Dec312019 by DmediaNo Comments

In France, American Scientists Are Trying to ‘Make Planet Great Again’

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Carol Lee collaborates with University of Montpellier colleagues researching how tiny plankton cope in an ever-saltier Mediterranean sea and a freshwater-infused Baltic one. From the foothills of the French Pyrenees, Camille Parmesan experiments with cutting-edge climate modeling, hoping it may offer clues for future biodiversity conservation.Both biologists have pulled up stakes from previous posts, counting among U.S. scientists who are responding to the Trump administration's upcoming withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement with their feet.  "I know quite a lot of really top-notch scientists who have just moved to other countries," said Lee, citing colleagues who have headed to Europe and China. "And a big, alarming trend is there are a lot of very smart people who are not moving to the U.S."  "I know quite a lot of really top-notch…


Dec312019 by DmediaNo Comments

Violence Grows Against Women and Children in Economic Deprivation of Yemen’s War

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A recent study has revealed an increase in violence against women and children resulting from the conflict in Yemen.   Research by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies shows women and girls in Yemen have been affected by rape, kidnapping and domestic violence, while boys face sexual violence and are forced to work.    Yemen’s nearly five-year conflict is having disastrous consequences on its civilian population, according to the recent study, “A Gendered Crisis: Understanding Experiences of Yemen’s War.”   The qualitative research involving some 90 focus group discussions across Yemen’s political and socioeconomic classes found that unemployment has undermined men’s traditional role as breadwinner, driving many to seek a salary by fighting on the front lines. Rising poverty has left parents unable to educate their children.  The middle class has…


Dec312019 by DmediaNo Comments

Vaping Comes Under Fire

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Amid an alarming surge in vaping among teenagers, Congress recently approved an unprecedented measure to curb tobacco and e-cigarette use nationwide, especially among teens.Congress voted to increase the legal age to buy tobacco and vape products from 18 to 21 as part of a major fiscal 2020 spending agreement. First introduced in May by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, and Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, the "Tobacco-Free Youth Act" has bipartisan support and aims to tackle youth vaping.President Donald Trump had signaled his support of the measure and signed the underlying legislation Dec. 20. However, under pressure from his own campaign manager and special interests, Trump appears to be reconsidering a plan he unveiled in September to reduce youth vaping by banning flavored e-cigarettes — an…


Dec312019 by DmediaNo Comments

Measles Outbreaks Make 2019 a Record-Setting Year

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The year 2019 saw a totally preventable disease claim the lives of more than 140,000 people, mostly children and babies. It happened as unvaccinated children created a pathway for measles outbreaks globally. Some of the outbreaks are still continuing.Samoan Emite Talaalevea lost her daughter. She says she never expected to see such grief."I was shocked, it was very hard to me to accept what happened,” she said.Measles claimed the lives of some 81 people on the island, mostly children and infants. Robert Linkins, an expert on measles in the Global Immunization Division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the deaths were completely preventable."Two shots of a vaccine could have saved those children's lives."The vaccination rate in Samoa dropped to about 30% after two children died from a…


Dec312019 by DmediaNo Comments

Kenya’s HPV Vaccinations Raise Hope of less Cervical Cancer

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The World Health Organization says East Africa has the highest rate of cervical cancer in the world.  In October, Kenya launched a mass vaccination of girls against the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can lead to cervical cancer.  The vaccine is being welcomed by HPV patients, who hope their children will be protected better than they were.Thirty-year-old Jacinta Agunja tested positive in 2016 for one of the human papillomaviruses (HPV) that leads to cervical cancer.After two years of intensive and expensive treatment, she was free of HPV and did not get cancer.  At least seven women die every day in Kenya from cervical cancer, according to the Ministry of Health.The ministry says the HPV vaccine could cut the rate of cervical cancer by up to 70 percent.Cicily Kariuki is Kenya's Cabinet…


Dec312019 by DmediaNo Comments

China Investigates Respiratory Illness Outbreak Sickening 27

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Chinese experts are investigating an outbreak of respiratory illness in the central city of Wuhan that some have likened to the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic.The city's health commission said in a statement Tuesday that 27 people had fallen ill with a strain of viral pneumonia, seven of whom were in serious condition.It said most had visited a seafood market in the sprawling city, apparently pointing to a common origin of the outbreak.Unverified information online said the illnesses were caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which emerged from southern China and killed more than 700 people in several countries and regions. SARS was brought under control through quarantines and other extreme measures, but not before causing a virtual shutdown to travel in China and the region and taking a severe toll on…


