Month: June 2020

The Trump administration’s recent decision to roll back civil rights protections for transgender people in health care has outraged civil rights activists and organizations advocating for transgender rights.  The administration move comes as the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling protecting gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination.  Now, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights organization says it will sue the administration over its decision to roll back health care protections. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.Camera: Yuriy Zakrevskiy    ...

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Tuesday it is seeking to investigate record high temperatures reported from inside the Arctic Circle June 20.   At a news conference in Geneva, WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told reporters the U.N. weather agency is seeking to verify the reported 38 degrees Celsius temperature in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, amid a prolonged Siberian heat wave and increased wildfire activity.   The WMO says it will confer with Russia’s weather agency, Roshydromet. If the temperature is confirmed, a team of investigators will then search the WMO’s archives to ensure it is indeed a record.   Nullis said the Russian weather agency reports that the region of Eastern Siberia where the record was reported “has very, very cold extremes in winter but is also known…

Honeybees are coming back after record losses in 2019, a survey of U.S. beekeepers says. The Bee Informed Partnership says this past winter was one of the smallest loss of colonies in 14 years. Researchers credit better management by beekeepers for the resurgence in colonies. "The reason why colonies can die are very multiple and that's unfortunately, the complex reality of honeybee health is that there are multiple drivers that are affecting honeybee health. We usually categorize them in categories of what we call the four Ps, which is pests, pathogens, poor nutrition and pesticides.” Dr. Nathalie Steinhauer of the University of Maryland says.  According to the partnership survey, beekeepers lost a little more than 22% of their colonies over the past winter compared to the average wintertime loss of 28%. According to the Bee Informed Partnership, which includes the University of Maryland, more than 3,377 beekeepers managing 276,832 colonies across the United States responded to the survey. The university says…

American honeybee colonies have bounced back after a bad year, the annual beekeeping survey finds. Beekeepers lost only 22.2% of their colonies this past winter, from Oct. 1 to March 31, which is lower than the average of 28.6%, according to the Bee Informed Partnership's annual survey of thousands of beekeepers. It was the second smallest winter loss in the 14 years of surveying done by several different U.S. universities. Last winter's loss was considerably less than the previous winter of 2018-2019 when a record 37.7% of colonies died off, the scientists found. After that bad winter, the losses continued through the summer of 2019, when beekeepers reported a 32% loss rate. That's much higher than the average of 21.6% for summer losses. Those summer losses were driven more by hives of…

The COVID-19 pandemic could affect availability and distribution of antiretroviral medicine used to treat HIV, UNAIDS said Monday.A recent survey conducted by UNAIDS showed the impacts that lockdowns and border closures imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus will impede supplying prescriptions, particularly to low- and middle-income countries.A new study by UNAIDS shows the potential impacts that #COVID19 could have in low- and middle-income countries around the world on supplies of the generic antiretroviral medicines used to treat HIV. — UNAIDS (@UNAIDS) June 22, 2020But the survey said that measures can still be taken to mitigate the risks."It is vital that countries urgently make plans now to mitigate the possibility and impacts of higher costs and reduced availability of antiretroviral medicines," Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, said in…

Thai scientists administered a second dose of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine to monkeys on Monday, looking for another positive response to enable clinical trials in humans as early as October.   The Thai vaccine is one of at least 100 being worked on globally as the world reels from a devastating virus that has infected more than 8.7 million and killed 461,000, with Sunday's 183,000 cases the highest reported in a single day.   Thirteen monkeys were immunized on Monday and the next two weeks will be critical in determining whether researchers can proceed with further tests.   "We're going to analyze the immune response once again. If the immune response is very, very high, then this is a good one," said Kiat Ruxrungtham, lead researcher of the COVID-19 vaccine development program at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.   Thailand's…

AIDS activist Larry Kramer used to wear an oversized rectangular turquoise ring on his left finger, tinged with variations of green.  A turquoise band circled a second finger.  Two large turquoise rings decorated his other hand.When Kramer first moved to New York in the 1970s, a fortune teller told him he "must always wear something turquoise to look after your health."  He trusted the superstition, surviving hepatitis B and a liver transplant — and battling an HIV infection for more than 30 years."God knows how," Kramer told VOA in his final interview before he died of pneumonia on May 27, less than a month before his 85th birthday.Turquoise's health benefits are unproven, but a revolutionary generation of antiviral drugs, the first of which was studied and approved 25 years ago,…

One of the coldest places on Earth on Saturday became one of the hottest places on Earth. A Russian heat wave sent the thermometer in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk soaring to 38 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Meteorologists say that would be the highest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle.  Verkhoyansk is about 10 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. Temperatures in the town average 40 degrees below zero Celsius (-40 Fahrenheit) in winter, and it rarely gets warmer than 20 degrees (68 Fahrenheit) in summer.  Experts blame the unusual heat wave on a massive high-pressure system that has been stalled over Siberia for almost two weeks, preventing cooler air from flowing south. All of Russia has experienced an uncharacteristically warm winter and spring this year with average temperatures breaking records in the first five months of the year set in 2016.   ...

