Jun302022 DmediaNo Comments

WHO: COVID-19 Cases Rising Nearly Everywhere Around World

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The number of new coronavirus cases rose by 18% in the last week, with more than 4.1 million cases reported globally, according to the World Health Organization. The U.N. health agency said in its latest weekly report on the pandemic that the worldwide number of deaths remained similar to the week before, at about 8,500. COVID-related deaths increased in three regions: the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Americas. The biggest weekly rise in new COVID-19 cases was seen in the Middle East, where they increased by 47%, according to the report released late Wednesday. Infections rose by about 32% in Europe and Southeast Asia, and by about 14% in the Americas, WHO said. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said cases were on the rise in 110 countries, mostly driven…
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Jun302022 DmediaNo Comments

US Supreme Court Limits EPA in Curbing Power Plant Emissions

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In a blow to the fight against climate change, the Supreme Court on Thursday limited how the nation’s main anti-air pollution law can be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. By a 6-3 vote, with conservatives in the majority, the court said that the Clean Air Act does not give the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming. The court’s ruling could complicate the administration’s plans to combat climate change. Its proposal to regulate power plant emissions is expected by the end of the year. President Joe Biden aims to cut the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade and to have an emissions-free power sector by 2035. Power plants account…
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Jun302022 TechmanNo Comments

Instagram Hides Some Posts That Mention Abortion

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Instagram is blocking posts that mention abortion from public view, in some cases requiring its users to confirm their age before letting them view posts that offer up information about the procedure.  Over the last day, several Instagram accounts run by abortion rights advocacy groups have found their posts or stories hidden with a warning that described the posts as "sensitive content." Instagram said it was working to fix the problem Tuesday, describing it as a bug.  In one example, Instagram covered a post on a page with more than 25,000 followers that shared text reading: "Abortion in America How You Can Help." The post went on to encourage followers to donate money to abortion organizations and to protest the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strip constitutional protections for abortion. …
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Jun292022 DmediaNo Comments

Fears of Cholera Outbreak Surface in Ukraine

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As Russia pounds Ukrainian cities to rubble, water and sewer systems have broken down in some places. The British Defense Ministry says Mariupol is at risk of a major cholera outbreak. Just how big the threat is, though, is not clear. Scientists disagree over where the strains of cholera that can cause a major outbreak come from, and whether they are present in Ukraine currently. Producer:  Steve Baragona ...
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Jun292022 TechmanNo Comments

Scientists’ Model Uses Google Search Data to Forecast COVID Hospitalizations

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Future waves of COVID-19 might be predicted using internet search data, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. In the study, researchers watched the number of COVID-related Google searches made across the country and used that information, together with conventional COVID-19 metrics such as confirmed cases, to predict hospital admission rates weeks in advance. Using the search data provided by Google Trends, scientists were able to build a computational model to forecast COVID-19 hospitalizations. Google Trends is an online portal that provides data on Google search volumes in real time. "If you have a bunch of people searching for 'COVID testing sites near me' … you're going to still feel the effects of that downstream at the hospital level in terms of admissions," said data scientist Philip…
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Jun292022 DmediaNo Comments

US Officials Announce More Steps Against Monkeypox Outbreak 

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Reacting to a surprising and growing monkeypox outbreak, U.S. health officials on Tuesday expanded the group of people recommended to get vaccinated against the monkeypox virus.  They also said they are providing more monkeypox vaccine, working to expand testing, and taking other steps to try to get ahead of the outbreak.  "We will continue to take aggressive action against this virus," said Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 response coordinator, who has also been playing a role in how the government deals with monkeypox.  The administration said it was expanding the pool of people who are advised to get vaccinated to include those who may realize on their own that they could have been infected. That includes men who have recently had sex with men at parties or in other…
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Jun272022 DmediaNo Comments

WHO: Monkeypox is Not a Global Health Emergency

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A World Health Organization independent committee of experts says the spread of monkeypox in a number of countries around the world is worrisome but does not constitute what the WHO calls a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. In early May, the World Health Organization was alerted to an outbreak of monkeypox in countries outside Africa, where this deadly disease has been circulating for decades. Since then, more than 3,200 confirmed cases and one death have been reported in more than 50 non-African countries. This has set alarm bells ringing as, until now, only sporadic cases of monkeypox have occurred outside Africa. WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calls the current outbreak an evolving health threat, noting the rapid spread of the disease into new countries and regions. He says the…
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Jun272022 TechmanNo Comments

NASA Completes Historic Rocket Launch in Outback Australia 

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NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has successfully completed its first rocket launch from a commercial space facility outside of the United States. A 13-meter rocket blasted off Monday from a site in the Australian outback. A 13-meter sub-orbital rocket took off from the newly built Arnhem Space Centre in Australia’s Northern Territory Monday. Lift-off was delayed by about two hours because of strong winds and heavy rain. The launch was the first of its kind in Australia in more than 25 years and the first of three scheduled NASA missions from the site. Researchers hope the information gathered from the flights will help them understand how light from a star could affect the habitability of nearby planets. They have said that this type of study can only be…
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Jun262022 DmediaNo Comments

