Year: 2021

NASA touches the sun and looks to the future by traveling back through time. Plus, Japanese tourists visit the ISS, and a space-travel pioneer’s daughter follows in her father’s flying footsteps. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space. ...

Scientists in Hong Kong say the omicron variant of the coronavirus multiplies much faster in the airway passages, which could explain how the variant is spreading so fast around the globe. A preliminary report by a team of researchers at the University of Hong Kong…

The Israeli government on Wednesday said it was donating 1 million coronavirus vaccines to the U.N.-backed COVAX program. The Foreign Ministry said the AstraZeneca vaccines would be transferred in the coming weeks, a decision that was part of Israel’s strengthening ties with the African countries.…

The White House COVID-19 Response team Wednesday said early data indicates the omicron coronavirus variant is spreading in the U.S., but current vaccine boosters appear to be effective in fighting it. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the variant is in 36 U.S. states and accounts…

The head of the South African Medical Association says there is a major difference between the delta and omicron variants of the coronavirus and warns politicians against hyping the threat from the new strain. Dr. Angelique Coetzee criticized Tuesday what she described as the “over-reaction”…

African leaders have called on governments across the continent to invest more in healthcare to fight the coronavirus and future pandemics. The appeal came as the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the African Union this week held the first Conference on Public…

The disfiguring disease Noma, found mainly in poor areas of sub-Saharan Africa that lack health care, kills 90% of victims, most of them children, when left untreated. Noma is preventable with awareness, and to that end, aid groups are urging the World Health Organization to…

COVID-19 was first discovered in China, which became the first country to produce a vaccine. Sinovac and Sinopharm are China’s leading vaccine makers, and both manufacture World Health Organization-approved COVID-19 vaccines.   What’s the difference between the two companies?   Sinovac is a privately owned company, while Sinopharm is government-run. Scientists at both companies use the same method to make…

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday he is encouraged by data released by Pfizer Inc on its COVID-19 anti-viral medicine and his administration has ordered enough of the pills to treat 10 million Americans. "Getting vaccinated and getting your booster shot remain the most important…

A new study out of South Africa shows that Pfizer’s two-dose COVID-19 vaccine provides a high degree of protection against hospitalization from the fast-spreading omicron variant. The real-world study, conducted by the South African Medical Research Council and Discovery Health, the country’s largest private health insurance administrator,…

In a major victory for sexual minority advocates, Canada last week banned conversion therapy, a widely discredited practice that aims to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. The law makes it a crime to subject anyone in Canada to conversion therapy, profit from…

Benin has adopted a new law legalizing abortion in most cases, one of the few African countries to do so. A conservative country, the law was passed by parliament to prevent a wave of clandestine abortions that have resulted in deaths. Kouam Joel Honoré has…

The World Health Organization and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a leading cancer center in the United States, are planning to provide cancer medication free-of-charge to children in developing countries. Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, killing about 10 million people a year. …

The Western U.S. is bracing for the brunt of a major winter storm expected to hit Monday, bringing travel headaches, the threat of localized flooding and some relief in an abnormally warm fall.  Light rain and snow fell in Northern California on Sunday, giving residents…

The top U.S. infectious disease expert on Sunday urged eligible Americans to get booster coronavirus vaccinations to give them the best protection against the new omicron variant. Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, told ABC’s “This Week” show that omicron can evade…

More than 400 million South Asian children have been affected by school closures extending into a second year in some countries during the COVID-19 pandemic according to a new UNICEF report. The United Nations agency has urged the region’s countries to fully reopen schools, warning…

Six years ago today, nearly 200 nations signed the Paris Climate Accord, where they agreed to keep the rise in global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. Scientists say that threshold is an absolute minimum to avoid catastrophic climate change. “Our fragile planet…

Italy’s La Scala has postponed its ballet season premiere after a coronavirus outbreak in its ranks, just days after the famed Milan theater staged its high-profile opera season opener with a full-capacity audience. At least one of the four ballerinas who tested positive for COVID-19…

On a moonless summer night in Hawaii, krill, fish and crabs swirl through a beam of light as two researchers peer into the water above a vibrant reef. Minutes later, like clockwork, they see eggs and sperm from spawning coral drifting past their boat. They…

 Six years ago today, nearly 200 nations signed the Paris Climate Accord, where they agreed to keep the rise in global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. Scientists say that threshold is an absolute minimum to avoid catastrophic climate change. “Our fragile planet…

The eldest daughter of pioneering U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard blasted off aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin commercial space tourism rocket on Saturday, 60 years after her late father's famed suborbital NASA flight at the dawn of the Space Age.   Laura Shepard Churchley, 74, who…

There's no clear-cut definition for when a pandemic starts and ends, and how much of a threat a global outbreak is posing can vary by country. "It's somewhat a subjective judgment because it's not just about the number of cases. It's about severity and it's…