Year: 2021

India has become the global hotspot for the COVID-19 pandemic, counting the world’s highest numbers of daily new infections in recent days as it grapples with a second wave of the pandemic weeks after witnessing a dramatic decline.   The impact of the swift surge in the virus, in the world’s biggest vaccine maker, will be felt far beyond its shores as India slows vaccine shipments to other countries.     Health experts blame many people in the vast populous country for virtually abandoning COVID protocols as cases tumbled earlier this year.     Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can People walk at a crowded market amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the old quarters of Delhi, India, Apr. 6, 2021.India is unlikely to impose a…

The race is on between COVID-19 vaccinations and the continuing evolution of coronavirus variants that threaten to undermine them.As vaccination ramps up in the United States and cases decline, people are letting their guard down, including those who are not vaccinated.But public health experts are urging people not to let loose just yet.The virus is not done evolving, they note. Some variants have already emerged with traits that weaken the protection the vaccines provide against the virus. The more it spreads, the more chances it has to get better at ducking the vaccines' defenses.FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2021 file photo, arriving passengers walk past a sign in the arrivals area at Heathrow Airport in London, during England's third national lockdown since the coronavirus outbreak began.Power of vaccinationSo far,…

The race is on between COVID-19 vaccinations and the continuing evolution of coronavirus variants that threaten to undermine them.As vaccination ramps up in the United States and cases decline, people are letting their guard down, including those who are not vaccinated.But public health experts are urging people not to let loose just yet.The virus is not done evolving, they note. Some variants have already emerged with traits that weaken the protection the vaccines provide against the virus. The more it spreads, the more chances it has to get better at ducking the vaccines' defenses.FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2021 file photo, arriving passengers walk past a sign in the arrivals area at Heathrow Airport in London, during England's third national lockdown since the coronavirus outbreak began.Power of vaccinationSo far,…

As the U.S. nears reaching its goal of vaccinating 200 million Americans by the end of April, the Biden administration is taking more steps toward helping other nations by appointing a coordinator for its global COVID-19 response. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.  ...

A recent report published by the National Academy of Sciences paints a grim picture of declining diversity in ocean life.  The study spanned decades, and as VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, researchers link a drop in species to a rise in ocean temperature.  Camera:  Reuters Produced by:  Arash Arabasadi  ...

Haiti does not have a single vaccine to offer its more than 11 million people over a year after the pandemic began, raising concerns among health experts that the well-being of Haitians is being pushed aside as violence and political instability across the country deepen.So far, Haiti is slated to receive only 756,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through a United Nations program aimed at ensuring the neediest countries get COVID-19 shots. The free doses were scheduled to arrive in May at the latest, but delays are expected because Haiti missed a deadline and the key Indian manufacturer is now prioritizing an increase in domestic demand. "Haiti has only recently completed some of the essential documentation that are prerequisites for processing of a shipping order," said Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance,…

U.S. President Joe Biden is announcing Tuesday that every adult in the country will be eligible by April 19 to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, about two weeks earlier than his original May 1 date.   As the available supply of three vaccines expands in the U.S., Biden last week said that about 90% of U.S. adults would be eligible by the April 19 date, but he now is expanding that to all adults who want a shot in the arm.   National polls in the U.S., however, show that about 20% of adults say that for various reasons they will refuse to get vaccinated. Some have said they think it is unnecessary or that the injections could prove to be harmful, while other have expressed distrust in a government-run…

The wearable health care device market has been growing, especially in the Americas, Europe and Asia. COVID-19 is causing a boost in demand for these devices.  VOA’s Elizabeth Lee shows examples of two devices that are finding new purpose during the pandemic.Camera: Elizabeth Lee, Matt Dibble   Producer: Elizabeth Lee    ...

Search and rescue efforts are underway for at least 72 people missing on several remote islands across eastern Indonesia in the wake of a tropical cyclone that struck the region last week.  The torrential rains produced by Tropical Cyclone Seroja triggered flash floods and landslides that washed out bridges, downed trees and left roads thick with mud, which has complicated efforts by rescue crews to reach remote villages. At least 128 people have been killed, with thousands more displaced after their homes were damaged or destroyed. One of the worst incidents happened on Lembata island, where scores of homes were destroyed when the rains dislodged hardened lava sitting along the slopes of Mount Ili Lewotolok volcano.   Tropical Cyclone Seroja also left a similar trail of destruction in neighboring East Timor, killing 27 people on the outskirts of the capital, Dili.   Seasonal flash floods and…

