Month: October 2020

Asian kudzu vines smothering the southern United States. Pacific lionfish devouring Caribbean sealife. South American cane toads killing their way across Australia.     As bad as invasive species are today, a study says they will get worse.      Researchers predict that non-native—or alien—species introductions…

Spain’s government declared a state of emergency in Madrid Friday, taking control of efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19 from local authorities after a regional court struck down restrictions as the region faces one of the most significant outbreaks in Europe.   Prime Minister…

China said Friday it is joining a World Health Organization international initiative to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to the developing world.  China, Russia and the U.S. had said they were not joining the alliance to help two-thirds of world’s population receive the vaccines by 2022.China’s reversal makes it the largest country to participate in what…

Young people have suffered less under the COVID-19 virus than older people medically, but experts say the gap has narrowed, and so-called superspreading among the young is a factor.“The FILE - A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in…

The executive branch of the European Union announced Thursday it has signed a deal with pharmaceutical company Gilead to buy 500,000 treatment courses of Remdesivir, an antiviral drug shown to be effective in treating symptoms of COVID-19.The European Commission, which has overseen joint purchases of…

The National Football League reported Thursday yet another Tennessee Titans football player has tested positive for COVID-19, raising questions about their game scheduled for Sunday in Nashville.The latest positive test brings the total to 23 positive COVID-19 tests among players and staff for the Tennessee franchise,…

The European Union on Thursday concluded a deal with an American drugmaker to supply up to 400 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine, bringing its total vaccine supply to 1.1 billion doses for the bloc’s 450 million people.To secure the vaccines, the EU made…

Germany’s health officials said Thursday new COVID-19 cases are spreading at the fastest rate since April.Health Minister Jens Spahn joined Robert Kock Institute for Disease Control President Lothar Wieler at a news conference in Berlin, where they said the number of new cases of the…

The world now has more than 36 million cases of the coronavirus.    According to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracking program, 36,166,574 people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, including more than 1 million deaths.  The United States leads in both categories with…

Prince William has joined forces with renowned British broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough to launch Thursday a new environmental award, the Earthshot Prize, which has grand ambitions to "incentivize change and help to repair our planet over the next 10 years." The prize takes its…

An Iranian dissident has contracted the coronavirus at a prison in northern Iran, according to a knowledgeable source, highlighting what U.S. and U.N. officials say is a worsening pandemic threat facing Iran’s prisoners of conscience.In a message sent Tuesday to VOA Persian, an Iran-based source…

Zimbabwe, like other African countries, is trying a phased re-opening of schools after closing in March due to COVID-19.But many teachers like 33-year-old Munyaradzi Masiyiwa are refusing to return to class, pointing to low pay and unsafe conditions.Masiyiwa said he makes more money selling brooms than teaching at…

Wisconsin health officials opened a field hospital Wednesday at the state fairgrounds near Milwaukee to cater to the swelling number of COVID-19 cases threatening to overwhelm hospitals.The 530-bed field clinic was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in April at the request of…

Some top scientists in Britain are calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson's ruling Conservative government to shift strategy on the coronavirus pandemic and adopt a "herd immunity" approach, allowing people who are less likely to become seriously ill from the virus to return to normal…

Two scientists have won this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing a method of gene editing. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences jointly awarded the $1.1 million prize to Emmanuelle Charpentier of France and Jennifer Doudna of the United States. The academy recognized their work on…

As the COVID-19 pandemic marches on, new, rapid tests offer hope for pumping the brakes on the virus’ spread.  The United States is falling far short in its testing efforts. More than 4 million tests per day would be needed to control the spread of the coronavirus, according to…

Experts from a global chemical weapons watchdog confirmed Tuesday that the substance used to poison Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was from the banned Soviet-style Novichok family of potent nerve agents.  The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, his wife, Yulia, and son, Zahar, pose for a…

The Food and Drug Administration laid out updated safety standards Tuesday for makers of COVID-19 vaccines after the White House blocked their formal release, the latest political tug-of-war between the Trump administration and the government’s public health scientists.In briefing documents posted on its website, the…

For nearly a year, Benjamin Billal was chained to a rock.“I was taken to a faith healing center by my grandmother and my mother,” Billal told journalists by video link from Monrovia, Liberia on Tuesday. “There, I was shackled. I was chained to a rock,…

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying 60 Starlink satellites for the company's internet satellite constellation system.The launch marks the 13th Starlink mission.  The company says the goal of Starlink is to create a network that…

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now acknowledging that COVID-19 can spread through small particles in the air over an extended distance and for hours at a time.  The CDC has long insisted that the coronavirus is transmitted mainly between people standing…

With U.S. President Donald Trump back at the White House after spending several days in a military hospital, the primary doctor in charge of his COVID-19 treatment is the same, but the extent of the medical facilities available is not. The president’s doctor heads the White…