US Abortion Foes, Supporters Map Next Moves After Roe Reversal

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A Texas group that helps women pay for abortions halted its efforts Saturday while evaluating its legal risk under a strict state ban. Mississippi's only abortion clinic continued to see patients while awaiting a 10-day notice that will trigger a ban. Elected officials across the country vowed to take action to protect women's access to reproductive health care, and abortion foes promised to take the fight to new arenas. A day after the Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade ended the constitutional right to abortion, emotional protests and prayer vigils turned to resolve as several states enacted bans and both supporters and opponents of abortion rights mapped out their next moves. In Texas, Cathy Torres, organizing manager for Frontera Fund, a group that helps pay for abortions, said there…
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Jun262022 DmediaNo Comments

WHO Says Monkeypox Not a Global Health Emergency

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The World Health Organization's chief said Saturday that the monkeypox outbreak was a deeply concerning evolving threat but did not currently constitute a global health emergency. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus convened a committee of experts Thursday to advise him whether to sound the U.N. health agency's strongest alarm over the outbreak. A surge of monkeypox cases has been detected since early May outside of the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic. Most of the new cases have been in Western Europe. More than 3,200 confirmed cases and one death have now been reported to the WHO from more than 50 countries this year. "The emergency committee shared serious concerns about the scale and speed of the current outbreak," noting many unknowns about the…
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Jun252022 DmediaNo Comments

US Supreme Court Ruling Could Trigger Anti-Abortion Laws in at Least 13 States

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The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which has guaranteed a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion for almost 50 years, is set to activate anti-abortion laws in at least 13 states. While some of the so-called “trigger laws” have been in place for years, others have been enacted more recently. Some states could activate their anti-abortion laws immediately, with others following shortly thereafter. The 13 states that have laws that would ban or halt abortions with the Supreme Court’s overturn Friday of Roe are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. ...
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Jun252022 DmediaNo Comments

US Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade

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The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the decades-old Roe v. Wade decision, which said women have a constitutional right to have an abortion. States will now decide whether to permit the procedure; it's expected that roughly half could do so. VOA’s Laurel Bowman reports. ...
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Jun232022 DmediaNo Comments

NASA’s Artemis Program Gases Up

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NASA’s next moon mission scores a win despite another setback. Plus, South Korea launches one of its own rockets to space, and the UK readies what it hopes will be its first domestically launched satellites. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space ...
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Jun232022 DmediaNo Comments

US Health Officials Ban Juul E-Cigarettes Tied to Teen Vaping Surge

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Federal health officials on Thursday ordered Juul to pull its electronic cigarettes from the U.S. market, the latest blow to the embattled company widely blamed for sparking a national surge in teen vaping.  The action is part of a sweeping effort by the Food and Drug Administration to bring scientific scrutiny to the multibillion-dollar vaping industry after years of regulatory delays.  The FDA said Juul must stop selling its vaping device and its tobacco- and menthol-flavored cartridges. Those already on the market must be removed. Consumers aren't restricted from having or using Juul's products, the agency said.  To stay on the market, companies must show that their e-cigarettes benefit public health. In practice, that means proving that adult smokers who use them are likely to quit or reduce their smoking,…
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Jun232022 DmediaNo Comments

US Advisory Panel Recommends Stronger Flu Shots for Seniors

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An advisory panel for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Wednesday that people ages 65 years and older choose higher-dose flu shots or ones that include an ingredient to boost immune response. The CDC commonly adopts the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, but in the past it has not advised older adults to get a particular flu shot. The CDC says older people are both at a higher risk for more serious illness from the flu and tend to have a lower protective immune response. The advisory committee said that while its preference is for the higher-dose shots or adjuvanted flu vaccines, if one of those options is not available, people age 65 and older should still be vaccinated with a standard flu vaccine.…
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Jun232022 DmediaNo Comments

US Expanding Monkeypox Testing

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The United States is expanding its capacity to test for monkeypox by shipping tests to five commercial labs. The Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday the effort will “dramatically expand testing capacity nationwide and make testing more convenient and accessible for patients and health care providers.” Health care providers will be able to start using the labs to test for monkeypox by early July, the agency said. As of Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there have been 142 reported monkeypox infections in the United States since the first in mid-May. More than 30 countries where monkeypox is not endemic have reported cases. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters  ...
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Jun232022 DmediaNo Comments

US UN Ambassador Tests Positive for COVID-19

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The U.S. mission to the United Nations said Wednesday that Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield tested positive for COVID-19. Spokesperson Melissa Quartell said in a statement that Thomas-Greenfield is fully vaccinated and received a booster vaccination, and that she was “experiencing mild symptoms.” Quartell said the ambassador would be working from home in accordance with guidance from health officials. The statement also said Thomas-Greenfield encouraged all those eligible to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.  ...
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Jun222022 DmediaNo Comments