Dec312019 by TechmanNo Comments

Uber, Postmates Sue to Challenge California’s New Labor Law

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Ride-share company Uber and on-demand meal delivery service Postmates sued Monday to block a broad new California law aimed at giving wage and benefit protections to people who work as independent contractors.The lawsuit filed in U.S. court in Los Angeles argues that the law set to take effect Wednesday violates federal and state constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process.Uber said it will try to link the lawsuit to another legal challenge filed in mid-December by associations representing freelance writers and photographers.The California Trucking Association filed the first challenge to the law in November on behalf of independent truckers.The law creates the nation's strictest test by which workers must be considered employees and it could set a precedent for other states.The latest challenge includes two independent workers who wrote…


Dec312019 by TechmanNo Comments

Huawei Sales Up 18% but US Pressure Means Tough Times Ahead

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China's Huawei Technologies said Tuesday that its sales rose a lower-than-projected 18% in 2019 and predicted tough times ahead as the U.S. moves to restrict its business.The flash sales estimate came in an annual New Year's message to employees. Chairman Eric Xu warned that mediocre managers would face demotion as the telecom giant and leader in 5G mobile technology focuses on survival."It's going to be a difficult year for us," he wrote, calling on the company's more than 190,000 employees "to work hard and go the extra mile to bring their capabilities to a new level."No one is predicting Huawei's demise. The unlisted company, a major maker of both mobile transmission equipment and handsets, estimated 2019 sales would rise to more than 850 billion yuan ($120 billion)."These figures are lower than…


Dec312019 by DmediaNo Comments

Germany’s Merkel Urges Climate Action in New Year Message

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Chancellor Angela Merkel is telling Germans in her New Year message that "everything humanly possible" must be done to tackle climate change.Merkel said that there is good reason to be confident about the 2020s in her annual televised message, the text of which was released ahead of its broadcast Tuesday. But she pointed to challenges such as the effect of digitization on people's jobs and, above all, climate change."The warming of our Earth is real. It is threatening. It and the crises arising from global warming were caused by humans," she said. "So we must do everything humanly possible to deal with this challenge for humanity. That is still possible."Merkel said that was the principle behind a recently agreed German package of measures aimed at addressing climate change, which include…


Dec302019 by DmediaNo Comments

Scores of Robotic Researchers Set to Explore Red Planet in 2020

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The first space race pitted the United States against what was then the Soviet Union for the bragging rights of being first in space travel. The space race of the 21st century is a quest by many to land the first people on Mars. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi coasts the cosmos in this look at the various space agencies’ 2020 plans to research the Red Planet. ...


Dec302019 by DmediaNo Comments

Plus-Size Yoga Teacher Breaks Stereotypes, Boundaries

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There's no doubt that many people around the world see - in magazines and on social media - unrealistic beauty standards and end up feeling unhappy with how they look. But Jessamyn Stanley has never let her body image get in the way of her dream of teaching yoga. Karina Bafradzhian reports from Savannah, Georgia. ...


Dec302019 by TechmanNo Comments

Brazil Fines Facebook $1.6M for Improper Sharing of User Data

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Brazil's Ministry of Justice said on Monday it has fined U.S. tech giant Facebook Inc 6.6 million reais ($1.6 million) for improperly sharing user data.The ministry's department of consumer protection said it had found that data from 443,000 Facebook users was made improperly available to developers of an app called 'thisisyourdigitallife.' The data was being shared for "questionable" purposes, the ministry said in a statement.Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The ministry said the world's largest social network failed to provide users with adequate information regarding default privacy settings, particularly related to data of "friends" and "friends of friends."The ministry said it launched the investigation following media reports of the misuse of data by political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica in 2018.Facebook has 10 days to appeal the…