Many amateur astronomers in Africa and Asia had the chance to observe Sunday, for the summer solstice, a rare solar eclipse of the "ring of fire" type, despite the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus and sometimes unfavorable climatic conditions.This astronomical phenomenon, which occurs once or twice a year, started soon after sunrise in central Africa, passing through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan and Ethiopia before heading to Asia, to finish in the Pacific Ocean, south of the island of Guam, at 09:32 GMT, after having notably crossed India and China.  In this type of eclipse, the moon passes in front of the sun, in an alignment with the earth, but instead of completely blocking the sun, there remains a ring, called "ring of fire."It was above…

Sickle cell patients in Cameroon on this year's World Sickle Cell Day on June 19, asked to be given additional care and support. They say the genetic disorder primarily seen in people of African descent puts them more at risk of COVID-19.About 200 sickle cell patients visited hospitals and the Cameroon Red Cross office in the capital Yaoundé, Friday to complain that they were being sidelined in efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the central African state. Forty-year old Dieudonne Mackiti, father of two children living with the disease, says he expects the government to provide face masks and hand sanitizers free of charge and to ask hospitals to give preferential treatment to sickle cell patients when they visit.He says he has come out on World Sickle…

Giant footprints found in a disused coal mine belong to Australia’s biggest predatory dinosaur, according to new research.Analysis by the University of Queensland estimates this huge meat-eating predator was about 10 meters long, almost as big as a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The tracks were found in the ceilings of old coal mines in the 1950s but were only recently scientifically examined.For years, they lay untouched in a museum but have now been investigated by paleontologist Anthony Romilio. He said they are likely to have been made by a fearsome prehistoric creature. His study is published in the journal Historical Biology.Romilio says while no bones have been found, the tracks provide a fascinating window into the distant past.“We find many more footprints than what we do skeletons, and we can tell by…

Commercial insurers are scrutinizing building managers' efforts to avoid outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease as they reopen movie theaters, gyms, schools and offices that had been closed for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, industry sources told Reuters. Legionnaires' disease is a severe, sometimes lethal form of pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacteria that build up in pipes. Environmental insurers, which collect roughly $2 billion in annual premiums, would be on the hook for damages if there are outbreaks at buildings they cover. "Legionella could be the deadliest waterborne illness in the U.S. and another deadly consequence of COVID," said Veronica Benzinger, environmental service group leader for insurance broker Aon plc, referring to the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. The pandemic shutdown of businesses and schools has led to an unprecedented amount of…

The U.N.'s World Food Program says its humanitarian air service could stop at the end of July without more funds to keep operating.   The service transports food, health supplies and other necessities to millions of poor, vulnerable people around the world. The thousands of aid workers flown to emergency hot spots provide people with urgent assistance they need but could not otherwise receive.    The service is at risk because the World Food Program has received only 14 percent of the $965 million it needs to keep functioning. WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said global aid operations will be severely compromised if the service shuts down.    "Hospitals in developing countries would not receive desperately needed medical supplies," she said. "Health centers serving pregnant women and undernourished children would not…

European governments are working with the United States on plans to overhaul the World Health Organization, a top health official for a European country said, signaling that Europe shares some of the concerns that led Washington to say it would quit.The European health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while discussing initiatives that are not public, said Britain, France, Germany and Italy were discussing WHO reforms with the United States at the technical level.The aim, the official said, was to ensure WHO's independence, an apparent reference to allegations that the body was too close to China during its initial response to the coronavirus crisis early this year."We are discussing ways to separate WHO's emergency management mechanism from any single country influence," said the official.Reforms would involve changing the WHO's…

Aerospace company Lockheed Martin says it has successfully completed a crucial test of the Orion spacecraft it is building for the NASA space agency to eventually return astronauts to the moon.The company released video Thursday of its most recent test conducted earlier this month at the company's Waterton Canyon facility near Littleton, Colorado. After takeoff, the Orion must jettison three large service module coverings, known as fairings, designed to protect the spacecraft during the launch. The fairings must come off to lighten the load so the craft can reach space. Lockheed Martin said the test was successful and validated the jettison mechanisms, and will help the company as it builds new versions of the Orion.NASA hopes to launch the Space Launch System on its first test flight as early as 2021. The…

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist said Thursday the agency hopes there will be about two billion doses of a vaccine against COVID-19 by the end of next year that would be reserved for “priority populations.”Speaking at a virtual news conference in Geneva, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan told reporters, “It’s a big ‘if’ because we don’t have any vaccine that’s proven.”She said she is encouraged by the number of possible vaccines currently being tested and hoped at least one or two would prove ready for use by next year.Swaminathan said that the WHO recommends immunizing people at risk first, including the elderly and those with underlying conditions like diabetes or respiratory disease, as well as key workers. But she said countries must come to a consensus on which populations would be…

Researchers say they have determined a mystery fossil discovered in Antarctica in 2011 is a large egg, possibly laid by an ancient aquatic reptile.Science publication Inverse reports that since the fossil was discovered, researchers referred to it as the "thing," because they could not classify it. They compared it to a deflated American football — oval in shape, about 28 centimeters long and 18 centimeters wide.In a study published Wednesday in the science journal Nature, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin used microscopic analysis to confirm that the fossil is indeed an ancient egg.An illustration of a marine reptile and its fossil egg, found in Antarctica, are seen in this handout obtained by Reuters on June 16, 2020. (University of Chile/Handout via Reuters)They analyzed the body size of…

New Zealand on Thursday reported its third confirmed coronavirus case this week, a development that has prompted the government to further restrict its quarantine rules for those entering the country after it had declared local transmission of the virus eradicated.All three cases involve people who flew to New Zealand from elsewhere in the world, the latest coming from Pakistan. The man is in quarantine.Authorities are working to trace those who may have come into contact with the man and two women who flew from Britain and tested positive after being permitted to leave their quarantine early to see an ill relative.There are worries about rising case counts in other parts of the world.India reported 12,881 new confirmed cases Thursday, the highest one-day increase it has seen during the pandemic.  The…