Steam and lava spurted Monday from a new fissure at an Icelandic volcano that began erupting last month, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of hikers who had come to see the spectacle. The new fissure, first spotted by a sightseeing helicopter, was about 500 meters (550 yards) long and about a kilometer (around a half-mile) from the original eruption site in the Geldinga Valley.  The Icelandic Department of Emergency Management announced an immediate evacuation of the area. It said there was no imminent danger to life because of the site’s distance from popular hiking paths. The Icelandic Meteorological Office said the new volcanic activity wasn’t expected to affect traffic at nearby Keflavik Airport. The long-dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland flared to life March 20 after tens of thousands of earthquakes were recorded in the area in the…

Emergency crews labored around the clock Monday to prevent the collapse of a wastewater reservoir's leaky containment wall near Tampa Bay, Florida, making steady progress after officials warned of an imminent threat of flooding over the weekend. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers worked with local public safety teams to drain the Piney Point reservoir, which has a capacity of about 480 million gallons, in a bid to prevent a major breach that could unleash a cascade of wastewater into the surrounding area, officials said. While the pumping operation appeared to diminish the immediate threat to hundreds of homes near Piney Point, a former phosphate plant, the wastewater drainage was being discharged to a nearby Gulf Coast seaport, posing environmental concerns there. The crisis began over the weekend when a worsening week-old leak…

The death toll from the natural disasters spawned by torrential rains across eastern Indonesia has risen to 55, according to new figures issued Monday by the country’s disaster relief agency. Landslides wiped out dozens of homes in Lamenele village on Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara province shortly after midnight Saturday, with flash flooding striking other parts of the province, including nearby Lembata island. A spokesperson for the Natural Disaster Mitigation Agency said at least 42 people are missing, with hundreds of people forced to evacuate their homes.People carry a man injured during a flood in Ile Ape, on Lembata Island, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, April 4, 2021.The rains, landslides and floods have washed away bridges, downed trees and left roads thick with mud, complicating search and rescue efforts.  In neighboring East Timor, 21 people have…

The officer who Cassandra Quinto-Collins says kneeled on her son’s neck for over four minutes assured her it was standard protocol for sedating a person experiencing a mental breakdown. “I was there watching it the whole time,” Quinto-Collins told The Associated Press. “I just trusted that they knew what they were doing.”  Angelo Quinto’s sister had called 911 for help calming him down during an episode of paranoia on Dec. 23. His family says Quinto did not resist the Antioch, California, officers — one who pushed his knee on the back of his neck, and another who restrained his legs — and the only noise he made was when he twice cried out, “Please don’t kill me.”  The officers replied, “We’re not going to kill you,” the family said. Police deny putting pressure on his…

NASA's Ingenuity mini-helicopter has been dropped on the surface of Mars in preparation for its first flight, the U.S. space agency said.The ultra-light aircraft had been fixed to the belly of the Perseverance rover, which touched down on the Red Planet on February 18."Mars Helicopter touchdown confirmed!" NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory tweeted Saturday."Its 293 million mile (471 million kilometer) journey aboard @NASAPersevere ended with the final drop of 4 inches (10 centimeter) from the rover's belly to the surface of Mars today. Next milestone? Survive the night."Swing low, sweet helicopter...@NASAPersevere is slowly and carefully deploying the #MarsHelicopter, Ingenuity. The tech demo is currently unfolding from its stowed position and readying to safely touch down on the Martian surface. See upcoming milestones: https://t.co/TNCdXWcKWEpic.twitter.com/3AyaiHOH2k — NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) March 30, 2021A photograph…

Nine-year-old Nadja Pivoff from Boston, Massachusetts, has been drawing since she could hold a pencil.  It’s been especially important to her during the COVID lockdown, as Genia Dulot reports from Boston. Camera: Genia Dulot ...

North Atlantic right whales gave birth over the winter in greater numbers than scientists have seen since 2015, an encouraging sign for researchers who became alarmed three years ago when the critically endangered species produced no known offspring at all.Survey teams spotted 17 newborn right whale calves swimming with their mothers offshore between Florida and North Carolina from December through March. One of those calves soon died after being hit by a boat, a reminder of the high death rate for right whales that experts fear is outpacing births.The overall calf count equals the combined total for the previous three years. That includes the dismal 2018 calving season, when scientists saw zero right whale births for the first time in three decades. Still, researchers say greater numbers are needed in…

While it may not yet be planting season outside, inside some New Jersey shipping containers, it’s always spring. Vladimir Lenski has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.Producer: Marcus Harton.Cameras: Max Avloshenko, Dmitrii Vershinin.    ...

