Month: August 2020

A court filing disclosed Monday shows Big Ten Conference presidents voted 11-3 to postpone the football season, bringing some clarity to a key question raised in a lawsuit brought by a group of Nebraska football players. The vote breakdown was revealed in the Big Ten's response to the lawsuit.  The court documents did not identify how each school voted, but a person familiar with the outcome told The Associated Press that Iowa, Nebraska and Ohio State voted against postponing the fall football season. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Big Ten was not planning on making the specifics of its vote public. The Big Ten announced Aug. 11 it would move its football season from fall to spring semester because of health risks associated with the coronavirus pandemic. The…

Canada reached an agreement in principle on Monday with both Novavax and Johnson & Johnson for millions of doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccines, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. Canada's two agreements follow separate deals with Pfizer and Moderna announced weeks ago, and are the latest example of countries rushing to secure access to vaccines. Canada is also in "the final stages of negotiations" to secure AstraZeneca's potential vaccine and is in talks to secure more doses of the Pfizer vaccine candidate, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said. "What we are trying to do is make sure that when a vaccine is developed, we are at the front of the line," Anand told reporters. Canada has a population of about 38 million, and the four vaccine agreements signed so far "give Canada at least 88 million doses…

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday rolled back Obama administration rules limiting levels of toxic materials in wastewater released from coal plants, its latest effort to slash environmental regulations for the coal industry as the Trump administration's first term winds down. The EPA finalized "effluent limitations" for two types of waste from coal plants, a savings of $140 million annually for industry. “Newer, more affordable pollution control technologies and flexibility on the regulation’s phase-in will reduce pollution and save jobs at the same time,” agency administrator Andrew Wheeler said. A senior EPA official said the final rule would reduce pollution by nearly a million pounds per year over the 2015 rule, though environmental groups said the rollback lets industry use cheaper, less effective treatment methods on polluted wastewater that puts waterways at risk.…

High-profile COVID-19 vaccines developed in Russia and China share a potential shortcoming: They are based on a common cold virus that many people have been exposed to, potentially limiting their effectiveness, some experts say. CanSino Biologics' vaccine, approved for military use in China, is a modified form of adenovirus type 5, or Ad5. The company is in talks to get emergency approval in several countries before completing large-scale trials, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. A vaccine developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute, approved in Russia earlier this month despite limited testing, is based on Ad5 and a second less common adenovirus. A scientist works inside a laboratory of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology during the testing of a coronavirus vaccine, in Moscow, Russia, Aug. 6, 2020. (Russian Direct Investment…

The former hurricane known as Laura has so far been the most intense and dangerous storm of this year's Atlantic hurricane season, according to the U.N.’s weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization.Laura is now just a tropical depression, spreading heavy rain and thunderstorms across the east-central United States, forecasters said. But as the storm crossed the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, it strengthened from a Category 1 hurricane to a Category 4 in less than 24 hours. Forecasters recorded wind speeds as high as 240 kph.As Laura came ashore early Thursday in southern Louisiana, the National Hurricane Service was predicting an “unsurvivable storm surge.” That didn’t materialize, but damaging winds and heavy rains did. The system destroyed property, downed trees and led to power outages throughout the state. The…

A study published this week offers evidence regarding how water originated on Earth, and the clues come from some of the oldest rocks in the solar system. Earth's abundance of water makes it unique in the solar system, but scientists have never been sure how it got here. Some believed the water – or chemical compounds that make up water – was here all along, embedded in the original rock that formed the Earth about 4.5 billion years ago.  A piece of an enstatite chondrite meteorite, which contains about 0.5 weight percent of water, is seen in this undated handout obtained Aug. 27, 2020, courtesy of Laurette Piani and Christine Fieni from the Museum of Natural History in Paris.But other scientists studying models of where Earth exists in the solar system…