Dec302019 by DmediaNo Comments

Children in Conflict Pay a Deadly Price

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The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says verified attacks on children in conflict have risen threefold since 2010, making the past decade particularly deadly for children. As the decade draws to a close, UNICEF reports children continue to pay a deadly price as conflicts rage around the world. In a video message, UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore expresses her dismay at the bloody cost of war that claims so many young lives forces them to flee their homes and shatters their dreams for the future."As people prepare to celebrate the coming of the New Year, I hope we also remember those who are not so lucky," she said. "Today, hundreds of millions of children and young people are living in countries and areas torn apart by conflict, from Syria and Yemen,…


Dec302019 by DmediaNo Comments

2019 Was Hottest Year on Record for Russia

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This year was the hottest ever registered in Russia, the country's weather chief said on Monday, as climate change pushes global temperatures to record highs."This year in Russia was the hottest for the entire period of instrumental observations," the head of the Gidromedtsentr weather service, Roman Vilfand, told Russian news agencies.He said Moscow's average temperature for 2019 had hit 7.6-7.7 degrees Celsius (45.7-45.9 degrees Fahrenheit), beating the previous record by 0.3 degrees.Weather records have been kept since 1879 in Moscow and since 1891 in Russia as a whole.Global warming has sent temperatures rising around the world, with the United Nations saying earlier this month that 2019 was on course to be one of the three hottest years on record.Known for its notoriously harsh winters, Moscow has seen its warmest December…


Dec292019 by DmediaNo Comments

Monitoring Agency: DRC Ebola Death Toll 2,231 to Date

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A total of 2,231 people have died out of 3,373 declared cases of Ebola in the current epidemic in the DR Congo, according to the agency overseeing the response, health officials said Sunday.Deadly unrest in the fragile state has hampered the fight against the disease during the latest epidemic, which broke out on August 1, 2018, with the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri particularly badly hit.Both areas, beset by violence for two decades, have seen repeated attacks on Ebola health workers by dozens of armed groups as well as on health sites set up to treat victims.More than 200 civilians have been killed in the troubled east since November in clashes blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia group of Ugandan origin which officials blame for…


Dec292019 by DmediaNo Comments

Politics of Climate Change Got More Complicated in 2019

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2019 was the year of Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion and an uptick in climate action pledges by governments across the globe.    From Britain to Germany, Europe's mainstream party leaders scrambled to respond to a surge in electoral support for Green parties — and to growing public anxiety about the possible impact of climate change.    During European Parliament elections in June, 48 percent of voters identified climate change as their top worry. Opinion polls in Germany for some weeks of 2019 put the Greens ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel's storied Christian Democratic Party, which, along with its junior partner in the country's governing coalition, has been racing to sharpen climate policies.   British moveIn Britain, the ruling Conservatives announced a hugely ambitious carbon reduction plan, enshrining into law a pledge to…


Dec292019 by DmediaNo Comments

Widespread Mussel Die-Offs Worry Scientists

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Scientists are scrambling to understand why thousands of dead mussels are turning up in several rivers across the United States and Europe, including one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. Experts worry that the rapid decline of mussels in Appalachia's Clinch River may be a sign of a worldwide die-off of the important water cleaners. VOA's Steve Baragona has more. ...


Dec282019 by DmediaNo Comments

US Astronaut Sets Record for Longest Spaceflight by a Woman

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A U.S. astronaut set a record Saturday for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, breaking the old mark of 288 days with about two months left in her mission.Christina Koch, a 40-year-old electrical engineer from Livingston, Montana, arrived at the International Space Station on March 14. She broke the record set by former space station commander Peggy Whitson in 2016-2017.Koch is expected to spend a total of 328 days, or nearly 11 months, on board the space station before returning to Earth. Missions are typically six months, but NASA announced in April that it was extending her mission until February.The U.S. record for longest space flight is 340 days set by Scott Kelly in 2015-2016. The world record is 15 months set in the 1990s by a Russian cosmonaut…


