Year: 2022

A billionaire who led an all-private space crew into orbit last year has announced plans for up to three new missions in conjunction with SpaceX, including one with a spacewalk. Jared Isaacman, who founded payment processing company Shift4, will lead the first of the new…

As few as three major criminal groups are responsible for smuggling the vast majority of elephant ivory tusks out of Africa, according to a new study. Researchers used analysis of DNA from seized elephant tusks and evidence such as phone records, license plates, financial records…

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, has begun a two-week meeting to consider a report that assesses the impact of the world’s changing climate and how humans might adapt. Hundreds of scientists meeting virtually will lay out the latest evidence on how past…

A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday began its review of Japan's plan to begin releasing more than a million tons of treated radioactive water into the sea from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant — a review that Japan hopes will instill confidence…

A vault built on an Arctic mountainside to preserve the world's crop seeds from war, disease and other catastrophes will receive new deposits on Monday, including one from the first organization that made a withdrawal from the facility. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, on Spitsbergen…

The World Health Organization warns a sharp rise in measles cases in Afghanistan is threatening the lives and well-being of millions of malnourished children.  More than 35,300 suspected cases of measles and 156 deaths have been reported in Afghanistan from January 2021 through January of…

At the Tokyo Olympics, mental health was the breakout star. Amplified by some of the world’s top athletes, it shook up those Games and made everyone take notice. Six months later, in Beijing, the conversation has evolved: The subject pops up regularly, but no one…

NASA's new space telescope has captured its first starlight and taken a selfie of its giant, gold mirror.   All 18 segments of the primary mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope seem to be working properly 1½ months into the mission, officials said Friday.…

The COVID-19 infection rate for Africa may be as much as seven times higher than reported, while death counts could be two to three times higher, according to the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa. “We’re very much aware that our surveillance systems problems…

Trucker-led protests against coronavirus restrictions in Canada shut down another U.S. border crossing Thursday, as copycat movements gathered steam overseas and Washington called on its northern neighbor to use federal powers to end the blockades. The border obstructions have already impacted business, with the key…

Facing growing pressure from impatient state governors, the Biden administration acknowledged for the first time that it is developing plans to guide the country away from the pandemic’s emergency phase toward a more relaxed national response, including ending the federal recommendation for wearing masks in…

French researcher Luc Montagnier, who won a Nobel Prize in 2008 for discovering HIV and more recently spread false claims about the coronavirus, has died at age 89, local government officials in France said.  Montagnier died Tuesday at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine,…

France will build at least six new nuclear reactors in the decades to come, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, placing nuclear power at the heart of his country's drive for carbon neutrality by 2050. Macron said the new plants would be built and operated…

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Thursday issued a draft of revised guidelines for prescribing opioid painkillers, urging doctors to be flexible and individualize their use of the drugs to the needs of the patient.   The CDC's current guidelines were issued…

NASA captures a first-ever photo op from our solar system. Starlink suffers a storm-caused setback, and a dusty piece of space history gets the spa treatment. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space. ...

Cameroonian health authorities say at least 1,300 cholera cases have been detected, with nearly three dozen people dying as a result of the outbreak within the past two weeks. Cameroon’s Public Health Ministry says water shortages and poor hygiene have spread the bacterial disease throughout…

A new study says 1 in 10 Australian health care workers has had thoughts of suicide or self-harm during the pandemic. The authors of the Australian Frontline Health Workers survey believe it is the world’s largest study of suicidal thoughts among health care workers. It…

The COVID pandemic exposed stark vaccine inequities between high- and low-income nations and underscored Africa's dependence on outside countries for jabs. However, a new initiative in Senegal hopes to reduce that inequity Annika Hammerschlag reports from Dakar, Senegal. Camera: Annika Hammerschlag ...

Health care workers in Somalia suffer from high rates of anxiety, depression and stress because of their work with COVID-19 cases, a new study finds. The study was presented at a health research conference in the Somali town of Garowe last week. Initial findings recorded…

As if we didn't have enough to worry about: Some scientists are warning about the inevitable catastrophic effects on modern life from a super-sized solar storm.  These outbursts from the sun, which eject energy in the form of magnetic fields and billions of tons of…

SpaceX says a geomagnetic storm brought down 40 satellites launched last Thursday as part of its Starlink satellite internet service. In a release posted to the company’s website, the private space company said the satellites were among 49 Starlink satellites launched from the Kennedy Space…

The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that even though she was encouraged by dropping COVID-19 hospitalizations and case rates, the pandemic was still not at the point at which the agency could recommend dropping nationwide indoor mask requirements.…

World Health Organization officials say insecurity and bureaucratic difficulties continue to prevent medical supplies and other crucial relief from reaching millions of beleaguered civilians in conflict-ridden northern Ethiopia. An estimated 9.4 million people in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions are in desperate need…

An international collaboration led by researchers in Canada and Brazil is applying innovative funding and testing methods to determine whether existing medications can provide cheaper and more effective treatments for COVID-19 and is encouraged by its initial results. Calling it the “TOGETHER Trial,” researchers predominantly…