union leaders have met to address mounting challenges of new and more infectious coronavirus variants.

The leaders also discussed the slow roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines during the virtual meeting held on Thursday.

They were also expected to discuss the closure of the bloc's internal borders in efforts to stop the spread of the virus.

Germany has warned it could unilaterally decide to close its borders if other countries fail to restrict the spread of the new variants.

The European Commission says such border closures could harm the bloc's single market.

A fire broke out Thursday at a building of the world's largest vaccine maker with no casualties reported.

Serum Institute of India says the fire was restricted to a new facility it is building to increase production of COVID-19 vaccines.

It says the fire did not affect existing facilities making COVID-19 vaccines or a stockpile of around 50 million doses.

The company has been contracted to manufacture a billion doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

白宫证实，乔·拜登总统将寻求与俄罗斯将新的《削减战略武器条约》延长五年。

该条约将于下月初到期。

《削减战略武器条约》限制美国和俄罗斯各自部署不超过1550枚战略核弹头。

在唐纳德·特朗普执政期间，有关延长该条约的谈判以失败告终。

美国总统乔·拜登公布了一项对抗新冠疫情的国家战略，该战略反映了他在总统竞选期间提出的想法。

该计划旨在加大疫苗接种和检测力度，重新开放学校和企业，并增加口罩的使用。

“我们的计划首先开展积极、安全和有效的疫苗接种运动，以实现我们在上任100天内接种一亿针的目标。这是第一天。这将是我国有史以来面临的最大的作战挑战之一。而我致力于完成这一目标。”

拜登警告称，危机将“在好转之前变得更糟”。但他承诺，“救援正在路上”。

美国众议院已投票批准劳埃德·奥斯汀担任乔·拜登总统的国防部长的豁免权。

由于美国法律规定五角大楼首长至少要离开军队7年，因此国会必须一项豁免令，才能让这位退役的四星上将担任这一职务。

奥斯汀于2016年退役。

如果得到参议院批准，他将成为首位执掌国防部的非裔美国人。

中国表示，希望在乔·拜登总统的领导下，努力修复和恢复与美国的关系。

中国外交部发言人华春莹在拜登宣誓就职后向他表达了中国的祝贺。

“我注意到拜登总统在就职演说中多次强调‘团结’。我认为这也是当前中美关系所需要的。”

华春莹指出，中美关系在前总统特朗普执政期间变得紧张。

华春莹表示，希望拜登政府能帮助修复中美关系，但强调中国将继续捍卫主权。

加拿大总督因涉嫌职场骚扰而辞职。

朱莉·帕耶特辞职前的几个小时，针对她的独立调查刚刚结束。报道称，该报告的细节“具有破坏性”。

2017年10月，在总理贾斯廷·特鲁多的推荐下，帕耶特被任命为伊丽莎白女王的代表。

加拿大最高法院首席大法官理查德·瓦格纳将暂时接替她的职务。

世界卫生组织总干事表示，预计到本月底，全球新冠肺炎患者数将达到1亿，而疫苗有可能使疫情得到控制。

该疾病迄今已导致全球9500多万人感染，220万人死亡。

特德罗斯·阿达诺姆·盖布雷耶苏斯表示，新冠肺炎疫苗接种目前在50多个国家进行，但只有两个国家不是高收入或中高收入国家。

他还表示，疫苗是对基本公共卫生措施的补充，而不是替代。

欧盟领导人举行会议，以应对新型和更具传染性的冠状病毒变种带来的日益严峻的挑战。

在周四举行的虚拟会议上，领导人还讨论了新冠肺炎疫苗分发缓慢的问题。

预计他们还将讨论关闭欧盟内部边境以阻止病毒传播的问题。

德国警告称，如果其他国家未能限制新变种的传播，德国可能单方面决定关闭边境。

欧盟委员会表示，关闭边境可能会损害欧盟的单一市场。

周四，全球最大疫苗制造商的一栋大楼发生火灾，目前没有人员伤亡报告。

印度血清研究所表示，火灾仅限于其为增加新冠肺炎疫苗产量而正在建设的新设施。

该机构表示，火灾没有影响到现有的新冠肺炎疫苗生产设施，也没有影响到约5000万剂疫苗库存。

该公司已签署合同，生产10亿剂由阿斯利康公司和牛津大学联合研发的疫苗。