Dec282019 by DmediaNo Comments

Quick Response to Health Emergencies Protects Vulnerable Populations

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The World Health Organization reports investigations into potential health threats and the quick response by WHO and partners to global emergencies has protected millions of the world’s most vulnerable people this year from disease and death.In 2019, the World Health Organization and partners have responded to 51 emergencies in more than 40 countries and territories and have investigated 440 potential health threats in 138 countries and territories.  After the headlines evoking these emergencies have faded away, the work of helping the victims of manmade and natural disasters recover carries on out of the media spotlight.  Executive Director of WHO Emergencies Program, Michael Ryan, says the unseen work of sustaining fragile health systems in conflicts and other emergencies does not stop.“In Bangladesh, we work with partners to address the health needs…


Dec282019 by DmediaNo Comments

NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover Set to Hunt Martian Fossils, Scout for Manned Missions

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A NASA robotic rover is nearing completion ahead of a journey next year to search for evidence of past life on Mars and lay the groundwork for the space agency’s mission to send humans into deep space.The U.S. space agency on Friday showed off its Mars 2020 rover, whose official name will be chosen early next year. NASA will in February ship the rover to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center where its three sections will be fully assembled. A July launch will send the rover to a dry lake bed on Mars that is bigger than the island of Manhattan.The four-wheeled, car-sized rover will scour the base of Mars’ Jezero Crater, an 820-foot-deep (250-meter-deep) crater thought to have been a lake the size of Lake Tahoe, once the craft lands in…


Dec272019 by TechmanNo Comments

Spotify to Suspend Political Advertising in 2020

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Spotify Technology SA said on Friday it would pause selling political advertisements on its music streaming platform in early 2020.The world's most popular paid music streaming service, with nearly 141 million users tuning into its ad-supported platform in October, said the pause would extend to Spotify original and exclusive podcasts as well.The move, which was first reported by Ad Age, comes as campaigns for the U.S. presidential election in November 2020 heat up.Online platforms including Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google are under growing pressure to police misinformation on their platforms and stop carrying political ads that contain false or misleading claims.Twitter Inc banned political ads in October and, last month, Google said it would stop giving advertisers the ability to target election ads using data such as public voter…


Dec272019 by DmediaNo Comments

Melting Glaciers Threaten Dramatic Water Level Rise

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The United Nations’ Climate Change Conference ended earlier this month ((in December)) in Madrid.  It was the 25th meeting, and participants left with an ominous warning from experts.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports that melting glaciers today may cause serious problems tomorrow ...


Dec262019 by DmediaNo Comments

Kenyans Try to Stamp Out Problem Cactus with Microorganism

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In Kenya, the opuntia cactus, also known as the prickly pear, is spreading, destroying thousands of acres of grassland, and making animals that eat it sick.  Kenyans have come up with a variety of methods to try to eradicate the problem plant, including breeding a microorganism that feeds on the cactus and also turning it into food for humans.  Mohammed Yusuf reports from Ilpolei, Kenya. ...


Dec262019 by TechmanNo Comments

Morocco Jails YouTuber, Detains Journalist

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A Moroccan YouTuber was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for "insulting the king" in a video broadcast on social networks, his lawyer said.In a separate case, a Moroccan journalist and activist was charged and detained over a tweet that had criticized a court decision, his defense council told AFP.The cases come after the Moroccan Human Rights Association had deplored in July an "escalation of violations of human rights and public and individual freedoms" in Morocco.The YouTuber Mohamed Sekkaki, known as "Moul Kaskita", was sentenced by a court in the western city of Settat to four years in prison, his lawyer Mohamed Ziane told AFP.Sekkaki, whose videos usually exceed 100,000 views, was arrested in early December after posting a video in which he insulted Moroccans as "donkeys" and criticized…


Dec262019 by DmediaNo Comments

Thousands in Asia Marvel at ‘Ring of Fire’ Solar Eclipse

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People along a swath of southern Asia gazed at the sky in marvel on Thursday at a “ring of fire” solar eclipse.                     The so-called annular eclipse, in which a thin outer ring of the sun is still visible, could be seen along a path stretching from India and Pakistan to Thailand and Indonesia.                     Authorities in Indonesia provided telescopes and hundreds of special glasses to protect viewers' eyes. Thousands of people gazed at the sky and cheered and clapped as the sun transformed into a dark orb for more than two minutes, briefly plunging the sky into darkness. Hundreds of others prayed at nearby mosques.                     “How amazing to see the ring of fire when the sun disappeared slowly,” said Firman Syahrizal, a resident of Sinabang…