Nearly 1 in 5 Adults Who Had COVID Have Lingering Symptoms, US Study Finds

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Nearly 1 in 5 American adults who reported having COVID-19 in the past are still having symptoms of long COVID, according to survey data collected in the first two weeks of June, U.S. health officials said Wednesday.  Overall, 1 in 13 adults in the United States have long COVID symptoms that have lasted for three months or more after first contracting the disease and that they did not have before the infection, the data showed.  The data was collected June 1-13 by the U.S. Census Bureau and analyzed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Long COVID symptoms include fatigue, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, cognitive difficulties, chronic pain, sensory abnormalities and muscle weakness. They can be debilitating and last for weeks or months after recovery from the…
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Jun222022 DmediaNo Comments

‘Black Death’ Likely Originated in Central Asia, Researchers Say

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The Black Death, a plague that killed up to 60% of people in western Eurasia from roughly 1346 to 1353, likely originated in the Tian Shan mountains of central Asia, new research shows. Scientists recovered two genomes of an ancient strain of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, from human remains buried in two 14th-century cemeteries in Kyrgyzstan. The strain is the ancestor of the microbes that caused the Black Death. “The origin of the Black Death has been one of the most widely debated topics not only in medieval history, but I perhaps will not exaggerate if I say that it has been one of the most debated topics in history, period,” said historian and study co-author Philip Slavin of the University of Stirling. There are many competing…
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Jun222022 TechmanNo Comments

Microsoft: Russian Cyber Spying Targets 42 Ukraine Allies

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Coinciding with unrelenting cyberattacks against Ukraine, state-backed Russian hackers have engaged in "strategic espionage" against governments, think tanks, businesses and aid groups in 42 countries supporting Kyiv, Microsoft said in a report Wednesday. "Since the start of the war, the Russian targeting [of Ukraine's allies] has been successful 29 percent of the time," Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote, with data stolen in at least one-quarter of the successful network intrusions. "As a coalition of countries has come together to defend Ukraine, Russian intelligence agencies have stepped up network penetration and espionage activities targeting allied governments outside Ukraine," Smith said. Nearly two-thirds of the cyberespionage targets involved NATO members. The United States was the prime target and Poland, the main conduit for military assistance flowing to Ukraine, was No. 2. In…
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Jun222022 DmediaNo Comments

US Considering Limiting Nicotine in Cigarettes 

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing a limit on the amount of nicotine allowed in cigarettes with an aim to make it easier for people to quit using them and to prevent young people who experiment with cigarettes from becoming addicted.  The proposed limit appeared Tuesday among a number of actions the Biden administration is considering.  The FDA said more than half of adults who smoke cigarettes make a serious attempt at quitting each year, but that most fail because of the addictiveness of cigarettes.  “The goal of the potential rule would be to reduce youth use, addiction and death,” the agency said.  “Nicotine is powerfully addictive,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement. “Making cigarettes and other combusted tobacco products minimally addictive or non-addictive would help…
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Jun212022 TechmanNo Comments

Elon Musk’s $44 Billion Twitter Deal Gets Board Endorsement

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Twitter's board has recommended unanimously that shareholders approve the proposed $44 billion sale of the company to billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. Musk reiterated his desire to move forward with the acquisition last week during a virtual meeting with Twitter employees, though shares of Twitter remain far below his offering price, signaling considerable doubt that it will happen. Shares rose about 3% to $38.98 before the opening bell Tuesday, far short of the $54.20 per-share that Musk has offered for each share. The company's stock last reached that level on April 5 when it offered Musk a seat on the board before he had offered to buy all of Twitter. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission detailing on Tuesday…
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Jun212022 TechmanNo Comments

Investors Coping With Cryptocurrency Plunge 

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“I’m in a cryptocurrency chat group at work,” software engineer Adam Hickey of San Diego, California told VOA. Over the last few days, Hickey said, members of the group have been writing things like, “Bloodbath” and, “Are we still good?” “It shook me, honestly,” he admitted. “I just had to stop looking at my balance. At one point, months ago, my investment in crypto had tripled. Now I’m down 40%.” Hickey is far from alone. Serious and casual investors across the United States have seen the value of their investments in the publicly available digital asset known as cryptocurrency shrink dramatically in recent months, with steep plunges recorded in just the last week. The value of bitcoin, the most popular form of cryptocurrency, has dropped more than 70% since its…
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Jun202022 DmediaNo Comments

Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake Shakes Central Taiwan Coast 

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A magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook Taiwan on Monday morning. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.  The quake struck at 9:05 a.m. at a depth of 6.8 kilometers (4.2 miles) in Hualien county, halfway down the east coast of the island, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said.  It was felt across most of the island of 24 million people including to the north in Taipei, the capital. It was also felt across the Taiwan Strait in mainland China’s Fujian province, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said. ...
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Jun192022 DmediaNo Comments

New York Pushes to Get Fired Workers Vaccinated, Rehired 

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New York City is making a push to give city workers fired earlier this year for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine a chance to get their old jobs back — if they get fully vaccinated. In February, Mayor Eric Adams fired more than 1,400 workers who failed to comply with the vaccine mandate put in place by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio. Just short of 600 unvaccinated non-Department of Education workers are receiving a letter with details, and DOE employees are expected to receive a letter later in the summer, a city spokesperson said, adding that 97% of workers are vaccinated and that the goal has always been "vaccination rather than termination." The development was first reported by the New York Post. It wasn't clear how many workers would be…
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