Public health departments throughout the United States are calling on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reverse changes the federal agency recently made to its public coronavirus testing guidelines.The Big Cities Health Coalition and the National Association of County and City Health Officials, which represent thousands of local departments, sent a letter Friday to the heads of the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requesting that the agencies "pull" the amended advice on virus testing.FILE - A health care worker uses a swab to test a man at a coronavirus disease drive-in testing location in Houston, Texas, Aug. 18, 2020.The organizations called on the agencies to reinstate recommendations that people who have been exposed to the virus be tested even if they are…

In May, facing urgent international demands for action after a string of massive wildfires in the Amazon, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro put the army in charge of protecting the rainforest.   Instead, The Associated Press has found, the operation dubbed as “Green Brazil 2” has had the opposite effect. Under military command, Brazil’s once-effective but recently declining investigation and prosecution of rainforest destruction by ranchers, farmers and miners has come to a virtual halt, even as this year’s burning season picks up.   The Brazilian army appears to be focusing on dozens of small road-and-bridge-building projects that allow exports to flow faster to ports and ease access to protected areas, opening the rainforest to further exploitation. In the meantime, there have been no major raids against illegal activity since Bolsonaro…

President Donald Trump said Thursday the U.S. will have a vaccination for the coronavirus “before the end of the year or maybe even sooner.”The announcement was part of Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination, delivered from the South Lawn of the White House as part of the party’s national convention.   Experts say vaccines can sometimes take decades to develop, test, and be proven safe before they are administered to patients. However, hope has been high that a concerted international effort will produce an effective vaccine sometime next year. “In recent months our nation and the entire planet has been struck by a new and powerful invisible enemy,” Trump told the South Lawn audience whose mostly mask-less members were not sitting six feet apart, a measure generally practiced to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The U.S. has 5.8 million COVID-19 cases, roughly one-fifth of the world’s more than 24 million infections, according to Johns Hopkins University. The president has rarely been seen…

Water covers 70% of the Earth's surface and is crucial to life as we know it, but how it got here has been a longstanding scientific debate.The puzzle was a step closer to being solved Thursday after a French team reported in the journal Science they had identified which space rocks were responsible, and suggested our planet has been wet ever since it formed.Cosmochemist Laurette Piani, who led the research, told AFP the findings contradicted the prevalent theory that water was brought to an initially dry Earth by far-reaching comets or asteroids.According to early models for how the Solar System came to be, the large disks of gas and dust that swirled around the Sun and eventually formed the inner planets were too hot to sustain ice.This would explain the…

Former directors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the world-renowned American agency that has long taken the lead in fighting communicable diseases, are voicing unusual criticism of the U.S. handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the CDC’s limited role in that effort.COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed more than 180,000 people in the U.S., and those are only the confirmed cases. The CDC says the actual number of COVID-19 deaths is much higher and that the virus will be a leading cause of deaths in the U.S. in 2020.Five former CDC directors, appointed by both Republican and Democratic administrations, say the agency should be doing more to lead the effort to contain the pandemic.FILE - Dr. Richard Besser, May 8, 2013, in New…

The man-made megaconstellation orbiting Earth may one day bring internet to remote parts of the world, but astronomers say there is a problem with that plan. Plus, Hurricane Laura from space and from within. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space. Produced by: Arash Arabasadi    ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Europe has seen a significant “uptick” in COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks, with 32 out of 55 state parties and territories in the regions experiencing an increase rate of more than 10 percent.Speaking to reporters at a virtual news conference from Copenhagen, WHO Europe Chief, Dr. Hans Kluge, said that much of that surge in cases has been among young people in the region.Kluge said that while the young tend to be healthier and the virus may not be as severe or life threatening for them, as the weather cools in Europe, they are likely to spend more time indoors where they are likely to come in contact with the elderly and other more vulnerable people. He said that could prompt an…

he divide between India’s urban and rural healthcare is stark — big cities boast of highly qualified doctors while most rural areas lack adequate health infrastructure. To bridge the gulf with the help of modern technology, the northern state of Himachal Pradesh has launched a telemedicine program in two remote areas. Anjana Pasricha reports on how residents in one of them, Bharmour, are benefitting. Camera: Rakesh Kumar  ...