A retired Iraqi judge who presided over the trial of Iraq's late dictator Saddam Hussein has died after battling COVID-19, the country's top judicial body said Friday.According to Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, 52, died in a hospital in Baghdad where he was being treated for complications from the coronavirus.Oreibi graduated from the Faculty of Law at Baghdad university in 1992 and was appointed a judge in 2000 by a presidential decree.He shot to fame after he was named an investigative judge in the trial of Saddam and his regime in August 2004. He later took over as the lead judge in Saddam's trial for genocide, which also included Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali, and five other defendants on charges related to their…

The Biden administration, which had set a goal of 100 million shots in President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office, hit another milestone Friday. The U.S. became the first nation to vaccinate 100 million people.However, cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, remain on the rise in some regions of the United States."I plead with you, don't give back the progress we've all fought so hard to achieve," Biden said Friday. "We need every American to buckle down and keep their guard up in this homestretch."Earlier this week, Biden also said with the increased push to roll out the vaccine “at least 90% of all adults in this country will be eligible to be vaccinated by April the 19th, just three weeks from now, because we have…

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday that fully vaccinated people can safely travel within the United States without getting tested before or after their journeys.CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced the new guidelines during the White House COVID-19 response team briefing and was quick to add the CDC still does not recommend nonessential travel for people who are not fully vaccinated.FILE - Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 18, 2021.The CDC also recommends fully vaccinated travelers continue to wear masks, maintain 2 meters of social distance and wash their hands regularly.Walensky was asked if the new guidelines suggest she does not still feel the sense of “impending doom” she described earlier this week…

A handful of coins unearthed from a pick-your-own-fruit orchard in rural Rhode Island and other random corners of New England may help solve one of the planet's oldest cold cases.The villain in this tale: a murderous English pirate who became the world's most-wanted criminal after plundering a ship carrying Muslim pilgrims home to India from Mecca, then eluded capture by posing as a slave trader."It's a new history of a nearly perfect crime," said Jim Bailey, an amateur historian and metal detectorist who found the first intact 17th-century Arabian coin in a meadow in Middletown.That ancient pocket change — among the oldest ever found in North America — could explain how pirate Capt. Henry Every vanished into the wind.On Sept. 7, 1695, the pirate ship Fancy, commanded by Every, ambushed…

Japanese Nobel laureate Isamu Akasaki, who won the physics prize for pioneering energy-efficient LED lighting -- a weapon against global warming and poverty -- has died aged 92, his university said Friday.   Akasaki won the 2014 prize with two other scientists, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura. Together they developed the blue light-emitting diode, described as a "revolutionary" invention by the Nobel jury.   He died of pneumonia on Thursday morning at a hospital in the city of Nagoya, according to a statement on the website of Meijo University, where Akasaki had been a professor.   LED lamps last for tens of thousands of hours and use just a fraction of energy compared with the incandescent lightbulb pioneered by Thomas Edison in the 19th century.   Red and green diodes…

ABOARD THE MSC GRANDIOSA — Italy may be in a strict coronavirus lockdown this Easter with travel restricted between regions and new quarantines imposed. But a few miles offshore, guests aboard the MSC Grandiosa cruise ship are shimmying to Latin music on deck and sipping cocktails by the pool.In one of the anomalies of lockdowns that have shuttered hotels and resorts around the world, the Grandiosa has been plying the Mediterranean Sea this winter with seven-night cruises, a lonely flag-bearer of the global cruise industry.After cruise ships were early sources of highly publicized coronavirus outbreaks, the Grandiosa has tried to chart a course through the pandemic with strict anti-virus protocols approved by Italian authorities that seek to create a "health bubble" on board.Passengers and crew are tested before and during…

Percentagewise, Lebanon is home to the largest Christian population in the Middle East. As the country struggles in the face of multiple deep crises with no sign of respite, Easter this year offers little to celebrate. Jacob Russell has this report from Beirut. Camera: Jacob Russell, Agency Archive        Producer: Jason Godman ...

After spending much of the past year in lockdown, Tel Aviv makeup artist Artyom Kavnatsky was ready to get back to work. But when he showed up for a recent photo shoot, his employer turned him away. The reason? He had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus.“He didn’t take me because I didn’t get vaccinated,” Kavnatsky said. “It’s discrimination, and it’s not all right.”The breakneck pace of Israel’s vaccination drive has made it one of the few countries able to return to much of its pre-pandemic routine. Bars and businesses, hotels and health clubs have all sprung back to life in Israel, where some 80% of the adult population is fully vaccinated and new infections and COVID-19 deaths have plummeted.While Israel provides a glimpse of what may be possible with…