With the total number of worldwide COVID-19 cases surpassing 24 million, including  more than 824,000 deaths, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says nearly one-third of the world’s schoolchildren are unable to participate in remote learning.  A report issued Wednesday by the agency says that of the 1.5 billion children who have been forced to miss in-person learning because of the pandemic, about 463 million did not have the equipment or electronic access to continue their studies through television, radio or the Internet.UNICEF says 49% of all children in sub-Saharan Africa are unable to access any type of remote learning, followed by West and Central Africa with 48%, and North Africa and the Middle East with 40%.  More than 200 million children combined in South Asia, East Asia and the…

Researchers in Japan have provided more evidence supporting the theory that all life on Earth could have sprung from bacteria that landed on the planet from outer space.The evidence comes from an experiment that was conducted on the International Space Station (ISS), the results of which were published Wednesday in the science journal Frontiers in Biology.The researchers placed bacteria samples in exposure panels outside the ISS and left them there for three years. They said they when the samples were examined, the bacteria at the surface had died off but formed a protective layer for the bacteria beneath the surface, ensuring the survival of the rest.The researchers said that based on the data they collected, a bacterial colony measuring approximately 1 millimeter in diameter could have survived for up to…

Health experts are expressing alarm over the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s revision of its coronavirus testing guidelines. The CDC announced Monday that people who have been in close contact with someone who has been infected by COVID-19 “do not necessarily need a test” if they are not exhibiting symptoms of the virus. The agency had previously recommended that anyone who has come into close contact — defined as being within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes — should be tested for the virus.   No explanation has been given for the sudden change.  Experts are worried the new recommendation could lead to a drop off in testing,    Members with the Washington, D.C. Dept. of Health, prepare to place new signs at their F Street COVID-19 testing…

All of Africa has reached a very important milestone. The World Health Organization has declared that the entire continent is now free of the wild poliovirus.  This comes after four years without a single case.  With this historic milestone, five of the six WHO regions – representing over 90% of the world’s population – are now free of the crippling disease. The world is now closer to achieving global polio eradication. If it can be done, it will be the second infectious disease, after smallpox, to be eliminated.    It has not been easy. It's taken decades and millions of health workers traveling by foot, boat, bus and bicycle to reach children in remote geographic areas. Health workers have even braved conflict to prevent children from enduring life-long disability and paralysis.  …

A parachutist completed the world's first jump from a solar-powered aircraft Tuesday, leaping from a height of 1,520 meters over western Switzerland.   The parachutist, Raphael Domjan, also is the founder of the SolarStratos project, the group behind the feat, designed to promote renewable energy. Domjan jumped from a two-seater prototype plane after it reached a speed of 150 kilometers per hour, and he landed near the project’s base in the city of Payerne.   Domjan said there were many unknowns involved in the jump, such as what would happen when he stepped out on the wing, where the solar cells are mounted. He said he was not sure how the plane would respond.     Domjan said part of the goal is to show renewable energy can be used…

Kenyan authorities and aid agencies say rape and sexual abuse cases against girls have increased since the start of pandemic restrictions, and they say in most cases relatives are the offenders. Some safe shelters in Nairobi are overwhelmed by girls who need an escape from people meant to care for them.  Kenyan children have extra time off these days since schools closed in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. That is making them more vulnerable to sexual predators.  Thirty-three-year-old Judith Andiso said a 20-year-old man targeted her teenage daughter at home and got her pregnant.  “I started interrogating my daughter," Andiso said. "She started to explain how the man will come in the house while I am away, give her 10-20 shillings, and take her to another dark building near our place.”  Some of the abused children end up in safe houses in central Nairobi. Florence Keya runs one of them. Her center hosts 26 girls, 17…